The Damn Family Is Back Again - Chapter 372



372. Yggdrasil Project (12)

Akshus couldn’t believe his eyes.

Had he seen an illusion?

Was there something wrong with his eyes, causing him to see wrong?

But it’s not a phantom.

From noble mtl dot com

I could scrub my eyes raw and it wouldn’t be a mistake.

What’s standing here now is Karsein.

‘The hell… what’s going on?’

He should have gone back, shouldn’t he?

Like Veneris’ example, he’s a man who should’ve vanished after achieving his goal.

So why is this man in front of me?

Akshus gritted his teeth.

‘This can’t be happening.’

Belian didn’t emphasize it again and again?

When the destination is right in front of you, how can you not step forward?

Yeah. That’s unbearable.

No human can endure that.

Even a mere beast, if it sees meat to tear at, won’t stop.

If it’s a starved beast, it’ll crave it more fiercely. Sometimes even risking its life, it’ll wage a brutal battle and seize the meat.

But, how could humans be any different?

I’ve seen it countless times, so I can say it with certainty. Such a thing is impossible.

Rather, humans are even worse, never less.

If they’re hungry, they’ll snatch it and gobble it down. For that, they’ll raise a storm of blood without hesitation, and they won’t care if it’s already in someone else’s mouth, they’ll just yank it out and shove it into their own.

Even if it’s just a wad of cash, they won’t pass up the chance for a sudden fortune. Thinking about the things they could do with that money, they become beasts of desire, fiercer than hyenas, lunging forward.

It’s the same even if it’s not something material.

If standing, they want to lean. If leaning is hard, they want to sit. If sitting is hard, they flop down. If even lying down isn’t enough, they close their eyes and fall asleep.

Clearly, rather than a sense of relief from filling their bellies even a little, they become consumed by the desire to covet what belongs to others.

This is the kind of relentless greed that humans possess.

Humans are always hungry, that’s why they live, to satisfy this hunger.

That selfish desire has no qualms about destroying the relationships they’ve painstakingly built.

Priests, friends, colleagues, and even family.

Humans were animals that would sell everything to fill their own bellies and throw the rest away.

“But!”

Why.

Why isn’t this b*stard like that?

He had a goal that couldn’t even be compared to those things.

A once-in-a-lifetime goal. A goal he would gladly give up everything he possessed to grasp.

The only opportunity to live alone, having turned his back on the enemies he called family.

A destination that offered a hope of liberation, of escaping this world, which was like hell.

And he threw that away and stayed in this hell?

-Whack!

Karsein’s sword, rushing in like a dart, thrust again, targeting his neck.

But, this time, he blocked it.

‘Whatever. There’s no need to think about why this stupid b*stard made such a choice.’

Whether she left or not, the future remains unchanged.

This place is the hospital, guarded like a fortress by the Duchy of Vagrand.

It’s also where Isabella is known to be recuperating, of all people.

So for Karsein, this hospital is nothing short of a stark white prison.

It doesn’t matter that I entered with a pass, perfectly legitimate, but for Karsein—who’s been on the run, openly wanted by Vagrand—this is probably the worst possible situation.

Which means, just stalling for time is beneficial for us.

“Just now, you thought you had the upper hand, didn’t you?”

…What?

“You thought it in your head, didn’t you. That there’s no problem with you entering because you showed your pass, and it’s me who’d be in trouble if Vagrand found out.”

Akshus’ eyes twitched at Karsein’s spot-on statement.

But the twitch was fleeting.

Akshus responded with a scoff.

“Hah. They said you were quick-witted, and you are. But knowing that doesn’t change anything, does it? The one who’ll be caught here and receive their sentence is already decided.”

“Well, I don’t know about that?”

-Clang!

“A cage, huh. No, it’s more than that. You’ve suppressed the mana itself in this space with magic.”

“Right. Because of those Yggdrasil seeds you’re carrying. It’d be a problem if you hatched them, wouldn’t it?”

“…You know about those.”

“Shouldn’t I?”

Akshus’ eyes narrowed.

A nagging unease had settled in.

“No way.”

He hastily pulled the vial from his pocket, his face twisting into a grimace.

He knows about these seeds.

Which meant. He also knew about the Yggdrasil Project through some channel.

“Hah. Fine then. I’ll give you credit for neutralizing the Yggdrasil seeds.”

*Thud thud thud.*

The seeds, shriveled and unusable, now trash, fell to the floor.

“But activating this magic, at this point, is suicide. All you’ll do is buy time before you become another core for Yggdrasil.”

“We’ll see. That’s something we’ll have to fight to find out!”

A sword leaping.

He sprang off the bed, flying like a hummingbird.

“Pathetic. Trying to break through with sheer force? At that level?”

He knew that Carsein had learned swordsmanship.

He was aware of his second-place finish at the Yellow Dragon Martial Arts Tournament.

Even the fact that he had experience fighting demonic beasts on the battlefield.

Considering all that, Carsein’s skill could be considered rather troublesome.

But he’s an amateur.

Despite having learned swordsmanship, he’s just an amateur.

Carsein was pushed back.

The gap in power was too vast.

“Weakling. You tried to face me with strength like *that*?”

“…”

“You were done for the moment you failed to sever my head in that first surprise attack. Fool. You dared to challenge me with mere pure sword aura?”

Unlike the one wielding a true blade, his power was, so utterly insignificant.

“Go on, resist all you like. The better the meat, the harder it fights, isn’t that what they say? I must present something satisfying to Yggdrasil, after all.”

-Clang!

Casually deflecting the blade, Axersus quickly shifted the path of his own, aiming to drain Karsein of his strength.

The writhing, flexible blade continued its assault.

Stabbing, slicing in unpredictable trajectories.

Like a serpent.

Axersus’s blade began to drive Karsein back.

But then.

-Ting!

“I think I get it. Your sword.”

In that moment. Karsein grinned, revealing an entirely different sword, seemingly from nowhere.

-Clang! Ch-ching!

‘Tch…! What the hell is this guy!’

In this space, endlessly cramped by the bed and furniture pushed to the sides, how is he displaying such swift and agile movement?

The tide turns, the pursuer now the pursued.

From Akshus to Karsein. The one taking the initiative had changed.

“Hmm. After clashing a few times, I get it now. You. You were that b*stard who snuck into Bagrand.”

“…!”

“The one who pretended to be transferred to the 2nd Knight Order, then let Theo Lamstair and Emma Urnen loose. I kind of expected it, but your disguise is really impressive, huh?”

If you want to destroy human relationships, disguise was essential.

Twisting the bonds from the inside, starting with small misunderstandings and friction, and then escalating the conflict was the basic principle.

That’s why disguising oneself as another was close to perfect.

Never once had I been caught. Even after causing hundreds of incidents in the Empire, my true identity had never been exposed.

The only one who might have suspected me, even then, was that Knight Loyban, who, at this point, is just writing a novel, or so I hear, in his memoirs.

But the fact that he noticed is a clear red flag.

“Isn’t this… rushing things a bit too much?”

-Thwack!

The bed was immediately lifted up.

My vision is blocked. With both legs restrained, I can’t move forward.

“You weakling. You’re neither a street beggar nor a pampered young master!”

It’s just a bed, even if it blocks my view.

What’s hiding inside is obvious.

I swung my blade toward the fixed position of my body, and Akshus’s sword came sliding right out of it.

-Clang!

“Yeah. I’m neither.”

“What…!”

The blade that had been slicing the bed was lifted clean into the air.

Splintered chair legs shattered, falling like shrapnel.

In an instant, Akshus was struck across the eyes and sent staggering back.

“Why, surprised? Did you think *I* couldn’t do something like this?”

“You’ll never…”

“Oops.”

-Shhhrrk.

“What again… *hk*!”

A burst of pure white flour erupted like fireworks, blinding his vision.

A fog spread. The dust spreading in the closed ward obscured his eyes.

“You dare try such petty tricks!”

Mana-infused wind blasted away the spreading fog.

His vision was blocked by the dense cloud of dust.

But the only direction vision was blocked was the one Akshus was facing.

From the opponent’s side, where light could penetrate, his movements were visible.

A silhouette formed from the interplay of light and shadow. The black blade flew towards his position.

“Tch!”

He reflexively widened the distance, but this wasn’t the best he could do.

In this situation where light entered from only one direction, he couldn’t allow such a one-sided disadvantage in vision.

“Think that kind of trickery will work?”

*Clang!*

Acshers smashed all the lamps, the ones that lit up the surroundings.

The hospital rooms, meant for patients’ restful sleep, were light-sealed.

So, without the lamps, the disadvantage of being in the light would vanish.

A clash of swords in the dark continues.

Beds are splintered, torn apart.

Sparks fly momentarily between the two blades.

Sweat sprays everywhere.

Each exchange was a draw.

And then.

In an instant, Carsein shattered the equilibrium of that draw.

– *Thwack!*

“…!”

“You should hold onto your sword, shouldn’t you?”

Acshers clutched his pierced chest, panic rising.

‘What. The hell was that.’

Intelligence that used the terrain.

A sense for perceiving and finding the twist in a blade’s path.

Movement so straight, it’s like a line drawn with a ruler, without a single flaw.

That combat sense was hardly what you’d expect from some greenhorn just barely into adulthood.

*Gulp.*

My throat worked, swallowed hard with tension.

‘Did he… grow in the meantime? That’s impossible…’

Everything’s a question, but one thing I know.

Right here, right now.

I have to crush him.

Akshus shifts his stance.

He’s about to go all out. Even the Crown Prince never beat him in pure sword skill.

‘It’s probably just the Bagrand ducal family’s swordsmanship. If I can just dig into that…’

But to adjust to *this* stance.

Carsein too, settled himself.

‘…Huh!’

That was a sword technique I’d never seen before.

*

Inside the ward, dark as night.

In that ward where not a single light source exists, a man heaves, catching his breath.

The battle is decided.

-Cough.

A mouthful of blood spills from his lips.

“This…can’t be…”

The defeated one mumbles, falling.

He gasps for breath.

His whole body is littered with wounds, big and small.

The one who fell was, until just now, the confident Archsius, who was pressing Karsein and seizing victory.

Strangely, Karsein showed absolutely no sign of exhaustion.

They’d clashed blades countless times, enough to drain anyone’s stamina. Yet, he was unnervingly fresh.

Rather… it was Archsius who was being pushed back.

Even though the number of attacks felt overwhelmingly one-sided.

Then, the fight was decided in a single, fatal exchange.

‘How, how could this be…’

Karsein’s sword strike?

It was by no means threatening.

Neither heavy nor fast, the sword was utterly ordinary.

However.

That ordinariness gradually vanished.

It felt like everything was hindering him.

The tall bed heads and various furniture scattered about, the miscellaneous junk everywhere, all of them seemed to obstruct the path of his blade.

It felt like everything that he could have used was now in that guy’s hands.

The space itself.

It felt like *his* space.

The way Karsein moved within those sharply calculated coordinates made it so.

“Damn it. That doesn’t matter now!”

The Duke Bagrand should have come rushing here long ago after hearing this commotion. Why hasn’t he come yet?

These questions kept pounding when…

A chilling dread snaked down my spine.

‘Could it be…’

A precisely aimed sword strike, approaching from an unseen blind spot.

A body that flawlessly navigated terrain and obstacle placements.

That movement, stopping as if measuring an impeccable straight line…

It was laced with meticulous calculation.

And that wasn’t all.

The wigs and the mannequins.

The news of Isabella and the location of the hospital, revealed so brazenly.

The security system, practically inviting infiltration.

Even the maid who conveniently appeared to swipe the pass.

“This whole situation is…”

That’s right. It was all on a blueprint.

‘Was all of this… a plan?’

A plan to capture one person.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to call it an elaborate trap.

From noble mtl dot com

When I’d stayed behind, not returning to my original world, prolonging my time of suffering, I laughed at him, called him a fool.

When he charged at me, puffed up with arrogance, I thought I could deal with him in an instant.

As long as I watched out for Wedero’s eyes, he was nothing special, just a savage like the Veneration.

But I was wrong.

He was a calculating human being, enough to make my skin crawl.

*

-Ding!

▶Episode IV. A Person Who Didn’t Think of Family as Family is Beginning.◀

▶Intimacy Triggers are Activated.◀

▶During this Episode, all Pursuit Penalties are Removed.◀

▶Good Luck.◀

Whoosh.

A red ponytail descends from a horse, along with the winter wind.

Seeing her dismount right on the timer, my prediction wasn’t wrong.

A hospital, one side largely collapsed.

I don’t know what happened inside.

Yeah. This might be the last chance I give myself.

There are suspicious circumstances, but they are just suspicions.

I haven’t asked about the truth. There is still a chance to ask.

A room in a ruined hospital.

Blood flows on my sword.

And even false rumors.

Just once.

If I thought about it just one more time, I might make a different choice.

But.

The blue flames in her eyes remain unchanged.

[Arina Bagrand]

[Synchronization with Kim Eunseo is complete.]

Then.

And now.

– *Shring*.

“In the end it was you, you…!”

Arina, drawing her sword, approaches with a distorted face.

“You finally held a blade to mother’s throat!!”

Yeah. You would think so.

I too, raised my sword to meet hers.

▶Hidden Episode. Severance begins.◀

▶Arina, sever your family ties with Kim Eunseo.◀

▶The method is your choice.◀