Текст книги "Overlord - The Man in the Kingdom - Part 2"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Climbs eyes opened wide on that word. If Zero was holding back during an exchange with these kinds of blows, what would his true strength be like? He was also amazed that Brain showed no signs of surprise.

Both of them weren’t fighting with their full strength? This really is a battle between men who could rival humanity’s finest, the adamantium ranked adventurers!

“That would be best, Zero. Those two over there are done, so I don’t need to drag this out. You’re going to lose here, Zero.”

Brain sheathed his Katana and slowly lowered his stance. It was the same stance as yesterday, where he took down Succulent with a single strike. Before Climb could even wonder if Brain could take down Zero with a single strike, Zero jumped back. He had easily jumped a distance that was well beyond the limit of ordinary human strength.

“Edstrom can make a barrier with her swords, but you seem to have a different kind of a barrier. If I stepped in carelessly, I would be cut in half.”

He couldn’t completely figure out Brain’s original martial arts, but to be able to guess what kind of skill it was showed that Zero’s ability as a warrior was truly superior.

“But... It’s a skill you can’t use without taking a stance first.”

Zero thrust his fist in midair. It might have seemed like a meaningless move, but Brain’s body shook from shockwave made by the fist.

“I can win by just attacking you from a distance like this. Or do you have a way to cut someone who is far away?”

“No, I don’t.”

Brain answered honestly.

“If you fight like that, then all I need to do is not take that stance.”

Zero asked Brain quietly in an atmosphere almost not befitting him, in deep and calm state.

“Brain Unglaus, is that your trump card?”

“Of course. It’s my trump card that has only been defeated... once.”

“How boring. If it’s already been defeated, then this will be the second time.”

Zero slowly pulled his fist back and took a stance.

“I will break you head on. I’ll destroy that little skill of yours and win. First I’ll win against you, Brain Unglaus and one day I’ll make Gazef Stronoff kneel before me. Then I will be the Kingdom’s strongest.”

“If you think you can try using me as the first stepping stone for your ambition, you’re going to slip. You really must have nothing to do, Zero.”

“Talking really is the only thing you’re good at... No, since you got this far, that’s not strictly true. However, realize the fact that I am better than you in your grave. That it was foolish to challenge Zero-sama! Here I come!”

Zero’s upper body had tattoos of various animals, which were emitting a faint light. Comparatively, Brain did not move. He simply waited like a statue. Climb could feel he was about to feel massive amount of released power from both people.

A place where nobody could interrupt and raw power collided with raw power.

And suddenly a voice that was out of place could be heard:

“So this is the place where everybody gathered.”

Everyone was surprised and turned around to look at the intruder. Even Zero and Brain, who could not afford to take their eyes off each other, did so. An old man was standing there, it was Sebas. Someone Zero would’ve never expected to be here had appeared.

“What? What happened? The Six Arms should be taking care of you... Did you sneak past them?”

Sebas shook his head.

“No. All your comrades has been defeated.”

“...Don’t speak nonsense. They might be weaker than me, but they’re still the Six Arms. There’s no way you can come here unscathed after facing them.”

“Surprise often accompanies the truth.”

“Sebas-sama! The Tsuare here was a fake! It was Succulent disguising himself with an illusion. We need to rescue her now!”

“Ah, thank you for worrying about her, Climb, but there is no need to be concerned. I already rescued her. She was in a different part of the building.”

Sebas looked over his shoulder and Climb followed his gaze to find a woman covered in a blanket near the entrance.

“Ah!”

Climb quickly looked down at Succulent. His maid clothing was ripped in places and soaked in blood. There was no way to hand that over, nor would the receiving party want it.

“There’s no need to worry about it, Climb. It’s just regular maid dress, so it’s disposable.”

Climb felt relief and Sebas who was smiling bitterly.

“Oi, oi, oi. To just chatter on while ignoring me... You sure are gutsy.”

Zero, who couldn’t move carelessly due to Brain in front of him barely moved from his spot to look at Sebas with a hate filled expression.

“Old man, I’ll ask again. What happened to my subordinates?”

“—I killed them all.”

It was a casual tone, as if one was picking a flower, but it was also filled with coldness.

“N, no way! You think I’ll believe you?”

Sebas smiled at Zero’s scream. Sebas’ laugh without a single hint of hostility felt only truthful.

“...Brain Unglaus. We’ll postpone our match a little bit. I need to show this old man the power of Six Arms.”

“Alright. Just try not to get destroyed so fast. Well, not that I’ll have my turn anyways.”

“Shut up! ...Old man, you’ll pay for your lies with your life.”

Sebas smiled bitterly, but the man who proclaimed himself as the strongest couldn’t stand that smile Zero’s tattoos gave off a faint glow.

The head of the Security branch and leader of the Six Arms, “Battle Demon” Zero.

If men like Gazef Stronoff and Brain Unglaus fought with him unarmed, they would die in an instant. Even if they were armed, the outcome of the match would be unclear.

One of the classes he had attained was “Shamanic Adept”. This class borrowed the strength of animal spirits and enhanced one’s physical abilities. There was a limit to how often one could use this skill a day, but it raised the user’s abilities to that of a beast. For a physically superior animal to use a human being’s martial arts, it was a truly fearsome combination.

Zero activated his skills. Usually he only activated one to conserve his strength, but he realized that Sebas was quite a strong opponent.

Though he didn’t really believe that Sebas defeated four of the Six Arms by himself, considering that he had broken through the front, there was bound to be someone else with him. Most likely Blue Rose. Until he could gather more detailed information, all he could do was destroy Sebas with all his strength and postpone his duel with Brain Unglaus.

He would need to show overwhelming strength to the onlookers before taking off. He determined this would be the best course of action and prepared his strongest skill accordingly.

Panther on the legs, falcon on the back, rhino on the arms, buffalo on the chest, lion on the head; he activated them all. He felt explosive power surging through him. He was almost worried about his body swelling up and exploding.

“Gyyyyaaaaaahhhhh!!!”

Shouting out the power building in him, he took a step forward.

The attack of strongest of the Six Arms, Zero. It was a straightforward punch. No feints, no tricks, just a pure, straight punch. But the strength behind it was immense. Not only his skills as a Shamanic Adept, but also his other skills as Monk, as well as his magic items enhanced the strength and destructiveness of his fist.

It was so fast that even Zero had a hard time controlling it. The fact it was a straightforward punch with all his strength made it a usable skill. He had no hesitation in showing his ultimate strike. This skill was simple, but invincible.

He had confidence that no trickery could stop it. Zero felt a sensation of superiority above others as he rapidly stepped forward with a sensation of being pulled back.

“Watc—”

Somebody shouted.

But it was too late.

In a blink of an eye, the fist carrying extreme power and weight had already arrived in front of Sebas and still kept propelling itself forward. Zero could only laugh at Sebas who was still standing there stiffly. He would regret fighting the strongest of the Six Arms.

“—Hrmph.”

The fist found its mark on Sebas’ undefended stomach. It was a perfect strike.

With an explosive aftershock, Sebas body flew back like a ragdoll. He hit the floor, but the strike was powerful enough to make his body keep bouncing back on the floor. It was an immediate death. No, it would only be natural for it to be so.

All of his internal organs would have turned into a liquid by now. The outside was the only thing that kept its semblance of a human. This was Zero’s strongest skill. A demonic skill that was true embodiment of phrase, “single strike kill”.

Or at least that’s what was supposed to happen.

Sebas stood his ground and did not budge even a bit. He had taken Zero’s fist, with all the strength in it, with just the muscles in his abdomen. It was an unbelievable sight to anyone; a scene defying all common sense.

The difference of strength between their appearances was absolute, but the result was the complete opposite.

The one who could not believe this the most was Zero. There was no creature that could receive his ultimate attack and survive. This had been the case so far. However, with a result like this, he did not even realise that something black had passed right in front of his eyes.

Sebas’ leg rose high into the sky. It passed by Zero’s nose with fluid motion. Then the leg came crashing down.

A heel drop kick.

That was the name of the skill, but the speed and strength behind the kick was abnormal.

“...Who are you.”

Zero murmured and Sebas’ lips curled at the edge.

Terrifying crunching and cracking sounds spread everywhere. Zero’s head was smashed, his neck and spine broke as if he had been crushed by an object weighing several hundreds of kilograms, and Zero’s body kneeled.

The hallway was wrapped in silence.

The atmosphere could only be described as “stupor”. Sebas moved his feet as if avoiding blood from Zero’s smashed head and dusted the place where Zero’s fist had struck.

“Phew, that was dangerous. I would have died if not for your warning.”

He was lying! What warning?

The three men, and perhaps Tsuare as well, did not speak out loud, but all shouted that in their minds.

“I survived, thanks to you, Climb-kun.”

“—ouh... Ah, yes...”

Climb who could only mouth the last words of “watch out” received Sebas’ thanks rigidly. He did not know what to say due to the mental shock.

“It seems I was just a tiny bit stronger.”

Sebas showed a tiny bit of space between two fingers. He probably meant the distance between the fingers was the difference between him and Zero, but there was no one who would agree.

Tiny bit my ass.

Just like before, everyone thought this on the inside.

“Either way, since we rescued her, it would be best to retreat.”

“Uh, no, about the Six Arms... did you really?”

“Yes, I killed them all. They were too many and strong opponents. I regret I was not able to give them any quarter.”

“Is, is that so. It was inevitable, please don’t dwell too much on it.”

All three of their gaze immediately shifted to Zero’s corpse. They could not even suggest that it was a lie.

“T-then we should call in the soldiers to search rest of the building.”

The soldiers were originally there to search the building. The fact they could clean out a stronghold with Sebas was an incredible stroke of luck. If Sebas’ statement was true, and it probably was the truth, there would also be the additional bonus of having destroyed Eight Fingers’ most powerful fighting force.

The only real minus was not being able to capture Zero, but they had calculated they would not be able to arrest him in the first place, so there was no real loss. Anyone who argued about the result would be a fool.

Climb spoke with an excited voice and Brain nodded as if it was the correct decision, but there was someone who stood with rigid expression.

“What is it, Sebas-sama?”

“N-no. It’s nothing. There’s just something that doesn’t sit well with me... But before that, it seems the air in here is not a good one. Would you mind stepping outside with me?”

“Yes, of course.”

Looking at Zero’s corpse and Tsuare, everybody agreed with Sebas. Sebas approached Tsuare who was near a jail cell door and held her in a princess carry. Her white feet, which didn’t have a lot of meat between their bones and their skin, kicked at the air for a bit and they could see Tsuare’s thin arms grabbing Sebas.

They could feel that the relationship between the two of them wasn’t just that of a butler and a maid.

You should stop prying into their personal life. It’s not befitting you Climb. It doesn’t matter what their relationship is.

“Then let’s go.”

Climb spoke and headed out first.

The other three followed. They could start the investigation after Sebas had left and there wasn’t much chance that someone would jump out and attack Sebas, who had both his hands full. He was tense for a moment, but there was no need to.

The building, which had been bustling with activity when they first infiltrated, showed no sign of anyone being there. Logically speaking, there wouldn’t be anyone brave enough to challenge Sebas when he had just taken down Six Arms. Chances were that most of them had fled, and if that had been the case he hoped the group outside would capture anyone who tried to run.

Climb’s shoulder felt lighter with a sensation of relief.

However, someone tapped Climb’s shoulder. It was the rogue. He was looking at completely different direction and his expression was similar to the one he had made when Sebas defeated Zero with a single strike. Following his gaze, Climb’s eyes also widened when he saw it.

“A wall of flame?”

Climb nodded at Brain’s whisper. If a house was burning, then flames would be a natural occurrence, but if it was a regular flame, Climb wouldn’t have been so surprised. However, a gigantic wall of flame over 30 meters tall had sprouted and was surrounding part of the capital. Lengthwise, it would be well over several kilometers long.

“What do you think that might be?”

Three people snapped out of it when they heard Sebas’ curious, but relaxed voice.

“What should we do, leader? That looks like the warehouse district. Which group was in charge of that location?”

“The leader of Blue Rose, Alvein-sama... We’ll consider this an emergency, cancel all plans and retreat to the royal castle. We’ll follow the orders from high-up afterwards.”

“That seems like the best course of action... Ah, for Sebas-sama...”

“I’ll be taking Tsuare to a safe place, so that nothing like this can ever happen again.”

“I understand, Sebas-sama. Thank you for yesterday and today.”

“There is no need to worry about it. Our goals just happened to have coincided... I shall repay the debt for helping me rescue Tsuare one day. Now then, please excuse me.”

Chapter 9. Jaldabaoth

Translator: Ferro

Editors/Proofreaders: TaintedDream, Namorax,Skythewood, SifaV6, JcqC,Rockgollem,ZackTan

 

Part 1

Lower Fire Month (9th Month), 4th Day, 21:10

Because of her thirst, the woman woke up and opened her eyes.

She slowly moved on an especially large bed and reached out for the water jug placed next to the bed, but failed to touch anything.

Then she recalled that no water jug had been placed next to the bed earlier today, and involuntarily clicked her tongue.

“Oooh”

She yawned. Like an elderly person, she was accustomed to sleeping and waking up early, therefore having been asleep for just one hour was certainly not enough rest.

Swallowing, she placed her hand on her throat, and only got down from the bed when she felt the saliva going down her throat. Taking a thick bath towel placed on one side of the bedcover, she wrapped it around her naked body, put on a pair of slippers and walked outside.

This mansion was the main base within the Capital and was the property of Hilma, head of the drug traders. Logically speaking, the ten or so people positioned within this mansion ought to be quite busy, but it was eerily silent, as if nobody was around.

Hilma was surprised as she walked along the corridor. If all the nobles had left, then sooner or later this mansion would be quiet. Even still, wasn’t it a little too quiet?

In this mansion, calling out to the nobles would definitely elicit a response.

Speaking of nobles, even if they were the eldest son and wanted to succeed the family, this would usually happen rather late in their lives, when they were roughly thirty years old.

Prior to this, they were given allowance to spend as they wished, by their fathers who were the head of their families. Because they were already married adults with children, they were invited to this mansion for their entertainment.

Wine, women, drugs. Flattering compliments were spoken into their ears. Conversing with other nobles in the same situation resulted in them building closer relationships with each other. In doing this, they enjoyed themselves and established connections at the same time.

Once that noble took over the family, it was time for the harvest. If the noble tried to stand up against them, they would be given the stick. On the other hand, if the noble was willing to support them, they would be given the carrot. Like this, the circles of nobility were slowly being infiltrated.

She walked along the silent corridor to find some water to drink.

In fact, she didn’t despise silence, she even preferred it over noisiness. Her entertaining personality when nobles were noisily forming friendships was only a facade. However, the atmosphere right now was simply too unnatural. This silence cast a chilling sensation, causing her to feel as if she was the only person in the mansion.

“...What happened?”

The guards could not have left this place without saying a single word. If there really was an abnormal situation that happened, shouting would immediately give away her own position, which would be a really bad turn of events. Hypothetically, if she were to return to her room and hide under the covers, what then? Doing that would be too passive.

It was necessary to take action when the situation called for it, otherwise one would be devoured like prey. This was her belief and she had been able to climb all the way from being a high-class prostitute to her current position because she strongly adhered to this way of thinking.

Looking around the corridor she could see that apparently nobody was present, and she quickly ran to get out of this place.

She trusted her own sixth sense, and the place she ran towards was a hidden room which only she knew about. That room contained many magic items, precious gems and escape passages. Although this place was the headquarters within the capital, there were still many other bases distributed all around the city. It looked like it was about time to flee to one of them.

Proceeding forward while trying her best to be silent, she suddenly noticed something was wrong.

“What, what is this?”

She involuntarily gave off a soft groan when she saw a strange phenomenon outside of the window.

The thin glass was covered in ivy, completely blocking the sunlight from outside. No matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to open the window even for a small crack.

She frantically looked at the other windows along the corridor. All of them were covered with thick ivy.

“W-what the? J-just who…”

Before she slept, the scene had definitely been different. In the short span of only an hour, it had become like this. It had to be the result of somebody’s magic.

But, who exactly? What was his objective?

She had absolutely no clue, but knew that the situation was incredibly dangerous right now.

“Dammit!”

Swearing as she trotted along, she did not even care if her bath robe had come undone. No matter what, it was imperative to get inside the small secret room.

Arriving at the stairs, she looked downwards. It was deathly silent.

She gingerly walked down the stairs, making use of the rays of light that seeped in from the tiny gaps amongst the ivy. Thanks to the thick carpets laid on the stair, she was able to descend without a single noise. She was immensely grateful for this.

“–!”

It was only when she arrived at the floor below that she was stunned with surprise.

There was a figure standing in the corridor, staring at her. The figure itself seemed to melt into the darkness, but it wasn’t like the way thieves hid themselves in the shadows. It was because the figure’s skin itself had a dark complexion, being a dark elf with heterochromatic eyes that shone in the darkness.

The dark elf stepped out of the dark. She wore a young girl’s clothing. In her hand she held a dark staff, and her eyes were looking directly at Hilma.

Behind this mysterious young girl was the hidden room.

She recalled the layout of the mansion as she made her decision, and edged closer whilst trembling in fear.

Some nobles must have brought it in as a play-thing, in that case whatever happens to it does not matter.

However she immediately discarded this wishful thought.

It appeared that Cocco Doll had already been captured. In order to avoid any unfavourable consequences from future power struggles, she had long since prepared escape routes to safe houses. As such, the subordinates in this mansion would never bring in irrelevant people without making some form of report.

“Hey, ojou-chan.”

When a sound was uttered, Hilma frowned in surprise.

As a high-class prostitute, she had come across all types of people. Experience told her that the one she saw before her was not a young girl, but a boy.

The clothes were luxurious, the type which most people could not get their hands on. They were high-class goods that even Hilma could not obtain.

The dark elves had always been living in the forests, but now one with an unknown gender had appeared inside the Kingdom, wearing unusually luxurious clothing.

Had the surrounding atmosphere not been so abnormal, she would have assumed she was  looking at a slave of a noble, one meant for their peculiar desires.

“...You, what are you doing here?”

The other person was completely unguarded, and slowly got closer to her.

“O-oba-san, are you the most important person in this mansion?”

Even if she was called an oba-san, she was not unhappy in the slightest. For such a young elf, her age must certainly be at the point to be appropriately called oba-san.

“No―”

She was about to say this, but suddenly, she got an extremely bad feeling.

She had tremendous trust in her own intuition. Compared to her common sense, she trusted her intuition even more and had therefore been able to survive up to this point. Common sense could betray her, but her intuition would never do so.

“Yes. Yes that is so. I am the most important person in this mansion.”

“I-is that so. That’s great.”

The boy smiled. Hilma heart ignited with a fiery desire, as if she had the urge to defile a beautiful object. It was that kind of pure smile.

“U-uhh, that’s not what I heard from the people here.”

As if in response to the boy’s words, the nearby window opened. There stood a young girl in a maid costume, her body wafting with the smell of blood instead of perfume.

Hilma covered her mouth with her hands, holding back a cry of despair.

The maid held a man's arm in her lovely hand. The arm’s shoulder muscles were visible as if it had been ripped from the shoulder.

“W-What!”

“E~eh, that, it seems like someone wants to attack this mansion. We need to finish everything before they get here. So I brought her with me.”

“Please don’t mind me. It has been a while since I have been this full, and I am really satisfied right now.”

The mouth did not move, but still emitted a noise. It was an extremely surprising matter, but Hilma still had other things she wanted to ask. Especially about what exactly the maid had been eating, since it caused her body to shake non-stop. Hoping it was different from her expectation, Hilma asked:

“T-then, m-me too? You also want to eat me?”

“Ah? Ah, not so. Oba-san is different.”

It was not reassuring. Her intuition warned that a worse fate awaited her.

“—Then, young man, would you like to come here for a bit of pleasure?”

The cloth covering her slowly slid off, revealing her shoulders.

This was the body she took pride in. As a high-class prostitute, all those that she serviced were upper-class nobles. Therefore she had devoted all her efforts to shed excess fat, maintaining her attractiveness. No matter how honest the person was, they would be unable to take their eyes off her; Even a small child would be aroused. She had tremendous self-confidence in this aspect.

However, no emotions could be seen in the juvenile’s eyes.

That also means to say that my attractiveness is not as great as the maid on the side! Even if I myself had changed business, I’m still a professional. Even if it is an emotionless person, it is still possible to induce raging desire! I can do this!

Moving sinuously like a snake, she showed off her graceful body while advancing slowly, getting closer in an unsuspecting manner.

However, she could not detect the boy’s lust.

That was why it was necessary to use other means. Her hand slowly moved, moving past the boy’s neck – and then activated a magic item – Viper’s Tattoo.

The snake tattoo drawn on both hands suddenly materialised, with the snake raising its sickle-like fangs to bite into the boy’s body. Anyone who was bitten by this powerful neurotoxic snake would immediately spasm before departing this world. For Hilma who lacked combat ability, this was her killer move.

However the boy nimbly grabbed the incredibly fast poisonous snake with one hand and crushed it without hesitation.

The viper tattoo slowly returned to Hilma’s wrist. Because the materialised entity was killed, it would take roughly one day’s time in order to recover. During this period it was impossible to activate it again.

Having taken action yet unable to achieve the result she had envisaged, Hilma was caught in the worst possible situation and couldn’t help but retreat slowly. What terrified her the most was the fact that despite the chain of events that had transpired, the boy’s expression had not changed even once. Even when he was attacked, neither anxiety nor hostility could be seen.

“Ah, ah, then, let’s… get moving.”

“Where to?”

In the moment that Hilda harboured this doubt, a surge of excruciating pain came from her knee. It was so severe that she could not even stand up, and helplessly fell onto the floor.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhh!!”

She issued a pained shout; the pain was enough to make her sweat heavily. She unwillingly glanced at her knee and immediately regretted doing so.

Her left foot was twisted in the opposite direction, the bone visibly exposed as it had pierced her flesh.

As Hilma cried, she also thought about using her hand to press down on the painful area, but she hesitated, afraid.

The boy grabbed Hilma’s hair and dragged her outside.

An observer of this scene would not be able to tell that she was being dragged along with a powerful force. His strength was immense, even causing many hairs to be yanked out, yet he paid no attention to this.

“No! No! Please stop!”

The boy glanced at the wailing Hilma, but did not halt his pace for even a second.

“Quickly! We’ll get in trouble if we don’t hurry up!”

 

Part 2

Lower Fire Month (9th Month) 4th Day, 22:20

After assaulting the mansion, Entoma Vasilissa Zeta walked out through the main door.

She picked up a piece of paper that was lying next to her feet, crumpled it into a ball and threw it towards the mansion.

The original plan was to sweep the mansion clean of humans, then retrieve important books and valuable items before retreating. Like fleeting birds, they were to leave no trace that they had been there, and since time was tight, they would only take what they could. However, in the end the house had been left completely empty, as if it had been cleared out by thieves.

Nonetheless, this was also completely fine because Demiurge, the one who had sent Entoma and Mare here, mentioned that this was a possibility. But then again, the overall time spent here had exceeded their estimations by far.

Together with the other demons, Mare and her should have departed much earlier. Mare had taken the most important person of this mansion and went ahead to the rendezvous point. Because there was still enough time, the lower-class demons brought along a mountain of stolen goods and were preparing for everybody to evacuate.

That should have been the case, but then they discovered an underground storage which was completely packed with stolen goods and illegal drugs during their retreat.

The appropriation work was therefore slowed down.

Firstly, the underground area was divided into many rooms, with valuable items and many cheap goods piled together, making it incredibly difficult to search through. It was basically like finding a specific tree in the middle of a forest. Even if it were Entoma and the demons, they could not possibly relocate all of the items, as such it was necessary to locate the desired tree within the forest.

If the woman taken away by Mare had still been here, this problem would have been dealt with early on, but it was already too late for that.

Entoma and the demons stuffed the goods which they deemed to be trash to one side of the room. Even for demons who had far more strength than humans, this was rather cumbersome work. But thanks to this method and their efforts, they were able to successfully take away all of the items that had value.

As the person responsible, Entoma, who stayed to the end, had the refreshed expression one would have at the completion of an assignment. She looked at the night sky, using her hand to wipe off her sweat. Although she did not secrete a single drop of sweat, that was how she felt.

“Ha. Everybody move the items away then~”

Obeying Entoma’s command, huge insects the size of a man carrying large amounts of cargo on their backs flew into the night sky. These giant beetles were all summoned through her entomomancer ability.

Their wings gave off a heavy and low vibrating sound, and then the insects flew in a straight line formation towards their destination.

After personally sending off the insects transporting the heavy goods, Entoma pondered as she looked at the object she held in one hand.