------------------
HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
------------------
Chapter 35: The Mad Lion
The incident where the forsaken ones tried to kill Lord Calyx using black magic ended with the death of the ringleader.
They couldn’t figure out how Jeton, the last surviving fallen noble, got his hands on the forbidden black magic scroll.
That was because the moment the final evil spirit was destroyed by Calyx, Jeton also died, coughing up blood as the black magic’s price was exacted.
The mage tower shared the news that after decades, a black magic incident had occurred—and with rumors spreading that Calyx Cron might possess the purifying power to banish evil spirits, the matter was closed.
The Dreihart problem resolved itself as the forsaken turned on themselves and self-destructed.
The Dreihart territory was fully stabilized and began growing further by linking up with the Cron territory.
Dreihart had spices and rare magical ingredients, while Cron had salt and food supplies.
Normally, taxes and bribes would inflate prices when trading between territories, but since both lands were under the Cron family, they traded without those middlemen costs.
Thanks to this, both territories could afford the scarce resources at low prices.
Normally, such profits would be monopolized by a powerful few, but the lord himself distributed wealth to the people. Plus, the treasurer, with the『The Eyes of Truth and Falsehood』rounded up corrupt rich elites and sent them to the『Room of Truth』making monopolies impossible in Cron.
Naturally, the middle class in both territories grew strong and the happiness of the common folk skyrocketed.
This success began influencing neighboring territories.
The number of commoners wanting to migrate to Cron suddenly surged dangerously high.
Of course, not every territory saw this as an opportunity.
Take the Silla family, for example.
While not as revolutionary as the Cron family, Silla raised laborers’ wages within their power and freed slaves who had worked over ten years, giving hope for freedom.
Using the connection of receiving a gift from the same princess, Silla even inserted themselves into Dreihart’s spice trade.
“Aren’t we allies, Lord Calyx? Hohoho!”
Silla agreed to cover the spice transport costs to the western regions in exchange for exclusive sales rights there.
The Cron family and Silla made a deal at a fair point that benefitted both sides.
Though not as prosperous as Cron, the people under Silla’s rule began living better lives and grew more satisfied.
But not every territory turned crisis into opportunity.
A prime example was the Raion family, east of Cron.
Bang!
“Did you say some people ran away?!”
The gloomy Raion family castle.
Hadem couldn’t hide his rage after hearing the report from his clerk.
The clerk trembled, reading the papers in his hands.
“So…132 commoners escaped this week.”
“132 people ran away?! What were our soldiers doing?!”
“Well… the soldiers ran away too. So only 12 were left behind.”
“Damn bastards!!!”
Crash—!
“Eek!”
In a fit of fury, Hadem threw his drinking glass, shattering it, terrifying the clerk.
“Get out!!!”
“Yes! Yes!!!”
Fearing for his life, the clerk hurriedly fled.
Hadem felt like his hair was falling out from stress.
Since Calyx became lord, the Raion family kept suffering losses.
At first, Hadem thought it was just a weakling’s cheap tactic.
“Make the people richer with tax reforms, what good will it do? In the end, the weak always get exploited by the strong.”
Hadem decided to turn Raion territory into a military stronghold—and the plan partly succeeded.
But things kept getting worse.
Not only had Sharon, a troublesome mage even Hadem struggled to control, joined them, but Dreihart territory was taken, and even Hadem’s rival warrior Zarha was now under Calyx’s command.
Even Hadem admitted Calyx’s spirit was impressive.
Seeing Calyx stand his ground and make demands without fear made Hadem secretly wish his own son had such backbone.
But right now, Hadem was beyond annoyed.
Calyx always acted just within Hadem’s limits—never crossing the line because he knew the prince would intervene.
So instead, Calyx kept tormenting Hadem without sparking full-on war, which was Hadem’s specialty.
On top of that, runaway commoners and slaves were increasing daily, to the point it was threatening farm operations.
Hadem found himself thinking dozens of times a day about ignoring the prince and just storming the Cron family’s territory.
Just then, the door opened, and Lagos entered.
“What’s the matter, Lagos?!”
“The farm manager tried to run away, my lord.”
“What?! The farm manager?!”
The farm manager was a high-ranking official in the Raion family.
Hearing that even someone like that tried to escape broke Hadem’s last shred of patience.
“Yes, I thought this needed to be reported to you, my lord. What should I do?”
“(Sigh…) I’ll handle it myself.”
Grabbing his axe, Hadem decided he’d had enough of maintaining the prince’s dignity.
He believed his people, now like toothless lions, desperately needed discipline.
＊ ＊ ＊
Raion Family Central Plaza.
On the tall podium where everyone could see, Hadem stood.
He had called all the commoners and slaves of the Raion territory to gather in the plaza at this very hour, and it was packed with people.
Hadem wasn’t alone on the stage.
The farm manager who had tried to escape was also there, tied to a chair.
When the time came, Hadem stood up holding his axe and began to speak.
“I hear a lot of you have been running away lately. Fools, tricked by the lies of wandering bards, fleeing to become slaves to those damn ‘salt bugs’.”
He started calmly, matter-of-factly describing the recent events in the territory.
Suddenly, he slammed the axe handle down on the podium.
Bang!
“What kind of disgrace is this?! Where has the great bravery of the Raion territory gone?! Are lions supposed to run away like pathetic vermin just because life got a bit too easy?!”
Hadem’s furious roar filled the plaza, and the people trembled with fear.
With an unrelenting glare, Hadem approached the tied-up farm manager.
“What is your name?”
“B-Boro, my lord Hadem, the great…”
“What is your crime?”
“I—I tried to run away from your orders! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I was wrong! Please spare me!”
Boro looked like any ordinary man in his forties.
He was plain-looking, a typical hard-working head of a household.
Pressing the blade of the axe to Boro’s neck, Hadem said—
“This man is the farm manager of our territory. He worked under me for ten years, yet he dared to abandon this land and run off to those weak and contemptible salt bugs...”
Hadem struck the podium lightly.
Soldiers waiting nearby immediately came up and placed Boro’s head into the guillotine.
“So I will ask the gods through this man’s neck. Tell me which side the gods favor.”
“I was wrong! My lord! I was wrong! Please spare me! Please! Please save me!”
Hadem slowly approached Boro’s head, trapped under the blade.
Boro was pale with terror, begging for mercy, over and over.
“If the gods favor the salt bugs, your neck will be spared. If not, it will fall to my axe.”
“My lord! My lord!”
All the commoners in Raion’s territory watched Boro.
Hadem raised his axe and shouted—
“O gods! Deliver your judgment!”
Clink!
Then with all his strength, Hadem brought the axe down.
Boro’s neck was severed effortlessly by the force and sharpness of Hadem’s axe.
The head rolled, blood poured out—but no one screamed.
No one dared, struck mute by the terror of the Mad Lion.
“This is the gods’ judgment. Don’t disappoint them and become forsaken lions!”
With those final words, Hadem stepped down from the podium.
The terror of the Mad Lion swept through the territory like never before.
＊ ＊ ＊
A few days after that incident, a secret letter arrived at the Cron estate.
When Calyx read the contents, his expression hardened.
After much deliberation, he decided to meet the sender in person and left the estate.
He brought only Azelle as his escort knight.
Their destination was an obscure tavern tucked away in the southeastern region—quiet, secluded, the kind of place no one paid attention to.
As soon as they arrived and the tavern owner saw Calyx’s face, he silently shut the tavern doors and led them into a hidden underground chamber.
And when that door creaked open… the sender of the letter was already there, waiting.
“Big brother Calyx! You came!”
The man with short brown hair and a lean frame rushed toward Calyx, dropped to his knees, and began to sob uncontrollably.
Unshaken by the sudden outburst, Calyx calmly patted his back and said—
“You’ve lost a lot of weight, Bara.”
His name was『Bara Raion』—
The only son of Hadem Raion, and a lifelong victim of his father’s cruelty.
He had met Calyx before, long ago.
Now, he'd secretly sent a letter begging to meet, and Calyx—fully aware of the risk—had come.
After a long bout of tears, once Bara had calmed down, the two sat across from each other at a small table.
“So, Bara… What was it that you were so desperate to tell me?”
Bara looked him straight in the eyes.
“Brother… please… kill that Mad Lion! Kill my father!!”
At those words, even Azelle, standing silently behind Calyx, couldn’t hide her shock.
Here, in a remote tavern in the southeast, the kind of story that could plunge the entire southern region into chaos was just beginning to unfold.
------------------
HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
------------------
