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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 34: The Sword of the Moonlight
The first to sense the ominous presence was Sharon, who had been staying in the village among the common folk.
She had chosen to live there, despite more luxurious accommodations being available, because she found the elemental energy in the village to be more pleasant.
The moment that chilling aura struck, she immediately activated her flight magic and flew toward the eastern wall of the castle where the energy was emanating from.
The soldiers atop the castle wall were startled at her sudden arrival.
“Lady Sharon!”
“Is something wrong?”
Sharon didn’t have the time to answer.
That freezing presence—she could feel it radiating from the horizon.
She had only felt this exact kind of energy once before.
“This is definitely… black magic.”
The last time she’d sensed something like this was during a job where she had to eliminate bandits who had become possessed by evil spirits due to the careless use of black magic.
Those bandits had performed no proper rituals, so the spirits hadn’t fully manifested—what they faced then were more like weak monsters than true phantoms.
But what she was sensing now was on a completely different scale.
This presence was born from a full, proper ritual—complete with a multitude of sacrifices.
Just as she was trying to figure out how she might handle a fully summoned evil spirit, the situation escalated—without giving her a second to think.
[ “KRRRAAAAAHHH!!!” ]
“Th-That’s…!!”
“A monster horde!!”
A swarm of monsters, driven into a frenzy by the evil aura, came rushing in.
There was no time to hesitate. Sharon instantly began casting magic.
“Ignis Pluvia!” (Flame Rain)”
At her chant, a massive red magic circle unfolded behind her.
From it, an enormous torrent of fireballs began raining down upon the incoming monsters.
As she held them back, Sharon shouted to the soldiers—
“Quick! Go get Sir Rikain and the others—now! Hurry!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Understood!”
Realizing this was far from an ordinary situation, Sharon urgently called for Rikain and the other knights.
Though the surge of monsters made her lose track of the evil spirit’s aura, she was certain—it was still somewhere nearby.
Gritting her teeth, Sharon continued casting spells, holding the monsters at bay.
＊ ＊ ＊
While Sharon was outside holding off the monsters, things inside the castle were starting to get chaotic as well.
Awakened by the noise, Calyx stepped out of his bedroom.
“It’s noisy outside. What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, my lord.”
Lana said calmly.
“Nothing? I could’ve sworn I heard an explosion.”
Lana maintained her composure as she addressed him.
The truth was, something serious was about to happen.
But if chaos erupted now, it would only put Calyx in greater danger.
Ironically, the safest place at this moment was his own room—one that Sharon had personally warded with protective magic.
Then Azelle made her move.
“My lord! It’s too dangerous to be outside right now. Please remain in your room!”
“Wait—Azelle!? Hold on a second—!”
THUD!
Azelle shoved Calyx back into the room with brute force, slamming the door shut behind him.
Watching the door close with a loud bang, Lana—for once—was visibly flustered.
“Was… was it okay to just ‘shove’ him in like that?”
But there was no time to dwell on it.
It had arrived.
“It’s coming, Lana!”
Azelle shouted.
At her words, Lana instantly tore off her maid’s skirt, drawing two hidden daggers from her thigh holsters.
Azelle, too, drew her sword and assumed a defensive stance.
Neither of them felt this was an opponent they could negotiate with.
And that hunch proved correct.
SSSHHHHAAAAHHH—!!
From beyond the window, it appeared.
It looked like a black shadow—
A skeletal figure shrouded in a dark hood, yet its form was vague, more like a smoky mist than solid bone.
From the spot where its eyes should be, a sinister red glow bore into them with malice.
It looked exactly like the grim reapers from old childhood fairy tales—monsters from the underworld.
“This thing…”
“Azelle, do you know what it is?”
“I’ve seen it once before. In a book.”
Azelle recalled something she had read during her time at the academy.
It had been in a record of battles involving black magic—cases she had only studied out of curiosity.
She remembered seeing this exact entity depicted once.
This was a type of evil spirit that could be summoned through black magic—A relentless hunter that pursued its target to the death under its summoner’s command.
“It’s called… the『Shadow Reaper』. Yes, definitely. It’s the evil spirit known as the Shadow Reaper.”
“Excellent. Then you must know how to banish it.”
“Well… I didn’t read that far!”
“Unfortunate.”
While the two were talking, the Shadow Reaper made its move.
Now recognizing them as enemies, it lunged.
“It’s coming!”
“Dodge!”
The Reaper swung its hand directly at them.
Azelle and Lana quickly rolled to either side, narrowly evading the strike.
SSSSHHHAAAA—
Where it struck, a large flower pot was sliced clean in half—like it had been shaved with a razor blade.
If one of them had taken that hit, even full plate armor would’ve been cut like tofu.
The Reaper turned its glowing red eyes on Lana.
After studying her for a brief moment, it charged in with the speed of a gale.
‘It’s fast!’
Lana barely evaded the swipe.
Even as a top graduate of the Assassin’s Division, she found it nearly impossible to dodge completely—
The Shadow Reaper’s speed was that overwhelming.
Whoosh—!
Lana, unwilling to sit back and take a beating, hurled a dagger straight at the reaper’s skull.
The dagger pierced the space between its eye sockets dead-on.
But then...
Ssshhh—
“It… passed through!?”
The dagger hadn't struck the skull—it had passed clean through, like it was slicing through air.
There was no resistance, no impact—nothing.
And as Lana reeled from the eerie sensation, the reaper's hand came sweeping toward her.
“Lady Lana!!”
To Azelle, the sight of the reaper’s hand reaching for Lana—still suspended midair—looked like a death sentence.
But the moment its hand was about to touch her, Lana vanished.
“Khh?!”
“Huh?”
Even the reaper seemed stunned.
The woman it had marked for death had disappeared right before its eyes.
In that fleeting moment, Lana had teleported—using the dagger she had thrown as her mark—and reappeared beside Azelle.
“Lady Lana! You’re safe!”
“Phew… I thought I was done for.”
Panting beside Azelle, Lana caught her breath.
The reaper, apparently still unaware of her location, turned its head left and right in search of her.
“What should we do? That thing—this so-called reaper—seems to be one of those ghost-type monsters we’ve heard about in rumors.”
“Yes… it seems that way.”
Both Lana and Azelle recalled their academy training.
They had learned that some monsters—like ghosts—had no physical form, and could only be harmed by equipment blessed by the Church or through holy magic.
“With my current gear, I have no means of harming that monster. Azelle, do you have anything that might work?”
Azelle hesitated.
She was debating whether to reveal a power she hadn’t even shown to her peers in the Order of the Golden Knights.
“Azelle?”
Still silent, Azelle mulled it over.
But only briefly.
This was to protect the lord who had trusted her—and the first friend she had made since coming here.
Surely, even her father would understand.
“Lady Lana… I want to ask something of you, and I ask it because I trust you.”
“Of course, Azelle. Please tell me.”
Azelle stepped forward.
The moonlight streaming through the shattered window began to shine down on her.
“What you’re about to see… I ask that you keep it secret.”
“I swear it. On the honor of the House of Ansus… no—on my lord’s name, I vow to keep it secret.”
Satisfied by Lana’s answer, Azelle smiled and gripped her sword.
Then she invoked her『Blessing』.
“Oh moonlight that guides me… oh goddess who leads my path…”
The world seemed to fall utterly silent, as if the earlier chaos had never happened.
The moonlight spilling into the room began to gather around her sword.
“Dwell within my blade… and grant me the power of purification.”
As her words ended, her sword began to glow with the power of moonlight.
This was Azelle’s blessing—
〈Sword of the Moonlight〉
It was a sacred ability that allowed her to forge a blade blessed by the moon itself—granting her greater power in battle whenever the moon shone upon the earth.
That’s why her title was『Knight of the Moonlight』, and this much was the extent of what even the prince and the Golden Knights knew of her.
But what Azelle had kept hidden was that her ‘true power’ didn’t just lie in fighting stronger at night.
Bathed in moonlight, her sword awakened its true form—a sacred force born to purge the wicked and destroy evil.
“Khhhhh—…”
Only then did the Shadow Reaper notice them.
And it sensed—instinctively—that something was wrong.
That glowing, emerald-hued sword—brimming with moonlight—was its natural predator.
Despite having no heart, no soul, no real body, the reaper began to feel something strange…
Fear.
“Poor, pitiful spirit…”
Moonlight surged from Azelle’s blade like a river of silver fire.
Sensing danger, the Shadow Reaper turned to flee.
Faster than it had charged at Lana, it chose flight over fight.
“Return to the place you belong!”
With those words, Azelle swung her『Moonlight Sword』.
A blade of glowing green light shot forth, cutting through the air toward the fleeing specter.
No matter how fast the reaper was—this was night, and this was the goddess’ hour.
“KIIIIAAAAAAAAGH!!!”
Engulfed by the lunar blade, the Shadow Reaper's form twisted and tore apart—its haunting scream echoing as it was ‘purified’ into nothingness.
And then, silence.
With the reaper gone, the castle fell into stillness once more.
＊ ＊ ＊
After the shadow reaper disappeared, Azelle began to panic.
“Lana, what do we do now?”
“What do you mean, ‘what do we do’?”
“I want to keep my blessing a secret!”
“That makes sense.”
In this world, even one’s own lord might not know all the blessings a person carries—they are kept hidden.
Lana hadn’t told the princess everything about her own blessing either.
Understanding Azelle’s wish to conceal her power for personal reasons, Lana shared a plan.
“I think this will work.”
Though taken aback, Azelle agreed to follow Lana’s advice, especially since it would help protect the lord’s reputation.
Ten minutes later, inside the castle, Calyx was running.
“I won’t forgive those monsters! How dare they harm my retainers!”
When Calyx opened the door, he saw Lana and Azelle, both wounded. They explained they fought to protect him but were overwhelmed. Calyx encouraged their efforts and promised to summon other knights.
Then Azelle said—
“Just in case, please take my sword, my lord. It will surely help.”
Calyx, unarmed, took her sword and stepped outside.
The sword glowed green, which seemed odd, but Calyx figured it was just some kind of glow-in-the-dark enchantment to help see at night, so he didn’t think much of it.
Outside, Calyx met Rikain and the other knights who had come to secure the area.
“My lord!”
“Are you unharmed?”
“Yes, I’m fine. But Azelle and Lana are injured inside. Please tend to them.”
“Understood!”
Just as everyone began to settle and breathe a sigh of relief, fragments of the shadow reaper responded to the energy of the Moonlight Sword that had killed it.
“Kraaah!”
“That’s—!”
“Protect the lord!”
Suddenly, a small fragment of the shadow reaper burst from the darkness and lunged straight at Lord Calyx. Reflexively, Calyx swung the sword Azelle had given him.
“Damn! You scared me!”
Swish—!
“Kyaaaah!”
Already weakened beyond measure, powerless even to kill an ant, the shadow reaper fragment was instantly purified and vanished by Calyx’s Moonlight Sword.
A stunned silence fell over the knights and nobles who witnessed this.
Then they erupted in cheers—
“Did the lord just strike down an evil spirit?!”
“The lord personally defeated a wicked demon!”
Calyx couldn’t quite process what was happening around him.
“…What the fuck just happened?”
And so, another song was born that day in Cron—
The tale of the young lord who vanquished an evil spirit.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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