bestfiction Chapter 168 : Red Rose (2)
Chapter 168 : Red Rose (2)
Red Rose (2)
"Heavenly Sword Release. Quiennio."
― Wuuuuung.
The ghost sword Quiennio in Ian's hand vibrated faintly.
― Swish.
At the same time, Ian's body vanished into transparency.
Physical walls were no longer an obstacle.
― Srrrk.
Ian passed through the outer wall of the Red Rose Salon like a ghost.
"......"
The inside of the salon was much more luxurious than it looked from the outside, but it was also revolting.
A grand hall adorned with luxurious red velvet and gold.
There, all kinds of corrupt nobles and tycoons were entangled like beasts.
"Ehehe... More, give me more...!"
"Ahhh... This feels so good!"
They were sprawled on the floor, eyes glazed over, intoxicated by the red smoke released by the demonic humans.
Not a trace of dignity or majesty as nobles, nor even a shred of human decency.
A sight of utter depravity.
'......'
Each and every one of those wretches rolling around like trash was a source of funds and information for the Demon Cult.
Ian swept them with a cold gaze before moving deeper inside.
The higher he went, the thicker the demonic energy became.
'Fourth floor then.'
The very top floor.
There, the densest concentration of demonic energy was coiled.
Ian ran up the stairs in a single bound.
At the end of the fourth floor corridor, before the largest door.
From beyond the door, he heard a man and a woman's voices.
"Please...! Lady Vanessa! Please! Just once! Just one more time!"
The desperate, pleading voice of a man.
A voice unexpectedly familiar.
Unpleasantly so.
"Huhu. Sir Hugo, have you already used up everything? What I gave you last time was meant for a week."
A languid and seductive woman's voice. It was Vanessa.
Ian passed through the door and entered the room.
The room was entirely red.
And at its center—
A woman sat with her legs crossed on a lavish sofa. It was Vanessa.
At her feet, a man was prostrated like a dog.
Graying hair, hollow eyes, a pathetically thin body.
The lord of the Greysel family, and Ian's biological father.
It was Hugo Greysel.
"Ugh...! I can't stand it anymore! My body feels like it's burning! Please, that drug...!"
Hugo bowed his head like he would lick Vanessa's shoe tip.
'... Hah.'
Watching this, Ian let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
Could there be coincidences even the world would find absurd?
He had come to catch the Demon Cult, only to find his own father begging a demonic human for drugs.
'You really only ever show your most disgusting side, Hugo.'
He ruined the family in his previous life, and in this one as well, he was wallowing in this cesspit.
A chill crept into a corner of Ian's heart.
"Oh my. This is troublesome..."
Vanessa covered her mouth with a red fan, smiling with her eyes.
"Our drugs aren't free, you know? Sir Hugo, you already spent the last of your fief's taxes last time."
"T-that's—!"
"And now there are more clients, so we're very short on supply. Naturally, the price is much higher. Can you afford it? Ah, you know our salon doesn't do tabs, right?"
At Vanessa's cold words, Hugo's eyes wavered.
He frantically searched inside his clothes.
"T-this! I brought these! I'll give them to you!"
What Hugo pulled out was an old seal and a bundle of documents.
"This is...the mining rights for the western mine! And this—this is the location of the family's secret funds...!"
"Ho?"
Vanessa's eyes sparkled.
"Mining rights, huh... That would be quite profitable. But it's not quite enough, you know?"
"I'll bring more! I'll go back to the fief! I'll even raid the family tombs if I must! I'll bring anything of worth—ancestral swords, armor—anything that can be sold!"
'......'
Ian clenched his fist tightly while remaining invisible.
The fief and wealth that the proud vassal family Greysel, of the Heavenly Sword family, had built with sacrifice and honor.
Those great legacies were now heading straight into the maw of the Demon Cult, all for that pathetic man's pleasure.
'I have to stop this now.'
Before that man could completely ruin the family.
Before the Demon Cult could gorge itself any more.
He decided to use this coincidence as an opportunity and end it here.
Ian released Quiennio's transparency.
― Sss!
Ian, dressed in a black robe, appeared out of thin air.
"W-what! W-who are you!?"
Vanessa saw Ian, reflexively kicked Hugo away with her foot, and shot to her feet.
He was clearly not a guest.
This was a place no one could enter without an invitation.
"Who are you!?"
This was the salon's top floor and most secret room.
To get here, you would have to break through countless barriers and elite guards.
Yet he had appeared in the inner room like a ghost—no alarm, no warning, no sound of footsteps.
"Ugh..."
Hugo, who had been rolling dazed on the floor, looked up at Ian.
With his face covered by a robe and mask, Hugo did not recognize his own son.
"......"
Ian spoke in a cold voice.
"The filthy dealing ends here."
"Hah!? Who do you think you are, barging in like this?"
Vanessa snapped open her fan with a snap, sneering, although her eyes were frantically scanning her surroundings.
Did he come alone? Or did he have more accomplices?
'No other presence. Looks like he's alone...'
Then the next step was clear.
― Snap!
"Kneel!"
Vanessa swung her fan.
Crimson powder spouted from the tip of the fan like dragon fire.
A strong hallucinogenic poison created by materializing a curse from the demon realm.
If inhaled, it was a neurotoxin so powerful it could melt a brain in seconds.
"I'll make you bark like a dog!"
However—
― Step.
Ian walked into the cloud of poison as if it were nothing.
Completely unaffected.
"... What!?"
Vanessa's eyes widened.
Even an ogre would be felled by this poison in an instant—yet it had no effect?
How?
"As expected, this is crude."
Ian commented indifferently.
To one with Hammah's body constitution, such poison was nothing more than vapor.
"Y-you...!"
A flustered Vanessa stumbled backwards.
An opponent she couldn't affect, even with her best poison.
'Then...!'
― Screee!
Vanessa swung her fan again.
This time, she unleashed a deadly blade of magic power.
But Ian did not even draw his sword.
― Snap!
He merely swept the blade aside with his bare hand, utterly neutralizing it.
"Im-impossible...!"
Vanessa's lower lip trembled.
That strike could easily have split a master-level warrior in two.
And yet he had dispersed it with a simple wave of his bare hand.
'A m-monster! Where on earth did he come from!?'
Vanessa's mind was beginning to spiral into panic.
"How dare you!"
Hugo, who had been crawling on the floor, staggered to his feet.
His eyes were glazed over from the drug, but there was a mad gleam in them.
"How dare you threaten my mistress!?"
Hugo drew a dagger from his pocket.
He then moved to stand protectively in front of Vanessa, blocking Ian's way.
"......"
Ian warned in a low voice.
"Get out of my way."
"No! You bastard! I don't know who you are, but if you want to get to Lady Vanessa, you'll have to get through me first!"
Hugo brandished the dagger in a pitiful display.
His dignity as a lord of a martial family was gone; he was nothing more than a crazed addict struggling in vain.
"... Ha."
Ian let out a hollow laugh.
His own father, drawing a blade against his son to protect a Demon Cult executive.
Of course, Hugo didn't recognize Ian, but that did nothing to lessen the misery of the situation.
"Hugo Greysel..."
"W-what!"
When Ian uttered Hugo's name, Hugo's eyes widened.
"Y-you! You know me!? Who are you! Reveal yourself!"
"Shut up."
Fury flared in Ian's eyes.
"You are a disgrace to our family."
Bringing shame to the ancestors.
Plunging the fief's residents into misery.
And now, wagging his tail for the Demon Cult like a dog.
"F-family!? Who are you to talk about my family!!"
Hugo raged.
The more he spoke, the colder Ian's gaze became.
He could not, would not, let this continue any longer.
This man was beyond redemption.
If he lived, he'd devour not only the family but the world itself like a parasite.
'Ha... In the end, it comes to this.'
Memories from his previous life surfaced.
Hugo, who brought ruin to the family and was ultimately executed in disgrace.
Then and now, he had not changed a bit.
No—he had become even worse.
'I must kill him now.'
"Die!!"
Hugo raised the dagger and charged at Ian.
A clumsy, sloppy movement.
He didn't even muster inner ki into the attack—a complete mess.
Ian simply watched the sluggish attack before moving his hand.
There was no hesitation.
He had already killed countless vermin.
He had stained his hands with the blood of demonic humans and demonkin, all to protect Yuria.
Just because the man before him was his biological father was no reason to stay his blade.
If he had to cut for the sake of his conviction, then he would cut.
― Shring!
Ian manifested a sword using the Authority of Projection.
An ordinary iron sword.
It was more than enough to cut down Hugo.
― Slash!
A dark blade of light flashed.
"Uh...?"
Hugo's charge came to an abrupt halt.
He stared blankly at Ian.
"Uh...?"
A thin red line appeared on Hugo's neck.
― Thud.
Hugo's head soon fell to the floor.
His body, by inertia, staggered a few more steps before collapsing limply.
A fitting, empty end for a man who had lived his entire life like a parasite.
"... Hi-hiiik!"
Vanessa gasped and swallowed a scream.
Her face turned white at the beheading that had just happened before her eyes.
"M-madness...!"
Hugo might have been a drug-addled piece of trash, but he was still an intermediate-rank master, and yet this man killed him in a single stroke—without even a breath.
"Now it's your turn."
Ian flicked the blood from his sword and looked at Vanessa.
There wasn't a hint of agitation in his eyes.
"Ee, eaaargh!"
Vanessa shrieked and tried to run out the door.
"Security! Guards! Agh!"
But her voice didn't reach outside the room.
Nor could she get out through the door.
The aura barrier Ian had deployed in advance had perfectly sealed this room off.
― Snap!
Ian instantly closed the distance and grabbed Vanessa by the nape of her neck.
"Kuh, kuhk!?"
"There's nowhere to run."
Ian threw Vanessa down to the floor.
"Kyaa, kyaaah!"
Gripping her own throat from pain, vanessa looked up at Ian.
Fear—pure, unfiltered terror dominated her eyes.
"Y-you...! A-ah!"
Suddenly, vanessa's pupils became dull and unfocused.
A lone intruder breaking into her base and overwhelming her, the Demon Cult's Archbishop, like a ragdoll.
An existence suddenly flashed through her mind.
"N-no way...! The monster that's been tearing through our cult... Ah, ahhh!"
The one who destroyed the Cult of Lust, eliminated other Cult Leaders without a trace, and razed countless Demon Cult strongholds—a mysterious reaper.
The very reaper the three remaining Cult Leaders were desperately searching for was right before her eyes.
"......"
With indifferent eyes, Ian grabbed Vanessa by the hair and lifted her.
"Kuh, kuhhk...! Spare me!"
"Don't worry. You're still useful."
She wasn't strong, specialized as she was in illusion curses and poison, but she was still a Demon Cult Archbishop.
As a magic power battery, she was first-class.
Still—
― Puuk!
"Ki-kiyaaagh!"
Ian's sword stabbed mercilessly into her abdomen.
He had to extract what needed extracting.
― Dripdripdrip!
Blood gushed out.
"Sss..."
Ian inhaled the scent of Vanessa's blood as it poured from her wound.
Bloodscent Mind Reading.
The information in her mind was forcibly drawn out.
Hidden strongholds of the Cult of Lust, upcoming plans, and...
'Rosalia's location.'
Ian's eyes flashed sharply.
"Found it."
"U-, uuuh... S-spare me..."
― Crack.
"Gkk!"
Ian broke Vanessa's neck, knocking her unconscious, and threw her into his subspace.
She, too, would serve as an excellent magic power vessel.
"......"
Before leaving the salon, Ian looked back at Hugo's corpse sprawled on the floor.
He considered tidying up, but just turned his back and walked away.
Just as he had cut down so many demonic humans before, the man lying there now was nothing more than another corpse.
Nothing more.
'Now, I'll go after Rosalia.'
The only thing in his mind was the next step of his plan.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
I'm disappointed in Ian...
【(⩌‸⩌ )】