The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 44

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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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Chapter 44. Why Should I Hold Back?
A message from the Aslan ducal house expressing regret over the tragedy that occurred in Trian, stating they intend to dispatch an investigative team from their house to look into the matter. Given the gravity of the situation, they express hope for Trian’s active cooperation…
The message conveyed from the Aslan ducal house to Trian.
In response, an emergency assembly order was issued to Trian’s upper echelon.
The message itself seemed harmless enough.
The problem was the people said to be coming as part of that investigative team.
Bang.
“The Fallen Thunder Sword himself, along with nearly all of Aslan Knights’ elite forces coming here—isn’t that a declaration of war!? How dare these wretches regard our Trian so lightly!”
A towering, muscular, hirsute giant—known to stand two meters and ten centimeters tall with shoulders to match—stamped his feet in agitation.
To look at him, one might think he spent his days in some mountain cave robbing travelers and gnawing on wild boar haunches.
But this massive man was none other than Roberto Caitan, commander of the Trian Knights.
A five-star knight of Trian who whirled a colossal warhammer like a pinwheel to devastate the battlefield, known by the magnificent epithet “Storm of the Warfield.”
Yet the nickname used inside Trian was different.
“Sigh, that’s why people call him the Boss…” Rasmia beside him whispered in alarm, and Muno almost burst out laughing without meaning to.
The Boss.
Muno barely suppressed his chuckle at the woman’s hushed voice.
“Don’t get worked up, Roberto.”
“My apologies, sir. But…”
“Enough. Let’s all lay out what we think their real intentions are. Keep in mind that the Temple has already notarized that Collid’s remains contain substantial Demonic Remnants.”
Enock Trian’s gaze swept across the assembled officers in the lord’s study.
Captain Roberto Caitan and Vice-Captain Klam Rosean, whose face was still pale, alongside Vice-Captain Cloy Rommel, a woman with a lanky frame.
Behind them stood twelve senior knights of the Trian Knights and the spirit mage Rasmia.
Along with Baron Rick Rommel, Trian’s administrative steward and Cloy’s father, and five other officials.
Muno found himself in a chamber that held the very core and heart of Trian’s military power—everyone except Cain, who had been placed under house arrest for responsibility in the incident.
‘Why am I…’
Muno was there too.
As the one who had triggered the incident and provided the initial clue, his presence was unavoidable, though it felt uncomfortable all the same.
‘We still need to pursue the demon cult, and of all times…’
He hadn’t expected things to become so tangled.
Yet with matters having grown this serious, as the prince of Drasen, he couldn’t ignore them either.
Perhaps it was better that he was present for the deliberation of a response.
And fortunately, it seemed he could simply observe the conversation for now.
The others didn’t seem to be paying him much attention at the moment.
“Your lordship cannot overlook a six-star knight deliberately leaving his post to visit the heart of Trian. And bringing two five-star vice-captains and four four-star elite with him—anyone can see they’ve matched numbers precisely. They’re clearly spoiling for a confrontation.”
Vice-Captain Cloy Rommel, who had been observing quietly, suddenly spoke, and everyone’s expression hardened.
Trian had only one five-star knight—the commander—and just two four-star knights who were both vice-captains.
That they had doubled their headcount at each rank as if to perfectly mirror the structure seemed unmistakably calculated to display the Aslan house’s dominance.
“A confrontation… despite the Temple already determining Collid was a Demon User?”
“They won’t accept it.”
“They won’t accept the Temple’s notarization?”
“They’ll claim our house fabricated the evidence.”
Cloy answered as if stating a certainty to Enock’s seemingly naive question—an explanation for those who might have failed to grasp her meaning.
And the real point was coming.
The crux of the matter.
“The simplest scenario would be using that as a pretext to issue a formal challenge. In the worst case, the Fallen Thunder Sword would…”
Bang.
“Cloy! Choose your words more carefully!”
Roberto stamped his feet again in agitation and shouted, but Count Enock Trian merely laughed—a soft, measured sound.
“Don’t get worked up, Roberto. If that happens, I’m grateful to them. They’d give me the chance to bloody Renock Aslan’s nose.”
At the count’s confident remark, his subordinate knights began chiming in with remarks of their own.
“Besides, Evan Orgus only reached six-star and earned the title Fallen Thunder Sword three years ago…”
“No match for our lord.”
“Let’s use this opportunity to bring down Aslan’s arrogance once and for all!”
Despite knowing that in battles between High-rank Reinforcement Practitioners, compatibility could shift dramatically depending on the direction of their evolution, none of those present doubted Enock Trian’s victory.
The epithet “Bulwark of the North” was placed second to none in the kingdom save the Duke of the Broken Sword.
But for that very reason, Cloy’s inference seemed less credible.
“Everyone, be silent. Let us discuss plausible scenarios. The man wouldn’t be mad enough to issue a formal challenge to his lordship.”
Baron Rick Rommel dampened the excited atmosphere stirred by his daughter’s words.
Yet amid that exchange.
“If they want to pick a fight, they’d pick it with someone else…”
At the belated voice, all eyes in the room converged on a single point.
……What?
“Muno, what are you saying?”
After a silence that felt longer than usual—nearly two seconds—the Count opened his mouth.
Muno realized he couldn’t evade an answer and forced out an awkward laugh.
“Well……. Isn’t that Fallen Thunder Sword a commander of the Aslan Knights?”
“So?”
“If someone like that were deliberately picking a fight, wouldn’t they challenge another commander to a duel instead? It would be far easier than……. Ah, I don’t mean any disrespect to Roberto at all, but……!”
At those words, Roberto Caitan’s complexion darkened considerably, though he only snorted and offered no further rebuttal.
And the same seemed true of everyone else.
“To commit something so dishonorable…….”
“Given that we’ve already had Demonic Soldiers appear among our vice-commanders, what does that matter?”
“……It’s a worst-case scenario, but there’s merit to it.”
Murmurs rippled through the assembly.
The knights, accustomed to ranking by the number of evolutions—marked by stars—had never considered that duels might be demanded according to position.
But now that Muno had pointed out that blind spot, they couldn’t help but see the logic.
And moreover.
“Even if we only hold duels matching rank, the commander and our vice-commanders would each have to fight twice. This is a problem.”
At Klam’s sudden interjection, the knights’ expressions darkened again.
“They may not even be coming to request duels. I think opinion is leaning too heavily in that direction.”
Baron Rick Rommel tried to shift the topic, but nearly identical thoughts were already taking shape in everyone’s minds.
— A fight cannot be avoided.
“Rick, let’s consider the worst case and the best case. Though I doubt a best case even exists.”
“The best case would be them accepting the Temple’s certification and leaving, but I’d say the probability is nearly zero. If they left like that, people everywhere would think Aslan yielded to Trian.”
Which meant that regardless of the truth of the matter, Aslan would not back down for the sake of the family’s honor.
“And the worst?”
A duel, surely.
The moment Muno thought this to himself, Baron Rick Rommel uttered something no one had anticipated.
“The case where they pretend to accept our argument, then join forces to ambush his lordship. Of course, this probability is small as well, but…….”
“What!?”
Muno cried out in shock, but the others showed no surprise whatsoever.
“From the start, his lordship’s move into central politics was to guard against Renock Aslan. Everyone in the know understands that.”
“Ah…….”
Hearing Rasmia’s words, even that extreme assumption began to make sense.
The elderly man with white mustaches, Baron Rick, glanced at Muno before continuing calmly.
“The most plausible scenario remains that they’ll request duels, as Lady Cloy suggested. Their aim would be to reduce Trian’s actual military strength. The primary targets would be Commander Roberto and the vice-commanders.”
“Over one dead Demon User…….”
“To them, he wasn’t a Demon User but a five-star talent. They called him vice-commander, after all. Moreover, our intelligence suggests they’ve been promoting this Collid to the trainees as the model knight, and so on.”
“What?”
“Saying that with effort and perseverance, one can eventually break through one’s limits.”
“Perseverance, my foot. He sold his soul to a demon.”
Enock Trian laughed scornfully, but this was hardly a matter to brush off with laughter.
Claiming that their role model was actually a Demon User would get nowhere with Aslan.
“So they’re saying they’ll collect interest for a dead five-star talent—that’s the game, then? Ha, those Aslan bastards. Don’t worry, Your Grace. Even if I die, I’ll smash one of Fallen Thunder Sword’s arms before I go. We need to make sure they take an even bigger loss, understood!”
Bang.
Roberto roared with an aura as ominous as his massive frame, but no one responded.
His very words had already presupposed defeat.
Yet.
“Don’t speak rashly of dying, Roberto. I didn’t raise you from a cowardly piss-pants on the battlefield just to have you throw your life away.”
The Count’s sudden remark brought a wave of amusement through the assembly.
“Ahem……. Ah, no, Your Grace. That old story, why bring it up now…….”
That hulking man wet himself?
Muno couldn’t help but smirk at the commander’s absurd past.
Yet those large eyes of Roberto’s seemed to be glancing his way, as if checking his reaction.
Wait, no. He wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at…….
“Ugh……. That bear…….”
Rasmia shuddered and slipped behind Muno’s back, dodging Roberto’s gaze.
At which point the large man turned his head with a dejected expression.
Ha. This is…….
“……You’re quite popular, sir.”
“If you tease me, I’ll kill you. I’ve never seen a man I liked in my whole life, and of all things, the one I find is… that.”
Ah.
My mouth turned bitter all over again.
I’d thought Rasmia looked quite young and pretty for her age.
Suddenly I was reminded what a gulf lay between our worlds.
But what mattered most was this:
‘So even then, she still won’t accept an ugly man…….’
My past self in my previous life came back to me—boasting at the mirror that I was fairly handsome.
What if, by the standards here, I’m the ugly one?
Mother said I was handsome, though.
Could that be mother’s love at work?
For a moment, my confidence took a hit.
“……Isn’t it enough if a man is decent-looking? If he’s big and strong, isn’t that good?”
I tried to counter with what I’d picked up from those around me—modern Earth attitudes toward men—but.
“There are limits. Does that look normal to you?”
Her reply was ice cold.
I sent a silent eulogy to the sincere boy who’d suddenly become “that,” and Muno let out a breath of relief.
‘Right. Here, it’s not about a man’s face.’
It’s about ability. Power.
Real power, not metaphor.
As he unconsciously clenched his fist and checked his own strength, almost without thinking.
“Well. In any case, let’s think about how to handle the most likely scenario.”
Thud.
“Let me say this again: I have no intention of losing my people meaninglessly. Rather than that, I’d sooner go to war with Aslan. So don’t even bring up the idea of sacrificing the captain and vice-captains—all three of them.”
The Count asserted his will with cutting authority, commanding the room’s mood.
And then.
“Muno, you’re young blood. Speak first.”
His gaze suddenly turned to me.
There was no more escaping reality now.
‘Hmm…….’
Muno simply answered what came to mind.
“We can count on them definitely picking a fight, right?”
“That’s my assessment.”
“Then what if we strike first?”
“What?”
“We already know they’re going to provoke us. So why wait? Why not start it ourselves?”
“……Eh?”
Rasmia beside him wore a dazed expression.
“Truth is, we’re the ones who were ambushed—not Trian, right? What reason do we have to hold back?”
That final word set the fighting spirit of everyone present ablaze.

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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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