REAPER SCANS
Swordmaster’s Youngest Son
[Translator – Junseo]
[Proofreader – Valirius]
Volume 10 Chapter 404 - The Banquet at Sword King Castle (9)
The crimson gem he took out from his chest pocket shone brightly.
[Myaaaa!]
As Jin climbed onto Shurry’s back, Ron created a path.
Whoosh—!
Ron’s massive sword aura swept through all the monsters in front in a single breath. Blood and flesh spurted like a fountain, and Shurry ran through.
Murakan, who saw that sight, descended in an instant and transformed into a human. It looked like a black wind was rushing toward Jin.
“Kiddo, where are you going?”
“I have to find Beradin.”
“Why?”
“Kinzelo is a terrorist group. Their goal is to create hostility between Hairan and Zipfel.”
Murakan tilted his head, then had a look in his eyes that said he understood.
“Mm, I get the gist of it.”
“Did you see Beradin from above?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Go back up and check. If you see him, let me know right away. And if you don’t, keep control of the sky.”
“Are you saying you’re going to find him alone? Who knows what kind of monster will pop out next.”
“Since they can’t leave behind evidence, it won’t be someone on the level of Berakt. And if I can’t handle the situation alone, I’ll send you a signal.”
“Fine.”
Murakan reverted back to his original form and soared into the sky.
After watching for a while, no other signal came from Murakan. Beradin had already left the battlefield.
‘There were terrorists in the audience as well. Beradin must’ve moved to avoid them.’
Who was it sitting near Beradin?
The masked imperial family were closest. As the next head of the Zipfel Clan, obviously Beradin could stand shoulder to shoulder with the imperial family even while in Vermont.
It was most reasonable to assume that he was attacked by them and fled.
At the front of the battlefield where the outer wall had collapsed, there were Jin, Lata, and Ron. There was no way that Beradin could’ve escaped through there, as that was the only route out, aside from the inside passage.
‘The Kinzelo bastards took advantage of the fact that the imperial family always wears masks.’
Shurry changed direction.
He became convinced that he should first look inside the castle rather than at the outer wall.
But he couldn’t use the normal passages. They were still completely full with warriors evacuating the general public.
Jin wrapped his aura around his sword without hesitation.
Rumble—!
With a single slash of the sword, the thick wall was cut like a sheet of paper.
The warriors at the back were unable to clear the way because of how exhausted they were from dealing with the incoming monsters while protecting the guests, and being afraid to damage Sword King Castle.
Thud!
The wall that was cut into a square fell down, making a heavy noise.
“Move through the passage!”
Jin left the dueling grounds first after saying those words
The inside of the castle was equally chaotic. Servants were running around like crazy, and one by one, living golems appeared, flowing in from the outer wall.
Just as a living golem was about to attack a group of servants, Shurry leapt forward and swung her forelegs.
As the monster’s head exploded, the servants screamed, their faces turning pale.
“Thank you…!”
“Have any of you seen Beradin?”
“Wh-who did you say?”
“Beradin Zipfel. He has long white hair and is wearing a white coat.”
“I haven’t.”
“Sir Jin. We haven’t seen Sir Beradin, but the ceramics storage in the castle is in chaos.”
They were servants who tended to the storage.
“Tell me more.”
“We heard that there was a terrorist attack at the dueling grounds and tried to spread the news to other people. But then all of a sudden, there was an explosion in the storage and we were running away from that just now.”
“I don’t know for sure, but it seemed like the explosion was caused by magic. The guards went in to check, but we haven’t heard anything since.”
He felt like he’d found a clue from the moment he stepped in the castle.
“In the storage, you said?”
“I’ll follow you and tell you where it is myself.”
“I’m not confident I can handle this while also protecting you. Draw me a rough map.”
The servant quickly took out a piece of paper and a pen from his chest pocket and drew a map.
“It’s here.”
“Other warriors will come soon, so don’t move and wait here.”
He followed the map into the ceramics storage.
The ceramics storage was one of the largest storages in Sword King Castle. A warehouse that held more than 90 percent of the ceramics collected by Ron and the previous clan heads over a hundred years.
The entrance was completely destroyed.
Sparks were visible everywhere.
‘It’s not an ordinary fire, there are traces of fire magic. Magic above 9-stars, at that.’
Beradin’s main attribute was fire.
As they went inside, shards of ceramic shattered under Shurry’s footsteps.
And there were also traces of magic other than fire.
Earth, ice, lightning.
And darkness.
There were black lumps of mana rolling around, resembling black marbles. He’d never seen dark magic before, but if that wasn’t dark magic, then he didn’t know what else it could be.
‘The Dark Magic Association was completely destroyed, so where did Kinzelo get mages like that from?’
There was no way that renowned archmages would’ve participated in an attack on Hairan. And mages like Chukon Tolderer, Susan Rilistar, and Kidard Hall were already dead.
Either Kinzelo had more mages that were unknown, or they had help from a third party.
Finding Beradin was the priority right now. It was clear that there was already a fierce battle going on, so time was of the essence.
All that could be seen was broken ceramic and debris, and it seemed that Beradin and the Kinzelo terrorists had already left.
‘There was no sign of battle outside the entrance. There’s another passage leading inside the ceramic storage.’
The map also showed a passage inside the ceramice storage.
It was a long, dark passage. Even after riding Shurry for a while, the path continued on.
The reason Jin stopped Shurry while running was because he discovered a dead body. The three corpses were those of the warriors escorting Beradin that he had seen at the banquet hall.
Of course those three weren’t the only ones he had with him, but it was clear Beradin was in a difficult situation.
As soon as he exited the passage, he saw a drain. The passage in the ceramic storage was one of the escape routes in case of emergency.
Behind Jin, a dark sky soaked in shadow energy could be seen. Distant explosions and shock waves from the battlefield indicated that the battle was still raging.
Which direction should he go?
He couldn’t see any footprints. And there were too many obstacles to find the path using earth or wind magic.
While he thought for a moment, he saw a single line of red light in the distance.
The familiar light that appeared when the ring of erupting flames was cast was clearly Beradin’s magic.
And as soon as he saw the magic, Jin had to be sure that Beradin was already ‘injured’.
This was because it felt unstable and weak compared to Beradin’s magic that had already reached 9-stars.
“Go, Shurry!”
[Myaa!]
He confirmed that Beradin was in the plains.
Beradin, along with his two remaining guards, were fighting against gray-robed mages and their living golems.
“Beradin!”
Beradin turned his head at Jin’s voice.
“…Jin?!”
Bzzz—!
The living golems surrounding Beradin were blown away by the lightning strike that Jin had dropped.
Jin used that moment to check on Beradin’s condition.
Blood flowed from his lips and his whole body was covered in wounds. Fortunately, there were no fatal injuries, but the bleeding was so severe that if the battle had continued, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d died.
“I knew you’d come.”
Beradin said with a faint smile.
Those words felt strangely meaningful.
“Knew what, you idiot. Here you are getting beaten up by those small fry.”
“They’re pretty strong. To the point that I can’t believe there’s a mage who’s this strong that I don’t know about. I really thought they were my aunt’s subordinates at first.”
At that moment, a question crossed Jin’s mind.
‘Is Beradin really in his normal state?’
Even if he wasn’t, Jin would still save him, but one strange thing suddenly occurred to him.
Why didn’t Beradin send a distress signal once during the entire time Jin took to find him?
Even if he were attending a banquet and didn’t have a flare, he could’ve easily sent a signal with magic.
Even if he was in a panic after being attacked by those disguised as the imperial family in the audience, he was still able to scream. There were certainly many other warriors on the side where Beradin was that could’ve helped him.
‘If his mind is being manipulated, then this situation was created intentionally. Since Hairan being put in a predicament will benefit Zipfel in many ways.’
And even the traces of magic that remained throughout the ceramic storage, when he thought about them again, there was something artificial about them, as if they had been left there on purpose.
In particular, the traces of dark magic that had been left almost proudly remained in his mind.
It was as if it was used as evidence that Beradin had struggled alone against dark mages. In Sword King Castle, a place overflowing with warriors.
But Beradin, who sighed in relief upon seeing Jin, was undoubtedly the familiar white-haired idiot.
‘I can’t be certain. Just like at the banquet hall.’
Jin turned around and looked at the gray robes.
The gray robes paused for a moment at Jin’s appearance, and although they weren’t visible behind the hood, they seemed to be confused.
“Beradin Zipfel.”
“Yeah, Jin?”
“Why didn’t you send a distress signal?”
“I didn’t get a chance to. I was attacked from the audience and had my hands full trying to escape.”
It was the answer he expected.
And from that Jin concluded that Beradin’s mind was, at the very least, not ‘completely’ normal.
“I, Jin Runcandel, the 12th flag-bearer of Runcandel, have come to rescue you under the special command of Sir Ron Hairan, the master of Sword King Castle. Remember that fact. Do you understand?”
“…Okay. So I owe a debt to Sir Ron.”
“Get yourself together with your guards. I’ll deal with them.”
As Jin raised his energy, the small stones on the plain began to rise into the air. The gray robes were also emitting mana again.
‘They’re definitely weaker than the Wraith Corps.’
But still, there were four mages who were capable of mimicking the Wraith Corps.
‘If they really planned to kill Beradin, the gray robes in Sword King Castle would’ve targeted him as well. They sent only enough men so that Beradin could fight alone and barely escape, on purpose.’
If the four mages were so weak that Beradin could fight them and still be able to escape.
It meant they were no match for Jin.
As long as he was careful about the dark magic that he knew nothing about.
“Don’t even think about returning alive.”
As Sigmund began to shine, mana began to swirl and gather around Jin’s palm.
The legacy of Archmage Kidard Hall.
It was mana used to force a mana overload.
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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