The Son-In-Law of the Magician Is a Transcendent Sword Master - Chapter 113

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 113

“Surrender, we surrender…!”

Perhaps it was because I had shown the difference in our strength without reservation. The bandits, without exception, threw their clubs to the ground and fell to their knees.

“P-please spare us! Please, just our lives!”

With all his subordinates having submitted,

the bandit leader looked back and forth between his broken sword hilt and my smile, then prostrated himself flat and began begging for his life.

“Right. What’s your name?”

“G-Gorka! I have no surname. Actually, I didn’t want to do this kind of thing. Due to my pitiful fate of having an elderly mother and sick younger brother, just to put food on the table, I had no choice but to…”

The bandit leader, Gorka, spilled information I hadn’t even asked for.

“Enough. Just answer my questions.”

“Y-yes, sir.”

“How many merchant ships have you robbed so far?”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m asking how much you’ve plundered.”

Gorka’s shoulders trembled as he answered in a shrinking voice.

“E-eight ships, sir…”

“Eight ships. You must have made quite a profit. Where’s all the money you earned?”

“Well… half is hidden away in a separate cache, and the other half is stored in that boat we came on.”

“Bring it here.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

At Gorka’s gesture, one of the bandits hurriedly jumped into the water and brought back a heavy sack from their ferry, struggling with its weight.

When I opened the sack, it was filled with gold ingots and silver coins.

Even at a rough estimate, it was easily worth several hundred don.

“I’m confiscating this. Consider it the price for your lives.”

“…”

“No complaints, right?”

“O-of course not!”

The bandits shouted in unison.

“…Reagan.”

Renia looked at me like I was a miser, but I didn’t care.

It’s the rightful privilege of the victor to claim spoils of war. At least in the mercenary world, that’s common sense. Since they’re bandits too, they shouldn’t feel wronged.

Of course, just because I took the plundered gold didn’t mean I planned to track down and return it to each original owner. I stuffed the sack into Andvari’s Cube.

Seeing the heavy gold sack disappear into a palm-sized cube, Gorka’s eyes widened as he asked.

“M-my lord… could you possibly be a mage?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Actually… we also have a mage at our Red Snake Stronghold. Someone who came recently…”

Hearing those words, I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.

“Tell me about that mage in detail. Everything, without leaving anything out.”

After that, Gorka explained the whole story with a terrified expression.

They were a bandit group called the ‘Red Snake Stronghold’ that controlled the waterways south of Harpen. And Gorka was one of the nineteen leaders there.

And recently, an unidentified mage had come and started distributing elixirs.

“Elixirs?”

“Yes… he said they were good for the body… so we took them.”

After taking those elixirs, Gorka and the other leaders of the Red Snake Stronghold were able to reach the level of Aura Expert the next day.

Seeing that overwhelming effect, the Red Snake Stronghold made the mage an executive.

Since then, only the leader-level executives received regular distributions of elixirs from that mage.

“…What exactly are those elixirs?”

“The mage just… explained them as spiritual medicine.”

No way, there’s no way such convenient spiritual medicine exists.

‘It’s probably poison that forcibly twists one’s qi and shortens lifespan.’

Even if such spiritual medicine did exist, no fool would generously give such precious items to mere bandits.

That means this mage who manufactures those elixirs has some ulterior motive for strengthening the bandits.

“I need to meet this mage bastard. Since you’re a leader, you naturally know where he is, right?”

“Th-that is…”

“Answer me.”

“He’s… at the main stronghold.”

Meaning he was staying at the Red Snake Stronghold headquarters.

“Where exactly is the Red Snake Stronghold’s main base?”

“If you go southwest from here following the waterway, you’ll reach Yustena Lake, and it’s in the center of that lake.”

“Is it far from here?”

“N-no. By boat… about half a day…”

That was enough information.

I released his collar and spoke to the captain.

“Lock these guys up in the hold. Don’t kill them. Whether you hand them over to the authorities later or dump them on some deserted island is up to you.”

At my words, the captain who had been trembling in the corner hurriedly nodded.

“…Oh, and I won’t take any payment.”

“Wh-what do you mean by that suddenly? How could we not pay our benefactors!”

The captain’s tone had become much more respectful than before.

It must be because he clearly saw how we subdued the bandits earlier.

That actually makes things easier. I casually approached the captain and put my arm around his shoulder.

“Captain, instead of payment, I have a favor to ask.”

The captain gulped. I grinned and continued.

“Before going to our destination, we’d like to stop somewhere.”

“Wh-where exactly do you want to go…”

“The Red Snake Stronghold’s main base.”

The captain’s face was painted with terror.

* * *

We locked the captured bandits in the hold and burned all the ferries they had come on, sinking them to the riverbed.

After that, we sailed south and finally arrived at Yustena Lake that Gorka had mentioned.

“…Wow.”

The lake’s scenery was so spectacular that even Renia let out an exclamation. A huge, transparent lake surrounded on all sides by dense primeval forest.

In the center sat a small rocky outcrop, with wooden houses built on stilts along the reef’s edges, clustered tightly together.

“That must be the Red Snake Stronghold’s main base.”

That suspicious mage Gorka mentioned would also be manufacturing elixirs there.

“Reagan, are we going to attack that place?”

“Yes. But… let’s think about it a bit.”

I stood at the bow and surveyed the terrain of the lake and island.

‘Just looking at it… the security doesn’t seem that tight.’

Since they had positioned themselves on an island in the middle of the lake, it was a natural fortress in itself.

Since they didn’t need to worry much about external intrusion, the internal defenses were likely rather lax.

In that case…

“…Let’s get a ferry and infiltrate quietly by ourselves. We’ll dock the boat behind the island in the reed bed area. It’s probably a blind spot out of sight.”

“What if we get caught?”

“Of course I’m planning a night raid. It’s almost sunset.”

As I smoothly explained the outline of the operation, I felt a gaze from beside me.

Renia was staring intently at my face with sparkling eyes, as if she found it interesting.

“Reagan, you’re really skilled at this?”

“What?”

“It doesn’t seem like you’ve only done this once or twice.”

That was also true.

I had lived as a mercenary for almost five years, and I’d done enough covert infiltration jobs to trip over them.

“Reagan, is this how you lived when you were a mercenary before? Weren’t you really young back then?”

“Hmm….”

It was a sharp question.

But I couldn’t tell Renia such circumstances.

I brushed it off appropriately.

“Just… trying to make a living gave me some street smarts.”

“…Hmm.”

Renia didn’t press further. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the lake and giggled as if something was amusing her.

“We really feel like we’re on an adventure. Right? My heart is pounding.”

For Renia, who had grown up like a flower in a greenhouse, this journey was clearly more than interesting—it was thrilling.

“I really think I made the right choice marrying Reagan.”

“….”

This woman sometimes just casually delivers knockout punches like that.

I managed my expression as much as possible and looked up at the sky for no reason.

Just then, Cobin approached from behind and spoke cautiously.

“…Um, are you two… really the children of Benheim?”

“Didn’t I tell you the day before yesterday?”

“Oh, no…. It’s just… from what I can see, your relationship seems too informal for nobles….”

“Hehe. Does it look that way?”

Renia continued with a grin.

“For reference, Reagan fell for me at first sight.”

“…Ooh.”

“Please make sure to include that in your stories.”

When I glared at her, Renia stuck her tongue out.

* * *

Anyway, now that we had made a plan, all that remained was to execute it.

After sunset. We brought a ferry boat and covered it with dark-colored cloth for camouflage.

Even just this was excellent camouflage, but I decided to be extra cautious.

Whoosh.

Pertro (ᛈ).

The runic character symbolizing mystery and secrets.

When I inscribed Pertro on the ferry, the boat could approach the reef by gliding across the water’s surface without even making the sound of cutting through the current.

Until the boat reached the reed bed behind the island, no one noticed our approach.

“Good. Renia, let’s get off.”

“Okay.”

Renia’s expression was bright.

She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being a legendary hero.

“Alright. From here on, we might make footstep sounds, so walk as carefully as possible.”

“Okay.”

We crossed the wooden fence along the reed bed and entered the interior.

BOOM!

At that moment, an explosive sound rang out.

For a moment I thought we had stepped on a trap, but the source of the sound was from the center of Chongchae.

“…What the.”

I carefully stepped up on the fence and looked in the direction of the sound.

There was….

“UOOOOOOH!”

A visitor.

“Uhahahaha! Are you all terrified! Is there truly no one who can stand against me!”

…Some ignorant fool was rampaging in the middle of Chongchae.

The giant man was swinging his bare fists without any weapons, and strange phenomena occurred every time his fists cut through the air.

BANG!

WHOOSH!

When he threw his right fist, blazing flames erupted, and when he thrust his left fist, frost-like cold swept the surroundings.

His movements were crude beyond measure, but the power contained in both fists was utterly destructive.

“Stop him!”

“H-how are we supposed to stop him!”

Several bandits rushed to stop the man, but they were swept away like autumn leaves with a single punch.

“…A mage…perhaps?”

I frowned as I watched the man.

It was different from ordinary magic.

Seeing fire and ice pouring from his hands, it looked like elemental magic at first glance.

However, unlike a typical mage, that man was actively moving his body and engaging in close combat.

Traces of mana scattered with the man’s movements. That’s how fast he was.

‘…Is it some kind of body enhancement magic?’

Just as I was thinking that, the man raised both hands high and shouted heartily.

“Everyone of Apsache, listen! This Rashek has come to judge you!”

Hearing those words, I narrowed my eyes.

Rashek.

It was a name I had heard somewhere before.

I turned my head to Renia, who was crouching below the fence.

“…Renia, do you happen to know the name Rashek?”

At those words, Renia tilted her head.

“Reagan, don’t you know?”

“Huh?”

“Rashek. He’s one of the heirs of the Great Magic Families.”

“….”

An heir of the Great Magic Families.

I knew them well.

Arno of Benheim.

Yusefin of Airit.

Petra of Rucen.

And lastly….

“…Rashek of Maelrn?”

Only then could I connect the name the man had just shouted with the Great Magic Families.

Rashek Maelrn.

A genius considered the best among the rising stars of the current Imperial Magic Order, alongside Arno.

“…So.”

That hothead rampaging alone with his bare body over there.

Was the heir of Maelrn, ruler of the Southern Continent Jungle and famous for being the most arrogant and exclusive in the Great Mage Alliance.

“….”

Indeed, it was hard to believe.

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