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Chapter 47

That’s what you get, bastards.

The ones who didn’t even blink when their ally died were now completely frozen in fear.

I could understand them, though. Even I felt a little overwhelmed by the aura coming off of the family head.

The first to act was the mysterious man.

“Damn it...!”

Maybe he’d concluded that he would definitely die if he got caught here, because he instantly turned around and started to run away.

Flop.

He fell over before he could even take his third step.

Drip...

After collapsing, blood started to pool around his body.

I blinked twice.

I prided myself on having decent night vision, but I couldn’t even understand what had just happened.

The Lord of Blood and Iron didn’t even look at the collapsed man.

“I wanted to give you the choice,” he said to me.

I wondered what he was talking about, but I realized he was referring to my earlier bluff.

I’d said I would let one of the three live if they let me go.

I could only laugh in reply, but I would have preferred to capture the man rather than the woman.

“Kya!”

But then the woman did something unexpected. Impressively, she was able to overcome the pressure from the Lord of Blood and Iron even though she was still covered in cold sweat.

Her robes flapped, and I felt an incredible wave of power emanate from her.

Shortly thereafter, a green tentacle showed itself from beneath her clothes.

A curse?

How had she been concealing that all this time?

Its size wasn’t ordinary, nor was the energy I could feel emanating from it.

I wasn’t confident I could fight against that power even if I was in top condition.

Meaning...

That tentacle held the power of a demon lord.

As expected, she had an ace up her sleeve.

But I wasn’t particularly worried.

As if to agree with me, the Lord of Blood and Iron’s expression didn’t change either.

He looked at the woman before unsheathing his sword. Even though a frightening edge appeared from the sheath, it made no sound as it was drawn.

It was only for an instant, but I felt the sounds of the forest cut out for a split second.

However, the sword did make a clear sound when it was sheathed.

Clack.

The Lord of Blood and Iron had put away his sword like someone who had finished their attack.

It’s impressive how it doesn’t look like he’s showing off when he does that.

I let out another dry laugh.

I hadn’t even been able to see the start or end of that attack. The woman was probably the same.

“Huak...”

Blood erupted from the woman’s body, and she fell over like a puppet with its strings cut.

...

Even though everyone who had disturbed me had disappeared, I couldn’t fully relax.

It wasn’t because I thought there were more enemies around me but because of the man standing in front of me.

“You don’t have to worry. There are no more enemies here.”

“...How do you know?”

“I can feel it.”

It was a vague answer.

I had a few questions as well. I thought about containing my curiosity, but I felt like I wouldn’t get a second chance if I didn’t ask here... so I did.

“Were you aware of their presence this whole time?”

“I was.”

“Then why did you not help me from the beginning?”

The Lord of Blood and Iron looked at me with his calm eyes.

At this moment, I realized why I wasn’t able to feel any emotion from the Lord of Blood and Iron.

It wasn’t that he was hiding his emotions. Rather, he didn’t have any to begin with.

That’s interesting.

“He cares a lot about his children” could be considered a very emotional description.

However, he acted like the epitome of a tearless, bloodless monster.

This contradiction in his character was particularly odd.

“What about mosquitoes?”

“...Sorry?” I asked.

“Even if you can feel that there are mosquitoes in your room in the middle of the night, it is difficult to catch them. It is something like that. Although I could sense them, it was difficult to catch them. That is, until they crawled out here like this.”

“...”

I couldn’t tell whether or not that was a good analogy.

Although I couldn’t really understand what he meant, I couldn’t think of a response at the moment.

Even if I said something like “people aren’t insects,” I didn’t think the Lord of Blood and Iron would understand what I meant.

In the end, I changed the subject.

“Could you untie the chains—ah, thank you.”

Shroong.

Before I could even finish talking, the Lord of Blood and Iron had undone the chains binding my body.

Even though he had just reached out with his hand toward me, the chains had fallen apart by themselves as if they were alive.

I took a deep cool breath after having escaped the suffocating feeling.

“Did you kill all of them?”

“Why do you ask?”

“That guy over there.” I pointed to the mysterious stranger. “I think he knows me. It’d be a shame if he just died like this.”

“...”

“Family Head, do you know who that is?”

“You don’t need to know his identity.”

So he did know. And at the same time...

“You won’t show him to me?”

”That’s not the case. However, he could cause distracting thoughts in you that will interfere with your growth.”

“Ehm, excuse me, but I don’t think you need to worry too much about that.”

At that, the Lord of Blood and Iron gave a calm nod and made no further attempts to stop me.

“See for yourself.”

I approached the corpse of the mysterious man and pulled down his hood.

“...”

My expression hardened as I saw his face.

Although it wasn’t a familiar face, I recognized him.

Rudbick Bednicker.

The second son of the Lord of Blood and Iron, the one who supposedly went missing, was the one under the hood.

***

“...He’s alive,” I said while looking at Rudbick’s current situation.

Although he had collapsed instantaneously, he was surprisingly still drawing breath.

There was no way the Lord of Blood and Iron would’ve made such a mistake. It seemed more likely that he’d left Rudbick alive on purpose.

“You don’t seem too surprised,” said the Lord of Blood and Iron in a calm voice.

For some reason, it looked like this man had been closely observing my expression.

But why?

...He’s suspicious of me.

* * * * *

* * * * *

I was frightened by my late realization.

And I felt something anew.

The Lord of Blood and Iron. The man with an iron heart.

The man standing in front of me always doubted others without trusting anyone.

Even his children.

Even me, who was well known as a generational fool.

“...I kind of expected it.”

“That he is Rudbick?”

“No. Just that he is a member of the house.”

“With what evidence?”

“He seemed to know a lot about House Bednicker. A lot about you as well, Family Head.”

The Lord of Blood and Iron looked at me.

I thought I saw a hint of amusement in his expressionless eyes.

“What did he say?”

“...He said that if someone loses your favor even once, you won’t care about them, even if they are of your bloodline.”

“Hmm.”

He neither confirmed nor denied the statement. He just spoke with a calm voice.

“Cover his face again. Nothing good will come of him being seen by others.”

“Didn’t you say there was no one else here?”

“I did.”

He gave a weird answer, but I quietly lowered the hood back over his face.

It felt like I was covering a coffin, but he was still alive.

“Were you close with Rudbick?”

“Not really. It wasn’t as bad as with my other siblings...”

Rudbick had gone missing before my First Blessing Ceremony.

If he had seen that I wasn’t able to receive even a single blessing, it wouldn’t have been odd for him to ostracize me like my other siblings.

“Why did Rudbick attack our house?”

“You seem curious.”

“I think I have the right to know. I did put my life on the line.”

“An appropriate claim.”

The Lord of Blood and Iron held out his hand.

It wasn’t to attack me.

Shwoo...

The dried branches and leaves that had been covered with dirt on the ground started to gather together, and then...

Fwoosh—

A small fire was created.

The Lord of Blood and Iron sat down close by before looking at me.

It felt like he was telling me to sit down, so I sat on the ground opposite him.

“How much do you know about Rudbick?”

“Uh... not much. I just know that he went missing two years ago.”

“That is what is known to the public.”

“The public”?

“Rudbick left the house of his own accord. And then he joined the Church of Darkness to become a servant of the demon lords.”

“...”

I was a bit shocked.

The Lord of Blood and Iron looked at me as he said, “Do you now know why I hid the truth?”

“It would be dishonorable for a descendant of Bednicker to become a servant of the demon lords...”

I intentionally dragged out my sentence to obverse his reaction before changing tack.

“...Is probably not the real reason.”

“...”

“Isn’t there a different reason?”

“What is your evidence?”

“Otherwise, there’d be no reason for you to keep Rudbick alive.”

“There is a reason to keep him alive. I can extract information from him.”

“Then you would’ve kept Rudbick’s ally alive as well.”

“Why?”

Was he asking because he didn’t know?

There was no way that was the case.

He was testing me right now.

I started to heat up a little.

I’d never particularly liked being tested by other people.

But this was unavoidable. This was one of the authorities that came with being strong.

“To get precise information from them, you’ll need to match both of their testimonies. What you can learn from just one person is limited. And for you, the difference between capturing one alive and capturing two alive is trivial .”

Of course, that was the extent of my guess.

There was no way for me to know why he’d kept Rudbick alive if not for an interrogation.

Was it because Rudbick was his son; because they were related by blood?

This was an impossibility I didn’t even need to think about.

But suddenly, I heard laughter.

It wasn’t coming from the Lord of Blood and Iron.

I turned and looked at Rudbick in surprise.

He was giggling like a madman, and he then quickly stood up.

“Family Head, this guy is very interesting.”

The Lord of Blood and Iron didn’t give a reply.

He didn’t seem ready to attack either.

Then, as if it were natural, Rudbick sat next to the Lord of Blood and Iron.

“...”

As I looked at the two of them in turn, a new possibility crossed my mind.

“Wait, is Rudbick perhaps...”

“He is a spy that I planted.”

As I thought.

“...Was it by your order?”

At that, Rudbick snickered again.

“No. It was my decision. I was interested in what sort of place the cult was.”

His personality was similar to what I remembered.

Then was this his true self?

“But to become a spy within the cult...”

“I simply needed to know more about it because it’s such a dangerous place. As you know, it is a dishonorable act, so after consulting with the family head, he decided to claim I was missing.”

I felt like it had been a long while since I’d looked at someone and thought they were insane.

So in the end, Rudbick destroyed his status just for the sake of his curiosity?

“Who knows about this?”

“Just me, the family head, and you. And probably Mr. Asad as well?”

“Ah.”

So the reason the family head had told me to cover Rudbick’s face wasn’t to hide it from an enemy but from House Bednicker.

“Rudbick, what happened with the high priest?”

At the Lord of Blood and Iron’s words, Rudbick’s smile vanished and he became serious.

“It seems he left after the Blessing Ceremony ended. Sorry. They hid their tracks to the very end...”

“They would’ve already died by my hand if they were so easy to catch,” the Lord of Blood and Iron nonchalantly responded before turning to face me. “Luan Bednicker.”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think I told you about Rudbick?”

I had no idea.

“I had to. To reveal our secrets to each other, I felt we needed to be more honest with you first.”

“What do you...”

“I heard Kayan say that you created a martial art. He’s not completely wrong, but if what I saw is correct, you received help from someone else during the process.”

I closed my mouth.

The Lord of Blood and Iron stared at me as he spoke.

“Who did you learn from?”

“...”

I didn’t have the time to think long about this.

If I hesitated, then I would only be saying I was guilty.

Right now, he was suspicious of me.

I’m not out of danger yet.

But maybe I was fortunate? Because I now had the perfect excuse to give.

“It was a forgotten god.”

“A forgotten god?”

“Yes. In truth, there was one more thing that happened in the Gem Mountains.”

I talked about the altar, and about the Martial God I’d met there.

“Oho. A forgotten god...”

Rudbick seemed interested.

“If what you say is true, then you have achieved something amazing. Obtaining forgotten gods is one of the most important goals of the cult, and you took that from them.”

I knew that lying was bad, but I felt I had no choice in this situation.

“It is true that you met a forgotten god,” the Lord of Blood and Iron said as he looked at me.

However, I felt like his eyes were colder than usual.

“However, that isn’t it.”

“Pardon?”

“You didn’t learn that martial art from the forgotten god.”

“Why do you say that—”

“Discerning the truth.”

“...”

“Many people think that this is an ability of the Trial Room, but that is false. It’s a false rumor that started to circulate because I regularly acted as a judging entity in that room.”

“What?”

“The Blessing of Truth. That is one of my blessings.”

“...!”

I closed my mouth.

Was he bluffing?

No. He wasn’t the kind of person who would use a flimsy technique like that.

...This is bad.

I was in a lot more danger than I’d expected.

In the middle of the forest, under the night sky, I suppressed a groan.