Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family - Chapter 17

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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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Reincarnated as a Legendary Talent Genius of a Noble Family Episode 17

 

 

 

6. So What Exactly Do You Do? (1)

 

 

The climate around Sogress County in the southern region of the Alteon Empire is excellent.

How excellent? The sunlight is so abundant that it yields at least twice the harvest compared to other regions.

That’s why this place served as the driving force that kept the Alteon Empire from exhausting itself even during the war.

Thanks to such weather and Count Sogress’s humane governance, Sogress County was always a peaceful and warm place.

The war had ended, the small rebel forces had been suppressed, and what was unfolding now was a period of seemingly eternal peace.

Of course, even in such a peaceful place, rumors circulated. And the protagonist of those rumors was none other than Count Sogress’s youngest son, Dane Sogress.

“Well, did you hear the rumor yesterday? The Young Master visited the territory!”

“Really? For real?”

“That’s what I’m saying. He stopped by Tonein’s shop and bought something, and from that day on, Tonein’s eldest daughter took to her bed with illness.”

“My goodness. They say he gets more handsome by the day. If I could see him just once, I’d have no other wishes! I heard he’s not engaged yet, should I try my luck?”

“Girl, get a grip. He’s only fourteen years old. Though, from what I hear, he doesn’t look fourteen at all…”

Dane was truly the center of attention.

You could say he was the common topic of conversation in a territory that had no tyranny, no high taxes, no groaning from war, and nothing that could really be called a problem.

And for good reason, since he had already shown tremendous talent in various fields from childhood, and recently had grown so much that it was completely unbelievable he was only 14 years old.

“They say his height is already approaching the Count’s.”

“Is it because the Countess is so tall?”

“What’s certain is that even if you said he was twenty instead of fourteen, I’d believe it.”

So whenever Dane left the castle and visited somewhere in the county territory, everyone who saw Dane’s silver hair and green eyes would exclaim in admiration.

“Tenyu, you should have seen that wonderful silver hair and green eyes…”

“Next time I absolutely must see him too, sister. When will he come again?”

“They say he comes down to the territory often? He even goes outside the territory. According to the Forest Keeper Uncle, he goes to train…”

Just as they said, Dane was currently outside the territory.

To be precise, he was wandering around the ‘Crescent Forest’ on the county outskirts, where ancient mana flowed.

“About three hours have passed, I’d say.”

Dane muttered as he gathered his silver hair and tied it up.

His height had shot up thanks to forming a mana core much earlier than others.

Added to this, his sturdy body forged through training was sparkling impressively as it caught the sunlight filtering through the leaves.

“Three more hours to go.”

Dane was currently carrying out a ‘mission’ assigned by his mother, Lily Sogress.

It was part of his assassination training.

What’s important for an assassin is assassination.

And next comes escape.

What’s important in assassination is not getting caught by the enemy.

Assassination is about causing confusion among enemies and even inducing internal strife through completion, but if the assassin gets caught immediately, it becomes meaningless.

That’s exactly the mission Dane is carrying out now.

Escaping from this forest filled with traps, snares, and various threats.

It might seem too dangerous for a child who was only 14 years old, but Dane didn’t look tense or flustered at all.

Because he had talent.

“The direction the wind is blowing from is… south. Since I encountered a Seril Poison Spider at this point earlier… I should go west.”

Dane put the rough map he had made by exploring the forest back into his chest.

Now he had three hours left.

He had to escape from this forest where ancient mana flowed within that time to complete the mission.

Crescent Forest.

A place where ancient mana flows, making it difficult for people with ordinary mana to even operate their mana.

But for Dane, it wasn’t particularly difficult.

He could breathe well, and there was no major problem drawing up his mana.

The breathing method he learned from his mother as an assassin seemed to work well.

“Huuuu…”

The key was to accept and assimilate with the surrounding air.

If you focus on stealth and reject assimilating with your surroundings, it actually has the opposite effect.

Therefore, you breathe in the surrounding air, that is, mana, then filter it inside and exhale it again.

That was the basic breathing method for assassins, and Dane was executing it perfectly.

Of course…

This too was possible because of his high affinity with mana.

Because it would be difficult for a 14-year-old Dane to effortlessly perform breathing that even skilled assassins sometimes mess up.

And one more thing.

Though it shouldn’t be surprising, there was also the reason that he was a genius.

Of course, his mother hadn’t assigned Dane a real assassination mission.

It was only a hypothetical situation; the real intention of this training was to see how he would escape from an environment full of threats.

You could say it felt like testing what he had learned over the past few years.

“Huu.”

Dane moved forward.

Rather than moving urgently, he stepped carefully, one foot at a time.

Because traps are often found in unexpected places.

Between leaves, between branches, even a single blade of grass that seems meaningless can become a trap.

Just like right now.

Kying.

The moment he drew up his mana due to a strange sense of déjà vu, he could clearly see a thin, nearly transparent thread.

It was a device that would trigger a trap the moment it was touched.

The most basic and elementary, but therefore most frightening device.

But once discovered, it was nothing.

It was just as Dane knelt on one knee and was about to carefully disarm the trap.

Shiiik.

He heard sharp breathing.

Dane immediately moved quickly, leaving the trap he was about to touch as it was. And just before hiding his body in a suitable grass field, he exhaled deeply, leaving his scent behind.

Soon, a monster of this forest, a Russelt, appeared.

Shiiik.

The creature making sharp breathing sounds was as small as a young child, but extremely fast and fierce.

Crucially, it was always starving and feared sunlight, making it a creature that couldn’t survive outside the forest.

The Russelt soon appeared where Dane had left and sniffed around.

After doing this for a while, thinking it had found prey, it quickly looked around and finally discovered a trace.

The grass field. Over there.

The scent led to that place. It would be able to eat fresh meat today. It was the moment the Russelt took a step forward with that thought.

Ting!

“Gruk?”

It felt something catch on its foot.

At the same time, very small projectiles flew from left and right and embedded themselves in the Russelt’s body.

“Kiaaak!”

It was the trap that Dane had deliberately left without disarming.

The Russelt was in pain.

This was the first time it had ever been attacked in this forest.

What could it be? An insect too small to notice? Or a human who rarely enters?

Before its thoughts could finish, a human burst out from the grass field it had been approaching while thinking of fresh meat.

Thunk!

And in an instant, the spear flew through the air and pierced through the Russelt’s chest.

Even if it hadn’t fallen into the trap, it was such a fast and fierce thrust that it would have been impossible to respond to.

“Grrrk!”

The last thing that Russelt saw as it let out its death cry was silver hair fluttering in the wind and green eyes.

Thud.

“Phew. Good thing I didn’t disarm it.”

Dane pulled his spear from the fallen Russelt’s corpse and let out a sigh of relief.

One Russelt was nothing, but the problem was their habit of calling for companions.

That’s why it was important to approach without being noticed and finish it in one strike, and Dane had cleverly left the trap intact and deliberately left traces to lure it there.

Afterward, Dane processed the Russelt’s corpse as he had learned and resumed walking.

After doing this for an hour.

Finally, Dane arrived at what appeared to be the exit.

“As expected, since it’s the last one, it’s a difficult trap.”

Dane looked at the trap his mother had set up.

On both sides of what seemed to be the only forest exit, two mechanisms as tall as Dane were installed.

He had heard from his mother before.

A trap so incredibly complex and difficult that even when installed in plain sight, people seeing it for the first time wouldn’t even dare attempt to disarm it.

Simply put, it was an advanced trap.

That’s why Dane had a very cautious expression.

“Hmm…”

How long would disarmament take? One hour? Two hours?

As Dane was looking at the trap’s structure like this, he suddenly tilted his head.

“Is it right to spend that much time disarming it?”

Dane looked around.

This Crescent Forest wasn’t as dangerous a place as he had thought.

But if this were a real situation, the story would be different.

In actual combat where threats approach every moment, would it really be right to spend time disarming traps?

“No, it wouldn’t.”

That would be a perfect way to get killed.

Then a good idea occurred to Dane.

“What if I destroy it?”

Naturally, traps are difficult to destroy under normal circumstances.

Unless the person who installs and creates traps is a fool, they would make them not easy to destroy.

As a simple example, most traps activate if you just touch them wrong, even before attempting to destroy them.

But Dane was a genius.

“Here, no, it’s here.”

Every trap has what’s called a ‘point.’

Should it be called a kind of weakness?

It could be called the core ‘mechanism’ that operates the trap.

The one his mother had installed was the same.

It looked complex at first glance and was actually complex, but to Dane’s eyes, that ‘point’ was visible.

Dane drew his short spear and drew up his mana.

The mana cores that had recently increased from one to two began responding, sending mana throughout Dane’s body.

The moment the mana spread throughout his body concentrated at the tip of the short spear—

Thwack!

Dane thrust his spear at a very small gear in the middle of the trap. And when it touched the gear, the mana gathered at the tip of the short spear flowed into the gear, causing a mana explosion—

Crack—

The gear cracked.

Instead of a grand explosion, it was a technique that injected mana into the target through the spear tip while simultaneously exploding it from within.

And finally, when the gear split apart.

Whirrrr…

A mechanical sound that seemed to announce the cessation of operation could be heard.

It had been disarmed.

Perfectly.

“Done.”

Just as Dane was grinning, his mother revealed herself.

“Excellent, Dane.”

“Mother.”

Lily Sogress.

The Empire’s legendary assassin (former) and expert in various traps and mechanisms, she was looking at her son with great pride.

‘Total time 3 hours and 30 minutes… I never thought he’d be faster than me.’

She recalled the test she had taken in an environment similar to this place.

Back then, it had taken her almost five hours to pass the test. And she hadn’t even thought of destroying the trap like Dane had.

“Were you watching?”

“Of course. How could I not worry? Of course, as a mother, I know our son’s talent better than anyone… but as a mother, it’s different, isn’t it?”

Actually, thinking about it, no matter how harshly she trained him, there was no way she would have thrown her son into a place full of threats without any countermeasures.

“Excellent. You did very well. It was flawless. I especially didn’t expect you to think of destroying the trap at the end.”

“I felt it didn’t make sense to waste a long time destroying the trap.”

That was the correct answer.

The purpose of this test wasn’t just trap disarmament and escape.

Another important element for an assassin.

Precisely, quick thinking.

Even if it’s different from what you’ve learned, thinking of and applying methods suitable to the situation.

Dane had accomplished this very excellently.

“Our son might get scouted as an assassin, you know?”

Dane laughed at those words.

Scouted as an assassin.

He had never specifically imagined the life of an assassin.

“You moved very well in this forest that’s hard even for mom to stay in for long periods.”

Lily smiled brightly.

“There’s still a lot I need to teach you… but I think our son is now qualified. Take this.”

Dane accepted the wooden box his mother held out.

“Open it.”

The moment he opened it, Dane drew in a sharp breath.

His first birthday.

The dagger he had seen then, his mother’s black-bladed ‘Night Horn,’ was contained within.

And just like he had seen on that birthday…

Hum hum hum!

The dagger began emitting a faint light, responding to Dane’s touch as if it had been waiting.

“I think it suits you better than mom now.”

Night Horn.

The dagger of the legendary assassin, Lily Sogress.

This dagger, whose blade was crafted from the mysterious ore called ‘Etril,’ would be something any assassin would want to possess.

“Etril has the property of accepting components as they are. It can accept and contain any poison that exists in the world.”

This was precisely the reason why.

A mysterious ore that, if the user desires, can be made to contain any poison that exists in the world.

Due to its nature of accepting components as they are, it’s also possible to mix and use poisons if necessary.

“I’ll treasure it, Mother.”

At Dane’s words, Lily Sogress smiled warmly.

‘It would have been much later if things had gone as originally planned.’

Her son had grown incredibly fast.

Much faster than herself, who had received professional education at an assassin training institution.

He had already mastered almost every trap that existed in the world, memorized all types of poisons long ago, and learned nearly all the combination methods.

And what about tracking and stealth?

She hadn’t taught him everything yet, but one thing was certain.

If her son truly walked the path of an assassin, he would surpass her.

“Can I try using it now, Mother?”

She nodded at her son, who asked like a child with sparkling eyes.

“Go ahead. There are many poisonous plants in this forest, so it’s probably a good environment…”

That’s when it happened.

“Mother. I hear a sound.”

Dane turned his head toward the deep forest.

“It sounds like human groaning.”

Lily also listened carefully. Then she really did hear a sound. A very faint one… so quiet that even she wouldn’t hear it without concentrating.

“Let’s go check, Dane.”

“Yes, Mother.”

The two of them leaped and ran toward the deep forest. The sound gradually grew louder. While running, Lily thought to herself.

Her son’s sensing ability was developing more and more.

Much faster than she had at the same age.

She suddenly felt a sense of regret.

‘Perhaps he’ll leave my embrace sooner than I thought…’

While having such thoughts, the two finally arrived at the source of the groaning.

Under the large tree.

A middle-aged man lay face down, collapsed and groaning.

“Ugh…”

Exhaustion? Lack of water? Or a Russelt attack?

While considering various possibilities, Dane approached and examined his condition.

After examining the man’s eyes, hands, and breathing in turn, he spoke with a confident voice.

“It looks like poisoning. It seems quite dangerous. He’ll need detoxification.”

Lily was surprised by Dane’s next words.

“Mother, I’ll try combining an antidote with Night Horn.”

Because she had never taught him about detoxification yet.

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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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