Reborn As Noble-Chapter 512: War’s True Face ( )
Chapter 512: War’s True Face ( 512 )
Javier raised his hand and gave a small flick of his fingers.
In a single pulse of mana,
the entire army of puppet knights shimmered then vanished,
each one returning silently back into his magic storage.
No traces left.
Only crushed earth and shattered bodies where they once stood.
With the battlefield clear,
Javier closed his eyes and whispered.
“Activate skill: Mapping.”
A low mana hum spread from his body.
A long-range search skill.
Javier’s custom detection spell.
Capable of scanning entire regions,
pinpointing active life signatures, structures, or hidden areas within a massive radius.
He began walking slowly through the broken street,
his boots crunching over stone and ash.
The passive pulses moved outward in layers,
sweeping the area like gentle waves.
But…
Nothing pinged.
No movement.
No signatures.
No living response within the range.
Javier narrowed his eyes.
“…Maybe I was too late.”
His voice was quiet.
He glanced at the collapsed watchtower, then the broken smithy across the road.
“Even if they did manage to hide…
it’s already been a month.
According to that dwarf messenger…
this town was one of the first taken.”
He paused near a crumbled fountain.
“Let’s just hope the dwarven civilians managed to escape.
Maybe while the soldiers fought the Halflings…
they ran to another town.”
He scanned the silent buildings one more time.
Javier looked around slowly.
The broken buildings.
Shattered walls.
Collapsed homes, their wooden frames snapped like brittle bones.
Old furniture burned, crushed, or abandoned mid-use.
Everything felt frozen.
A town that once lived.
Now silent.
This was why he hated war.
Not because it was hard.
Not because it was cruel.
But because too many people suffered who had nothing to do with it.
Families.
Mothers.
Children.
Normal people who didn’t even carry swords.
He exhaled slowly, looking down at the cracked stone beneath his boots.
His thoughts drifted back.
To that one war.
The one between Armand and the noble coalition that supported the Saint of the Three Kingdoms Religion.
When they marched with 120,000 soldiers,
demanding surrender.
That time…
He didn’t hesitate.
He used everything.
All of his inventions.
All of his magic tech.
Mana cannons.
Anti-air mana guns.
Thousands of white puppet knights.
He unleashed them all alone.
He never let the Armand soldiers step in.
He didn’t want them to.
He wanted to end it fast.
He wanted to end it himself.
Because he was too mad.
Too furious.
At how those nobles played with lives.
At how they dared to threaten his family, his people, his land.
At how they smiled behind religion while marching an army meant to erase Armand.
And now…
Javier truly hated this.
He wasn’t angry because they fought him.
He wasn’t angry because they screamed insults.
He killed those Halfling soldiers because they deserved it.
Because they were part of this.
Because they brought this suffering.
He stood silently at the edge of a crumbled plaza.
His eyes scanned the remains—
And then he saw it.
His breath caught for just a moment.
A dwarven woman body, her body hung cruelly from a shattered wooden beam, arms bound, lifeless eyes staring at nothing.
Beside her, the burnt remains of a child.
Small.
Fragile.
Charred beyond recognition.
Still clutching what looked like a doll made of twine and straw.
And further beyond..
Signs of something worse.
Marks scorched into the stone.
Clothes scattered.
Blood not from battle.
Evidence of cruelty not meant to end lives, but to torment them.
He didn’t need to see more.
He already knew what had happened.
They weren’t just soldiers.
They were monsters in uniform.
Men who called it justice.
Who called it victory.
And who laughed while doing it.
“So this is what they did…”
His voice was quiet.
Sharp.
Each word laced with steel.
“This is why…”
He looked up, at the ruined town.
At the sky above.
“I will conquer the Dwarven Kingdom.
Not to rule.
Not to claim.
But to crush both sides until no one dares raise a hand again.
He took one step forward.
“If no one else will stop them…”
he whispered,
“Then I will.”
In Javier’s mind…
War itself wasn’t the cruel one.
He knew the truth.
As long as kingdoms existed,
there would always be a reason for war.
Politics.
Power.
Territory.
Wealth.
Even women.
It was all normal.
As twisted as it sounded, he accepted that part.
But what Javier truly hated…what made his blood boil..
Was this.
War crimes.
Cruelty not meant to win battles but to shatter the innocent.
Soldiers hurting those who never raised a weapon.
Mothers.
Children.
Civilians who begged for mercy,
and received only laughter in return.
That wasn’t war.
That was rot.
“Now…”
Javier muttered softly, looking around the silent ruins.
“Where’s the Halfling soldier who did this…?”
He paused.
Then smirked faintly.
“Ah, right.
I already killed all of them.”
he said, voice flat.
He reached into his magic storage and pulled out a small, crystalline device.
With practiced ease, he knelt and placed it into the scorched ground near the town center.
The moment it touched the earth,
a soft pulse spread outward, an invisible field expanding across the ruins.
To repel miasma and keep dark mana-born monsters from ever approaching again.
“Done.”
He stood up slowly, brushing dust from his cloak.
His gaze swept over the broken stone, the blood-stained roads, the homes that would never be rebuilt.
And his thoughts darkened.
“I wonder…
was there anyone who survived?
Not just from the war…
but from the miasma itself?”
His eyes narrowed.
“The corrupted darkness…
born from the filth of the celestial.”
No wonder Father had sent him to cleanse the Beastkin Kingdom.
To eliminate the source of this spreading corruption before it turned the entire continent into a cursed wasteland.
“Buddy.”
Cuquawked!?
The big bird tilted his head, stomping back toward Javier with a curious flap.
“There’s no survivor here.”
Javier said calmly, turning away from the scene.
“Let’s go to the next town.”
Buddy gave a low, short squawk, and lowered his body slightly so Javier could mount.
Without looking back.
Javier climbed up,
tightened his grip,
And they rode forward.
Into the next ruined shadow.
( End Of Chapter )
