The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 66

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

The Strongest in Our Neighborhood (66)
“But how can a Duke’s domain be less than half of Count Johansen’s territory right beside us? What’s more, since those lands lie beneath the Crerarion Mountain Range, monsters appear frequently and the soil is barren.”
“I’m aware of that much. However, the Crerarion Mountain Range is larger than this kingdom itself. Since I’m told I may expand it as I see fit and claim it as my domain, it cannot be called small.”
“But the Crerarion Mountain Range does not belong to Your Majesty, so it cannot be said that you have granted it to me.”
“What matters to me is justification. I care little for such details. And since the King has shown me such meager favor, I need only repay him in kind later. I shall conduct all matters in my own way, so please do not worry, Duke Morona.”
“Do you truly have no intention of asking His Majesty for additional territory?”
“No.”
Morona sighed deeply. “Whether my heart is simply too narrow, I cannot fathom your true feelings, Gain.”
“I’m content as is, and truthfully, I have little desire for land. That settles it.”
“I see. Very well. If that is your thinking, what more can I say?”
“Oh, before I forget—this is a Supreme-Grade Potion for drinking. The last one was for topical application, but this one is meant to be consumed. Please take it.”
As Jang Gain withdrew a vial from his possession, not only Morona Valencia’s eyes widened, but Gorden’s as well.
Gorden spoke up.
“Is this also a potion made by the Druid Elder?”
“Yes.”
“My word! I thought Duke Morona would need at least a month of recuperation before he could move about…… but with this, he could be on his feet today.”
In that moment, Morona Valencia’s eyes flew wide open.
“Today? I can move about today?”
* * *
After drinking the potion Jang Gain had given him and receiving Heal Magic from Gorden, Morona Valencia carefully rose from his bed with the healers’ support.
“How do you feel?”
When Gorden asked, Morona Valencia reported a dull ache rising from his chest and abdomen.
“Even with a Supreme-Grade Potion, with your ribs cracked to the lungs and your intestines severed, you cannot expect to be whole. Despite the pain, try walking slowly.”
“Ugh! Every step sends a shock through my entire body, and cold sweat pours down. Are you certain it’s safe to walk?”
“I have examined the potion’s effects—they are genuine. Do not be afraid; walk.”
“Haa! Very well.”
“That’s it—you’re walking well. You may stop now.”
“But I’ve only taken three steps.”
“Three steps are enough for me to see.”
“Is that so?”
“From tomorrow, you should be able to move about reasonably well.”
With the healers’ support, Morona Valencia sat on the bed and breathed heavily.
Though he had taken only three steps, his face glistened with sweat.
“It seems the aura within my body is not circulating properly around the wounded areas. Will it circulate normally in time?”
“Yes. You need not worry about that. The potion’s effects are so extraordinary that you will recover your former strength before long.”
“Is that so? Haa, I owe Gain a tremendous debt.”
“There is a saying that the Druid Tribe’s Supreme-Grade Potions are an extra life. To give two of them to Duke Morona—a relative stranger—is not something one could do through ordinary means.”
“Indeed. I have now incurred a debt of life to Gain.”
“Then I shall take my leave. Should you need anything urgently, ring the bell beside the bed and summon me.”
“Very well.”
After Gorden and the other healers left, Morona Valencia wiped the cold sweat from his face with a cloth.
“I was told I wouldn’t be able to move for over a month, yet after drinking Gain’s potion, I can walk about in just hours!”
It was no wonder they spoke of it as an extra life.
A man capable of giving such a precious thing to another.
Would he himself have done the same?
He had faced countless challengers over the years and, using excessive force, had left many unable to recover from the wounds he inflicted.
Yet he had never once concerned himself with their well-being.
He had believed that once one took up a sword and fought, one bore full responsibility for the consequences.
‘Now that I think of it, he became a lord to protect a minority tribe in the Crerarion Mountain Range—with which he has no relation whatsoever. His breadth of character and virtue are something a man like me could never fully comprehend!’
A genuine lord—a rare sight in these times.
‘But why have neither His Majesty nor the Prime Minister come? Surely word of my awakening has reached them by now?’
He had nearly died because he was fighting Jang Gain under the King’s command, yet could they afford to be so indifferent?
A twinge of resentment toward the King began to stir in his heart.
The next day, once Morona Valencia could move about reasonably well, he went to the healer Gorden and asked casually.
“Gorden.”
“Yes?”
“Has my awakening not been reported to His Majesty?”
“Ah, yes. I delayed the report until you had recovered somewhat further. I should report it today.”
“Is that so? Even without a report, you know I’ve been lying in the treatment chamber. I thought His Majesty would at least inquire or visit once.”
“It seems His Majesty has taken great interest in Gain of late, with all his attention directed there. I fear Duke Morona has been neglected as a result.”
“Yes! Ah! Of course. I understand.”
A faint crease appeared between Morona Valencia’s brows as he answered.
‘Surely he doesn’t think I’m useless now that Gain has come into favor?’
During the war with the neighboring kingdom years ago, when he had suffered grievous wounds, the king would visit him nearly every day to inquire after his health.
The contrast between then and now was stark.
‘I’ve served His Majesty my entire life, and this is how I’m repaid…….’
His sense of worth crumbled, and a desolate, pitiful feeling swept over him.
Morona Valencia returned to the bed in the treatment chamber and sat in a daze for a long while.
Was I no longer of use?
‘No, that’s not true!’
Though I lost to Jang Gain, I remain a formidable warrior and a peak-tier Sword Expert.
‘His Majesty has Sword Master Gain as the kingdom’s preeminent blade, so he likely doesn’t need me anymore—but a novice nobleman like Gain will need someone seasoned like myself.’
The two figures naturally came to be compared.
One was a king who took his subject’s loyalty for granted.
The other was a noble of magnanimous bearing who, though barely acquainted, had given him precious potions without hesitation.
‘Gain is the true lord I ought to serve!’
If he supported him, he would neither fall prey to the king’s or chancellor’s stratagems as before, nor misgovern his domain.
‘Now that I’ve found the true master worth serving, I must resign as soon as my body heals!’
* * *
In the days before the investiture ceremony, Jang Gain had made the acquaintance of several high officials, and as they arrived at the palace in turn, he exchanged greetings with Count Ruti, Count Heronon, and finally Duke Shaxspine.
All of them had heard of Jang Gain and made their utmost effort to warm to him, and some among the nobility even ventured to broach the subject of marriage alliances.
As time passed and the day of investiture arrived, the king first proclaimed that Jasllan Millay had succeeded to the earldom as heir to his father, Count Johansen Millay. Then he conducted the ceremony investing Jang Gain as marquis.
Though formal in nature, when Jang Gain knelt on one knee and made obeisance, the king took up a sword and laid it once upon his head and once upon his shoulder, proclaiming him marquis with dominion over the Crerarion Mountain Range and three baronies in its vicinity.
“I, Hwinbarkman Polo, sovereign of the Smed Kingdom, do hereby proclaim before all heaven and earth that Marquis Jang Gain shall rule as lord over the Crerarion Mountain Range, Gorgovan, Hailong, and Daiaran.”
After the king’s proclamation, Jang Gain received a Seal Ring proving his marquisate, a Lord’s Charter bearing the king’s seal, and a Ceremonial Sword.
“I, Jang Gain, as Marquis of the Smed Kingdom, shall dutifully support His Majesty, serve the people, and set an example for all the nobility…….”
Jang Gain raised the sword high and proclaimed to all the officials and nobles gathered that he was the lord of the Crerarion Mountain Range.
“Hah hah hah…… Should I call this absurd? Or perhaps contemptible?”
Then a loud laugh rang out, followed by a mocking voice.
Not only the king, but everyone in the hall turned their heads toward the sound.
Perched casually on the eaves of the Royal Palace, tens of meters high, sat a man with striking green hair, dressed entirely in green—clothes and shoes alike.
The green-haired man continued.
“Insects hiding away in some corner of the Crerarion Mountain Range dare to claim dominion over the range itself?”
“Who are you!”
Vice-Captain Grilori, who commanded the palace guard in Morona Valencia’s stead, drew his sword and leveled it at the man, demanding answers.
“You’re not worth my knowing. And ‘who are you’—on a first meeting? You have no manners!”
Snap.
As the green-haired man flicked his finger, countless tree roots suddenly erupted from beneath Vice-Captain Grilori’s feet.
Startled, the vice-captain hacked at the roots with his drawn blade and leaped aside, but though he severed several of them, the roots wound around his legs and continued upward, wrapping around his thighs and waist, coiling his entire body.
Crrrack…….
As the vice-captain came under attack, Mage Yulian Naman raised his Magic Staff toward the green-haired man, and a thick bolt of Lightning Strike shot forth at the speed of light, striking the man hard.
Boom…….
An explosion erupted, and Yulian Naman’s face twisted.
A transparent barrier shimmering with geometric light had materialized before the green-haired man, and within it a geometric pattern slowly rotated.
“A High-Level Mage!”
Immediately after, a fire spirit summoned by Simeus leaped from the ground and rushed at the green-haired man, but was struck by Wind Blades pouring from the geometric pattern, shattered into pieces, and sent back to the summoning realm.
“Your Majesty, you must withdraw at once!”
In the meantime, the guard hurriedly escorted the king away, and several knights seized the ceremonial spears held by soldiers, hurling them at the green-haired man while ordering the archers to loose their arrows.
Whoooosh…….
Yet all their attacks were unable to pierce through the endless Wind Blades pouring from the geometric light barrier, and fell to the ground in fragments.
‘What manner of magic is so utterly powerful?’
Jang Gain, brandishing the Ceremonial Sword, severed the base of the roots binding Grilori in a single stroke.
Until that moment, several knights had been trying to free Grilori by hacking at the roots with their blades, but the roots grew faster than they could be cut, and rescue seemed impossible.
Once Jang Gain severed the entire base of the roots at once, the knights and soldiers could easily unwrap the roots from around Grilori’s body.
Bang.
Jang Gain launched himself into the air and unleashed the Death Flower toward the green-haired man.
He judged that since the opponent’s magically-wrought barrier was formidable, only a technique of Death Flower caliber would be sufficient to shatter it.
Fzzzzzzzt…….
Sword energy coalesced into a single splendid blossom, no larger than a fist, which shot through the Wind Blades and collided with the transparent barrier enveloping the green-haired man.
Boom…….
When the two forces collided, a massive explosion erupted. Jang Gain rode the wind backward to cushion the shockwave, and without thinking, his eyes flew wide open.
‘What? Not a single petal of the Death Flower passed through that light barrier!’
The flower bud should have burst open to sweep away the barrier, allowing the petals to pour through—but all of it had been stopped cold.
Astonishingly, despite such a violent explosion, the transparent barrier traced with geometric patterns remained completely intact.
Jang Gain clenched his teeth hard.
This was the first time the Death Flower had been blocked so completely, so utterly one-sided.
‘Sky-Piercing Blood Extreme!’
He wove a single strand of the Strong Thread—something he could now conjure only by entering the Absolute Realm—into his most devastating technique, the Sky-Piercing Blood Extreme.
In an instant, three or more sword auras erupted from the blade’s tip and immediately pierced the geometric light barrier that encircled the Green-haired Man.
Scritch-scritch-scritch, scritch-scritch-scritch……
At nearly the same moment, the geometric light barrier itself began rotating faster than the eye could follow, its size shrinking rapidly until it transformed into a smooth, circular disc no larger than two palms pressed together.

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