Chapter 15: Loyalty and Hatred

In this world, humans weren’t the only ones who could utilize the mana within their bodies—mages.

Even ordinary people with no spellcasting talent at all could use mana to enhance their own strength, speed, and even senses, reaching levels beyond the norm.

However, if one’s strength was insufficient to control this “gift,” this inefficient method of utilization would place enormous stress on the body.

After a short burst, it often led to a long period of weakness.

In other words, unless it was a desperate situation, no one would fully burn the mana in their body for a temporary boost in power.

But to defeat a mage of unknown strength and a vengeful stalker lurking in wait, Morales had no other choice right now.

The burly man’s entire body emitted scalding steam, and his skin began to faintly take on an unnatural flush.

He seemed to be enduring immense pain—that rugged face characteristic of northerners twisted almost beyond recognition amid the rising steam.

“You’re… dead!”

Morales roared, his grip on the axe’s handle creaking, making one wonder if it would snap completely in the next moment.

At that instant, a streak of eerie light rapidly approached from behind Morales.

“Get lost!” 

He bellowed, the giant axe weightless in his hands, completing the process from charging to swinging in an instant.

Pfft!

A spray of blood flew.

“Urgh!”

Dona clutched his shoulder and retreated several steps, cold sweat suddenly pouring from his forehead.

But Morales had no intention of letting him go—the giant axe rose high and slammed down heavily.

“Dona, fall back! I’ll handle him!”

Seeing the situation turning dire, Ed charged forward directly while shouting loudly.

The sword in his hand danced deadly arcs in the night, forcibly compelling Morales to abandon his attack on Dona.

The lanky man finally escaped.

Gritting his teeth, he retreated repeatedly until reaching a safe distance, then forcefully tore a strip of cloth from his clothes, quickly and skillfully bandaging himself.

“Nord, hold on! I’ll come help you right away!”

Morales, seeing Dona slip away to dozens of meters out right under his nose, had a flash of anger on his face.

But the golden-haired sword-wielding kid in front of him was still clinging to him stubbornly—if he wanted to deal with Dona, he had to solve this troublesome guy first.

“This is your own doing!”

Morales swung the giant axe without holding back anymore.

Several times, the sharp iron-gray protrusions on it grazed perilously close to the boy’s nose tip, making Dona, waiting for an opportunity in the rear, feel a surge of anxiety.

A few passersby seemed to hear the commotion of the two fighting and boldly glanced over.

“Scram!” Dona brandished the short blade in his hand.

They immediately fled in panic.

Dona turned his gaze back to the two, unwillingly clenching his teeth.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help immediately—in the death web formed by sword light and axe wind, with his strength, going in now would be pure suicide, and he might even hinder “Nord.”

Moreover, the situation didn’t seem that bad.

Several times, he vaguely saw a few lines of blood splatter from the center of the battle.

But that definitely wasn’t “Nord” getting injured, because the kid still looked completely at ease.

On the contrary, it was Morales—

“You annoying bastard!” he was roaring.

But contrary to the imposing sound of his voice, the burly man’s speed in swinging the giant axe had slowed considerably compared to before.

As time ticked by second by second, the steam and flush on his body seemed to be slowly dissipating, gradually vanishing along with that sudden surge of power.

Finally, after another clash, the burly man bellowed angrily, exerting force fiercely to drive the boy back more than a dozen steps.

But that was all.

With his speed and power greatly diminished, Morales was no longer a match for “Nord.”

In the next exchange, almost effortlessly, “Nord” slashed several deep wounds into the man.

Morales was about to lose.

Realizing this, Dona’s mind inevitably stirred.

Though his shoulder was injured, in Morales’s current state, he might as well try a sneak attack.

He gripped the short blade tightly, his body leaning slightly.

“Wait a bit longer.” 

The golden-haired boy suddenly spoke. 

“He still has some strength left.”

The burly man, hearing this, laughed in extreme anger.

“Ha, what do you take me for? A beached fish? Or a wild dog struggling before death?”

“I get it—you’re waiting for me to kneel, lick your toes, and beg for mercy?”

The man glared with wide eyes.

“I’ll tell you, impossible! Even far in Nordvian, I, Morales, am a warrior of Koshnia! His Highness’s warrior! Even in death, I’ll die honorably in battle, not grovel like a wild dog at someone’s feet, begging for their forgiveness and mercy!”

Koshnia.

Ed remembered that was a small northern country, but due to the extremely chaotic political state and years of war in the north, it had vanished from the map over a decade ago.

“Even the country you pledged loyalty to is gone, huh? How pathetic.” 

He glanced at Morales with a hint of pity, then thrust his sword at the opportune moment.

This strike directly pierced through the man’s thigh.

But compared to the physical pain, it was clearly Ed’s pity just now that was more lethal to this burly man.

“What do you know? What do you know?” Morales roared in agony, standing ramrod straight despite the injury to his leg, even swinging his giant axe impenetrably to block Ed’s next few strikes.

“A high-and-mighty mage like you—how could you understand what someone like me is thinking!”

“They demanded three thousand gold coins from me—just three thousand gold coins, and I could rescue His Highness from that dark, damp, filthy underground cage! Koshnia wouldn’t be utterly destroyed!”

“For these ten years, I’ve desperately earned money, not letting even a single copper coin slip by! All for the day when Koshnia could reappear on that frozen soil!”

“Is that your reason for killing Argo and Mia? Just because they luckily picked up a gold coin?”

Dona suddenly questioned sharply.

He could no longer endure the anger in his heart, fiercely hurling the short blade in his hand at the burly man.

“Yes, that’s right!” The man swatted the short blade away with one axe strike, glaring at Dona with blood-red eyes. 

“Even a single copper coin means the hope of rescuing His Highness grows by a fraction! Let alone a gold coin! An ownerless gold coin!”

He grinned viciously.

“Those two idiots—if they’d just handed over the money obediently, they could have lived. But until their dying breath, they clung to the gold coin, refusing to let go, muttering something like ‘No, no, this is for Big Brother.’ How ridiculous! Didn’t they know that once a person dies, they have nothing left?”

“Ah… ah…”

That was Dona suppressing his pain with all his might.

“Mo! Ra! Les! Don’t you feel even a shred of guilt in your heart!”

“Guilt? Why should I feel guilt toward those ant-like guys?” 

Morales laughed heartily. 

“Everything I did was for His Highness, for Koshnia! From beginning to end, the only one I’ve let down is His Highness alone!”

The sky finally began to rain.

Fine droplets fell on the lanky man’s forehead, leather armor, short blade, then slowly flowed down along the smooth or rough surfaces.

Dona hung his head, and when he lifted it again, it was impossible to tell if it was rain or tears on his face.

He ground his teeth with a creak, flames of rage burning fiercely in his eyes.

“I will absolutely slaughter you with my own hands!” He said word by word, with bone-deep hatred.

“Then come try!”

The man lifted the axe again.

Even with the backlash from mana exhaustion leaving him physically drained, even with the cold rain and bleeding wounds rapidly sapping his body heat, he tried to make himself look like he still had strength left.

“Don’t cower behind someone like a turtle! Come fight me fair and square!”

Ed furrowed his brow.

Morales’s words carried intentional provocation—he wasn’t sure if Dona could hold back now.

But Dona just glanced coldly at Morales, without any extreme actions.

“Nord, whether it’s that witch or the money on this bastard, you can take it all after everything’s over.” Dona spoke icily. 

“But I have one requirement—no, a request.”

Ed relaxed and nodded.

“Go ahead, I’m listening.”

The lanky man bowed his head slightly.

“The final blow—please leave it to me.”

“No problem.” Ed agreed almost without hesitation.

“Coward!” Morales spat viciously. 

“A spineless wimp like you—in Koshnia, you’d only be fit to shovel horse shit in the stables!”

Dona didn’t even want to look at him.

“I’m not like you.” 

He drew another short blade, speaking coldly. 

“I still have to live on, carrying Argo and Mia’s shares with me. And you! You bastard who couldn’t atone even if hacked to pieces! You deserve to be utterly destroyed in history along with your pathetic country!”

Morales was instead ignited with rage by these words.

“How dare you, you coward! Watch me split you in two!”

He raised the giant axe to charge forward and chop off Dona’s head.

But suddenly, the sound of something rapidly flying came from behind.

Morales abruptly realized he had made a mistake—a fatal mistake.

“Idiot! You actually left your back to a stronger enemy!” 

Dona sneered. 

“Where’s all your adventurer experience? Fed to the dogs? Or has your brain turned to mush? Oh—maybe you never had a brain, because your head is full of dog shit!”

Morales had no time for him.

The man twisted sharply, his pupils contracting fiercely upon seeing that incoming wind blade.

In the next instant, the wind blade slammed viciously into the giant axe Morales had hastily raised.

“Urgh ah!!!”

The burly man let out a wretched scream that Dona had never heard before, yet found immensely pleasing.

Thud!

Clang!

The sharp blade condensed from wind sliced through flesh and bone without hindrance.

Morales’s right arm, along with the giant axe, fell to the ground.

“No! I can’t fall here! His Highness, His Highness is still waiting—”

Another thud.

This time, the left arm.

That burly man, who had been so imposing and overwhelming just moments ago, had both arms severed by two incoming wind blades in a matter of breaths, completely losing the ability to wield a weapon.

“This can’t be…” 

Morales stared blankly at his empty hands, as if feeling no pain.

He slowly lifted his head, watching the spell’s radiance on the boy’s sword opposite him fade gradually, finally vanishing without a trace as it was sheathed.

Just like the country he deeply loved.

“So this is… a mage…” he murmured, suddenly kneeling to the ground. “Your Highness, I…”

Footsteps rapidly approached from behind.

The lanky man, face full of rage, raised his short blade high.

“Morales, pay the price for what you’ve done!”

***

Morales was dead.

Dona had stabbed him through the heart from behind, and he fell to the ground, twitching in death.

Dona seemed to have gone mad.

He knelt in the midst of blood and rainwater, laughing skyward.

“Argo, Mia, did you see? I did it! I killed that bastard! Your big brother avenged you…”

He laughed and laughed, then suddenly cried, repeating only:

“I did it, I did it, I avenged you…”

Ed pulled up his hood, silently watching the man cry in the rain, laugh, and finally fall into deathly silence.

The rain grew heavier, as if trying to wash away all hatred, regret, and suffering, leaving only the most beautiful side to the world.

But some things would disappear, while others would linger in certain people’s hearts for a lifetime.

The man seemed to have finally vented all his emotions.

He slowly stood up, rummaged all the money from Morales’s body, packed it in a bag, and tossed it to Ed.

“I took a quick look—probably a few dozen gold coins.” He hung his head. 

“Take it all, it’s what you deserve.”

“Do you need me to help with anything else?”

“No.” The man shook his head. 

“You’ve done enough already. This is between him and me, after all—the rest, leave it to me.”

With that, he dragged Morales’s corpse alone, venturing into the heavy rain toward outside the city.

Watching the lanky man’s receding back, Ed sighed silently.

The hatred between Morales and Dona should be considered settled now.

Being an adventurer didn’t seem so easy after all, he thought.

Ed no longer considered Morales and Dona, or whether the adventurer profession was too dangerous.

Now, he had a more troublesome fellow to deal with.

Ed looked at the girl he had bound.

She had been sitting in the rain for a little while now, her clothes and hair almost completely soaked.

The girl looked at him too, blinking.

“Can you let me go now?” she asked innocently. “It’s so cold here, I want to go home.”

“What do you think?”

Ed smiled faintly, raising the sword in his hand.