REAPER SCANS
Swordmaster’s Youngest Son
[Translator – Junseo]
[Proofreader – Valirius]
Volume 10 Chapter 358 - Ozdok (5)
Jin, Murakan, Mary, and Tuven turned their heads at the same time to look at Ozdok. In particular, Murakan was blinking his large amber eyes repeatedly in amazement.
[What? Goodness, here you are again, talking nonsense to somehow survive. Hey, hey! Are you out of your mind?]
[Oh my, please listen to me just this once!]
At that point, someone came to Jin’s mind.
‘Is this Jet as a monster…? I’ve really seen it all now.’
Ozdok’s every gesture and action was a complete mirror of Jet.
The legendary monster that had shown its might before Tuven’s abrupt appearance was nowhere to be seen now. Only a ridiculous organism attempting to prolong its life, no matter how cowardly or lowly the means, remained.
[Goodness, goodness!]
Tears that looked like chicken droppings flowed from Ozdok’s eyes as he wailed in despair.
Perhaps someone who tolerated such cowardice would subconsciously forgive him.
However, this wasn’t the case for the great Black Dragon and the Runcandel Clan.
“Speak. I’ll lend an ear.”
Among them, Jin was the one who acknowledged the cries. Ozdok couldn’t help but feel like that voice was his lifeline to salvation.
[Kiddo, there’s nothing more to listen to. If a cored monster loses its core, it dies.]
“From this point forward, if you judge that what he’s saying is nonsense, just kill him. There’s no need to ask.”
Though that very same lifeline was a precarious one that could snap at any moment.
[Thank you!]
Ozdok began to explain while slowly observing the four people’s expressions.
[This is a real and true secret, but… Actually, I have two cores.]
Nothing about a monster with two cores was known throughout the world.
As such, Murakan couldn’t help but to glare at him as if he was going to trample him to death at any moment.
[P-Please calm down. If I was a monster with only one core, would I have been able to survive back then when I was causing a scene?]
Murakan, and even the heroes of a thousand years ago, found it strange after confronting Ozdok in his prime.
They found the immense strength he possessed to be strange. It was normal for even dragons to band together in the face of the average cored monster, but Ozdok was on a completely different level.
But they just thought of him as a special case. Just like how among humans and dragons, there were occasionally transcendent beings.
The actual source of Ozdok’s power, however, was precisely his second core.
Unlike other monsters, Ozdok, his form based on ‘human greed’, wanted more. He wanted more, even after all the conditions to become a cored monster were met.
Thus, without anyone knowing, he obtained two cores.
[Right, let’s say that you do have two cores. They’ll be in your body right? Take them out.]
[My other core isn’t in my body but somewhere else.]
Crack!
Tuven spun Ozdok’s chin with his elbow.
He was about to collapse but quickly regained his footing.
“That isn’t what the Guardian Dragon of Runcandel asked. He didn’t ask you about its whereabouts, he told you to bring it to him.”
[Yes sir…!]
Ozdok had planned to lie and say it was buried far away. Then he would try to use that to find an opportunity to escape.
Instead, he was forced to realize once again that the situation wasn’t such an easy one to escape. Ozdok’s only future was to helplessly spit out his second core and be captured by Tuven.
Ozdok took a deep breath and walked back to where he had first woken up.
‘I worked so hard to obtain this core…! Do I really have to hand it over like this?!’
As he dug for the core that was buried there, he had such thoughts. Ozdok was a monster with huge greed for not only gold and power, but also for his own survival. Of course, that was the case for all living beings.
After digging for a long time, Ozdok came back up to the surface carrying the core.
[Huh. You really have two?]
The core looked like a lump of gold the size of an apple. However, even to the untrained eye, it was emitting a light so intense that it was clearly something different from normal gold.
[It actually looks like a better core than the one you have inside you. Why did you hide it? Was it for insurance?]
Murakan immediately recognized the tremendous energy contained within the core. If Ozdok had kept this core within him as well, he wouldn’t have been defeated by Tuven so helplessly.
[My body’s too weak right now, so I wasn’t able to.]
[Ohoh. So you were planning to deal with the kids, eat gold outside to regain your strength, and then come back for it?]
[Yes, that’s right.]
[Hand it over. Not to me, to the kiddo. No, not that kiddo, this kiddo!]
Ozdok, who was heading toward Mary, then moved to offer Jin the core. His hands stretched out, trembling as if he really didn’t want it to be taken.
[If you’d recovered a bit, and then consumed that core, you’d be at sixty, maybe seventy percent of your strength. I can already tell how much of a mess you would’ve made.]
As Jin put the core in his chest pocket, Ozdok barely managed to shake off his regret to speak.
[Please… Make good use of it.]
It was funny to hear a monster say something like that. Jin simply nodded quietly rather than mock him. It wasn’t anything difficult to grant him that small mercy at least.
[And please don’t forget me, Ozdok. I hope one day you will repay the favor…!]
Indeed, Ozdok was a clever monster. He realized the one he needed the favor of if he wanted a glimmer of hope for the future wasn’t Murakan, but Jin.
Saying not to ‘forget’ him was because he wanted to be rescued from Tuven’s clutches at some point.
‘WIll Father and a Black Knight of the previous generation spare him?’
It was obvious that Tuven would capture Ozdok and take him away. Since it was true that he was significant enough to be reported back to Cyron.
Moreover, Ozdok retained some of his memories from a thousand years ago.
‘Judging by Murakan’s reaction, he doesn’t seem like someone who knows anything detailed about those times. But, if we pry the information out, we might find information that Runcandel or Father might need.’
Ozdok looked at Tuven with a sullen face. He seemed to be pleading to Tuven to take him away quickly.
It was because he was afraid that if Mary came rushing in again, demanding her prey back or what not, the situation would become even more troublesome.
“Sir Murakan, may I take my leave?”
Murakan nodded readily.
He’d actually grown quite fond of Tuven. He thought it was really great that the man acted respectfully, never arrogantly, despite being a former Black Knight.
[Uh, sure. Off you go.]
Tuven bowed. After a moment, he looked at Mary.
“You’ve grown stronger, 7th Flag-Bearer. I’m proud. But… You’ve also changed.”
“I’ve changed?”
“The old 7th flag-bearer never used to lie for the sake of achieving her goal.”
“What are you talking about, old man?”
“You would’ve drawn your sword the moment I spoke about taking the monster. The young lady that I remember definitely would have, that is.”
A lie for the sake of her goal.
Jin wasn’t the only one that was fully aware that Mary was bluffing to help him.
“If that's what you want, we can fight it out right now. To the death, or to the point of being crippled.”
Tuven snorted as if he was talking to his cute niece.
“I didn’t say that was such a bad thing.”
“You’ve become a lot more easygoing as well. Well, it has been a while since you retired.”
“If the flag-bearers had done better, I would’ve had a real retirement.”
Tuven carried a giant curved sword on his back.
It was a suggestive statement, but Mary didn’t react with anger. She agreed with what he said.
“Twelfth Flag-Bearer.”
“Yes, Sir Tuven?”
“It seems you have a question for me.”
It was obvious he did.
But he hadn’t been able to find the chance to ask, so he was grateful Tuven gave him the opportunity.
‘He’ll definitely ask about Lady Luna. Because Lady Luna holds him especially close to heart. Or he might ask about the black sea mission.’
When Cyron brought Luna on the expedition to the Black Sea, Tuven naturally had many conversations with her.
Aside from things related to the mission, Luna talked the most about her youngest sibling. As someone who knew her for a long time, he found that sight rather peculiar.
He also remembered that Vanessa Olsen, another former Black Knight taking part in the Black Sea mission, had mentioned Jin several times.
“How long were you here for?”
Jin asked a question that was completely different from what Tuven had expected.
“Until you revealed yourself, I couldn’t sense anything at all. I’m quite confident in my ability to sense energy, so it feels like I was beaten.”
“Beaten?”
“If you wanted to kill me, I don’t imagine you would have found it particularly difficult. I was simply wondering what manner of enlightenment it takes to hide one’s presence to that extent.”
Tuven’s gaze deepened under his black hood.
“Did I ask a question that was difficult to answer?”
“…No. However, the question was completely different from what I expected. To be honest, I thought that you would ask about the Black Sea mission or Lady Luna’s wellbeing.”
“I’ll learn about the Black Sea eventually when Father deems it necessary. While I am curious about Luna’s wellbeing, I believe that there’s a reason why she hasn’t contacted me.”
Tuven looked at Jin without answering for a few seconds, before replying.
“You are admirable as well, 12th Flag-Bearer.”
“You’re too kind.”
“The reason I was able to hide my presence isn’t because I have some innate talent like Young Lady Yona, or some stealth ability like the Nameless leader.”
Suddenly, Tuven lightly waved his hand in the air.
At that moment, Jin could feel the attributeless energy spreading through the air following the path of Tuven's hand.
‘Huh?’
It was a strange feeling. It felt as though the path was blocked. No matter how hard he focused his attention in that direction, he couldn’t feel anything.
It felt as though even the wind wasn’t blowing.
“It was just a small trick. I cast a kind of barrier in the air using aura. Because both you and the 7th flag-bearer were so focussed on the battle, you weren’t able to find anything unusual about the space in which I was hiding.”
It was a task that required too much skill to be called a mere trick.
‘I can also use my aura to block out small areas and distort the space like that. it would be quite tiring, though.’
Tuven, however, had encompassed most of the battlefield with his aura. The fact that he still dealt with Ozdok as if he were just a lowly thug was surprising.
“Your expression tells me I’ve given you some inspiration.”
“You’re right, Sir Tuven.”
“I’ll report to the patriarch that the person who discovered this monster was the 12th flag-bearer. If he deems the monster worthy, you will be compensated accordingly.”
Reaper Scans
Translator – Junseo
Proofreader – Valirius
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Read the webtoon on https://reaperscans.com/comics/4050-swordmasters-youngest-son/
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