Chapter 100
On the beach, pirates were piling up the offerings they had plundered from the village. There were already enough wooden crates filled with offerings to form large hills or walls.
"Good! Very good!"
Pirate Captain Gael laughed heartily as he lifted jewels from a crate.
"As expected, a wealthy fiefdom offers treasures of a different caliber! Wahahahaha!"
"C-Captain!"
Gael turned his head. A pirate with a bluish bruise around his eye, seemingly hit by something, came running frantically.
"We need reinforcements! A massive counterattack from the city…!"
"What?"
Gael scowled. The navy should’ve already been neutralized.
"Leftover forces from Blue Harbor’s navy?"
"N-No, sir."
The pirate was drenched in sweat.
"It’s just civilians! A florist, tourists, a chef…"
"...Have you lost your mind or something?"
At that moment—clang!—the reporting pirate’s eyes rolled back as he collapsed with a thud. Behind him stood a man actually dressed like a chef, smiling while holding a frying pan.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Gahk!"
Behind the wall-like piles of crates, pirates were seen flying through the air.
Gael shot to his feet.
"What the hell is going on!"
Crraaash!
The stacked crates collapsed as they were struck by the flying pirates, and beyond them, villagers marched forward confidently.
They really were florist, chef, and tourists.
'Unbelievable. Was that report actually true?'
A woman in a swimsuit was seen grabbing a pirate by the collar and slapping him hard.
Smack! Smack!
Along with the sound, the pirate’s teeth scattered like pellets.
'I see.'
Gael’s expression turned serious. All of them were clad in something like bone armor.
This was the work of a necromancer. The only capable necromancer in Blue Harbor should be Finch. In that case...
"It’s you, the boy in the black uniform."
Behind the ordinary villagers stood a boy dressed in black, dripping with sweat. Gael clicked his tongue and stroked his long mustache.
"He was supposed to take care of things on that end, and now I’m left to clean up the mess. I should never have allied with those bastards!"
"That statement just now."
Simon grinned crookedly.
"Are you saying there was a traitor?"
"Hehehe! Think whatever you want!"
Before they knew it, the villagers had surrounded Gael.
All of them had gained a massive power boost from Simon’s Bone Armor, and their confidence was at its peak.
Even so, Gael calmly stood his ground, still fiddling with his mustache.
"Attack all at once!"
The villagers clad in Bone Armor charged in unison. At that moment, Gael’s eyes gleamed, and his muscles bulged.
Simon screamed in panic.
"Wa—...!"
KWAAAAANG!
With a massive shockwave, ten villagers were blasted away simultaneously. A few who took the hit head-on lost their Bone Armor and fainted on the spot.
"Hup!"
The chef quickly snuck in behind Gael and slammed the frying pan into the back of his head, but Gael blocked it with his arm without even turning around.
Crack!
The frying pan shattered against his bare hand.
"M-Monster…!"
"Move aside, mister!"
The swimsuit girl dashed in from the side and swung her palm.
SSMACK!
Gael’s head jerked sharply to the side. With a loud impact, a gust of wind burst outward, scattering sand in all directions.
Her slap had been powerful enough to knock out pirates’ teeth with a single hit, but—
"How cute."
Gael grinned as he brought his face closer, with only a red handprint left on his cheek.
"Is this what you kids call fan service these days?"
"Aah…!"
She stumbled backward in panic.
Gael, grabbing the hilt at his waist, exploded with mana as he drew his sword. The girl clenched her eyes shut and covered her head with her arms.
THUUUUM!
The massive wind pressure kicked up whirlwinds all across the beach. Crouched on the ground, she opened her trembling eyes.
"Ah!"
Before her, Simon stood with his leg extended straight out. He had deflected Gael’s sword-wielding arm with a kick.
His leg was shaking violently.
"I thought something was off, there was no Darkness."
Simon smiled, dripping with sweat. His gaze was fixed on the magical energy flickering around Gael’s sword.
"You’re the first aura user I’ve met."
"Hahaha! You should’ve come out from the start!"
Simon withdrew his leg and stepped back.
"Everyone fall back. Without a Core, this guy is too strong."
"Wait! I can still fight…!"
Simon waved his arm, instantly dispelling the Bone Armor from all the villagers.
Startled, they finally retreated a safe distance.
"I really hate necromancers."
Gael rolled his neck as if stretching.
"Once this job was done, I was planning to kill that bastard too."
It seemed he was referring to the traitor. That traitor was very likely a necromancer as well.
Simon could now roughly grasp how the situation was playing out.
Still, wanting to draw out more concrete information, he continued the conversation casually.
"Someone still uses aura in this day and age? You’re quite eccentric."
"Eccentric?"
Gael twirled his sword and replied.
"You necromancers, that’s your problem. Without proof, you draw lines between mainstream and fringe. You look down on aura or pure magic as outdated just because it's different from what you use."
"I’ve never looked down on it."
"Right. But the way you looked at my aura—like a zoo animal—it annoyed me."
Gael gripped his sword properly and held it upright over his chest in a formal manner. Then, he slammed his right foot into the sand and charged.
'Gauntlet Mode!'
Simon quickly pulled his right arm back. Bones snapped into place over it, and he threw a punch.
THWOOOOM!
The beach exploded like a fountain, sand flying up from where Simon and Gael clashed.
Clang!
Simon's gauntlet, armed with Darkness, and Gael's aura-infused sword clashed with sparks, locked in a power struggle.
"Khrrr! As expected…!"
Simon groaned as he barely pushed the sword away.
"That pose, sword over chest! That's the stance from the Baldwin Kingdom Knights!"
"Oh! So you recognize it!"
Clang!
Gael pushed hard, flinging Simon’s gauntlet away.
But he didn’t charge again immediately. He looked rather satisfied that Simon had recognized his technique.
"Why hide it? I was born into a noble knight family!"
'…A pirate?'
In a world dominated by necromancers, knightly families had fallen into decline.
That was the flow of the times, but young Gael had not given up.
He honed the sword and aura passed down through his family, and eventually passed the exam to enter a knight order in a major fiefdom. However—
"Out of 200 knights, 198 had opened their Cores and were necromancers."
A bitter smile played at Gael’s lips as he said this.
An ironic situation, Gael, a traditionalist, was ostracized within the knighthood for being outdated.
He was never even given a proper chance to prove his skills. He was excluded from major ceremonial parades simply because he couldn't blacken his sword.
It was hard for him to stand by and watch thugs with neither chivalry nor physical prowess ramble on about practicality and other nonsense.
Disillusioned, Gael eventually left the order and headed to sea, becoming the captain of three massive pirate ships.
"U-Unemployment-driven crime…?"
Hearing his story, Simon felt a complicated mix of emotions.
"A student of Keyzen, the pinnacle of necromancy, huh."
Gael raised his sword high above his head. Bluish mana rippled across the blade like waves.
"This is gonna be fun, killing you!"
And then he swung the sword in a wide, straight arc.
KRARARARARA!
The slash cleaved through the beach. Simon stepped back to dodge, and the nearby people screamed and scattered.
"You're not the first necromancer to come after me in the name of pirate suppression! But every last one of them lost their heads to my sword!"
Gael roared with laughter.
"You'll be next! Keyzen!"
He charged in like a madman, swinging his aura-infused sword. Wherever the blade passed, sand burst upward like waterfalls.
Simon dodged the third strike to the side and twisted his waist as he launched a punch.
Crack!
Gael’s face contorted, but he smiled through the blow and swung his sword again.
‘Tch!’
The blade grazed Simon’s chest. Keyzen’s uniform let out a sizzling noise, the internal defensive magic had activated.
"More of those dirty tricks, huh!"
Gael smirked.
"Only a body honed through pure effort determines a true warrior’s strength! No cheap tricks can win you a real fight!"
Simon lowered his stance to evade the swinging sword, planted a hand on the ground, and kicked upward with his right leg.
Crack!
Gael's head snapped back, but the sword in his hand didn’t stop.
‘He doesn’t even react to the impact?!’
Simon tumbled away across the Darkness and landed at a distance. Gael wiped the blood from his lips and grinned.
"An unyielding body and unbreakable will! A warrior needs nothing else but those two, no petty tricks!"
"Well, I do feel bad for your story."
Simon let out a long breath and stretched out his right arm.
"But that doesn’t erase the crimes you’ve committed."
SSHHHHHAAAAA!
Behind Simon’s extended arm, the sand rose like a towering beast.
He had secretly planted a golem core in the beach and slowly infused Darkness into it over time to create a mud golem.
Though in this case, it was more of a sand golem than a mud one.
GGRRRGHH!
What could barely be called an arm lifted from the sandy mass and came crashing down toward Gael. But once again, Gael didn’t dodge, it struck him directly.
However, unlike regular soil, the fine sand of the beach didn’t clump together and scattered upon contact with Gael’s body. Sand got into his eyes, nose, and mouth.
"Ptuh! Gah! Worthless garbage…!"
And in the moment his vision was obscured, Simon dashed in like a flash and grabbed the back of Gael’s head with his Bone Armor gauntlet, then leapt into the air.
‘Over there!’
Among the stolen goods taken by the pirates was a particularly sturdy safe. Simon drove Gael’s head straight into it.
CRAAAANG!
With a thunderous crash, the safe caved in. An ordinary person’s head would’ve been crushed and killed instantly, but Simon was familiar with Gael’s durability.
‘Not yet!’
Simon retreated, opening a subspace.
Potions he had made in Toxicology class spilled out, dousing Gael’s face and body. At the same time, Simon scattered nearby bones into the air.
‘Riot!’
The bones moved to smash the potions stuck to Gael’s body. His whole figure was soon drenched in paralysis and poisoning potions.
"A knight…!"
Gael’s legs trembled as he forced himself upright.
"Never falls!"
"Yeah, you certainly look the part."
"You necromancer scum! Using poison like cowards! Have you no shame!"
Gael shouted and charged again.
VROOOOOM!
He swung his sword straight at Simon. But Simon dodged it easily with a simple lean of his waist.
VWOOM!
This time a diagonal slash. Simon ducked and delivered a snapping counterpunch to Gael’s face with a CRACK, then stepped back.
"Khrrr!"
BOOOOM!
Simon dodged a wide horizontal swing and yanked on Gael’s collar, slamming his elbow into the pirate’s face. Blood and teeth flew from Gael’s mouth.
"Urgh! Gah!"
He staggered and clutched his forehead. The poison in his system blurred his vision, making it hard to stay upright.
"You bastard! What did you do to me?!"
Dealing with Gael, now poisoned, was a piece of cake.
Simon evaded the desperate swings of Gael’s sword and spun his body. His waist twisted, and his heel lifted.
CRRAAAACK!
A perfect spinning kick landed squarely on Gael’s face.
The sound of a hard shell cracking echoed as blood sprayed in all directions.
"I agree with your ideals, actually."
Gael’s body flew several meters and tumbled across the ground.
Simon calmly walked toward him.
"Chivalry, aura, swordsmanship, they’re not outdated relics. Not at all. However…"
Looking down at the now-unmoving Gael, Simon dusted off his hands.
"You, sir, are the outdated relic."
Superb.