Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight
Chapter 363: SS 11

[Translator - Pot ]

[Proofreader - Kawaii ]

Side Story Chapter 11: Damien Haksen's Women (2)

"Agnes, you're surprisingly boy-crazy, aren't you? That's not what I expected from how you look."

Aunt Athena said that with a surprised tone.

It didn't seem like she meant any harm, but from Aunt Agnes's perspective, it must have hit a nerve.

"Boy... crazy...?"

She looked completely shocked and collapsed like chocolate melting in the heat.

"W-well, then why don't you give up on Damien!"

Aunt Agnes shot Aunt Athena a glare and asked.

Aunt Athena crossed her arms and spat out a short reply.

"He's hot."

Hmm.

Was it because the reason was too simple?

Me and the other two aunts made faces like we couldn't believe it.

"Athena, that's way too..."

"Isn't that a superficial reason?"

"What's wrong with liking someone because they're hot?"

Even with the criticism from the two aunts, Aunt Athena didn't care at all.

"The first condition for attraction between men and women is appearance. You like them because they're beautiful. You like them because they're your type. What's weird about that?"

Maybe because Aunt Athena was so confident, the other two aunts couldn't come up with a rebuttal.

"So, if someone hotter than Damien shows up, you'll switch your affections right away, sis?"

That's when Aunt Rachel asked with a meaningful expression.

Her eyes were like a predator that had caught its prey's weakness.

"What are you talking about? Where's there someone hotter than Damien?"

At Aunt Athena's words, the three of us looked dumbfounded.

Oh, I'm not saying Uncle is ugly. He's really handsome.

But the world is a big place, right? You can't be sure there's no one hotter than Uncle.

Just in the empire alone, there's this male actor who's super popular right now. He's so hot that they say a whole cartload of women died from lovesickness over him.

In other words, it's hard to claim Uncle is the hottest guy in the world.

"You guys just haven't seen Damien's truly awesome side."

Aunt Athena said, staring into space.

"A long time ago, I fell into a Dark mage's conspiracy and was about to be crippled and kicked out of the mercenary group. Everyone was tricked by the dark mage and no one took my side."

As she continued, Aunt Athena's expression turned dreamy and hazy.

"But Damien was different. He uncovered the dark mage's plot all by himself and came to rescue me. Thanks to him, I wasn't crippled, wasn't kicked out of the group, and I kept my honor."

Aunt Athena's eyes returned to normal. She looked at us and said,

"You should have seen Damien back then. I've never seen a man that cool. And I probably never will again."

At Aunt Athena's confession, the two aunts naturally became solemn.

"Athena, you..."

"You're surprisingly pure-hearted, huh?"

"What are you suddenly saying?"

In response to Aunt Athena's question, the two aunts scratched their cheeks or averted their eyes as they spoke.

"You said you like Damien because he's hot... but actually, you fell in love because he helped you in a crisis."

"Our Athena sis has a girly side despite her scary image as the second Mercenary King? I'm seeing you in a new light."

As the two sent her warm looks, Aunt Athena's face gradually turned red.

"W-what are you two talking about! I-I told you! I like Damien because he's hot!"

"Yes, we'll go with that."

"What do you mean, like you're just humoring me!"

Aunt Athena glared at the two aunts as if she was about to pounce.

"W-well, what about you? Why do you like Damien!"

Finally unable to hold out, Aunt Athena latched onto Aunt Rachel.

Fair enough, since the other two shared, Aunt Rachel should too.

"Me? Do I really need to say it?"

But Aunt Rachel responded coyly.

Then the two aunts lit up with fire in their eyes and pounced.

"What do you mean? You're going to hear our reasons and skip yours?"

"You think I'd allow that?"

Whoa, now Aunt Agnes and Aunt Athena are on the same side.

"But my story won't be interesting."

"Interesting or not isn't the point!"

"Yeah! Spill it! Don't make us the only embarrassed ones!"

The mood wasn't going to let her off easy. Sensing that, Aunt Rachel looked troubled.

That's when Aunt Rachel's gaze turned to me.

A strange smile appeared on her lips.

Uh oh, this feels ominous.

"But is this really the time for this talk? We gathered to ask Theo to convince Damien for us."

Ah, I didn't expect her to drag me into it.

But there's no way the other two would fall for such an obvious diversion...

"You're right! We don't know when Damien might come looking for Theo, so we can't just sit around leisurely!"

"We forgot the most important thing! This isn't the time!"

The two aunts' gazes turned to me.

W-what do I do? I haven't thought of a way out of this crisis yet.

"Young Master Theo, you remember our request, right?"

"Can you convince Damien to choose one of us?"

"Theo, you're the only one we can trust."

The three aunts inched closer to me.

The terrifying pressure made cold sweat pour down like rain.

But as the old saying goes, even if the sky falls, there's a hole to rise from.

Suddenly, with a loud crash, the door and wall shattered completely, didn't they?

The four of us looked toward the wall in surprise. There was Uncle.

Uncle wasn't alone. He was facing off against a red-haired woman.

"Damien Haksen! Today, I'll cut you down for sure!"

The red-haired woman crossed her twin swords and shouted.

Oh, don't misunderstand, everyone.

She's not an assassin or killer here to murder Uncle.

It's Aunt Veronica, actually.

"You have no idea how brutal the training I've done just for today!"

As you can see, Aunt Veronica's goal is to cut Uncle down.

She says she'd give up everything if she could just do that.

That's why she likes killing people but hasn't killed many so far.

Uncle threatened that if Aunt Veronica killed anyone else, he wouldn't face her anymore.

"Hey, you broke the wall."

"The dwarves will fix it right away anyway!"

Uncle said with a displeased face, but Aunt Veronica didn't care at all.

"Then here I come again!"

Aunt Veronica swung her twin swords at Uncle.

Incredibly fast attacks rained down.

Uncle deflected all of Aunt Veronica's attacks.

And without even looking, with his bare hands.

"Huh? What are you all doing here?"

Uncle asked us while swatting away Aunt Veronica's attacks with the side of his hand.

"Focus on me, not them!"

"Why would I focus on someone like you? Anyway, I told you to give up already."

"I said I won't give up!"

Aunt Veronica yelled even louder and swung her twin swords.

Earlier, I could at least see afterimages, but now even those are gone.

Of course, Uncle was still deflecting without looking.

"Theo, don't be such a baby. All three are busy people. Don't bother them."

W-what?

W-who's bothering whom! I'm the one whose rest time is being interrupted!

"Damien, don't worry about it. We're fine."

"Yeah. Why would we find Theo annoying?"

"Theo's like a cute little brother to us too."

I looked at the aunts with a dumbfounded expression.

The aunts avoided my gaze and pretended not to notice.

"Grr... I'm done! I'm not doing this!"

Finally, Aunt Veronica, who tired out first, threw down her twin swords.

As expected, today Aunt Veronica gave up first again.

"Good enough? I'm out of here."

"Ah, wait!"

"You wanna go again? I'm not in the mood anymore."

"Mother said she has business in the city and wants us to go with her."

"Us?"

"Yeah, me, you, and Mother."

"If it's Mother's request, I can't refuse."

Uncle nodded readily but then made a displeased face.

"But how long are you gonna keep calling my mom 'Mother'?"

"That's my choice. Hurry up. She's leaving soon."

Uncle grumbled as he followed Aunt Veronica.

Once the two left, the aunts looked at each other with subtle expressions.

"...You all saw that, right?"

"...I can't believe Veronica's already won over Mother."

"...This isn't the time for us to be checking each other."

The three aunts looked at each other with determined eyes.

Hmm, it seems like the three have suddenly gotten closer.

I should escape in this gap. I don't want to keep getting dragged around by these three...

"Young Master Theo?"

"Theo?"

"Theo?"

...But there's no way I could slip past their senses.

I got caught the moment I took a step.

"Damien and Veronica seem unusually close."

"It'll be hard for us to catch up alone."

"So you'll keep helping us, right?"

The three smiled brightly as they asked.

I could only swallow dryly and nod.

"O-of course I'll help."

* * *

It was that night.

Maybe because I'd been tormented by the aunts for so long, I ended up having a nightmare.

In the nightmare, I was standing in a field.

But it looked very different from any field I knew.

Corpses were strewn everywhere I looked, and blood flowed like rivers.

Even though it was a dream, it was scary.

I got chills.

I hugged my shoulders and called for Uncle.

"Uncle... where are you? Uncle Damien."

Then, something tapped my shoulder.

I turned my head in shock.

There was a black ghost.

I don't know who it was.

It was made of black smoke, so I couldn't see its face.

The ghost wriggled and pointed somewhere.

I unconsciously looked that way.

And I almost screamed.

Corpses were piled up into a mountain.

I couldn't even guess how many people had died.

But what scared me even more was something else.

Someone was standing at the top of the corpse mountain.

Gray skin, pitch-black armor.

An inhumanly huge build.

I'd definitely seen it somewhere before.

But I couldn't remember. Where had I seen it...

-Watch closely.

The black ghost spoke to me. But I couldn't respond.

I couldn't take my eyes off the black knight.

-That's #$!@#$.

The last word was hard to hear.

-The one you love so much, %$!@!#$.

As if knowing I wouldn't understand, the ghost repeated the same words.

I was about to ask what it was saying when.

-...

The black knight glared at me.

The moment its red eyes turned toward me, chills ran through me like I'd been plunged into ice water.

"Ah, aaaah!"

I screamed and bolted up from bed.

Waking from the nightmare, I gasped for breath.

"W-what dream did I just have?"

Weird. Now that I was awake, I couldn't remember what the dream was about at all.

But the emotions lingered. It was so scary and terrifying.

I quietly got out of bed.

I hugged my pillow tightly and went outside the castle.

Whenever I have a nightmare, I go to Uncle.

Sleeping next to Uncle strangely makes me feel safe.

I passed through the forest and arrived at Uncle's tower.

I went down to the basement and called him.

"Uncle~"

"Huh? Theo, is that you?"

Uncle wasn't sleeping. In fact, he was getting ready to go out.

"Oh, are you heading out?"

"Yeah, I have a quick errand. What's up with you? Did you have another nightmare?"

I just nodded.

Uncle took out a blanket from the corner and spread it on the floor.

"Come here."

"But don't you need to go?"

"I'll go after watching you sleep."

Hehe, this is why I like Uncle.

I quickly lay down on the blanket.

Uncle sat beside me and patted my back.

As expected, being next to Uncle makes me feel secure.

Sleepiness hit me right away as I lay down.

I didn't resist.

In my gradually fading consciousness, I saw something strange.

In the corner of the basement, darkness was staring at me.

Before I could ask Uncle what it was, I fell asleep.

[Translator - Pot ]

[Proofreader - Kawaii ]