Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang only looked at Duke Whirlwind. "A lot of things happened, and I came back with a lot of information regarding the Grandmountain Kingdom."

Duke Whirlwind looked at Shang with a complex expression.

He wasn't sure if Shang understood what he had actually meant.

However, Duke Whirlwind was also interested in what actually happened to Shang in the last decade. What could change someone to such a degree?

Shang told Duke Whirlwind basically everything except for the trial and the Abominations. He only used the Abominations once, which was when he escaped from the Grandmountain Kingdom initially.

As Duke Whirlwind listened more to Shang's story, his focus shifted to the actual intelligence Shang brought back.

The information he brought back was monumental!

How the barbarians trained.

The way the Grandmountain Kingdom organized its forces.

Insight into the distribution of their forces.

And, most importantly, the method the Mages had created to stack so many Strengthening Spells on a single barbarian.

Shang had been that researcher's plaything for several months, and he had also been under the effect of these Spells while assaulting the Plague Rat Zone.

During these months, he had learned a lot about how the Mages accomplished these things.

When Shang came to the part where he killed Lash, Duke Whirlwind noticed that something wasn't right.

Doing this was unlike the Shang he had just heard of a minute ago.

Duke Whirlwind would have bet that Shang would have simply trusted Lash. After all, he was an old friend, and the Mages wouldn't even interrogate him.

Duke Whirlwind even remembered hearing about a similar incident before Shang had left.

A couple of students of the Warrior's Academy had found out about Shang's Affinity, but even at the behest of the Dean, Shang had decided to keep them alive.

That risk was far greater than the risk Lash had posed, but Shang had still let them go.

Kingdom, he didn't seem

returned, it was

in the Tide Serpent Zone, and that something was

change that drastically in a

but Duke Whirlwind noticed that

weak people that had only

finding Shang were slim, and if Shang wanted to

simply leaving, Shang always killed

was talking, it seemed to be

his mind, this was the

was the only solution he could come up

now even perceives a minor

his actions or the impact. It's like he is forcing himself to

Whirlwind's mind, but

had always been like this, but he hadn't

Shang was

completely blocked it out of his being, isolated the feeling, and acted like an emotionless

Duke Whirlwind was old and knew a lot about

the Duke stopped paying

more

I'm pretty sure it would be better if he could get some empathy back, even

these thoughts for a bit, but in the

not my business,' he thought helplessly. 'I'm not his teacher or father. It's

life, not mine, and I should afford him the

become an enemy in the future due

Whirlwind's thoughts were pulled back to

in the Empress

eyes became colder as he heard Shang narrate the battle, which

had to keep his facial expressions in check as Shang told him how easy and natural it was to kill a Mage on

didn't even see it as anything

It was just normal.

was just a bit of

Duke Whirlwind focused more

the more he realized

even more shocked when he