The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 68

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 68. A Monster Lord?
“Hup!”
Crack-crack-crack.
“……all right.”
“Young master, you’re heading out again today?”
Esna watched Munno flex his body with fluid grace despite the weight of his heavy armor, her expression pinched with worry.
“What’s all the fuss about? It’s just my duty.”
“But the lord has recovered now.”
“He’s only begun to recover. I need to cover for him until he’s fully well. Besides, my armor cleans itself automatically when I withdraw it—there won’t even be laundry.”
“That’s not what I meant! I’m just worried about you……!”
“I know.”
Munno smiled faintly and turned away.
He’d returned caked in blood at least once a day recently, so he understood Esna’s concern all too well.
But the more he moved like this, the fewer casualties his domain suffered, and the wealthier the House became.
Beyond that.
‘There aren’t any particularly strong monsters. That one was just abnormal.’
The Behemoth—the sheer presence of that colossal beast remained vividly fresh in his mind.
And his father’s explosive Martial Prowess that had torn it to shreds just as clearly.
Yet strangely, every monster that descended after that thing died had been at most a Third Tier creature.
Which was fortunate enough from a defensive standpoint.
But others harbored different worries.
– That Sixth Tier monster may have been a direct subordinate of the Monster Lord. As it was three hundred years ago…….
A reply from Trian came after Lian relayed this opinion.
– If someone truly stole a Monster Lord’s offspring as they did three hundred years ago, the Behemoth would have been a search party sent to retrieve it.
– And if that offspring never returns to its mother for an extended time, disaster may unfold just as it did three hundred years ago. The Monster Lord itself…….
Layered upon layers of conjecture, that reply had reached them and chilled everyone who heard it.
Though none could say what manner of monster the current “Lord” was—one that governed a portion of that demonic realm buried deep in the Northern Mountains, home to ancient calamities.
Three hundred years ago, the Lord became a cataclysm that threatened the very existence of the Iron Kingdom, or so the records told.
It required both the Iron Kingdom and the Deus Mage Empire to cooperate just to dispose of it.
‘If such a thing were to happen again…….’
But ultimately, there was only one thing to do, only one thing possible.
“We stand as the kingdom’s northern vanguard shield, holding back the monsters’ advance southward…….”
He repeated his father’s murmured words and steeled his resolve once more.
And.
– We don’t need to worry then, right?
– Hmm?
– If it really is that case, wouldn’t whoever took the egg also know about the past and attempt it deliberately? In that case, I’d have run as far as possible. Ideally all the way to the southern edge. Ha-ha. No, that’s just my thought on it.
– ……You have a point.
– As a note, there are records indicating that the monster of that time also bypassed Trian and headed straight for the capital.
His younger brother’s offhand remark became a hopeful prediction for Drasen.
“It means we can manage it, so don’t worry.”
“Are you truly all right?”
“Well, Esna. Do I look injured or exhausted to you?”
“Not exactly……. But I can’t help it.”
“Don’t worry. When it comes to fighting multiple monsters, I’m superior to Father.”
Munno ruffled Esna’s hair affectionately, then left through the door.
What he’d told Esna was no exaggeration whatsoever.
‘My condition is perfect.’
Indeed, his mood felt as light as walking on clouds.
“The young lord!”
“It’s the young lord!”
“Hurrah!”
It was more than just the cheers of the domain folk and household staff surrounding him now.
He knew precisely what he was doing.
‘I’m repaying my debt to the House.’
In a way no one could deny.
That conviction lifted his pride to its heights.
Of course, his parents hated talk of debt and obligation.
‘But not me. I can’t be that way.’
What is given must be repaid. And if it is grace rather than mere obligation, then all the more so.
That was the code of human conduct and romance that Han Mun-ho and Munno Drasen believed in—a way of elevating one’s own worth.
In the novels he’d read in his past life, he’d often seen protagonists spouting nonsense about repaying grudges a hundredfold while forgetting kindness, and there were plenty of fools who thought that impressive.
But reality didn’t work that way. No—it couldn’t work that way.
“The human spirit has a direction, Mun-ho. If you live resenting the world, you only become a monster yourself.”
“If you focus more on grudges than kindness, you end up becoming human garbage who sees those who help you as suckers. You know that well, don’t you? Gyeongho…….”
How easily someone from the lowest rung, with no one to help them, could fall to ruin.
And regardless of right or wrong, how ugly that descent looked.
Munno knew this all too well.
Of course, there were grudges that couldn’t be forgotten, shouldn’t be forgotten, depending on the circumstance.
‘Those Cult bastards…….’
The ones who’d murdered his parents and turned his childhood into hell.
Just thinking of them now made his teeth grit.
‘……Repaying kindness always comes first. I mustn’t forget that, Han Mun-ho. No—Munno Drasen.’
Because he knew that was the path to living with integrity before anyone, including himself.
“Well there. Royder, Pearson. On perimeter watch?”
“Yes, yes. Young Lord.”
“Good work.”
“……Where are you headed, sir?”
“I’ve cleaned up the north well enough. Thought I’d check the south this time.”
“You’re going beyond the walls again…….”
“That’s right. It makes things easier for all of you and the soldiers.”
“……You’re remarkable, sir.”
“Not at all. We’re all suffering together.”
He let small grudges against these malformed Knights—men who once mocked his awkwardness and dumped work on him—pass with a smile.
“A great mountain holds many small insects and dust. Yet the mountain simply embraces all of it.”
“A great person must do the same. Keep your heart open and embrace everything, Munno. That, in the end, will make you greater still.”
Strangely enough, the advice of the two elders who’d most influenced him in his previous life aligned along the same thread.
‘Yes. I will live that way—with such grace, with such humanity.’
And to do that.
“Since you’re heading the same direction, you must be on South Wall watch? I’m heading there too. You two are going to have it easy today, aren’t you?”
The small grudges he could bear, he simply held.
“Th-thank you, sir.”
“W-we’ll work hard…….”
But why were these men so frightened?
It was just a joke, yet they looked as though he’d threatened them.
‘Well, I suppose I have shown some rather violent displays recently.’
It was possible they’d misunderstood his meaning out of fear.
“I’m not being sarcastic. I’m just saying you should help guard the other walls in rotation. You can manage that much, can’t you? The more the Knights move about, the easier it’ll be for the soldiers…….”
“Yes, yes. Of course!”
“We will carry out your orders! Faithfully!”
……Suddenly they were listening so well.
Maybe Knights really did need to appear strong.
‘But I was always stronger than these men before, wasn’t I?’
He found himself tilting his head in confusion.
But there was no point picking at it—they were responding so eagerly, so enthusiastically.
“Right. Take care then.”
“Sir!”
……Even a salute.
‘I’m not even their father…….’
Still shaking his head in bewilderment, Munno gradually picked up speed again, moving toward the South Gate—toward the South Wall.
* * *
A Knight in heavy Black Armor that was plainly massive landed—or rather, crashed down in front of Drasen’s South Gate.
Boom.
“Young Lord Prince! Be careful!”
“Don’t overexert yourself!”
“Don’t be careless just because it’s the south!”
He waved to the familiar soldiers on the ramparts, then wrenched his legs free from where they’d buried themselves in the ground and stood up.
“Careless…….”
Whoosh.
“……I won’t be.”
Thump.
As Munno admired the evening landscape, the sun beginning its descent, he swept his awareness across all the Demonic Energy in the surrounding area.
‘Just small fry, as expected. Damn.’
The Northern Mountains harbored a peculiar gorge that jutted southward.
When the winter Monster Wave began, creatures descended the mountain by that convenient passage, and so Drasen Fortress had been built at that very chokepoint to hold them back.
By proportion, roughly fifty percent of all monsters pouring into the entire Trian domain funneled toward Drasen.
When weaker creatures descended, stronger monsters followed in their wake to feed, and accounting for that ratio as well, the winter Monster Wave was essentially seventy percent concentrated at Drasen.
Even in an anomaly like the current situation, that proportion would likely remain much the same—but there was another variable at play.
The corpses of monsters, flayed and stacked before the North Gate, had themselves become a barrier formidable enough to discourage even considerable creatures from targeting Drasen Fortress.
With monster carcasses piled at the northern gate, many creatures were now detouring around the fortress and fleeing southward instead.
‘So I find them all.’
Of course, given Drasen’s current circumstances, there was no need to bear responsibility for monsters that avoided the fortress by taking a wider path.
But his father—like Palmer—worried about what would come after this period passed.
The southern villages held many of their domain folk.
For now they endured cramped, difficult lives crowded within the fortress walls to escape the Monster Wave, but when winter ended, they would need to return to their original settlements.
That was why Munno intended to take this opportunity to thoroughly clear out monsters from the villages in the southern territories of Drasen.
As part of Trian’s duty as its shield, go scout the area once.
I’m sorry to burden you with so much.
The fewer monsters that slip southward, the fewer people who will suffer harm.
It was his father’s thinking that he should check the southern reaches whenever he had even a moment to spare.
And Munno agreed with that assessment.
‘In any case, among those fleeing at the sight of corpses, there’s no way a Tier 2 or higher monster exists.’
Yet in reality, sensing only small fry like this left him feeling oddly deflated.
This was hardly satisfying.
“Even wanting to stay sharp is…” he muttered, trailing off.
Still, he’d made up his mind.
‘Once it gets darker, stronger ones will probably show themselves.’
And so Munno began running toward the faintly perceived traces of weak Demonic Energy nearest to him.
* * *
Crunch.
“Ugh…”
A chain weight flew silently through the darkness, shattering the skull of a goblin that had been hunting mice from the eaves of an abandoned farmhouse.
It was nothing short of a perfect assassination, yet the assassin who had hurled the Metal Chains from a distance could not feel satisfied.
“What is this, not even goblin hunting.”
He’d come thinking that at night, when monsters’ hunting instincts were more acute, they would gather in greater numbers around dwellings bearing traces of human presence.
But from sunset until well past midnight, as he’d made his rounds through a dozen villages under Drasen’s domain, the only monsters he’d hunted were a hundred and ten goblins.
‘Well, they needed to be dealt with anyway.’
He extended the Metal Chains toward the goblin’s corpse, concealing his unease.
The same motion he’d repeated a hundred and ten times tonight.
Whoosh.
After absorbing all the Demonic Energy that had faintly sought to taint the world, he flung the corpse far into the woods beyond the farmhouse’s fence.
Crash!
Metal Chains that could display at all times the same strength as a Knight of the 3-Star rank—one of the finest among them.
Having wound the long chains and added centrifugal force before throwing, it was hardly surprising that the goblin’s corpse, no larger than a child, flew hundreds of meters through the air.
Thud.
The dull echo ringing through the quiet forest at night stirred no response from any demonic creature nearby.
He’d stretched his senses as far as he could reach.
‘Damn. So it really is just goblins.’
He was just deciding that today would have to count as simply cleaning up the villages where his domain folk would return, when—
‘Hmm?’
From the woods where the goblin’s corpse had been thrown, an odd disturbance rippled through the air.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————