The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 63

-The giant monster is completely silent. Direct hit, young lady. Remarkable skill, as always.

When a voice came through the communicator mounted at her ear, the girl hanging in the bomb bay let out a sigh of relief.

A golden glow that lingered around her hand.

The thing that had crushed the giant monster’s head was something this girl had thrown.

-Speaking of which, the scale of damage is far smaller than what headquarters predicted. Looks like it’s thanks to those machines broken up ahead…. Wait, what are those? Why are Administration combat modules out here?

The operator’s voice filtered through, as if confirming it via the combat recorder.

-Hold on…. The Administration dispatched a secret royal inspector? And that person sent reinforcements? What in the world is…

The operator, who had been communicating with the garrison’s headquarters, spilled out confused words.

Why the Administration would send reinforcements to them, and suspicion that a secret royal inspector helping them was not to be trusted.

Even as countless conjectures and hypotheses flew around, the girl’s gaze would not leave the soldiers who had fallen all across the wall.

“Ten or so per position. At least a hundred dead…….”

Black bodies burned to prevent infection.

Seeing those who had once been comrades and neighbors, she tightened her fist.

-Young lady.

Perhaps noticing her murmuring.

The operator on the other side of the communicator lowered their voice as if to caution her.

-Caring for people is truly. Truly a wonderful thing. But, young lady. As the General says every time….

“I know. I’m fine.”

-……

It was something she heard every time something like this happened.

She had been told that if she tried to take all deaths upon herself she would eventually break, so if she wanted to protect people, she would have to learn to let them go.

She knew it well.

What that teaching meant, and what was in the heart of a father worried for his adopted daughter.

She understood it, but…. even so, still.

She hated people dying.

Beep-beep-beep-

A buzzer that went off with a red signal pulled her out of her thoughts.

The reason for the alert was the body of the dead giant monster.

Thousands of monsters that had been stored inside it had burst out again.

“The tactical modules are all smashed, and the soldiers are all at their limit. At this rate…!”

The girl who had been looking down at the monsters from above gritted her teeth.

A formation packed with heavily armored and special-type individuals rather than general-class ones.

If those things came crashing into the wall, it was obvious the same situation as moments ago would repeat.

In the first place, why had a massive swarm that would ordinarily be in contamination zones come all the way to the wall?

Just as her thoughts were about to grow complicated.

“Young lady!”

While she had been lost in thought, the pilot sitting in the bomber’s cockpit raised his voice.

“Authorization from the General just came in! Altitude, good! Wind, good! Shells raining down like rain, monsters swarming the ground — perfect weather for a dive!”

He made a show of raising a thumb in her direction.

Seeing it, a faint smile settled onto the girl’s face.

“What does Father… the General say?”

“Nothing much. Just that you’re grounded for a week when you get back.”

“Urgh.”

Maybe she should not have bolted out on her own after all.

That thought only lasted a moment.

The girl stuck out her lower lip and knocked twice on the bomber’s wall.

Thud. Thud.

Descent ready.

When she gave her signal, the bombing sight appeared on the pilot’s HUD.

The monster swarm, emerging from the body of the fallen giant monster and charging once more.

Taking that as the target, the pilot counted down to precise timing.

“3…. 2…. 1! Young lady away!”

“Off I go-!”

The girl shouted with confidence and flung herself out through the open bomb bay.

Fwooo-!

With the sound of air splitting, the wide blue sky opened up to greet her.

The soldiers looking up at her and cheering.

Behind their backs, the countless lives spread out there and the people cheering her on.

“I’ll protect them. As I always have.”

She murmured it like a vow, drew one deep breath looking at the monsters growing closer, and

“Stop tormenting our boys, you baaastards-!”

With a single cry, a fist suffused with golden light drove down into the very center of the monster swarm.

Krakoooom—!

A wave of phase power released around her swallowed the monsters whole.

The shockwave created by her falling speed and her fist scattered the monsters’ formation and stopped the charging monsters dead in their tracks.

“Kriik! Kriik!”

“Grrrrrr…….”

Phase power wielders’ phase power was the natural enemy of monsters.

The bodies of monsters touched by the golden light crumbled away without a trace.

But that was only the general-class individuals with lower combat strength.

As the special-type individuals, sensing the danger, hastily spread out, more than a dozen who had been waiting in every direction moved to the front and surrounded her.

Judgment that never faltered for an instant, never hesitated for an instant.

They were moving, literally, as one body.

Shhhhk-!

The monsters that had spread out took a charging stance.

Having reformed their line with perfect unity, the monsters raised their claws.

In the hand of the girl who looked around at them was the massive piece of metal that had just crushed the giant monster’s head moments ago.

[User Yoo Arin. ID code confirmed. Weapon container opening]

Clank! From within the metal block that split open to either side, a single sword shot out.

A massive two-handed blade, easily taller than its user.

A weapon custom-made for her, built with durability as the sole priority, all additional functions like monomolecular cutters stripped away entirely.

“Kriiiik-!”

Shwap-!

The instant she drew her sword, five special-type individuals that had been waiting charged in a flash.

Having claimed all five directions in an instant, their attack came simultaneously.

No matter how accomplished a swordswoman, evading this attack was physically impossible.

And so the spears and claws of the monsters, thrusting in from every direction, came flying to run through the girl’s body without delay, and

Krachzzzt-!

in the next moment, the monsters’ weapons that had flown at the girl snapped uselessly or were knocked away.

Claws that had cut through soldiers’ body armor like paper.

Spear tips that had cleanly sliced through officers’ artificial bodies.

Of all those blades, not a single one pierced her skin or left a scratch.

“……!”

“………!”

Even being monsters, perhaps this was beyond what they could have anticipated.

The special-type individuals came to a halt as if something had happened that should never have happened.

Giving that sight not even a glance, the girl, Yoo Arin, tightened her grip on the hand holding the two-handed blade, and

“May this bring at least a little comfort to those who died today.”

With one quiet word, her sword turned toward the monsters ahead.

Eyes and hair dyed gold were a sign that phase power was circulating through her entire body.

Toward the monsters belatedly taking defensive stances, Arin swung her sword without hesitation, and

Krakoooom-!

phase power discharged from the blade’s tip erased the monsters positioned ahead without a trace.

“Kriik?!”

“Kriik! Kriiiik-!”

With their front line collapsed in an instant, the remaining monsters charged frantically toward Arin.

An action born from their judgment that they could not win this battle if they could not bring her down.

But in that time, Arin’s sword was already pointing toward them.

Boom–! Krakoooom–!

Explosive sword strikes shattered the monsters’ carapaces mercilessly.

The blade of the two-handed sword, whose edge had not even been properly sharpened, tore the monsters’ bodies to pieces on the force of the swing alone.

Crunch-!

A heavily armored individual’s upper half burst apart whole from a single punch, and

Crack-!

the quick monsters that had been targeting her back dissolved like snow in sunlight from a single kick.

Some of the individuals tried grabbing Arin’s face and driving a spear into her eye, but that too lasted only a moment.

Clang clang-!

Even the spear driven into those eyes was deflected in a sight that defied belief, and the monster simply dropped the spear in its hand, as if giving up.

Killing, and killing again.

When the special-type individuals that had numbered in the hundreds were gone, the general-class individuals with their slight frames began charging toward her.

If they could not kill her, they would bury her in weight.

Their intent was to pin her down while a separate force charged the wall and slaughtered the soldiers.

“That won’t do.”

But when Arin, having realized it, raised her hand toward the sky, a transmission came from the bomber that received her signal.

-Confirmed elimination of special-type and heavily armored individuals. Per your call, young lady, we will drop a MOAB on that position.

Fwooom-!

A massive air-dropped bomb launched from the bomber came flying to finish off the remaining monsters.

A massive bomb whose explosive charge alone weighed 21 tonnes.

Arin was standing where the bomb was falling, but neither the pilot who dropped it nor Arin herself seemed to be concerned.

-Cover your face before it goes off, young lady.

The reason was simple.

-It is bad for your skin.

Because that paltry air-dropped bomb could not leave so much as a scorch mark on her body.

Fwaaaash-!

In the moment after blinding light erupted, tremendous heat and pressure blew away the remaining monsters without a trace.

Light brighter than any flame lit up every direction, and

a shockwave more intense than any bomb shook all of heaven and earth.

Land reduced to ash.

When the smoke covering that land cleared, all that stood there was a single girl.

“…….”

Golden hair and golden eyes, still fluttering undisturbed in the midst of that massive explosion.

The garrison soldiers who had begun picking themselves up one by one were watching that sight as though entranced.

A silence like a bomb about to burst.

Reading that atmosphere on instinct, Arin made a show of raising her sword to the sky, and

“Uwaaaaaaa-!”

“Aaah! Aaaaaah-!”

Taking that as their spark, the surviving soldiers turned to her and began cheering wildly.

“We won! We won!”

“Thank goodness the call for support went in on time. To think the young lady herself came down…!”

“I genuinely… genuinely thought I was going to die!”

Somewhere between frenzy and madness.

The screaming and cheering of thousands mixed together into a pandemonium where nothing could be made out.

“She’s pushed her awakening ahead by at least three years. When something like this comes charging headlong at you, it doesn’t matter if you’re a power clan. There’s no way to handle it.”

Changwoon, leaning his body out past the wall, stared blankly at Arin like that and murmured.

Slaughtering dozens of special-type individuals, hunting thousands of monsters.

That sight, crying victory without so much as a scratch or a stumble.

It was exactly the same as what he had seen countless times in his past life.

“This is just…. really too much.”

The girl Yoo Arin, under a sky now clear and bright, receiving the soldiers’ cheers.

A being who had inherited all of the king’s bloodline and power, and a hero of a revolution that had risen alone in the north.

And at the same time, the flame that would burn everything in this nation of Joseon.