The Imperial Supreme Commander Has Returned - Chapter 46

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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 Imperial Commander Returns — Episode 46

‘That’s impressive.’

Delram followed the boy with admiration as they ran.
Every year, people went missing in the twisted, convoluted Underground Waterways.
They wandered in out of curiosity and never found their way back out.

Yet the boy showed no hesitation about which path to take.
Whenever a fork appeared, he chose one without pause and kept moving.

Was it because he’d come here so often it felt like home?
Or had he marked each tunnel with some kind of sign?

‘Neither, I think.’

The Underground Waterways were far more intricate than that.
And right now they didn’t even have torches.

As for marks—if there were specific signs, would others not see them?
What if some uninvited visitor followed the trail he’d left in reverse, found the refuge where he lived in hiding….
The thought alone sent shivers down his spine.

The boy was perceiving this impossibly complex maze not as a flat map or drawing, but as a three-dimensional space.
There was no other way to account for it.

Perhaps only adventurers who specialized in excavating ruins possessed it.

It didn’t rely on lines, points, or surfaces—it commanded space itself.
The essence was controlling the space between yourself and your opponent.
It was brutally difficult to master, but once perfected, a whip could turn even an equal opponent into a toy in your hands.

Delram couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of monster would be born.

It wasn’t just his Spirit Power that had been drained completely.
He’d been suffering from a severe headache since earlier, and his vision was distorted too.
It was fragmenting into sections—a sign his mental fortitude was failing.

Delram grasped for the thought as he asked, his voice strained:

“We’re almost there!”

The skittering sounds of the Lesser Demons had stopped.
Either they’d given up the chase, or they’d lost their way too.

Thanks to the child, Delram didn’t refuse and leaned his weight on the boy’s shoulder.

Soon his vision blurred at the edges.
Delram’s last memory was of a rusted iron door.

Creak!

* * *

“Nngh…”

Delram woke with a groan.
In the pervasive darkness, the outline of a stone building was barely visible.

An unfamiliar place.
He tried to get up quickly from the bed, but couldn’t manage it.
A crushing headache forced him back down, groaning in agony.

One should never drain all of one’s Mana at once.
Waste it recklessly thinking you can handle it, and you’ll suffer a Debuff.
This was precisely that state—Mana Severance.

When that happened, extreme lethargy was just the beginning.
In severe cases, the Mana Road itself could sustain permanent damage.

A Mana Road was the channel through which Mana flowed.
If that pathway scarred or severed, Mana’s movement slowed, efficiency plummeted, and the power of one’s Aura dropped precipitously.
In the combat of knights, life and death hung in the balance of a single clash.
Mana Severance was a consequence deadly enough to seal one’s fate.

‘And Spirit Power too… I didn’t expect that.’

After suffering for some time, Delram managed to sit up.
Looking at where he lay, it was a bed.

But its condition was poor.
The sheets were damp as if soaked in water, and mold bloomed on the wooden frame—a place perfectly suited to catching an illness.

A peculiar stench hung in the air.
He was clearly still in the Underground Waterways.

‘Where’s the boy?’

Then he heard movement.
Looking to the side, he saw faces beyond a half-broken bookshelf.
Children peeked over its edge, stealing glimpses of Delram.

“Eek!”
“He saw us!”

The children startled and scampered away to hide.
But they didn’t flee entirely.
Seeing that, it struck him as nothing more than children’s play.

It was endearing, yet Delram felt a pang of sorrow.
At first glance, he’d actually mistaken them for goblins.
Their frames were that gaunt and shrunken.

Their eye sockets were hollow, and the plump baby fat that should have been there was nowhere to be found.
Judging by their appearance, they clearly lived here in the Waterways.

‘Can people actually live here?’

An adult, perhaps. It was conceivable.
But children with weak immune systems?
The question nagged at him, but when the evidence was right there before his eyes, what could he do about it?

“You’re awake?”

Tas emerged from behind the cluster of children, walking toward him.
The boy carried a chipped bowl and spoon in his hands.
Steam rose in wispy ribbons.
The children drooled at the sight of it.

“Brought you something to eat.”
“Thanks. You’re the one who moved me here?”
“Who else would it be?”

Tas held out the bowl with a grumble, as if begrudging the very act.
His words and his deeds never quite aligned.
Delram found it endearing and accepted the bowl.

But his expression shifted almost immediately.
The bowl contained insects. Of course it did.

“…You eat this?”
“What else are we supposed to eat? If you don’t want it, give it back.”
“Worse than any battlefield I’ve seen.”

Delram clicked his tongue and checked his Mana reserves.
He felt it throbbing in his chest, the Mana pooling there in full measure.
That was only natural—he’d been drawing only on Spirit Power.

He gathered Mana to his fingertips and touched the Bracelet.
At the light contact, something extraordinary unfolded before them.
Something large emerged from within.

“Whoa, whoa-whoa-whoa!”
“It’s magic!”

The children gasped in amazement at the sight.
The Bracelet alone would have been wondrous, but the contents—all food—made it seem miraculous.
These were the Emergency Rations Delram had packed away in case of disaster.

He retrieved some well-dried firewood and flint as well.
And clean water for cooking.
The Underground Waterways held water in abundance, but potable water—that was another matter entirely, nearly impossible to find down here.

“Uh… huh?”
“You know how to cook, don’t you? Actually, never mind—if you’re eating insects like this, cooking isn’t even a question. I’ll do it.”

Delram sighed and kindled the firewood.
These children had been starving for so long—meat was out of the question.
He stirred Soup Powder into the water and crumbled in some bread.
Stir it gently until the bread dissolved, and it would be ready.

Delram’s hands moved with practiced ease as he worked.
This was how soldiers ate in the army.
The only difference was a bit of meat powder mixed in—that was all.

“…….”
“…….”

Delram studied the viscosity of the soup, his attention shifting to the children.
Three kids—no, four—were already drooling without restraint.
The three who’d been hiding in the bookshelf, plus Tas, whom Delram had brought here.

Delram was somewhat surprised by the sight.
They looked starved half to death, yet none of them rushed at the food immediately.
That meant they’d received some semblance of proper upbringing.
He’d assumed they’d be feral beasts, living down here in the Underground Waterways as they did.

“Since we’re at it, let’s all eat together. Call the adults over.”
“…….”
“What’s wrong? There’s plenty of food, so don’t worry about portions.”
“There’s no one here.”

Tas, who had guided Delram, shook his head.
This was the same Delram who’d just ground the Lesser Demons in the passage to dust.
Yet the child who’d been speaking casually to him before was now using formal speech.
Food really was something extraordinary.

But that wasn’t what mattered now.
Tas’s shocking answer was the problem.

No one here?
Did that mean the children lived here alone?

“They’re all dead.”
A faint sigh escaped Delram’s lips.

Unfortunately, that was the truth.
Even the formidable Delram found himself exhaling in resignation.

* * *

Delram surveyed the space around him.
Tas stood at his side.
His impression of the dwelling was simple—

‘Like a large inn.’

Structurally speaking, it was reasonably well-suited as a living space.
The ceiling height was so generous you’d never guess it was part of the Underground Waterways.
The space branched into several rooms, both large and small.
He suspected it had once been dormitories for administrators or perhaps a reservoir from long ago.

‘Still, it’s the Underground Waterways when all is said and done.’

A good layout could only do so much.
The oppressive moisture and stench peculiar to the Underground Waterways persisted.
And the environment remained utterly devoid of sunlight.
For human habitation, it was deplorable in every way.

In any case, there were roughly six rooms.
What was surprising was that everything that could be inside was there.
He spotted bookshelves, beds, and dishware.

None of it was new, of course.
Most items were heavily worn, clearly salvaged and repurposed from things that had washed down into the sewers during floods.
He could well imagine how they must have suffered in the process.
Perhaps without the children, they would have been even more ruthless.

“What a shame.”

Delram muttered the words bitterly, tracing the signs of habitation around him.
By the scale of the space, roughly fifteen people had lived here.
But those who had fought so fiercely were gone now.

“Tas, you said it was a large spider?”

Delram settled onto a stone chair as he asked.
It had been carved from stones taken from the walls of the Underground Waterways.

“Yes.”
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Allem went outside about a month ago and disappeared. The adults said he must have been captured by heretics, but―”
“But?”
“We found torn clothes. And blood, too…….”
“Hell.”

The Underground Waterways held surprisingly abundant food.
Rats, insects, lizards, slimes and other small monsters.
If you could close your eyes and force them down, you wouldn’t starve.
The real danger was the health decline brought on by the environment itself.

But one condition was necessary.
Constant struggle.
You had to crawl out from the shelter protected by iron doors, arm yourself with a club, and keep patrolling the Underground Waterways without rest.

That’s when it began.
The adults who ventured out of the shelter started disappearing, one by one.

“And then Kashan stopped coming back too.”
“Kashan? He must have been important.”
“He was our leader. You saw him once too…….”
“Ah.”

Delram let out a short groan.
There were precious few people he’d encountered in these waterways.
Aside from the children, just one.
A host body used by the Lesser Demons to lure him in, nothing more.

In any case, the residents of the Underground Waterways had been driven into a corner.
They had no choice but to make a critical decision.
To abandon this place and flee.
They had chosen the Slums of the Royal Capital as their destination.

But the end of the residents was not a good one.
People vanished one by one.
That alone made the attacker’s intent abundantly clear.

‘To snack on delicious humans whenever hunger struck.’

But such precious food was trying to escape en masse?
The attacker—the demon—had only one choice to make.
Better to devour them all at once than to ration them carefully.

“It was… it was an enormous spider. And that spider…….”

Tas trembled as he opened his mouth.
But the words would not come.

A ten-year-old boy who had raised three younger siblings alone.
And to have done so in the Underground Waterways, where no help could reach him, in the cruelest of circumstances—what need was there to speak of his courage?

Yet however remarkable, a child is still a child.
The memory of that day, when parents and family and all the steady adults around him had been torn away—it was something too horrible even to dwell upon.

“Tas.”

So he ought to comfort him.
To hold his wounded heart close and help him overcome it, to stir his courage until he could speak of it himself.
That was the proper way of a true adult.

But Delram did not do so.
If he left the demons unchecked, the end was only ruin.
Thousands upon thousands of Lesser Demons—that was the true threat.

What if they matured and escaped the waterways?
What if thousands—or tens of thousands—poured forth all at once?
The Royal Capital would become nothing but a hell on earth.

Or rather, beyond that—

“Aren’t you angry about it?”
“Sir?”
“When something is taken from you, you should burn with rage. When you lose something precious, you should make them pay.”
“But…”
“Too young? Too weak? None of that matters.”
“…!”
“If you have hands, strike. If you have feet, kick. If you have neither, bite with your teeth. Even if you lose everything, even if your soul is torn to shreds and burns in hellfire, fight back.”

Two eyes meeting.
Delram’s pupils reflected in Tas’s gaze.
Transparent as glass, rippling like a flame that could burn the world itself.
Their true nature was a hatred of terrible intensity.

Thump.

Delram placed his hand upon Tas’s shoulder and spoke.

“At least, that is how I have lived.”

A flutter, like wings.

And then—the sound of hatred spreading, taking root.

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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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