What on earth?

I scrutinized the two knights who had just entered the tavern and asked myself this, but no answer came.

The ‘strange aura’ emanating from them was extremely difficult to describe in comparison to anything else.

It was literally a mysterious and unfamiliar magical aura.

Nevertheless, if I had to express it, I could say this:

It was an aura that might be felt from a being somewhere between monster and human.

After carefully observing them, I asked Ernant.

“Are they human? Or monsters?”

“You could say both.”

Ernant, who had responded so vaguely, added a more detailed explanation.

“Until recently they were ordinary non-awakened, but now they have chimeras implanted in their bodies.”

“Chimera monsters in their bodies…? Did you really, really do that?”

“Of course. The reason I needed monsters so desperately was all for this. Using chimeras to awaken abilities in non-awakened individuals.”

Hearing Ernant’s words, I couldn’t hide my surprise as I examined those knights again.

Certainly, a strange but magical aura could be felt from them.

But they were non-awakened? Forcibly awakening abilities by inserting monsters?

Abilities are special powers bestowed by God, but is it really possible to obtain them through human effort?

“How…?”

“It’s difficult to explain the principle to you right now. Let’s just say it’s the result of much sacrifice and effort.”

Ernant kindly responded to my muttered words.

The result of sacrifice and effort, he says.

Of course, most obstacles in the world can be overcome through sacrifice and effort, but there are still impossible things.

The dead coming back to life, and non-awakened becoming awakened, and so on.

“That’s a lie. It’s impossible.”

“Would you believe it if you saw them use abilities right before your eyes? As it happens, that’s good. Actually, the reason I persistently chased after you was partly because I wanted to show you the results of my research directly.”

Ernant said that in a pleased tone and ordered the two knights.

“Show her directly what kind of power you’ve gained.”

The silent knights finally drew their weapons.

One wielded a fierce iron mace, while the other held a long spear.

Seeing the left knight grasp the spear, I felt a little relieved.

Such a long weapon would be disadvantageous in an indoor space crowded with furniture like this.

Every swing would get caught on chairs or tables, preventing them from properly attacking me.

I believed this and felt relieved, but it didn’t take long for that sense of relief to shatter.

Bang―!

As the knight swung the spear widely, explosions occurred along its trajectory.

Chairs and tables were no obstacle at all in the face of that explosion.

They all burst and turned to powder.

A murmur unconsciously flowed from my lips.

“An ability…?”

It was clearly an ability.

More precisely, it appeared to be an ability that caused explosions along the trajectory of the swung weapon.

The moment that spear grazed me, I would end up in the same state as the chairs and tables that had just turned to powder.

Ernant, who didn’t miss my small murmur this time either, opened his mouth.

“Yes, it’s an ability. See, I told you I would succeed.”

“Wait, weren’t we not supposed to use abilities here? Didn’t you say you installed an item?”

“That was obviously a lie. To prevent you from using abilities against my soldiers, since that would be troublesome.”

“…”

“Anyway, that’s not what’s important. I’ve turned non-awakened into awakened. Are you still going to say my research is wrong? Even with results like this?”

I immediately drew upon my ability and replied to Ernant.

“Yes, it’s wrong. No matter how useful, no matter how powerful, it doesn’t matter. Because that’s a power derived from terrible monsters!”

As soon as I shouted that, I imbued my sword with the power I had fully drawn upon and shot it towards the knight with the spear.

As expected, he blocked the cold energy flying towards him with his swung spear.

Kwagwang!

The abilities of cold energy and explosion collided in midair and scattered chaotically.

In that moment when vision was obscured, I quickly froze the floor.

Very thinly, and slippery.

The view that had been blocked by the explosion recovered a little in the meantime.

As soon as I could see in front of me, the knight with the spear rushed towards me.

“Grrrr…!”

Making a somewhat inhuman sound, the knight who rushed at me like that stepped on the floor I had frozen and lost his balance, slipping.

Of course, I wasn’t so dull as to miss that opening, and I immediately shot sharp cold energy towards the knight who had lost his balance.

Swish.

This time, he couldn’t block the cold energy attack received while off balance.

The spear knight fell to the floor, fatally wounded.

Seeing this, Ernant showed anger for the first time.

“You can’t even last five minutes! If I made you awakened, you should show some use!”

He seemed bitter that the artificial awakened he had worked hard to create had collapsed in an instant.

While still keeping an eye on the remaining knight, I slightly scratched at Ernant’s sore spot.

“Instead of putting strange things in their bodies to make them awakened, why didn’t you have them gain more practical experience? This is so boring it’s not even worth fighting.”

“…!”

Hearing my words, Ernant gritted his teeth and ordered the one remaining knight.

“By imperial order. Show your skills properly this time so I don’t lose any more face.”

Unlike the previous knight who made bestial noises, this mace-wielding knight somehow looked a bit dazed.

He nodded with a vacant expression as if his soul had left him, then rushed at me.

Despite his stupid-looking expression, his attack was unexpectedly quick.

The knight swung the heavy mace at me as if he were swinging a piece of paper.

Crash―!

When I hurriedly rolled to the side to avoid it, a hole was created where I had been by the mace.

Even though I had avoided his attack, no emotions like disappointment or anger were visible on his face.

He just retrieved the mace stuck in the floor with a blank face and came at me again.

As I continued to dodge those attacks, I asked Ernant.

“That knight from earlier and this person too, they don’t seem to be in good condition. Did they go crazy from putting monsters inside them?”

“There are still some side effects for now. We succeeded in awakening abilities, but for some reason they can’t properly maintain their sense of self. They become dazed as if their soul has left them, or go berserk like an excited beast… But it’s much better now. Before, they would die just from inserting the chimera.”

Did he do such a dangerous thing to his own knights without hesitation?

Feeling my disgust towards Ernant intensify, I continued to dodge the attacks raining down on me.

Then at some point.

“…?”

As I was about to step back to avoid an attack, my body suddenly stopped on its own.

Without any warning, ignoring my will, my body froze.

Ah, he used an ability.

By the time I realized the situation, it was already too late.

While I was stopped by the power of the ability, the knight swung his mace.

Thud―!

A terrible pain transmitted to my side.

It seemed I had been properly struck in the side by the horizontally swung mace.

Unable to withstand that impact, I flew to the side and crashed into the wall.

The leather armor I was wearing under my clothes absorbed much of the shock, but it was still a powerful blow, causing blood to spurt from my mouth.

“Yulia!”

Ernant, who had been watching, called out to me in apparent surprise.

Had he not expected this situation after ordering the attack himself?

Thinking how detestable he was, I barely managed to raise my upper body.

I couldn’t just lie there resting, as the mace-wielding knight was approaching.

“Enough! Stop!”

Ernant shouted like that from behind, seeing the knight approaching me.

It seemed he was trying to stop it belatedly, as the situation had become more serious than he expected, but something was strange.

The knight didn’t stop even after hearing Ernant’s order.

This also seemed to be an unexpected situation for Ernant, as he shouted in a more urgent voice.

“By imperial order! That’s enough, so withdraw!”

Despite shouting in an even sharper voice than before, the knight did not stop.

He was still approaching me one step at a time with dim eyes, as if in a daze.

Ernant muttered curses under his breath and hurriedly pulled out a crossbow from somewhere.

It seemed he was trying to shoot the crossbow himself since I had taken care of all his soldiers earlier, but I already knew.

That Ernant, who had likely never handled a crossbow except when hunting, couldn’t use it so easily.

It would take a long time for him to shoot the crossbow, and before that, I would receive a fatal blow from that dazed knight.

I might die here.

The moment I saw the knight raising his mace high, such an intense premonition suddenly flashed through my mind.

I thought that my tenacious life, which had seemed unbreakable no matter what happened, might be cut off in such an unexpected place, in such an unexpected way.

And regrettably, my prediction came true without fail.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.