Chapter 35

Chapter 35. Even So, I Still Got My Revenge (1)

A dark room. Only the moonlight illuminated the chamber.

Rrrrrk.

The section of floor where the bed had stood sank downward.

Beneath the hole in the floor was a staircase leading below, and far down beneath the stairs, a flickering light could be seen drawing near.

Blocking that approaching light, a man sprang up from beneath the floor.

His body was covered in dirt and soot.

After entering the room, he hurriedly examined the floor.

Then, as if he had found what he wanted, he tapped several stones in the floor.

Rrrrrk.

The floor that had descended began to rise again.

The approaching light was blocked by the rising floor, and the heat gradually faded away.

Thunk.

Once the floor had sealed itself again, he let out a sigh.

Moonlight fell across the man slumped onto the floor.

His clothes and face were filthy, but he was still easy enough to recognize.

It was Martin, the marquess’s illegitimate son.

He rose with a weary expression, then turned his head.

"Why are you here?"

"Because I’ve been here since yesterday."

Stepping out from the corner, I answered his question.

"This should be Adria’s room."

"There is no way they would leave the person who leaked one of the marquess’s most important secrets in the same place."

"So you knew everything. Is Adria safe?"

"Weren’t you planning to kill everyone anyway? Well, she’s somewhere safe. Adria is an important link in the alliance between the Gresia ducal house and the marquess’s house. Unlike your side, she’ll continue living quite well, healthy and unharmed."

I slipped that barb in lightly, but Martin paid it no mind.

"If you’re here, then that means the group that seemed to leave this morning never actually left and is still here in the city. Did none of the mercenaries make it out?"

Just as he said, the people of the ducal house who had officially departed the lord’s castle had secretly returned to the city.

Simon and the knights had gone to the temple, the exit of the secret passage, while I had come here, to Adria’s room, to see how everything ended.

The side where the marquess’s room lay was being guarded by the marquess’s knights, and the temple was being watched by the duke’s knights, so I came to Adria’s empty room instead.

That was partly because there was no one here, but also because I had believed that if Martin survived, he would come to this room.

Because his target was close to it.

"The thing you wanted to do must have failed. Why come here alone instead of waiting for another opportunity?"

At my question, he gave a dry laugh.

"Are you mocking me? Even though you know I can’t escape.... No, I suppose that’s only something you learned now."

As expected, Martin had never intended to flee from the start.

"Well, the people who came with me and I wanted different things anyway. Their goal was to use me to seize control of the marquess’s house, but my goal was revenge itself."

With a tired expression, he looked around the room. It was the room of a refined noblewoman.

Perhaps he was thinking of his younger sister, because his expression grew terribly dark.

"Even when my family was thrown out because my sister was violated by the marquess’s two beastly sons and became pregnant, I was prepared to endure it."

Just as I had expected. If it had been an ordinary pregnancy, there was no way they would have cast out Martin, who was useful to the family.

"Our life became difficult again, but it wasn’t so bad, living with only the family together. Thanks to the ability I had Awakened, I could even make a living as a mercenary."

In the middle of speaking, he bit his lip.

"But before long, they killed my sister because she had not gotten rid of the child, and my mother killed herself after witnessing it. When I came home and found the corpses of my family, what was left for me to do besides seek revenge?"

He spoke to me in a tone that sounded as though he were coughing up blood.

It was certainly tragic enough, but I neither sympathized with his feelings nor offered him pity.

He would not have wanted that, and I was not in a situation where I could pity him either.

"Since you’re telling me all that, are you asking me to step aside?"

At my words, he looked at the sword in my hand.

It was a new sword, one I had obtained after the last one broke. Like before, it was still a mass-produced sword, but since it was new, it ought to hold up for a little while at least.

"If it were another knight, I’d cut him down quickly and move on, but you and I are in the same position."

I shook my head.

"Surely not. You were prepared to kill even Adria, so there’s no way you’d bother with a complete stranger like me just because our circumstances are similar."

At my words, he gave a bitter smile.

"Is that so.... Well, to tell the truth, it’s because you don’t look easy to break through. I felt it when we sparred, but now I can’t even gauge you properly. How is that possible at your age?"

I raised my sword.

The blade, brimming with mana, was giving off a faint glow even in the dark room.

Unlike during our sparring match, I was now revealing all the mana I possessed.

Mana surged outside my body. In the air beyond us, my mana was violently clashing with Martin’s.

"So, was it you who ruined everything this time? And was that dwarf spy you too?"

"I wonder."

When I answered flatly, he looked hollowed out. He stared at me in disbelief for a moment, then spoke again.

"If you’re that capable, I suppose that’s why the duke entrusts things to you. But no matter how well the duke treats you, don’t trust him. He is a noble, and you are only half one. We are neither nobles nor children. We’re only tools. Once our value is gone, we’re discarded and erased."

He tried to persuade me by drawing on his own circumstances.

But there was no need to persuade me. The duke had never treated me well, and I had already died at his hands more than once.

I did not trust the duke, nor did I intend to earn his recognition. I simply wanted to defeat those trying to kill me and go on living.

When nothing he said changed my expression, he raised his own sword.

"So you still intend to fight? Is that it? If we fight here, then even if I beat you, I won’t achieve my goal."

He was right. Even if I could not defeat him, I could buy enough time for others to notice and come running.

But I had not waited here because I meant to stop him.

"No. If you answer a few questions, I’ll step aside."

"If I answer them, you’ll let me pass?"

Martin, who had been about to move, looked baffled at my words.

"I’ve already achieved everything I wanted. Whether the marquess’s sons die or whether you die makes little difference to me. Either way, it will only bring sorrow to Adria."

I had no intention of doing anything more for the sake of the marquess’s house. Saving Adria and Bianca had already repaid the debt I carried over from my previous life.

At my words, he nodded.

"You still look so young.... So everything you’ve done in this matter was for Adria."

It seemed he had misunderstood something. But instead of correcting him, I asked my question.

"You people—or rather, the mercenaries helping you. What power is backing them?"

"Your skill at that age was already hard enough to understand, and now you’re already thinking about digging into the forces behind a battle you’ve essentially won? Really, what kind of brat are you?"

He looked at me as though I were some truly bizarre thing.

But I had already seen that expression on others several times before.

"Well, now that it’s come to this, I suppose there’s no point keeping it secret. The Count of La Palma is backing them."

The Count of La Palma? I shook my head.

"No. The Count of La Palma is being used, just like you are."

At my words, Martin nodded.

"Is that so? Now that I think about it, Benjamin and Noah did speak of the count far too casually."

It seemed he had noticed something was off as well.

"Sorry, but I never intended to look into it any further. If they would help me get my revenge, I was prepared to join hands even with the Demon King. Most likely, aside from Noah and Benjamin, no one knew who was really behind it."

Perhaps I should have gone to the temple after all. At this rate, all I could do was hope Simon had done well.

"Still, before coming here, Noah and Benjamin seemed to have lived in the north. Probably the Empire. When the two of them talked, certain words and turns of phrase would suddenly slip out, and they had that particular atmosphere unique to that region."

"The Tsar Empire?"

A great northern power that had demanded recognition as the true successor of the Old Empire after the Great War, and among the countries making that claim, it was the one the other nations had actually acknowledged as an empire.

There was a kingdom in between, so it was not especially close, but it was a land often spoken of in frightening rumors.

That unexpected piece of information drew a sigh from me.

It was already enough trouble dealing with affairs inside noble houses, and now this reached not even to another kingdom, but to a distant empire. This was definitely not something I ought to investigate myself.

When my expression turned cold, he scratched his head.

"I don’t know anything else, so does that mean we have to fight after all?"

We were talking quite casually, but our mana was still colliding violently in the air between us.

As he spoke, his mana flared more sharply.

I, however, drew back the mana I had been releasing outside my body.

"No. I’ll clear the way for you."

I lowered my sword and stepped back.

Martin stared at me.

"If you let me go like this, it’ll cause trouble for you as well...."

"It won’t cause any trouble. No one knows I’m here right now. And no one knows you came here either."

At my words, he let out a short laugh. He had understood what I meant.

"That’s true. If I don’t speak of it, then there won’t be anyone who knows."

If there was no one left to speak, then the secret would remain a secret.

He gathered in his mana as well and passed by me. Before leaving the room, he turned back to look at me.

"If the marquess says he’ll give you a gift before you leave tomorrow, ask for the sword I used while I was here. It’s absurdly sturdy—sturdy enough to endure my strength."

He waved a hand at me, then left the room.

It seemed he had heard from the female mercenary that my sword had broken.

Was that his way of repaying me for letting him go safely?

Though I had no idea whether the marquess would be in any state of mind to give such a gift.

If Martin succeeded in what he intended, the marquess would be too busy with funerals to think about presents.

Maybe I should go out and stop him even now.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I heard the clash of blades and shouts from far away.

"An intruder!"

"An assassin! Get the Young Masters to safety!"

Through the shouts, Martin’s voice rang out.

"Hahaha! What gave you the confidence not to run, you filthy brothers of mine?!"

"Stop him!"

"Let’s fall into hell together and stay there forever!"

"Don’t come any closer!"

The dull screams and shouts continued, but I left Adria’s room and headed for the guest quarters.

---

After a long while of chaos, I heard the outcome from a soldier running through the corridor.

It seemed that Martin’s revenge had succeeded by more than half.

The marquess’s eldest son lost his life to Martin’s blade, and the second son had also nearly died, but with the help of a priest, he survived at the cost of one arm.

In that case, would the surviving second son become the marquess’s heir?

Well, it made no difference to me who it would be.

And, just as expected, Martin lost his life there.

After killing the marquess’s eldest son, he cut down four of the knights protecting the brothers, and then, just before he could take the second son’s head as well, he was killed by the other knights.

For a half-blood noble cast out from the marquess’s house, it had been a remarkable feat, but after that day, no one ever spoke of it aloud again.

The marquess himself had sealed people’s mouths.

Before long, the marquess’s eldest son was declared to have died of illness, while the second son was said to have been injured during training.

And Simon and the people from the ducal house had no choice but to return without even attending the funeral.

Because those who had officially already departed returning again to take part in the funeral would have been enough to stir up dangerous rumors.

And I received a sword as a gift from the marquess.

The marquess said he would give me a gift to seal my lips, and I asked for Martin’s sword.

It was far too large a sword for my body.

Simon grumbled that I had asked for a sword I could not even use, but to me it was something worth keeping.

Then, before our party departed once more, I paid one last visit to Mercenary Street.

There was someone I needed to meet before I left.