First of All, I’m Drinking - Chapter 47
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 47
‘The direction is… over there outside.’
I raised my head and looked beyond the wall that they had broken through.
Even knowing I couldn’t kill them, there was one reason I watched them deal with the fire demons.
It was to identify the connection with the sorcerer felt when they revived, in order to pinpoint the direction.
“Groooooh!”
Slash!
I cut down a fire demon that lunged at me.
In the brief moment when its cells regenerated and it came back to life.
I could see the line of demonic power connecting it to the sorcerer.
‘I’m certain.’
The flow of demonic power was being felt from up there.
Now that I had identified the direction, there was no reason to hesitate.
“I’m going somewhere for a moment. Keep protecting the people here.”
They seemed to immediately understand what I was planning to do.
“Leave it to us!”
“We’ll have everything handled before you return. We just need to kill them until they die.”
All three of them were master-class superhumans.
As long as they remained here.
At least the humans wouldn’t be meaninglessly sacrificed.
“…”
I looked around.
The knights, including Buckle Chadman, were struggling against the fire demons that wouldn’t fall.
The Pope was also surrounded by countless fire demons, swinging his sword earnestly.
The reason they could fight evenly against enemies that revived even after death was because the Pope alone was holding back dozens of fire demons.
But even that seemed to be reaching its limit soon.
‘I need to hurry.’
Just as I was about to leave the scene.
“Haaaah!”
A youthful battle cry came from somewhere.
In one corner of the battlefield, in a place where people’s attention wasn’t focused.
A silver-haired woman was struggling to cross swords with a fire demon.
Reflexively, her name came to my lips.
“…Seria?!”
Whoosh.
Seria’s head turned toward me.
“You, who are you to speak informally to me…”
Dangerous.
Looking away in the middle of battle was no different from wanting to die.
Sure enough.
“Groaaaah!”
Taking advantage of Seria’s attention turning to me, a fire demon wrapped in flames charged at her.
“…!”
Seria tried to respond by swinging her sword belatedly.
But it was already too late.
The fire demon’s hand would crush her head much faster.
Without time to think, I roughly stepped forward.
Crash!
The fire demon that collided with my fist was sent flying far away and slammed into the wall.
Dust clouds billowed up.
I glared at Seria and shouted.
“Isn’t this dangerous! Why did you even come here!”
Seria’s eyes trembled.
She looked at me as if feeling wronged.
“I was fighting well just now! My concentration got disrupted because of you…! And why did you speak informally to me earlier? Which family are you from?”
“Is that important right now?”
“Of course it’s important! The fact that you called my name means you know who I am, right? How dare you show such rudeness to royalty!”
Why did this kid grow up to be so unreasonable?
Can’t she see the situation around us?
Clang! Claaang!
The sound of weapons clashing and sparking could still be heard from around us.
I pointed at the battlefield with my finger and said.
“This isn’t the time to be getting angry like this. Can’t you see people fighting?”
“I can see. I can see it well, so I joined the battle. To help.”
“With Your Highness the Princess’s skills, you’ll only be a hindrance.”
Perhaps because I spoke in a somewhat strong tone.
Seria gritted her teeth and trembled with both fists clenched.
“…But I can’t just stand by and watch.”
“No. Standing by and just watching would be a million times more helpful. And where did the Knights of the Royal Guard go?”
Then, I saw knights running over calling for Seria.
“Your Highness the Princess!”
“Are you alright?!”
Speak of the devil and he appears.
If those bastards’ mission is to protect Seria, what have they been doing all this time?
“They’re as useless now as they were before, not helping one bit.”
“I ordered them to. I told them to protect other people first, not me.”
I guess the Imperial Guard was also among the people fighting mixed together.
It still didn’t make sense.
“Orders or whatever, I question whether they even think at all, abandoning their escort target and intervening in a chaotic battle. When you return to the Imperial Capital, you’d better reselect your escort knights.”
“You, just because you have a mouth doesn’t mean you can speak so carelessly…!”
Seria’s warning couldn’t continue to the end.
Because a fire demon came charging at us.
“Grooooooh!”
Flash!
A blue flash flickered.
Following the path of light, a fire demon split in a zigzag pattern fell to the ground.
In that spot stood Merry, her entire body covered in full plate armor.
I gave a brief command.
“Protect Her Highness the Princess.”
“Understood.”
Seria looked at Merry with wary eyes.
“Who is this person?”
“Someone far more helpful than those idiotic Imperial Guards.”
“…”
Seria either lost her words or didn’t have the energy to get angrier, and closed her mouth.
I turned around.
There was no more time to waste.
“Talk to me when this battle is over.”
Seria spoke in a thoroughly annoyed tone.
She seemed to have a lot she wanted to say to me.
“….”
I kicked off the ground and threw my body into the darkness beyond the destroyed wall.
* * *
The pitch-black night sky.
Countless stars glimmered faintly.
Cool air and the chirping of insects struck my cheeks.
I followed the traces of demonic power, racing through Nelbern City at maximum speed with my body enhanced by demonic energy and aura.
“It should definitely be around here somewhere.”
Flame Resurrection is an authority with a limited range.
Even if Zagan’s proxy could wield the authority as well as Zagan himself, they couldn’t be farther than the predetermined range.
How many minutes had I been running?
Residential areas and shops flashed by, and a deserted alley appeared.
In the alley, people in shabby clothes sat here and there, exposed to the night dew.
Their faces were covered with grime that had turned black from not being able to wash properly.
It was a slum like the one I had seen in Buehern before.
Drip, drip.
Water droplets fell from the shabby plank roofs.
A musty and damp atmosphere.
With each step I took, the greedy gazes of the poor focused on me.
I was wearing the ceremonial robes I had stolen from Jerbahn.
‘It should be somewhere around here.’
Soon I would be out of range of Flame Resurrection.
He was definitely somewhere in this slum.
I continued walking with my insight activated.
I ventured deeper and deeper.
The number of poor people decreased, and when I could no longer see anyone around.
A gaunt man wearing a worn straw hat with one front tooth missing came into view.
He appeared to be in his late forties.
“….”
I quietly looked down at the sitting man.
The man also looked up at me silently.
Glance.
After confirming with a sidelong look that there were no other people nearby.
I shot a blade of demonic energy toward the man.
Whizz-!
The blade failed to pierce through his forehead.
Murky-colored flames shot down all the blades.
As if the fire had been given mass, I could feel a densely concentrated density.
This was a completely different level of manipulation from the flames of the demon cultists I had seen at the Temple of the Sword.
It was as if Zagan himself had descended to the mortal world.
“Kehehehe….”
The man let out a low sneer.
“There was quite a perceptive fellow, I see. You look like a noble’s child, but how did you know my identity?”
A rough voice like metal scraping in an old factory.
Seeing him laugh calmly even in this situation, he must have absolute confidence in his abilities.
“Moreover, a human using demonic energy… I pride myself on having lived quite a long time, but this is the first time I’ve seen such a sight. Amazing. I’d like to dissect you.”
Crackle-!
I imbued the sword I was holding with demonic energy.
The blade consumed by darkness.
I aimed the sword at his forehead and spoke as if spitting out the words.
“Zagan’s authority only shows its true value when there are many corpses around to utilize.”
But in the dark corner of the slum, there wasn’t even a single ant, let alone people.
“You cannot defeat me. Obediently spill everything you know. Then I’ll let you go peacefully.”
“Kehehehe….”
The man just continued laughing leisurely.
Yellow eyes hidden under the straw hat gleamed with light.
“What’s your name?”
A name.
I pronounced a name that was neither Pluton nor Cael.
“Asel.”
At least for these past few years, I had been called by the name Asel most often.
The man opened his mouth.
“I am the most faithful servant and proxy of Zagan, the Seventh Seat of the Demon Realm, Ordo Pereira.”
Ordo scratched the grime on his face with his fingernails and continued speaking.
“Let me be direct. Won’t you come under me?”
“….”
“I’ll give you the position of Cardinal. There’s going to be some vacancy in personnel due to today’s events anyway. If you’re a human who uses demonic energy, I’ll specially petition Zagan to make you the next Pope after me….”
Slash!
I didn’t listen to the end and beheaded Ordo.
Blood spurted up, and his head, separated from his body, rolled on the ground.
Too futile an end for someone who was the Pope of a sect and a deity’s proxy.
“Don’t waste time dragging this out and show me everything you’ve got.”
I waited for what would happen next.
I knew this wasn’t the end.
“Well now.”
A sight amazing enough to shock anyone who saw it.
The severed head was speaking.
“What an impatient fellow. Would it hurt to listen to the end of what I’m saying?”
Whoosh!
Flames gushed from the severed neck.
The head rolling on the ground burned away, and a new head was generated above the neck.
Bright yellow eyes burning like lava.
Blackened and cracked skin.
Ordo, wrapped in murky flames, had the appearance of a flame person I had seen countless times in the Demon Realm and just now at the cathedral.
“Are you flustered?”
He asked me with a snicker.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
The flames surrounding his body gradually increased in volume, becoming as large as a house.
“That I’ve lived quite a long time.”
His flames pressed against my entire body with murderous momentum.
Tremendous heat that seemed like it would vaporize my body at any moment.
I gazed at him indifferently and sighed as if I had witnessed the most foolish comedy in the world.
“Pathetic.”
“…What’s pathetic?”
“Did you become a flame person yourself while coveting eternal life? I’ve seen demons like you several times before. Do you know how they ended up?”
Ordo’s face, which had maintained composure throughout our encounter, contorted.
Like a bug with a human face, as if he had witnessed something that shouldn’t exist in this world.
The feeling he was experiencing now reached me through the air.
A very alien and disgusting sensation.
“…You, what exactly are you?”
Magi rotated violently within my body.
5-star.
The amount of magi unlocked after reaching the realm of Sword Expert was incomparable to anything before.
“I’ll tell you that from now on.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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