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Volume 3 Chapter 2 Part 7

「But that is enough discussions. I want you to give me your answer now. 」

「Certainly. If you do not even feel like negotiating with us, then you are simply wasting our time. 」

As Branis said so, he signaled the rest of the Lords in the hall with his eyes. He tehn proceeded to pull out the sword he was holding on his waste and pointed the tip of it at Milza’s face. The other Lords drew their swords did the exact same thing while surrounding Milza from every direction.

「What do you think you are doing? 」

Milza asked, seemingly unfazed by what was currently happening.

「The only thing that I know how to do. I am going to kill you here and claim your title for myself. 」

「In other words, you are going to raise your blade against a messenger? 」

「If you did not want something like that to happen, then you should have sent a Mage as a messenger. If a Mage was sent, they would have been left alone, since they do not have titles that can be taken from them, so killing them is not worth the effort considering how bothersome dealing with the Mages Association afterwards would be. 」

「Well, unfortunately for you, I have no intentions of forming any contracts with any Mages whatsoever. If I did that, then the information about all of my plans would have been leaked to Elam on the regular, and I do not need that kind of handicap. 」

「We Lords play the game of war by the rules established by the rank system. However, those who do no intend to follow the rules established by that system have no need for it. 」

Branis laughed.

「Lord Branis, no matter how you might justify it, is such a treatment of someone who came here to act as a messenger utterly unacceptable for someone who calls himself a Lord? We should let Lord Milza go and settle this dispute fairly and squarely through combat. 」

Some of the younger Lords who were still confused about what was currently going on tried to reason with Branis.

「What is your name, brat? 」

Milza turned to the young Lord and asked him to state his name.

「My name is Nicola, Lord Milza. My family has owned two villages near this mountain for two generations. 」

「Well then Nicola, you should stand back and see what is about to happen with your own eyes. I am appointing you as my living witness. 」
「There is no need to do that, because nothing worthy of notice will happen! Just a single foolish Lord is going to be slaughtered to death! 」

As soon as Branis raised his voice, he thrusted his sword sharply forward, aiming it directly at Milza’s face. However, all that Milza needed to do in order to avoid the blade that was coming towards him was to bend his neck slightly to the side. His cheek ended up being cut shallowly, but he did not worry about that at all and he unsheathed his own sword, blocked another one of Branis’s strikes and answered with his own as he stepped forward, aiming at Branis’ throat…

「Impossible! 」

Branis was stunned by his opponent’s prowess with the sword.

Considering the situation, he probably did not anticipate that Milza would be able to block any of his attacks. However, since all of Branis’ attacks were just him thrusting his sword with big, predictable motions, it was all too easy for Milza to react to them by using a minimal amount of movement required to deal with such a poor swordsmanship.

「If only you just kept your mouth shut and handed your Crest over like I asked you too, then you would not have to die now. 」

Milza narrowed his eyes, did a single step forward and thrusted his sword in one quick motion.

「W-Wait… 」

Branis was about to say something, but he never got the chance to finish his sentence, because Milza’s sword did not slow down for even a moment and it slipped right between Branis’ teeth, pierced his throat and emerged on the other side of his neck.

Branis’ eyes turned inside out, and his lifeless body collapsed onto the ground with the whites of his eyes looking like they were about to burst. As they saw that, the two daughters of Branis screamed in terror as if they were having their clothes ripped from their bodies.

「L-Let us jump at him all at once! 」

One of the remaining Lords cried out in desperation.

「When fighting alone against a large number of people, it is easier to have them surround you, since everyone around you is going to be your enemy. 」

Raising his voice so that everyone could hear him, Milza slashed at the Lord who was standing the closest to him. The Lord in question tried to retreat, but was too late and ended up getting his head slashed open right across the forehead.

Using him as a meat shield, the Lords on Milza’s left and right sides came at him at the same time with their swords already drawn.

「When fighting as a group, you always need to be aware of the movements of your companions and who goes in to engage the enemy first, otherwise you are just going to end up hurting your own allies! 」

Milza swung his sword from side to side in a powerful sweeping motion, severing the two Lord’s heads from their necks. Their fresh blood flew, dying the floor of the hall in a dark shade of crimson.

「A…amazing… 」

Nicola, who has fled into the corner of the hall as soon as Milza told him to do so, was astonished by the display of strength that Milza was putting right now.

Four Lords, including Branis, have already been killed by him, and there was only five of them left to go. Hearing the commotion, the fortress’ guards have ran into the hall from the outside, but they could not get any closer to Milza due to how ferocious his fighting style was, giving Milza all the time in the world that he needed in order to cut all of the remaining five Lords down one Lord at a time.

And cut them one at a time he did, and with every new dead body on the floor, he was taking the Chaos Cores that were created when the Crests of the Lords whom he had killed have been shattered. When he was done, Milza’s own Crest was shining as brightly as the sun descending from the sky during twilight.

「A single monster possessing a Chaos Core was much more difficult for me to defeat than you were. In other words, that power was simply too much for you. 」

Looking down at the corpses of the Lords whom he had slain just now, Milza spat out these condescending words. Then, while still holding the bloodied sword in his hand, he turned towards the daughters of Branis and approached them as they were trembling in the other corner of the hall, embracing one another.

「D-Do not kill us… 」
「P-Please, help us… 」

They were saying with trembling voices.

「We will give you our Crests! We are going to leave all of our property and belongings behind! 」

While one girl was saying so, the other was hurriedly removing the ornaments from her clothes and threw them to the ground at Milza’s feet.

「If you want to have your way with us, then you can do as you please! We will not even mind if you decide to take us as your concubines to Dartania’s inner palace! 」

And she tried to take her clothes off as fast as she could even though her hands were trembling. When the other one saw that, she began to tear at the fabric of her own clothes while trying to expose as much of her skin as possible.

「You would not mind being taken to Dartania’s inner palace, you say? And do you know what we are doing to women who committed acts of unrighteousness there? We execute them by having them bitten to death by poisonous snakes. 」

「W-We will never commit any unrighteous acts, we swear! 」

「You are the children of a 「Poisonous Snake」, and a child of a poisonous snake will never be anything other than a poisonous snake as well. 」

While he was saying that, Milza thrusted his sword forward into the mouth of one of the sisters, which was already half-opened because she was still trying to say something. Instead of screaming as loud as she could, the other sister released a muffled one as she froze in place due to terror.