The Hero Becomes the Duke’s Eldest Son

Translator: Marctempest
Editor: Rynfinity

Chapter 28

Upon seeing them, Joseph’s expression twisted, and he gritted his teeth. He asked, barely suppressing his anger.

“Why are you here? There’s still time until the tribute day, isn’t there?”

“Oh, it’s not just that, of course. We’re quite busy too.”

The man waved his hand dismissively.

“Thing is, the tribute day has been moved up. You need to have the goods ready in three days. And twice the amount.”

Joseph was startled and shouted.

“Moved up? Twice? Are you kidding me? That’s impossible!”

“That’s not for us to know!”

A cruel smile spread across their faces.

“Remember, if you’re late, your ‘collateral’ might get hurt.”

“You bastards!”

Instead of getting angry, they sneered at Joseph’s language.

“Hey, old man! You’d better watch your mouth. We’re taking very good ‘care’ of your precious collateral.”

Then he tapped the badge on his chest.

A badge depicting a three-headed dog.

Aden recognized it.

‘The emblem of Cerberus.’

A criminal guild with significant influence in the underworld of Makellan City.

They controlled this large black market, essentially a major pillar of Makellan’s underworld.

Wearing that badge meant they were members of the Cerberus Guild.

“If you mess with us… you know what’ll happen?”

One of them made a gesture of slitting his throat with his thumb.

Joseph clenched his fist and his face turned red and blue with anger.

He barely managed to hold back the curses that were about to burst out.

Because of that ‘collateral.’

The guild members looked satisfied and snickered at Joseph’s struggle.

Aden knew what collateral they were talking about.

That’s why Aden’s gaze turned cold as he looked at them.

He remembered Joseph coming to him in the past, weeping blood and begging.

-Please… Please, I beg you. I want revenge on those bastards, those demons! Revenge for my daughter!

He must have had no choice but to comply because they had taken his only precious daughter.

Cerberus Guild, having discovered his past, had forced Joseph into debt.

The debt snowballed, and they took his daughter as collateral.

For a year.

For a year, they promised to clear his debt and return his daughter if he paid the tribute regularly.

He worked hard for a year, thinking of his daughter, but he never saw her again.

The Cerberus Guild had taken everything they could from him and then sold his daughter to a noble family with perverse tastes.

He had heard that she was found dead and discarded in a mountain a few months later.

“Well, we’d better get going, so hurry up if you want to save your daughter.”

Having delivered their message, they turned to leave.

Before leaving, the red-haired man passed by Aden, smirking and patting his shoulder.

“Hey, man. You’d better buy what you need quickly and leave. Nothing good comes from staying here too long. You know what I mean?”

The red-haired man threatened Aden, implying he should be careful if he didn’t want to get on the guild’s bad side.

“Not sure.”

Aden grabbed the man’s wrist, which was on his right shoulder, and…

Crunch.

A chilling sound echoed as he crushed the man’s wrist bone.

“Arghhhhh!”

The red-haired man screamed in agony.

“I don’t understand a word of your bullshit.”

“Keron!”

The other two were startled by his scream.

Regardless of their panic, Aden grabbed the red-haired man’s neck.

The sturdy man was lifted by Aden’s one arm.

Squeeze.

“Gah, guh, urgh!”

The man struggled in agony, clawing at Aden’s arm as he suffocated, but Aden didn’t budge.

“Let him go right now! Are you crazy?”

“Do you know who we are?”

The other guild members belatedly burst out in anger, but Aden scoffed at their words.

“Who do you think you are?”

Crunch.

Another chilling sound of bones breaking echoed.

The red-haired man’s body went limp as his eyes, filled with horror, lost their light.

“Puppies.”

Thud.

Only after his death did the red-haired man’s body fall from Aden’s grip.

The corpse collapsed to the ground.

“……”

Everyone held their breath, and a deathly silence filled the shop.

‘Monster.’

Seeing Aden break the man’s neck with just his grip, the other two guild members finally realized how dangerous he was.

‘Keron is dead. He was the strongest among us?’

‘Damn it, we’re in deep trouble.’

They quickly grasped the situation.

The two guild members immediately put on servile smiles and rubbed their hands together in front of Aden.

“Haha, we didn’t recognize a distinguished guest… Our apologies!”

“We’ll quietly forget about this matter, so we’ll just…”

They thought if the guild found out that one of their own was killed and they ran away, they wouldn’t be seen favorably.

But they needed to survive first.

‘We can deal with this guy later through the guild.’

Thinking they could pacify him now and retaliate later through the guild, they tried to appease Aden, but things didn’t go as they planned.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Aden threw a dagger from his waist…

Shiiiik, thud!

The dagger lodged into one guild member’s neck.

“Urrggh…”

The man fell, making a hissing sound as air escaped his throat.

“Gasp.”

The last guild member panicked at the death of his companion right next to him.

Aden drew his sword silently.

Wooong.

The sword hummed, and a blue haze surrounded it.

Joseph, who had been watching in a daze, was startled.

‘Sword Aura!’

A sign of a master swordsman capable of becoming a knight for any noble family or founding a formidable guild.

Seeing this, the remaining guild member turned pale. Aden approached him.

“Eek!”

The guild member let out a high-pitched scream and fell back.

“Please, spare me! Please!”

The man clung to the wall, trembling.

Aden said nothing and simply drove his sword into the wall next to the man’s neck…

“Aaagh!”

Thud!

The sword pierced the wall right next to his throat, causing the guild member to wet himself in fear.

“Ah, ah…”

Thud.

The guild member, overwhelmed by fear and relief, fainted in a disgraceful manner.

Curse spoke with delight.

– “Quite vicious. Wouldn’t it be better to just kill him?”

“Shut up, he still has his uses.”

Aden, speaking softly so only Curse could hear, sheathed his sword aura and put his sword away.

Then, he turned to Joseph.

“Will this be sufficient?”

“……”

Joseph said nothing.

He only recalled the blue aura he had seen.

After a moment, he opened his mouth.

“Is it… really possible?”

His voice trembled.

There was no longer any disbelief on his face.

He was just having trouble accepting the sudden situation.

“Can you really save my daughter… from those bastards?”

It was a hope he had given up on.

He had endured a hellish reality, making and paying tributes while drowning in alcohol after losing his daughter.

He had prayed countless times to the gods.

With a tearful voice, he asked again.

“Can you save my daughter… Elise?”

“As long as you can pay the corresponding price.”

Thud.

He knelt before Aden.

“Anything! I’d even sell my soul if you want!”

Tears streaming down his face, he pleaded.

“I don’t care what happens to me. Just free my daughter from those bastards’ clutches! I’ll do anything, please!”

A satisfied smile spread across Aden’s lips.

“I’ll remember those words.”

The deal was made.

—

“Th-this is our guild headquarters, sir.”

The guild member, Vero, whom Aden had spared, very politely guided Aden to the guild headquarters after waking up.

Usually, the headquarters of a dark guild is hidden to avoid interference from rival guilds.

Revealing it is an act of betrayal.

But there was no choice in front of a monster like Aden.

The Cerberus Guild’s headquarters was a three-story inn and restaurant on an isolated street above ground.

From the outside, it looked like any other large inn.

‘It’s correct.’

The location had faded from memory due to time, but the Cerberus Guild headquarters was just as he remembered.

“Let’s go inside together.”

“What? But… yes!”

Though Vero was reluctant to face his comrades, he had no choice but to follow when Aden gave him a look.

Upon entering the building, the first floor looked like a restaurant for guild members, and a burly bald man approached them.

“Hey? Vero, why are you so late? Where are Keron and Ross?”

A senior guild member who recognized Vero asked.

Then, seeing Aden behind him, he shot a ‘who’s this?’ look.

“And who the hell are you? I haven’t heard anyone was coming, and judging by your plain clothes, you don’t seem like an important client.”

“Well, that…”

As Vero stammered, hesitating to answer, Aden pushed him aside and spoke.

“Hey, you. Go get the guild master.”

The abrupt command made the man incredulous.

“What? You? What a crazy bastard. Do you know where you are?”

“Of course. It’s the kennel of you mutts.”

“What? You bastard, how dare you…!”

Infuriated by Aden’s taunt, the bald man reached out to grab Aden by the collar.

But Aden avoided his arm and…

Thunk.

He grabbed the man’s extended arm and slammed him onto a nearby table.

Crash!

“Guh!”

The table broke as the bald man sprawled out.

Finally, the other guild members realized that Aden was an enemy.

“Intruder!”

“Get him!”

They rushed at Aden all at once.

Aden dodged the arm of one swinging a dagger, grabbed it, and broke the arm’s joint.

Then he knocked the man out by smashing his temple on another table’s corner.

“Aaagh!”

He kicked another attacking man’s jaw, shattering it, and plunged a long sword into the man’s thigh.

“Graaah!”

Aden caught the falling dagger before it hit the ground and…

Swish, swish!

He threw it into the shoulders of two approaching men.

They clutched their shoulders and groaned in pain.

He continued to break, throw, and shatter the guild members one by one until dozens of them lay on the floor.

Hearing the commotion, guild members upstairs came pouring down.

“What’s all this noise!”

“Kill him!”

About thirty people in total.

‘There’s a mage too? Though a low-ranking one.’

It wasn’t a major guild, but it was sizable enough to have a mage.

It seemed all significant members were here.

The warm-up was over. It was time to get serious.

Aden drew his sword.

The sword hummed briefly, and a blue aura formed, causing the guild members to gasp.

“Sword aura!”

“No way! Why is an aura user here?”

The atmosphere shifted from one of confidence to despair.

That was the power of the sword aura.

The guild master of Cerberus could barely cover his sword with a faint sword aura.

Despite that, he had become the guild master of Cerberus, which dominated the underworld of Makellan.

But this thick aura?

“I’m not one to let those who challenge me live.”

The situation had changed.

Aden leapt toward the guild members.

“R-run! Everyone, run!”

Someone shouted, but Aden moved faster.

Aden targeted the mage first.

He closed in on the low-ranking mage in an instant.

“……!”

The mage had no time to chant.

Swish!

Aden’s sword swung, and the mage’s head rolled to the floor.

Someone cried out in dismay.

“No! The mage…!”

Slash! Crash! Thud!

He slashed their thigh tendons with his long sword and crushed shoulders.

He broke joints, kicked heads, and smashed them into walls and tables.

He moved like a wild beast.

“Guhhhh…”

“Aaah! My leg! My leg!”

“Please, spare me…!”

Though many were left groaning and half-dead, almost none were actually dead.

In no time, all the guild members were down.

Those who were still conscious stared at Aden in terror.

“Monster…”

“Our Cerberus… by this one bastard…”

“This is a nightmare…”

The guild was destroyed in just ten minutes.

But Aden clicked his tongue inwardly.

‘Tsk, the lack of mana is inconvenient.’

The original Aden could have neutralized everyone here in ten seconds.

‘I’ve already used up half my mana.’

Even though he tried to conserve it, it was quickly consumed.

Converting mana into sword aura was about spiritual enlightenment, so he could use it quickly.

But his mana couldn’t keep up with his enlightenment.

He missed the dragon’s mana, which had once overflowed like a fountain.

Vero, who had watched the scene unfold, was pale.

“Hey.”

“Yes!”

“Take me to the guild master.”