The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 33

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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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Our Town’s Strongest (33)
“If you tear a Magic Scroll created by a high-ranking demon here—not one made by a mere mage—it won’t just be your house at risk. The entire village itself could be blown away.”
“What? Surely it’s not that powerful? Looking at the amount of Demonic Energy condensed into the parchment, it should only be enough to destroy that tree in the yard.”
“That tree was planted by my grandmother on the day I was born, with a prayer for my health and long life.”
At the elder’s words, Jang Ga-in withdrew the Magic Scroll he’d been holding and wore an embarrassed expression.
“Ah, I apologize. I didn’t know the tree had such a story behind it.”
…….
“I’ll test the Magic Scroll outside your house.”
“Since the Magic Scroll contains Demonic Energy, after the spell manifests the Demonic Energy will spread and might contaminate the village. It would be better to experiment outside the village.”
“Ah! That’s better. My thinking was too narrow.”
Jang Ga-in tucked the Magic Scroll he’d been about to tear into his robe and turned toward the door, whereupon both elders nearly simultaneously followed behind him.
“We’ll accompany you.”
“Ah, yes.”
Shortly after, the three of them emerged beyond the village’s Barrier and arrived at Stone Mountain, dotted with large boulders.
“It should be safe to tear the Magic Scroll here, yes?”
“Here, whatever spell manifests won’t cause harm to the village.”
“Then I’ll tear it.”
“Yes.”
As Jang Ga-in tore the Magic Scroll toward the pile of rocks on Stone Mountain, black smoke billowed up and formed the shape of a massive hand.
‘Hm? This looks similar to the Great Buddha Palm.’
Long ago, when the Lama of Potala Palace visited the Demonic Sect, he had shown Jang Ga-in the Great Buddha Palm as the origin of Shaolin’s White Crane Fist technique.
Watching the shape of the enormous hand, Jang Ga-in tilted his head in confusion.
He thought that once the giant hand formed, it would fly in some direction and do something, but instead it simply hovered motionless about two meters ahead in midair.
Jang Ga-in looked back at the two elders standing behind him with a puzzled expression.
“Elder, it seems like the appearance of this giant black hand is the magic of the Magic Scroll.”
“Y-yes, it does seem that way. But is that… all?”
“It looks like that’s it, since there doesn’t seem to be anything more.”
“If that’s all, then it was a rather unimpressive spell contained in that Magic Scroll.”
The two elders, who had been brimming with anticipation, wore disappointed expressions.
“Right. If I’d known something like this would appear, I wouldn’t have needed to come outside the village at all… oh!”
Jang Ga-in paused mid-sentence and gently clenched his right hand.
Whoosh.
The massive black hand hovering two meters ahead then grasped the empty air in exactly the same motion.
Jang Ga-in looked back and forth between his own right hand and the black hand before him.
The gentle clenching just now had been because he’d sensed a connection between the black hand and his own.
‘It feels like I should be able to move this black hand as if it were my own.’
As an experiment, he folded four fingers and extended only his middle finger.
The black hand then moved at nearly the same speed as his own hand, mirroring the gesture precisely.
Jang Ga-in clenched his fist, opened it, and swung it lightly side to side.
As expected, the black hand followed suit exactly.
The two elders, watching what Jang Ga-in was doing, opened their mouths in astonishment.
“Jang Ga-in, are you controlling that black hand right now?”
“Yes. It’s not simply magic that creates a black hand—it’s magic that creates a black hand connected to my hand through invisible magical force. But what kind of magic is this?”
“We know Spirit Arts well, but magic not so much, so I’m afraid we can’t say what it is.”
After listening to the elders, Jang Ga-in decided to test the destructive power of the black hand by striking a boulder ahead with the phantom fist.
Crash!
Crumble, crumble, crumble…….
The boulder struck by the black hand’s fist shattered in an instant.
He hadn’t channeled any Inner Power deliberately—he’d merely struck quickly—and yet achieved such an effect.
“Wow! What is this? Even an ordinary person with no Inner Power could use this Magic Scroll to crush most monsters with a single punch.”
The destructive power seemed sufficient; now he was curious about how much speed the hand could replicate.
Turning his head, he spotted about five meters ahead a thick tree wide enough that two grown men would need to stretch both arms to encircle it.
Jang Ga-in approached that tree and slashed it rapidly as if cutting it with a hand blade.
Thwack!
The black hand then swung at nearly the same speed, severing the tree cleanly in one strike.
Rumble…….
The severed surface of the massive tree wasn’t smooth like a blade cut, but rather rough as if hewn by a dull, giant axe.
“Huh!”
Behind him, the two elders let out gasps of astonishment.
“This is a better spell than I thought… oh! Ah!”
Jang Ga-in, who had been marveling at the spell’s power, felt the strange sensation connected to his right hand suddenly fade as the black hand hovering two meters away began to dissolve into smoke, and he let out a small sigh of disappointment.
“The spell’s manifestation time isn’t very long. About a minute, I’d say?”
A few seconds later, the black hand completely transformed into smoke and dispersed into the air, and the Magic Scroll he had torn also burst into flame before turning to ash.
“It’s a reasonably impressive spell, but it seems it can’t be used for very long.”
“Y-yes, that’s right. Magic Scrolls typically contain single-use spells. Still, because it was made by the Demon Race, the destructive power is extraordinary.”
“My strength only manifested enough to extend a fist or swing my hand, yet it produced this much destruction. So if the head of our group carried a scroll like this for contingencies when training children outside the village or conducting trade with merchants, it would be reassuring.”
At Jang Ga-in’s words, the eyes of both elders widened.
“You mean… you’re offering to donate the remaining Magic Scrolls to the village?”
“Yes. The power is considerable, but I don’t think I’ll have much need for them.”
“Even so, you could receive a tremendous sum if you sold them to a mage or nobleman.”
“I have plenty of other items besides the scrolls, so I can sell those instead.”
“Ah! I understand. If you’re willing to donate them to the village, we’ll gratefully accept. It will be a great help to the safety of our people.”
“Oh, by the way, you said earlier that all the scrolls had the same pattern carved on them, so they should contain the same spell, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I should instruct you to never use the scrolls unless the target absolutely deserves to die.”
“We’ll educate everyone thoroughly on that matter.”
“Yes. Oh, and one more thing—the scrolls’ essence is Demonic Energy. Will it be safe for the villagers to use them?”
“From what I saw when you used it earlier, the energy dispersed into the air when its effect ended, so it doesn’t seem like it would affect the user.”
“That’s true. Since I didn’t suffer any ill effects either, the others shouldn’t either.”
* * *
When Mogoya Dafaron told his father that he had a Communication Device that could reach Count Johansen, Dimitrion immediately set out for Dafaron Territory.
A count would possess the means to communicate with high officials of the central government or dukes, so he could alert the Kingdom to the appearance of a high-ranking Demon Race being.
After riding for two days and arriving at the castle, Mogoya Dafaron went to report to his father while Dimitrion waited in the reception hall with his attendant.
“Ho! Who might this be? Isn’t this Dimitrion, one of the Ten Swords of the Kingdom, who not long ago was thoroughly defeated by some fellow named Jang Ga-in and brought shame to our title?”
At the suddenly mocking voice, Dimitrion’s expression darkened.
“I was wondering who was giving off such a formidable aura while wandering about the baron’s castle, and it’s you, Leodosohn Tera. But what brings you here?”
“Baron Dafaron complained so bitterly to our count about how you robbed him of his mining rights that I came personally to reclaim what was lost for him.”
For a moment, Dimitrion’s expression turned incredulous.
“You intend to reclaim the mining rights that were taken by Jang Ga-in with your own strength? Even knowing that I lost to him, you speak such words—I find that hard to understand.”
“Why is it hard to understand? Surely you don’t think that because you lost, I will lose as well?”
“Isn’t that only natural? Honestly, the gap between your strength and mine is just a hair’s breadth. How do you expect to defeat Jang Ga-in?”
“What! A hair’s breadth? Ha, this is absurd. If I hadn’t held back that day, you’d be dead.”
“Perhaps. Had Count Johansen not intervened, there’s a chance I might have fallen. But Leodosohn Tera, you also couldn’t have survived unscathed as you are now.”
Dimitrion easily deflected Leodosohn’s momentum and let out a faint laugh.
“What? Hah! What makes you so confident, you whelp?”
In an instant, a shimmering killing intent rose from Leodosohn’s body.
“A whelp? Are you skilled enough to call me that?”
Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk……
As a shimmering aura rose from Dimitrion’s body as well, the reception hall trembled, and the servants managing it began shaking and collapsed to the ground.
Their hands had already moved to their sword hilts, and they looked ready to draw and fight at any moment.
Shing……
Then a foreign Mana cut between the two men’s auras.
“Leodosohn Tera, I understand you’ve felt inclined to settle old grievances now that you’ve encountered Dimitrion, but this is the time to focus on Count Johansen’s orders. If you sustain any injuries and can’t carry out his command, that would be problematic. Show some restraint.”
A man in a black robe stepped forward and spoke.
Dimitrion turned his head toward the source of the foreign Mana, then his eyes widened.
“What! L-Laila! It’s been a long time since we met.”
“Indeed, Dimitrion.”
Seeing the two men who could be called Count Johansen’s closest retainers, Dimitrion grasped the situation.
“I see. But is it to face Jang Ga-in that you’ve come as well, Laila?”
“Well, it seems to have worked out that way.”
“Ah, I see.”
Now Leodosohn Tera’s absurd confidence made sense.
It was known that when a 4-Circle mage—also called a 4-Star-rank mage—aided an Expert-level knight, they could generate more than double the synergistic effect.
They could readily match even a Master-rank Expert.
‘But Jang Ga-in is Master-rank.’
While the two men’s confidence was understandable, it still didn’t put them on a level where they could match Jang Ga-in.
Dimitrion wondered briefly whether he should tell them his thoughts, then decided there was no need.
‘Those who’ve lived arrogantly their whole lives need to take a thorough beating to come to their senses. If they end up beaten to death, well, that’s just how it goes.’
Baron Dafaron’s greed for the mining rights had summoned Count Johansen’s retainers, but the outcome was expected to be even worse than it was now.
Just then, Baron Dafaron entered the reception hall under the escort of knights.
“Baron Dafaron, it is an honor to meet you.”
As Dimitrion bowed with proper courtesy, Baron Dafaron’s expression turned sour.
“I just heard from Mogoya that this fellow Ga-in fought a high-ranking Demon Race in the forest, lost to him, and the creature fled toward our Kingdom territory?”
“Yes, sir. I was troubled about how to report this to the Kingdom when Prince Mogoya mentioned that you, Baron, possessed a Communication Device that could reach Count Johansen. So I came here urgently.”
Sigh.
Baron Dafaron exhaled heavily after hearing Dimitrion’s account.
“Dimitrion, do you have any idea how absurd I found Mogoya’s report?”
“I beg your pardon? Absurd? What do you mean by that, sir?”

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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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