Reader’S Regeneration Life [EN]: Chapter 72

Ah, so this is what they call ‘sacrifice.’

“…Young Lord Zion.”

After a few minutes of contemplation, Schumacher finally spoke slowly.

“As you said, Young Lord, Baron Konean is clearly a criminal. You and Kim Yu-hyun have only punished him, so it doesn’t make sense to arrest him and send him to the royal capital.

However, if Baron Konean mentions that detail during the investigation…”

“Ah, don’t worry about that.”

Zion approached Baron Konean.

Lying on the bed, groaning and listening to their conversation, the Baron struggled as Zion approached, like an innocent person trying to escape the devil.

“Baron Konean,

I have something to ask you.”

Thump—.

“Ugh!”

Zion deliberately pressed his elbow into the wound inflicted by Kim Yu-hyun, shielding the scene from the others.

“Do you remember who did this to you?”

“Ugh!

Th-that’s…”

“Oh, you don’t remember? That must be it. You ran away, smashed your face into the door, and fainted. I heard you hit it so hard you made a hole in the door, right?”

Thump!

Zion pressed down on the wound with his index finger, as if digging into it. Baron Konean, already in severe pain, couldn’t even scream and only struggled.

Zion whispered softly into the Baron’s ear.

“Think carefully.

Unless you want to see your family dragged out on charges of treason like the Kashgar family and torn to pieces by demi-humans, you’ll cooperate.”

“Kugh…!”

“Wouldn’t it be interesting if the demi-humans you kept as slaves, or their families, found out where your family members are?”

He was saying that if he didn’t cooperate, he was ready to become a monster.

Baron Konean trembled and finally gave the answer Zion wanted.

“…I… I don’t remember. Young Lord Zion, and Vice-Commander Schumacher… I don’t remember how I ended up like this.”

“I see.

Unfortunately, Baron Konean seems to have hit his head hard while running away and suffered some kind of mental confusion.”

Schumacher glanced at Zion and sighed. As a knight, he felt uncomfortable with such obvious lies, but he hated the idea of a guilty person causing harm even more.

“If any problems arise, I will go to the royal capital myself to explain. I don’t think this would be too much of a problem for Vice-Commander Schumacher. What do you think?”

Moreover, seeing Zion trying to protect his people, Schumacher decided to step back. He thought that even though Zion was a war hero, he still paid special attention to everyone.

“Understood.

Then…”

“Sir Knight!

Royal Knight!

Just a moment!

Just a moment!”

Suddenly, an old man appeared, struggling to get into the room.

The knights immediately tried to stop him, but Schumacher looked at him and allowed him to enter.

“I have something to say.

It’s very important.”

“…Who are you?”

“I am a butler who used to work in this castle. I have something I must tell the person from the royal capital, so I have intruded impolitely like this!”

The butler of the Konean barony glanced at his master lying on the bed. Baron Konean looked at his butler and smiled bitterly.

The trump card he had prepared for a possible emergency was finally being used.

‘Butler, come here.’

‘Yes, Baron.’

‘Listen carefully. It’s very important.’

Before Kim Yu-hyun came—on the very day he brought a large amount of tribute to where Zion was staying—Baron Konean decided to take out some insurance in secret from Zion.

It was a way to expose the secret deal between himself and Zion Clausen in case Zion betrayed him.

‘If something happens to me, and Young Lord Zion Clausen betrays us, then eventually people from the royal capital will come. At that time, you must say that I gave Zion Clausen a huge amount of money.’

‘Is that all I have to do?’

‘A war hero, and the person who discovered the slave market, suddenly receiving a large sum of money from the owner of that market is suspicious, isn’t it?’

The butler nodded. It was clear what kind of rumors would spread if it became known that the person who exposed his master’s corruption had received a large sum of money from him.

“Tell me.

What is this important matter?”

At Schumacher’s urging, the butler took a deep breath, glanced at Zion, and opened his mouth. Zion felt a chilling sensation run up his spine.

This was definitely the smell of a traitor.

‘Are these bastards really?’

He would have let it go if they had only dug a small hole, but the energy he felt was similar to those who were trying to drag him down with them. He wanted to shut that butler’s mouth, but the story was already flowing out.

“Some time ago, following Baron Konean’s orders, I moved several boxes full of gold coins to an inn. I don’t know the exact amount, but it was at least several thousand gold coins.”

“…Moved several thousand gold coins? Are you accusing Baron Konean of embezzling his assets in advance?”

“That’s not it.

I don’t know the exact reason, but I know that a noble young master was staying at that inn, and he was the recipient.”

At the words ‘noble young master staying at an inn,’ Lucia looked at Zion. Zion Clausen was the only noble young master who had entered Konean territory, meaning that a huge amount of gold sent by Baron Konean was delivered to him.

“…Can you take responsibility for what you’re saying?”

“Of course!

It’s too much to handle at once, so if you search that inn thoroughly, you’ll find it right away.”

“…Then who received that much money from Baron Konean?”

Schumacher asked, hoping it wasn’t Zion. However, the butler’s next answer shattered his hopes.

“That person is Young Lord Zion Clausen.”

When that word came out, a groan escaped from Schumacher’s mouth.

This would mess everything up.

Baron Konean violated the royal order and ran a slave market. Young Lord Zion Clausen discovered Baron Konean’s corruption and reported it to the royal family. But there was a transaction of several thousand gold coins between the two?

‘This means there was some kind of deal between Baron Konean and Young Lord Zion.’

Schumacher slowly turned his head and looked at Zion, asking if he had anything to say. Zion was just silently looking out the window.

“Young Lord Zion.”

“…”

“Young Lord Zion Clausen.”

Only at the second call did Zion turn his head. Schumacher hid his inner thoughts, desperately wanting him to deny it, and asked the question.

“Is what this old man is saying true? Did you secretly receive a huge amount of money, amounting to several thousand gold coins, from Baron Konean?”

“…”

“Please answer.

If you continue to remain silent, we can only assume that there was some kind of deal between the two of you, and in that case, you too may be subject to a strict royal investigation regarding the management of the slave market.”

Even so, Zion did not answer. He just stared at Schumacher.

Baron Konean chuckled inwardly at Zion’s appearance.

‘If you are tied up in the royal investigation, you will naturally have less attention to spare for my family. In the meantime, my family can just run away somewhere. You damn bastard. How dare you trick me.’

He wanted to shout, ‘That guy threatened me and extorted money!’ but if he did, Zion Clausen might accuse him of staging even this, so Baron Konean tried to appear as if he had nothing to do with his butler.

That way, everyone would accept that his butler had reported this matter solely on his own judgment.

“Young Lord Zion Clausen.”

Schumacher opened his mouth with an even more hardened expression. Lucia, who didn’t know the situation well, was about to step forward the moment it seemed like he was really going to treat him as a criminal and take him to the royal capital if he continued to refuse to answer.

“It’s true.”

“Yes?”

“I received money from Baron Konean.

Twice.

First, on the condition that I keep the slave market a secret, and then on the condition that I keep him alive without killing him.”

Suddenly, the truths burst out. Not only Schumacher but even Baron Konean exclaimed, ‘Huh?’

He wondered how he could handle the aftermath if he agreed so easily.

“…Is that true?

That you had some kind of deal with Baron Konean and received several thousand gold coins?”

“That’s right.

It’s all true.”

“May I ask why?

Why someone who lacks nothing would succumb to the temptation of money and do something they shouldn’t have done.”

Schumacher’s expression changed to a slightly angry one as he questioned Zion. At that atmosphere, Lucia was fidgeting, and Rishikida was contemplating whether to draw his sword.

“Because it was made from their blood and tears, so I wanted to return it to them in its entirety.”

Unexpected words came out of Zion’s mouth. Schumacher, Baron Konean, Lucia, Rishikida, and even Kim Yu-hyun all reacted as if they didn’t know what he meant.

Only Zion continued to speak with a calm expression and voice.

“I received money from Baron Konean. Yes, it would be more accurate to say that I extorted it. Because I coveted that money? Not at all. What would I do with the blood, tears, and resentment of the demi-humans?

Those fools would be the ones to hold that kind of money and laugh, but I am different.”

Baron Konean, who had suddenly become a fool, sighed as if he was dumbfounded. Wasn’t Zion the one who had shown that he coveted that money so much until recently!

“There were many other ways, but I judged that it was right to return what should rightfully belong to them. So I pretended to make a deal with that dirty bastard and took the money, and promised to return it all.”

“Young Lord Zion Clausen.

What on earth are you talking about? Who are ‘they’…”

“That’s it!”

The answer came not from Zion’s mouth, but from beyond the door.

“That human man returned all that money to our people. That’s what he’s saying!”

A girl who looked exactly like a feisty cat, who would soon grow into an exquisite beauty, was standing there.

With slightly wavy, light blue hair fluttering carelessly, shining golden eyes staring straight at Zion, and a fluffy tail wagging, the Myo-eun [cat-like demi-human] girl strode in with dignity.

“…Who are you?”

Schumacher was getting annoyed because strange people kept coming in without permission. Moreover, the girl in front of him was a demi-human, and among them, the Myo-eun tribe, which was known to be quite wild.

Then Winnie Portable of the Myo-eun tribe, the one chosen by lightning, pointed at Baron Konean with her fiercely raised claws and meowed fiercely.

“Winnie Portable of the Myo-eun tribe!

The one who was caught by that detestable man and almost sold as a slave!”

At the word ‘slave,’ Schumacher’s coldly hardened eyes turned to Baron Konean again. He had forgotten for a moment that the root cause of all this was that man, but the Myo-eun girl reminded him.

“And this man saved me!

He scraped together the blood, tears, and resentment of our people and other races and returned them!

He’s my benefactor!

Just try to touch him!

Kyaaak!”

Winnie suddenly spread her claws and hissed.

She thought she was threatening them strongly, but the only thought in everyone’s mind was this.

It’s a cat.

Cute, how cute.

“Ah.”

Then Schumacher opened his mouth as if he had finally realized Zion’s true intentions.

“Young Lord Zion Clausen?

So the reason you received the money from Baron Konean, even while enduring the suspicious gazes you would have to receive…”

As if this was the moment, Zion looked out the window with a wistful gaze and lightly sighed. Then, with eyes full of sensitivity as if he was about to shed tears because his heart was aching, he slowly opened his mouth.

“What we had to give them was not goodwill or compensation, but their ‘rights’ that they should rightfully take. I just took it from that man and returned it. No matter what it took, even if I was slandered or defamed, I wanted to apologize to them and return it.”

At those words, Schumacher, the knights, Lucia, and Rishikida all exclaimed, ‘Ah…’

Even Kim Yu-hyun unknowingly let out a groan.

“Hmph!”

And Winnie was wagging her tail and purring as if boasting, ‘This man is my benefactor!’

“…Is she more like a demon than me…?”

And Lilit, the only woman who knew the whole story from the beginning, was shaking her head with a dumbfounded expression, watching Zion’s side of the story from the opposite room.

While everyone in the room was floundering in a grand epic of emotion, there was only one person among them who couldn’t accept the situation, and that was Baron Konean.

‘Wh-what the hell is this?’

As the situation suddenly flowed strangely, Baron Konean hurriedly tried to open his mouth. At that moment, he made eye contact with Zion, who was looking out the window.

At that moment, the Baron could see it clearly.

The appearance of the devil, who was looking at him and slightly raising the corners of his lips.

Smirk—.

As if saying, ‘Did you feel good acting like a fool with your pathetic tricks?’

Zion was looking at him with a face full of ridicule.

―――――――Author’s Note―――――――

Did you believe that?

Jjet-ttik!