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Chapter 210
The number of pursuers was a staggering nine.
They roughly dragged along the three fallen elves.
"How dare you! Do you even know who the young lady is?!"
"Like we care. We're just doing what we were hired for."
They sneered as they dragged the elves away.
One of the pursuers yanked the elf girl's hair roughly and asked:
"By the way, she's quite the beauty, isn’t she? Top quality among everything we've seen so far. Wonder how much she'd fetch if we sold her?"
"Kyaaa!!"
"Stop! Leave her alone, you beasts!"
"Hey, quit messing around and just drag them. We have to move quickly."
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue in disappointment, the man dragged the girl along.
Just then, one of the pursuers, who was moving at the very back, bumped into something with a thud and staggered.
"Damn it, what the hell... huh?"
There had clearly been nothing there, so he turned his head in confusion—only to scowl when he saw a boy with gray hair and sky-blue eyes standing before him.
Who the hell is that?
That thought barely had time to form before the man instinctively recoiled several steps.
The boy had approached him without making a sound — a fact that triggered deep-rooted alarm.
"Pursuers, huh?"
At the boy’s casual question, the pursuers immediately drew their weapons, tension tightening their faces.
"What the hell? How did he get so close...?"
They were professionals; they didn’t let their guard down easily.
Missing the boy's presence until he was right next to them marked him as a serious threat.
"I asked you. Are you pursuers?"
"...What business is it of yours? It's got nothing to do with you, kid."
"Do you even know where you are?"
"Of course. This is the territory of the Count of Cascadia... Wait a second! Are you—?! Are you from the Count's house?!"
At their outburst, the boy pulled a metal badge from his pocket and waved it.
"Yeah. I'm with the Cascadia Count's house. So. Seeing that you're kidnapping elves to sell as slaves, I'd say you're illegal slavers, right?"
Leon said calmly, a gentle smile spreading across his lips.
"You know it's a massive crime to capture elves as slaves within the Count's territory, right? So. Drop those three and call your boss here immediately."
Of course, the pursuers had no intention of complying with Leon's request.
Exchanging glances, they swiftly raised their weapons.
Kill the witness.
Their movements revealed this was far from their first time dealing with such situations.
"You look so delicate, you must be some noble brat. Well, let me tell you—there are plenty of times when noble blood won’t save your life!"
The closest man drew a dagger and, in a flash, lunged for Leon’s carotid artery.
Leon watched blankly and slowly extended his hand.
Thwack!!!
And when the pursuer’s dagger reached a certain distance—
He realized far too late that the dagger he was holding was now in Leon’s hand.
"Wha...? How did—?"
Slash!
In a blink, the dagger slashed several critical points.
Leon then lightly tossed and caught the dagger again before casually driving it into the man's neck.
The utter lack of hesitation as he killed the man was chilling, bordering on terrifying.
Even the elves, who had been writhing in pain moments before, were now frozen in fear.
"Beasts worse than animals... I don’t treat them like people."
The man collapsed, unable even to scream.
Everyone's blood ran cold at the swift, brutal scene.
Something was very, very wrong.
That much was clear to everyone present.
"Starting now—first come, first served. Only one."
Leon calmly wiped the blood from the dagger and said quietly:
"You’ll figure out what’s first come, first served. You have three seconds."
Crack!!!
In an instant, Leon hurled the dagger into the skull of one of the pursuers.
The dagger he had just been holding.
Slide...
At the sight of their comrade's sudden death, the rest staggered back in horror.
"He said three seconds, didn’t he...?"
"You believed him?"
Crack!!
Another man was taken down just as fast.
Panicking, the remaining pursuers charged all at once.
"A-Attack him! He's just a kid! Take him down before he can react!"
They finally decided to go all in.
Leon, watching them impassively, slowly drew the sword at his waist.
A massive claymore, decorated with elegant designs, gleamed in the light.
[Bloom.]
[Spirit Sword: Falling Blossom.]
As Leon uttered the incantation, the blade shifted — turning from metal into a radiant beam of light.
Whoooom!!!
Leon drove the sword halfway into the ground.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!
The ground shook, and enormous tree roots erupted one after another, instantly ensnaring the pursuers and hardening around them.
"Kyaaaaagh?!"
"W-What is this?!"
The ones most shocked, however, were the elves.
"The trees?!"
"This isn't magic... it's actual growth."
"It's not spirit magic... how is this possible?"
Being beings of nature themselves, they were particularly disturbed by what they were witnessing.
With the pursuers completely restrained, Leon calmly walked toward them.
"Ready to talk?"
"Do you think I will?"
"Really? Then it can't be helped."
The pursuer, sensing his own death, clenched his eyes shut.
Life was important, but in this line of work, losing credibility meant you had no chance of survival.
Death would be just a moment of pain to endure—nothing more.
At least, that's what he thought.
But when no pain came, he wore a puzzled expression.
The one who resolved his confusion was Leon.
"Hey, you three elves."
"Y-Yes?!"
"Yup!"
Leon covered one of his ears with his hand, gesturing toward the terrified, frozen elves.
Though it was a seemingly meaningless action, the two adult male elves quickly caught on, unlike the young girl.
One of them grabbed the girl, covering her ears and turning away, clearly determined to protect her no matter what happened to themselves.
"Kyaaaaah!!!"
At the same time, one of the men tied to a tree erupted into blue flames and was reduced to ashes.
But it didn’t end there.
Though the body was completely charred, he continued to thrash and scream while tied to the tree.
The sight was so horrific that everyone watching couldn't help but tremble violently.
Leon, his gaze cold and humorless, spoke to them:
"I told you. Once a human becomes a beast, I don't treat them as living beings."
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* * *
After finishing off the remaining pursuers, Leon casually brushed the blood off his hands.
They had struggled desperately to survive, but he never intended to spare them.
Enslaving elves was outright illegal and a serious crime.
That was why Leon had been so surprised to find elves imprisoned underground by Tybel.
Typically, small-scale conflicts didn't erupt over a few ordinary elves.
However—
High Elves were a different story.
Compared to regular elves, High Elves had distinct traits.
Especially in terms of the sheer amount of power they carried.
Of course, regular elves could occasionally possess such traits too, but either way, it didn't matter—those he killed were illegal slavers.
In Cascadia, illegal slavers were subject to immediate execution.
"You three."
Ignoring the frozen elves, Leon decided he needed to deal with them before worrying about further pursuit.
There were no other captured slaves.
Plus, any surviving pursuers would already be moving toward the elves.
It would be more efficient to keep the tracker in hand.
"Y-Yes!"
"Line up one by one over here. I'll get those restraints off."
The elves looked at him blankly.
"These restraints... if tampered with recklessly, they’ll kill the wearer..."
"Such a pain."
Leon, having closed the distance without warning, grabbed the first elf's collar and ripped the restraint off.
"Huh? How...?"
"I reverse-engineered and neutralized it. Satisfied?"
The disabled restraints lost their tracking function, so Leon quickly patched them up using the Heart of Machine God to conceal the tampering.
Then, he reactivated them, emitting silent, invisible pulses once more.
Now the device would serve as bait for the remaining slavers.
"But... but that's not something you can just 'reverse-engineer'..."
Still dumbfounded, the elf's mouth opened and closed silently.
"Next."
Leon beckoned the next male elf forward.
Though still wary and fearful, the elf stepped forward.
"Ugh!"
Crack!
Leon tore off the restraints on the elf’s neck, arms, and legs.
Finally, he gestured to the young elf girl.
"You too. Come here."
But she was too frightened to approach easily.
"If you just stay there, you know that thing is still tracking you, right?"
When Leon nonchalantly turned away, the elves rushed to stop him.
"N-No! Please help her!"
Encouraged, the girl hesitantly approached.
Like a frog snapping up a fly, Leon swiftly grabbed the collar around her neck.
"Eek!"
Crack!!
He shattered the restraint before she could react.
Her frightened scream lasted only a moment.
"How did it go?"
"All cleaned up. They're trackers. The slavers will be here soon."
"......"
Melissa, her face hard, looked at the three elves and asked:
"Were you enslaved?"
"Y-Yes..."
"Alright. Let's go. Once we're done here, we'll send you back to your homeland. And Leon."
"Yeah?"
"Can you capture them alive this time? I think we'll need to interrogate them."
"I'll drag them all back."
After Melissa led the elves toward the cabin, Leon spun the tracker on his finger.
* * *
Capturing the slavers was easy.
Unlike the pursuers, the slavers desperately clung to their lives.
Leon quickly rounded them up and locked them in the underground prison.
The group wasn’t large, but targeting High Elves took serious nerve.
Which could only mean someone bigger was backing them.
"Ugh!"
"Get in and wait. Your punishment will be decided according to the law."
"Lawyer! I demand a lawyer!"
One of the men shouted fiercely.
Leon simply stared at him, making the man flinch.
Naturally, they had resisted arrest.
Leon had seen what happened to some of their guards during the scuffle.
"You want a lawyer? We have an electric lawyer."
Crackling!!
Lightning crackled from Leon’s palm, and the man recoiled in terror.
"A-Ahem! I'll... wait patiently."
"Good. Stay quiet. And just so you know, don't even think about escaping."
Leon pointed to the ceiling of the underground prison.
"O-Outside?"
"I'll send you to the sky."
Leaving the terrified slavers behind, Leon exited the underground prison.
From there, Melissa would take care of the rest.
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