I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Sword Saint Baldo Regrets His Own Sins and Acknowledges His Son as a Man Greater Than Himself

[Sword Saint Baldo’s POV]

I charged into the enemy main camp with my small elite squad, smashing through the swarming Imperial troops.

The second I spotted that hated supreme commander Leticia, I kicked off the ground and leaped high.

“CHESTOOOOO!!”

I swung my sword straight down toward the top of her head.

The shockwave cratered the earth, sending cracks racing outward. Enemy soldiers and golems got blasted away and exploded into pieces.

But… there was no solid impact from cutting Leticia herself.

“…Hehe, gosh, what an impatient man.”

A calm, amused voice came from behind me.

Leticia had vanished like smoke and reappeared at my back. Not even a scratch on her.

“No greeting, no nothing—just swinging right away? Don’t you think that’s kinda rude?”

She was a stunning young woman, barely twenty, with golden hair and clear blue eyes.

Even though she was an imperial princess, she wore an outfit so revealing it looked more like a dancer’s—belly button out and everything. Apparently it boosted her magic somehow.

Magic—especially alchemy—was her obsession. This girl was basically a monster obsessed with it.

Even I, who always called mages weaklings, had to admit… Leticia’s power was the real deal. After all, she was the one who created those damn golems.

“Illusion magic, huh? Hmph. Typical of the Balzark Empire’s princess—always relying on cheap tricks.”

“You witch!!”

My subordinates reacted instantly and rushed her.

“You’re interrupting my conversation.”

In that split second, three shadows leaped out from behind Leticia.

Before I could even blink, all my men had been sliced down and were sprawled on the ground.

“…Greivan-style swordsmanship?!”

I stood there stunned.

The three masked swordsmen who’d taken out my squad.

Their stance, their footwork, the flow of their blades—there was no mistaking it. It was unmistakably the Greivan-style swordsmanship passed down in my family for generations.

“Impossible… one of my own men turned traitor to the Empire?!”

And these three moved like true masters.

Especially the girl standing right beside Leticia—my gut was screaming that her skill might even be close to mine.

She was petite and wore a long skirt that reached her ankles—totally out of place on a battlefield—but…

Leticia had been hiding an ace like this?

But… a master of Greivan-style swordsmanship who was still this young? I didn’t remember any girl like that.

Above all, that sword stroke just now…

“Your Highness!! P-please, get to safety right away!”

“Ahh, seriously, so annoying. Don’t you get it? We’re about to start the live combat test against the Sword Saint you’ve all been waiting for. Shoo, shoo!”

Imperial soldiers rushed in to protect Leticia, but she waved them off like they were pests.

“B-but…!”

“Just stand back and watch quietly. Or do you think my greatest masterpiece is gonna lose to the Sword Saint?”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

Her ice-cold voice made them back off immediately.

“Live combat test…? Who the hell are those three?!”

It was convenient for me that her own guards were pulling back, but I couldn’t stop wondering if these swordsmen were somehow tied to my family. If they were traitors, I couldn’t just let it slide.

“Hehe, if you really wanna know—I tried persuading the prisoners to switch sides. Not a single one budged. Impressive loyalty, right?”

Leticia gave a seductive laugh.

She stroked the cheek of the girl swordsman with obvious delight.

“So instead, I used magical drugs to mess with their heads and force them to swear loyalty to me. Basically, these kids are golems that can think and fight on their own. Pretty great, huh?”

“…You witch!”

I ground my teeth in fury.

Leticia had toyed with these proud men who refused to betray their house.

I dropped my stance lower and readied my sword. I had to cut this woman down as fast as possible.

“Oh, don’t get so mad. Remember your daughter who got sliced up by Baldo and was on the verge of death? I saved her, you know. Sneaking her all the way to my workshop without Baldo noticing and treating her wounds—that was a real hassle.”

Leticia snapped her fingers.

The girl swordsman reached up and removed her mask.

When I saw the face underneath, my mind froze solid.

“A-Al…fin?”

Standing there was my daughter Alfin—who was supposed to have died in battle half a year ago.

“N-no… what is this…!?”

A horn-like growth jutted from Alfin’s forehead.

Of course, the real Alfin never had anything like that. For a second I thought it was someone else, but I immediately rejected the idea.

We’d lived together for years.

That face, that posture, that whole presence—the more I looked, the more certain I became that this girl really was my daughter Alfin.

Above all, that sword stroke. I’d felt something off at first and denied it, but it was identical to Alfin’s.

“She’s had quite the cute little makeover, hasn’t she? I implanted ‘dragon factor’ using alchemy.”

Leticia started bragging proudly.

“…Dragon factor?”

“Yes. Normally fusing a human with a magical beast would cause instant rejection—totally impossible. But with my skill [False God], that miracle becomes possible, even if it’s low probability. These girls are the precious few successes after countless failures and sacrifices.”

Leticia gazed at Alfin with an enraptured look, lovingly stroking her cheek over and over. Alfin stayed completely expressionless, like a doll.

“Especially this Alfin-chan—she’s special. She’s got near-infinite dragon life force. No matter how bad the wound, she regenerates instantly. Like this, for example?”

One of the other swordsmen standing nearby chopped off Alfin’s left arm.

“Wha…!?”

But the arm regrew right away, good as new.

Alfin didn’t even twitch an eyebrow through the whole thing.

“Amazing, right?! It’s practically a perfect recreation of a saint’s [Miracle of Healing]! My alchemy has finally approached the work of the gods! Ahahahahaha! Yes!!”

“Un… unforgivable…!”

I gripped my sword tighter with both hands.

Leticia had turned my precious daughter into a monster and made her her own pawn.

And she was planning to make Alfin kill us—her own family…!

Rage boiled so hard in my blood I thought my whole body might burst.

“Hehe, okay then—Alfin-chan, your orders: cut off your father’s arms and legs and capture him.”

“…Yes, Master.”

Alfin dropped into the exact same stance as me.

There was no killing intent, no tension, no conflict—no emotion at all in her posture. Just emptiness.

Had this witch really turned Alfin into nothing but an obedient puppet?!

“Haa!!”

I surged forward and slammed my sword toward Leticia.

But Alfin’s blade intercepted it perfectly.

Her strength had grown beyond anything I remembered.

“Alfin, don’t you recognize me?! Get out of the way!”

“…”

I called out desperately, but she stayed silent, unresponsive.

Still, clinging to the tiniest hope, I kept trying to reach her.

“That witch is trying to make us kill each other!”

“Hmm? That’s not quite right.”

Leticia tilted her head innocently.

“My goal is to capture outstanding combat skill holders like you for experimental material. Plus, I wanted to run live combat tests on Alfin-chan and the other chimera soldiers.”

She looked at us like we were lab rats.

“Baldo kept saying things like ‘This is blasphemy against warriors!’ and opposed it, so I had to do everything in secret… but now that Baldo’s gone, I can finally operate out in the open.”

“W-what…? Baldo’s been defeated?!”

I dodged Alfin’s slash and leaped back, stunned.

“Oh? Didn’t you order Zenon to take Dalham Castle? You even timed it for when Baldo was there… You already knew how ridiculously strong the skill your son got was, so you built the whole plan around it, right? Man, I got totally outplayed.”

Leticia shrugged.

“To think you had a son that broken. Won’t you introduce me sometime?”

“…N-no way… Zenon defeated Baldo?! The man even I couldn’t beat?!”

“Huh? You seriously didn’t know?”

…What… what is this.

Zenon wasn’t just a vessel for a great general.

As a warrior, he’d already reached the absolute top tier.

“Hahahahaha! I see! Then I’ve got nothing to worry about! Leticia—right here and now, I’ll use every ounce of my strength and soul to cut you down!”

Joy flooded every inch of my body.

Even if I fell here, as long as Zenon existed, the Greivan frontier count house would be secure.

Whether as a commander or a warrior, Zenon would climb to heights I could never reach.

So there was only one thing left for me to do as a father.

I would stop this tragedy of making my son Zenon fight my daughter Alfin—no matter what.

It looked like Alfin had been drugged with magic and forced to swear loyalty to Leticia.

If I could take Leticia down, there might—just might—be a chance to bring Alfin back to her senses. If she was programmed to obey only Leticia’s orders like a golem, maybe she’d stop attacking once Leticia was gone.

This was my atonement.

I was never a good father.

I scolded Alfin for trying to mix magic into swordsmanship, calling it a crooked path.

I dismissed Zenon as nothing but an outlier skill holder.

All because I was obsessed with becoming the strongest swordsman to protect the kingdom—for the oath I made to Lady Lydia.

In my foolishness, I ended up hurting my own children.

I had to make up for that sin.

By cutting down Leticia here.

“Hehe, fine then—come at me. Once I beat you, next up is Zenon. He’s exactly my ideal. Right now, just thinking about him makes my heart race!”

Leticia hugged her own body in dreamy ecstasy.

This woman wasn’t satisfied with just Alfin—she was after Zenon too?

“I’ll never let that happen. Sword Saint Baldo Greivan—coming through!!”