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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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Chapter 129: The Other Woman (1)
***
Damien and Louise followed the two.
“Being a mercenary isn’t exactly a job to be proud of. You have to fight all the time and get ignored by people.”
“That’s hard to believe. Who would dare ignore Miss Regina?”
“That’s just the way the job is. People have a bad impression of mercenaries.”
The two walked around the city, chatting about this and that.
First, they went to a night market, and then they moved to the square to watch a clown.
“Look at that, Ballad. It’s a song imitating a siren. It doesn’t sound anything like it to me.”
“You must know since you’ve heard it yourself, Miss Regina.”
“It was much more beautiful than that. But I never want to hear it again. When I think of all the trouble I went through because of the siren… .”
As the two of them exuded a cheerful atmosphere, Louise’s eyes became colder and colder.
Unlike her, Damien was more interested in observing the woman named Regina than their relationship.
‘She’s no ordinary woman. She’s quite skilled.’
The depth of her movements and footsteps, the occasional strong mana that emanated from her.
If Damien’s guess was correct, the woman named Regina was definitely a high-class expert.
‘A mercenary with high-class skills?’
Even among mercenaries, low-class were rare. This was because there were not many who had learned proper swordsmanship and mana cultivation methods.
Nevertheless, this woman had reached the realm of high-class within the position of a mercenary.
This meant that she had received an advance education somewhere. And there was only one place in the mercenary industry where such a thing was possible.
‘There’s no other place that can raise a mercenary to high-class except for that place… Could she be related to that man?’
While Damien was lost in thought, the two stopped in front of a bar. It was a very luxurious building.
“I can’t tell you how much trouble I had making a reservation here.”
Regina grabbed Ballad’s arm and pulled him. But Ballad resisted and didn’t let himself be pulled.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Miss Regina, I came here today to ask you a favor.”
“A favor? Why don’t we go inside and talk?”
Regina tilted her head. Ballad opened his mouth to her.
“I would like to thank you again for chasing away the siren. If you hadn’t helped us, the city would have continued to suffer great damage.”
“What’s there to be grateful for? I just did it for the money.”
“I know very well that a platinum badge mercenary like Miss Regina is hard to hire even with money. If you hadn’t shown mercy, our city would have continued to suffer from the siren.”
Ballad bowed his head and continued.
“That’s why the mayor told me to grant Miss Regina’s request unconditionally… .”
“Oh, so you’ve been meeting me out of order all this time? It’s disappointing to hear you say that.”
Regina said with a sullen face.
Ballad spoke to her in a firm voice.
“I would like you to stop visiting the me from today onwards.”
There was a moment of silence.
Regina stared blankly at Ballad before opening her mouth.
“Oh, I see. I guess I’ve been too much of a bother. I’m sorry about that. I won’t call you out from now on when you have work.”
Regina nodded as if she understood.
“And I won’t say anything if Ballard meets other people. I won’t worry about it from now on….”
“As I told you before, I have a fiancée.”
Ballad interrupted Regina’s words.
“I don’t want to do anything that I can’t be honest with her about anymore.”
Ballad said again.
“So please, don’t call me anymore.”
***
“……Ballad.”
Louise, who had been watching the scene, muttered with a blank expression.
Damien was not the only one who was surprised.
‘He’s a great man.’
Ballad must have known that the woman was high-class.
At the high-class level, one could kill someone just by looking at them.
The fact that he could refuse such a fearsome being who desired him was amazing.
‘I think I know why my sister is so attached to this man.’
Looking at Ballad’s appearance, he seemed like a reed that could break at any moment.
However, his inner self was not like that. He was a man with a strong heart and a straight gaze.
“……Are you crazy?”
Regina’s angry voice rang out.
“Are you looking down on me because I keep making concessions?”
“Absolutely not. I’m just concerned about my fiancée… .”
“That’s what you mean by looking down on me!”
Regina unleashed her mana. A huge mana exploded and blew away the surrounding objects.
“Ugh, ugh!”
“Kyaaah!”
People on the street screamed and ran away. The surroundings became deserted in an instant.
Ballad’s face also turned pale. He looked like he was about to collapse at any moment.
“……I would like it if I never saw Miss Regina again after today.”
Even so, Ballad stubbornly finished what he had to say.
‘He can endure this?’
Damien couldn’t help but admire him inwardly.
The mana of a high-class person was a weapon in itself. An ordinary person would have felt excruciating pain that would have shaken their internal organs.
Not only was he able to endure it, but he would not even bend his posture.
‘I was wrong.’
Damien wanted Louise to be happy. That’s why he wanted her to marry someone better than Ballad.
However, that was just Damien’s delusion.
Ballad’s inner self was not lacking, even if his abilities might be.
He only had Louise in his heart, and for her, he could face any danger.
‘My sister had the right eye for people.’
Compared to him, Damien was stuck in his prejudice. He couldn’t see the true value of people.
He was ashamed and sorry.
At the same time, his head cleared up. It was as if his eyes were opened and his vision widened.
“Sister, please stay here.”
As a sign of repentance, he resolved to handle this matter himself.
***
“Last warning. If you bring up that fiancée nonsense again, this time I’ll really… .”
“That’s quite a harsh thing to say.”
At the unexpected voice, Regina and Ballad turned to Damien with surprised faces.
“Damien..?
Ballad asked with a surprised face. It was as if he was asking what you were doing here.
“Let’s talk about the details later.”
Damien naturally stepped in front of Regina. Regina glared at Damien with a displeased expression.
“Damien? I’ve heard that name somewhere… .”
After thinking for a moment, Regina’s eyes widened.
“Damien Haksen? The genius of the Apple Kingdom who rose to middle class in the shortest period of time?”
Regina looked at Damien with an interested expression.
“I didn’t know you were acquainted with Ballad.”
“If I had known, would you have backed down? This person is going to be my brother-in-law.”
“Ha! Brother-in-law? You’re that woman’s younger brother……. But this is really annoying.”
Regina’s aura became even more murderous. The surrounding buildings shook.
“You’re just a middle class, and you dare to raise your head in front of me?”
Regina said with a smile full of killing intent.
“Are you doing this because you trust your status as a noble? You seem to be mistaken. Even if I kill you here, the Apple Kingdom won’t be able to say anything to me.”
“I know.”
Damien said nonchalantly to the woman’s words.
“If you’re the granddaughter of the Mercenary King, you’ll be able to easily cover up something like this.”
At those words, Regina’s eyes widened.
“How did you know?”
“You couldn’t have reached the realm of high class as a mercenary at such a young age unless you were a descendant of the Mercenary King.”
The Mercenary King.
He was one of the Masters who was always mentioned when discussing the strongest humans.
The Mercenary King was not only incredibly strong himself, but what was more amazing was the force he had created.
The mercenary group led by the Mercenary King was not only large in scale, but it was also famous for the individual strength of its members.
It had several high-class members and even master-class members among its close associates.
The leadership ability to lead all of them, who were thought to be uncontrollable, without any discord within the organization.
It was because of this immense power that people did not hesitate to call him the ‘Mercenary King’.
“You know that and you’re still acting like this in front of me?”
Damien had to hold back the laughter that was about to burst out.
In his previous life, Damien had fought the Mercenary King and emerged victorious. He had cut off the old man’s neck and turned it into a lump of meat.
Furthermore, he had absorbed all of his techniques, so it was only funny that his granddaughter was trying to intimidate him.
Although Regina was a high class, she was still only half-baked compared to the Mercenary King.
He thought he wanted to correct Regina’s mistake right here and now.
“If you don’t back down, it’ll be difficult for you too.”
However, Damien was currently in a state of ‘Self-repentance’. He didn’t want to ruin this refreshing mood.
“I wanted to resolve this peacefully if possible.”
So Damien tried to take out the insignia of a knight from his bosom.
Knights were protected by the Church. Their families were no exception.
No matter how much of a mercenary king he was, he couldn’t oppose the Church. After all, the Church was on par with the Empire.
“Think I’ll only kill you? I’ll catch that sister of yours and kill her too.”
At that moment, Regina spoke to Damien.
“Why? Do you think I’m lying? I destroy what I can’t have. Just wait and see. I’ll find that woman even if I have to search the entire Apple Kingdom.”
Regina spoke with venomous voice.
“So I’ll just rip off that woman’s throat in front of Ballard. Got it?”
Damien put the necklace back into his bosom.
The feeling of relief he had due to his ‘self-reflection’ vanished like smoke.
Anger rose in his hollow heart. Killing intent surged from Damien’s entire body.
“You want to try me with that?”
Regina, sensing Damien’s killing intent, took off a ring from her finger. The ring transformed into a sword.
It was a saber, with a thin blade and a slightly curved end.
Regina held the hilt and scabbard of the saber at the same time.
Regina’s momentum became sharp and fierce. Approaching her felt like being cut into pieces by an impending danger.
“I’ll make you pay for misunderstanding your place.”
Regina laughed cruelly. It seemed she intended to kill Damien right there.
Seeing Regina like that, Damien burst into bitter laughter.
‘How will you kill me?’
Using dark magic would end it in an instant, but he couldn’t resort to that with so many witnesses around.
‘My body is still too weak.’
Damien’s skill was beyond high-class, but his body and mana weren’t.
That’s why he couldn’t be sure of victory in battle against Regina. There existed realms he couldn’t match with skill alone.
‘Well, if it’s lacking, I’ll just fill it up.’
Damien opened a spatial ring. He reached in and pulled out the heart of a spirit and the core of a sea serpent.
He swallowed them both in one go, without even chewing, and swallowed them down his throat.
“…What are you doing?”
Regina, seeing this, shouted in surprise.
Items containing mana, like potions or cores, required careful preparation and consumption.
Otherwise, not only would the mana not be absorbed properly, but serious injuries could also occur.
For Damien to consume multiple mana-containing items at once was akin to swallowing a bomb.
“If you continue like this, you’ll die….”
Sure enough, before Regina could finish her sentence, an explosion occurred from Damien’s body.
As mana exploded, windows of buildings shattered in its aftermath.
The explosion didn’t end with just one. It occurred continuously.
With each explosion, Damien’s blood vessels burst. Blood flowed from his burst-eye capillaries.
‘He’s using both the Art of Sacrificial Raging Demon Manifestation and the Supreme Absorption Technique at the same time.’
The Art of Sacrificial Raging Demon Manifestation was a mana cultivation method that reinforced the body using mana.
The Supreme Absorption Technique had excellent abilities in absorbing mana.
When these two mana cultivation techniques were added to the explosion of mana, a remarkable phenomenon occurred.
“This is ridiculous… .”
As befitting a high-class, Regina seemed to quickly realize what was happening to Damien’s body right now.
With each explosion, his muscles and organs were rapidly strengthening. It was as if the iron was being reforged.
The amount of mana he held within him also increased greatly. It was like a balloon being filled with air.
‘If it’s lacking, then just fill it up.’
To Damien, realms below master class were nothing special.
They were merely realms that could be reached naturally by simply increasing his physical abilities and magical power.
And so, he forcibly raised those two abilities.
Using the Art of Sacrificial Raging Demon Manifestation to strengthen his body, he absorbed and stored all of his remaining mana using the Supreme Absorption Technique.
Damien opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Even after vomiting so much blood, his eyes did not weaken in the slightest. They became even sharper.
The moment she saw those eyes, Regina’s body broke out in goosebumps.
Before her head could understand, her instincts recognized it first.
The fact that the man before her had reached the realm of high class.
“This is ridiculous… .”
Even so, Regina could not help but deny it.
Not only did he survive ingesting two cores at the same time, but he used the explosion of mana to temper his body and reach the high class.
It would be more believable to say that a master class had appeared among the mindless goblins.
“You can’t do that twice.”
Damien spat out the remaining blood in his mouth and drew out the Dawn.
At that moment, the entire world was filled with the killing intent that Damien exuded.
At that ridiculous phenomenon, Regina unconsciously swallowed her dry saliva.
“Be prepared.”
Damien said in a chilling voice that seemed to freeze everything.
“From now on, I will make you pay the price for the nonsense you have spewed.”
***
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HEL SCANS
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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