The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 167

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – 167

Vlad Tepes (4)

As the Meteor Strike signaled the end, Bathory wrapped things up efficiently.

Shua-Niel looked like she wanted to know why they were finishing when she hadn’t found Shua-Niel yet, but Meteor Strike ignored her and left the presidential palace.

“Where are you going? You haven’t found his real body yet!”

“I found it.”

“No, you found it?”

“Yes. You incompetent, freeloading, game-addicted high elf. No, ‘high elf’ is too good for you. I’ll call you a low elf from now on.”

At Yu Seong-wu’s words, Shua-Niel glared and swung her fist at him.

But there was still no impact.

The low elf, Shua-Niel, huffed and perked up her ears.

She was curious how Yu Seong-wu had found what she couldn’t, but her pride kept her from asking.

It was like a swordsman doing a mage’s job.

Yu Seong-wu raised his head and looked in one direction, saying,

“Northwest… do you know what’s over there? The connection I sensed was linked to that direction.”

“You mean the northwest.”

At the mention of the northwest, Bathory thought about what was in that direction.

Then one thing came to mind.

“There’s an old castle. Bran Castle… famous as Count Dracula’s castle.”

“That’s suspicious.”

“That place has been a tourist attraction for a long time… and Tepes only stopped by once.”

“It’s definitely northwest, so let’s go there first.”

The strand of magical power that Yu Seong-wu saw coming from the young Tepes’ body was clearly heading northwest.

* * *

Yu Seong-wu and his party headed northwest. Their mode of transportation was a bit unusual—not a car, not a plane, but a witch’s broom.

Although calling it a broom was a bit of a stretch.

“Witches these days… are so trendy.”

What Bathory pulled out of her subspace bag, calling it a witch’s broom, was a log with straw attached to it that could comfortably seat three people.

The log was also smoothly trimmed, as if considering riding comfort.

“A witch’s broom is for short-term flights. The fuel efficiency is terrible. It’s good to use it like this.”

“No, I mean the appearance.”

This was closer to a bench than a broom.

When Yu Seong-wu questioned it, Bathory clapped her hands and said.

“As long as it fits the concept of a broom, magic is possible.”

He wondered if he could clean with this, but he didn’t think he would get a useful answer if he asked more.

Anyway, the three of them headed to Bran Castle on Bathory’s vehicle disguised as a broom.

Bran Castle was an old castle located near the city of Brasov.

A tourist attraction well known as Count Dracula’s castle.

The original inspiration for Count Dracula was Vlad Tepes, but in fact, Vlad only visited Bran Castle once.

His real castle had long since collapsed and turned into ruins.

“I see it.”

When they arrived at Bran Castle, Yu Seong-wu focused his mind and re-established the connection.

A gray stream extending from Bran Castle was caught in his senses.

“Fortunately, there don’t seem to be any tourists, but there are many armed personnel.”

As they had guessed, there were strange people in Bran Castle instead of tourists.

Pale skin and an inhuman aura.

Yu Seong-wu quickly recognized who they were.

Vampires.

They must have been vampires affiliated with Tepes.

And they all exuded the energy of high-ranking vampires, as if they had been injected with a lot of blood.

“Isn’t this enough to warrant action?”

“…Our purpose is to confirm whether Tepes has joined forces with the forces of chaos. I think you keep forgetting that.”

“If he doesn’t join hands with chaos, there’s no justification for killing him?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Bathory, who was looking down at Bran Castle from the air, continued.

“The goal is to infiltrate and find traces of collusion with the forces of chaos inside. Got it? Keep the battle to a minimum.”

“If a vampire’s subordinate dies, the master will notice. Okay, I got it.”

After landing in the forest near Bran Castle, Bathory cast a transparency spell.

It was a high-level magic that hid even sound and smell.

The three of them infiltrated Bran Castle undetected.

Because Bathory’s magic was excellent, even vampires with good noses couldn’t detect their stealth.

Even if they passed right next to them, they didn’t sense anything and just stood there blankly.

Yu Seong-wu, in case of emergency, carried Shua-Niel in his arms and moved quickly.

“This way.”

As he entered the interior of Bran Castle, he felt the connection more clearly.

The gray thread he had seen in the presidential palace was extremely thin, but what he was feeling now was a thick bundle like a high-voltage wire.

‘…The number of subordinates is enormous.’

The thick bundle seemed to unravel piece by piece as it moved away from Bran Castle, reaching each subordinate.

How many subordinates would it take for that thin gray line to become this thick?

As the original form of the vampire, Tepes’ power was enormous.

The number of subordinates was proof of power.

Yu Seong-wu asked Bathory.

“How many subordinates do you have?”

“…I don’t have any.”

“A vampire with no subordinates? You’re talking like an orc without children.”

“What kind of analogy is that? I really don’t have any. What’s so good about being a vampire in this day and age? If you’re not a high-ranking vampire, you can’t even walk around during the day…….”

The vampires he knew were busy increasing their subordinates.

In order to increase their power, they increased their subordinates indiscriminately, and those subordinates increased their subordinates.

The vampire family that was completed in that way was extremely powerful.

Bathory was a vampire who didn’t increase her subordinates.

He stared at her curiously as she was a type he had never seen before, and Bathory avoided his gaze and continued.

“Vampires also value different things. Which way is it?”

“This way.”

Yu Seong-wu followed the thick gray bundle.

He toured the inside of the castle, passing by several vampires.

The interior of the castle was so large that he had to go around and around, perhaps because there had been extensions.

Yu Seong-wu suppressed the urge to break down the walls and moved on.

And, passing through heavy security, he was able to find a way to go underground in the deep center.

Bathory, who had looked back at the path she had taken, tilted her head.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I feel traces of magic…….”

“Didn’t you know? The path we’ve been walking on has been enchanted. If you don’t go the right way, you’ll get lost. If you had started to get lost, alarms and guards would have rushed in. It’s a carefully made maze.”

Shua-Niel, who was dangling from Yu Seong-wu’s waist, said.

Yu Seong-wu looked down at her, frowned, and flicked her forehead.

“Tell me if there’s something like that. You incompetent low elf.”

“…….”

Shua-Niel covered her forehead with both hands and pouted her lips.

He called her a low elf again.

The supreme high elf…….

It wasn’t that she was incompetent at detecting the trap, but it was true that she was incompetent for not saying it sooner.

“From now on, if there seem to be any magical traps, tell me right away. I’ll take care of the physical traps.”

“…Okay.”

“Then let’s go.”

The group stepped onto the spiral staircase leading underground.

It was very dark because there were no lights, but except for Shua-Niel, the two of them were able to see clearly in the dark as if it were daytime.

Since Shua-Niel wasn’t walking, there was no need to cast a spell to see through the darkness.

“It’s quite deep…….”

Yu Seong-wu carefully expanded his aura to check the internal structure of the underground.

But at some point, a strong magical wall blocked his aura.

It didn’t seem to have been detected, but the powerful magic pushed back his aura and refused to be analyzed.

“The density of magic is getting higher and higher.”

“…I don’t think I can maintain the magic any further.”

Bathory released the transparency magic.

The density of magic was so high that it was affecting the magic itself.

Instead, Yu Seong-wu spread his aura wide and enveloped Bathory.

He couldn’t erase her appearance, but at least he would mask her presence and sound.

Bathory was surprised by Yu Seong-wu’s skill in handling aura.

There was a reason why he was called a Swordmaster.

It wasn’t an empty boast when he asserted in front of the twelve elders of the Witch Society that he could kill everyone in this place and leave.

“Keep going.”

Yu Seong-wu reached out his hand to Bathory, pulled her close, and started running down the stairs quickly.

Until now, he had been moving in line with Bathory’s pace, but Yu Seong-wu ran along the wall as if even that was a waste of time.

Not on the stairs, but on the wall.

But he moved without a sound, like an assassin from Persia.

“Have you ever done assassinations?”

“I’ve done it.”

“You’re experienced…….”

He was going to say that he seemed to have a talent for assassination.

Yu Seong-wu had already accumulated too much experience to hear such words.

Anyway.

The three of them reached the end of the spiral staircase. He wondered if they could have dug this deep underground with past technology.

“It seems that the internal space has been expanded with magic. There’s a slight spatial distortion.”

“Tell me sooner.”

“I didn’t think I needed to say it because it wasn’t a trap…….”

He wanted to flick Shua-Niel’s forehead again, but it was impossible because he didn’t have a free hand.

At the end of the spiral staircase was a steel door.

The door, which was a little smaller than Yu Seong-wu’s height, had magical protections and could not be opened carelessly.

If the door was opened incorrectly, the person trying to open it would be seriously injured due to the magical backlash.

Shua-Niel explained and rolled up her sleeves.

She thought it was finally her time to shine.

She would confidently open the door and declare to Yu Seong-wu not to call her a low elf anymore.

However.

“Step back.”

Yu Seong-wu put the two down and took out his sword.

Then, he focused his mind and struck down with a flash of sword light.

Then, with a click, the door opened.

Without any alarms ringing, quietly. Bathory and Shua-Niel could not understand what Yu Seong-wu had done, even with their smart mage’s minds.

Shua-Niel asked.

“What did you just do……?”

“I cut it.”

“So what?”

“The lock. Isn’t the lock a physical mechanism anyway?”

Shua-Niel, who heard his words, tilted her head repeatedly because she didn’t understand. Bathory was the same.

Then Bathory said as if she had reached an understanding.

“So, you cut out only the lock inside the steel door without triggering the alarm magic?”

“Yes. You’re slow on the uptake.”

“No, you’re doing something that defies logic… Okay. Let’s go in.”

She realized anew that Yu Seong-wu’s skills were amazing.

To break into the gap in the magic with a sharp sword and cut out only the device.

Because of that, the alarm that wasn’t touched didn’t ring, and the door opened.

It would have been a failed method if Tepes had installed something like Secom [a security system company].

But Tepes was too old-fashioned a person to do that.

The steel door opens.

Then, what wafted in from the inside was a terrible stench of blood.

As soon as Yu Seong-wu smelled it, he said to Bathory.

“Even so, is Tepes a bastard who shouldn’t be killed?”

“…Let’s find Tepes’ real body first.”