Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 273

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
Summoning a Demon (4)
Count Frey had been entrusted with a critical mission.
To breach the vulnerable South Gate, advance into the Royal Palace, and slaughter everyone within—such was Count Frey’s role.
Count Frey was not particularly formidable as individuals go.
And yet.
He was a mere count who had earned the trust of Emperor Bolond himself.
Count Frey possessed an exceptional talent for adapting to variables.
Indeed, throughout the countless battles that had unfolded thus far, he had wielded his brilliant intellect to turn unexpected circumstances to his advantage.
Drip, drip—
But in this moment, Count Frey could not even register the moisture trickling down his trouser legs.
It was because of the man before him.
‘Barely a minute has passed.’
In that span of time, the man had single-handedly toppled eight hundred members of the Blood Ghost Squad.
And then, moments ago, he had stated it with utter composure.
That he had not taken a single hit.
Was it mere boasting?
No—Count Frey himself had witnessed every moment of it directly.
He truly had not taken a single blow.
A thought suddenly seized him.
‘Even in the Parion Empire, such talents are vanishingly rare.’
This despite possessing a population numbering in the hundreds of millions.
What shocked him most profoundly was that this monster was not one, but two.
The image of another man who had departed elsewhere earlier flashed through his mind.
Count Frey recalled Emperor Bolond’s address before the campaign.
‘This expedition will be far too easy.’
Indeed, anyone observing would have believed such a battle inevitable. Now that conviction crumbled.
‘Your Majesty, it may not be as simple as we thought.’
Count Frey understood what his duty now was.
To alert them to the existence of two unidentified powerhouses.
For all the Blood Ghost Squad were assured of victory and had grown complacent.
“Everyone—!”
He could not finish his words.
Shing—
The man, having perceived his intent, swiftly severed Count Frey’s throat.
‘Beings who should not exist… what variables might they create…’
That was Count Frey’s final thought.
Meanwhile.
Among the soldiers of Marquis Luxemburg, who defended the East Gate.
A single young knight struggled desperately to hold back the endless tide of the Blood Ghost Squad pressing forward.
His name is Luke, the son of Marquis Luxemburg and a vassal of Hyeon-su.
He witnessed the strength of the Blood Ghost Squad firsthand and despaired.
‘Are mere soldiers truly this powerful?’
They were far too exceptional. Individual soldiers had reached the level of knights.
Yet Luke gripped his sword with all his might.
This was the kingdom his father Luxemburg had devoted himself to protecting.
“Uuuaahhh!”
Luke cut down another member of the Blood Ghost Squad. A man watched him from a distance.
His name was Jabar.
A knight counted among the heroes of the Parion Empire.
Jabar, whose level reached the 440s, regarded Luke with interest.
“So this is Luke, the son of Marquis Luxemburg?”
Remarkable skill indeed.
A man who had been a knight for merely a year was overwhelming the Blood Ghost Squad.
The reason this was possible was that Luke had reached the level of a semi-Named NPC, despite having the same level as others.
But admiration was all it was.
The commanders of the Parion Empire had researched ways to topple the very roots of the Goyad Kingdom.
They had thoroughly investigated how to shatter even their unbreakable spirit for complete victory.
“Kill that man and impale his head on a five-meter pike raised high to the sky—then the East Gate will crumble.”
Jabar was cunning.
A man who reigned as a national hero through cunning and cruelty.
If the head of the East Gate commander’s son were raised high into the sky, both the commanders and soldiers’ morale would shatter.
With that, the Blood Ghost Squad members rushed toward Luke.
‘What?’
Luke panicked at the concentrated assault upon him.
Soon, multiple polearms tore across his body.
Slash, crack, pierce—
“Cough!”
Luke collapsed, spitting blood from his mouth.
He could see Jabar’s sinister smile from afar.
Luke understood.
‘Father…!’
His father, who would sacrifice his own life for him, having lost his mother early!
Though called a cold-blooded noble by others, he was warm only to his son.
‘Will my severed head be seen by Father?’
Luke despaired again and again at the swinging polearms.
Then.
Slash, pierce, thrust—crack!
Five members of the Blood Ghost Squad attacking Luke were slaughtered.
Witnessing that sword blade, Luke’s eyes widened.
‘What is that…?’
The Supreme Blade.
A weapon wielded by my lord Hyeon-su!
Luke, who had turned his head, was taken aback.
‘Who is this?’
A gaunt man dressed in rags.
His hair wasn’t even properly groomed.
“Move aside.”
But his identity didn’t matter.
He spoke in a warm voice.
What was certain was that he was clearly one of their own.
Luke marveled.
That warm voice from just moments ago.
“….”
He turned to look behind him.
Dozens of Blood Ghost Squad members lay collapsed.
A strong one sent by my lord has rushed here to save me!?
But that wasn’t it.
“No, I said move aside—you’re blocking the way, aren’t you?”
“…?”
Luke was bewildered.
The man swept past him with an annoyed expression, barely glancing at Luke’s vacant stare, and muttered under his breath.
“…The twenty-third?”
Luke tilted his head in confusion.
The twenty-third?
Soon, after exhaling once, the man slaughtered hundreds of Blood Ghost Squad members and charged deeper inside.
“…!?”
Behind the astonished Luke.
“Ho, an interesting fellow.”
Jabar appeared before Lucifer.
“I thought this war would be tedious, but to think Goyad harbored talent like you.”
Jabar. He manifested the Swordsmanship inherited from Sword Emperor Bolond.
A scorching aura rippled from his body.
“I am Jabar, called the Hundred-Times Hero. Today, I shall grant you my name….”
Whoosh—
“…?”
Jabar was immediately taken aback.
They hadn’t even exchanged a single blade.
A strike so swift, followed by a Critical Hit that made blood gush from Jabar’s chest in an instant.
Spurt—
After piercing the heart once more, Lucifer withdrew the blade with an indifferent expression.
“…What kind of hero dies in three strikes?”
“…!?”
Jabar’s face went pale.
He had calculated much while watching Lucifer dismantle the Blood Ghost Squad up to this point.
But as he watched him raise his sword again, understanding dawned.
‘…What I calculated was not the truth. He guided me to calculate what he wanted.’
In merely three swings.
*Thunk—*
The hero Jabar’s head fell to the ground.
Lucifer passed by Luke once more, muttering to himself.
“That makes twenty-four. I’ll need at least fifty to prove I wasn’t scared, won’t I?”
Lucifer vanished.
Only then could Luke, left standing in that place, truly comprehend.
“Twenty-four….”
The number of ‘commanders’ he had cut down.
Luke looked around once more in amazement.
Though he seemed blunt and indifferent, he had slaughtered ‘everyone’ in that place to ensure Luke could escape safely before disappearing.
And the shockwaves from his actions were immense.
“Commander Gen has fallen…?”
“Commander Katon has also fallen.”
“Knight Bous, who wielded the strength of a thousand, has fallen!”
“Who was it!?”
“Who!?”
“Someone approached without a sound, killed the commander, and vanished!”
The Blood Ghost Squad fell into chaos.
No matter how strong an army might be, losing commanders shatters its structure.
And if it wasn’t one or two, but twenty, or thirty, the collapse could only be greater.
Thus the once-solid Blood Ghost Squad began to waver.
Fighting the Blood Ghost Squad without its commanders became far easier for the Goyad Army.
Yet Pic, the Blood Ghost Squad’s supreme commander, laughed bitterly upon hearing the report.
“…Bella, was it?”
The knight cherished by the Sword King.
She had apparently left the king’s side to serve another.
He mistakenly believed she had secretly infiltrated this battlefield and was slaughtering the enemy.
“…Truly a remarkable talent.”
Yet a battle that had been easy was merely becoming somewhat difficult—nothing would change.
‘Fifteen thousand lost?’
Those who lost their commanders to Bella’s intervention collapsed rapidly, losing thousands in an instant.
But Goyad’s losses were far greater.
No matter how many commanders he slew, nothing changed.
“Launch a full assault.”
Still thirty-five thousand members of the Blood Ghost Squad remained.
Meanwhile, the Goyad Army was growing exhausted.
Boom, boom, boom, boom—!
“Steel yourselves for death!”
Pic had changed his strategy.
His original plan had been to achieve the greatest victory with the least casualties.
Soon, the thirty-five thousand Blood Ghost Squad members began pushing through the Goyad Army without fear.
“Gahhh!”
“Ugh!”
“Nngh, nnngghhh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
As the full assault crashed down, the Goyad Army was swept away.
The East Gate and West Gate, the North Gate and South Gate.
Those who had barely held their ground against the relentless Blood Ghost Squad were scattered like autumn leaves in the wind.
As the battle’s momentum shifted in an instant, the Goyad Army crumbled faster, seized by panic.
“Kuhaha, kuhahahaha!”
Pic, who had been laughing at the sight, was left dumbfounded.
‘Even for a minor kingdom, I never expected it to be this easy.’
The Goyad Army was collapsing far more easily than he had anticipated, unable to withstand the full assault.
What made him laugh even more maniacally was the sight of soldiers retreating into the castle as if fleeing for their lives.
*
*
*
‘They’re crumbling this easily…?’
Hyeon’s Forge.
Nel’s face, fighting from the West Gate, was painted with despair.
‘Was Goyad truly this weak?’
They were far weaker than she had imagined. It was as if someone was deliberately holding back.
But the cries of the people echoing from within seemed to announce their complete defeat.
“Ah, ahhh…!”
“Our soldiers are crumbling like this!”
“We are surely doomed!”
“Sob, sobbing!”
“Your Majesty!”
The people’s wails spread as despair.
Screams overflowed from voices choked with tears.
Nel’s chest ached.
‘No matter that they’re NPCs, if the castle falls, they’ll all die…’
Nel also knew.
‘If Goyad falls, what becomes of Hyeon’s Forge and Atlas?’
Hyeon-su could never become king.
Goyad would become a vassal state of Parion, and its people would be reduced to slavery.
Furthermore.
‘The Knights and Soldiers would be used as tools of war….’
Nel’s vision darkened.
The moment the entire Goyad Army entered the Capital, thirty-five thousand troops began seizing control of the Castle Wall.
‘It’s collapsing. Goyad is….’
Right then.
Nel witnessed an even more shocking development.
Fenrir, who had been merely observing since the battle with Barad.
“Grraaaaaaagh!”
The creature leaped skyward with tremendous force.
Fenrir was a wolf, yet possessed the power to wield peculiar magic through its unique traits.
The moment Fenrir unleashed magic upon Marquis Luxemburg, Valo, and Marquis Constantino.
“…!?”
“…!?”
“…!?”
Goyad’s pillars were thrown into confusion.
Like Hyeon-su’s Gathering, they were being pulled toward Fenrir by an irresistible force.
Screeeech—!
Fenrir opened its maw toward the three ashen-faced Marquises.
Nel.
She understood.
The three Marquises.
If Luxemburg, Valo, and Constantino fell, it would be total defeat.
Then.
“Summon.”
‘What…?’
Nel’s expression grew puzzled.
Not far from where she stood, a familiar man’s voice reached her ears.
‘Summon? What could he be summoning?’
Soon.
“Gremory.”
“…!!!?”
Nel couldn’t comprehend the situation for a moment.
A demon suddenly descending from the heavens.
Of all places, that demon appeared between Fenrir and the Marquises.
Flash—
Gremory materialized from within the dark currents, regarding Fenrir with an ominous gaze—as though the legendary beast were nothing more than an insect.
“What is this mongrel?”
And Fenrir, who had been watching carefully.
Fenrir, counted among the legendary monsters, bore a reputation for cruelty and ferocity so profound that it had become the stuff of legend itself.
Yet this creature quietly closed its maw.
“Kekeke…”
Even managing what passed for an awkward laugh.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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