“…Did you?”
“No. There were too many of them. At that time, I had just awakened, and I didn’t know how to control my powers properly yet.”
It was as if he was saying, “If it were now, I could kill them all.”
In the original novel, Clyde possessed an absolute power that no one in the demon world could ever match.
It was obvious that even if an army of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even more, gathered, they would not be able to subdue him if he now possessed a magic power equal to that of the original.
“If you could kill then… would you have?”
“Huh? Hmm.”
Clyde looked puzzled as to why I asked such a question.
In truth, just a moment ago, I was so sad I couldn’t stand it.
The fact that Clyde had gone through such a terrible ordeal because of the false promise I made, and that I had been completely unaware of it until now, was unbearable. I had to suppress my sobs with all my might.
But now, my tears have dried up completely.
Looking at Clyde calmly saying, “I should have killed them all,” I realized that he felt no remorse for the killings.
At first, I thought it was an after-effect of his awakening.
But it wasn’t.
The fortunate thing was that he didn’t seem to harbor deep hatred towards humanity like in the original.
If he did, not only the soldiers but also the innocent residents of Acadora would have undoubtedly been slaughtered, just like in the original story when the Palma Empire was annihilated by Clyde’s hand.
Seeing him before me now, I finally understood that he was the same character as Clyde from the original novel.
“…So, what happened next?”
“There was a mage among the enemies. They used some strange magic to block my powers and bind my feet. If I continued to fight, I might have been captured, so I decided to run away.”
* * * * *
Clyde couldn’t deny that he had underestimated the situation.
Immediately after his awakening, his mind was clouded, making it impossible for him to make rational judgments.
With soldiers endlessly swarming to stop him, the plan to meet Ruby seemed practically impossible.
He should only use his power as a last resort and basically hide as much as possible as he originally planned and go to Trachen.
However, now that the necklace was broken, he couldn’t conceal the color of his eyes, and his clothes were in tatters.
Moreover, if the delay became too long, his mother might start worrying.
For the time being, he decided to return home, fix the necklace, and then come back out.
That’s what he decided, and he headed back to Heremos.
That decision marked Clyde’s second mistake.
Intentionally waiting until late at night, Clyde returned home.
He had washed off the blood in the stream, but there was nothing he could do about the torn clothes.
He knew his mother would worry if she saw him like that.
Cautiously entering his room through the window and changing his clothes, Clyde suddenly heard the door being forcefully opened, and his mother, Hena, rushed in.
“Clyde!”
“Mom.”
His startled mother pulled him into a tight embrace.
“You’re safe, Clyde. You made it back safely…!”
She held his cheeks in both hands and examined him.
“Are you okay? Nothing happened, right?”
Tears welled up in the corners of his mother’s eyes.
“…Yes, Mom. You can tell by looking at me.”
Thankfully, Clyde had changed his clothes. If he had been caught with torn and messy clothes, he wouldn’t have been able to brush it off.
“What happened? Why did you come back in the middle of your journey?”
“Well, I couldn’t cross the border because of the soldiers’ surveillance.”
Clyde lied.
“Why did you do something so reckless? What if you had been caught again?”
“…I’m sorry, Mom.”
“Do you have any idea how worried I was after you disappeared? Promise me. You will never go to the Palma Empire again. You won’t leave me and disappear alone ever again!”
“Yes, I understand.”
His mother hugged Clyde tightly again and only let go after a while.
“Aren’t you hungry? Should I get you something to eat?”
Clyde looked at his mother and nodded silently.
Fortunately, after reattaching the peridot necklace, it regained its original function.
But he couldn’t leave Haremos right away. It was because of his mother.
Several times during the night, she woke up and peeked into Clyde’s room. His sudden disappearance with only a single letter left behind had deeply shocked and worried her.
‘I’ll wait until Mom feels relieved before making any moves.’
He made up his mind.
Several days later, Clyde left for hunting in the mountains at sunrise and returned to the village late in the afternoon.
As he approached the village, he noticed something strange.
Unfamiliar soldiers were guarding the entrance to the village.
Clyde put down the animals he had hunted and hid himself.
Moving cautiously into the village to avoid detection, he saw all the villagers gathered in the square, which had been the location of the weekly Saturday night parties.
Everyone was on their knees with their hands over their heads. They were surrounded by soldiers, far outnumbering the entire village population.
Among them was Clyde’s mother, Hena.
“Where is he? Don’t even think about hiding him, tell us right away!”
The man who seemed to be the leader of the soldiers was pressing Hena.
Seeing that scene, he felt like his blood was rushing in reverse.
But he couldn’t reveal himself hastily. Not only his mother but almost all the villagers were being held hostage. If he acted rashly, he couldn’t guarantee their safety.
‘What should I do? Should I hide until those guys give up and leave? But, if they do anything to Mom…!’
“Speak up now! Do you want to see the worst scenario?”
“…….”
Despite the threats from the leader, Hena stubbornly kept her mouth shut.
Then, a figure in a robe standing beside her stepped forward.
He was a man in his mid-thirties with long, unkempt gray hair and a large scar on his forehead.
“Leave it to me, Sir Sedun.”
The man approached Hena with a sly smile.
“Hello, madam. I am the mage, Azakail.”
“…….”
“I have already heard from the other villagers. A boy in his late teens with black hair and exceptional looks. Among the village people, only your son fits this description. They say he left the village about ten days ago and returned after a week. Where is he now?”
“…….”
“Keeping silent won’t help. All these troops crossed the treacherous mountain paths to get here, all because of your son. We can’t just return empty-handed.”
Hena still responded with silence. Azakail sighed.
“I didn’t want to go this far, but there’s no choice.”
Azakail formed a magic circle in the air and chanted a few incantations.
Then, Hena let out a suppressed scream and collapsed to the ground, soon writhing in convulsions.
“This is magic designed to extract forced confessions from prisoners or captives. It’s a very efficient magic because you don’t have to worry about death or give time to rest waiting for the wound to heal. Well, of course, if used for too long, there is a risk of mental collapse… but most confess long before that happens.”
Hena tried to stifle her screams, using her own hands to cover her mouth, as if trying to prevent the screams from escaping.
Like she was trying to keep Clyde from hearing her scream and running to her.
“Seems like you’re holding up better than I expected. Should I increase the intensity?”
His words snapped Clyde back to his senses.
As soon as he regained his composure, he was already rushing forward. Azakail barely managed to put up a defensive spell to counter the power unleashed by Clyde.
“There he is! Attack!”
At Captain Sedun’s command, the soldiers raised their swords to strike.
