The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

Chapter 432: The Lion King (3)

Es la misión del verdadero caballero. Su deber. ¡No! Su deber no. Su privilegio.

-That is the true knight’s mission and duty. No! Not duty, but privilege.

Soñar lo imposible soñar.

-Dreaming the impossible dream.

Vencer al invicto rival,

-Defeating the invincible foe,

Sufrir el dolor insufrible,

-Enduring unbearable pain,

Morir por un noble ideal.

-Dying for a noble ideal.

Saber enmendar el error,

-Knowing how to mend the mistake,

Amar con pureza y bondad.

-Loving with purity and kindness.

Querer, en un sueño imposible,

-Falling in love in an impossible dream,

Con fe, una estrella alcanzar.

-Having faith and aiming for the stars.

A romantic poem straight out of chivalric literature. The one reciting it was a nobleman with beautiful blond hair and blue eyes. Monte Donquixote. He raised his pale face to look at his nephew, Tudor, standing before him.

“Who taught you this poem that you love so much?”

“…”

Tudor remained silent. Dolores, Sancho, Figgy, Bianca, and Sinclaire knew the answer.

Since his first days as a freshman at the Colosseo Academy, Tudor had always loved and recited chivalric literature and epic poems. Among them, he particularly favored that verse.

Monte spoke again, pretending to be sad. “Didn’t you learn half of your chivalry from me, your uncle? But what tragedy is this? To think you’d try to stab the uncle who gave you all his love. What a heinous act of treachery.”

“…”

Tudor stayed silent again. Monte continued, “Hand over Gungnir. It is too dangerous for someone as young as you to handle. I, your guardian and uncle, will keep it safe until you grow up and beca proper knight. Now-”

A white palm extended in front of Tudor. Finally, Tudor spoke.

“You never managed to pull Gungnir from my father’s body.”

“…”

“Because this clan heirloom only responds to one who is worthy of becoming the head of the Donquixote clan.”

Tudor raised the Gungnir spear and lightly struck the ground with it. It was heavy but reassuringly so. The spear’s blade was as sharp as Tudor’s resolve. Finally, Gungnir crackled with blue lightning as it was pointed at Monte.

“Did you plan to capturealive to makedraw Gungnir?”

Gungnir wouldn’t respond to anyone but Tudor. Did Monte need Tudor to get his hands on this spear, the symbol, and proof of the clan head?

At Tudor’s fierce words, Monte winked at him. “You’re somewhat right about my intentions. About half, actually. There were other purposes as well.”

Then, in a tone full of laughter, he continued, “To be honest… I haven’t been feeling very good these past few months, my dear nephew.”

“Don’t callnephew. You vile demon.”

“Oh- calling a nephew a nephew is now treachery? Very well, then what should I call you? Hmm~ Mr. Tudor?”

Monte retracted his hand extended towards Gungnir and kept smiling broadly. But unlike his smiling face, his voice was tinged with deep regret.

“Why I haven’t been feeling well… it’s because I lost the body I’d spent over ten years preparing to transfer into, right at the last moment.”

“…!”

Everyone’s eyes widened. It was clear what Monte was referring to.

The Lion King, Cervantes Donquixote. The demon had planned to abandon Monte’s weak body and transfer into the strong physique of Cervantes. However, Cervantes, with his superhuman willpower, destroyed his own body before the demon could take it over. He completely shattered his core and firmly sealed the Gungnir spear within it. With this final act of resistance, Cervantes ensured the demon would leave empty-handed.

“I even borrowed poison from Reviadon for this. I looked away for just a moment, and he took the opportunity to kill himself. It was a perfect example of ‘even a wise man stumbles.'”

Monte spoke with a feigned melancholy expression and gesture. “In the end, I got neither the soul nor the body of Cervantes. It’s a tragic thing… But!”

His blue eyes began to turn pitch black. The excessively enlarged pupils seemed like openings to a deep abyss. Just meeting his gaze felt like being dragged into an endless, dizzying void.

The disorientation and nausea made everyone around him, Night Walkers, stumble.

All the starlight, moonlight, and light from human emotions were drawn into that dark abyss, into that dreadful emptiness where nothing existed—or rather, where unknown horrors lurked.

With such eyes, Monte looked at Tudor and grinned so widely that the corners of his mouth nearly touched his ears.

“But it’s okay! Here is a body even younger and fresher than Cervantes’, with even greater potential! A body not yet fully matured, but with endless possibilities for growth!”

Finally, Night Walkers understood what Monte truly desired. A body with the highest qualities, comparable to the Spear King Cervantes, but much younger, with a bright future and limitless potential for growth. Moreover, a body with a relatively immature and weak will, perfect for being overtaken.

That’s right. After failing to possess Cervantes’s body, Monte now targeted Tudor’s body.

‘Why does he want to captureand Tudor alive? If his goal was simply to eliminate us, he could just take our heads. That would be much easier, wouldn’t it?’

[No, I really don’t know! He didn’t tellanything!]

There was a reason why Pedro had desperately avoided answering Bianca’s question.

Whether he knew this or not was uncertain.

“…It’s a trap!” Dolores bit her lip. The small group of Donquixote cavalry that had attacked them, the somewhat flimsy brainwashing, the lax vigilance, and the mastermind revealing himself so easily—all these were Monte’s bait to lure Tudor into the inner sanctum.

‘If it had been Vikir, he wouldn’t have fallen for such a trick.’

Dolores blamed herself, but dwelling on it wouldn’t change the situation. They had to do their best regardless. It had been a disadvantageous fight from the start, and that hadn’t changed.

‘First, let’s get to a wider area. There are knights outside the stronghold who have broken free from the brainwashing. If we join forces, we might have a chance…’

However, Dolores’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

“Yaaaah!”

Tudor suddenly charged at Monte with Gungnir in hand.

Whoosh—

Lightning fast, with the weight of a tidal wave, Tudor’s strike aimed straight for Monte’s heart.

“Oh. This is beyond my expectations. The sturdiness of the bones, the elasticity of the muscles, the freshness of the organs. Truly a great body.”

Monte twisted his waist to dodge Tudor’s spear. At that moment—

Thud thud thud!

Bianca’s arrows flew, embedding themselves into the wall.

“Haaah!”

Bianca, like Tudor, was wildly attacking. Strangely, it wasn’t just Tudor and Bianca; Sancho, Figgy, and Sinclaire were the same.

“Ugh, my body is moving on its own!”

“I feel like I can do something! There’s no basis for it, but…!”

“I feel an inexplicable exhilaration. This is wrong, something’s wrong.”

Hearing her comrades, Dolores realized she had been mistaken as well.

‘Cto think of it, I too have been feeling increasingly confident. Could it be!?’

She quickly looked up at Monte. There he was, smiling broadly.

“Have you figured it out now? I have the ability to make my opponents reckless.”

Like a frog trying to wrestle a bull, irrational and daring.

Monte had used this brainwashing ability to make the Donquixote clan fall into his hands.

From the moment Pedro discovered the fortress of the Night Walkers, the demon’s cunning power had been at play. The Night Walkers, as if spellbound, had cto the Donquixote stronghold of their own accord, only to find themselves about to lose everything to the terrifying demon.

‘Ah, Vikir’s warning was right!’

Dolores deeply blamed herself. Before leaving for Nouvellebag, Vikir had given a brief explanation of the abilities of the Ten Corpses. However, the demon’s power was so mysterious and peculiar that even experiencing it firsthand often didn’t make one realize it was a supernatural ability. The Night Walkers were confused, not knowing at what point they had fallen into Monte’s trap. It now seemed that their very presence here might have been the demon’s manipulation. Once that thought took hold, the confusion becuncontrollable.

And the demon never misses the moment when humans lose their insight and fall into confusion.

“Now, with things suitably chaotic, shall I proceed to completely shatter your minds?”

To take over a body, one must first destabilize the mind. It’s a basic principle.

Crackling…

Monte spread his arms wide. As he did, the floor began to crack, soon forming deep fissures that caused it to collapse.

Crash! Boom!

Through the thick darkness beneath the floor, something began to surge upwards. Its identity was a pure malevolent intent designed to destroy the human mind and spirit.

“…!?”

Seeing what lurked below, the faces of Dolores, Tudor, Sancho, Figgy, Bianca, and Sinclaire turned pale in an instant.

Abyss tree.

The sight below was a trauma-inducing scene that anyone who had attended the Colosseo Academy would recognize, striking fear into their hearts.