The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 50

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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 50. Royal Counsel
The mage prison raid that occurred last night spread throughout all of Trion.
The fire and broken walls were one thing, but the cold and ice fragments that remained in the VIP detention area could not be explained by anything other than magic.
Yet the response from Aslaan’s side was entirely different.
“I cannot accept this?”
Evan immediately objected to what the Count had said.
“Of course not! I’ve heard that Trion has been suffering from mage-related troubles for some time now. But now you’re trying to link it to us in Aslaan? How does that make sense!?”
“I saw that woman with my own eyes!? That administrator using magic!”
Robero interjected with a furrowed brow, but it fell on deaf ears.
“Hmph. That’s merely your one-sided claim. We, on the other hand, have a corpse as physical evidence.”
“This is maddening! I swear by the Knight’s Honor! By the Storm of the Battlefield, by every shred of my honor, I, Robero, swear it!”
As Robero struck his chest in frustration and shouted, the expressions of the Aslaan knights listening grew somewhat heavier.
Though Robero’s face, inexplicably marked with a handprint on his cheek, diminished the gravity of his oath, a knight’s sworn word was not a light thing.
And to anyone’s eye, that massive, muscular giant was not the sort to speak nonsense.
Even Evan Orgus, the Lightning Blade himself, who had been matching words with him and raising his voice, could not help but hesitate for a moment.
And yet.
“A knight’s honor cannot supersede the honor of one’s lord and house. Therefore, I cannot accept mere words! All the more so when there is clear physical evidence for all to see!”
Erickson, a 5-Star Knight standing beside him and one of Aslaan’s vice-commanders, drove the point home in Evan’s stead.
It was not wrong, but.
Hearing those words, Robero’s blood began to boil.
‘That bastard…….’
That evidence, evidence again.
Already fuming from being struck once more, he felt ready to explode.
“How much of that mage’s ass have you licked to pull such a stunt?”
“Madness! How dare you insult……!”
Bang!
Rumble.
“Yes, I insulted you. What are you going to do about it!?”
Erickson, who had bristled in anger, could only trail off as he watched the stone floor of the Training Grounds crack and shudder beneath the War Hammer before his eyes.
Even among 5-Star Knights, there were differences in power.
Of course, compatibility arose depending on the direction of evolution, but unfortunately his specialty lay in strength and durability.
At a glance, it seemed doubtful he could withstand the momentum of Robero, who specialized in the same category.
But his hesitation was brief.
“A duel then, Robero. You don’t think you can insult my honor and simply walk away!?”
Robero grinned as if he had been waiting for this and nodded eagerly.
“That’s what I wanted!”
With a single heavy step forward, the very aura he gave off sent a chill through the chest, yet Erickson did not retreat.
He had something to rely on.
‘I’ll hold back my strength and then concede. Then Thomson will immediately challenge him…….’
Thomson, whose specialty was speed, would not give Robero a moment to yield once his power weakened.
At the very least, his lord’s command—to bring back the head of the Trion Knights Commander—would thus be fulfilled.
Seeing the commander, Evan, nod toward him, Erickson smiled and drew his Greatsword.
* * *
“……That knight seems like a general or strength-type. Why would he……against Commander Robero.”
“It was always their plan. Regardless of the truth. The reason the Lightning Blade hasn’t stepped in is likely the situation.”
As the Count gazed ahead with cold eyes, the duel had already begun.
– Die!!
Bang!
Erickson drew his enormous Greatsword and swung it, but.
Crash!
Bang!
In the clash of strength against strength, the bladed Greatsword was breaking down faster than the blunt War Hammer.
Just as he had anticipated—or perhaps even sooner—Robero was beginning to seize the advantage.
That sight brought a small smile to the Count’s face, which had been consumed by worry until now.
– I wish to become stronger, Your Highness. Will you take me in as your own?
Decades ago, a commoner who had cut through his words and stubbornly insisted upon his will.
Under normal circumstances, soldiers would have beaten him and cast him out on the spot.
But there had been a request from Rasmia, a child discovered among the commoners of Trion at that time who possessed the qualities of a Spirit User.
– If I become a Spirit User, I will serve Trion House. In exchange…….
– Would you perhaps take in my older brother, and……. Well, he’s a bit lacking, but one more boy—would it be possible?
That fool from back then.
He’d been startled by how much older the man was despite his small frame, and then startled again by his meager talent.
And yet.
That small, unremarkable man had become a knight far larger and more dependable than anyone else, now protecting Trion House.
He was advancing faster than Klam, whom he’d once considered quite talented.
‘All things considered, Rasmia does have a good eye for people.’
Though it was amusing how she’d shriek and run away whenever she actually met Robero.
“Hmm?”
The elderly man, lost in memories of the past, observed the duel concluding rapidly before him, then let out a soft chuckle.
“Just as I expected. They seem to have no grasp of how strong Robero truly is.”
Then.
“Hmm?”
The moment an ominous premonition struck him, he hurled himself forward without hesitation.
BOOM!
As the War Hammer shattered the Training Grounds floor, stone shards scattered in all directions, pelting Erickson’s full armor as he barely dodged the blow.
“Ugh!?”
Erickson, barely gripping his badly warped Greatsword in both hands, staggered at even this minor impact.
Then a massive War Hammer fell upon his head.
Though dented in places, it was far more intact than his Greatsword, which had been shattered long ago—a blunt instrument wielded with terrible force.
One blow that obliterated the twenty-centimeter stone floor across a wide area and carved out a pit more than a meter deep.
“I yi—!”
Erickson, his face drained of all color, tried to shout as he raised both hands in surrender.
But before that gesture and voice could fully emerge, the hammer came down upon him.
BOOM!
‘Nothing worth worrying about.’
Robero, about to crush his enemy outright and mock him for it, suddenly felt a sharp, piercing aura cutting toward his neck.
‘Damn!?’
He tried to evade, but wounds on his limbs had reopened from the strenuous duel, leaving his body sluggish and unresponsive.
Yet fortunately.
Clang-clang-clang!
“Rather excessive force there, Evan.”
A grey Greatsword suddenly interposed itself, deflecting the razor-sharp slash.
“Count!”
“What are you doing? In a fair duel?”
“Fair duel!? You tried to kill a knight who’d surrendered! What kind of madness is that—!”
“Surrendered? Who surrendered? I didn’t hear anything.”
As the Count shrugged with a smirk, Evan found he could no longer argue the point.
‘Damn. I felt it a few days ago too, but the gap is larger than I thought.’
The weight of that name—the Barrier of the North—pressed down on his skin with palpable force.
Moreover, Erickson had never fully expressed his surrender through word or deed.
Anyone with real skill would have read the situation, but that’s how duels between rival houses have always been.
Then by custom, this side should respond in kind.
“Still, you’ll admit that Robero went a bit far with his force, won’t you?”
“Hmph. That’s something one must expect in a duel.”
“Now that’s a *very* good point you make. Thomson! Step forward.”
“Yes! I, Thomson, Vice-Commander of Aslaan Duchy, challenge you to a duel, Robero!”
Before anyone could object, a lean knight drew a sharp, katana-shaped blade from the east and stepped forward.
‘These bastards…’
The Count’s eyes narrowed.
– Your Grace! A royal proclamation! You are ordered to cease this dispute between the two houses!
A voice commanding everyone’s attention rang out from beyond the Training Grounds.
And.
“Your Grace, from the Royal Court… Miss Roanna…”
Along with news the Count could hardly take lightly,
that day’s duel came to an abrupt end.
* * *
“Haah…”
Whoosh.
Whoooosh.
The blade he swung lightly cut through the air, creating a sharp shockwave.
“All right…….”
A sharp intake of breath.
Despite what he’d said, both sides of his ribs—as though pierced clean through—still throbbed, though the wound didn’t look serious.
The injury he’d taken just last night had healed almost entirely in less than a day.
As his rank climbed, this body had grown absurdly broken in its favor—a fact he felt anew with each passing hour.
‘This will do.’
Delay any longer, and his prey would slip further away.
‘I can’t wait any longer.’
Munos gauged the faint traces of Magical Aura bleeding across the western sky, then set off at once to meet the Count.
In the process, he couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere inside Trion’s Inner Castle had grown oddly turbulent.
“Did you hear? The Princess Roanna…….”
“No. That lady actually…….”
“How could…….”
Wherever he walked, the same whispers followed.
– Princess Roanna has become engaged to the Third Prince Christopher of Iron!
“So she finally went through with it, that one……. Sigh…….”
As far as Munos was concerned, he’d simply learned a new name for the princess’s betrothed—but the news had sent shockwaves through Trion.
– The Royal Court had issued a recommendation that Aslaan and Trion cease their conflict.
Indeed, the Aslaan forces, who had been locked in sharp opposition with Trion, had acknowledged defeat without a word despite the death of a subcommander, and withdrawn quietly.
No matter how much the Aslaan Duchy represented the supreme power among the Iron Kingdom’s noble houses, they couldn’t match the weight the Royal Court carried.
Still, the mood in Trion seemed to remain turbulent.
‘Timing is good.’
For him, this was fortuitous.
Having stood at the center of the incidents that had shaken Trion, leaving without even glimpsing the tail end of events would have sat uneasily with him.
Of course.
“The old man won’t sleep easy tonight.”
He could guess at the state of the territory’s master well enough—he couldn’t simply laugh it off.
And his guess proved painfully accurate.
“One wrong move and we’ll be dragged into the Succession War ourselves…….”
“Enough. My head’s splitting, Erik……. Oh, what luck—the negligent fool who abandoned Roanna just walked in.”
The moment Munos stepped into the Office, he found the Count’s face twisted into an expression of profound disgust, his eyes boring into him with barely concealed fury.
But what the attendant had been about to say moments before gnawed at him far more.
‘The Succession War? No—I didn’t hear that. I don’t know anything about it. I’m staying out of it. That’s dangerous business—best left unknown.’
Munos felt a pang of conscience, but he clamped down on it and got straight to business.
“I have a matter to discuss with you.”
The moment the Count heard him out to the end, his expression curdled further.
“A hunt? Now? How in the Hells do you expect me to believe…….”
“Yes. Which is precisely why I’m telling you.”
>”……Ugh. Go on.”
The Count rubbed his temples with those massive hands, as though his skull were about to split.
His whole manner suggested he had little interest in whatever came next.
But then.
“That Witch is heading for Drasen.”
At those words, his hands stilled.
“And if even the faintest trace remains, I will find it without question.”
At the continuation, his brow furrowed sharply.
“What grounds do you have for believing she’s heading to Drasen?”
“The sorcerer transformed into a meteor and vanished toward the west. The aura was so intense that I can still track the lingering echoes of that Magical Aura with my senses.”
“What?”
“Moreover, that Witch will certainly try to capture me. And considering the recovery time needed for a mage with critical wounds, she’d be planning to appear around the time I left Trion and returned to Drasen after this chaos settled.”
>”……Isn’t that pure speculation? And critical wounds, you say?”
“I saw it clearly. She was coughing blood.”
“……You’re only mentioning this now?”
“It’s true! I just couldn’t remember it clearly at first—the impact from the fall knocked it clean out of my head!”
“Tch…….”
As the Count’s expression grew more and more doubtful, Munos decided to take a harder line.
“Well, whether you permit it or not, the situation’s essentially wrapped up anyway, so I’ll simply head back to Drasen.”
“Hmm. Let me point out two flaws in your reasoning, Munos.”
“……?”
“First: why are you so certain she’ll pursue you? And second: if that’s true, will only that Witch come after you? Couldn’t other sorcerers join forces with her?”
He couldn’t answer the first question, since he didn’t know the answer himself.
“My suspicion that he’s targeting me is based on intuition rather than clear reasoning, so I cannot explain it definitively—but I am certain of it. As for the second matter…….”
Truthfully, he had overlooked it.
Or rather, he had considered it, but.
“……I’ve heard that mages are prideful. Especially those of high rank. I assumed a 6-Circle Mage would never stoop to asking another mage for help…….”
Now that he said it aloud, the assumption seemed far too naive.
‘Hmm. Again…….’
The Demon Eater’s hunger had once more overtaken reason.
He steeled his resolve inwardly—he would need better control over himself going forward.
Munos lowered his head at once.
“I spoke without thinking deeply enough. Please, then—assign Commander Robero and Vice-Commander Klam to me. And if possible, Rasmia as well.”
“Hm……?”
“A small, elite force is preferable. If I burden myself with too many knights and the mage manages to slip away, it would be troublesome.”
“……You’re truly worse than your father, aren’t you.”
“Thank you.”
…….
The Count’s words caught in his throat for a moment, his expression asking: what manner of shameless creature is this?
Yet he soon let out a dry laugh and found himself nodding nonetheless.
However.
“The men you’ve named are not in good condition at present, so I will assign someone else to you instead. Unconventional, perhaps, but capable enough.”
He adjusted the conditions Munos had proposed slightly as he spoke.

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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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