The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 54

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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 54

Tourists stumbled backward in alarm. Those emerging from the alley were of varied age and gender, yet their appearance was uniform: gaunt frames, bare feet, and clothes so worn and torn they barely held together.
“We’re… we’re alive.”
“We got out…!”
Several of them collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. Others did not stop—they ran deeper into the distance.
“What on earth is all this?”
“I have no idea. Vagrants?”
“Vagrants in Saldwich? The security in this city is impeccable.”
“Shouldn’t we report this?”
The Commercial District descended into chaos in an instant.
Leoni was equally startled.
As Saldwich’s premier tourist destination in the east, it maintained exceptional security, especially during holiday season when checkpoints were particularly strict.
The redevelopment zone was nothing more than a neighborhood where a few poor merchants gathered. Leoni knew it was no place from which such a large number of vagrants could suddenly emerge.
“Miss, please step back.”
Her guards had surrounded her in unison before she’d even noticed their approach.
“Wait a moment.”
“That won’t be possible, Miss.”
The Knight Commander stepped forward to block her path.
Frustration welled up in Leoni.
Why would these people appear here, of all places? Why Saldwich?
The checkpoint guards would never have let them through. So they must have either been living in Saldwich all along or arrived here through illegal means.
Above all, she felt an extremely thick and murky aura emanating from them.
More precisely, she felt a strong conviction that they had fled from some place where an ominous presence lingered.
“Please, move aside.”
“That is not advisable, Miss. It’s too dangerous.”
“This isn’t a request.”
Leoni spoke with absolute firmness.
The Knight Commander blocking her path showed visible bewilderment. Leoni fixed him with wide blue eyes.
“Now, please.”
Unable to refuse, the Knight Commander finally stepped aside. Without hesitation, Leoni passed him and moved forward.
“Are you all right?”
She extended her hand to a woman sitting collapsed on the ground.
At the gentle voice that descended from above, the woman reflexively lifted her head—then opened her mouth in vacant shock.
Hair the color of cherry blossoms, soft and delicate as if scattered along the grain of wood. Eyes as blue and translucent as the open sky. Fine, delicate features and a rosy bloom to her cheeks.
Perhaps this was how an angel would appear upon descending to earth.
“You seem quite injured. Can you stand?”
“Yes? Yes…”
“Knight, help this woman, would you?”
The knight beside Leoni hastily supported the woman. Once seated in a nearby chair, the woman swept a trembling hand across her chest.
“What happened? What did you go through?”
“That’s… that is…”
The woman hesitated, unable to form words. Leoni caught herself and continued gently.
“I’m Leoni Schmidt, from the Capital. I give you my word by the name of the Schmidt Count Family that I mean you no harm. I simply wish to help if there’s anything I can do.”
Leoni’s round eyes curved into crescents with a smile. The onlookers who witnessed this could not help but let out soft exclamations of wonder.
Leoni possessed the gift of drawing countless eyes to herself simply by taking someone’s hand and smiling.
The woman whose hand she held was no exception. As tension drained from her face, it crumpled—and soon she began to weep.
“Those people kidnapped us. They were going to sell us as slaves at an auction…!”
“A… an auction?”
Leoni was genuinely shocked.
Kidnapping wasn’t enough—they meant to sell them at auction too?
Slave auctions have been illegal under Imperial Law for how long now. And yet people still exist who kidnap and sell others unlawfully?
But looking at these people’s condition, they hardly seemed to be lying.
“Then someone appeared and broke through the prison doors, setting us free. They told us not to look back and to run straight to the Commercial District, and so we all managed to escape.”
The person who broke the prison doors told them that if they could reach the Commercial District, there would be someone waiting to help them, so they hurried everyone out.
Leoni found herself astonished for an entirely different reason now.
They hadn’t escaped on their own—someone had helped them. Moreover, if they were told to come to the Commercial District, that meant there was another group waiting here?
She looked around confusedly. The tourists and merchants in the Commercial District had already retreated to a safe distance, murmuring and watching. No one but Leoni stepped forward.
In that moment, Leoni understood instinctively that it fell to her to protect these people.
Regardless of who had saved them, leaving them like this would only invite fresh danger.
When someone came to take responsibility for them later, I could hand them over then.
“Kael.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Please evacuate all of them to a safe location. Spare no expense—arrange the finest inn in the city for them.”
“Understood, Miss.”
“Anne, you go with the Knights and help these people as well.”
“What? But Miss, what about you?”
Leoni brushed off her skirts without a word and rose from her seat. Her gaze, sharp with resolve, turned toward the darkened alley.
“I’m going to check on something.”

***

Damn.
This is uglier than I expected.
Five Raven Cloaks emerged—exactly as anticipated. Each wore a black cloak and a grotesque bird-beak mask stretched across their face.
At first glance, they looked less like people than like bizarre monsters.
I’ve worn the thing myself, but seeing it in the flesh is a bit unnerving.
Still, I couldn’t let it show.
Fights are won on momentum, after all.
The Raven Leader standing in their center tilted his head.
“I sensed something odd, and now I see you’re a Black Mage too?”
“No, I’m a Hybrid Mage.”
The Raven Leader fell silent.
He seemed to take my words as some poor attempt at a joke.
I’m serious, though.
“What are those things?”
Kaius, standing beside me, spoke in a low voice.
Right—Kaius still didn’t know about the Raven Cloaks.
I hesitated for a moment.
These were his arch-enemies. He would inevitably learn their true nature soon enough.
But that time wasn’t now.
The instant I revealed their identity honestly, he’d charge forward without thinking—though as the world acknowledged strongest swordsman, he wouldn’t die. Still, this wasn’t the time or place to let him loose and rampage.
Better to deflect for now.
“You said there are all kinds of Black Mages in this world, remember? They’re some of them.”
“Are Black Mages these days doubling as heretics?”
“Well… that’s not entirely wrong.”
They’re the sort who want to seize the Temple and dominate this world, after all. In that sense, they’re not so different from heretics in their opposition to the Church.
And their appearance alone reeks of suspicion. For all their talk of hiding their faces, to any outside observer they looked like the very definition of melodrama.
“Either way, be careful. They’re a bit different from other Black Mages.”
The Raven Cloaks wielded a unique Mutant Mana. That was why they alone could produce Black Magic Crystals that other Black Mages couldn’t create.
“…How fascinating.”
Just then, a voice from across the space pulled me from my shallow musings. The Raven Leader was staring at me intently through the eye-holes of his mask.
“Did you absorb all the Magic Crystals that were here?”
“They were just piled haphazardly in the Underground, so I thought anyone could take them. That’s not the case?”
I smiled provocatively, deliberately needling them.
The Raven Cloaks fell silent again. Unlike before, their gaze had turned vicious.
“A Black Mage unscathed after absorbing such a vast quantity of Crystals… You’re no mere novice, it seems.”
“Right. I’m actually very strong.”
“Then you must be eliminated all the more.”
The central Raven Leader stretched his hand toward me. In response, deep purple mist gathered around him like a storm.
“The Magic Crystals you absorbed of your own accord—I’ll extract them back after I kill you.”
“Who says you get them back?”
“Die.”
Bang!
The force, condensed like a dark sphere, erupted and hurtled toward me.

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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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