I was Born in the Final Demon Realm of a Dark Fantasy

I could feel the characteristic sharpness of the sword… but how should I put it?

It didn’t seem that threatening even if I got hit.

The fact that my sixth sense remained quiet reinforced this feeling.

At that moment, the door behind the man opened, and another figure appeared.

He was a middle-aged man with impressively well-groomed facial hair. He surveyed the surroundings with a long sword, not a dagger, strapped to his waist.

“What’s going on here?”

“Ah, Deputy Captain. Things got troublesome. Here.”

The man, still pointing the dagger at me, nodded toward Elia.

“She suddenly came here asking us to find her sister. And this one seems to be a righteous young man who’s done some training.”

The sneering man continued:

“She seems to be talking about that girl who borrowed money from us, but she never actually came to us, did she?”

However, the bearded middle-aged man ignored the man’s words. More precisely, he was staring intently at me.

“I’ll let you go if you tell me the method.”

“Method…?”

“How did you earn that much money?”

“…Deputy Captain?”

The man listening from the side looked at the deputy captain with a confused expression. It seemed like he had brought up something that hadn’t been agreed upon.

It took me a moment to understand what the man called Deputy Captain was saying.

And I realized that his question was about how Arnen had managed to gather enough money to pay off all her debt.

Indeed, the claim that Arnen hadn’t come here was a lie. It was an obvious lie, but still.

I let out a short sigh and asked:

“Where is Arnen?”

“I said I’d tell you if you answered my question.”

“So in the end, you’re holding her captive because you’re curious about where she got the money. You people are trash.”

The bearded man shrugged and sneered at my words.

“Didn’t you know? It was you who borrowed money knowing what we were like.”

He glanced at Elia briefly, then turned his gaze back to me.

“Ah, you might not have known.”

I didn’t feel the need to continue the conversation any longer. With a hardened expression, I asked straightforwardly:

“Is Arnen alive? Just tell me that.”

“Don’t you know that there’s nothing as pathetic as disguising ignorance as courage? You seem to have never learned swordsmanship, so why are you being so reckless?”

“Do I need to learn swordsmanship?”

The man still pointing his dagger at me snorted. He spoke, abandoning even the slightest formality:

“Even your questions are pathetic. Haven’t you heard of the Deputy Captain’s nickname, the Black Reaper?”

“Black Reaper…”

“Enough.”

The bearded man stopped his subordinate who was boasting on his behalf, and drew his sword from his waist.

At that moment, a dark energy began to form along the blade.

‘Is that mana?’

That energy was quite unfamiliar. It was definitely different from the intent I would summon.

However, the energy enveloping the sword looked hazy and incomplete. It didn’t seem like a fully mastered technique. Or perhaps he hadn’t yet reached the level of precisely imbuing mana into a sword.

I tried to raise my vigilance against this unfamiliar technique, but my sixth sense showed no reaction at all.

‘Still, I shouldn’t be careless.’

Although my sixth sense was an unquestionably reliable ability, it wasn’t right to rely solely on it.

I felt that the situation had reached a point where fighting was unavoidable. At the same time, curiosity welled up within me.

How powerful were those living outside the forbidden zone? According to Elia, a sword imbued with mana could cut anything.

As I raised my fist in preparation for battle, the man pointing his dagger at me pushed it closer.

“Don’t move.”

Of course, I had no intention of obeying, so the man thrust his dagger toward my shoulder without hesitation. There was no hesitation at all.

However, his movement was extremely slow.

I was actually taken aback. Did he really intend to attack? Or was he deliberately playing around?

In truth, what I was wary of was the long sword with the dark energy, not the dagger. I could tell at a glance that the dagger posed no threat even if it hit me.

So I just let the dagger hit me.

Even with my combat senses heightened, waiting for the dagger to pierce my shoulder felt like an eternity. After a long wait, when the dagger finally pierced through my shabby clothes and stabbed my shoulder.

Snap.

The dagger broke cleanly.

“…Huh?”

The man whose wrist bent along with the broken dagger made a dumbfounded sound. Then, as if the pain hit a beat late, he clutched his wrist.

“Argh!”

It was expected. No matter how careful I tried to be, the man before me looked weak.

After crossing the fourth wall, I had skin that even Jagan couldn’t penetrate. Unless it was a sword imbued with this so-called mana, there was zero possibility of a crudely made dagger piercing my body.

“F-fuck… what…!”

“…Do you have something underneath your clothes?”

The man holding the sword muttered as he examined me. But what showed through the torn clothes was just a bare shoulder. Unharmed despite being stabbed by a dagger.

Without any warning, I swung my fist toward the temple of the man who was screaming and clutching his wrist.

Bang.

The moment it connected, his head exploded.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere.

“…”

Blood splashed onto the face of the man holding the sword as well. Yet he showed no reaction.

He just stared at me blankly.

Was he frightened? Even though he could infuse his sword with mana?

That wasn’t the mindset of a warrior.

I suddenly felt a bland impression and became dispirited.

As I took a step forward, the man with the sword retreated hesitantly.

“W-wait…”

I paid no heed and took another step.

“C-can’t you use mana? Wait… stop, I said! No, I’ll t-tell you where that woman is. Go inside, down the stairs, and you’ll find her. She’s still alive, so if you spare just me, I’ll bring her right away…”

His attitude changed with each step I took toward him. His words grew longer, and desperation seeped into his voice.

When I still didn’t stop, the man swung the sword he was holding at me.

I wasn’t expecting anything special, but his movement was extremely slow.

There wasn’t much difference from the guy with the dagger.

…Is it the same even if he’s learned mana? Is there no correlation between martial arts mastery and mana? Is it really just about enveloping a sword with mana, like magic?

For a moment, I thought about letting his sword hit me. To see if a sword imbued with mana could cut my skin.

But having already learned Arnen’s whereabouts, I didn’t want to waste more time. Long before the sword could reach my body, I thrust my fist into the man’s face.

Bang.

Similarly, his head exploded, and brain matter and blood spilled backward. The headless body convulsed and staggered before falling to the ground with a thud.

I turned my gaze to Elia. She was looking at the two corpses sprawled on the ground.

Uh… might this be too stimulating for a young child? It might be an unfamiliar sight for her, having grown up in the mountains. The culture might be different from our kingdom, where we were accustomed to fighting from a young age.

When I approached Elia, knelt down, and met her gaze, her eyes sparkled.

“Amazing! Bell was just standing still, and people’s heads went boom boom! Were you so fast that I couldn’t see it?”

“…”

Well, as expected.

Thinking that she wouldn’t be accustomed to blood and combat just because she’s young might be too much of a remnant from my past life.

This is a world filled with humans who collapse the ground with a single step and knock down trees with just the shockwave extending from their fists.

Despite living there for years, it seems I’m still not used to it.

I let out a shallow breath, stood up again, and entered through the door with Elia.

Inside, as expected, the scene of a tavern unfolded.

Not many people were scattered around, tilting their glasses of alcohol. They seemed unconcerned about what had just happened outside.

Well, in fact, the battle had ended without even a death cry, with just two punches, so it was natural that they hadn’t noticed.

It would be different if there were truly strong warriors.

There didn’t seem to be warriors of that caliber here.

They only took interest when unfamiliar faces entered.

Some raised their gazes and glanced at Elia and me. Ignoring their stares, I looked around the interior. Soon, I spotted stairs on one side of the wall and moved toward them.

Those inside blocked my way with incredulous expressions as I calmly walked toward the stairs.

“What kind of madman came here? Do you think this is a place just anyone can enter? Where’s Zek?”

“Step aside and I’ll spare you. I’ve come for the person you’re holding captive. If you block me, you’ll end up like the comrade you’re looking for now.”

“Completely insane…”

Before he could finish speaking, I extended my fist.

After turning all those blocking the stairs into the same state as the bodies at the entrance, I immediately descended to the basement.

Going down, a completely different atmosphere from the first floor unfolded.

A space with a cold stone floor and a musty smell. A heavy iron door blocking my way.

Without any hesitation, I reached out.

Screech. Boom!

With a light exertion of force, the iron door was torn out completely and tumbled to the floor.

Inside, there were several iron bars lined up in a row.

Arnen was confined behind the iron bars closest to the door, tied up. I easily broke the iron bars, entered, and woke Arnen, who seemed to be unconscious.

When I grabbed her shoulders and shook her awake, she drowsily opened her eyes. She seemed to have fallen asleep from exhaustion.

“Bell… sir?”

“When you didn’t return after all this time, we came looking for you.”

Arnen stared at me with a hazy gaze for a moment, then slowly seemed to understand the situation.

“…Did you take care of all the people outside?”

The one who answered wasn’t me, but Elia who had followed behind.

“Yes! When Bell went swoosh, people all went boom boom!”

“…I, I see.”

I supported Arnen to help her stand, then looked around at the other iron bars.

“Looks like there are quite a few other people imprisoned besides you.”

“They’re also in the slave business.”

“Slaves…”

In the kingdom where I lived, there was no slavery system.

Only after leaving the forbidden zone did I truly realize that I had come to a time similar to the medieval period.

The building structures, the lifestyle, everything.

The place where I first opened my eyes was closer to a land full of barbarians.

As I instantly broke the handcuffs binding Arnen, I asked:

“It seems you somehow resolved the debt… now will you leave to find your father?”

Arnen rubbed her wrists and nodded.

“Yes, I should. They said his last known location was the Ghost Cave, one of the Seven Sinister Caves… though I won’t be able to go right away.”