The Time-Stop Breeding Uncle Wants to Retire – Chapter 85

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The flaming hammer instantly shattered Balak’s head.

It was an incredibly clean strike.

I tilted my head, puzzled.

It had been resolved more neatly than I had expected.

However, I didn’t mention this issue.

The answer was already evident in Ruby’s expression, she looked relieved.

She must have found her own answer.

Even if others might question it, she had come to her own conclusion and if she was satisfied with it, I had no intention of interfering.

I smiled and said,

“It seems you’ve found your own answer.”

“That’s right.”

“Then that’s fine. Let’s wrap this up.”

“Leave it to me!”

Ruby decided to handle Balak’s body herself.

I had thought she would just ignore it, but surprisingly, she said she would give him a dwarven funeral.

The dwarven funeral turned out to be a pit of fire.

Like refining iron, they dug a pit, filled it with coal-like materials to create a hot furnace, and then placed the body inside to burn it completely.

Naturally, some people couldn’t understand Ruby’s method.

Notably, Clara, Ruby’s close comrade and rival, and surprisingly, even Helia couldn’t understand Ruby.

“Ruby! That person was your enemy! Do you really have to go this far for him?”

“This time, I agree. Why are you doing so much for him?”

“Don’t misunderstand. This isn’t for Balak.”

“Then for what?”

“It’s for myself. To forget all of my ill fated past and start anew for myself.”

Ruby had come this far to kill her father.

At first, she had wanted to make him suffer all the pain in this world cruelly.

She said she had actually been full of determination to do that, but she had finally realized that revenge wasn’t everything.

That she needed to think about what came after.

So, after much deliberation, Ruby chose to kill Balak cleanly without making him suffer.

“Revenge is not my life, it’s just something I had to do. So, I won’t waste any more emotions on this.”

“Then this isn’t a funeral, but a celebration.”

“Ce-celebration?”

“Of course! On the day you’ve avenged yourself, you should drink alcohol and eat meat!”

Commander Yuren laughed and put her arm around Ruby’s shoulders.

Though she seemed surprised, Ruby didn’t appear to dislike it.

Soon, their gazes turned to me.

I grinned.

“It couldn’t hurt.”

“Then I’ll prepare right away.”

“Good, good! Very good!! Today we’re throwing a party!”

“Is that okay? You know, considering the mood and all…”

“No, it’s fine. I welcome it, actually.”

Since Ruby had said that, there was no reason to refuse, especially for the sake of the others’ morale.

Balak’s body was placed in the prepared fire pit.

I raised my head.

Not a single person observed a moment of silence for Balak.

It was his own doing.

No matter how much it was for wealth and power, if one couldn’t even take care of their own family, the outcome was predictable.

Balak’s headless body was engulfed in flames.

Looking closely, its form resembled a crow more than an eagle.

Ruby stared blankly at the body without saying a word.

“What are you thinking about so intently?”

Worried that now that her revenge was complete, she might feel so empty that she might jump into the fire, I hastily asked Ruby.

Ruby smiled bitterly in response.

“I was thinking about the old days.”

“The old days?”

“When I first thought about killing that trash.”

“…”

“Honestly, I was scared. Of everything.”

For the first time in her life, she had someone she hated and it happened to be her parent.

When faced with such a terrible fact, what kind of shock would an innocent child experience?

It was something I couldn’t even begin to imagine, but Ruby had somehow overcome even that situation.

That was why she was able to come this far.

I patted her back.

“You did well. You did what you could do.”

“Is that really true?”

“Of course. I can guarantee it without hesitation.”

“A guarantee… If someone else had said that, I might have gotten angry, but…”

“Hm?”

“No! It’s nothing!”

Ruby, who had briefly trailed off, soon shook her head with a bright smile.

If nothing else, I could tell that the worry she had been harboring until just moments ago had disappeared.

This was fortunate.

Ruby smiled and ran towards the others.

I watched Ruby from afar, then grinned and took a sip of my drink.

This could be considered a relatively good outcome.

Now, let’s see.

The darkness within the members of the Royal Knights had been somewhat resolved.

They seemed to consider each other as comrades now.

Moreover, support from other races had been restored to over 50%.

At this point, wouldn’t it be okay to hand over the position of commander soon?

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The power of the demon race was formidable.

As a single race, they could be considered almost equal to dragons.

No, since their numbers were even greater, one could say they were a step above dragons.

However, the problem was the confidence that came from this overwhelming power.

More bluntly, it was arrogance.

They were the strongest, nothing could be their match.

Thus, they often underestimated their enemies instinctively.

Usually, this wasn’t a problem because they were overwhelmingly strong, but the biggest issue arose when they faced a worthy opponent.

Unless it was another demon, demons rarely acknowledged an opponent.

Was it due to pride? Or was it because of their fighting instinct cultivated since childhood?

It wasn’t clear.

Arrogance and carelessness were the worst companions that could turn even a winnable war into defeat.

How much more so when facing the Royal Knights, whom the arrogant demons now uniquely acknowledged as worthy opponents?

“We can’t waste any more time. Let’s dig a trap and lure them in.”

“Ridiculous! We should confront them head-on with honor!”

“That’s right, only petty people set traps.”

“So? What have you great people accomplished so far?”

Thanks to this, the demons fought amongst themselves to the point of internal strife over how to deal with the Royal Knights.

Of course, if it weren’t for the barrier of the Holy Kingdom, the demons could have exerted their full power.

Due to the barrier, demons couldn’t enter inside.

They had no particular strategy other than continuing their invasion by sending the monsters they had created.

In this situation, when a plan to dig a trap and lure the Royal Knights came up, half of the demons fiercely opposed it.

They believed that victory achieved through direct confrontation was the only true victory.

On the other hand, quite a few demons were in favor.

If they could somehow wipe out the Royal Knights, it was clear that the already weakly connected continental people would instantly become a disorganized rabble.

Fortunately, they had an informant within the Royal Knights.

They had also planted informants among other races.

It was entirely possible, and they actually succeeded in luring out the Royal Knights.

“The Royal Knights were definitely annihilated.”

“Yes, that’s right. We annihilated them with our own hands.”

“There were survivors, but we thought they wouldn’t be a problem.”

“But… now things are quite different.”

Of course, the demons had also suffered considerable damage.

Even though they had lured them into a trap, the Royal Knights were worthy opponents uniquely acknowledged by the demons.

Naturally, they suffered unimaginable losses.

The number of comrades who died in battle with the Royal Knights alone was not small.

As a result, their power to intervene with the continental people had weakened.

It would take them much more time to recover.

So, they sent informants to sow discord between the races and ultimately make them fight each other and this plan was successful, at least in the beginning.

“Just where did this Hans character come from?”

Hans, the man who had taken down all of the informants they had planted and even killed the lower demons they had sent to rampage.

Where on earth had such an impossible talent emerged from?

Moreover, the unfortunate news was that he was rebuilding the Royal Knights.

He had gathered the survivors and even succeeded in recruiting a Forest Guardian.

What was even more unbelievable was that in just one year, he had greatly stabilized the relations between races that were on the verge of fracturing.

He was on the verge of achieving complete harmony within the previously discord-ridden Royal Knights.

“Is that really important right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“The point is, we need to do something before the Royal Knights are completely rebuilt.”

“But I don’t think they’ll budge for mere lower demons or blood demons.”

“That’s why we need to take action ourselves.”

Until now, they could only watch.

After all, they had suffered severe internal injuries from the battle with the Royal Knights.

Even the demon forces they could mobilize now were few and far between.

That was why they hadn’t taken direct action and had attacked using informants and followers.

Who knew they would recover from the damage so quickly?

So they had no choice but to gather their forces as well.

“Fortunately, all preparations are complete.”

It wasn’t for nothing that they had given power to Balak.

Balak had fulfilled his role admirably, thanks to his lack of presence, he had successfully reached the Royal Knights’ base without being detected and there, he had died admirably.

So, they would use his corpse as a sacrifice and advance.

That was the reason they had given power to Balak.

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[PARTY TIMMMME]