I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 7

Yusiliph narrowed his eyes and looked toward the direction from which the voice had come.

It was definitely that woman. Arabella Maiona. The woman who had thrown him into this damned pit, only to now extend a hand and claim she would save him.

Because of her swollen face—as though she had eaten something terribly wrong—and her shabby appearance, she stood out tremendously among the dazzling nobles.

Of course, not in a good way.

‘Has that woman really lost her mind?’

Even though the nobles around her were frowning, she paid them no attention and looked only at him. She was like a puzzle piece that had somehow been mistakenly inserted into a monochrome still-life painting.

‘I promise you, Yusiliph. If you win this match and survive, I’ll take you back from Princess Regita no matter what it takes, free you from slavery, and save your sister Alin, too. And there’s more… I’ll turn you into a Swordmaster! I’m serious! I really mean it!’

She was practically saying that she would grant every single one of Yusiliph’s wishes.

That was precisely why he found her even more suspicious.

‘Why would you do all of that? What do you want from me?’

‘When the time comes, I want you to lend me your strength. That’s all I want.’

What possible strength could he, a plaything of the Princess, be of any use to her—a noblewoman and candidate for Crown Princess?

Everything she said was suspicious.

But what was strangest of all was that everything was unfolding exactly as she had said it would.

‘The medicine and food are only a temporary fix. In your current condition, there’s no way you can win this match.’

‘So you want me to forfeit?’

‘No. There’s no way Princess Regita would allow that.’

‘You know her well.’

‘Then just this once, use a dirty trick, Yusiliph.’

‘What? A dirty trick?’

‘Yes. I know you hate people who break the rules during matches, but this is a matter of survival. What good does it do for you to be the only righteous one when your life is on the line? Naive people are the ones who end up getting betrayed and turning evil later!’

Her way of speaking as though she knew him inside and out was deeply irritating.

But frustratingly, there wasn’t a single thing wrong with what she said.

‘Jack the Butcher’ clearly wouldn’t be satisfied with simply winning. He was obsessed with putting on a show, so he would undoubtedly do something far more brutal than necessary.

And if that happened…

His secret might be exposed.

His cursed regenerative ability. His power as a mutant quarter-elf. His father, Sheryen, had warned him time and again that if people learned his secret, they would brand him a monster or subject him to something horrific.

“What’s this? All you two are doing is dancing around!”

“This is boring! What kind of semifinal is this?”

Suddenly, loud jeers erupted from the stands.

“Quit fooling around and finish him, Jack the Butcher!”

“Slave swordsman! Earn that pretty face of yours!!”

The angry shouts of the spectators poured down upon Yusiliph. By then, his forehead was drenched in cold sweat.

Jack the Butcher, on the other hand, was brimming with confidence. After even putting on a performance where he licked the blade of his axe, he rolled his eyes wildly and raised his battle-axe.

“Well then, shall we really start having some fun? My little darling here says he’s getting bored.”

Just as he was about to kick off the ground and leap forward, Yusiliph, who had remained silent until then, parted his chapped white lips.

“Oh, I see. Planning to chop off my head with that axe and hang it from the city wall? Just like your lover and the people from your hometown?”

“…!”

At that moment, Jack’s face went deathly pale as if he had been struck by lightning. The change in his expression was so dramatic that even Yusiliph, who was facing him, was taken aback.

“Y-You fucking bastard… H-Have you lost your damn mind? What the hell do you know about my h-hometown people, about C-Catrin…? W-What the hell are you talking about?”

His furious shouting sounded almost hysterical, and his pupils were visibly trembling.

Yusiliph watched him closely before opening his mouth again.

Just as Arabella Maiona had told him.

‘Coward. Cowardly bastard. Provoke him by calling him those things. That’s his Achilles’ heel.’

‘Achilles? What is that?’

‘Th-There’s such a thing. It means weakness, so just roughly understand what I mean.’

Suspicious woman.

Even as he muttered those words inwardly, Yusiliph provoked Jack the Butcher exactly as she had instructed.

“Coward. Cowardly bastard.”

“…!”

“The words that should come before your name aren’t ‘the Butcher,’ but those, aren’t they, Jack?”

“You… you bastard…!”

Watching Jack’s trembling pupils, Yusiliph slowly raised his voice.

“Your family and lover were subjected to such humiliation, yet you hid and ran away alone. If I were you, I’d be too ashamed to ever pick up an axe again. You cowardly bastard.”

“Y-You little shit! I’ll fucking tear you apart!”

“Seems like you’re the one who should be tearing something apart. You pathetic, gutless, disloyal little coward.”

Jack’s face turned deathly pale as he trembled as though his heart had been stabbed.

Looking directly at him, Yusiliph became certain that Arabella had been right.

‘Jack the Butcher is from a lumberjack village. He even had a fiancée he was about to marry, but the Imperial Army sent by the Emperor brutally massacred the villagers on the grounds that it was an unauthorized settlement, then hanged their bodies from the city walls as a warning. He watched his family and fiancée being killed, but he hid and escaped alone. If you mention what happened that day, he’ll definitely become extremely agitated. He probably thinks no one knows about what happened that day except him.’

‘How do you know about something no one else knows?’

‘Th-That’s not important right now, is it? Focus, Yusiliph.’

As expected, a suspicious woman.

Just as Yusiliph thought that, Jack began shouting furiously, spraying spit everywhere.

“You… What the hell do you know? Y-You’re nothing but a slave who’s lived a p-perfect life, groveling like a dog under the P-Princess! What the hell do you know about running your m-mouth like that? You f-fucking bastard!”

At Jack’s pathetic appearance as he turned bright red and spewed out whatever words came to mind, the spectators frowned or clicked their tongues instead of cheering.

“Aaaaaaargh! I’ll fucking kill you today, you goddamn bastard!!!”

‘Jack the Butcher’ was completely enraged and began swinging his axe wildly.

The killing intent infused into the axe blade grew explosively stronger, but his accuracy noticeably deteriorated in turn.

‘Once Jack gets worked up, don’t engage him head-on. Keep dodging and wear him down. Then wait for one single opening.’

Arabella’s voice, brimming with confidence as though she had seen the events of the match in advance, echoed in Yusiliph’s ears.

Keeping his opponent under careful observation with cold eyes, he backed himself tightly against the wooden fence surrounding the arena.

Jack came charging toward him with heavy, pounding footsteps and brought his axe down with a face twisted by rage.

“RAAAAAAGH!”

CRACK, BOOM! BANG, BANG!

Instead of striking Yusiliph, who continuously evaded his attacks, the unfortunate wooden fence behind him was repeatedly smashed and splintered apart.

Thud, thud, CRACK!

His aim kept missing, and Jack’s breathing grew increasingly ragged.

Panting heavily, Jack summoned all his monstrous strength and brought the axe down with everything he had.

BOOM!

But the excessive force became a problem instead.

The axe sank deep into the thickest and sturdiest section of the fence, and the blade became firmly lodged in the dense grain of the wood.

“Damn, f—”

‘Jack the Butcher’ ground his teeth and struggled desperately to pull his axe free, but the deeply embedded weapon wouldn’t budge.

“GAAAAAAH!”

He let out a shriek dripping with madness as he struggled to wrench the axe handle free.

And that was when it happened.

Swish.

Yusiliph had already moved behind him. He grabbed Jack roughly by the hair and pressed his sword against the back of his neck.

“That’s enough playing around, cowardly Jack.”

Yusiliph looked down at him with an icy expression, the corner of his chapped lips curling upward.

“You must have missed your fiancée terribly all this time. So why don’t you go join her now?”

“S-Save me…”

Looking straight into Jack’s terrified eyes, Yusiliph swung his sword without hesitation.

“Goodbye, you piece of shit.”

Swish.

The moment his sword passed through the back of Jack’s neck, bright red blood sprayed across the arena floor.

WAAAAAAAAAH—!!

“The slave swordsman won! The Princess’s slave swordsman defeated Jack the Butcher!”

The spectators’ roar shook the arena.

 

***

 

“Congratulations, Your Highness.”

“Another victory! How long do you intend to continue this miracle of invincibility?”

Princess Regita wore a composed smile as she listened to the congratulations flying at her from all directions.

But in truth, she was seething inside.

‘What the hell happened? Everything’s gone completely wrong!’

Today, Regita had intended to reveal that Yusiliph was a quarter-elf with supernatural abilities and watch him be trampled in a gruesome spectacle.

It was punishment for his insolence, as well as the first step toward training him into an even more useful dog of the Imperial Family.

“You said we were going to see something entertaining today.”

A dry murmur suddenly came from beside Regita.

She turned her head.

Her older brother, Crown Prince Sota, was staring coldly at her with eyes devoid of emotion.

“Are you having fun now?”