The fight ended in an instant.
Frank couldn't withstand the power of Ghislain, who had unleashed all three of his cores.
Thud!
Ghislain's sword pierced Frank's core located just below his navel.
"Argh, guh..."
Frank suddenly felt his mana start to dissipate.
"You... could it be..."
While they say the core is located below the navel, it's not an actual physical entity.
The term simply refers to the area where mana, gathered through mental focus, accumulates easily.
So, just because his abdomen was pierced, the core wouldn't disappear. However, there was another way to destroy a core.
"Yes, I'll go ahead and shatter your core first."
Ghislain directed his mana to collide with Frank's core.
"Guh, gah!"
Frank screamed in terror.
"Are... you insane?"
Destroying a core meant obliterating the energy someone had accumulated over a lifetime.
If mishandled, the mana could explode, endangering even the one attempting to destroy it.
This was a dangerous method, rarely used unless one had no intention of letting the opponent live.
The stronger the opponent's mana, the greater the explosion, making it a method not even considered for skilled fighters.
But Ghislain poured his mana in without a second thought.
Rumble.
Frank's mana quickly scattered.
"Ugh! How... how is this..."
Crack!
The mana surging wildly inside Frank's body shattered his core completely.
Thud.
As Ghislain withdrew his mana and pulled out his sword, Frank collapsed to the ground, powerless.
"You... just who..."
Frank couldn't believe it.
Ghislain's swordsmanship was impressive enough, but if the intel had been wrong, that could be explained.
However, for someone of Ghislain's age to break the core of a knight of Frank's caliber was impossible.
Frank had never seen anyone manipulate mana so precisely.
Leaving Frank trembling on the ground, Ghislain turned away.
"O-Oppa..."
Elena swallowed as she watched Ghislain approach her.
Covered in blood, radiating a crimson haze, he looked like a devil, instilling pure terror.
"How could you... have such skill..."
Elena hadn't learned swordsmanship, but she'd grown up in the harsh north, surrounded by knights.
Frank was a formidable knight, even by her standards.
If he could take down Jamal and Phillip alone, he was strong enough to handle most knights with ease.
And yet, Ghislain had won against such an opponent.
"So… it was true that you defeated those orcs."
Just a few days prior, rumors had spread around Perdium castle about Ghislain's abilities.
Skovan and the soldiers who had led the subjugation team had spread the word that Ghislain had slain an orc.
Of course, Skovan was ridiculed as a liar by others.
Ghislain didn't answer Elena's question; he only gave her a smile.
"Take a rest."
"What?"
At that moment, Ghislain gently touched the back of her neck.
Thunk.
Elena collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
With no mana of her own, she couldn't even detect, let alone resist, Ghislain's actions.
Ghislain carefully laid her down in an abandoned house nearby and then returned to Frank.
"The best part has come."
Frank frowned and asked,
"Why did you keep me alive? Even if you torture me, I won't tell you anything."
"How amusing. I already know who's behind this. I have no questions for someone like you."
"Then why did you keep me alive?"
Ghislain slowly knelt and looked Frank in the eyes.
"From the way you act, it's clear you've killed quite a few people. Normal people can't butcher others like they're grinding meat without any emotion."
"..."
"You're somewhat of an expert, so you must know. Sometimes, you have to torture someone, even if it's unnecessary. Right, just to release the anger pent up in your chest."
As soon as he heard this, Frank tried to bite his tongue.
But Ghislain quickly grabbed Frank's jaw.
With his other hand, he tore off a piece of Frank's clothing and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Mmm! Mmmph!"
"You had no problem killing others without hesitation, yet you're scared of a little pain yourself? I'm a bit disappointed."
Slice!
Ghislain severed the tendons in Frank's limbs as he struggled.
Then, he gathered up all the swords lying around.
Snap! Crack!
Using mana, Ghislain broke the swords into pieces. The shards were sharp and jagged, each varying in thickness.
He arranged the pieces next to Frank.
"Believe it or not, I've killed my fair share of people too. I've even developed a knack for torture, all for the day I'd use it on my enemies."
Ghislain picked up one of the sharp fragments, and Frank looked at it with fearful eyes.
"They say revenge is meaningless, don't they? But I realize now, that's something people say when they haven't felt enough rage. When your mind is filled with rage, there's nothing more exhilarating than succeeding in vengeance."
Frank couldn't understand what Ghislain was talking about.
They hadn't even had the chance to execute their plan. What was he talking about, revenge?
And it seemed like Ghislain had known of their existence all along.
As Frank remained silent, Ghislain continued muttering to himself.
"Coming back to the past was a blessing. But that despairing memory and my anger are still here. Maybe they'll only fade once I've eliminated every last one of you. We can never coexist."
Fear began to fill Frank's eyes.
Even if he didn't fully understand the words, the madness gleaming in Ghislain's eyes was enough to terrify him.
He, too, had killed enough people to recognize it.
That look didn't come naturally. It was a gaze only someone who killed others as easily as breathing could possess.
'Could someone his age really have that kind of experience?'
Something was dawning on him, but the next words shattered his train of thought.
"Shall we begin? It's going to be exhilarating. I tested it all on myself, after all. Don't feel too cheated—everyone else will suffer the same fate as you."
"Mmmpf!"
A sharp fragment slowly dug into Frank's neck.
"You won't die easily. You messed with the wrong person."
***
"Hah..."
The torture only ended when Frank, unable to endure the pain, finally lost his sanity. Which is to say, he died.
Ghislain looked down at the mangled corpse and chuckled.
"So this is what it feels like."
The heavy weight in his heart had finally lifted.
The dark, burning flame that had blazed within him for so long had finally died down a bit.
"This feels good. It's a little easier to breathe now."
But there were still many flames left burning within him.
Only when every last one had been extinguished would he feel true freedom.
"Ugh!"
Suddenly, Ghislain bent over and vomited a mouthful of blood.
He had held back during Frank's torture, but his internal injuries were severe. His entire body felt like it was screaming from the backlash of enduring the mana explosion.
With his untrained body, forcing all three cores to explode at once had been reckless.
"Hah, now to take care of the rest."
Ghislain entered the abandoned house where Frank had first emerged.
In his previous life, another corpse had been discovered here. He needed to find that body.
As soon as he stepped inside, he found several thick sacks.
Ghislain tapped them a few times with the hilt of his sword, then cautiously opened them.
Inside was the corpse of a young man.
"Digald's heir."
Gilmore Digald.
In his past life, he had been known as the one responsible for Elena's death, the heir of Count Digald's territory.
A notorious troublemaker, known for his excessive love of women, drinking, and drugs, people had assumed he was the one who killed Elena when his body was found.
This misunderstanding had led to a costly conflict between the territories of Digald and Perdium.
"So that's how it was."
The enemy's objective was to incite a war between the two territories.
In his past life, he had fallen for their scheme, but this time would be different.
Ghislain checked the remaining sacks.
They contained the bodies of men, likely Gilmore's escort knights, as evidenced by the crests on their breastplates.
If these deaths became public knowledge, it would lead to the same issues as before.
In his past life, Perdium had attacked Digald in revenge for Elena's death. This time, the situation would likely reverse, with Digald attacking Perdium.
Even if he had saved Elena, he wouldn't be able to prevent a territorial war.
But Ghislain had no intention of playing into his enemies' hands.
"Things won't go as you planned."
He gathered burnable items and stacked them beside the bodies.
"I need to erase this thoroughly."
Using mana, he crushed anything that could identify them, like Gilmore's ring and the crests on the knights' breastplates.
He then dragged Frank and his subordinates' bodies over and burned everything.
The flames roared, releasing a foul stench as they consumed everything.
Even if bones remained, people would assume it was a vagrant who had burned to death. In this era, it was common for vagrants to be found as corpses.
"It burns well."
The flames spread, consuming the surrounding debris and trash.
'I'm glad I could handle this myself.'
He had prepared a signal flare and told Fergus to ready soldiers just in case.
If he had called in the soldiers, rumors would have spread that Gilmore Digald had died here.
'I've managed to prevent the territorial war for now, and bought myself a little time.'
He had stopped Elena's death and the territorial conflict it would have sparked—the beginning of everything in his previous life.
But his enemies wouldn't stop targeting this place.
He needed to prevent the deaths of those around him and minimize the damage as much as possible.
'There's no way I'll let things go the way you want.'
Ghislain steadied himself, picked up Elena, and started back to the castle.
***
When the two returned, the Perdium castle was in an uproar.
The fact that an escort knight had attempted to kill the lord's daughter was a grave incident.
The butler of Perdium, Baron Homerne, who acted on behalf of the lord, raged furiously.
"Conduct a thorough inspection and mental training for all knights and soldiers, and prohibit their participation in the upcoming festival. And inform the lord of this at once."
The castle's atmosphere fell silent in an instant. People gathered in small groups, whispering in hushed tones.
"Did you hear? It seems Jamal and Phillip went insane. They say Young Lord Ghislain dealt with them himself."
"Oh, come on, the young lady's just making it up to make him look good."
"Probably, right? My guess is Jamal and Phillip fought each other to the death, trying to win the young lady's favor."
"Yeah, the young lord just got lucky and survived. Now he's pretending he did something heroic."
"First, it was Skovan spreading lies, and now the young lady too. No doubt, the young lord forced her to lie."
Already shaken by the ordeal she'd gone through, Elena became even more downhearted due to these rumors.
No one believed her words. Instead, she was branded as one of the two big liars of the estate, alongside Skovan.
Ghislain had made her promise not to say a word about Frank, so she couldn't speak up.
While Elena wallowed in dejection, Ghislain, too, heard the rumors and just laughed to himself.
'If I'd told them I also dealt with Frank, they'd believe it even less. And I wasn't planning to reveal it anyway, not with Gilmore involved.'
But after a few days, Elena regained her spirits thanks to the support and comfort of those around her.
Watching her return to her cheerful self, Ghislain felt relieved and also began to ponder his next steps.
'I stopped them once. But once they realize their plan failed, they'll make another move.'
In his previous life, Perdium had been drawn into endless conflicts, leading to its ruin.
The Delphine Duchy had weakened other territories, then overthrown the kingdom and seized power.
He still didn't know why they were targeting Perdium, but he had to be prepared.
'So many things to prepare: training time, money, manpower, loyal allies… and maybe even some quality wine and a luxurious carriage. No, that's not the point.'
He couldn't stop every plot and attack on his own. He needed to build up power and secure a foundation as soon as possible.
'Money. Everything comes down to money. Damn it, in both this life and the last, it's always money.'
What he needed most right now, as he saw it, was money.
He needed funds to recruit people, secure resources, and sustain it all.
But Perdium was one of the poorest territories in the kingdom, and he didn't even have access to the little money it did have.
'Is there really nothing I can do right now?'
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't come up with a quick solution.
He wanted to leverage his memories from his past life to earn money, but he needed a small amount of starting capital for that.
And he didn't have the time to slowly build wealth.
'I can't just beg for money… they'd never agree. Should I go back to mercenary work? That would take too long. Or maybe banditry? That would be faster.'
Ghislain sat crouched in a small garden, absentmindedly plucking flower petals as he continued to ponder.
'Ugh, but I can't actually stoop to being a bandit… Damn it, how can I quickly gather some initial capital?'
While Ghislain was deep in thought, someone approached him with a group of knights in tow.
"Hey, cousin! I heard the rumors! Seems you've developed a habit of delusions now! Spreading lies on such a grand scale, you've got some nerve! I'm really impressed, I have to say! Hahaha!"
Ghislain's eyes widened as he looked at the man laughing boisterously at him.
[T/L: Please support me and read extra chapters here: https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]