Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 2

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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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Episode 2
A wave of bewilderment washed over me at Deyan’s sudden erratic behavior.
How was I supposed to interpret this situation?
‘Is this some advanced psychological warfare?’
As the tension abruptly vanished, a profound sense of deflation set in.
Just in case, I lightly tapped the unconscious man’s hand with the tip of my boot, but Deyan remained entirely motionless. He truly seemed to be knocked out.
“Things are turning out quite bizarrely.”
I glanced askance at the other suspicious individual whom Giselle had bound and brought along.
His gaze, fixed unmovingly on Deyan, somehow seemed laced with a peculiar sense of relief.
‘Was this also the true identity of the noise I heard earlier?’
So it wasn’t an internal rift or a brawl?
The mystery of the loud racket that had reverberated so sharply through the forest was finally solved.
Now, the only thing left to figure out was why this man had acted in such a manner.
“……Is he unable to control his own actions?”
I mulled over the hazy look in Deyan’s eyes, which had seemed entirely devoid of reason.
Had his sanity perhaps returned for just a fleeting moment while his body was spinning out of control?
If he had chosen to knock himself out purely to avoid causing needless casualties.
‘That would actually make sense.’
Then who on earth was the person who reduced this man to such a state, and what kind of method did they employ?
‘It seems he ran into someone highly proficient in magic…….’
Narrowing my eyes, I glared at the back of the unconscious Deyan’s head before turning around.
“We must question him about what he was doing in my country. Giselle, load the man onto a horse.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Having composed herself in the meantime, Giselle bound Deyan securely.
* * *
“Ugh!”
Glay Holdin writhed as he was thrown into the Prison.
Tied up as tightly as a caterpillar from head to toe, he squirmed for a good while, but ultimately failing to stand, he could only hook his chin up.
“You can torture me for a hundred days, but you will never get any vital information out of me!”
“Oh dear.”
Standing at the entrance of the Prison and blocking it with her body, Idir smiled, her eyes crinkling softly.
“Whatever makes you think I would commit such a cruel act?”
“Pardon? Then why did you put me in the Prison…….”
“It is only natural to detain an illegal immigrant upon discovery, is it not?”
Come to think of it, she had a point.
Glay Holdin scrutinized Idir’s expression, which was as gentle as a tame lamb’s.
There was no trace of anger or malice on her face. In fact, her smile was undeniably beautiful.
Sensing the distinct aura of a fundamentally sweet person radiating from her, he gathered his courage to speak up again.
“What do you intend to do with the man who was collapsed in the forest?”
“If you are referring to Lord Deyan Boislav Nemanic, I have isolated him in the Annex.”
‘We’ve been exposed.’
Holdin clicked his tongue inwardly.
To think she would remember that face when they had only met a single time before.
Since things had already escalated to this point, it seemed far wiser to offer a plausible excuse rather than feign ignorance in vain.
“May I inquire about His Grace’s current condition?”
“Of course. A doctor is examining him at this very moment. I am told the wound on his abdomen is exceptionally deep.”
“Yes. While executing a mission under His Majesty’s orders, he was ambushed by bandits…….”
“Pfft.”
Out of nowhere, Idir burst into a fit of giggles.
As she laughed so hard that her shoulders quivered faintly, her face resembled that of an innocent young girl.
“Bandits?”
Yet, a sharp blade was embedded within every single word she spoke.
“The strongest knight in the Empire, a man so formidable he is heralded as an immortal, was brought down like that by mere bandits?”
“……They had the advantage of numbers.”
“Ah. And it just so happened to occur in that specific forest?”
Behind her softly curved eyelids, her emerald eyes flashed with a sudden brilliance.
“For a knight of Adorif to be carrying out a mission inside our Grand Duchy, it truly is most peculiar.”
Within her jewel-like eyes, not a single drop of warmth remained.
“Do not fret, Lord Holdin. I have absolutely no intention of interrogating you.”
However, the tone of her voice as she addressed him remained incredibly tender and sweet.
“Why would I ever aim for the tail when there is a head available? Unless, of course, it were for the sake of blackmail.”
Holdin’s jaw dropped open at Idir’s serene and placid manner of speaking.
‘Crazy.’
No such information existed inside his head. How could absolutely nobody have known about this?
“Once Lord Nemanic regains consciousness, I shall allow the two of you to meet. I believe that will make our conversation much smoother.”
Idir Hubert, the young lady of the shrimp Kingdom who was said to be as brilliant, beautiful, and fragile as a flower crafted from precious gems…….
“After all, hearing his subordinate scream right before his eyes will surely make him want to open his mouth, don’t you think?”
Was actually a total sociopath!
Having spoken in a tone fitting for whispering sweet nothings to a lover, Idir stepped out of the Prison.
“W-Wait a moment! Just a moment, My Lady!”
Panicking, Holdin squirmed forward and poked his head through the bars.
“I know everything! My lips are incredibly loose!”
I absolutely hate being in pain!
* * *
Gritting my teeth hard, I strode rapidly across the Corridor.
‘Who do they take for a fool?’
An intense irritation flared up within me at those preposterous lies.
‘I suppose they find me easy to push around just because I always flit about with a smile on my face?’
Why do people always underestimate those who smile frequently? They are bound to bring some immense calamity upon themselves that way.
When I returned to the heavily locked room, the remnants of my attempt to summon a demon were still left completely intact.
“Ah, right.”
Massaging my throbbing forehead with one hand, I recalled my original objective.
The harvest reaped from the forest was merely secondary. This was what truly mattered.
“How far did I get?”
Right. I had gone out to catch a Poison Lizard because the summoning had failed.
Since the instructions specified the ‘Blood of a Venomous Creature’, I had been capturing all sorts of dangerous, venomous entities to use as sacrifices.
‘Please, let this one work.’
I began to redraw the Magic Circle, which I had already memorized completely from having sketched it so many times.
“Just you wait until this succeeds.”
With the power of a demon, I will force two kingdoms and a single confederacy down to their knees to lick the tops of my feet.
In particular, I will strip the skin off the soles of the ‘culprit’ and make them dance a waltz across a red-hot iron plate.
It was just when I was about to carve the final character right into the very center of the Magic Circle.
Swoosh―
‘What is this?’
The moment my sleeve brushed against the patterns, the Magic Circle emitted a faint, subtle glow.
It was an ominous, magenta-colored light, meaning my eyes were definitely not playing tricks on me.
“Did it just…… shine?”
It was utterly unbelievable. The Magic Circle had never shown a single reaction until now.
Why on earth was it reacting at this exact moment?
‘What is it? What did it react to?’
My gaze shifted step by step down toward my hands, which were heavily stained with the chalk and chalk dust specially manufactured to draw the circle.
Then, it drifted to my trailing lace sleeve, and finally to the blood staining the very edge of the cuff.
It was Deyan’s blood.
“Could it be…….”
Someone once said that complacency is what truly catches a person off guard.
Even while thinking that there was no way it could be possible, I pulled my sleeve forward and pressed it against the Magic Circle.
Flash!
A response came back, sharper and more definitive than before.
“……!”
I let out a sharp gasp. There was no mistake; the Magic Circle was actively responding.
According to the Scroll containing the Summoning Magic, one simply needed to offer the ‘Blood of a Venomous Creature’ as a sacrifice.
That was why I had been experimenting by gathering every single type of blood I could possibly get my hands on.
Naturally, my own blood had been among the samples, but that had yielded nothing more than a useless wound on my finger.
‘It definitely never reacted to human blood.’
I had even gone so far as to use the blood of a person completely ravaged by medicine and poison. Since I had conducted these experiments while accounting for various anomalies, I was absolutely certain of this fact.
So why was it different this time around?
‘Is there something truly unique hidden within that man’s blood?’
Thump, thump. My heart pounded rapidly at the uncontrollable rush of excitement flooding over me.
Struggling to cool the burning heat flushing through my face, I held onto the thread of my rationality with all my might as I pondered.
‘I need to verify this.’
Whatever secret Deyan might be harboring did not matter to me.
If I possessed his blood, I might actually be able to summon a demon.
At any rate, he was currently severely injured and losing a great deal of blood, meaning I could obtain it right now without exerting any effort at all.
I hurriedly made my way toward the Annex where Deyan was receiving medical treatment.
“My Lady?”
“It is nothing important, so do not pay it any mind!”
And I returned having snatched the bundle of Bandages that had been used to stop his bleeding.
I rubbed the blood-soaked Bandage over the Magic Circle. The result was exactly as anticipated.
Flash―!
“It is responding!”
Though the light faded away quickly, it had indubitably reacted to Deyan’s blood. To put it another way, that man was the literal key to summoning a demon.
‘Oh my goodness.’
I quickly clamped a hand over my mouth. If I didn’t, I felt as though a shriek of pure ecstasy would burst right out of me.
‘Finally…… I have found a clue.’
“Mother!”
“Take the young lady away! Do not let her see this!”
Without fail, I will track down the culprit who murdered my mother. And I will absolutely force them to wail in sheer misery.
Naturally, I had no intention of letting things end with mere revenge.
‘A gruesome, horrific punishment for the one who killed my mother.’
Furthermore, it is the fundamental duty of a lord to bestow an incomparably prosperous and steadfast land for my people to live upon.
The time has arrived to overturn this tedious, exhausting food chain and write a brand-new history.
And at the very forefront of that history, the name of the first Queen of the great Plene Kingdom, Idir Hubert, shall be engraved in the most magnificent splendor.

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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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