I Am Not Goblin Slayer

Chapter 317: The Willfulness of the Strong

Witch Megan felt deep regret in her heart.She never expected that the perfect body she had chosen would actually house an even more perfect soul.

Offensive and defensive means at the soul level were the most direct.

The attack just now had already made her realize that Gauss's ability at the soul level was stronger than hers, a witch who had researched this path for many years.

Of course, this didn't mean her accumulation over several centuries couldn't compare to his extraordinary talent.

Rather, after each brain transfer surgery, she essentially started over.

Therefore, the intensity accumulated in the soul aspect didn't have the thickness of hundreds of years.

It was just that in terms of methods for utilizing the soul, she was more versatile than ordinary professionals who had no opportunity to come into contact with this path.

In the past, it was precisely this kind of offensive method that made her invincible when facing many opponents.

For example, when an enemy chopped off her head, thinking they had achieved victory, she would launch a soul roar at close range to shatter their soul the moment they relaxed.

But...

"Don't you think it's a bit too late?"

Gauss's water-based weapon condensed into a gauntlet enveloping his right fist.

Simultaneously, a special power distinct from mana gathered on the gauntlet—that was pure soul energy.

His soul power was originally much stronger than an ordinary person's.

After breaking through to level 5 some time ago and his Intelligence attribute surpassing 15 points, his soul seemed to have been further strengthened.

Moreover, his secondary profession, Sword Soul, also possessed the ability to attack spiritual entities using soul energy.

Although the profession's name contained the character for "sword," using this profession's abilities wasn't limited to swords themselves.

When you got down to it, a sword—was it really such an inconvenient thing?

On the defensive side, the Moonlight Robe, the exceptional quality equipment he had just obtained as a reward from the hunting competition, also had a protective layer that defended against soul attacks and curses.

This was why the old witch's earlier soul ambush, which she was so confident would succeed, had failed.

She had tried to ambush an opponent stronger than herself, who had no shortcomings in both offense and defense.

Without waiting for the witch's answer or for her to take any action,

Gauss's right arm, covered in dragon scales, shot out like lightning.

"Boom!"

The instant his right hand condensed into a dragon claw and seized that solitary head,

the sharp Sword Soul energy in his palm, carrying powerful soul force, erupted within his grasp.

The black aura surrounding the witch's head began to tremble violently as if encountering a natural predator.

"Buzzzzz!"

Two streams of energy from different souls clashed.

One was blazing like fire, akin to the sun in the sky.

The other was cold and sinister, like maggots in the bone.

Below, Aria and the others, who were fighting the puppets, squinted slightly.

They felt the surging oppressive sensation coming from above.

There were no physical disturbances like churning air currents, yet it felt as if some heavy burden had been pressed upon their hearts.

And this was merely the aftermath.

The form of offense and defense at the soul level was subtle, but its intensity was even more perilous.

Not one bit inferior to close-quarters combat with real blades and spears.

And in this invisible, bloody slaughter, Gauss undoubtedly held absolute initiative.

They saw him firmly seize that head with a pair of dragon claws.

While increasing the applied force, he continuously released soul impacts from his palm.

The witch could only grit her teeth and hold on, desperately maintaining the black aura's defense.

But those heavenly hands seemed to be tightening around her throat, gradually making her feel "unable to breathe."

"Thud!"

Gauss seized the witch and slammed her into the ground.

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of blood sprayed from her mouth.

The dual assault on both soul and physical levels caused her defenses to weaken further and further.

Especially the former.

Gauss was the first enemy she had encountered with such an exaggerated soul strength.

After all, before this, she had always acted cautiously, hiding away year after year, "keeping to herself" and conducting her own research, never provoking powerful enemies.

The biggest problem for research-oriented professionals was their disadvantage in actual combat.

The number of times she had taken action was far too few compared to adventurers who fought on the front lines year-round.

Even when she did, it was mostly bullying ordinary people.

But those experiences of brutalizing others were utterly useless when facing a truly strong person.

Moreover, she was currently in a transitional period, just like insects shedding their shells, at her most vulnerable moment.

"Sp... spare me!"

Enduring the intense pain, the witch screamed and begged for mercy.

"Thud!"

Gauss didn't answer her.

Instead, he slammed her fiercely against a nearby foundation.

"Crack!"

The outer bone of her head, far harder than metal, cracked audibly.

After the black aura protection was greatly worn down, her head didn't seem so ironclad anymore.

"I, I can serve you, be your slave!"

Seemingly not expecting Gauss to be so "unyielding,"

the witch hurriedly shouted.

After losing her trump card of soul-based methods, she began to panic.

Having lived for so many years, she hadn't had enough of life yet.

On the contrary, the longer she lived, the more she didn't want to die.

For this reason, she was willing to hide in the wilderness, spending most of the time and energy in her life on the matter of "extending life."

She received no answer.

The witch's heart gradually sank.

She seemed to sense the resolute determination of the young man holding her head to put her to death.

He was as cold as a stone without temperature.

"Thud!"

The witch was slammed again, her senses reeling.

But she had no time to dwell on that intense cranial pain;she quickly used her last bit of strength to say,

"Do you want eternal life?"

"As long as you spare me."

"I can teach you the method of eternal life I have mastered!!!"

...

After saying this,

what made her feel reassured was that the other party's movements stopped.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Indeed, the desire for eternal life was innate in humans.

Whether you were a peerless genius in the prime of youth or an ordinary person struggling and sinking in the world, you longed to possess a longer life.

Gauss lowered his head to look at the tattered head in his claw, its black aura almost completely dissipated.

The other's eyes held a mixture of fear of death and a glimmer of hope after surviving a disaster, as if clutching at the last life-saving straw, trying to sell him the so-called "method of eternal life."

Gauss fell silent, the force in his hand seeming to genuinely relax a little.

He stared into the witch's eyes, as if scrutinizing the truth of her words, or weighing the pros and cons.

Witch Megan felt wild joy in her heart.

The desire to survive made her endure the pain and, with the fastest speech of her life, spew out a torrent of seductive words.

"It's true! I've researched it for hundreds of years!"

"Brain transfer surgery—you just need to find a body compatible with you, and you can continuously be reborn into new, young bodies."

"If you spare me, I can teach you! We can share this secret!"

"By then, you'll have endless time to explore the true essence of magic, to obtain everything you desire! Power, knowledge, strength...."

"Gaining eternal life, you'll have infinite possibilities."

Her words were full of temptation, painting the beautiful picture she believed ordinary people couldn't resist.

After saying it all in one breath, she opened her eyes and stared at Gauss, wanting to capture even a hint of interest deep in his eyes.

"So, the portraits on the wall earlier were all the 'bodies' you replaced in the past? And the little girl in the cellar too?"

"Yes." The witch didn't see anything wrong with it and quickly nodded, like a salesperson under immense performance pressure. "I have experienced dozens of lifetimes and will continue to do so."

"You can too."

However, to her disappointment, when she finished saying all this,

Gauss's eyes remained very placid deep down.

So placid it made her whole body turn cold.

He... was he really not interested?

This was eternal life, her most precious secret.

"Eternal life? I think you are truly ugly." Gauss shook his head. "Like a parasite in the gutter."

"Don't you think so? Village Chief."

Gauss looked up toward the distant woods. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried far on the wind.

At first, there was no movement in the woods, but under Gauss's scorching gaze, the person inside finally realized they couldn't hide.

In the setting sun, the Village Chief, along with several other villagers, walked out of the woods with grave expressions.

Below, Aria and the others, who had just dealt with the puppets, looked over.

"Village Chief?"

"You knew as soon as we left the village, right, Village Chief?" Gauss's tone was certain.

He wasn't surprised that the Village Chief and the others would appear here.

Their group hadn't used any disguise when leaving the village.

Therefore, as long as the Village Chief had someone watching them, he would know they had left the village and in which direction they were heading.

Moreover, from the brief conversation during the earlier house visit, at least some of the villagers of Herbal Medicine Village were aware of the existence of this witch's stone house, if not all of them.

Even...

Village Chief Hodel didn't answer immediately. His gaze first swept over the filth left by Witch Megan on the ground, then looked at the sole remaining, tattered head held by Gauss like a chick.

His throat moved with difficulty.

Finally, he looked at Gauss, his eyes filled with awe and an indescribable bitterness.

"Lo... Lord Gauss..."

"We... we did indeed follow the traces you left to come here."

Gauss shook his head, neither confirming nor denying.

"Then, I'm going to kill this monster now. Do you have any objections?"

"..."

Gauss's gaze rested on the few people, especially Village Chief Hodel.

An invisible pressure seemed to descend upon them along with his line of sight.

Hodel couldn't withstand this pressure and fell to his knees with a thud.

"Lord Gauss... please... spare Lady Megan."

Aria and the others nearby looked surprised.

They had heard the conversation between Gauss and the witch during the battle earlier.

They learned that the missing girl from the village had been abducted by her to become the next body.

They had speculated, thinking that perhaps the old witch threatened the villagers' lives to force them to keep the secret and provide supplies.

They never expected these "victims" would proactively kneel and beg Gauss to spare her, and even use an honorific title.

"Lady Megan protected our village, allowing us to avoid being ravaged by monsters. She also bestowed upon us spell inheritances... It's all thanks to her that our Herbal Medicine Village has been able to maintain peace until now."

"..."

"Even though she abducts an innocent person from the village every so often to extend her life?" Gauss looked at the few people, his tone gradually becoming disappointed.

Although he had vaguely realized the relationship between the villagers and Witch Megan, when it was ruthlessly exposed before him, revealing its true face, he still felt a complex mix of emotions.

"What's wrong with that? Sacrificing one person's life can maintain the safety of dozens of households and the village's prosperity." Village Chief Hodel cautiously raised his head.

Gauss opened his mouth, his lips moving slightly, remaining silent for a long time.

"...Lord Gauss?" Hodel asked softly, uneasy.

"I'm afraid I cannot agree." Gauss shook his head.

Sacrificing the lives of a minority for the benefit of the majority.

He could not agree with this rational "sacrifice."

Would the girl imprisoned in the iron cage in the cellar agree that her role as a bargaining chip was to sustain the village?

More crucially...

"I'm sorry."

"I will only do what I believe is right."

"This is the willfulness of the strong."

Gauss's tone was very polite, but the content was unyieldingly resolute.

He didn't need to waste so many words explaining to these people.

He didn't wait for further reactions from the witch in his palm or the villagers before him.

He clenched his palm.

A terrifying force erupted along the condensed dragon claw!

"Bang!!!"

The already precarious head exploded in Gauss's palm like a crisp apple.

Witch Megan died on the spot!

"Don't..."

Hodel's voice had just escaped.

A touch of warmth splashed onto his cheek.

He slowly lowered his outstretched arm.

His mind went blank, as if hope had been extinguished.

The "symbiotic" relationship with Witch Megan was the village's greatest secret, known only to a minority in the village, and had been maintained continuously to this day.

By now, they had grown accustomed to this sheltered life, like sheep raised in a pen.

He opened his eyes wide and stared at Gauss, his throat moving, but he never found the courage to say anything.

The "brutal" image of Gauss crushing the head was still before his eyes.

He was now very afraid that Gauss, in a fit of anger, would also "crush" the few villagers present.

However, he was judging a gentleman's heart by his own mean measure.

Gauss just glanced at him and withdrew his gaze.

He didn't care what these people thought;he only did what he believed was right.

When you got down to it, these elderly people could never serve as Megan's "next body." No matter how they beautified it as a righteous cause for the village's continuation, this great blade would never fall on their heads.

Seemingly selfless, but actually selfish.

As for taking action against them personally, Gauss had no such thought either.

At most, they were accomplices through condoning, but not to the extent of arousing public indignation.

Of course, he also had no intention of covering up for them. Later, he would truthfully inform the ordinary villagers about the course of events, including the Adventurers Guild in the next town.

As for the deceased Wizard Megan, her private conduct of human experiments was openly opposed by the laws of various countries on the surface, something everyone had the right to punish.

Even Gauss's Adventurer's Manual recognized it.

"Commander-level Monster Brain Transferer Witch *1 slain"

"Path of Command Progress: Slay 5 types of Commander-level Monsters (4/5)"

Yes, the Witch Megan who had just died at his hands was classified as a monster in the Monster Encyclopedia.

This was the first time Gauss had "killed a person," yet it contributed to the encyclopedia count—an unintended positive outcome.

Even he hadn't expected this situation to occur.

It showed just how "inhuman" Witch Megan was.

Gauss felt this probably wasn't judged based on "good and evil." After all, he had killed some bandits and mountain thieves in the past. Those people were basically all villains, yet they still couldn't count as encyclopedia types.