Volume 2, Chapter 77 – The Temporary ‘Granddaughter’

?!!

‘Who-who was it?!’

Afnora, having her abdomen pierced through in a single strike, had undoubtedly entered a state of heavy injury. The blood continuously flowing from her stomach and the almost exhausted battle aura within her body caused the Marchioness to fall into extreme weakness, her consciousness beginning to fade. Her vision grew clouded and blurred but even so, upon seeing the familiar pink figure in front of her, Afnora couldn’t help but show a look of worry, instinctively raising her right hand in an attempt to grasp the longsword beside her.

“Xia’er… quick… run…”

Gasping for breath, the semi-conscious and heavily injured Afnora still instinctively wanted to protect her granddaughter. Hearing these words, the pink-haired girl in front of her slowly crouched down. Looking at the incredibly weak Marchioness who was still single-mindedly trying to protect her, Miss Yumo’s heart grew unexpectedly complicated, her azure eyes swirling with conflicted emotions.

‘Sigh, even though I’m not your granddaughter at all, why do you still risk your life to protect me? As a seventh tier, it wouldn’t have been difficult for you to retreat. Well, but then again, it’s hard for you to believe his words, isn’t it? After all, no one is willing to accept the fact that their granddaughter died a tragic death…’

Yumo sighed several times in her heart with resignation. She initially had no feelings for the Duke Family or for Xiumu and Afnora. Whether they lived or died had no impact on Yumo, as the number of humans who had died before her over the past five hundred years was already countless.

Yumo’s friendliness toward the Duke Family was primarily established on the premise that they were Yuan’er’s relatives. However, during these days of living together, the affection Xiumu and Afnora showed her, their meticulous care, and this current life-risking protection gave Yumo a sense of warmth.

“Rest well for now. You can leave the rest to me, ‘Grandmother’.”

Yumo spoke softly as two Blood Butterflies slowly fluttered before Afnora. With the sprinkling of golden powder, Afnora, who was already in a semi-conscious state, could no longer resist the urge to sleep, finally closing her eyes and falling into a deep slumber.

After settling Afnora for the moment, Miss Yumo slowly stood up and turned her head to look behind her, a faint cold light rippling in her azure eyes.

‘For this period of time, I’ll just play the role of the granddaughter as a reward…’

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‘However, you all are truly quite rude…’

Just as Miss Yumo turned around, dozens of black-robed men from the Divine Punishment Holy Church suddenly brandished their weapons and lunged at her from all directions. A chilling killing intent instantly overwhelmed the area like a rain of sharp swords, piercing toward Miss Yumo.

On the other side, upon seeing Yumo’s appearance, Romney felt a sudden wave of unease in his heart.

He had observed this pink-haired girl for a long time with Benjamin’s assistance. At that time, no matter how he looked at her, she was just an ordinary, weak noble girl with no strength at all, an existence like an ant that could be crushed at will.

However, seeing that girl again now, although she still didn’t emit any terrifying aura, she gave him a massive sense of invisible pressure. This feeling was even stronger than when he had met the Cult Leader. The blood-colored butterflies surrounding the girl made him feel extremely uneasy, sending chills down his spine.

‘This girl, just what is she…’

While remaining wary of the girl’s figure, Romney used his peripheral vision to issue orders to the surrounding members of the Divine Punishment Holy Church.

Clearly, when facing such an eerie existence, Romney wanted to let his subordinates test the waters first. In the next instant, the group of cultists who received the Archbishop’s instructions erupted with terrifying killing intent and a frenzied aura once more. They charged toward the pink-haired girl without hesitation, brandishing their sharp blades. Without a doubt, if it were an ordinary child, the only tragic end after facing such an attack would be turning into a pile of shredded meat.

However, Romney was astonished to find that after the pink-haired girl turned around, she not only showed no fear or shock but didn’t even react to the crowd’s attack, simply standing there motionless.

“What’s the deal with this girl?!” Romney couldn’t help but ask in his heart.

In the next moment, something unbelievable happened right before Romney’s eyes. Under Romney’s stunned gaze, the dozens of Divine Punishment Holy Church members who were launching their attack suddenly froze in place. The dense killing intent and powerful battle aura fluctuations around them abruptly collapsed. Along with the sound of falling weapons, these dozen or so cultists inexplicably collapsed to the ground, falling into a dead faint.

?!!

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‘This, what the hell?!’

‘Are you kidding me?!’

“You… what are you doing?!! Get up!” Romney couldn’t help but roar.

However, the cultists who had launched the attack remained completely still. At that moment, Romney’s brow furrowed sharply as his peripheral vision caught a blood-red existence above. Although that being, like the little girl nearby, had no strong fluctuations of aura, it instinctively gave Romney an intense sense of crisis.

Guided by years of combat instinct, Romney suddenly leapt backward, forcefully putting distance between himself and that blood-colored existence.

?!

“Hmm? A butterfly?!”

After distancing himself, Romney finally saw the true form of that existence. It was a butterfly with eerie blood-red patterns, exactly the same as the butterflies fluttering around the pink-haired girl. Furthermore, these same butterflies were present around the fallen cultists.

‘Is it because of these things?’

At this moment, Romney seemed to realize the true reason his subordinates had fainted. Romney then gripped his sharp blade tightly, staring fixedly at the distant pink-haired girl. He had thought she was just a defenseless imposter, but now it seemed this girl was a bit dangerous.

“You! Just who are you?!”

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While secretly accumulating battle aura, Romney issued his question. Upon hearing this, the pink-haired girl slowly revealed a sweet smile.

“Me? Hmm, I suppose I’m a child of this family. At least… for the time being…”

“A child?! Heh…” Romney let out a cold laugh. “Xia’er was killed by my own hands long ago and fed to the dogs! Just where did an imposter like you come from!”

“Hmm? Where I came from isn’t important. What’s important is that you…”

As she spoke, the pink-haired girl slowly raised her hand. “You won’t live much longer…”

?!!

The moment he heard those words, a bone-chilling coldness pierced through Romney’s body like a sharp sword. It made him tremble all over, even his soul shuddering under the weight of that chill. A drop of cold sweat slid down his forehead. At the same time, Romney noticed the dozens of blood-red butterflies slowly surrounding him from behind.

Clearly, this imposter intended to kill him.

‘Don’t look down on me!’

A glint of ferocity burst from Romney’s eyes. The anger and cruelty in his heart gradually suppressed the fear that was slowly taking root. In the next instant, having finished his power accumulation, Romney made a decisive move. He stopped speaking to the girl and erupted with all the battle aura in his body, turning into a white meteor that charged toward the pink-haired girl with a terrifying momentum capable of crushing an army.

‘Death Severance!’

Without hesitation, Romney suddenly unleashed his strongest combat art. Boundless white battle aura continuously gathered onto the scimitar in his hand. As the power converged, the scimitar was suddenly enveloped in terrifying energy, transforming into a white energy blade a full three meters long.

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The temperature of the earth soared abruptly, and even the space showed signs of gradual distortion. Seeing his ultimate move successfully unleashed, Romney couldn’t help but reveal an excited smile.

Back when he was only at the early stage of seventh tier, he had used this move to take the head of a high-tier seventh tier expert in a single strike. Now that he had reached the high-tier of seventh tier himself, an attack like this could likely heavily injure even an eighth tier existence.

More importantly, Romney was pleasantly surprised to find that he had already bypassed all the Blood Butterflies and rushed right in front of the pink-haired girl. And this girl still had no reaction. She showed no sign of dodging, nor any intention of making a defensive move, just ‘freezing’ in place as if she hadn’t even captured his movements.

‘Hahahaha?! Is that all?!’

Romney couldn’t help but laugh maniacally in his heart. It seemed he had overestimated his opponent. Looking at her now, the girl in front of him had probably just raised a few eerie pets but her own strength was severely lacking. Honestly, why was I so wary just now?

Thinking of his cowardly appearance a moment ago, Romney couldn’t help but flash a self-deprecating smile. But soon, that smile was masked by a cruel expression.

‘To make me feel so embarrassed?! Heh! I’ll take your corpse and feed it to the dogs in a moment!’

Laughing wildly, Romney swung the energy blade, slashing it toward the pink-haired girl’s neck.

However, in the next instant, Romney’s expression changed drastically, his brown pupils shrinking violently.

Because he discovered with shock that he… he couldn’t seem to cut through.

The blade was stuck on the girl’s neck.