Chapter 104

#104 Episode The Tin Knight and the Martial Arts Tournament (11)

It’s common for people to hate each other. Maybe it’s even more common than liking one another.

And if it’s common, that means there’s high demand.

High demand means it can be profitable.

In that sense, the man was a businessman.

He made money by solving someone’s hatred for a fee.

People usually called such individuals contractors, but the man belonged to a rather unique category even among contractors.

Unlike the common sword wielders, he had the sophisticated means of curses.

In the man’s view, there were few methods as useful for causing harm as curses.

Once a few conditions were met, he could target anyone no matter where they were, and even the strongest opponent would be helpless if they had no countermeasure. Most importantly, he could attack unilaterally from a safe distance.

While the preparation process was complicated due to the need for a large quantity of offerings and catalysts, that was a problem easily solved if one had the backing of the powerful.

Clueless rookie necromancers often found their ends either digging up graves or poking around battlefields, only to be cut down by guards or thieves, but in the man’s eyes, that was utterly foolish.

This world was one where corpses could easily be procured if you had money and power.

‘Well, it might be unavoidable. They probably can’t learn properly in the first place.’

Knowledge builds upon itself through sharing and discussion, forming a great tower.

But for necromancers, the very act of sharing knowledge posed a significant barrier.

While an alchemist’s group could turn into a research lab, and a gathering of enchanters could become a workshop, a gathering of necromancers would more likely become an evil organization planning world domination.

Unlike other academic disciplines where revealing one’s identity poses little trouble, necromancers daily operated in secrecy, making it hard to even meet one another. One had to know where the others were to have even a chance at meeting.

The typical initiation into necromancy happened when a necromancer took in an orphan to raise as an apprentice, or if someone stumbled upon books or relics left by a necromancer and learned through self-study, which led to knowledge being fragmented.

The widespread perception that necromancers were ‘evil, but weak’ stemmed from the fact that these undertrained amateurs rampaged and were quickly subdued.

Of course, the man didn’t see that as a bad thing.

Having too many capable and powerful necromancers didn’t benefit him at all.

There would be nothing but increased competition, and those who took the threat of necromancers seriously might start researching effective countermeasures.

‘The number of sweet commission requests like this will surely decrease.’

With that thought, the man finished up his curse work.

A pure white doll dressed in a flowing dress with curly blond hair.

He inserted hair from a young man into a medium that closely resembled the target, boosting the effect of the curse.

Placing the doll on a suspicious altar, the man channeled his magical power into a bronze skull resting there beside it.

The bronze skull rattled and began to sing.

《Let the hunt begin! Let the hunt begin! Let’s start a joyful, sorrowful, happy, and painful hunt!》

“Hehe, yes, let’s begin.”

The man took hold of a previously prepared corpse and drove a massive iron nail into its foot.

With a light and hollow sound that was rather too gentle for piercing human skin.

From the punctured foot flowed out something resembling black smoke, staining the doll’s leg.

However, this was not too severe.

At most, just a bit of soot was smeared.

The man clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, it seems hair alone is inefficient.”

Without hesitation, the man pulled the nail out again, causing the corpse to crumble into dust.

Unfazed, he repeated the process with another body, stabbing another nail into the foot.

Drive it in, pull it out, drive it in, pull it out.

After expending around ten corpses, the doll’s legs finally turned completely black.

The bronze skull sang again.

《Poor prey, its legs are pained, unable to take even a single step, just rotting while staying still. Oh, how pathetic!》

The man took out a new corpse and this time pierced its arm with a nail.

《Poor prey has lost its arm, it will hurt like being cut whenever it touches something, unable to grab anything now. Oh, how wretched!》

Next was the neck.

《Poor prey has lost its neck, its voice scattered like bubbles, and no matter how much it drinks, the thirst will never be quenched. Oh, how mournful!》

And lastly, the heart.

《Poor prey has lost its heart, the blood plodding through the vessels will turn to poison, and the endless fever and chills will never leave its body. Oh, how terrible!》

Sighing amidst the pile of black dust, the man looked at the doll’s once pristine form, now thoroughly shrouded in darkness.

“Tsk, if I just had a bit more time, I wouldn’t have wasted this many offerings.”

The number of corpses the man consumed exceeded fifty-nine. For merely cursing a single person, the efficiency was terribly poor.

Moreover, the effect wasn’t instantaneous, as it would take at least a day for the proper effects to manifest.

While the magic was hardly practical for immediate combat scenarios, the man didn’t mind.

After all, he wouldn’t be the one to engage in a melee with the target; he only had to make sure their condition was as poor as possible, and the client would take care of the rest.

As he massaged his sore arm and shoulder from the repeated hammering, a strange sight caught his eye.

Just a moment ago, the blackened doll had instantly reverted back to its pure white state.

“What?”

The man let out a vacant sound.

It wasn’t just emptiness at the thought of his painstaking results vanishing in an instant.

No, while that feeling existed, the issue was the doll being too clean.

“Did it get purified by holy magic? No, even so, this is…!”

He had told the young man that with holy magic, curses were nothing to fear, but that was a somewhat distorted piece of information.

If he did not instill the perception that ‘the higher-ups are safe’ in such a manner, he could very well lose his life at the hands of the nobles, who were his main clientele.

It was indeed true that holy magic could dispel curses.

However, it resembled washing the grime off an object with water.

Simply pouring water would not wash away all traces of the curse, and pouring steaming hot water or applying intense pressure could injure both the tainted flesh and the soul.

But to dispose of a curse he had gone through such labor to prepare in less than the blink of an eye without leaving a mark on the target (the doll)?

“Ugh, conceal, no, I must escape!”

The man’s judgment was swift.

He hurriedly prepared to flee, leaving most of the materials and catalysts in his workshop behind, clutching only the bronze skull.

He was a man who had previously experienced the failure of a contract after mistakenly messing with the high and mighty, which had resulted in a priest getting involved.

However, the priests he faced before had taken ample time to gradually wash away a curse or had even resorted to immediate but damaging methods to treat it. He had never encountered anyone who could completely cleanse a curse in the blink of an eye without inflicting any harm.

How much of a figure could this person possibly be? He couldn’t even guess.

‘Damn it, I should’ve done a more thorough investigation of the target! That young brat was hounding me too much…!’

His heart raced as he tried to suppress his rising panic.

The man was a capable necromancer.

Not just in magical prowess, but also in survival skills.

‘It’s okay, I’ve done this several times before. Preparing a decoy isn’t hard, and faking my death should be straightforward. Just grab enough money and materials to avoid suspicion, and I’ll slip away—’

That rapidly flowing train of thought suddenly came to a halt.

He felt a gaze fixed upon him.

He instinctively turned towards the direction of the staring eyes.

“Eek…!”

He was pierced through his foot.

She had her palm pierced.

That child had a gaping hole in her neck.

That old man was leaking black ichor from his heart.

They were all looking at him.

The offerings he had sacrificed were staring at him.

Thump! Thump thump!

He hurried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.

They reached out to him.

White and pale hands grasped his body and started to twist.

He felt his legs stiffening. Then came an unbearable itch.

He reflexively tried to scratch his legs, but the moment his fingers touched his skin, a horrendous pain shot through him.

His screams barely escaped his throat, suffocated by dizziness and chills that overtook his body.

The skull in the man’s possession rattled, as if it were making a sound for the voiceless man.

《I’m sorry, Witch! I was wrong, Witch! Please spare me, Witch! I won’t do it again! I won’t do it again! Mercy! Please, mercy!》

The bronze skull shrieked and split apart with a squelch.

Lying on the floor, the man was gasping and choking, unable to breathe properly.

The spirits encircled him.

Through their heads, he saw a small window.

And outside that window, a pair of eyes were staring at him—oh, there, in that window! In that window!

***

“Hey, Adel.”

“Yes, Witch, what’s the matter?”

“What have you been doing? Didn’t I tell you not to cause trouble?”

“Huh?”

“Ha, and here I thought this tin can was behaving, but now it’s you acting up.”

[‘The Tin Knight’ insists children are supposed to cause trouble!]

[‘The Tin Knight’ claims he’ll nurture Adel into a sensible person!]

“Did you hear that? If you’re hearing this from someone like her, it’s a danger signal for a human. Be cautious from now on. Don’t get involved with any weirdos.”

“Y-yes?”

Having unilaterally spouted her concerns, Dorothea turned back inside.

Normally, Dorothea would have inferred the situation from Adelheid’s expression and reactions, but today she had no energy for that; her eyes were bloodshot.

It was the woe of a necromancer that couldn’t even receive proper holy magic care from Sophia while using spells.

In the end, only a puzzled Little Lion was left behind.

Thus, the nefarious plan was crushed.

It’s well-known that evil can’t overcome great evil.

***

On the day of the final battle.

Adelheid pondered.

‘What was that all about?’

Dorothea’s cryptic words and the fact that Sophia had oddly patted her head more frequently that day struck her as strange.

So deep in her thoughts was she that she didn’t notice Maximilian’s astonished expression, staring at her in disbelief as her opponent.

“Are both contestants ready?”

Adel’s mind cleared only upon hearing the referee’s words.

Resolving to banish distracting thoughts before the important fight, she spoke up.

“Yes, I’m ready.”

“…Ahem, indeed, prepared.”

After the referee descended from the stage to avoid getting caught up in the fight, Maximilian spoke up.

In a voice subtly suppressed to avoid anyone hearing.

“Think carefully, girl. I am of the Haider family. Alongside mere brawn, I possess many abilities. It hardly pleases me to fight seriously against someone like you. So you too should—”

Adelheid barely heard Maximilian’s soliloquy.

‘This time, he’s actually wearing a helmet. The armor is thicker than when we fought in the streets. In that case, hmm.’

The Tin Knight hadn’t given Adel much advice during this tournament.

He had offered guidance in their daily lives and during training, but he had never instructed her on how to act in a match or how to fight.

He believed that figuring out strategies for herself was part of the learning experience.

Thus, she thought.

I’m at a disadvantage in strength.

My magical power is also lesser than the opponent’s.

My speed is ahead, but considering the opponent’s defense, surprise attacks or targeting vital spots seem pointless.

‘This is tough.’

Adel was in a quandary.

The battle where the Tin Knight didn’t reveal the answer was incredibly challenging.

To begin with, Adel wasn’t particularly skilled in strategy or tactics.

Therefore, she decided to think as simply as she could.

‘If I keep hitting the same spot, it should still hurt, right?’

“Battle, commence!!”

Swish!

At the signal of the start, Adelheid shot forward like an arrow.

Maximilian, taken aback for a moment, clenched his teeth and readied his sword energy.

“You’re really asking for it!”

Once again, the Empire’s court swordsmanship revealed itself.

Exquisite, dignified, and not permitting even the smallest openings.

Perhaps because it wasn’t an unstable foothold like last time, his strikes were even more meticulous, enveloping Adel like a net.

However, Adel managed to dodge even that.

And she countered, striking Maximilian’s helmet.

Clang!

The full-force blow emitted a light metallic sound, bouncing off with a hollow thud.

Gasps emerged from the audience, but Adel didn’t care.

‘For a moment, I could see him stiffening. Whether from the sound or the impact, it means he’s affected in some way.’

Dodge and strike, dodge and strike, dodge and strike.

Though it seemed like a repetitive task, the difficulty level was anything but easy.

Both in terms of power, defense, physique, and swordsmanship, the opponent surpassed her in many ways.

But regardless of his personality, Maximilian’s skills were anything but superficial.

With each narrow evasion and counterattack, small wounds began to accumulate on Adel’s body.

But that was it.

She had fought this opponent before.

She had faced this swordsmanship previously.

It was slightly stronger, slightly more refined, and a bit faster than before, but the difficulty of facing someone she had already fought versus someone entirely unfamiliar was incomparable.

Had she been fighting Maximilian without any knowledge beforehand, she might have lost, but that potential was now a thing of the past.

The price of granting experience to the Little Lion was tremendous.

Clang! Clang! Clangclangclang!

Reliable dodging allowed for powerful counterattacks.

Ironically, or perhaps inevitably.

This bore resemblance to the Tin Knight’s method of creating attack opportunities through excellent defense.

“Why, you…!”

As Maximilian gnashed his teeth in frustration at being on the defensive, no matter how hard he tried, his sword couldn’t reach Adel.

His rich magical power, cultivated through elixirs, and the swordsmanship he perfected under a good teacher revealed their ineffectiveness at this moment.

And the equipment that had kept him going was gradually hitting its limits.

No matter how high-quality Maximilian’s helmet was, enduring the weighty blows of a two-handed sword infused with sword energy over and over was impossible.

Scratches multiplied across the surface of the helmet, and the magic mitigating the shocks slowly began to lose its efficacy.

Dizzy from a series of impacts and sounds, Maximilian felt as though the world was spinning.

Stumbling in dizziness, he desperately swung his sword.

“I am, I am the one of Her Majesty the Empress, and Her Highness the Crown Prince…!”

His pride, believing himself a chosen human, began to crumble.

His previous disgraceful displays throughout the city crumpled his dignity.

This wasn’t supposed to happen; this tournament was supposed to be one more ornament shining on his glorious journey, but he tried rejecting reality.

In Maximilian’s eyes, he saw Adel.

Covered in blood, her entire body scarred, yet continuing to fight with unwavering eyes as a small warrior.

Maximilian realized.

That insight was not a product of reason but a revelation from the realm of instincts.

He was merely a common man bearing the illusion of a hero’s fate, whereas the girl before him was the ‘real’ deal.

“Y-You little girl!!”

In the final moment, casting off all arrogance, prejudice, and inflated self-worth, only the thought that he couldn’t lose spurred Maximilian to swing his sword.

Even if his motivation was born of jealousy, that first-ever strike where he poured his heart into it deeply gouged into Adel’s shoulder.

As if to reply, Adel’s counterattack struck his helmet once more.

Though the helmet, having reached its limits, somehow shielded its wearer, the clasp connecting the armor to the helmet was not so lucky.

The crumpled helmet flew off into the air, exposing his defenseless head.

Adel tightened her grip on the handle.

Some might criticize her for being foolish and obstinate, yet she acted according to the correct and inexperienced instincts within her.

Smash!

The side of her two-handed sword came crashing down on Maximilian’s head.

The body of a villain who first realized his own limits and contradictions crumbled down in defeat.

Amidst the referee’s declaration of victory and the crowd’s cheers, Adel smiled and murmured.

“Hehe, I succeeded in the mole-catching too.”

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