My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 85

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

The cart bounced along the dirt road as though ready to fall apart at any moment. Gai clung to it with all his remaining strength.
His face was etched with exhaustion. He waved a limp hand as he spoke.
“I’m at my limit now. You do know I need proper rest, don’t you?”
Dein rose from the swaying cart. As he drew his blade, a cool ring sounded through the air.
“There’s a bed in the storehouse somewhere.”
The bear charged forward with tunnel vision, and the escort riders wheeled their horses around in panic to flee.
“That bear—wasn’t it dead? And why is it so fast?”
The bear could not maintain steady speed over long distances the way a horse could. Extended running would exhaust it quickly.
But a corpse does not tire. Indifferent to worn joints and shattered bone, the bear kept running.
Screech!
As the distance closed, an Ice Blade hurtled from behind. The captain of the escort guard was grinding his teeth.
“Turn the horses about!”
At the captain’s command, the other two riders pivoted without hesitation—directly toward the approaching bear.
The Ice Blade that Arkel had launched shattered against their Shield. They fixed their gaze forward and drove their heels in.
The gap narrowed steadily. Neither side faltered. Not even as bear and horse bore down on each other.
Crash!
The two horses collided with a sound like boulders striking together and were both thrown clear. The cart flipped and splintered into fragments.
Dein leaped from the cart just before impact. The escort riders did the same.
In an instant, two figures closed on Dein. Steel sang out.
Arkel landed in the Grassland with Gai slung over his shoulder. Gai swung there limply, laughing in jest.
“Man, thanks for that. Even if you won’t admit it, you really do look after me—agh!”
After hurling Gai to the ground, Arkel rushed to Dein’s side. The escort guards were bearing down on him from both flanks.
Worthy of the Duke’s Daughter’s guard, their blades were heavy and keen. Even when Arkel’s supporting fire came from an unexpected angle, they raised their shields and blocked with ease.
“Gai, move the corpse again!”
“Master, I told you I’m at my limit. I don’t have any Mana Recovery Potion left.”
Dein pivoted sharply. Arkel covered his retreat. Between the shrieking of ice and blade, Dein extended his hand toward Gai.
“Use my Mana.”
Gai stared at that hand for a moment. To channel Mana to another costs the giver intense agony. Gai knew this well.
He grasped Dein’s hand with a crooked smile.
“I’ve never been good at refusing.”
Mana began draining away in a rush. The pain was like having his very entrails torn from their roots.
Veins stood out across the back of Dein’s hand. He wanted to pull away but only gripped harder.
Cold sweat beaded on his skin. His breath caught with the agony. His vision had begun to white out when Gai finally released his grip.
“There—I should be fine now. I need time to cast, so just buy me a little while.”
While color had returned to Gai’s face, Dein’s was deathly pale. His whole body throbbed, but it didn’t matter.
He had to reach his student’s side. He raised his blade again.
Clang!
An escort’s sword came for Arkel. Dein threw himself into the gap. Steel erupted as the blade bounced back.
As the swords met, their eyes locked. The escort’s gaze fixed on Dein.
The target had changed.
An instant later, bloodlust washed over him from the side. Another guard. His blade plunged toward Dein.
There was no time to defend. Dein drove his own blade straight at his opponent—for the throat.
A threat, certainly. A vital point; the enemy would have to give ground or guard. He’d counted on that opening—
Slash!
The guard’s throat grazed shallowly and blood wept forth. But it was Dein whose brow furrowed in alarm.
Dein reeled backward in panic. Blood poured from his side in a torrent.
The guard’s blade had struck home in his ribs. Worse than the pain was the wrongness of it.
‘He didn’t guard the vital point?’
Had the blade sunk any deeper, it would have been instant death. The guard must have known it.
But he hadn’t guarded. He had traded bone for flesh—a blade that was abnormal, mad.
The other guard was the same. The moment he stumbled, Arkel’s ice ensnared his hand.
Screech!
The guard tore his arm free by main force. No hesitation. Blood wept where skin had been stripped away.
They fought by bleeding themselves, tearing away their own flesh and bone. To win, or to live, seemed not their purpose at all.
In the face of such madness, Dein and Arkel were being driven back. It was a losing battle from the start—they couldn’t bring themselves to kill.
Blood spattered the dirt, ice scattered in all directions. Dein held two blades at bay when—
“Ah, I suppose I should ask for a Goose Down Bedding Set too!”
A rough voice cut through the chaos. The dead horse rose like a specter.
Dein snatched the reins at once. He drove the horse forward without thought, leaving the shouting guards in his wake.
The forest had given way to a dirt path, and hoof prints marked the ground. Had the horse still lived, it would have been foaming at the mouth from the force of the pace.
Slowly, the silhouette of the escort commander began to appear ahead. He caught sight of Dein.
The escort commander pulled his horse to an urgent stop. A moment later, he drew something from his pocket—a gun.
He fumbled with the weapon in haste, clearly unfamiliar with its use. His hands flailed until his finger caught the trigger.
—Bang!
A wild shot struck the earth. The escort commander’s eyes widened.
The barrel swung without hesitation toward the Duke’s Daughter. He was about to pull the trigger when—
—Crack!
Dein vaulted from his mount and kicked the man down. The escort commander fell, and the gun flew from his grip.
The riderless horse reared. As the escort commander pushed himself up from the ground, Dein’s blade flashed.
—Clang!
The sword met the escort commander’s shield. Rather than press forward, Dein stepped back.
He put distance between them while positioning himself before the Duke’s Daughter, maintaining a reach that kept the longsword at bay.
Or so it seemed.
—Slash!
Blood erupted from Dein’s forearm. He retreated hastily, but a spearpoint came hurtling in.
Somehow the escort commander now wielded a spear instead of a sword. Dein’s eyes flickered as he registered the change.
His backward steps reversed direction. He closed the distance without hesitation.
A spear loses its advantage at close range. But the moment Dein closed in—
—Slash!
The spear became a shortsword in an instant. Both Dein’s shoulder and the escort commander’s wrist bore fresh wounds.
Both men fell back. Two shadows stretched across the empty Grassland.
A dry wind swept across them—the smell of earth, of steel, and of blood. Dein fixed his gaze upon his opponent’s eyes.
‘Their target isn’t the Duke’s Daughter.’
The attempt to shoot her dead had been strange from the start. A blade would have ended her in a heartbeat.
‘If the Duke’s Daughter were slain by a weapon only Balanus possesses—’
The blame would fall on Balanus. Even if the escort had done the deed, the Duke would never believe it.
The Duke’s Daughter’s death would make Balanus a target. He would gain a bitter enemy in the House of Molevan.
‘Why would they do this to us?’
They had risked exposure by attempting her murder. Those willing to go such lengths to harm Balanus—
‘They are Guardians.’
They had finally shown themselves. He could neither let them escape nor allow himself to be killed.
Dein reset his stance. The escort commander shifted his weight. The escort’s weapon transformed into a shortsword.
—Clang!
The sound of metal tore through the forest air. The shortsword darted through the gaps between movements, exploiting every instant of vulnerability.
Dein’s bastard sword traced wide arcs, and in the space between those arcs, gaps inevitably opened.
‘Then I fight in the Kilosh Style.’
Dein’s technique shifted. He abandoned cutting strikes and committed to thrusts, denying the shortsword any opening to slip through.
Then the weapon changed again—a Sword Breaker, its blade serrated like a saw. Dein’s grip tightened urgently.
‘An opponent skilled in swordsmanship.’
Each time Dein changed his technique, the escort commander answered with a different weapon. Styles and arms shifted with every blink.
The Croitz Style, the Isolde Style, the Seiran Style—as an avalanche of techniques poured forth, the escort commander seemed momentarily taken aback.
Yet it was pure surprise only. Remarkable, to reach such a level at so young an age.
Still, he was nothing but a boy. The escort commander had confidence he could counter any style.
Dein’s sleeves darkened with blood. His breath came ragged. He fell back and reset his stance.
He was about to shift styles again when the escort commander, mirroring his intention, began to change weapons—
His hand froze.
Even as Dein’s blade pressed forward, he could not change weapons. Bewilderment flooded his face.
It was a style he had never seen. Hands that had gripped steel for decades found themselves lost for the first time. In that heartbeat of hesitation, a voice reached him.
“Your education is incomplete.”
The moment Dein’s blade drew its line, the escort commander thought of a tree.
A vast tree that does not sway even in a storm. Dein’s sword held the space around it without tremor.
Ornate yet without waste, merciless yet not chaotic. Its branches spread and covered everything they touched.
Before the unknown, the escort commander stood still for the first time.
—Snap!
The escort commander’s blade shattered. Deep gashes opened across his arm and thigh.
The escort commander collapsed. Like a tree torn from its roots.
Dein pinned him with his boot to the chest. The point of his sword halted just before the man’s throat.
The storm had passed, and only Dein remained unmoved. The escort commander gasped out a question.
“What school of Swordsmanship is that?”
Dein answered without lowering his sword.
“Balanus Style.”
A brief silence fell. Something sank behind the captain’s eyes. Not fear, not rage—confirmation.
“……You truly are dangerous.”
Dein’s brow twitched slightly. The captain’s voice rang clear.
“To protect the root.”
In that instant, mana surged. From within the captain’s body.
—Boom!
Explosion and haze consumed everything at once. Dust settled slowly to reveal nothing.
Dein, who had already stepped back, lowered the cloak from his face. When he opened his eyes, there was nothing there.
Where the captain had stood, only bloodstains remained. Dein stared at that place for a long moment.
‘So even the Duke’s household had a Guardian.’
Guarding a noble house was not a position any common soldier could hold. In some cases, nobles themselves became guards.
They were people in positions of envy. Yet they cast it all aside without hesitation. As though they would do anything to see Balanus dead.
Dein looked down at the blood hardening on the back of his hand.
How far did the Guardians extend their reach? What did they want? He wanted to ask, but he could not. For the captain was now nothing but blood.
* * *
“Oh my, Father. I was so frightened……!”
“My dear, I’m so relieved you’ve returned safely!”
In Duke Molevan’s Reception Hall, the Duke’s Daughter and her father held each other in an embrace of joyful reunion.
Indifferent to my presence, and Arkel’s, and Gai’s.
It was a touching scene, yet deep rage simmered in the Duke’s eyes.
“How dare they commit such an act……. I will see their house held accountable for this crime.”
He glared into empty air with blazing eyes. Then, slowly, he turned his gaze toward me.
“……So your Domus brought my daughter back, I hear.”
His regard was decidedly favorable. And he was none other than Duke Molevan himself.
The Guardians had tried to make the Duke’s house our enemy, but they had failed. In the end, they had only created an ally for us.
“That’s right, Father. Balanus saved me. Which is why I was thinking…….”
The Duke’s Daughter spoke with cheeks flushed and tear-stained. She gripped her father’s sleeve tightly as she continued.
“What if we became Balanus’s patrons?”

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