The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 534

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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 534

Denzel, the vice-commander of the Black Sword Unit under the Black Market Master’s direct command, concealed himself behind a tree and surveyed Bayon Lake.

Roooaaarrr!

Whatever was happening underground had caused the lake’s surface to churn violently.

‘Something’s gone wrong….’

The Black Market Master had ordered me to serve Raon as my master.
I had been prepared to stake my life on protecting him according to her command, but Raon had requested that I only firmly suppress the personnel outside, as he could handle everything himself.
I was well aware of Raon’s martial prowess—the White Sword Dragon, or rather, the Dragon Slayer as he had become—but since our opponent was a mysterious organization of unknown identity, I couldn’t help but worry about him.

“Ugh.”
“Vice-commander.”

As Denzel grappled with the decision of whether to enter or wait, his subordinate Siphin approached.

“The Iron Ore Factory has been secured, sir.”
“Did you capture everyone?”
“Yes. Following Raon’s instructions, we eliminated all those concealing their identities and evacuated the civilians. However, we failed to capture anyone alive.”

Siphin bowed his head apologetically.

“I wasn’t expecting that anyway. It’s no simple task.”

Denzel patted Siphin’s shoulder and turned his gaze back toward the lake.

‘So all the external personnel have been dealt with….’

The assassins guarding the lake had been eliminated as well, leaving only those hiding inside.

‘Stop deliberating and go in. Just in case.’

After deciding to enter, Denzel infused mana into the rock in front of the lake using the method Raon had taught him.

Whoooosh!

Following the prescribed method, I connected the mana pathways, and the turbulent lake split cleanly in two as if cleaved by a blade.

‘It actually works….’

Raon had said he mastered the manipulation of this stone after seeing it just once. It was no mere human perception.

“We advance.”

Denzel led Siphin and his subordinates toward the center of the lake. He infused mana once more into the turtle-like rock that protruded from the middle.

Rummmmmble!

The upper portion of the rock opened like a lid, revealing a passage within.

Denzel descended into it first. The corridor was broad yet deep, and utterly devoid of people. No sound echoed from within—as if everything had already concluded.
No sound came from anywhere, as if the situation had completely ended.

“He/She moves.”

He ran through the corridor, stepping on the floor with all his might. After running for a while, a strangely shaped hill appeared in the middle of the corridor.

“No, it’s not a hill…”

Bewildered, I furrowed my brow when iron cages lining both sides of the corridor caught my eye. Fortunately, the people within them still radiated signs of life.
With a frown of disbelief, the iron cages installed on both sides of the corridor caught his eye. Fortunately, the people inside them seemed to be full of vitality.

“Y-you really came!”
“Save us!”
“Please, get us out of here!”
“Please take it out for me!”

The silent, lifeless-looking warriors cried out for help upon seeing Denzel and the members of the Black Sword Unit.

“He’s really coming? What do you mean by that?”

Denzel approached the one-eyed automaton and asked.

“That middle-aged man who killed him said someone would come to save us soon.”

He spoke of how Raon had said he would come to rescue them, blinking his one remaining eye.

“Hah….”

Denzel exhaled sharply, gazing up at the ceiling.

‘Did he predict that I wouldn’t be able to restrain myself and would charge in?’

Raon had instructed me to handle only the external assassins and guard the entrance and exit, but from what these men were saying, it seemed he had anticipated my intrusion as well.

‘The more I see, the more remarkable he becomes.’

I shook my head in wonder and examined the man Raon had killed.

‘A master.’

Despite considerable time having passed since his death, mana still surged throughout his entire body. His disciplined physique and the long, straight mana circuits alone testified to his exceptional strength.

Yet Raon had cut down this master with a single stroke.

‘And it wasn’t just him.’

The assassins and warriors scattered throughout the corridor had all had their hearts destroyed by a single dagger strike. All of this had occurred in a single move. The divine skill on display defied belief, even having witnessed it firsthand.

‘He said he was accustomed to such combat….’

Was it truly so?

Denzel swallowed hard and rose to his feet.

“Let us rescue these people.”

He ordered half his subordinates to extract the captives, then ascended the staircase at the end of the corridor.

He entered the factory, which had been said to be teeming with Necromancers and assassins.
The ceiling, floor, and walls were mercilessly crushed, and corpses littered every corner. Like the assassin below, they all appeared to have been killed in a single strike.

And Raon….

“You’ve arrived.”

He sat beside the woman whose eye sockets were stained crimson, her body convulsing, his gaze as cold as winter frost.

“That woman is….”
“The administrator of this facility I mentioned before.”
“Oh, what happened to the Jade-Faced Specter and the Corpse Commander? Did they perhaps escape….”
“I killed them.”

Raon spoke as though he had swatted flies—the very creatures that had sent terror rippling through the central-western Continent.

“I caught them off guard. It ended quickly.”

He gestured toward the half-melted corpse lying beside the tortured woman.

“Ah….”

Denzel examined the Jade-Faced Specter and Raon in turn, then exhaled sharply.

‘What manner of man is this….’

He had long known of Raon’s formidable strength, yet the fact that he had executed every task flawlessly against assassins and necromancers without a single misstep seemed beyond belief.

Especially considering this place housed the Jade-Faced Specter and the Corpse Commander, the man in the Underground, and even this woman now being tortured—all supreme masters—yet he bore not a single wound.

‘This man must never become an enemy.’

Denzel felt a danger emanating from Raon equivalent to that of the leaders of the Six Emperors Five Demons, and he swallowed hard.

*

*

*

“I have something to report to the Lord of Wrath.”

I gestured to Denzel while leaving Lecia, who convulsed as though death were imminent.

“What is it….”
“I obtained information from this woman. It appears there are similar factories in other locations as well.”
“Is… is that truly the case?”

Denzel’s eyes widened, as though he hadn’t expected me to extract information in such a short span of time.

“Yes. I learned of it before the Unit Master arrived.”

I looked down at Lecia and laughed coldly.

“She didn’t last very long.”

Unlike her bold declarations, Lecia couldn’t endure the torture for long and spilled everything she knew.

-Urrrrgh….

Wrath’s lips trembled with fear.

-If anyone could endure that, they’d be a god or a demon, not human!
‘It’s not that extreme, is it?’
-You added the pain of flaying skin, itching, heat and cold, and now the agony of tearing flesh from within! Who could withstand that!

He clutched his head, insisting this was torture even demons wouldn’t inflict.

-Why did you have to add wind to it!
‘Might as well use what I’ve gained.’

As the power of wind intensified, I added to the torture the sensation of flesh being torn from within the skin. Lecia, the first subject of this torment, spilled every piece of information she possessed before even an hour had passed—far from the bold resistance she’d proclaimed.

“According to her, there are factories in Besir Village and Sophensi. And the organization funding both locations is the Yuwhwa Merchant Group, which constructed this Iron Ore Factory. In the end, they’re all connected.”

I relayed all the information I’d extracted from Lecia to Denzel.

“Hah….”

Denzel exhaled in disbelief.

“Siphin. Did you hear me?”
“Ah, yes….”

Siphin stared at me with vacant, bewildered eyes.

“I’ll verify it quickly and return!”

He cried out that he would relay the information to the Black Market and bolted toward the exit.

“Then have you also discovered who stands behind that organization?”
“…That’s something I’ll need to find out now.”

I approached Lecia and pressed my fingers against her forehead. She trembled as though ravaged by fever, her body limp as she exhaled hot, ragged breaths.

“P-please. Please stop. Just kill me instead. Kill me….”

Lecia cried out for death rather than torture, her pallid lips quivering.

“Hmm….”

Denzel let out a low groan as he observed Lecia’s distorted eyes.

‘What kind of torture could possibly….’

An agent of her caliber should have undergone torture and pain resistance training, yet her reaction was astonishing. Denzel found the torture both terrifying and intriguing.

“This is my final question.”

I placed my fingers upon Lecia’s head.

‘She won’t be able to answer this one.’

From Lecia, I had already extracted information about the other factories and the merchant group operating them. Only one question remained. And her answer would likely be impossible to obtain.

“Tell me the name of the person who ordered this.”
“Ugh….”

Lecia, who seemed willing to answer anything, clamped her mouth shut.

“Good. Then let’s begin again.”

As I chuckled softly and concentrated aura to my fingertips, Lecia’s mouth opened rapidly.

“That…ugh!”

She couldn’t produce a sound, as though struck by a silencing spell. Her mouth flapped like a fish’s, her tongue lolling out as her breath cut short.

“Gasp!”

Denzel rushed over urgently to examine Lecia’s condition.

“M-master, she’s dead. And not just anywhere—her brain appears to have melted…”

He bit his lip as he gazed into Lecia’s eyes, now devoid of all vitality.

I looked down at Lecia with eyes that held bitterness beneath a facade of composure.

‘As expected…’

Whenever she attempted to speak Derus Robert’s name, it wasn’t the Rage Worm that activated first—it was the brainwashing, which melted her own brain in a vicious manner. The method remained unchanged.
No matter how I thought about it, Derus Robert was nothing but a demon wearing human skin.

“More vicious than I anticipated, it seems.”

Denzel’s complexion had turned pale, genuine shock evident on his face.

“Let’s clean this up first.”

I erased all traces of the aura I had left on Lecia’s body, then rose to my feet.

“I’ll handle the traces, so please gather the documents here, Deputy Commander. They’ll certainly prove useful.”
“Understood.”

Denzel nodded and began collecting the papers and books the Necromancers had left behind.

I narrowed my eyes as I looked down at Lecia’s corpse.

‘He’ll have received word of this by now.’

Because of the Rage Worm, Derus Robert would have noticed that all of them were dead.

It wasn’t merely the assassins who had perished—other factories had been exposed, and the merchant group financing the operations appeared to be on the brink of collapse. The financial and temporal losses he would suffer were beyond imagination.

‘Decades of work… vanished.’

I pictured Derus Robert’s smug expression crumbling, and my lips curved upward in a smile.

‘Now, how will he move?’

Derus Robert.

*

*

*

Kubara received Derus Robert’s summons and made her way toward the outer reaches of the Grand Garden.

‘What could this be about?’

The fact that he had called for her first—someone he never summoned when so many others were present—made it clear that something had gone wrong.

‘The materials were confirmed to have arrived, so is this about Valmail’s return? Or perhaps…’

As she approached Derus Robert from behind, contemplating what the problem might be, she came to an abrupt halt.

“Ah…”

Derus Robert’s aura was frigid, as though wrapped in bitter frost. A dangerous atmosphere crept upward, so volatile that a single movement of his fingertips could sever a neck.

“…You called for me.”

Kubara knelt, suppressing the sharp pain in her heart that tightened like wire.

“Valmail, Lecia, Schupel, and Juran are dead.”

Without turning around, Derus Robert informed her that everyone at the Zombie Assassin Factory had been killed.

“What do you….”
“It’s not just the four of them. All signals from the Shadow operatives stationed there have gone dark.”

With those words, Derus Robert turned his gaze away. Behind the deceptively serene blue of his eyes, a chilling rage churned.

“Then Valmail was being tracked….”
“No. The factory was exposed from the start, and Valmail’s arrival simply lit the fuse. If this were merely an ambush, at minimum Juran, Schupel, and Lecia should have survived.”

Even as panic threatened to cloud his mind, Derus Robert assessed the situation with crystalline clarity.

“The Head of House speaks truly.”

Kubara nodded slowly. The Zombie Assassin Factory had an exit leading to the Lake. The fact that they hadn’t escaped through there meant everything was already exposed—there was no other interpretation.

“Hah….”

Derus Robert exhaled a chilling breath and removed his leather gloves. Crimson blood dripped steadily from the back of his hand.

“Send every Shadow operative, agent, and swordmaster in the vicinity. Gather intelligence. Scrape together every scrap of information.”
“…Understood.”

Kubara nodded, feeling the tension of a blade pressed against her throat.

“After this, I will move personally.”

With those words, Derus Robert turned back toward the center of the Grand Garden, where Lepon Robert’s birthday celebration continued.

“Lord Derus Robert. How fortunate you are. Your youngest son’s talent is truly exceptional.”

The Head of House of the Rasian Family, one of the great houses of the Southern Region, approached with a smile.

“All your sons are geniuses without exception—truly enviable.”
“They still lack much. I hope Lord Sikan will continue to guide them.”
“Hahaha, of course!”

Though Derus Robert had just learned moments ago that the Zombie Assassin Factory—which he had spent decades preparing—faced a crisis, he wore a cheerful smile as he exchanged pleasantries with his guests.

“….”

Kubara watched Derus Robert’s retreating figure, her lips trembling. A chill ran down her spine. Though she served this master day and night, the deeper she knew him, the more profound her fear became.

She closed her eyes as if to dispel the dread he inspired, then quietly disappeared, avoiding the gazes of those around her.

*

*

*

The next day.

I climbed to the summit of Haro Mountain, where the Iron Ore Mine lay. Concealing myself where no one could find me, I suppressed my presence entirely and surveyed the panoramic view of Capoli Village and Bayon Lake.

-If it’s all finished, why not eat a proper meal instead of hiding here gnawing on jerky like some fool!

Wrath’s eyes narrowed in displeasure.

‘It’s not over yet. In a way, this might be just the beginning.’

Given Derus Robert’s nature, he would first send agents to investigate, and if they failed to gather sufficient intelligence, he would certainly move personally.

‘You can sense anyone who enters that village, right?’
-Hmph! I am the True Demon King, the Lord of Wrath! At this distance, nothing in this world can escape my perception!

Wrath snorted as if questioning why I would ask something so obvious.

‘Then can you alert me if a human transcendent enters that area?’
-No.

He shook his head firmly.

-Why would I help you, you arrogant fool! Always acting so superior….
‘When we return, I’ll add another week to the period where I’ll prepare whatever food you want.’
-Two weeks!
‘Ten days.’
-Deal!

Wrath nodded as if he’d been waiting for this.

‘Sigh….’

Honestly, it wasn’t a method I wanted to use, but given that not only my life but the lives of others hung in the balance, I had no choice.

-Hehehehe. What should I eat this time?
‘….’

As I ignored the Demon Lord humming contentedly about his next meal and gazed down at the village, Denzel quietly approached from behind.

“I’ve evacuated all the villagers to the outside.”
“Did they resist?”
“Of course they did.”

Denzel exhaled a weary sigh.

“However, the martial artists who had been kidnapped were of great help. Thanks to them, we were able to handle it relatively quickly.”

He blinked, explaining that thanks to the testimonies given by several martial artists, including those from the Sikeron Family, the villagers had evacuated.

“What about the bodies?”
“As you instructed, I identified them and sent word to their families.”

Denzel sighed heavily, his voice grave as he mentioned that the families were on their way.

“Because of that, rumors about a secret organization creating assassins from corpses have spread across the entire Continent. Given this situation, do you think that secret organization will make a move?”

He tilted his head, clearly puzzled.

“They will come.”

I nodded with certainty. Given Derus Robert’s nature, he would surely come in person to investigate whether the Black Market was truly responsible. If he lost his temper, this village and even this mountain itself could vanish, so I needed to be prepared.

“Even if they don’t come, it’s best to be ready.”
“That’s true.”

Denzel scratched his head awkwardly. He said he would prepare and quietly disappeared.

After Denzel left, I retrieved bread of an appetite-suppressing color from my spatial pocket.

—No, not Nadin Bread! Have you lost your mind?
‘Nadin Bread is actually the best for stakeouts.’
—The True Demon King said he’d eat whatever I wanted to eat!
‘That was supposed to be after we left.’
—Ugh, just eat jerky instead! Anything would be better than that bizarre bread….
‘I already finished it.’
—Then just tear up grass and dirt to eat! That’s better than that strange bread, I’m telling you!

Wrath shrieked, telling me I might as well chew stones if I was going to eat Nadin Bread.

‘The taste is actually decent.’
—Your tongue must be petrified, that’s for certain.
‘Just try it first, then we can talk.’

I ignored Wrath and chewed down the Nadin Bread. A peculiar flavor like burnt rubber filled my entire mouth, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
After chewing thoroughly and swallowing, my stomach filled as though I’d overeaten.

—Ughhhhhh….

Wrath’s eyes rolled back in what seemed like rapture before he toppled backward.

—You… you shall fall into the abyss….
‘Perhaps I will.’

I smiled faintly, my gaze never leaving Capoli Village.

A day passed, and by the time two had elapsed, a wind sharp as a blade’s edge swept through, carrying an icy chill.

I narrowed my eyes as I watched black shadows gather before Bayon Lake.

‘They’ve arrived.’

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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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