The Strongest Villain Sets Out: Reincarnated into a Merit-Based Clan, I Become the World's Strongest Swordsman - Chapter 31: Worthless and Meaningless Trash

The black-clad suspicious individuals stepped into the academy’s training grounds.

They calmly slaughtered students and intimidated the other students, but Cornelia and I did not comply.

I killed one of the black-clad fools who foolishly approached, and without even glancing at the corpse, I said:

“For now, we’re killing all the enemies here.”

Cornelia smiled sweetly and replied:

“Okay~”

We approached the black-clad men while both holding swords.

Naturally, the black-clad men were shaken.

By our attitude of not even raising an eyebrow despite fellow students being killed right before our eyes.

“Y-you bastards! Do you understand the situation⁉”

“Huh? Suspicious people invaded the academy, right? Thanks. I just wanted to test out Muramasa. Attacking students would get me scolded, but if it’s you guys, no one will care if I kill you. Really appreciate it.”

I said that with a beaming smile. All the black-clad men were completely taken aback.

But only Cornelia had a different reaction.

“Ahaha! That’s great, Luka. When Luka’s happy, I’m happy too!”

“Cornelia, don’t use enhancement magic. You’ll get hurt.”

“I know, I know. Just a little bit is fine for Luka’s sake~”

“Really?”

“Really really.”

“Thanks. Cornelia’s the best.”

“Ahh! I’m so happy!”

Cornelia’s face turned bright red from being thanked by me. She grinned happily with her cheeks relaxed.

An atmosphere flowed as if there were no enemies in front of us, which upset the black-clad men.

“Damn! Don’t underestimate us, brat! You’re Luka Salvatore, aren’t you?”

“So what if I am? I’ll kill you even if you’re crawling on the ground.”

“What do you think will happen to these guys if you lay a hand on us?”

“Eek⁉”

One of the black-clad men pressed a sword to the neck of a nearby female student right in front of me. What he wanted to do was obvious.

“Move and You’ll kill her, yeah?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Meeting you at this timing is a stroke of luck. I actually wanted to fight a little, but I’ll show respect for your strength. Just die quietly.”

“I refuse.”

I thrust my right hand forward and activated water attribute magic. The water that appeared in my palm froze and transformed into a sharp icicle.

This was also water attribute magic. I boosted its strength with aura, took aim, and—fired. Like a bullet, the ice pierced through the face of the man in front.

The man collapsed with a dull sound. A large amount of blood flowed from his face. Blood also splattered on the woman who had been taken hostage, and she screamed.

“Nooooooo⁉”

Hearing that scream, the other black-clad men realized the hostage was meaningless. They hurriedly rushed to my side. A strategy of overwhelming with numbers.

In response, I used the power of Muramasa that had just recently been released. I unleashed the curse sealed within Muramasa and scattered negative aura around.

Of course, I narrowed the effective range to the extreme. Only the black-clad men touched the negative aura.

Those who had been holding swords simultaneously stopped and dropped to their knees on the spot.

Some even foamed at the mouth and collapsed.

“Wh-what… is this…”

“It’s fear. You’re currently struck by my curse and feeling fear.”

This was instinctive. No matter how much you told yourself not to be afraid, it was useless. If your resistance to curses was low, you were forcibly affected.

It could be blocked with aura or divine prayer, but apparently they couldn’t defend at their level. Their entire bodies trembled violently. Tears flowed from their eyes.

“It’s fine to attack, kill, and take hostages… but don’t let your guard down until the end.”

From my perspective, hostages had no value. Even if Cornelia or Sheila were captured, the result would be the same.

There was no guarantee that hostages would be saved after I lost without moving. Whether they died as a result of my actions was the same thing.

Then it was better to pretend there were no hostages from the beginning.

Hesitating would only unnecessarily increase casualties. Only story protagonists could talk about idealistic nonsense like saving everyone.

I didn’t say such honey-sweet things. First of all, those captured were basically telling me to throw away my life for the sake of their own, weren’t they?

What was wrong with me prioritizing my own life?

“If you’re going to do it, do it thoroughly. That’s the basics of evil, you know?”

Saying that, I beheaded all the black-clad men who had fallen around. I had information, and there was no need to deliberately keep them alive.

I ignored the hostages, but I didn’t want to deliberately kill them either. Silence quickly returned to the training grounds.

Cornelia also safely killed several intruders. She came over carrying a severed head. Don’t come here.

“Good work, Luka. How was it? Were you able to test out that sword?”

“Yeah. From cutting several torsos, the curse definitely activated. From their suffering, it seems to have effects similar to poison too.”

“Wow! Amazing. These guys must have been happy to help with Luka’s verification too.”

Cornelia stepped on the corpses at her feet with an ecstatic expression.

“—Well anyway, what do we do after this? Atmosphere-wise, there are other black-clad guys inside the academy, right?”

“Yeah. There must be many of them. Annihilating them would be backbreaking, so let’s target the leader.”

“Crushing the head is effective. There’s no end to swatting flies one by one.”

“Exactly.”

Nodding, Cornelia and I headed toward the training ground entrance. Then, one of the male students who had been crawling nearby shouted angrily:

“H-hey! We were about to be killed, so why did you start a rampage! We could have been killed⁉”

“Huh?”

What the hell is this guy? Is his head boiling or something?

He apparently wanted to talk to me about responsibility now. I was about to punch him, but Cornelia drew her sword faster.

“Shut up. Who are you? Pathetically begging for your life. If you want to survive, fight for yourself. Trash trash trash.”

“⁉”

Cornelia unleashed serious killing intent. At this rate, she really seemed like she might kill him.

“Weaklings immediately rely on others, which is disgusting. They parasitize off others and blame them for unpleasant things. They can’t do anything themselves but are eloquent with their mouths. Acting important. There’s no value in being alive. Why are you living?”

Cornelia readied her sword. Seeing that, the male student let out a hoarse scream.

I grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Stop it, Cornelia.”

“Don’t stop me, Luka. Let’s kill him as an example. I have to send his severed head back to his family.”

“It’s meaningless. Whether that guy dies or not doesn’t matter, but don’t waste time. Our goal is ultimately enemy elimination. Considering the future, it’s easier not to kill.”

“Mmm… okay. Too bad.”

She really looked disappointed as she sheathed her sword—and then kicked the male student’s face.

The male student rolled on the ground from the tremendous impact and eventually stopped moving completely.

His consciousness had been knocked out.

Well, whatever. That much was probably cute enough.

I didn’t say anything in particular and pulled Cornelia’s hand as we left the training grounds.

For some reason, Cornelia was in an unusually good mood.