My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 95

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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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Kihano’s gaze bored into me like a nail, making it clear he wouldn’t spare Gai a glance.
Crash!
The Mace flew toward me just as an ice wall erupted from the ground. It rose directly in front of me. From beyond the barrier, Arkel’s voice rang out.
“Master, I’ll handle him!”
“Much obliged!”
I bolted immediately. Gai, that bastard. I’d wondered why he was being so compliant. I’d suspected it was an act all along.
If he ran, it would be toward the Exit. Given his physical condition, he wouldn’t be that fast.
Soon a faint light appeared. Gai was running with a Torch in hand. Should I break his legs when I caught him?
As I pursued, Gai was muttering something. I heard the snap of his fingers.
Click!
In that instant, bones erupted from the ground all around me. Bones of beasts, jumbled and indistinguishable by species.
White like worms, they clung to my legs and writhed. His goal wasn’t victory—it was delay, plain and simple.
In that moment, Gai was already sprinting away. I’d known this would happen. I roared through the cavern.
“Gai Balanus!”
Boom!
Gai collapsed outright. I kicked the bones aside and charged. I could see his back as he crawled across the floor, fleeing.
Crack!
My foot came down on his back, and he went limp. His breathing came in hard, pained gasps.
“Did you really think I was letting you go so easily?”
Gai turned his stiffened head. His expression held something like indignation.
“The Necklace… did you also cast a Paralysis Curse on it? A dual Magical Tool like that would be—”
“Expensive. I spent good money on it.”
I bound his wrists roughly, even wrapping his thumbs so he couldn’t form hand seals. Gai’s brow furrowed.
“The Trigger Word is quite… amusing, isn’t it? Gai Balanus. Why did you choose that?”
“Because it’s not something you’d normally say.”
Common words couldn’t serve as Trigger Words. If they did, the Magical Tool would activate in everyday conversation.
Once I finished binding him, I grabbed the back of his neck. I was about to drag him away when—
I felt a presence from deeper within the Cave. And there were many of them.
Screech…
Goblins crawled out one by one. Over twenty, at least. Gai extended his bound wrists toward me.
“Release me. I can help.”
“Not necessary.”
I didn’t need his help for something like this. I plunged my hand into my pocket, and at that moment, the Goblins rushed at me.
I hurled the Light-Emitting Orb with all my strength.
Blaze!
Even with my eyes shut, they burned. The light pierced through my eyelids.
Too bright a light was crueler than darkness. It was pain. It was violence.
For Goblins with their keen night vision, it would be far worse.
Screech!
I opened my eyes as they shrieked. They clawed at their own sockets. I charged into their midst.
Slash!
I grazed a Goblin’s arm. It screamed and swung blindly with its blade.
I grabbed another Goblin nearby and yanked it into the path of that wild swing. The blind stroke drove deep into its chest.
Screech!
The struck Goblin convulsed and wailed. It tried to counterattack, but its target was one of its own.
They flailed their weapons toward the sound of my footsteps. But I was never where they expected.
Footfalls tangled and screams twisted together. They couldn’t tell who was cutting whom.
The shrieks that had echoed painfully through my ears began to fade. Only a few remained. Cleanup was needed.
Crack!
Thud, crack. I brought the pommel of my blade down on the last Goblin’s knee. All the survivors were crawling on the ground now.
I wiped the blood from my face and looked at Gai. He appeared somewhat unimpressed.
“If you’re finished, perhaps you could release me.”
“Not yet.”
Buzz…
The sound of wings filled the air. The atmosphere itself seemed to vibrate. From the walls before me, beside me, above—something began crawling out from all directions.
Bees. Their stingers were sharp. They could strip flesh from bone with ease.
The walls were quickly covered in black. Hundreds of them, at the very least. The droning buzz sounded more menacing than the cry of any predator.
They wanted to strip my flesh and feed it to their mouths. But I couldn’t afford to shed even a drop of blood. I wouldn’t accept injury.
My disciples would worry.
—Roaaaar!
Explosive Blood Qi erupted from within me. The swarm of bees scattered like leaves caught in a gale, sent reeling backward.
After Anais’s healing, my body was transformed. Magical Power and Blood Qi flowed through me like water through channels.
The bees crashed to the ground as if unconscious. Still, a considerable number remained.
I scanned them carefully. By all logic, there should be a Queen Bee commanding them as the hive’s nerve center.
……Wait.
A nagging sense of wrongness made me spin around. Gai was gone. I should have broken his legs after all.
I bolted toward the Exit. My purpose was twofold.
First, to catch Gai. Second, to lure the bees away.
I couldn’t kill them here—I had to draw them into open ground. The sound of wings chased behind me like a downpour through the Cave.
Sharp pain flared across my skin. Several bees had buried their fangs into me, but I couldn’t stop to fight them—only ran.
In the distance, the Exit began to come into view. Someone stood before it.
The village elder.
—Shhrieeek!
Something flashed before my eyes. I pivoted on reflex. A sharp object missed my face by inches.
The elder’s tongue had extended grotesquely from his mouth, its tip bristling with needle-like fangs.
……So he’s the Queen Bee. He’d taken a human as his host.
I deflected the attack and changed my blade’s trajectory in the same breath—aiming for the elder’s heart. But in that split second—
—Ngh!
I wrenched my sword’s path away. A bee had positioned itself directly in my line of cut. I nearly bisected it.
Beyond the forest, the sound of leaves rustling grew louder. The bees darkened the sky further, an endless tide.
One, two, more—soon the swarm clung to the elder’s body like living armor, layer upon layer.
“You can’t kill the bees, can you?”
He’d found my weakness. Demons that seized human intellect were always the most troublesome.
What now? I studied the elder methodically, my gaze shifting to the bees surrounding him.
The swarm was vast, but not dense enough to cover him entirely. Gaps in his body were visible between them.
Gaps. My blade could slip through them. But the bees kept moving, and each opening sealed almost instantly.
Gaps. That’s all I’d ever been given. Narrow fissures I had to force my way through.
I poured every ounce of focus into sight. The sound of the bees’ wings only hindered me. I pushed the noise away deliberately—tore it from my mind.
The elder and the swarm enveloping him filled my vision. As sound receded, time seemed to slow.
The bees’ movements became crystalline. The elder’s tongue lashed out. His body twisted, and some bees scattered.
A path appeared.
—Shhack!
Time returned to normal. In the same moment, blood sprayed. The elder’s shirt darkened in an instant, drenched crimson. A voice cried out in shock.
“But you can’t kill the bees—!”
He froze, staring down at his own wound. Not a single bee had died. I’d only cut through the exposed flesh in the gap.
Despite the wound, the elder didn’t retreat. It wasn’t mortal—not yet.
The cut had been shallow. The gap vanished too quickly for me to pour in strength. But it was enough.
Keep targeting the gaps until death. Drive the blade in and hold. Bleeding out was only a matter of time.
I gathered my focus again. The world began to slow, paths crystallizing into view—
—Kiiieeeek!
A cacophony erupted from deeper in the Cave. The hearing I’d forcibly suppressed surged back to life.
I didn’t need to turn around. Goblins were coming.
Chaotic, deafening noise multiplied. Concentration shattered in this din.
The elder recognized the reinforcements too. Between the bees, I saw him bare his teeth in a grin.
I smiled back. I mirrored his expression. He tilted his head, puzzled.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Don’t you hear the footsteps?”
Goblins’ clumsy, trampling gait—but threading through it, one clear, ringing footfall. Running toward me.
—Crash!
Behind me, blood sprayed and screams erupted. Ice Spears pierced through the mob, I felt it.
Arkel had brought the Extreme Cold with him. He swept the noise away in rapid strokes. My world became clear again.
I looked at the elder. A clean canvas my apprentice had created.
Between the bees, a gap emerged. Thin, threadlike, the path I had to take.
—Crunch!
My blade carved through the swarm. The elder’s heart was pierced. The impact resonated through my hand.
I pulled the sword free. The elder collapsed. The bees fell away like rain.
With the Queen dead, the swarm lost all purpose—they scattered and fled. Arkel rushed to my side.
“Master, are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. You…….”
I closed my mouth at the sight of Arkel. His face was covered in blood. It looked like he’d been in a fistfight.
“You’re hurt badly. Did you win?”
“No. I fled halfway through.”
Fled? That wasn’t like Arkel. He glanced back over his shoulder. Someone was crouched inside the cave.
It was Gai.
“Gai warned me that you were in danger. After that, he tried to flee as well, but…….”
I said nothing for a long moment. I walked the blood-stained path and approached Gai.
He looked distinctly displeased. I could see rope burns scarring his wrists.
“Why did you help?”
“This is when you’re supposed to say thank you.”
He still wouldn’t answer directly. But now I had a way to uncover what lay beneath that dark exterior.
“Arkel, let’s go to Kihano.”
I dragged Gai deeper inside. Kihano lay collapsed on the ground. The Queen Bee was dead, and the brainwashing appeared to have lifted.
He was badly wounded too. I was deliberating whether to treat him first or wake him when Arkel approached.
Crack! Crack!
Arkel slapped Kihano’s cheek several times. There seemed to be real emotion behind it.
“Ugh, where……?”
A moment later, Kihano’s eyes opened. He winced in pain, but the moment he saw Arkel, his face lit up.
“Oh, Arkel! To meet again like this……! Our bond must be truly remarkable!”
Boisterous laughter rang out. Arkel’s expression turned weary.
“But why am I covered in blood?”
“Parasitic Bees.”
“Parasitic Bees?”
I explained the situation roughly to a bewildered Kihano. He seemed somewhat embarrassed at having been brainwashed.
“Mm, I’m alive thanks to you. Much obliged, Dein.”
“We had our own purposes for this. We’d like to borrow the Power of Truth for a moment.”
“That’s not something you can simply use for private matters…….”
Kihano hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Arkel.
“But if my friend Arkel asks, then!”
“…….”
“If my friend Arkel is asking!”
So using the Power of Truth this way wasn’t private after all. Arkel clenched his fist until it trembled, then opened his mouth.
“……I ask.”
“Haha! Between friends, this much is nothing! Dein, what do you want to ask?”
I looked at Gai. He was more wary than I’d ever seen him.
“How many questions can I ask?”
“How’d you know there’s a limit? Three.”
Three questions. There was much I wanted to know, but I had to choose carefully.
Short answers would be best. The longer the questions and responses, the easier it was for cracks to appear.
“You…….”
I sat down facing Gai. His violet eyes bore into me.
“Were you involved in Hayden’s death?”

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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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