Chapter 173 – Death Penalty

000

It is said that in the past, snowfield dwarves built a huge kingdom and lived in the extreme land in the northern part of the continent.

Due to a disaster of unknown origin, their country was destroyed, and the originally harsh climate in the northern part of the continent became more dangerous.

The great civilization and technology they built were buried under the blizzard, and it was the orthodoxy of scholars that the Snowfield Dwarves no longer exist.

After the war with the continent, the kingdom realized the importance of technology and began to develop the north to investigate the technology of such dwarves.

Over a long period of time, personnel are sent to cut glaciers and snowy mountains, and plow fields to create a place for life. Waiting for the dwarves’ artifacts to be discovered.

However, it is a barren land where it is difficult for ordinary people to live. In a harsh environment, plants do not grow properly and animals live in hiding, so it was daunting to solve the problem of food first.

And then the question of where you live. There is a machine that can create warmth in one village, which the kingdom’s engineers did their best to create, but manpower was needed because it was too inefficient to use magic.

You have to turn a huge turbine, and even if you do this in turns, you’ll collapse from exhaustion even if you turn it for an hour.

After all, no matter what you do, human hands are lacking.

Even if it is a kingdom that dominates the real world along with the academy on the continent, most of the lands where the former empires lived were the aftermath of the use of magic weapons, and it took time for people to live again.

Other than that, it is a land untouched by human hands that has not yet been cultivated by human hands.

It wasn’t blind there, enough to pour manpower for an industry that doesn’t know when it will end.

Those who voluntarily went to the north were either extremely patriotic or geeks interested in dwarven technology.

So, what the kingdom chose to make up for the lack of manpower was ‘forced labor’.

It’s not about taking ordinary people and forcing them to work.

If they committed a crime, but it was not a crime worthy of death, they would be dragged to the north and put to work.

Under the supervision of the kingdom’s soldiers, they take turns turning the turbines throughout the day.

Next to the artificial flame magic generator, the harsh cold outside seemed like a lie, and it was a tough environment in a different sense from a sauna.

They are not allowed to go out, and it is common to stay in accommodations that replace poorly equipped prisons.

Of course, not even ordinary petty criminals can come here.

Serious criminals anyway. In other words, if it was the previous kingdom law, it might have been the death penalty, but now that the standard for the death penalty for labor has been raised, those who are not subject to the death penalty are eligible.

For example, an idiot who threatens the guild master of the adventurer’s guild within the kingdom’s territory, destroys buildings in a rampage, and injures innocent people.

If not, a man who was a heinous serial killer who took drugs banned by the kingdom and killed several people, but escaped the death penalty due to someone’s intentions.

Of course, in the case of the latter, because the crime was so heinous and his temper his was violent, he could not live in the same room as other prisoners, and he was only allowed a dirty and dark solitary cell.

A young man with long black hair, always muttering while covering his eyes.

His height his is easily over 2m, and his stature his is great, so his strength his looks good.

However, under the tattered prison uniforms, black tattoos are visible.

“I am Cleon. The dark horse clan. Talchek’s apprentice… I am…”

The time when I was repeating my self-talk that I couldn’t feel reason in the dark.

Outside the window, she appeared.

As if she had been there from the beginning, she naturally opened up the space and appeared.

“Aha. I heard that the dark horse clan was in the camp in the north, so I came to see them… And this is… Huhu.”

She runs her red hair through her red hair, her eyes shining, as if she’s found something interesting.

Horns on her head on her and a tail on her hip on her.

“I’m a ‘Black Maker’ addict… I guess it’s useful?”

Perhaps he heard the woman’s voice in her, the young man also raised his head and looked at the woman.

“Devil…”

“Ishtal. That’s it. The self-proclaimed ‘Cleon’.”

“That, yes… I, I am Cleon… Cleon.”

“… Whoops. That’s good. Being a pitiful human being with the barriers of reason and soul broken down with just the right feeling… The protective instinct springs up.”

Ishtal said so, licking her lips with her tongue.

“Hey, Mr. Cleon. Would you like to make a deal with me? I’ll set you free here… I’ll also provide you with a ‘Black Maker’. In return, there’s something I’d like you to do.”

001

When Cleon and his party set foot in the boss’s room, a large man was sitting on a huge chair decorated like his own throne.

However, as if he had already finished his act, a woman’s naked body lay beneath his feet.

“Kuh…”

It must have been at the same time that they made eye contact with the boss. The fire of a woman’s life went out and disappeared.

The man who was rolling the drooping woman with his feet kicked her body and threw her into the wall.

I couldn’t bear to open my eyes and watch the woman’s body her falling helplessly with a fluttering sound.

The party feels anger at the heinous act of such a man and clenches his hands tightly.

And, Cleon realizes. The armor the man is wearing is black, but the part exposed between the armor is his skin his, not the inner armor his.

All were black. Exposed skin except for the face. All pitch black.

“…Is it a side effect of the Black Maker…?”

Cleon held the sword and examined the man’s face, his eyes glowing red.

“… Red. After all, it’s not from the dark horse family.”

“What are you… ? Why are you in this hideout?”

A man named Boss doesn’t panic when he sees them, and he quietly grabs the black greatsword stuck next to him.

“Do you know who I am, grab your sword and stand proudly in front of me?”

Speaking in a low, intimidating voice, Quon unknowingly puts power into the hand that holds the staff.

“Yes. I heard. It says ‘Cleon’. Your name. Talcheq’s disciple… I heard that you are a self-proclaimed dark horse clan. I don’t think it’s because your eyes are red.”

When Cleon said that, the man’s eyebrows twitched.

Then, he stood up and pointed at the party with his greatsword.

Cleon also grabbed the sword and stood in front of him, and Iona looked at the man for a while and then held her breath as if surprised.

“… Ein?”

When Iona puts the name ‘Ain’ in her mouth, Cleon and the man impersonating Cleon also flinch.

“Ain, what?”

“Wrong. I’m… Cleon.”

When the man heard the name Ain, he put his head on his head and muttered in agony.

“… It seems that the truth was also mixed in with the lie. Talcheck… The fact that you are my father’s disciple.”

“Really, are you Ajin? You…”

“Shut up! I am not Ain, I am Cleon! Who are you guys!”

The man raised his greatsword in anger and charged towards his party his.

“Kuh… I’ll have to stop this guy first… Eustes! Get back a bit!”

“That, yes…!”

Ionado and Cleon also looked at him with a nervous expression – the figure of ‘Ain’.

It was to hold the sword while glaring at their ‘death penalty’.

-00?

“Then, goodbye Cleon. I will go to the royal capital with my master.”

A red-haired young man—no, still a boy—he was originally a person who received swordsmanship lessons from Talchek at Ellesia’s school.

However, after Lesia disappeared, she left Elesia following Talchek, who went to the royal capital to find her traces of her.

My name is Ain. He has no last name I don’t know the names of my father and mother, so even if they were aristocrats with surnames, they would not have been inherited.

Ain’s parents were attacked by robbers on the way to Elesia from the royal capital, and her father her died on the spot, and her mother her was somehow rescued by adventurers before she died and was able to bring her back to Elesia .

She was pregnant with her child and died a few days after giving birth to her child.

At the time, the old doctor who was living in the only clinic in Elessia tried his best, but it was miraculous just to save the child.

Ain was raised in the temple of Ellesia.

Orphans are not uncommon in Ellesia.

As it is a city of adventurers, there are cases where adventurers with children become humans who leave a request and cannot return.

In the case of such children, the adventurer’s guild would take care of them and assist them until they reached adulthood.

In Ain’s case, his father his is not an adventurer, but someone from an unknown kingdom.

Even for the sake of fairness, the adventurer’s guild couldn’t extend a hand, but the church was different.

Under the guidance of the priests, Ain grew up as an ordinary but healthy boy.

It was around the time he became an alley leader that he met Talchek.

When Talchek, who became a school teacher at Lesia’s request, taught his children swordsmanship despite his dislike his, he was the one who wielded the sword more zealously than his other children his.

The boy’s goal was to become a strong swordsman who could protect others.

At that time, Ain had also come face to face with Cleon a few times, and since he was learning Talchek’s sword before Cleon did, he used to tell him to call himself ‘Sahyung’.

Years passed, when Talchek finally left Elesia. Originally, he intended to take Cleon with him.

But let’s leave the place empty due to Cleon’s refusal of his. He took the cock to become stronger, to learn more from Tal Chek.

Talchek seemed a bit worried at first, but when Ain asked for it, he took him to the capital as if he couldn’t help it.

Talchek, who went to the royal road, not only allowed Ain to use the Knights’ training facility, but also took him to Horseshoe Mountain, saying that it was a special place for training.

However, there were many cases where Talchek was silently absent to find Lesia, and in the meantime, Ain continued to train alone and grew as a swordsman.

It was quite shocking that such a teacher brought a girl one day.

Even after that, besides Ain, that girl – a child named ‘Iona’ who became the foster daughter of the teacher, and other disciples began to practice swordsmanship under Talchek.

Most of them were sons of nobles. Humans who are all stupid, arrogant, and like to make a fool of people’s efforts.

Most of them could not endure Talchek’s training for a day and ran away.

At some point, Ain began to have childish thoughts that she might be a special human being who could endure the training of a swordsman that even aristocrats could not do.

But after a while, Ain felt a `wall` for the first time in her life.

With Ain, who was in the middle of training. She was confronted by bandits hiding in Horseshoe Mountain, and she fought them off.

Ain was the best in terms of individual skills, but there were a lot of them.

Moreover, on the way, after using something like medicine, her physical abilities became explosively strong.

In the end, when he was in danger of dying with his entire body wounded, he was able to survive only with the help of Talchek and the Knights who chased after them.

‘Am I not a special person…?’

It seems that Ain’s delusion-like thoughts of her only gradually grew.

Even when she was with adventurers, she was overbearing, so she ruined things, or she swung her sword to catch criminals in the capital, and hurt extraneous humans.

The more she fails, the more her disappointment grows in herself.

If you are a normal human being, she escapes the self-consciousness peculiar to puberty by experiencing failure.

She learns that she is not the center of the world, that she lives in the world with others.

However, Ain did not.

Because it isn’t Always a special human – `Hero` has a tragic birth, grows up in trials and is praised in the end.

As soon as he was born, he lost his parents. If he himself is not a special human being, how on earth will he be compensated for this life.

He needed proof.

He proves that he is a special human being.

That’s why they become even more reckless, and even ignore Talcheck’s instructions.

Contrary to what he aims for, he goes only after realizing his powerlessness.

What popped up in Ain’s mind was ‘the drug’used by the thieves who gave him his first defeat his, the beginning of all tragedies.

The information of the knights was found that they were not just bandits, but remnants of the empire, and they had come to retrieve items from the days of the empire left in Horseshoe Mountain.

Ain scavenged through the Horseshoe Mountain and eventually found the front line base used by the Empire.

And, the ‘drug’ that remained in it – the black maker.

Having packed her medicine, Ain thought he was finally completely free of Talchek’s control and tried to make up for his mistakes her thus far by wielding his powers her.

And the incident happened.

While secretly using the black maker, black tattoos began to appear on her body, and black began to appear at the ends of her red hair on her.

At that time, only nervousness about using drugs accelerated. Still unable to stop himself, Ain went on a quest to explore the ruins with his colleagues.

He should have been careful because it was a ruin that no one had ever explored, but Ain, who was thirsty for action, believed in the power of medicine and began to work by force.

The consequences of arrogance could only be said to be disastrous.

The guardians of the ruins were all strong and eventually all of his colleagues except him were defeated.

Ain instinctively thought it was dangerous, so he committed to using the medicine once more while taking the medicine he had never tried before.

When he came to his senses his, the surroundings had become a mess.

When the Guardians were horribly smashed and scattered on the ground, and they laughed intoxicated with their power as they watched the surrounding landscape collapsed to the extent that they doubted whether they had done it themselves.

There was something trodden under his own feet his, something soft.

It was the comrades who had been fighting back to back with him until now.

Ain, completely out of control due to the side effects of the drug, killed all of his colleagues as well as the Guardian on the spot.

The adventurers who arrived at the scene after hearing that Ain had gone out of their way to ask for help, and Talcheck followed the old woman.

Even his hair his turned completely black and he subdued Ain, who was holding a greatsword stained with the blood of his comrade her.

“You… What’s that like…”

Talcheq glared at Ain’s face without smiling at all.

“Wrong… I’m a special person…”

“You stupid bastard…! Look at you! Even your hair is black…! Are you pretending to be Cleon?”

When an angry voice was heard, Ain heard the words and stopped with his head bowed.

Ain was eventually arrested on the spot, tried, and sentenced to forced labor in the North.

Originally, it wouldn’t have been strange to receive the death penalty, but the high-ranking people in the kingdom regretted killing the ‘disciple of Talchek’, who could use their full power in case of emergency.

It was a well-known story that Talchek drew his sword on the spot and tried to slit Ain’s throat, but he was stopped.

In the convoy to the north, Ain muttered quietly with his head lowered.

`…Yes. The only ones who commit this kind of thing are, of course, the sinful ones like the Dark Demon clan… There’s no way ‘Ain’ would do something like this. ‘Ajin’ is a special human being… So… What am I…? I’m not ‘Ain’…’

Ain screamed madly and hit his head against the wall of the carriage. Thanks to the enhanced muscle strength her, Ain fell through the wall of the carriage and fell outside.

As the frightened guards rushed over and tried to subdue him, he saw his reflection in the ice.

The figure with her hair turned completely black was really a `Dark Demon Clan`.

And, Ain decided to rationalize himself.

He himself is not Ain. Ain is a special human being who will become a hero. It wasn’t ‘Ain’ who was in such a miserable state.

There is only one ‘Dark Demon Clan’ he knows.

He met his face a few times in his childhood, and had no contact except that he had the same teacher.

Speaking of the Dark Demon family, only his face and name his came to mind.

“I see… I was Cleon… !”

002

Although he was drugged, the weight of the greatsword he wielded was intimidating.

A flash of uncontrollable speed emanating from the muscles of the arm his.

Besides, he was also Talcheq’s apprentice. Although he feuded with him in the end.

In terms of the amount of time she had learned the sword from him, it was longer than Iona or Cleon.

Iona rolled on the ground and distanced herself from Ain.

She blocked the sword, lost her strength, and flew backwards.

“Iona! Don’t try to take it from the front!”

“I know…! Kut…”

Even though they were clearly fighting one person, Cleon and Iona also felt as if they were fighting two, no, three or more people at the same time.

There were many humans on the continent who boasted monster-like skills with pure force, but ‘Ain’ was doing impossible movements thanks to drug doping.

Even so, bringing the power of the demonic sword now without Galatea could stimulate the remnants of the empire that might be hiding somewhere, putting Cuon and Eustes in danger.

“Die… Filthy kin…!”

When Cleon’s gaze briefly turned to that direction to worry about Iona, Ain immediately rotated her body as if it had eyes on the back of her, aiming for Cleon’s head of her and wielding a greatsword.

She told Iona not to take it from the front, but Cleon instinctively raised her sword and blocked it without a chance to dodge.

“Kuk, ugh…!”
If you raise your voice to that tremendous power without even knowing it. He looked at the sparks bouncing between the red sword and the black greatsword, giving strength to his whole body her and trying to push it back.

“It’s not the same kind…!”

While Cleon and the man clashed swords equally with a voice mixed with resentment and anger.

“Guardian! The power of supernatural power to you! ‘Strength’!”

At that time, Quon’s voice resounded and red energy covered Cleon’s body in her.

The strength-enhancing spell was cast, and with the feeling of his body getting lighter, Cleon started to push Ain’s sword away.

“Ha!”

At the same time, Iona, who had closed her distance again, swung her sword aiming at the joints of her armor her, which was relatively weak in defense her.

However-

“Trash…!”

As Ain shouted and dyed her eyes red, something similar to her magic pressure her exploded from her body her, and she pushed Cleon and Iona away at the same time.

Both Cleon and Iona couldn’t help but look surprised at the mixture of black magic.

“Just about…”

“Did you be able to use magic thanks to the Black Maker…?”

I could see black energy flowing from Ain’s body to her.

Already, it was not difficult to see that she was on medication.

“…Cleon. I can’t pierce that man’s thick armor and skin with my own strength… If the magic tools of the Empire don’t respond to divine magic-“

When Iona and Cleon meet eyes for a moment, their hands overlap.

Iona transforms into her holy sword her on the spot, and she is held in Cleon’s hand her. It was a beautiful sword decorated with red jewels.

“What is it… That figure… Holy sword…? Are you a hero, you…? Are you, a special person!!!?”

And as if that appearance provoked Ain, he screamed and became angry.

“You should be able to get angry unreasonably… You bastard!”

The next moment, Cleon’s body- silhouette stretches like a snake, and she runs away from the spot at full speed.

‘That’s… Rubera’s…’

Eustes was aware of the move.

Cleon’s appearance was the unmistakable movement of an assassin.

Rubera’s swordsmanship stored in Iona is reproduced.

Although Iona’s sword shape was shorter than Barisada’s, that part was something Cleon had to adjust.

“Wind Pond…!”

Cleon’s sword, which slipped into Ain’s arms her, swung horizontally.

Seeing the sudden change in Cleon’s movement, Ain frowned and tried to block Cleon’s sword with his greatsword.

However, the moment the holy sword Chevalier collided with the black greatsword.

A magical blade protrudes from Chevalier, passes through the sword, and slices through Ain’s stomach her.

[Done…!]

“No, it’s shallow…!”

Iona shouts that she’s done it, but Cleon clicks her tongue and sees that he does n’t blink in pain and reaches out another hand to grab hold of her body her.

“Quon!”

“Ah, yes! Let there be light! Flash!”

Using Cleon’s words as a signal, Quon stretched out her hand, and the sphere of light that flowed from her hand, her flew right up to Ain’s eyes her and exploded with intense light.

Just as I had told you earlier, Eustes also covered his eyes her with his hand her, so he was able to prevent being blinded by the light.

“Keuaaaaagh! Damned things!!”

Ain raised her voice in anger and waved her hand in her, but Cleon was no longer there.

She ducked her body once again, this time back behind him, kicking off the ground and leaping into the sky.

Round and round, the body rotates in the air and is swung around leaving an afterimage.

[Heavenly Pillars!]

Instead of Cleon’s her, Iona’s voice resounded.

Awesome! With a sound, the back of the man’s neck was cut and a large amount of blood gushed out.

“───!!!”

A man screamed out of words.

Quon and Eustes were also convinced of Cleon’s victory with the blow they had just made.

However, it was different for Cleon. Sensation in his hand her.

Lack-!

“Damn it, it’s shallow again…! What happened to this guy’s body…!”

The body’s strength was high, and it was unable to cut down to the vital points and stopped inflicting wounds.

When the blinding by the flash is over, the man quickly wields a greatsword.

“Shit…!”

Cleon, who was still in the air, quickly radiated magic from Chevalier’s blade and used it as momentum to dodge the blow.

“Moving well around here and there… I, this Talchek’s disciple, was wounded with a sword…!”

“I’m sorry, but that’s because we are too… Rather, Ain. You don’t seem to be able to use Talchek’s sword better than we do?”

[I agree.]

“Shut up!!!”

And the next moment, he pulled something out of his pocket.

Of course – it was a black maker.

“Are you always ready!”

Cleon quickly approaches and tries to break it, but no matter how fast Cleon once opened the distance.

Just by breaking a glass bottle while holding it in his hand her.

It couldn’t be faster than absorbing the medicine into the wound.

Yet.

A black thing spread to Ain’s face.

The eyes of her were still red.

I could see dark magic emanating from the blackness of his whole body.

Perhaps because of his mood his, a pair of blunt things appeared to have grown on his forehead his.

“■■■■■■──!!”

A scream that sounded like it would burst the eardrums.

“You mean Round 2?”

[To make Quon and Eustes run away-]

If something like a tail comes out of the Ajin thing and attacks the ceiling of the entrance.

The entrance was seen to collapse.

“Shit.”

[…We have no choice but to defeat it.]

Cleon and Iona look at the existence that was once the death penalty.

Is it because they are strange that they do not feel sympathy or mercy for him?

Or is it because the man doesn’t deserve it?

Sure thing.

Killing him here and now is both for Talchek and for themselves. And it was a good thing for Ain himself.