The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 5

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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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Episode 5. Ilai (1)
— I don’t know how the Spirit Tower or the temples will take it. I’d hope they’d be favorable, but…… they might try to use you. You must hide it. Absolutely, absolutely must.
— How long……?
— At least until you’re strong enough to resist the Empire without being used by them.
‘He’s right.’
Right, yes, but——
“……This is irritating.”
Tap.
His footsteps halted of their own accord.
Now that he’d purged the poison from his body, a new worry had taken its place.
Of course, it couldn’t compare to the suffering of his past life, but it seemed this world too had proven far too hostile to allow him any peace.
Real life…….
‘Even if it kills me, I have to try hard enough to survive.’
The thought that his fate was equally vicious in both past and present life drew a sigh from him.
“Why is my life always like this……?”
Yet there were good things about this life.
— Isn’t it strange, Father?
— What do you mean?
— It’s not as if a sharper mind would bring wisdom that wasn’t there before, but I’ve suddenly become quite the eloquent speaker.
— Hmm? What’s odd about that? You were always sharp. You just had trouble articulating it. Were you bothered by the idle talk of people who don’t know any better?
The memory of his father cocking his head in confusion at his own words brought a smile to his face.
His adoptive father was like that.
A man who always believed in him, always cherished him.
‘Because he was such a man…….’
He’d been able to take a suspicious little orphan—unknown in origin, abandoned by everyone, destined to be killed—and make him his own son.
— Show your mother and Rian how much you’ve changed. They’ll be delighted.
Suddenly……
‘……Thank you, Father.’
His throat had tightened with emotion; he’d fled before he could say more than that, tears barely held back.
Yet that memory alone was enough to kindle confidence that he could endure whatever harsh trials this world threw at him.
‘Yes, I can do this.’
Never giving up, always striving to live—that was the only pride Han Mun-ho had ever claimed in his past life.
— An orphan……
— Who knows when he’ll commit a crime.
— Look at that viciousness. That glare alone……
The more people who judged him through prejudiced eyes, the more he’d always held his head high and tried to live with integrity.
Perhaps the misfortune of his circumstances had kindled a stubborn defiance; perhaps it was merely petty pride.
But that resolve didn’t change, even in this new life.
At least his present circumstances were far better than his past.
‘I’m going to live like a human being. For myself. And……’
For my family.
“I can do this.”
He whispered again the mantra Han Mun-ho had always repeated to himself.
‘For that to happen, from now on……’
As he steeled his resolve and prepared to move forward once more.
An irritating voice lashed across his ear.
“Young Master Muno. You really have changed quite a bit. Your hair color, that dreadful Metal Chain nowhere to be seen…… But wasn’t that something even the Lord himself couldn’t remove?”
A fierce-looking Knight with red hair had closed the distance without warning.
Seeing him, Muno’s brow furrowed instinctively.
“……Ilai.”
“Ilai? Seems you’ve forgotten the proper address, Young Master Muno.”
At this deliberately insolent provocation, a sour smile twisted across Muno’s face.
“Can a Knight who spits casual speech at his lord’s son when no one’s watching even claim to deserve that title?”
Ilai’s face, which had been approaching with a grin, stiffened slightly at those words.
Surprise showed plainly across his features.
“Your…… words. Hoho. Could it be some kind of evolution where your intellect improved? Hehehehe. Hmm, but it seems you’ve misunderstood something, Young Master Muno.”
Ilai, having jumped to his own conclusion, then drew close with a rotting smile.
“I’m a Knight serving Lady Elina of Trian Count’s House, not of Drasen Marquis’s House.”
Hmph.
“Should I relay those words to Father? That a Knight who was exiled for causing trouble seems to lack both loyalty and sense?”
When he outright mocked the pretense, the smirk on that bastard’s face hardened visibly.
But Ilai, letting out a soft chuckle, muttered as though to be heard: ”
“……It seems you’ve evolved in the direction of becoming smarter. Ha, that brainless idiot…….”
A man blocking the road, openly picking a fight.
Nothing but a knight by rank.
‘A ruffian, this one.’
He wasn’t ignorant of why this man was so antagonistic toward him.
“There was even a knight who got rolled in the dirt because of that brainless bastard. Just how much of a freak is that guy anyway?”
At those words, Ilai’s face flushed red as his own hair color in an instant.
“How dare you!”
A two-star Knight unleashed a thick killing intent right in front of him, but Muno’s rotten smile only deepened.
“How dare I?”
Ilai had been dispatched to the Drasen estate some three years ago.
Amid rumors that he’d caused trouble in the Trian Count’s House, Ilai—in a foul mood at the time—had stirred up disturbances here and there.
He’d finally picked a fight with Muno and been beaten down miserably.
Muno’s Metal Manipulation and Metal Chain were the perfect counter to a young knight who’d only ever fought by proper dueling conventions.
If anything, seeing how Ilai had been spurred to reach two-star rank after that defeat, one might have called Muno his benefactor.
Yet this man seemed unable to forget the humiliation from back then.
After that incident, when his father had ordered him to cause no more trouble, a dull Muno had even gone out of his way to avoid confrontation in most situations—and still, the man kept picking fights with him.
Just like now.
“What makes a lowborn adopted son, crawled up from who knows where, dare mouth off to a pure-blooded nobleman? You really want to die that badly?”
A snort escaped him.
The man had leaned in close, whispering near his ear as though no one else would hear.
“Hey.”
Muno grabbed the man’s throat and glared into his eyes.
It was a response the man hadn’t expected; his face showed confusion.
Watching that expression, Muno smiled coldly.
“How long did you think I’d keep tolerating your antics?”
“What?”
“This is the last time I’m overlooking it. Watch your mouth from now on. There won’t be a next time.”
“Ugh……!”
Though Ilai’s face grew even redder as he gritted his teeth, Muno felt not a shred of tension.
There was no way this man would actually throw a punch—not unless he’d lost his mind.
Even if he did come at him.
‘I wouldn’t be the one taking damage.’
Still.
‘Hmm……?’
Watching him, a question arose in Muno’s mind.
The Muno of before had simply obeyed his father’s orders and avoided confrontation without thinking, nor had he wondered about Ilai’s motivations.
But he was different now.
There was clearly something wrong with this picture.
“Does your mother know you keep doing this? Surely she doesn’t?”
At those words, Ilai’s expression—which had looked ready to explode—went rigid.
“Should I tell her what you’ve been doing in her name?”
“You……!”
“Watch your mouth, Ilai.”
A chilling whisper cut off the shout that had been about to burst from him.
Seeing the man freeze, Muno laughed coldly.
“No matter how much resentment you carry, no matter who your original master is, any knight with sense wouldn’t dare pick a fight with the lord’s son…….”
Especially if he wasn’t a pure Drasen estate-born knight—he ought to be working harder to avoid trouble, not courting it, if he wanted to establish himself here.
“I get the feeling you have some backing that would let even my father smooth this over, which is why you act like this.”
As the words continued, the man’s red face turned pale.
“So it’s the Trian Count’s House after all? Which one ordered you to take me down?”
The man’s silence was answer enough.
“Why? I’m an adopted son anyway. Rian has both pure Drasen lineage and the blood of the Trian Count’s House running through him—it’s already decided he’ll be the next lord. I was never interested in the succession. So why come after me?”
The wavering eyes and beads of sweat forming on his brow seemed to answer in his stead once again.
“Ha……. I don’t know. You really don’t know, do you? A dog barking with nothing but his mouth. Irritating. Are you really that much of a fool?”
“You……!”
“I don’t know what your scheme is……. Let’s say you could take me down. Think you’d walk away unscathed?”
“I’m simply trying to protect my honor…….”
“Honor is worthless. The real fool’s been digging his own grave this whole time. He’s not worth fighting. Get lost.”
After tapping his cheek lightly and turning away with studied indifference, Muno felt the man’s body trembling behind him.
And with it, a surge of killing intent.
But in that same moment, Muno’s face—already turned away—curved into a smile laced with murderous calm.
‘Go ahead. Come at me.’
The Protective Gear on his limbs began to twitch subtly, unnoticed by anyone else.
Click.
“We’ll settle this another time, Muno.”
The bait had failed to hook him.
‘Tch.’
When Muno glanced back, all he saw was Ilai’s receding figure moving swiftly away.
“Hmm.”
He’d thought that if the bait was destroyed badly enough, the fisherman might reach in with his own hand.
It seemed he’d have to wait for another opportunity.
* * *
Knock, knock.
“Mother, it’s Muno.”
— Come in.
The moment he heard that soft voice, he pushed the door open.
Inside the spacious chamber appeared a noblewoman with long, bright hair that seemed to ripple like blue waves, and a boy with a radiant smile rushing toward the doorway.
“Brother…is that you?”
Rian, who had been running toward him, stopped short—and his eyes narrowed in an instant.
“Who the hell are you?!”
Shink.
In one fluid motion, he drew a small sword from his belt and aimed it with unmistakable menace.
There was nothing left of the boy who’d been smiling brightly moments before.
Where Rian had approached as an innocent child, he now stood as a warrior—small but utterly composed.
In Muno’s previous life, such a violent shift in demeanor would have suggested a psychopath or split personality. But here, as a noble’s son, it spoke only of excellent training.
Muno chuckled softly.
“It’s me, Rian. Didn’t you hear I’d changed? You didn’t visit while I was unconscious?”
“I—well, I did come by. But—”
Rian Drasen.
The rightful heir to the Drasen domain and Muno’s younger brother hesitated, shuffling backward.
“Really, brother?”
He stood frozen, the sword neither fully sheathed nor raised, confusion written across his face.
It was understandable.
Even if he’d seen Muno lying in bed, the drastic change in height and the complete transformation of hair and eye color would be jarring and surreal.
So.
Whoosh.
“Ah!”
Muno drew out a Metal Chain lightly and caught his brother’s blade, then slid it back into the boy’s belt for him.
“See? I don’t stammer anymore either, do I?”
He gently ruffled his bewildered younger brother’s hair, then bowed respectfully toward the middle-aged woman at the back of the room.
“I apologize for causing you worry, Mother.”
The noblewoman, who appeared to be in her thirties and had been watching him with wavering eyes, let out a breathless laugh.
“Is this really you, Muno? Really?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Muno’s gaze toward her was nothing but warm.
Elina Trian.
The youngest of Count Erion Trian’s three daughters, she had been married off to the knight whom the count trusted most, and was now the mistress of this domain.
Though the marriage between a woman and a man more than ten years her senior had been arranged for political reasons, the bond between Elina and her husband, Raian, was genuine and strong.
And.
— Don’t worry, dear. I wished Rian had a sibling. It’s unexpected that he gained an older brother instead of a sister, but… hehe. Call me Mother, Muno.
— Thank you, Muno. With a dutiful eldest son like you, I’m looking forward to watching Rian grow.
— You’ll take good care of your younger brother, won’t you? You understand?
To Muno, she was the person who had taught him what family warmth truly meant.
“You’re not stammering anymore—what a relief. What a true relief.”
She moved closer and gently tapped his Protective Gear.
“Those gloves. Much better than shackles and chains, I must say. How wonderful. How truly wonderful, my son.”
Then, with a gentle smile, she drew him into a tight embrace—this ‘mother’ of his.
In my past life I had no memory of it, and in this one I’d said goodbye to my birth mother in infancy—yet here, in this place, was a warmth that compensated for all that lost tenderness.
“…Thank you. Mother.”
My nose suddenly stung.
“Now that you’ve come of age, you won’t even call me Mother? I’m a little sad about that.”
“Because I’m an adult now.”
Sixteen years old in this life—or thereabouts.
There would still be years for my body to grow taller and stronger, but on the Reian Continent, sixteen was the age of coming of age.
And for Muno, now free of the headaches and fully restored to clarity of mind, that fact was actually welcome.
But then.
“Oh, then you must have shed those troublesome chains by now. Our son can make his debut in society, can’t he?”
I hadn’t anticipated this turn of events.
“I’m sorry?”
“We’ll need to hold a coming-of-age celebration anyway. Your father always regretted marrying so late—though he does say meeting me made up for it. Still, he was eager to see you boys settled.”
“…I’m sorry?”
“There’s nothing holding us back now. Perfect timing, really.”
“Um…?”
“No, I should tell him to start preparations right away.”
“Mother, wait…?”
She was still lavishing me with more affection than I deserved.
But at this moment, I could only feel bewildered.

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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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