Chapter 50: Roswaal's Death~AI Sword Saint Is Huffing Again (Patreon)

Off to the side, Ram — still carrying Rem — followed along, her expression a mess of confusion at the sight of the group settling their disagreement with fists.

One of them was the man who'd saved her life. The other was Daniel, the man who'd bullied her before she'd inexplicably fallen for him.

Part of her wanted to help Daniel, but she didn't want him thinking she was some ungrateful woman either.

"Um, Lord Daniel, do you need Ram's help?"

Ram mulled it over before finally asking.

"No need. Just take Rem somewhere far away." Daniel waved a hand at the offer without looking back — Ram's skills were nowhere near enough to deal with Roswaal. This one, he'd have to handle himself.

"Then please be careful, Lord Daniel."

With that, Ram carried the unconscious Rem well clear of the fighting.

High above, Roswaal was reeling with shock. The Book of Wisdom had never once mentioned Daniel wielding this kind of offensive magic.

"It's changed again. How are you even doing this?"

Roswaal muttered to himself, hands never pausing. Mana of every color gathered into a sphere before him, merging into a single beam that shot straight toward the blade of air.

Fzzzt~

Six-Colored Magic — a technique Roswaal had spent his long life perfecting, combining mana of differing attributes into an attack powerful enough to level a small mountain.

The blade of air held for only an instant before the beam swallowed it whole. Daniel gave a small nod at the sight. "Not bad. But not enough."

He simply swung his arm, and the calm breeze around them exploded into a raging gale without a moment's warning.

Under the pull of Vector Change, every current of air in the entire capital began converging before him, dragging even the clouds overhead into a swirling mass above Roswaal Manor.

A disturbance that size naturally drew plenty of attention.

Emilia and Felt, hearing the commotion, had just leaned toward a window to see what was happening when they spotted a dragon made of wind slam into a brilliant beam of light.

The shockwave from the collision spread outward instantly, tearing the manor's courtyard to ruins.

"Is that... Roswaal?"

Emilia spotted Roswaal high overhead and asked, bewildered, "What's going on? Is Daniel fighting Roswaal?"

Reinhard had appeared in the courtyard at some point, hand resting on his sword's hilt, though he made no move to draw it.

His liege seemed to be having fun, after all, so he'd stay out of it — though the matter of keeping Roswaal alive could wait until the fight was over.

Roswaal kept up his one-handed release of Six-Colored Magic, cold sweat already beading on his brow.

This was already his strongest move, and Daniel had blocked it outright — and Betty hadn't even lifted a finger yet.

"That's it? And here I was expecting something."

A grin tugged at Daniel's mouth. Stomping a scrub was fun too, especially when the scrub in question was Roswaal — he felt exactly zero guilt about it.

Having gotten a rough read on Roswaal's level, he let the wind dragon locked with the beam balloon instantly to over a hundred meters long.

Boosted by Daniel's power, it forced its way through the Six-Colored Magic and drove straight at Roswaal.

Realizing he couldn't win the clash — and with Betty's Yin magic still looming overhead — Roswaal had no choice but to break off his attack.

He plummeted through the air at breakneck speed, dodging the wind dragon while firing off ordinary spells, trying to strike at Daniel directly.

"Hey, don't you dare forget about Betty!"

Without any prompting from Daniel, Betty opened a black vortex in front of Roswaal's spells and swallowed every last one of them.

A moment later, an identical vortex opened beneath Roswaal, sending the magic straight back at him.

Roswaal's face changed. He threw up wind- and earth-attribute barriers, and after wobbling a few times, they managed to block Betty's returned magic.

But the impact still slowed him down, and in that instant the wind dragon lunged in, its jaws shattering Roswaal's shield and its wind-fangs sinking into his shoulder.

Blood sprayed out instantly as one of Roswaal's arms was torn clean off.

"Guaah!!"

Roswaal howled in pain. Before he could retaliate, the wind dragon had already swept him up and slammed him into the ground.

BOOM!!

Dirt and debris flew everywhere as the once-flat lawn caved into a crater more than ten meters deep.

"Kah!" Roswaal, his arm severed, lay in the crater with his body a mangled ruin, hacking up a mouthful of blood.

He hurriedly channeled Yang- and water-attribute healing magic onto himself, trying to patch up the damage.

But the very next second, Daniel — moving so fast it looked like teleportation — grabbed him by the hair and hauled him up out of the crater.

Roswaal's pupils contracted. Daniel didn't just control wind — his own speed was terrifying too. How was any of this possible?

Though he suspected there was no escape now, Roswaal refused to give up. He formed Six-Colored Magic in front of his one remaining hand, trying to strike back.

Shk!

Three blades of air sliced clean through his other shoulder and both legs in an instant. The severed limbs hit the ground as blood sprayed from the wounds.

Rather than the kingdom's foremost mage, Roswaal now looked more like a human fountain.

A rather grotesque one, at that.

The searing pain and the loss of his limbs scattered the mana Roswaal had been gathering.

"Sheesh. I gave you a chance and you still couldn't deliver. Can't even take one hit from me — where'd you get the nerve to talk big?"

Daniel asked, mildly curious, one hand still gripping the blood-drenched Roswaal by the hair.

"Heh. Hahaha. That's right, I've lost. But you'll come around to working with me sooner or later."

Roswaal stopped struggling, but the corners of his clown-painted mouth stretched into a grin, blood staining his teeth a lurid red.

What did that mean? Did he still have a trump card?!

Daniel frowned and triggered his hypnosis, wanting to know what the man was scheming.

But Roswaal's eyes only glazed for an instant before he shook it off, smiling as he asked, "Mental magic?"

"It won't work. To extend my life, every time I take a new body, I absorb the soul-strength of my own descendants."

Watching Roswaal's smug confidence, Daniel felt a flicker of irritation, unsure what card the man was holding that let him stay so calm.

If Lv2 hypnosis couldn't cut it, he'd upgrade and try again. System — hit me with a level-up!

Without wasting more breath on him, Daniel spent Domination Points to push Hypnosis to Lv3 and tried again. This time the control lasted longer.

But the instant Daniel finished asking his question, Roswaal snapped back to awareness. Upgrading hypnosis again would cost fifty thousand points — more than Daniel currently had.

Roswaal, seemingly unbothered by his own mangled body, slipped right back into the deliberately grating drawl he'd used when they first met.

"Don't~ waste your effort~ Yoru-kun~ If you really~ want to know~ go ask~ the Sword Saint~"

"Tch. Fine, you win this round. But I've never believed in curses or whatever — doesn't matter what trump card you've got, you're dying today."

Daniel glared at Roswaal, more than a little annoyed, and decided he'd just kill him outright to blow off some steam.

If it caused some unsolvable mess, worst case he'd just have Natsuki Subaru reset things.

And if even that didn't work, he could head back to the Advanced Nurturing world, farm up more points, max out his abilities, and come back to wreck things properly.

Roswaal chuckled. "That's~ not so certain~ Surely Lord Sword Saint~ has watched enough of the show~ by now~"

As he spoke, Reinhard leapt down into the crater, landing beside Daniel and pleading, "My liege, Count Roswaal cannot die."

"Count Roswaal has already declared before the Council of Wise Men that he's joined your faction as a knight. If he dies now, your candidacy will be revoked and a warrant issued for your arrest."

"Those are the Council of Wise Men's own orders."

Daniel blinked, caught off guard. "Aren't you my knight, Reinhard?"

"And now I've apparently gained another knight without ever being consulted? What about my say in this? And who agreed to this idiotic condition — does the Council of Wise Men have brain damage?"

Reinhard explained, looking somewhat ashamed. "My liege, your situation is... unusual. Your identity hasn't been fully verified, and for a man to make the Dragon Jewel glow genuinely defies precedent."

"The Council raised objections over this, and when Count Roswaal proposed a deal, they agreed to let your candidacy stand — but only under these conditions."

Daniel had to admit he was genuinely disgusted. He turned to the smugly confident Roswaal. "You must've handed those people quite the bribe."

"I did~ give up quite a lot~ but it looks like~ it was worth it, don't you think~"

Roswaal smiled to himself. All it had cost him was a portion of his territory's ore profits, and in exchange, he'd tied himself to Daniel for good — a bargain, all things considered.

"Now then, Yoru-kun~ shall we~ have a proper talk~"

Watching Roswaal act like he had everything under control, Daniel let out a short, incredulous laugh. Without another word, he used Vector Change to seize the blood inside Roswaal's body and began cranking up the pressure.

The result was immediate: blood surged wildly from Roswaal's wounds, his breath caught, and his face turned an ashen blue-gray.

Reinhard sensed something was wrong at once and moved to stop Daniel.

But the next instant, Roswaal's body swelled up like a balloon and burst.

Splat!

Blood spattered all over Reinhard, leaving him frozen in place.