Hero without Blood or Tear

Hero’s Hunt (4)

An honorable title that was only given to those who deserve it.

I had a head start because of the undead in front of me, I was able to take him on with the undead.

This was a difficult situation. I held the severed head to the side and everyone flinched.

“Philip. Your men look out for you, but I think that Jim would be interested in getting a nice position up in the empire.”

Suddenly Jim himself insulted Philip.

“This mercenary has the audacity to assassinate you!”

In response, Philip became angry and pulled out his long sword and rushed at Jim. But….

Clang!

With a loud sound the long sword of Philips was blocked. That was because a dozen swords crossed the path right in front of him. The Vampires took out their long swords to protect me.

“This cowardly idiot!”

“A coward? This is the true strength of Jim that is being displayed through the Undead. Philip if you are going to fight with the sword and speeches, Jim will fight you with the Vampires.”

“Lets us fight one on one! You and me!”

“You don’t even know what to say.”

Honestly, there was no way that he would win in a one on one fight. None whatsoever , due to the wounds that he had sustained from the fight with the Devil Pajemut, Philip wasn’t completely healed and the difference between our levels was extreme.

Of course, it would be a different story if there were countermeasures.

“Philip, it is not that you are an enemy that I couldn’t handle in a one on one fight. This is definitely not that. Okay, if you manage to win against me, I’ll let you get out of here with your soldiers.”

“What did you say!”

Philip was considering my proposal. A fight between me and this foolish man. I couldn’t suggest this in normal circumstances but this could be a way to stop this before it gets worse.

“Lord, will you really let him go if that man wins?”

The Vampire that was beside me spoke out with a dissatisfied voice. I pointed out with my finger towards the prince and answered him.

“Could that happen? It is just something to stir him up. If Jim can’t manage to do it, then you will have to take revenge.”

“….. pretty cowardly, my Lord.”

“Jim is the main reason for fighting. You need to get used to it.”

“Should we all rush him? There are no rules about using our numbers.”

“Hmm… reasonable enough but this isn’t fun. Listen, it is more important for Jim to have his vengeance.”

“Ho. That is, okay. But I feel like I should take a minute.”

“Your muttering is too loud. You seem to have a lot of words in you. Enough words, can I have a pistol? I’ll even use a cannon.”

At my words, everyone around me didn’t know what to do.

“Doesn’t anyone have a handgun? The lord wants it.”

Then a wheellock pistol arrived. I took the pistol I asked for and put gunpowder in it.

“Philip. I know that I had promised you but in truth, Jim is a very friendly man.”

I put a bullet into the muzzle and then rammed it in. Next I turned the wheel with the help of the spanner, and pulled down its dog* to the back. With that the loading of the pistol seemed to be done.

“Okay, Please give it to our dear Philip.”

Philip looked at the Vampire who was handing him the pistol with astonishment in his face.

“What kind of joke is this? I do not need this to slaughter your troops!”

“Cluck cluck!”

At Philips words I clicked with my tongue.

“Something to slaughter, slaughter. Speak like a gentleman. Philip, be careful with the tone that you choose to speak……., maybe you don’t know who is a noble and who is a mercenary here.”

“Shut up! You bastard!”

“You’re really a barbarian.”

“That’s it! Why the hell did you give me this f*cking thing!”

I pointed to Philip’s legs.

“What? What?”

Philip couldn’t understand me and frowned. So I explained.

“Shoot at your thigh.”

“What did you say?”

He didn’t understand it and at his words my heart turned cold. From then on my attitude took a drastic turn.

“Do my words not ring a bell?”

“What about my thigh? What do you mean?”

“You mean to tell me you don’t remember shooting Lady Walpurgis in her thigh and running away from there? You bloody shit!”

At that moment Philip felt like he was stung.

“My men and I vowed to not let you get away after I saw that absurdity that day! How could you leave behind a struggling knight after shooting her in the thigh with a pistol!”

“Heh…”

Philip, who was actually a shameless man, didn’t know what to say in that moment of confrontation.

“Since my men still have a little conscience, they continue to think about you. If you do not want to do that you can stick with one on one.”

Philip’s face showed confliction. I knew that the one on one would be a bit too overwhelming for him now. But, there was just no way he would choose to shoot his thigh with a pistol. So I threw in a little bait.

“See this, Philip.”

I looked at the healing potion that I had received from Hessax.

“This is a very precious healing potion. Let’s say that if you win against me in the one on one battle, then you get to have this.”

Shlosh. Shlosh.

At the sound of the healing potion, he seemed to have been tempted.

“However, if you chose to fight nevertheless, then your whole group will be annihilated. How about looking for a breakthrough?”

“You are like the devil himself!”

“No confidence?”

“Like I would be frightened of a guy like you! Good! Whatever it is that you are thinking, I’m just afraid that I will lose the chance to pull out that sneaky tongue of yours!”

“Then, shoot your thigh.”

“Gasp…”

Philip hesitated. It looked like it wasn’t that easy for him to shoot his thigh. But thinking that there was going to be no other way, he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

“Aaah!”

The fire sparks burst out into the thigh and smoke came out from the back of it. It did avoid hitting the artery, but it seems like this would make it difficult to fight in a battle.

“Heh! So, let’s fight!”

“Good. There is no suitable reason why I would renege on a promise I made to a noble.”

I spoke and then took off my cape. The vampire beside me quickly caught the cape before it touched the ground. I walked in front of Philip and then drank two bottles of magic potion.

“Hah! Looks like strong magic potions! Unfortunately it is no use no matter how many magic potions you drink when going against a guy like me.”

Philip laughed a little and pulled out his long sword. It looked wonderfully dangerous. Almost like a wounded beast. It could be in this condition because of the fight against Devil Pajemut.

Shring.

I also pulled out my long sword. Because of the wound on the Philip’s thigh, this could end pretty quickly. The blood was still flowing.

“Die!”

I shrugged my shoulders at the way the Philip moved. So he frowned.

“Surprised at my skill so you want to block?”

I didn’t answer. No, this wasn’t a situation that I had to reply in. Instead, I just played dumb, so Philip came forward with a condescending attitude to attack.

“Aha!”

With great skill he swung his long sword. I knew about this method of his very well. This was because I concentrated on these techniques a lot in the past.

First of all, the Iron Prince-Elector had a glimmer of hope for survival in his future, because at the moment his sword came into contact with mine, I realized I knew his method and technique very well.

The reasons why his moon fencing technique is wonderful is the following, and any person who knows the craft couldn’t help admiring this:

• The pathway of this sword is the shining moon in the night sky.

• The sword’s blade is faint like the moon’s shadow.

My opponent took the first strike in moon fencing and was able to counter attack and defend. At this moment, it seemed it was time for me to die in the mysterious shadow of the moonlight.

If it was possible, how could moon fencing fail?

It was simple. One just needed to escape.

“This man! Such a coward!”

Philip had a brilliant sword, but there would not be much if the opponent was me, and he didn’t come up behind me even when I tried to escape. If he was trying to stab and threatening to cut, he wouldn’t try to cross his opponent’s sword, and kept repeating the same again and again.

I definitely need training in fighting against this technique, and it wasn’t so easy to assess the movement of the blade that was coming at me.

From him and me the difference was pretty hard to deal with, this wasn’t something that couldn’t be dealt with. However, it was different now. That was because he had a wound on his leg.

The wound on his leg was because he had abandoned Walpurgis when she was in a similar state, but I kept the difference of our sword skill in my mind before considering anything. Now we were holding long swords in our hands in a one on one duel, because this was how it was planned.

If I say it like that it sounds like a bad thing. Honestly it was because I was great when it comes to a sword, and I could be trusted with it.

And it would be tough to run away if there was a wound on the leg. If someone learned the sword skills like I did it would definitely be tough to get away. It seemed like Philip was getting tired now.

“Hah! Huh!”

Philip was breathing heavily now. The blood was still flowing from his wound.

“Cough!”

Even so the sword skills of Philip were stronger than mine, and this was because he had gathered  experience for a 100 years.

“You wanted to compete with swords! But it looks like cowardice is growing in you!”

At Philip’s words I chose to speak nothing, and I didn’t need to either. I had to pretend because I needed to get into character, so I didn’t need to open my lips to him. From before till now, I was just purposefully sword fighting in this manner.

Clang!

As both of our swords met with each other this sound came out. Although it was just for a brief moment that our swords clashed, Philips expression contained a kind of bliss on it.

I caught it at last!

That expression needed no words. As both the swords clashed with one another, it was a matter of his sword taking control of the opponent’s sword. There was nothing better than this position for any swordsman. So I would run away.

But now we were stuck close together. Philip was sure that he was going to win. Well, that wasn’t such a misjudgment. If only I was not prepared for this beforehand.

“Ptui!”

From my mouth that sound came as I spit on Philip’s face. This was not something that happened in the spur of the moment. Philip turned green as the liquid touched his face.

“Kyaaah!”

He wiped it off his face after screaming out. It seemed like it hurt his eyes. This  was because of the poisonous tooth I got from Duke Hurukuma.

By any chance the poison could have gone into his mouth. Well it looked like it but I wasn’t sure. Because of this I spoke to ask. I opened my mouth.

‘Are you alright? It seems like you were poisoned?”

The one of the Vampires looked at the antidote. Before fighting I drank two magic potions, which were the antidote, as a precaution.

Usually before a match most people will go ahead and drink the antidote beforehand. As I was sword fighting and my flesh isn’t undead, I would be dead without precautions.

“Aahhh! You cowardly bastard!”

Philip seemed to be in pain because of the poison as he kept on coughing continuously. Even so he stood straight with the sword in his hand.

“You wicked bastard! Cough! I won’t forgive you!”

Though he wasn’t facing forward, he did put the sword up in the right direction.

Clack!

The sword rung. However, what I did was very simple. After avoiding the sword I withdrew a little backwards, and I pushed my palm in that direction. With the ability of my armor, I used the shadow explosion.

Bang!

With a small sound the explosion took place.

“Argh!”

Philip kept on screaming and screaming from it.

“If you have such a temper, then you should probably go towards the devil. You foolish one.”

I took out a rope from my belongings. It was something that I had received from the Devil Hessax. The rope on the ground started to wrap itself around Philip like a snake.

I looked at the image in front of me and threw down my gauntlet. Then I folded my sleeve and spoke.

“Give me a dagger.”

“Yes, my Lord”

One of the Vampires took out a dagger in a short moment and gave it to me. I took it from him and then pointed it towards Philip. The rope tied itself on to Philip because he was weak after the poison, and he was wriggling like a worm because of the pain.

“Lord.”

But at that time a vampire called out to me and I turned around to face him.

“What is it?”

“What should I do about them?”

The vampire had asked me about the guys who were left in Philip’s group. They were filled with fear, and they would even roll around like a dog at the orders of their Master without speaking. Looking at them I could do nothing but laugh.

“What? You didn’t kill them yet?”

At those words the Vampires overwhelmed Philip’s men.

“Kuahh!”

“Save me! Aah!”

The Vampires tore apart the men. With the great amount of power they harbored within, the Vampires ripped off their legs, and then drank their blood.

As it was the bodies of humans a lot of blood spilled from them. It flowed out everywhere. Little by little the blood was flowing until it reached all the way to my feet. I tried not to step on the blood that was flowing. Almost like a human who never had a speck of blood on them.

“Hah…… hah…… cough! How could you do this…..”

Though his eyes were moving rapidly and his body was not responding, there was still anger residing in him. I had one thing that I needed to say.

“You shouldn’t have abandoned her.”

A pig would have handled the poison much better than him. I held the dagger and put it into its sheath, I advised him in a friendly tone and then started taking off his helmet.

“It is a pitiful thing to see your strength like this. I believe in my youth and my ability. At this point you are like a prostitute. Various people go through numerous stages. Your uncle Friedrich used this thing first, and then next Pajemut used it and finally you used this, will it be a painful life for them?”

The help of a devil.**

The connection part of the helmet was released. And with my left hand I held the hair of Philip and the dagger in the right hand. Then Philip, who was terrified, started to plead.

“Save, save me. Please! If you spare my life, I’ll give you anything! I will flood you with gold if you want! No, you want women? The best beauties of the Palatinate, I’ll give them to you! Land too! Anything!”

I heard the pitiful words from him and moved the dagger slightly.

“I’m sorry. There is no other way but for you to die. Jim’s words.”

I moved close to his ear and then whispered to him.

“I’m curious as to know what kind of work you could do if a guardian like you was needed to be killed.”

Stab!

With the dagger I slit directly below Philip’s throat. It pinched the collarbone and went further in.

Edited by WellBattle6 (GBiv)

*The dog is a wheellock firearm’s spring loaded arm that holds pyrite. When the trigger is pulled, the dog swings forward to bring the pyrite against either the pan or the spinning wheel, which ignites.

**The actual translation is “It.” Our translation is guesswork on our part.

Editor Notes: (Repeat from notes in Chapter 24)

Hi everyone, I’m WellBattle6, also known as GBiv in the comments, the new Canadian editor for this series. I used to a mere commenter like you, then I got an email from Wujigege-sama.

This series is a bit hard for our team to translate properly (city names, creature names, and character names, so anything with a name and since the source material sometimes translates to vague ‘it’ without reference), so please bear with our imperfect quality. If you see any mistakes, do not hesitate to comment on it.

In other news, I’m proud to say that we will be continuing this series translation after Chapter 25 has been re-edited. Please look forward to it!

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Re-edited by FlawFinder, 16 adjustments made, May 2nd 2020

New Editors Note: I know a lot of readers are probably confused by who Jim is. It’s explained in the next few chapters. Hopefully my edits unrelated to Jim make this chapter less confusing