Chapter 84

Chapter : 84

Adel witnessed his father dying. It seemed to be a matter of money, but Adel was only twelve, far too young to understand the situation in detail.

The man killing his father was only in his mid-to-late teens at most, but his body was already half-grown.

Right now, he was at least a head taller than Adel’s father, with a thick build.

Terrified, Adel could do nothing but watch as Agares and his soldiers swept everything away from the territory.

All kinds of thoughts passed through his mind. Life could fall apart at any time, and he was endlessly weak, unable to do anything even when his family was being killed.

His father died, and his territory was taken.

He became penniless, and poverty arrived. When he agonized over whether to eat a single piece of bread himself or give it to his younger brother, he desperately wished for death.

When his younger brother suffered from a high fever and he hesitated because the medicine was too expensive, tears fell from his eyes.

No, that had been a wise decision. Medicine was quite expensive.

But his younger brother’s illness was not fatal. He would suffer and cry right now, yes, and he would be in pain, but it was an illness that would heal with time. So saving the money for medicine and buying bread instead had been the right choice.

Of course, whether that decision had been right or wrong was not important. The fact that he had been forced to agonize over such a thing was hateful.

Adel grew vicious while experiencing countless things no child should have to experience, and he gained several lessons.

Among them, the one that helped him most until adulthood was that there was not a single person in this world he could trust. The next was that he had to understand life could fall apart at any moment.

After becoming an adult, Adel prided himself on having achieved a certain level of success in the back alleys.

He himself could not even handle a small fruit knife properly, but he did not hesitate to kill people, and he was good at deceiving others. Having become a gangster in a mid-sized city like that, Adel found no meaning in life and considered suicide, but he lived because of his younger brother.

His younger brother, Abel.

Adel wanted his younger brother to live a different life from his own. He wanted Abel not to know filthy things, and as one way of doing that, he sent him to the Academy. Adel, who had not received a proper education before adulthood, had an inferiority complex over that. He wanted Abel to live using his head.

Abel, who had entered the Academy’s middle school division like that, sent a letter to Adel. He wrote that something had happened to Agares, the worst of their enemies.

Adel, who had operated in the back alleys, had some insight into Dark Magic and grasped the situation.

There was a possibility that Agares had lost his power. Adel immediately released his people to confirm the matter, and felt the embers of life burn within him again.

He changed direction from watching over his younger brother until he became independent to fulfilling his own dream. Kill Agares.

He made a plan and decided on a direction.

Invading the Academy was difficult. Not only was it difficult to push in with a large number of people, there were far too many capable bastards there.

On the other hand, attacking while Agares was in his territory was also impossible. At that time, if anything, they lacked numbers. Even if he gathered as many people as the North’s standing army, the weapons and quality of training were different.

Was he supposed to let go of an opportunity he had seized with such difficulty?

While Adel was despairing, he heard that Agares often showed his face at auction houses. The cycle was every weekend. Beside him was only one Expert-level knight.

To make every possible preparation, Adel contacted others who held grudges against Agares just as he did and received support in the form of weapons and one Artifact. Some places gave him money to increase the number of gangsters who would strike Agares.

Like that, he threw everything in and charged at Agares.

It was the moment he had dreamed of all his life. He could even say he had lived for this day. But when Adel saw Agares’s expression, something felt strange. Even though he had gathered this many people, Agares was composed. Was he not afraid of death?

Or was he confident against these numbers?

Adel was also aware of Raphael’s existence. He had warned his subordinates in advance that they had to be careful, since a Sword Expert-level knight was attached to Agares. He had also used that as a pretext to receive a great deal of support. To assign people to deal with Raphael, he had brought along a high-performance Artifact and several skilled gangs.

‘No, there is no need to think this hard. I only need to confirm it!’

“Kill them!”

Adel sucked in air, then shouted. At his command, the gangs surged toward the two enemies.

Raphael was stronger than expected. With one hand, he swung a sword wrapped in Sword Aura, and with his other hand, he fired magic, instantly reducing the number of Adel’s allies. But to a certain extent, this had been expected.

CLANG—!

A Magic Sword that could withstand even Sword Aura.

It was the Artifact he had borrowed for this operation. The man holding the Magic Sword was Bailey. Among the gang, he was the best in both experience and sword skill.

Intending only to buy time, he ran away and grabbed Raphael’s ankles by stabbing precisely at his openings.

This was the chance.

If Adel killed Agares now, the wish he had held all this time would be fulfilled.

BOOOOM—!

One gangster was sent flying by a ball of fire. Electric Current shocked another gangster. A stone smashed a gangster’s head.

Each time Agares raised a finger, a ring responded and emitted the magic stored inside.

And his hand was dyed in darkness. Under the pretense of testing the quality of Dark Power from each supplier, he had obtained and absorbed small amounts. Though the quantity was small, it was enough for a single clash.

BOOM—!

With one punch, Agares pierced through a person’s stomach. He kicked the corpse away and tore off the arm. The corpse flew as it was and knocked down one member of the gang.

Adel’s gang had come fully prepared. He had gathered twice as many gangsters as he had expected would be necessary, and even armed them with weapons that looked as if they belonged in a war.

SLASH—!

A blade passed through Agares’s body, but the bleeding soon stopped, and the flesh healed. Seeing that, Adel’s hands trembled with despair. Something had gone wrong. Either the information his younger brother had passed on was false, or Agares had obtained new power in the last few days.

What should I do?

Every second, the number of gang members fell by one. Should he run? He would never seize an opportunity like this again. If he withdrew now, it meant he would give up on taking revenge against Agares forever.

‘Let us die!’

Adel had taken the position of leader because of his cruel nature and his talent for deceiving others, not because his sword skill was worth anything. Prepared to die, he charged at Agares and was seized by the neck. Agares grabbed Adel’s neck with one hand and lifted him.

“You were the head, were you not? Good. Rest for a moment!”

Then he slammed him into the ground. From the impact, Adel’s spine broke, and he gasped for breath. Without even glancing at Adel, Agares reduced the remaining gang members one by one. Before long, Raphael had also broken the Magic Sword and brought down his opponent.

After that, everything proceeded swiftly.

The two of them cleaned up the remnants in an instant and left only Adel alive. Agares looked at Raphael and said,

“From here on, I have to do what adults do. A soft-hearted man like you should go take a walk and sort out your mind for a while.”

“Forget it.”

He meant to torture him.

Adel bit his lip hard.

---

“Haa....”

I had thought something like this might happen someday, and that day was today.

I hated Agares.

Whenever I was with him, trouble erupted.

And it was always the kind of trouble I wanted to avoid most.

From a distance, I narrowed my eyes and glanced at what he was doing. So that he could inflict pain on people at any time, he carried a needle-like knife.

With it, he extracted information from the gang’s leader.

The leader screamed from time to time, but he had tremendous venom in him. He had not attacked because he had been paid to kill Agares, but because he absolutely had to kill him.

The reason his plan had failed was that Agares was unexpectedly strong.

If Agares had not possessed martial power, he might have died while I was taking down the small fry. The spells emitted by his Artifacts were nothing special in terms of individual power, but they burst out instantly without chants.

Furthermore, since they had enough power to kill a single back-alley thug, they were fairly good against multiple enemies. On top of that, the fact that he possessed even a little Dark Power played a major role. Agares’s fame was widely known.

These people had been able to muster the courage to attack because of the rumor that Agares had lost his power.

Now they would believe that rumor was false, so their fighting spirit had no choice but to break.

Thanks to that, we escaped danger easily.

The attackers’ leader seemed to hold out with spirit, but before even ten minutes passed, his body was trembling as he spilled everything.

Agares twisted the enemy leader’s neck and killed him, then walked over to me.

“Everything aimed at me in the Academy until now was instigated by that bastard.”

“Why did he say he tried to kill Your Grace?”

“Debts and grudges. That bastard’s father borrowed money from me, then told me to go ahead and gut him. So I did. I took everything I could take.”

“Is that all?”

“Amazingly, yes. For such a reason, he bore a grudge and tried to kill me. Normally, one would resent one’s father for taking on debt. Hey, do not look at me like that. It is all true. Would I deceive you over something like this? I merely did what I had to do.”

“Yes. Understood....”

When I answered as though I accepted it, Agares frowned.

“Is that all? Usually, I think you would have questioned me more.”

“I am tired from using my body, so I do not have the energy for that.”

“I am sorry that it seems you only suffer because of me.”

“I will put all of this down as debt. You will have to repay me later.”

“Ahh, of course.”

When I looked at Agares as though telling him we should go back now, he scratched his head and said,

“Even after thinking about it again, I did nothing wrong. The one who failed to keep his promise was that bastard’s father.... But I will restrain myself a little from now on.”

“What do you mean?”

“You understood, so why do you ask again? We need to move soon, so let us go.”

It seemed he meant he would kill people a little less.