TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 41
As the morning sunlight poured in, Kraush opened his eyes.
Was it because the fatigue from the battle with Bergman still lingered?
Kraush belatedly realized that he had fallen asleep again.
“At your age, sleeping with a girl? What a shameless fellow.”
At that moment, Kraush turned his head upon hearing the voice.
Sitting by the bedside was a crow—Crimson Garden.
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”
“Look beside you.”
Kraush, who had been reacting incredulously, turned his gaze to his left.
Lying there was none other than Bianca.
Her swollen eyes clung tightly to his left arm.
Considering how much she cried at dawn, it was only natural.
Once she wakes up later, I’ll need to soothe her eyes somehow.
Snow falls year-round in Hardenhartz, so that should work perfectly.
“How’s the arm?”
Upon hearing Crimson Garden’s question, Kraush looked at his right arm.
His right arm was completely gone.
There was nothing to feel, nor anything to assess.
“I can’t feel a thing.”
“Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it? You don’t have an arm.”
Then why even ask?
“So, what will you do now?”
Crimson Garden posed yet another question.
Kraush had promised to become the strongest and steal the immortality she possessed.
But now, with his arm severed—
It was evident that he wouldn’t be able to keep that promise.
“Don’t worry.”
Yet, Kraush was entirely unfazed by the current situation.
“I already know how to restore my arm.”
“Ha-ha.”
Crimson Garden let out a chuckle as she looked at Kraush.
“Is this the composure of a regressor?”
“A missing arm is nothing. Fixing it is as simple as heading to the Holy Kingdom.”
Freeman, one of the Four Great Kingdoms—the Holy Kingdom.
In that place resided a saintess who was said to revive even the dead.
‘Of course, reviving the dead is just propaganda crafted by the Holy Kingdom.’
Regardless, it was true that the saintess possessed extraordinary power.
Since infancy, the Holy Kingdom had bathed her in the Holy Relic Grail.
As a result, she became a monster brimming with divine power, akin to a vessel of the gods.
But borrowing the saintess’s power immediately wasn’t an option.
Even with the shifting dynamics as of late, he was still just a half-penny.
There was no way Balheim would pay the astronomical sum required to employ the saintess for a half-penny.
Balheim wasn’t a generous family willing to spend money on someone like him.
At best, they might summon a priest for him.
“So, you’re saying you won’t be relying on divine power, then.”
Crimson Garden showed a curious response.
Kraush, though slightly bothered by her perception of him as a regressor, revealed his plan for restoring his arm.
“Since I’ve already lost my right arm, I might as well replace it with the best option.”
“Ha-ha, if replacing arms were that easy, everyone in the world would’ve done it by now.”
“There’s someone who can make it happen.”
When Kraush flashed a sly grin, Crimson Garden abruptly stopped her sarcastic remarks.
“…Is that why you saved that person?”
Crimson Garden pointed to none other than Ebelasque.
The world’s sole necromancer.
A woman who could manipulate even the dead.
Attaching a single arm was a trivial matter for her.
“This is purely coincidental.”
Even Kraush wasn’t insane enough to deliberately sever his own arm.
This was nothing more than a chance occurrence.
It just so happened that Ebelasque was around, and his arm was severed.
Thus, he would merely take advantage of her abilities.
‘Though I’ll likely have to strike another deal with her.’
He couldn’t help but worry about what she might demand in exchange for attaching the arm.
For now, restoring the arm took precedence.
“So, what kind of arm are you planning to get?”
“The Sword Demon’s.”
The moment Kraush gave his prompt reply, Crimson Garden froze in place.
Kraush looked at her and slowly smirked.
The Sword Demon.
Once a fearsome figure who shook the world and was hailed as a master of the ki-gathering technique.
His swordsmanship was so exceptional that no one in the world could match his speed or precision.
“You rotten bastard.”
And that Sword Demon had been none other than Crimson Garden’s servant.
Her most cherished servant, no less.
“So, hand over the arm.”
“No! Live as a one-armed man!”
“We had a deal, didn’t we? You’re supposed to make me stronger.”
“The Sword Demon was my servant, whom I raised and cherished since childhood!”
“Then raise and cherish me too.”
Kraush glared at Crimson Garden, as if to ask what she had ever done for him besides scold him constantly.
Crimson Garden, exasperated, spread her wings wide.
“You ungrateful wretch! I even taught you swordsmanship to make up for your lack of talent, and this is how you repay me?”
“Crim, don’t you think you’re being a bit stingy? The Sword Demon has been dead for ages anyway.”
The Sword Demon was dead.
His death was due to none other than old age.
He had succumbed to the passage of time.
Crimson Garden could share her immortality.
After all, she had once granted a semblance of immortality to Sera, Sizelry’s attendant.
‘Though honestly, that wasn’t true immortality.’
Unlike Crimson Garden’s own immortality, what she had given Sera was a mere imitation.
Specifically, it was more akin to an accelerated regeneration ability.
‘And the drawback of such pseudo-immortality is that it burns through the recipient’s life force.’
That’s why the so-called immortality Crimson Garden granted was considered “half-penny.”
True immortality meant never dying under any circumstances.
Losing all one’s life force and dying wouldn’t qualify as genuine immortality.
Thus, even Crimson Garden couldn’t use her immortality to revive the Sword Demon, whom she dearly cherished.
“I understand your attachment to your servant.”
To Crimson Garden, her servants were her only windows to the world.
Because of that, she couldn’t help but pour her emotions into them.
Even knowing it would cause her pain, she continued to invest her feelings in her servants.
Therefore, Kraush knew all too well that Crimson Garden’s greatest weakness was, ironically, her servants.
‘Arthur directly told me how to find Crimson Garden’s true body.’
The method Arthur had revealed to locate Crimson Garden.
It was to capture and directly torture her servants.
On this side, they had the Saintess.
No matter what kind of torture was inflicted, her servants wouldn’t die.
Knowing this, Crimson Garden had stated that she would eventually reveal the location of her true body herself.
When Arthur said those words, his eyes carried not a single trace of emotion.
As if he were simply repeating what needed to be done.
He had been broken long ago.
“But the Sword Demon died a long time ago.”
Crimson Garden flinched.
“However, his ki-gathering technique didn’t die. You must know everything about that technique.”
Kraush raised his empty right arm for her to see.
“If I had the Sword Demon’s arm, I could revive that ki-gathering technique.”
Kraush, who had mastered the art of secret techniques.
With Crimson Garden’s help, he was certain he could learn the Sword Demon’s ki-gathering technique as well.
“Wouldn’t the Sword Demon want that too?”
“…….”
Crimson Garden froze in place, her wings spread wide.
Then, she folded her wings and gave Kraush a sharp glare.
“You silver-tongued brat. Do you think words alone will bring you easy rewards?”
Was it a failure?
As Kraush pondered how to persuade Crimson Garden, she moved to stand by the window.
“……Wait for about two days.”
Then came an unexpected answer.
Did she finally agree?
Kraush gave a faint smile.
“Thank you, Crimson Garden.”
“Using my real name only when you’re asking for a favor—shameless man.”
Crimson Garden, seemingly irked, spread her wings and flew out.
Watching her leave, Kraush felt a sense of relief.
After all, he couldn’t return to Balheim without an arm.
‘The problem is that Hardenhartz must have already reported this to Balheim.’
This place was the North Sea Ice Hotel, Hardenhartz’s main estate.
Which meant Hardenhartz also knew about his condition.
There was no way they hadn’t informed Balheim of this.
‘I’ll have to come up with something.’
If they reported he’d lost his arm, only for him to return with it intact, the main house would be dumbfounded.
‘If I can align my story with Hardenhartz, I should be able to smooth things over. The issue is how to coordinate that story.’
As for the arm, he was confident he could improvise something.
But the real problem was the fact that he, reported to be at the Green Pine Mansion, had suddenly appeared at Hardenhartz.
If that came to light, Balheim would surely hear about it too.
‘Aliod is what concerns me.’
Kraush, deep in thought, soon shook his head.
If it wasn’t something that could be resolved with immediate worry, he wouldn’t dwell on it too long.
That was who he was.
Matters on that front could be resolved with some clever maneuvering.
Worst case, he could always lean into his reckless tendencies.
‘If I claim I acted like a loose cannon, what could they possibly do about it?’
Besides, he was already an outcast—why would they care where he turned up?
For now, he only needed to wait until Crimson Garden brought the Sword Demon’s arm.
‘I also want to study the Annihilation Erosion further.’
The Annihilation Erosion, created by combining Ignis and the Extreme Blood Immersion Poison.
In a sense, it could be considered Kraush’s original secret technique.
Judging from its firepower back then, it was bound to become a powerful card in his arsenal.
‘The problem is the duration.’
At its current level, even if his body surpassed its limits, it only lasted three seconds.
Like this, it had far too many restrictions, much like the One Sword technique.
‘Is training the only answer?’
Still, he had resolved the madness issue, the main flaw of the Extreme Blood Immersion Poison.
That was because the cursed Doll’s Eye he’d stolen from Bianca suppressed the madness.
‘The Doll’s Eye effect is…….’
Kraush tested it by recalling a few unpleasant memories.
Sure enough, the rage that used to surge up had subsided compared to before.
However, it wasn’t as though his emotions had disappeared entirely, like Bianca’s.
Rather, it felt as if his emotions were being forcibly suppressed to some degree.
‘Since the curse weakens when the subject changes.’
Moreover, Kraush had realized something when he obtained the Doll’s Eye this time.
‘The Doll’s Eye doesn’t completely erase emotions; it suppresses them.’
The reason Bianca sometimes didn’t seem entirely devoid of emotion might have been because of this.
‘Back then, a curse stronger than the Doll’s Eye had consumed it, so I couldn’t even notice.’
He had vaguely assumed it erased emotions entirely.
But from Kraush’s perspective, this was preferable.
‘With this….’
Kraush’s eyes glinted sharply.
‘I can control it.’
Kraush had absorbed countless curses into his body up to now.
As a result, while he couldn’t handle the highest-level curses, he could manage those just below them.
It wasn’t for nothing that he called himself a curse specialist.
That was also why Kraush had been so eager to steal the Doll’s Eye.
Kraush slowly awakened the suppressed madness within himself using his Sixth Sense.
‘Balance the madness with the Doll’s Eye.’
As he did so, he began to feel the world around him turning red.
The moment he let his Sixth Sense loose, the madness immediately tried to run rampant.
But then, Kraush awakened the curse of the Doll’s Eye.
Like putting a leash on a wild dog, the Doll’s Eye forcibly suppressed the madness.
The red-tinted world was gradually pressed down, returning to its original colors.
Kraush let out a brief chuckle.
That laugh was proof that he had completely mastered the Doll’s Eye.
“Nothing to it.”
The stronger Kraush’s World Erosion powers became, the stronger the madness would grow.
One day, there might come a time when even the Doll’s Eye couldn’t suppress it. When that day came, he’d simply offset it with another curse or skill.
At least for now, the Doll’s Eye allowed him to live without worrying about the madness.
So Bianca didn’t need to worry about her own lack of emotions either.
Rustle—
At that moment.
Kraush felt something move to his left.
Turning his head, he saw Bianca slowly rising, her body trembling.
“……Mr. Kraush.”
As soon as she stood up, she looked for Kraush.
However, her eyes were so swollen that she seemed unable to see properly, fumbling around as she searched for Kraush.
Seeing that, Kraush, feeling a mix of disbelief and pity, took her hand.
Only then did Bianca’s expression show relief.
“Can you see?”
“My eyes hurt.”
Well, of course, they’d hurt when they’re that swollen.
“Your stomach?”
“I’m hungry.”
Thankfully, that part of her is still… diligent.
“Let’s eat.”
You have to fill your stomach, after all.