༺ I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution ༻
Written by – 카르카손
Translated by – Mara Sov
༺ Revolutionary Period – Halphas ༻
At the golden hour.
I had instructed the servants, so the corridors of the mansion were empty, the only sound being heard was from my footsteps as I burst into the room of our ‘guest’, and the man in question appeared to be surprised.
“Ah, Your Excellency? What brings you to my room……?”
“Emanuel Sierres?”
“Yes, that is I who stands before Your Lordship the Marquis.”
Sierres bowed before me, his face expressing a feigned fear.
This man has no idea what could have spiked our suspicion.
Well, not that his reasoning or concerns are my problem.
“You served Bishop Arnaud Richelieu during your time in Lumiere, didn’t you?”
“Y-Yes, but how did Your Excellency know that……”
“And you helped him publish the book called The Theory of Social Hierarchy, which played a significant role in the revolutionary movement.”
Only now did a real hint of concern enter his eyes.
“Your Excellency, it seems a misunderstanding has occurred. While it’s true that I served the Bishop for a brief time, I have nothing to do with those rebels…..”
“That will be ascertained later. And since you, someone connected to the revolutionary leadership, were employed in a noble house without confessing this, you would have no complaints about being arrested while we confirm these facts, would you?”
Now he seemed genuinely worried as I revealed the shackles I brought with me.
“These shackles are designed to seal the prisoner’s mana. With this, your magic will be cut off temporarily, and should you be found innocent, you will be released.”
Those shackles were the same ones used to imprison me. So their efficacy is certain. Even a powerful Knight would become no different from a normal person should he be restricted by these.
Should this man be a demon using magic to hide his true form, then by using these shackles the illusion will break.
“Your Excellency, I apologize, but as a vassal of Aquitaine, even while inside your residence, you have no right to give me such unfair treatment on baseless suspicions-“
“You will cooperate with the Marquis, Sierres.”
Just as he had started to protest, Christine interrupted him as she leaned against the door.
“If you are innocent, I’ll make sure to compensate you for any hardship caused by this.”
After Christine finished speaking, I added.
“On the off chance you are found guilty, any actions taken to root out the spy in our ranks will be justified.”
But the moment I took a step forward, he lifted his head and let out a deafening screech.
It sounded like a mix of a pigeon cooing with a human chuckle.
“Ugh……!”
Christine winced in pain, desperately covering her ears, when suddenly Sierres’s body began to swell as if it would burst.
Wrapping my arms around her, I hurled both of us outside the room-
Then, just as we escaped, the room exploded, and something dark burst out of the room.
Later, I would recognize those remains as his clothes and human flesh.
As I helped Christine to her feet, I drew my sword.
“Hah, thank you.”
“He’s shown his true face.”
At that moment, something large and feathered grabbed the remnants of the door.
Following this, the entire room collapsed as a bizarre noise emanated from within, as the demon now emerged into the corridor.
“How dare you, lowly humans-!”
Sierres, no, the demon Halphas.
His body was a twisted mockery between a bird and a man, covered in pitch-black feathers with three pairs of crimson eyes.
“You undesirable variable! You are a threat to the Abyss Corporation!”
As the giant bird spread its wings, dozens of crimson eyes blinked into existence inside them.
“Ha-. And they talk about coexisting with humans……”
This was no mere demon, but a high-ranked one.
My hands gripped the sword even tighter.
As the giant demon bird Halphas let out another screech, the dozens of pigeons hiding in his wings rose, adding to the chaos.
Seeing that all those pigeons were focused on me, I also shouted my command.
“Attack!”
At the same time, multiple Knights who were hiding in the rooms close by burst forward.
“What the hell is this thing, My Lord?”
“Look at this thing!”
But our surprise element was rendered moot since most Knights became entranced by his appearance.
Fuck.
“My Lord!”
Still, Sir Gaston acted quickly as he slashed the incoming pigeons with his sword.
Seeing that he was the only one who managed to keep his wits, I gave him an order.
“Sir Gaston! Protect the Countess of Aquitaine!”
As soon as I gave him the order, a pigeon flew at me and I split it in two with my sword.
But no matter how many we killed, they simply dispersed in a cloud of black mana, as Halphas continued to birth more and more.
“Ack! My eyes-!!”
“This accursed bird!”
While one pigeon managed to peck at one Knight’s eye, his companion sliced it, but they simply broke into mana once again.
“This will never end! Men! Get a grip and attack the main body!”
Holding my sword with both hands, I charged forward.
One step, a diagonal slash from left to right.
Two steps, a horizontal strike.
The pigeons continued to break down in a black cloud of mana, obscuring my vision.
Three steps, a vertical slash bisected more pigeons as I adjusted my grip on the sword, while Halphas in a flash, flapped his gigantic wings.
“Tsk-!”
I went low, dodging his blow and slicing upwards with all my might.
However, my sword didn’t reach him.
As my sword clashed against a magical shield, I was repelled back.
“Gah-!”
Not caring about the searing pain generated by being sent out flying, I grabbed my sword once more.
B-Class mage my ass!
Just how strong was this stupid devil?!
“How dare you! A primitive human tries to use the gift of mana against a devil!”
With an enraged screech, the demon charged at me, and I was forced on the defensive, slashing another wave of pigeons while I retreated.
“Hah…Hah….Dammit. How do we kill this thing?”
Maybe I should have brought Eris with us?
Perhaps I was wrong in trying to keep her safe when we didn’t know about the danger we would face.
“Iyaaaaaah-! Guk-!”
It’s too late for regrets now.
Even when I blocked Halphas’s massive wings with my sword, I was pushed back, and my entire arm went numb.
“Wooooo-Gah!”
“Away from me, you filthy human!”
Halphas didn’t even look at the Knight charging at him from behind, as he simply slammed him with one of his wings and continued to glare at me, filled with his murderous intent.
I can’t deal with him by myself.
With this conclusion, my actions following it were swift.
“Christine! We need to get out of here and find Er-“
As I turned towards her and shouted, I could see Christine aiming at Halphas with her twin pistols.
While I appreciated her courage, what could she do with those pea shooters!?
At that moment, Christine fired and of course, Halphas didn’t even consider it a threat.
After all, what could a mere bullet do against this demon’s magical shield-
Yet, to everyone’s surprise, Halphas’s shield was shattered to pieces.
“Kiyaaaaaaaaaak-!!!”
The bullets ripped through his shield and shot into his wing, which quickly began to burn in a flash of white light.
What the hell?
“This is something I reserved for an emergency, but it seems that even these greedy demons can’t escape from the damage a wealthy person can do.
These cute little bullets are something special that I ordered directly from the Holy Theocracy.”
“Aghhhhh! Y-You Wretccccch-!!”
“Haha! Even demons can’t do anything against the power of money!”
I laughed at the irony of it all while I leaped towards the howling demon.
“I refuse to fall to mere humans-!”
Halphas flared his wings desperately, but without his magical shield, those wings were easily cut by my sword.
“KYEEEEEE-!”
Unlike the pigeons, blue blood gushed from the severed wings. Ah, so a demon’s blood is really blue?
Still, as Halphas screeched and summoned more pigeons to attack me when I had overcommitted to my strike, Sir Gaston leaped forward and cut them off.
By now, the momentum from the army of pigeons was diminishing.
“Whoooh!”
Using this opportunity, both Sir Gaston and I charged, plunging our swords into the demon’s torso, who collapsed with a pained scream.
While Sir Gaston pinned the convulsing demon to the ground with his sword, I quickly brought the shackles that had fallen in the corridor and pinned Halphas’s legs with my sword.
Amidst the horrible screams of the demon, I fastened the shackles around its bird-like ankles that were nailed by my sword.
“Kyeeeaa, AHHH-ahhhh!”
As the creature started to squirm the giant bird-like form began to shrink.
The countless pigeons that filled the corridor all yelped and dropped to the floor as they turned into clouds of black mana.
As the exhausted breaths of the Knights filled the corridor, a demon with his horns and arms severed lay in a pool of his own blood.
“C-c-curse you…”
I frowned a bit at this grotesque sight.
“He’s not going to die from this, will he?”
“A human would be long dead by now, but a demon like him? He will survive. You didn’t seem to have damaged something vital to him.”
Having disposed of her fancy shoes somewhere during the conflict, Christine who was now barefoot and with disheveled hair, came beside me and stared at the demon, while I gave orders to the one standing.
“You, go fetch Eris to deal with the wounded. And……Bring a maid for Countess Aquitaine as well.”
“Right away, My Lord!”
“Kekekeke-cough-kekeke……”
As the Knight scrambled to accomplish my order, Halphas, lying on the ground started laughing.
Sigh-. Don’t tell me he went mad now.
“Do you even know what you have done? A noble from a ruined kingdom opposing the Abyss Corporation…kekekeke…What a creative way to commit suicide!”
“I don’t understand what you are saying. Tell me, Countess, do we have any employees from Abyss Corporation here?”
“Well, we do have one that was suspected to be a spy, who refused to cooperate and made a big scene out of it.”
When Christine and I took turns pressuring him, Halphas gritted his teeth and yelled.
“If Abyss Corporation learns of this, they won’t let it go!”
“Aha! That would be the case if we announced that we’ve caught a spy from the Abyss Corporation. But I have a hunch that the demons would rather cut off a stupid spy that got caught, than compromise their business with us humans.”
Halphas flinched as he listened to my words.
It was merely a hunch of mine, but his reaction confirmed it.
These demons are so used to having the upper hand that they are quite vulnerable to bluffs like these.
I pulled my sword that was stuck in his leg.
“Aaaaagh-!”
Halphas screamed as even more blue blood was spilled.
“Thing is, you should be more worried about your own situation, demon. Because from now on these uncultured barbarians will have all the time in the world to experiment with your body and make you spill everything you know while we are at it. Honestly, I’m rather curious to see how much a demon like you can withstand our torture methods.”
“Don’t break him too quickly, my dear Marquis. I want him alive by the end of it so we can sell him to the Theocracy at a high price. After all, I wasted a rather expensive bullet on him, I want to make up for that money.”
Christine’s face was completely serious as she said this, and I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I answered her.
“Of course, of course. It would be a shame if he died too quickly. Why don’t we leave him there for a moment while we look at some documents and prepare for his interrogation?”
As he heard the conversation shared by both figures, Halphas shuddered as he whispered to himself.
“T-these…Humans…Are worse than us…demons…”
TL Note: I had a major headache doing this…. Pls for the sake of god tell me it’s good.
Ughhhhh
My head…..
Ya know……Do not….Ever….Mix wine, jack daniels, heavy cream and pepsi.
