Chapter 251: Count Kagehama (2) (1/2)

My apologies for the late post. The summer heat killed off most of my motivation to translate these days. I couldn’t even play games for that long because my laptop was overheating from the heat. Anyway, I’ll try to post another episode tomorrow to make up for it.

The 7 southern families were families of seven knights who assisted Dragon Slayer Carlos.

Carlos did not care about a person’s sex, race, age, or place of origin, and perhaps because of this, his seven knights were composed of diverse people as if this was on purpose.

Fighting Fang Queen, Janifer Ophand, was reborn as a powerful fighter when she awakened both the blood of the divine creature Fenrir and a divine animal.

Chris Kaolan was an elven knight born and raised in the Forest of Eternity.

Shiryuu Kagehama was a mysterious samurai who came from the far east.

And several others.

These various knights lost their lives in the bloody battle against Black Dragon Malekith, and their families were granted control of the southern region by the founder king, Lion D. Sälen, leading to the creation of the 7 southern families.

“W-what the-! What the hell is going on?!”

Count Kagehama’s second son, Bardo Kagehama, quickly covered with a white cloth the picture he was eagerly drawing and then raised his voice.

Because he suddenly heard a loud explosion.

“It’s a raid!”

“It’s an attack! Young master! Please run!”

Startled by the servant’s voices, Bardo reflexively looked out the window, but it was midnight and his room was on the third floor. As long as people didn’t stick closely to each other, nothing could be seen except for the moonlight.

“Aaah!”

“Stop them! They must be stopped!”

“Count!”

“Fire!”

Screams and shouts were heard from all over the place.

In the past, Shiryuu Kagehama was a samurai excellent enough to cut a hundred orcs with a single slash of his sword, but Bardo was not like his ancestor.

It had already been more than 300 years, so there wasn’t even any trace of his eastern origins on his face.

He had dark blonde hair, clear-cut features, and a fair complexion. Instead of grabbing his weapon, he hastily opened the door.

And it was at that moment.

“Father?”

“Go in! Hurry!”

It was Count Kagehama.

Although he was close to fifty, he inherited the swordsmanship of Shiryuu Kagehama and had a much stronger body than Bardo who was a young man in his twenties.

Count Kagehama pushed back into the room the profusely sweating Bardo who was about to leave the room, and quickly closed the door as he said.

“It’s a raid. We have to escape. We’ve strengthened our defense force, but it’s not enough.”

The 7 southern families knew each other well despite being on bad terms with each other.

As Scarlet had said, some of the 7 southern families had kept under wraps the fact that they had been attacked, but the others already knew the situation to some extent.

So Count Kagehama had stationed a much larger number of troops in his mansion than usual.

But this raid was too much.

It wasn’t because a small number of troops had sneaked in, but because dozens of them had openly crossed the wall.

Moreover, their fighting skills were unusual.

“Hurry!”

“B-but where?”

“This way, there’s a secret passage over here.”

“In my room?!”

“It’s a passage that only the family heads and heirs know. Hurry up and follow me.”

All the family heads of the 7 southern families who had been attacked so far were unharmed. Because the attacker’s targets were not the family heads but their treasures, which was tokens of Carlos.

But that had been the case so far.

It was possible that their purpose had changed because they had now attacked differently from before.

“Father, what’s that?”

“It’s the family’s token. Anyway, now is not the time to talk.”

Count Kagehama stuffed the fist-sized token that had the crest of Carlos and Shiryuu Kagehama into a pouch on his waist, and knocked on the wall according to a set order.

“Wow, for real?”

I didn’t know that there was something like this in my room.

It was when Bardo’s eyes sparkled at seeing the secret door that appeared between the walls.

Bang!

The door shattered with a roar, and five men in black masks entered the room in succession.

“Eeep!”

Bloodstains were clearly visible on the swords held by the masked men. It was obvious that they had killed several people on their way here.

As Bardo shuddered and stepped back, Count Kagehama spit out a curse and drew his sword.

“Damn it! What do you want?”

But instead of responding, the masked men focused their attention on the count’s waist pouch.

Apparently, they were aiming for Carlos’ token.

“Attack! Take the token!”

When the unidentified man standing at the back shouted, the four masked men in front simultaneously kicked the ground. Count Kagehama cursed again and tightly gripped his sword.

But it was at that very moment.

“F*ck bang!”

A huge roar engulfed the clear and fine voice.

The wall on the other side of Count Kagehama and Bardo exploded, creating a large hole, and the masked men fell down and screamed as they got covered by debris and hit by the shockwaves from the explosion.

“W-what the-?”

Count Kagehama looked at the new intruders in confusion.

There were two women, one dressed like a magician with a black butterfly-shaped mask and large rabbit ears headband, and the other was wearing a white mask that covered their entire face.

‘Who are they?’

The masked men were bizarre, but the women in front of them were equally suspicious.

Because these women showed up by destroying the walls in the first place.

But it was then. The trembling Bardo’s eyes suddenly lit up and he shouted.

“Kajsa! Is that you, Kajsa! You’ve come to rescue us!”

Count Kagehama’s eyes widened when Bardo shouted in delight.

Because the woman did indeed look like Kajsa when he heard his son’s words.

“Protect the count!”

“It’s an explosion!”

“They’re on the third floor!”

Amidst the loud noises echoing outside, Bardo opened his arms in joy, and Count Kagehama was surprised once again in a different sense.

Could it be that my son and Kajsa Ophand are in a romantic relationship?

“Hey! Bardo! Didn’t I say that I’ll kill you if you draw something like this again!”

But it wasn’t. Count Kagehama was surprised again at her angry shouts, and turned to the direction that the white-masked woman, Kajsa, was pointing before he swallowed hard. Because what was lying on the floor of the room was an obscene drawing with Kajsa’s face on it, though it was still unfinished since it had only been drawn a few minutes ago.

“No, this is…”

“You perverted b*stard! I’m killing you today, you hear me!”

As Kajsa drew closer with a smirk, Bardo stepped back and ran way through the secret door, and Count Kagehama raised his voice again out of urgency.

“Kajsa! I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but we’re in an emergency. Let’s get out of here.”

Their families knew each other well despite being on bad terms.

Having inherited the blood of beasts, the Ophand family were simple and ignorant.

They wouldn’t send out masked assailants like this as they were the kind to attack from the front and declare war as they raise their flags high.

So at least, the Ophand family wasn’t behind this.

Thus, it was fine if they ran away together, though it was strange that she suddenly appeared through a hole in the wall.

‘If need be, I’ll use her to buy time!’

Count Kagehama opened the secret door again and motioned for Kajsa to come.

But instead of Kajsa, the woman with a butterfly mask next to her was the one who spoke up.

“Count! That’s not it! You must go this way! We’re here to save you, Your Lordship!”

It was a voice that was clear and beautiful like an angel’s voice.

Count Kagehama was unknowingly moved at her sincere appeal, and headed towards the woman.

“Then we’re going through that hole?”

“Yes! Please come this way! Hurry!”

“Third floor! Go to the 3rd floor!”

“Euaaaa! Milord!”

It was noisy outside the room, loud enough to overpower the woman’s voice. It seemed that nearly all the defense forces outside were defeated.

“I-I’ll trust you!”

Count Kagehama approached the woman with the butterfly mask – Cordelia, who reached for the count’s waist pouch.

“As expected, it’s here.”

Carlos’ token.

Scarlet had come up with two hypotheses.

One was that Carlos’ token was kept in the treasury as per her preliminary investigation, and the other was that Count Kagehama took with him Carlos’ token.

‘Because a lot of families have become victims, and now, they’ve been attacked too.’

Since four out of seven families had already been attacked, he must have been more worried than usual.

And in the meantime, he was attacked too.

So if the token was within his reach, he was likely to run away with it.

‘Thus, let’s split up.’

Scarlet would go to the treasury. Cordelia and Kajsa would head towards the secret passage Count Kagehama was likely to use.

And the result was now.

Count Kagehama who had been stolen from looked at Cordelia with a bewildered face, and Kajsa immediately swung her fist.

“Ack!”

He was struck in his stomach after completely letting down his guard, and her punch was really powerful. Even if Count Kagehama was a swordmaster, he was unable to endure it.

“Kaaak-… ugh…”

Cordelia looked down at the fallen Count Kagehama who groaned before fainting. She said to Kajsa as she slightly narrowed her brows.

“Wasn’t that too much?”

“Wasn’t using your angelic voice to deceive him too much?”

“This way!”

The shouts and footsteps of the assailants drew closer. Cordelia quickly threw herself into the hole instead of questioning the other further, and Kajsa did the same after carrying Count Kagehama like a bag.

[Jude! We got it!]

Having thrown herself into the air, Cordelia sent a magic to Jude who was waiting on the roof.

Kajsa then grabbed Cordelia’s waist with one hand.

“Yosha~!”

One person on her side, and another on her shoulder.

Although Kajsa was carrying two people, her landing was very stable, and she looked up the night sky. Perhaps because of the bright moon, she was much stronger than usual.

[Cordelia, I’ll tell Scarlet then. First-]

“Evade!”

It was the moment when Jude, who was relaying a message to Scarlet and Cordelia on the roof, suddenly jumped from his spot and shouted.

Shwaaaaaa-!

A bright red and gigantic sword rushed toward Cordelia and Kajsa.