Chapter 555

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Chapter 555: The Aesthetics of the Circle (6)

His mouth watered.

Now Yeongwoo saw the opponent less as a participant and more like some kind of item box.

“Heh heh… soon that weapon will become part of my Sword Mountain.”

Because they were still quite far apart, the hulking knight walked toward somewhere without even noticing someone watching him.

“By the way, doesn’t that guy have a partner? He looks alone no matter how you look at it.”

If he’d already taken care of his partner long ago and was wandering like that, it would be a big problem.

Maybe to over-fulfill the dungeon’s objective you have to get everyone inside the dungeon out alive.

But if that hulking fellow has already killed someone, then wouldn’t over-fulfillment be impossible?

“Let’s go take a look first.”

Yeongwoo stepped toward the hulking knight as he said this, and Lady Kanaph pulled Aratubank even closer.

—That one feels completely different from the ones we met earlier.

Even Lady Kanaph, who knew nothing about the harsh worlds outside the universe, had basic instincts.

She could at least tell that the machine-human and the lizardman who left earlier were rookies compared to Jeong Yeongwoo.

But this opponent, at least from Lady Kanaph’s view, looked hard to beat.

The atmosphere exuded by the hulking knight was heavy.

Still, Yeongwoo walked forward without hesitation.

“He’s stronger, so of course he feels different.”

—How strong? Stronger than you?

“Well… we’ll mix in some swagger to find out.”

—…What?

At Yeongwoo’s uncertain answer, Lady Kanaph’s expression froze.

—Isn’t that a problem?

“What do you mean?”

—If he’s stronger than you… your life could be in danger.

—Don’t forget your duty. Your duty is to protect me until I meet my older brother!

“I haven’t been paid yet, so what duty are you talking about? Lady, protecting you is optional for me.”

—What?

Lady Kanaph’s eyes widened fiercely, but there was nothing she could actually do.

Kwak—!

Thus Yeongwoo, carrying Lady Kanaph on his back, drew closer to the unknown giant, and eventually the opponent turned to look at Yeongwoo.

—….

The knight standing there looked up at the intruder; he was a hulking man with a height of four meters.

‘He’s so big he’d have to be folded into the escape device to fit, wouldn’t he?’

He wore crude copper-colored armor over his whole body, and his face was wrapped with something like bandages, but up close that too seemed made of metal.

‘A helmet? Doesn’t quite look like one.’

The only part of his face not completely covered by the metal bands was his left eye. Likewise, each of the four arms the early-noticed Yeongwoo had were tightly wrapped with metal bands.

‘What is this guy?’

As Lady Kanaph warned, Yeongwoo felt an ominous aura from the opponent and stopped at a safe distance.

Although he’d said protecting the lady was optional, he would still prefer to leave her alive if possible.

—It’s… cold.

“That’s because the lady’s scared.”

Even Yeongwoo’s breath puffed from his mouth as he spoke.

It was true that the temperature near the hulking man was extremely low, as Lady Kanaph had noted.

At last the opponent spoke first.

—Who are you people?

An apparently one-armed swordsman who looked like an arm had stopped growing, and behind him dangled some kind of frog-lady.

To a stranger their combination would naturally seem bizarre.

Yeongwoo pointed Bastard at the opponent’s arm.

“I’ll help you get out of here. Just cooperate a little.”

The hulking man tilted his head.

—Cooperate?

Amazingly, he was still speaking politely.

So Yeongwoo carefully examined the opponent’s arms.

Of the four arms attached to him, only the one holding the blue greatsword was a prosthetic; the others appeared to be original.

The two legs were the same.

“Looks like you have some unused arms. How about giving one up for public good?”

Yeongwoo joked, but the hulking man glanced around.

—Is it only you lot here?

“Hey, you’re not seriously thinking of fighting us, are you? It’s two against one.”

Yeongwoo warned in jest, but the hulking man did not smile.

—I didn’t expect to leave here without a duel.

“Wha—”

With his consistently serious manner and the odd word choice of ‘duel,’ Yeongwoo grew curious about the man’s background.

“Are you not here to make money? What are you?”

He shoved Bastard into the air to point at his own back and asked.

The hulking man planted his azure greatsword into the ground and introduced himself.

—I am Alden, third son of the Miras. I came here to pay respects to my family’s legacy.

Hearing this, Yeongwoo blinked in blank astonishment.

“…What is he saying? So he’s the third son of some family?”

Unexpectedly, someone added an explanatory comment from where Lady Kanaph had been trembling on Yeongwoo’s back.

—Miras? You mean that Miras from the ‘Family’s Journey’?

Lady Kanaph stuck her head out and spoke.

“You know him?”

Yeongwoo asked.

—I don’t know the man. I just studied the Miras family.

“Studied?”

—For nobility, learning about the great houses of the galaxy is basic education.

‘Galaxy’, it refers to dozens of galactic clusters.

In other words, Alden’s house belonged to a distinguished family among the galactic clusters.

“Wow… so he’s some scion of a space noble house?”

[Translator - Night]

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Yeongwoo looked at Alden Miras in disbelief.

“What’s the Family’s Journey?”

Lady Kanaph, who had only read about it in books, rattled off the facts she’d memorized.

—Each scion of the Miras is given a family weapon and must go on a harsh journey with it. They must complete the four-year journey to be named heir to the legacy. It seems this dungeon was one of those trials.

So he was a scion of a space great house taking a trial to claim the family heirloom. Yeongwoo turned to glance at the blue greatsword Alden held.

Feeling Yeongwoo’s insolent stare, Alden pulled the greatsword back out of the ground.

Kkwaat!

But he did not speak with Yeongwoo.

Instead—

—Are you a noble? If I may, may I ask your name?

He spoke to Lady Kanaph with a newly gentle voice.

Lady Kanaph elegantly spread her arm behind Yeongwoo and replied.

—I am Kanaph Izori. The sister of Duke Dalqui Izori, and the jewel of the Izori house.

—Ah… I’ve heard of the Izori. It is an honor to meet you.

Alden, surprisingly well-read, recognized the name and spoke accordingly.

Yeongwoo, who had no dignified background or fine knowledge to interject, muttered under his breath.

“…These bastards.”

He looked at the timer in the sky and gripped Bastard.

“Now is not the time for idle socializing. There are still mountains of arms to find.”

With that, Alden at last turned his gaze to Yeongwoo and asked Lady Kanaph aloud.

—Who is this?

—He’s the person I’m indebted to—no, the one I’m temporarily under the protection of. He’s the head of a humble family, apparently.

—Head of a household?

Like Lady Kanaph at first, Alden looked him over with disbelief.

—Are you in trouble?

—Not that much… I just want to get back to my older brother as soon as possible.

With that, at least in Kanaph’s eyes Yeongwoo had kept his honor.

But the scion of the space noble house intuitively sensed that Yeongwoo was a rogue.

He reached out one of his four arms and said,

—Give the jewel of Izori to me, head of the nameless house. My journey will end soon, and I will bring peace to the Izori house.

Yeongwoo responded with a grim face.

“You unbalanced brat—what did you say? No name?”

He then swung Bastard in midair and formed the Renaissance cannon emblem.

Swaaaat!

“Look closely. This is the emblem of Renaissance, the terror of the universe.”

—Renaissance…?

Of course Alden had never seen the name in any noble roster and tilted his head.

One thing that did raise a flag was—

—It resembles the Destroyer King’s emblem.

The Renaissance family crest resembled the wedge mark used by the destroyer Dogo.

Then he noticed something else.

—Wait a moment.

The armor he had dismissed as rags bore the mark of ‘Vesedel.’

Vesedel was a long-fallen royal house, rare to encounter in the universe, so he hadn’t recognized the insignia at first.

“Ha. You do know the chairman’s reputation after all.”

Amid all this, Yeongwoo licked the blade of Bastard with his tongue and let poisonous blood drip.

Cha-aat!

The toxic substance traveled down his throat and sped up his bodily regeneration.

Thud— the stump of his heavy-looking left arm began to thin and sprout into a fine tentacle-like shape.

The left arm he’d earlier cut while freeing two participants was gradually regaining its original form.

—You… what are you?

Alden Miras staggered back in surprise for the first time.

Lady Kanaph’s eyes opened wide and her mouth gaped.

—If you think you can’t win, run!

—Lady Izori…? What do you mean by that?

—Th- this man…!

Before Lady Kanaph could expose the plans of this rude man, Yeongwoo stepped forward and said first.

“Unfortunately, it looks like I am the final gate of your journey. This is also the fate written in the dossier. Accept it.”

—What? I’ve never heard someone so insolent in my life.

Yeongwoo dashed forward with a bolt-step.

Kwaaaat!

“Now you’ve heard it! Give me your unbalanced arms and legs and your family sword!”

—…!

This was a line any professional robber could spit out; to Alden, born into a great house, it sounded like a horrifying curse.

Coupled with the impossible mobility of the bolt-step—

—Aagh…!

Before Alden could regain his stance, Yeongwoo had arrived at his jaw, and then—

Swaaaat!

Yeongwoo’s Bastard cleaved through the space at incredible speed.

In the blink of an eye he severed one of Alden’s arms.

—No!

Lady Kanaph screamed.

The Miras family emblem consisted of four short vertical lines, representing the family’s four arms.

Having reduced a scion of such a house to three arms was a monstrous humiliation.

—Ughhhh! You bastard!

Consumed with overwhelming shame, Alden Miras lost his composure.

Yeongwoo straightened Bastard and laughed.

“You won’t forget now! Who I am!”

Then Alden swung his greatsword viciously and shouted.

—Renaissance…! Today your head will fall!

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