I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 37

Chapter 37 – The Seed of a Vast Organization

Th i s w a s c o p i e d f r o m k i n gm t l .o r g
Feeling like I might lose a useful weapon if this continued, I reached out to Iris and said,

“Be a good girl, Iris. Quickly give that here.”

Iris then hid the sword behind her back and shook her head wildly. I spoke to her with the kind of expression used to pacify a child throwing a tantrum.

T h i s was cop i e d fr o m ki ng m t l. or g
“It was just a joke before. I only did that because I was surprised when Iris suddenly started crying. I’m sorry.”

Iris’s expression crumpled up in an adorable way. Even with such a scrunched face, she was cute, making me realize once again that it’s not just anyone who gets to be the protagonist.

“I won’t bring the knife to my neck again, so let’s hand it over quickly. The swo… no, the sword is struggling.”

Prompted by my words, Iris cautiously brought the sword forward. The demon sword, which had lengthened by about 5cm to 21cm due to absorbing my blood, now had its blade shortened back to 10cm.

Including the hilt, it appeared to be around 25cm long.

“Sa-save me… please… if it continues like this, I’m going to vanish…”

The demon sword panted like a critically ill patient on oxygen, groaning in distress. Concerned that it might genuinely disappear if left as is, I approached Iris quickly and spoke to her.

“You’re good, right, Iris?”

My tone was similar to that used to soothe an alarmed puppy, but it seemed effective, as Iris, who had been staring down at the demon sword, reluctantly placed it in my hand. I immediately caressed Iris’s head and showered her with praise.

“Good job! You listen well; Iris is such a good girl!”
“…”

Iris’s face colored slightly as she lowered her head shyly, while cutely pulling at the hem of my clothing.

‘I’d love to have such an adorable daughter. Ah, but since I’m already halfway raising Iris, does that make me half her dad?’

While I was melting with a gooey expression looking at Iris, the demon sword spoke in a voice as if on the verge of death.

“Sniffle.. I thought for sure I was going to disappear this time. To think that I, feared even by the Dragon Lord, was about to be obliterated by the hands of a mere girl – that’s impossible. It’s a tremendous shame…”

The demon sword muttered to itself like a hikikomori hiding away in a corner. Seeing it appeared to be relatively unharmed, I carelessly tossed it onto the bed. Iris, truly relieved, let go of my clothes and held my hand.

“Arghhh! To treat the great demon sword so carelessly! No, wait, more importantly! Hey, human! What about that human girl!”
Th i s w a s c op ie d f ro m ki n g m t l. o r g

As the demon sword bellowed and the blade buzzed, Iris turned her gaze toward it. The demon sword that had been causing a commotion on its own quickly became subdued.

“Let’s ignore that for now and go have some snacks. They have cream buns today. Let’s hurry and eat.”

I grasped Iris’s hand tightly, and we exited the room. From behind, the demon sword complained,

“What about me? If you give me some blood—”

Thump.

I ignored the sword’s words and closed the door.

***

While Lian and Iris were leading a relatively peaceful life, Noah’s situation was heading towards the worst.

Thud.

Noah looked at the leather bag that had fallen at her feet. Raising her eyes, she saw the black sorceress Mia looking down at her with a frosty expression.

“Take this as compensation for what that boy has done so far. And don’t think about coming back to the mansion or even lurking around. It’s annoying.”

It had been a week since Lian vanished, the time it took for Mia to abandon her resolve and the slaves.

Mia was fundamentally one of those black sorcerers who treated slaves like bugs. Unless they were an inconvenient loss like Lian, whose entire body was an enigma, she was ruthless with ordinary slaves.

She had taken in many slaves solely because of Lian, so with him gone, Mia had no reason to keep the others.

Though she could’ve made a good amount of money by selling the now superfluous slaves at the slave market, Mia opted to liberate them.
T h i s w a s co p i e d f rom k i n g mt l. or g

There was an urgency to leave quickly due to a summoning by the Demon King, yet the memories of Lian’s diligent service stopped Mia from sending the slaves into the cruel slave market.

Instead, she decided to equip them with the minimum tools for survival and let them loose in the forest.

‘Tch, if he hadn’t gone over to Jiso’s side, I would have tried to take him by force.’

After learning from her informant that Lian had been abducted through an escapement and turned over to Jiso, Mia cleanly gave up on Lian.

She considered asking Lania for a favor, but Lania was tied up with the Demon King’s orders at the moment. It wasn’t a situation where she could be sent to fetch a mere slave.

‘Above all, it would be foolish to create hostility between the Heavenly Kings over one slave.’

If Lania and Jiso came into any conflict, significant blood would be shed. With the Demon King’s army actively engaged in continental conquest, an inner conflict would perhaps prompt the Demon King to move personally.

Lian’s body had been very interesting, but it was not worth instigating a major dispute.

T hi s w as c o p ie d f r o m k i n g m t l .o r g
‘Sigh, it’s done. It’s just as well since I would have to leave home for a long time anyway.’

Mia brushed off her regret, turned her body, and left the slaves shivering in the so-called Forest of Death behind her.

“Brother… what are we going to do now?”

Nero clutched Noah’s hand with a trembling voice, on the verge of tears. Noah, who had been absentmindedly staring at Mia, eventually spoke with a faint voice.

“…Exactly.”

Surviving in the Demon King’s land with children yet to even reach ten was next to impossible. It wasn’t much different than sending them straight to their deaths.

The shock of losing the purpose of life named Lian, the sudden change in the environment—all of it caused Noah’s mind to bob adrift.

It was not the floating perception experienced during moments of happiness. It was the sensation of disassociation caused by not being able to accept a series of horrific events.

“Sniff…sniff…”
“Lian, Lian waaah…”

The pitch-black dried soil, the grotesquely shaped trees, the forest filled with strange cooing and squawking—it was enough to scare the children stiff.

Th i s w a s c o p i e d f r om k i n gm t l . o r g
With Lian, their large protector akin to an ancient tree, now gone, the children started crying like little ones.

Alerted by the sound of the children crying, Noah came to her senses.

Swoosh!

She slapped her own cheeks hard enough to leave red marks, snapping her dazed mind back to reality.

“Are you finally coming around?”

Julianna flew near with a terse voice. Despite all her side chatter and efforts to make Noah snap out of it, Julianna ended up staying silent beside her, just floating aimlessly because Noah hadn’t been properly attentive.

Now, belatedly recalling Julianna’s endeavors on her behalf, Noah bowed her head in gratitude.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s good that you’re finally clear-headed. But now what are you going to do?”

Regaining consciousness was fine, but their predicament hadn’t improved. They were abandoned in a dreadful forest where monsters could emerge at any moment. Just because her mind was clear didn’t mean there was a way to survive in such a place.

“…”

“Sigh, I figured it’d turn out like this.”

Julianna let out a soft sigh, then declared with firmness,

“What we need now is to find a place where we can eat and sleep, in other words, a place where we can solve our basic needs. We can’t stay here, or the kids will die. And after that…”

Although not on the Demon King’s land, Julianna was a mercenary with rich experience camping in dangerous territories. Thanks to that, she laid out pragmatic survival advice.

“And after that… we have to go find Lian.”
“…!”

T h is w as c op i e d f rom k in gm t l . o r g
As she finished her list, Julianna sprang the thought of ‘Let’s go find Lian,’ causing Noah’s eyes to widen in surprise. Quickly, a shimmering light began to infiltrate her previously dim eyes.

“Yeah… Lian will need a place to come back to.”

Noah subdued the immediate desire to run out and search for Lian, reminding herself of their goals.

First, survive. If they could live on and establish a safe haven, then they could embark on the quest to find Lian.

‘Lian would have surely made the same choice.’

Because Lian had always cared for the children before himself, he would definitely have made the same decision as Noah.

Th i s was co p i ed f r o m k i ng m tl . or g
Noah vowed to protect what Lian had worked to safeguard and, further still, to find and retrieve the vanished Lian at all costs.
T hi s w as c opi e d f r o m k i n g mt l . o r g

And so, the seed was planted for a future formidable organization that might even provoke wariness in the Heavenly Kings and the Demon King’s armies.

When Noah regained her composure and began consoling the crying children,

“Master Jiso…!”

Thud!
T his w a s c o p i e d f r om k i n g m t l . o r g

Taking advantage of the confusion, Jess snapped her nose and, sniffling, raced off into the forest.