SWNOVELXO Chapter 15
1.
Today is such a happy day.
Even though it’s a performance day, I didn’t get hit.
I got leftover barley bread from my uncles, and I removed the thorns inside the iron cage.
The performance will start soon.
It’s okay if I get cut, broken, or torn apart.
My body heals from anything.
Because they, my dad and uncles, do it out of love for me.
It’s okay to hurt as much as they want.
***
The girl inside the iron cage, having finished her thoughts, knelt down and clasped her hands together.
The girl didn’t even know what prayer was.
Before coming to the circus troupe, the people who raised her made wishes like that, so she simply imitated them.
The girl asked them.
-Will my wish come true too?
-Of course. You are closer to the Father than anyone else.
But her wish never came true.
Someone wiped out that place entirely, and everyone she loved died.
Even so, the girl prayed.
“I want to be happy.”
She wished to lose no one. She wished to live her remaining days as happily as she was now.
Hoping that someday, someone would hear her.
“Me.”
It was the first time she heard a response. Claudia lifted her head, chasing the voice.
A man with black hair and black eyes stood there. He extended his hand toward Claudia.
“Shall I make you happy?”
Claudia shook her head.
I’m already happy now, aren’t I?
After recalling the words she needed to say, she smiled brightly at the man.
“….”
But she failed.
For some reason, no words came out.
“I…!”
The forced smile twisted. She tried to shake her head, but even that failed.
“I…….”
Why can’t I even give a simple answer?
She felt wronged.
It wasn’t such a sad thing not to answer, yet for some reason, she felt like crying.
“It’s okay.”
The man clearly said so. Claudia looked up, wondering if she had misheard.
“It’s okay, Claudia.”
She hadn’t misheard. How long had it been since she’d heard such kind words? Just hearing them made her happy. But it didn’t stop there.
“I’ll make you happy.”
He was a man who promised happiness to someone who couldn’t even answer.
“How?”
Her quick response surprised even herself.
The man replied with a bright smile.
“First, let’s switch places.”
In that moment, the contents of the cage changed from Claudia to the man.
2.
And now, once again.
“Who do you think I am?”
The man asked back in a playful voice.
“Hahaha! Who knows?”
Mammon also replied playfully.
No matter the situation, the only option now was to act like it was part of the show. Mammon flailed his limbs and appealed to the audience.
“Well, I’m not that curious! And neither are you all, right?”
The audience responded with cheers. They still seemed to believe it was part of the show.
That was enough.
Mammon made exaggerated hand gestures to gather the scattered members. He handed them weapons and had them surround the iron cage.
“What we’re curious about is your insides! Blood and flesh, bones and muscles! And―?!”
A scream!
The actors and audience were perfectly in sync.
“Now! Everyone wants you!”
Following Mammon’s orders, all the members surrounded the small cage. They aimed their weapons, ready to strike at any moment.
“Show us everything without holding back!”
After shouting that, he leaned his face toward the man’s earshot.
“Where is Claudia?”
It was a whisper only the two of them could hear.
The man chuckled.
“If you were me, would you tell?”
“You son of a dog….”
“No, but if you answer my question, I’ll tell you.”
Mammon quietly seethed with anger.
While it was important to get through this performance smoothly, finding Claudia was the priority.
Only with her could he maintain his current affluent lifestyle.
He thought, Should I swallow my pride just once and find out her location, since I’m going to kill him anyway?
As Mammon continued to deliberate, the man whispered again.
“Do you have a lot of time?”
That snapped him back to his senses.
“What the hell?! What are you doing?!”
“You took all that money, and this is what you do?!”
“Are you planning to show us nothing?!”
The VIPs, who had been expecting the show, began to jeer at Mammon.
As the pace slowed, they started heckling him.
In the end, Mammon swallowed his pride.
“…Ask.”
Claudia comes first.
As for you, I’ll make sure you pay back a hundredfold after the show, even if I have to spare your life for now.
Whether the man knew Mammon’s inner thoughts or not, he immediately asked his question.
“How much did you hit her?”
“Hit her?”
Not understanding what he meant, Mammon stared blankly.
Crunch.
The sound of teeth grinding came from inside the mask.
“Claudia. I’m talking about Claudia.”
“Ah, you mean that monster girl?”
Only then did Mammon understand the question.
He looked at the seemingly furious man and answered with a sly smile.
“Well, if she were an ordinary person, she probably would’ve died over a thousand times.”
That answer alone was sufficient.
The man, Full Moon of Moonlight, removed the robe he had been wearing.
“Crescent Moon…?”
Mammon stepped back in alarm.
A mask with a Crescent Moon Pattern.
It brought to mind a group that the Upper Echelon had warned against long ago.
“Could it be Moonlight?”
He finally succeeded in recalling it.
“No.”
The man shook his head and added,
“Moonlight only kills the Demonic Tribe and Demon God’s Cultists.”
Click.
He removed the mask that had been covering his face. All eyes turned to Yuri.
“A brat…?”
“Looks like a slave kidnapped from the East?”
“This is going to be a good show!”
Starting with a few spectators, the entire audience began to cheer.
Even those bastards, and the bastard who gathered them, were human.
Thus, Moonlight could not cut them down.
Moonlight was a sword meant to reach the Demon God, the Demonic Tribe, and ultimately the Demon God himself.
A sword that lost its way would inevitably grow too dull to cut anything.
“But I’m different.”
Full Moon and Yuri were separate entities.
While the Full Moon of Moonlight aimed for World Salvation, the human Yuri aimed for the salvation of his Loved Ones.
After finishing his thoughts, he revealed his name.
“My name is Yuri.”
He had long since assessed his surroundings.
Placing his hand on his sword, he lowered his stance.
“My specialty is assassination.”
Comet.
He drew his sword in one swift motion.
A Sword Line that had been perfected by Ian, incomparable to what it had been three years ago.
Ian’s sword had no form.
It merely passed by, silently consuming everything in its path.
However, Yuri was different.
Even those who knew nothing of swordsmanship or magic could see his sword strike.
Someone in the audience murmured,
“…Moonlight?”
It was a word uttered upon seeing the translucent silver energy flying toward them.
Yuri’s sword strike illuminated the surroundings.
The severed surfaces of the halved corpses shimmered faintly with a soft light.
Those struck directly all died instantly, but it was a single slash. Far more survived than perished.
“Damn it, move!!”
“I’m first, you bastard!!”
“I-I’m a noble!!”
Yuri cast his gaze toward the audience members rushing for the exit.
“[Freeze.]”
Click.
They froze in mid-motion. Yuri turned toward Mammon and added a single phrase.
“[Even the Heart.]”
Gurgle!
The hearts of those who had frozen stopped. Though they should have continued contracting and expanding, the mana surrounding their hearts made expansion impossible.
In this way, the majority of the audience died.
Cough!
Yuri covered his mouth. Forcing the Circle to spin had turned his insides into a mire.
He still had a long way to go.
“Tch.”
Clicking his tongue, he drew his sword again.
If teeth were missing, gums would suffice, but Yuri had two teeth.
“There are still so many left.”
Those he had dealt with using magic numbered roughly four hundred, while about fifty survivors remained.
“Dusk.”
The chaotic movements of the survivors flowed into Yuri’s vision. After analyzing their exit order, he devised the Best Option.
“Comet.”
Slash.
The necks of those at the very front fell to the floor in a straight line.
He raised his sword toward the sky, then swung it diagonally once more.
“Yaksha.”
Originally a skill representing the Carriage of the Night, it had taken on a different nature when passed down to Yuri.
Yaksha.
A grotesque monster that harmed people. Yuri embodied such a figure.
With indiscriminate swings of his sword, all the spectators collapsed.
Not a single person was left standing.
Slash!
After claiming the last spectator’s life, he slowly approached the frozen Mammon.
“W-Wait… Wait!!”
Mammon stumbled backward in panic.
Only when he had retreated as far as he could did he shout at Yuri,
“This isn’t assassination; it’s a massacre!!”
“No, it’s not. There are no witnesses.”
“What…?”
“If you kill everyone, it’s assassination.”
What kind of crazy bastard is this?
Before Mammon could even curse, Yuri’s sword fell diagonally. Just as it was about to sever the greed-swollen flesh of his jaw—
“Stop!!”
Someone screamed desperately.
“Don’t touch my father!!”
It was Claudia.
Despite her still-healing leg, she stumbled repeatedly as she ran toward Mammon.
She barely managed to reach him and spread both arms wide, blocking Yuri’s path.
“Stay back!!”
“….”
Yuri silently withdrew his sword.
Claudia growled lowly, as if filled with resentment toward Yuri.
“You deceived me.”
“I never lied.”
“Don’t give me that!!”
She looked around.
The space she had spent her entire life in, the audience who had loved her, the members she had considered family.
Not a single thing remained intact. Everything was torn apart, spilling dark red death everywhere.
Claudia trembled as she shouted.
“You promised to save everyone!!”
Yuri scratched his head.
“Me?”
He hadn’t made such a promise.
For now, he nodded and stepped back a little further.
“I won’t interfere, so do what you need to do.”
Claudia scrutinized Yuri.
Perhaps sensing the truth in his words, she threw her arms around Mammon in an impulsive embrace.
“Are you okay, Father?!”
“…Yes, thank you.”
Ah….
Claudia felt a sense of relief.
This time, she had managed to protect him.
“Let’s run away for now, Father!”
She had believed in the promise of happiness, never imagining he would try to kill her father.
“…Run away.”
“Snap out of it, Father!”
Claudia instinctively realized.
The man before her was someone she could never defeat, no matter how many times she tried.
Yet, Mammon was acting strangely.
“…An Expert-level intermediate? Judging by the Word Spirit-like ability, he seems to be at least 5th Circle…. And coughing blood means he’s at his limit.”
With bloodshot eyes, he muttered incomprehensible words, but he didn’t move.
Claudia grew desperate. She crouched in front of Mammon and shouted while showing her back.
“Let’s hurry and escape! I’ll carry you!”
“I’m fine, my dear.”
“Fine?! What do you mean—!!”
Before Claudia could finish her sentence.
Thunk.
Her body tilted forward.
“Huh?”
A Long Sword, rusted from the blood it had split daily, had pierced through her heart.
The one who wielded it was Mammon. He wore a twisted smile.
“Thanks to you, I think I can win now.”
“…Father?”
Claudia reached out her hand, trying to grab hold of his ankle.
“Father, you bastard.”
Mammon kicked her hand away.
Without a hint of interest, he strode past her and stood confidently before Yuri.
“This time, things will be a little different.”
From the Long Sword that had pierced through Claudia, a Black Aura began to seep out.
It was Dark Magic that burned away life force.
This was how Mammon, who had been stuck at 4th Circle, could approach the level of a 7th Circle Archmage.
And there was no shortage of life force around him.
Since they had just died, their life force hadn’t yet dissipated and was still concentrated.
Mammon used Claudia’s heart as a sacrifice to gather the lives of countless others.
“Die, you bastard!!”
It was a strike imbued with an immense Demonic Energy capable of obliterating the whole area. Even after consuming the lives of over five hundred people, he had offered up a still-beating heart as the ultimate sacrifice for this blow.
“Hey.”
However, something felt off.
“Were you a Demon God’s Cultist?”
Because the man who should have been in despair now wore a disturbingly bright expression.