Chapter Volume 3, 14: Laughing Clown?

Volume 3, Chapter 14: Laughing Clown⑤

After the rubble settled, someone crashed to the ground.

Lambert lowered his greatsword and turned around to see Viscount Le Gael.

「D-Did you manage to kill… L-Le Look?」

Light returned to Viscount Le Gael’s haggard look as he asked that question.

Looking at the mountain of rubble from the hole in the collapsed wall, Lambert ignored the other man.

Viscount Le Gael only agreed to cooperate with them after he heard from Earl Aubock that 『Devil’s Piper』 would definitely destroy Region Kingdom. However, it seemed Viscount Le Gael had become fed up with the cruel nature of the organization’s members.

As if that wasn’t enough, Le Look even spread 『Devil’s Piper』’s influence in his territory, making her the de facto ruler of Viscount Le Gael’s territory.

Although it wasn’t the kind of cooperative relationship that he imagined in his mind, Viscount Le Gael was scared shi*tless and ended up being nothing more than their lackey.

And to make matters worse, he couldn’t rely on the royal family either since he had already chosen to side with the revolutionary organization.

At this point, it was already too late for him to wash his hands, so he really had no idea what to do.

The reason for this was the death of Le Look, one of the Eight Wisemen, so he had no idea whether this event was good or bad for him.

Viscount Le Gael had to expel 『Devil’s Piper』 to regain control over his territory and protect his neck.

Viscount Le Gael thought that he should kept his relationship with 『Devil’s Piper』 vague, but there was a problem.

『Devil’s Piper』’s revenge aside, the biggest problem for him right now was how to seal Lambert’s mouth.

Viscount Le Gael prostrated immediately. There was no hesitation at all.

Viscount Le Gael’s soldiers were bewildered.

「Swordsman-dono… the truth is, t-they, the 『Devil’s Piper』, hijacked my territory! I-If not for your timely help, we, we will…!」

Viscount Le Gael spoke to Lambert; his face was covered with tears and nasal mucus.

His soldiers looked at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

From the very beginning, Viscount Le Gael has been the one who invited 『Devil’s Piper』. He just paid for his own mistake of being unable to control them.

He just got rid of the part that was inconvenient for him and covered it with made up lies. The way he insisted that he was the victim had already reached the realm of art.

Even the soldiers were averting their gazes since their lord’s deeds and actions were beyond shameless. In fact, they even started to think that there must be a few screws loose in their lord’s brain.

Viscount Le Gael wasn’t blessed with talent as a lord, but he was a master of shifting responsibilities to others when it came to protecting his own life.

「Please… Swordsman-dono! Your skill is something that I’ve never seen before in my entire life! Some members of 『Devil’s Piper』 are still hiding around the territory! Please cut them down and save this territory!」

Lambert’s helmet finally turned around to face Viscount Le Gael.

「Don’t worry—it’s my duty to exterminate them. But I cannot guarantee your life.」

「W-WHAT! B-BUT WHY?! I-I’M EVEN PROSTRATING TO YOU HERE!」

「If you have any last words, I’m all ears. Tell all the information that you know about them. Make it brief.」

「W-W-W…」

Viscount Le Gael was completely dumbfounded.

He was even surprised since never in his dream would he hear such a blatant death sentence.

「F-Fine then, since that’s what you want! KILL!! KILL THAT ARMORED MAN IMMEDIATELY!!」

Viscount Le Gael screamed frantically.

Lambert unhurriedly pointed his greatsword toward Viscount Le Gael.

Seeing that, Viscount Le Gael crumbled on the spot. He even still had the gall to crawl with his arms to get away from Lambert.

「HIIIII! IT’S NOT MY FAULT! IT’S NOT MY FAUUUUUUUULT! WHAT OTHER CHOICE DID I HAVE?! IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!!」

One of the soldiers approached Viscount Le Gael with a timid look on his face.

「Viscount-sama… What is the crest that… appeared on your forehead?」

「Eh?」

Viscount Le Gael twitched, then he touched his forehead with a trembling hand.

「…I feel sorry for you. That’s the secret art of Belfis Kingdom’s Hudo Tribe. It’s invoked the moment you decide to betray them. Your death is purely due to your own stupidity.」

―During the Eight Countries Unification War, Belfis Kingdom was always known for its internal power struggle since immemorial times. Betrayal and killing blood relatives happened every day. Thus, it was a kingdom that was well known for its relentless self-protection.

Amongst that, the Hudo Tribe manipulated curses by using bugs as their intermediary. This was extremely useful for the royal family since they could train their bugs to kill the host from the inside upon detecting subtle emotions from the host.

Nevertheless, this curse had its own defects. It was often wrongly triggered.

In the first place, something like betrayal prevention wasn’t such a convenient method.

In addition, some parties who hated the tribe falsely accused them by saying that the accidental mis-triggering was intentional. There was even a case in which an entire family was executed since there was no way to control them.

Belfis Kingdom was famous for its sorcery, but it was amongst the first one to fall mainly due to their sorcery.

After the downfall of Belfis Kingdom, the generals of various countries who regarded their sorcery as dangerous executed the entire tribe, burning all of the books containing their technique. Thus, they wiped out their existence from history along with their technique.

Even though the technique was incomplete, it was nonetheless a useful technique.

In turn, it was quite dangerous.

The generals even came to a conclusion that the royal family of Belfis Kingdom might have used that technique on their own vassals.

「That sorcery will kill you for sure. Le Gael, did they give something to your body, whether from the clown or anyone else? But well, that’s a trivial matter at this point. Now tell me everything you know about them. Once you’re done, I’ll help you to die as painlessly as possible.」

Lambert approached Le Gael, pointing his greatsword toward the latter.

Le Gael’s eyes opened wide.

「N-NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE, PLEASE REMOVE THIS! TAKE THIS OUT! NO! NOOOOOOO! STOP, STOP, SOMEONE PLEASE STOP THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!」

He frantically tried to tear off the skin on his forehead.

Blood spilled out from the wound, and the meat of his forehead was also scraped off. But the magic circle shone as bright as before.

「NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

「There’s a way to stop this.」

「R-Really?」

Lambert nodded to Le Gael.

「By beheading you.」

「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

Viscount Le Gael rampaged on the ground as he bawled like a child.

Shaken up by their lord, the soldiers were too shocked to do anything.

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAA! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT DID I DO?! WHAT DID I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!」

「Tell all the information that you know about them quickly!」

Lambert shouted, but Viscount Le Gael ignored him.

He suddenly stopped moving and fell on his back, color drained from his face.

After that, his body convulsed for a few seconds, and he started blowing white bubbles from his mouth.

「OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

Viscount Le Gael’s eyes moved around. From his torn forehead, a giant bug with numerous legs crawled out from inside.

「L-LE GAEL-SAMA?!」

The giant bug fell from Viscount Le Gael’s body and crawled toward the dumbfounded soldiers around.

「HIIII!! STOP, STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!」

Lambert jumped in front of those bewildered soldiers and slashed the bug.

Although the giant bug’s legs were still moving a while after its body was cut, it ceased to move immediately.

「…It seems they’ve perfected the technique.」

As he spoke, Lambert looked down on Viscount Le Gael’s corpse.

The traces of his brain being torn apart from the inside could be seen from the hole where that bug crawled out from.

Green-colored liquid which smelled like rotten blood was also flowing out from that hole.

The same fluid excreted from his nose, mouth, and eyes.

And then, Lambert’s eyes moved away from Viscount Le Gael’s corpse, looking toward the mountain of rubble beneath the crumbled wall.

The position of the rubble was different from before. There were additional traces of blood.

Le Look managed to get out from under the rubble and fled during Viscount Le Gael’s fiasco.

‘…Letting her fall down was a mistake. I tried to get information from Viscount Le Gael rather than confirming her death, and yet, I ended up missing both. The enemy has escaped, and the information source has been silenced too… I failed to manage my priorities. It’s not like I don’t know that many sorcerers were persistent creatures who stepped out of the boundary of humans to preserve their lives. Did I get too conceited?‘

Lambert returned his greatsword to its scabbard while criticizing himself.

Lambert couldn’t deny the fact that he let his guard down since the sorcerers of this era died way too easy compared with the sorcerers of the Eight Countries Unification War.

That era was an extremely chaotic era in which the sorcerers who were supposed to die turned out to survive in ways beyond everyone’s expectations. It was a scene in which the sacrifice of many great soldiers was for naught.

Even Lambert stopped treating the sorcerers of that era as humans due to their outrageous madness.

‘I’m sure that I stabbed her internal organs. It should have been impossible for her to move around in such a condition… Did she receive assistance from her comrade? Or her spirit? Anyhow, I’ll crush her head for sure in our next meeting.’