Chapter 9
Chapter 9: You’ve Messed with the Wrong Person (2)
The outcome was decided in an instant.
Frank couldn’t withstand Ghislaine’s power after she exploded all three cores.
Phew!
Ghislaine’s sword pierced through the core located just below Frank’s navel.
“Cough, cough…”
Frank suddenly felt his mana scattering.
“Are you saying…”
They say the core lies just below the navel, but in truth, it’s not a tangible concept. It’s just mana gathered in a convenient space for stacking.
So, even if the abdomen is pierced, the core doesn’t disappear. However, there are other ways to eliminate the core.
“Right, I’ll smash your core first.”
Ghislaine moved her mana and clashed it against Frank’s core.
“Cough, urgh!”
Frank screamed in shock.
“Are you… crazy?”
Crushing the core means obliterating all the energy a person has accumulated throughout their life.
If things go wrong, the mana explosion could put the attacker at risk too.
It was a dangerous method that’s typically avoided unless it’s crucial to keep the opponent alive.
The greater the mana, the larger the explosion, and thus even skilled individuals wouldn’t attempt it.
Yet, Ghislaine seemed completely unconcerned as she poured her mana in.
Dudududud!
Frank’s mana scattered at a rapid pace.
“Cough! Ugh, how is this…?”
Bam!
The mana from Ghislaine that was wildly vibrating within Frank completely shattered his core.
Thud.
As Ghislaine withdrew her mana and pulled out her sword, Frank collapsed weakly to the ground.
“Who… the hell are you…?”
Frank couldn’t believe it.
Ghislaine’s swordsmanship was remarkable, but if the information was wrong, he could understand.
But it was impossible for someone of Ghislaine’s age to crush a core like Frank’s.
Frank had never seen anyone operate mana so delicately.
Ignoring the trembling Frank, who lay collapsed, Ghislaine turned around.
“O-Oppa…”
Elena swallowed hard as she saw Ghislaine approaching.
Covered in blood and exuding a red haze, he struck fear akin to seeing a demon.
“How could you have such skills…?”
Although Elena hadn’t learned swordsmanship, she grew up watching many knights in the rough North.
To her, Frank was quite the accomplished knight.
If he could single-handedly take down Jamal and Philip, that meant he was strong enough to take down most knights with ease.
And yet Ghislaine had managed to win against such a person.
“O-Oppa really did take down the orcs!”
Just a few days ago, rumors about Ghislaine’s abilities had surfaced in the Fortress of Perdium.
The soldiers led by Skoban had spread rumors that Ghislaine had taken down orcs.
Of course, Skoban was laughed at by others for that claim.
Without answering Elena’s question, Ghislaine simply smiled.
“Take a short break.”
“What?”
At that moment, Ghislaine gently touched the nape of her neck.
Thud.
Then, Elena’s body fell as if the strings of a marionette had been cut.
Without any mana to resist, she didn’t even notice Ghislaine’s movement.
Ghislaine carefully laid the collapsing Elena in a nearby abandoned house and approached Frank again.
“The most thrilling moment has come.”
Frank squinted and asked, “Why are you keeping me alive? Even if you torture me, you won’t get what you want.”
“How absurd. I already know who’s behind this. I have no curiosity about someone like you.”
“Then why keep me alive?”
Ghislaine slowly knelt and looked into Frank’s eyes.
“Seeing the things you do, it’s clear you’ve killed plenty of people. A regular person wouldn’t be able to do things like butcher others without emotion.”
“…”
“You’re probably somewhat of a specialist, so you must know. Sometimes, even if it’s unnecessary, you have to torture someone. Yes, it’s when you need to release the pent-up frustrations inside.”
Frank immediately wanted to bite his tongue upon hearing Ghislaine’s words.
But she quickly moved her hand to grab his chin.
With her other hand, she tore at Frank’s clothing and stuffed a piece into his mouth.
“Ugh! Mmm!”
“You’ve killed others with no hesitation, but are you scared of feeling pain yourself? I’m a little disappointed here.”
Snip!
Ghislaine severed Frank’s tendons as he struggled.
Then she picked up all the swords lying around.
Bam! Crunch!
Using her mana, Ghislaine broke the swords apart, shaping the shards as she desired.
Dozens of sharp, pointed fragments of varying sizes were created.
Ghislaine laid them out beside Frank.
“Believe it or not, I’ve also killed quite a few people. I’m somewhat of an expert in torture. I’ve been honing this skill for when the time comes to extract revenge.”
Ghislaine held one of the sharp shards in her hand. Frank looked at it anxiously.
“Why? They say revenge has no meaning, but now I see that saying comes from a lack of anger. When rage fills your mind, the thrill of success in revenge is just amazing.”
Frank couldn’t comprehend what Ghislaine was talking about.
They hadn’t even gotten a chance to fight back, yet she spoke of revenge?
Moreover, it seemed Ghislaine had known of their presence from the beginning.
In front of Frank, who couldn’t respond, Ghislaine continued to murmur.
“Going back to the past feels great. But those despairing memories and the anger inside me haven’t vanished. Perhaps I’ll have to eliminate all of you before I find peace. After all, we can never coexist.”
Frank’s eyes started to fill with terror.
He couldn’t grasp the meaning, but just seeing Ghislaine’s crazed eyes sent chills down his spine.
He too had killed many and understood.
Those eyes weren’t something you were born with. They were the gaze of someone who had killed others as easily as eating.
‘Is it possible to have such experience at that age?’
Something felt like it was on the tip of his tongue.
But the continuing voice interrupted that train of thought.
“Shall we begin? It’s going to be truly exhilarating. I’ve experimented with this on my own body before. Don’t think you’ll be the only one to suffer. I’ll make sure all the others get the same treatment.”
“Gegueh!”
The sharp shard slowly sank into Frank’s neck.
“You’ve messed with the wrong person, and you won’t die easily.”
*
“Phew…”
Just when Frank could bear the pain no longer and was half-crazed, the torture ended. Meaning he was dead.
Looking down at the mangled corpse, Ghislaine burst into laughter.
“So this is what it feels like.”
It felt like a heavy burden within him had been joyfully lifted.
A flame that had been burning darkly for a long time finally extinguished.
“Good. It’s a bit easier to breathe now.”
However, there were still a few flames remaining that burned in his heart and soul.
Only once all of those were extinguished would he truly feel free.
“Uweeeek!”
At that moment, Ghislaine suddenly bent over and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
He had held it in during Frank’s torture, but the internal damage was too severe. The shock from the mana explosion was screaming through his entire body.
Using his still inexperienced body to explode three cores all at once had been excessive.
“Phew, I need to take care of the remaining issues.”
Ghislaine entered the abandoned house where Frank had first appeared.
In his previous life, another body had been found here. He needed to locate that body.
As he stepped inside the abandoned place, he quickly spotted a few hefty bags.
He poked at the bags with his sword sheath a few times before carefully untying them.
Inside the bags were the corpses of young men.
“Count Digald.”
Gilmore Digald.
He was known in his previous life as the one who had killed Elena, the heir of Count Digald’s territory.
Due to his notorious reputation of indulging in women, alcohol, and drugs,Everyone believed that he was the murderer when the body was discovered.
Because of this, the Digald territory and the Perdium territory ended up consuming their strength battling each other.
“So it was true.”
The enemy’s objective was to incite conflict between the two territories.
In his previous life, Frank had fallen into that trap completely, but this time it would be different.
Ghislaine opened the remaining bags.
Just like the first, the bodies of men emerged. From the breastplates bearing their insignia, it was clear they were Gilmore’s guard knights.
If news of their deaths got out, issues like in his previous life would arise.
In his previous life, while the Perdium territory attacked the Digald territory due to Elena’s death, this time the opposite would likely happen with Digald attacking Perdium.
Even if he managed to prevent Elena’s death, he wouldn’t be able to stop the war between the territories itself.
But Ghislaine had no intention of playing into the enemy’s hands.
“It’s not going to go as you think.”
Ghislaine collected flammable items and piled them beside the corpses.
“I need to clean this up neatly.”
He crushed Gilmore’s ring and the breastplates of the guards with his mana, making sure they were unrecognizable.
He then dragged Frank and his subordinates’ corpses over and burned them all.
Soon the flames began to emit a foul smell as they consumed everything.
Even if bones were discovered afterward, people would just think that a vagrant from the poor district had burned to death.
Finding the body of a vagrant without any connections was a common occurance during this era.
“Burning nicely.”
The fire began to spread, igniting the surrounding debris and trash, growing larger.
“I’m just glad I could handle it myself.”
Just in case, he had Fergus prepare soldiers and brought signal flares.
But calling soldiers would have meant that the news of Gilmore Digald dying here would spread.
“I’ve postponed the territorial war for now.”
He had prevented the territorial war that started with Elena’s death in his previous life and the fallout that followed.
But it wouldn’t end there; the enemies would not stop targeting this place.
He needed to minimize loss of life for those around him and reduce damage as much as possible.
“You won’t be getting your way.”
Ghislaine steadied himself once more and headed towards the castle, carrying Elena.
*
After the two returned, chaos erupted in the Fortress of Perdium.
An incident as serious as a guard knight trying to kill the lord’s daughter wasn’t something to take lightly.
Baron Homern, the chief officer of Perdium who acted as the lord’s deputy, was furious and in a frenzy.
“All knights and soldiers are to undergo a full investigation and mental training, and they will refrain from participating in the festival. Quickly inform the lord of this news.”
The atmosphere within the castle quickly darkened. People huddled together, whispering in secrecy.
“Did you hear? Jamal and Philip seem utterly insane. Apparently, Ghislaine Lord took them down?”
“Ah, the lady must be just trying to elevate Ghislaine’s status with a tall tale.”
“Right? It looks to me like Jamal and Philip must have killed each other while fighting over the lady, right?”
“Exactly, the lord just got lucky and survived. And now he acts like he’s done something impressive.”
“Last time, Skoban was going around telling lies, and now even the lady is doing it. The Grand Duke must have threatened them!”
Having gone through such a terrible ordeal, Elena became even more downcast with these rumors.
No one believed her; instead, she had become a prominent figure in the ranks of the territory’s two great liars alongside Skoban.
Ghislaine strongly emphasized to her not to utter a word about Frank, leaving her in silence.
While Elena was feeling down, Ghislaine simply laughed upon hearing the rumors.
“If I said I’d taken care of Frank, they wouldn’t believe it any more than this. Regardless, I have no intentions of revealing it because of Gilmore.”
However, as days passed, Elena regained her composure thanks to the support and attention from those around her.
Seeing her return to her cheerful self, Ghislaine felt relieved but began to ponder how to prepare for the future.
“I’ve stopped the initial threat. But once they realize their plan has failed, they’ll move again.”
In his previous life, the Perdium territory had collapsed due to continual entanglements in various conflicts.
The Duke Delphine weakened other territories and ultimately overthrew the kingdom.
Although he didn’t know why they were targeting Perdium yet, he had to be prepared.
“There’s too much to prepare. Time for training, money, troops, my people… and high-end liquor, and a luxurious wagon with a good ride. Ugh, never mind that.”
He couldn’t handle all the schemes and attacks alone. He needed to rapidly expand his forces and strengthen his position.
“Truly, money is necessary. Without money, I can’t do anything. Damn it, whether in the past or now, money always seems to be the issue.”
What he needed right now, no matter how much he thought, was money.
Money was needed to hire people, procure essential items, and sustain them.
However, Perdium was a territory that hardly had any funds, and he didn’t have the authority to spend the little money they did possess.
“There’s nothing I can do right now?”
No matter how much he thought, no sharp solution came to mind.
He wanted to use his memories from his previous life to earn money, but first, he needed some base capital.
The situation wasn’t relaxed enough to take the time to grow money.
“It’s not like I can just bluntly ask for money… persuasion wouldn’t work either. Should I return to being a mercenary? But that would take so long. Robbing or banditry might be the fastest method?”
Ghislaine squatted down in a small garden, plucking petals one by one as he contemplated.
“Ugh, still, I can’t actually stoop to robbing… Damn, what can I do to quickly gather initial funds?”
While Ghislaine pondered for a long while, someone approached him with a few knights in tow.
“Hey, cousin! I heard the rumors! Seems you’ve developed a delusion now? Spreading such a big lie, your audacity is truly impressive! I’m completely touched! Hahahaha!”
