Conquering the Academy with Just a Sashimi Knife (Novel) - Chapter 104 - Night of Purge (3)

Chapter 104 – Night of Purge (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Ghk……”

Nox’s upper teeth bit into his lower lip. Blood seeped between his teeth, and the taste of iron spread through his mouth. Slowly, he let go of his older brother.

An assassin, by nature, was someone endlessly close to death.

The act of taking another’s life.

No matter how just the reason might be, they too always had to be prepared for death.

Because that was the karmic burden an assassin had to bear.

But resolve and reality were two completely different things.

Nox slowly raised his eyes. Crimson killing intent ignited in his sunken pupils. Blood vessels stood out in his widened eyes.

Sharpening his vision, Nox tried to gauge the darkness inside the doorway.

He wanted to step in at once, but he held himself back. He was not foolish enough to plunge in before the situation had been grasped.

The moment he sharpened his senses, his skin began to sting.

At the savage and ominous aura leaking through the crack in the door, his feet reflexively stepped back.

‘…Magic.’

Magic power was surging there on a scale that couldn’t even be compared to what had been there just moments before. The air wasn’t merely chilly, it was black.

As Nox stared at the door, Altair spoke to him.

“Nox, do not be swayed by emotion.”

“…Yes.”

“We have yet to identify the enemy. Suppress your agitation.”

His voice was calm. But unlike that voice, Altair’s expression was twisted.

Watching that sight, Kang Geom-ma could feel the old man’s emotion.

‘Anger.’

Even he, an assassin standing at the pinnacle, had suffered a crack in his state of mind at the death of family. Altair forcefully pressed down the storming emotion.

Clap, clap, clap, clap!

From beyond the room, the sound of applause bounced in every direction and echoed.

Soon after, multiple figures appeared, breaking through the darkness.

“Well now, just as expected from the head of the House of Order, even your mindset’s different, huh? Look at you saying that even after your grandson died. What, do you not have any feelings?”

Amid the biting wind, a dark-skinned man gave a creepy smile and opened his mouth.

Kang Geom-ma narrowed his eyes. It was a face he had never seen before.

Still, there was no doubt that this man was the one responsible for the carnage.

Magic flowed grotesquely from his whole body. In one hand he held a hidden weapon together with a torn-off arm.

Altair’s eyes followed the man’s gaze, and then his expression crumpled savagely.

“……”

“Ah, this?”

Feeling the gaze, the man shrugged once. Then, as if discarding trash, he flung the severed arm aside. The sound of flesh and metal striking the floor rang out.

“Auditore, you lot were a real pain in the ass. Good thing we had more people, otherwise we might’ve lost. And that’s with us using magic too. So I was thinking of keeping an arm as a souvenir, but nah, you can have it back. Bury it somewhere sunny.”

“Yooou bastard!”

Altair roared in fury.

His rage at its extreme shifted into an enormous killing intent aimed straight at the man. At that, the man suddenly started waving both hands.

“Whoa there, why’s some old geezer being so scary? Hey! Looks like I can’t take this one alone. Guess everyone has to come out!”

The man shouted toward his back.

Step, step.

Several footsteps were finally heard belatedly.

“……!”

A little later, roughly fifteen figures lined up on either side of the man in a row. Eerie gleams flowed from their eyes.

Every last one of them was a villain. Nearly all of the enemies hidden inside the academy had gathered in one place.

Once the formation was set, swagger spread across the man’s face. He squinted his ringed eyes and folded his arms. Then he spoke boldly.

“No matter how much you’re the head of Aditore, what can you do against getting jumped? Anyway, that professor bastard’s annoying as hell, but he sure is smart. How else would he time the enemy’s arrival this perfectly, huh?”

The man let out a sneer. The rest of the villains simply furrowed their brows and ignored every word. The man scratched his head roughly.

“Ugh, you bastards are totally uncooperative. Then again, villains are all like this by nature. Hm… but is it that guys like this become villains, or that becoming villains turns them into guys like this……”

Pressing at his blackened temple, the man pondered. It was a useless question and answer. The sort of act one could only indulge in when at ease.

“…I can’t figure it out on my own, so what do you think, Elder? You’re such a learned man, so you ought to know, right?”

The man shouted toward the back.

Cladi, who had been hiding inside, timidly revealed himself. After choosing his words for a moment, he gave a cringing reply.

“Y-you half-human, half-demon gentlemen are all truly remarkable, are you not? After all, you’ve contracted with a legion commander.”

“Hmmm, is that so? Doesn’t really sound like an answer to the question, but hearing someone as high and mighty as an elder call me remarkable does feel good.”

“…Haha, I’m glad it pleased you.”

“Well, enough bullshit. Elder Cladi, you’re indebted to us. Later, you’d better reward us properly. If not, I’ll be very disappointed.”

At the man’s small threat, Cladi hurriedly nodded.

At that sight, veins bulged on Altair’s forehead. At last he openly vented the emotion he had been holding back.

“Cladi! No matter how rotten you’ve become, how can you possibly join hands with trash like them!”

“Silence! How dare a lowborn butcher bastard like you try to lecture an elder! And to think you dared even attack an elder’s private annex. Once tonight is over, I will personally wipe the Aditore family from existence!”

“Ha, what a thing to hear from a piece of trash clinging to demonkind like a parasite. Your father, who died gloriously while subjugating Basmon forty years ago, would be wailing in hell. You ought to know shame!”

At those words Cladi’s complexion first turned pale, then instantly bright red.

His face, already heated by drink, flushed red from shame. Veins standing in his neck, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

“You lowborn little shit, how dare you mention my fath-!”

“Enough.”

As if he could bear no more of it, the man at the front cut him off.

“B-but that bastard-!”

As Cladi fumed, unable to let it go, the man’s eyes turned cold.

“Hey, Elder. Just because I’ve been throwing around `sir` and honorifics this whole time, you don’t actually think you’re above me, do you?”

“……”

“The reason we’re keeping you alive is because dealing with the aftermath after killing those bastards over there will be easier, not because you’re competent.”

Cladi’s lips twitched before he bit down on them hard.

His brows trembled blue with horror and humiliation. The man glanced at him briefly, then turned his eyes back to the front.

‘So that’s him.’

The genius top student with black hair, Kang Geom-ma.

This was the first time seeing him from this close, but even at a glance, there was no doubt he was no ordinary person.

While the two assassins were visibly agitated, that bastard alone stood firm, measuring the power on this side with quiet, low black eyes.

‘So that’s what it means for a vessel candidate to be different……’

Even before defeating Mao Lang of Iron Legs, he had already been watched among the villains as the one second only to Leon, the Hero candidate.

For the legion commanders to descend into the human world, they needed a possession vessel, a so-called `container.`

That was why, right after the end of the First Human-Demon War, Balor Hoakin had sealed the boundary between the Demon Realm and the human world.

As a result, humanity had been able to maintain an armistice with demonkind despite the imbalance of power.

However, that taut tension had slowly loosened across the long span of seven hundred years.

The legion commanders quietly waited for their time. They were beings close to immortal, free from the bounds of lifespan. Time was something they had in excess.

And at long last, the opportune moment arrived. A golden generation the like of which had never been seen before and would never be seen again all enrolled in Hoakin Academy at once. Including Leon, the Hero candidate.

But an unforeseen disturbance appeared.

‘Kang Geom-ma.’

A cadet who immediately shoved aside that brilliant golden generation and took the top seat. On top of that, a peerless genius who put down Mao Lang of Iron Legs in a single exchange.

When the legion commanders heard the news through the villains embedded inside the academy, greed filled their eyes.

They ordered their stallions. Offer Leon or Kang Geom-ma to us, and we would grant you endless glory.

At those words, the villains were filled with ecstasy and swore that they would offer a vessel to their lord.

The man was slightly excited. The villains lined up beside him also shone in the eyes. Greedy looked, like starving wolves that had discovered fat prey.

‘Greedy bastards.’

As he looked over the faces of his rivals, the man suddenly felt goosebumps. Reflexively, he stared straight ahead.

“……!”

Kang Geom-ma was glaring at him. Just meeting his gaze felt as though he had been cut by a blade. A shiver ran once through his spine.

‘…What the hell is up with that bastard!?’

Meanwhile, Kang Geom-ma spoke quietly to Altair.

“Patriarch and Nox, please disrupt the enemy’s field of vision. If we overwhelm them with a speed battle, we should be able to offset the numerical disadvantage to some extent.”

At those words, surprise flickered across the old man’s face for a moment, but he soon nodded.

At the words of a boy young enough to be his grandson, Altair felt a heavy trust.

Kiiiing-

Altair drew the blade from his cane. It was the sound of his S-rank weapon, Syndicate, being unsheathed, and all eyes turned to the old man at once.

Kaaang-

Metal rang out once more. It was the sound of Nox drawing Hongryundo.

He gripped the hilts and let the blades drink blood.

On Kang Geom-ma’s left stood the Old Man of the Mountain, Altair di Auditore.

On his right stood the greatest genius in Auditore’s history, Nox di Auditore, positioned as though supporting him.

“Those bastards are coming soon!”

At the visible sign of movement, the man roared at the top of his voice.

Their numbers were five times greater. And yet the killing intent pouring from those three was blacker and more violent than the darkness of magic itself.

“……!”

The other villains shed their ease and took up formation. As the scent of steel circled at the tip of their noses, their eyes twitched.

In an instant, the two sides entered a state of direct confrontation.

Magic power and killing intent meshed in the empty air. In the center of it, Kang Geom-ma took one large step forward and gripped the sashimi knife.

As he did so, Kang Geom-ma stared directly at Cladi. At the gleam in those black eyes, an earthquake shook Cladi’s pupils.

Kang Geom-ma thought to himself. He had racked up too many debts with that bastard over there.

That was the very man who had dragged not only him, but also the people around him, into hardship.

On top of that, the villains who had been lying in wait within the academy had all gathered in one place. Wasn’t this as excellent a chance as one could ask for to settle those debts?

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a neck for a neck.

A merchant, by nature, hates owing debts.

Of course, the circumstances were unfavorable, with a numerical disadvantage on top of every single one of them radiating terrifying magic power.

And yet, for some reason, strength naturally surged into the hand gripping the sashimi knife. As of now, he had confidence in enforcing his would through sheer force.

Maybe he was now truly enjoying combat.

And if he was, then what of it.

No matter how many enemies there were, no matter what they were.

“I’ll cut through the magic, so I’ll leave their heads to the two of you.”

Kang Geom-ma spoke in a low voice to the two people at his sides.

Kiririring-

The sashimi knife gave off one final cry.

From the two blades, a cold light flowed.

Kang Geom-ma smiled soundlessly.

[The Blessing of the Sword God manifests.]

Even in this confrontation where the sparks of fierce battle were about to ignite, a small laugh escaped him.

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{Might God’s blessing be with you.}

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