Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Flower Language of the Winter Flower is Salvation
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With a faint hope, I headed toward Karin, and what do you know.
Separate from my expectations, she had been overpowered, her neck gripped by a massive man.
'He pushed Karin that far?'
If it had been Karin, she surely would have grown stronger mid-battle.
From the way she'd cut down that enemy earlier, her resolve as a swordsman seemed firmly established.
So there was no reason she should be getting handled like that by him.
Purely speaking, Karin was the stronger one.
'Of course, real combat is full of variables.'
Was the opponent unexpectedly powerful despite appearances, or had Karin let her guard down?
Either way, it was variable enough to matter.
Of course, no matter how much influence that variable had, its limits were clear.
"Let go, you fucking bastard."
I quickly hurled the sword that had pierced the old man's gut toward Karin.
—Kagagang!!
The moment the sword aimed to sever the man's throat, a screech of metal on metal echoed through the train car.
This meant the bear-masked guy had blocked my telekinetic sword.
"You... blocked it?"
My emotion was pure surprise.
This telekinetic sword technique I often used wasn't weak by any means—not like during the Crowns subjugation or when I killed that old man earlier.
Of course, it was several times weaker than when I swung it myself, but even those who hadn't reached the Flower Realm would struggle to block it.
Their bodies would be pierced before they could react, leading to instant death.
Most who'd faced my sword up to now had met that fate, with no exceptions.
Yet the man before me had pulled it off.
Even if the recoil from blocking it had shattered all the bones in his upper body.
"...What the hell are you!?"
"The master of the girl you were messing with."
"Her master? Ha! Talk about double bad luck."
With all the bones in his upper body broken, Karin dropped to the floor from his grasp.
I worried she might've been hurt from the fall, but as a Peak Realm swordswoman, this was nothing for her.
"So, you're here to kill me too?"
"Obviously."
"Can't you see this bitch under my foot?"
He lifted his foot, pretending to stomp on Karin lying on the ground.
It was utterly meaningless posturing, but if it was meant to piss me off, it worked perfectly.
—Slice!
"Huh?"
The man let out a dazed voice, as if clueless about what had happened, then staggered as his balance crumbled.
Well, with his right leg completely severed, who could blame him?
"Grrrrraaah!!! Wha... what the fuck did you do!?!?"
"Cut it off 'cause you were being a dick."
"Y-you fucking...!?!?"
Seeing his leg lying next to Karin's on the floor, the man's face drained of color in real time.
Hell, even I'd make a similar face if my leg got chopped off from a hundred meters away.
"Answer a few questions, and I'll send you off painlessly."
"F-fuck off!!"
Even as he lost balance and tumbled to the floor, the man bellowed defiantly.
Truly Presia's loyal dog, huh.
—Slice!!
I swung my hand casually, severing his remaining leg.
The sight of him rolling his eyes in shock without even screaming drew a twinge of pity, but honestly, this was just karma.
If he was with Presia, he'd probably committed plenty of rapes and murders without a second thought.
"Still not talking? Should I take an arm next?"
I didn't need a sword to cut him, but I drew one anyway and pressed the blade close.
The well-polished surface clearly reflected his face.
On it was a pale visage on the verge of passing out.
"If... if I answer, you'll kill me without pain...?"
Clinging to a shred of hope amid the dizzying agony, the man pleaded desperately.
"I'll make it as painless as possible. You might not even realize you're dead."
I wasn't sure how exactly, but if I quartered his head real quick, he'd die before feeling a thing.
"Th-then I'll talk, so please don't cut off what's left."
"Oh? Giving orders now, are we?"
I couldn't hold back at his lingering bravado and lopped off his left arm.
—Slice!
With his left arm thudding to the floor, all that remained attached to the man was his right arm and head.
I was actually curious how he was still alive.
'Maybe some procedure from Presia?'
With her vast knowledge, Presia could probably modify a body to endure this much.
If he was one of her augmented humans, it made sense how he'd beaten Karin.
"S-sorry!!! P-please don't cut off what's left...!"
With only his right arm and head, the man prostrated himself pathetically on the floor, begging.
Well, there wasn't much left to cut anyway, nor any need.
He seemed ready to spill everything now.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Karin regained consciousness a day after the train attack.
"...Huh!"
As her body recovered, her eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright automatically.
It was a bizarre sensation, but Karin had no time to dwell on it.
The most important thing was that she was alive.
'I didn't die by that man's hand...'
Her usual stoic expression softened now, relief plainly showing on her face.
She'd been that drained.
'Master must've saved me.'
Her last memory before blacking out was her master's flying sword and voice.
Her master, arriving like salvation from her despair.
He'd seemed like a prince on a white horse straight out of a fairy tale.
'And he's the same age as Grandpa...'
Karin's grandfather, Bergil Clayman, was a 120-year-old man this year.
Now rejuvenated to look like a man in his thirties, but Yuri had gone even further.
At 115, he appeared just into his twenties.
Even to Karin with her high standards, he was strikingly handsome, backed by an overwhelming presence.
"Master, you really are..."
She spotted Yuri, giving her lap pillow as she lay fallen.
Sleeping with a bright, innocent smile, he looked like a child his age.
Always so mature and strong, but right now, he seemed younger than her.
That's what Karin thought.
'So there are men like this among them.'
Watching Yuri, the thought suddenly struck her.
She'd always found men repulsive, but she knew not all were filthy or ugly—men like Yuri existed in numbers.
Yet whenever she tried rethinking her views, a certain memory dragged her back.
The touch of a filthy, ugly, repulsive scum groping her body.
It was the horrific nightmare that had turned her into a man-hater.
'If someone understood...'
If someone understood, it would surely resolve everything, and she'd grow from it.
But she knew her hope was near impossible.
'Maybe Master would understand...?'
The thought flickered briefly.
Her master, who cleaved any foe with a single sword and bore the title of Sword Saint—maybe he could.
Karin entertained the idea, but soon realized it was pointless.
Spotting her issue didn't require cultivation or skill.
Even her grandfather, Bergil Clayman—one of the Seven Stars like Yuri—hadn't noticed.
So she couldn't just dump it on Yuri.
'...I have to resolve it myself.'
Gazing at the blissfully sleeping Yuri, Karin slowly closed her eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After two days on the train from the capital, we successfully reached the empire's north.
Snowflakes fell from the sky even before full winter set in.
At the station where winter winds blew instead of autumn breezes, Sibia—which Cecilia had so eagerly awaited—bloomed here and there.
"Wow... That rare flower is so common here."
"I don't know about elsewhere, but yeah, it's everywhere around here."
Cecilia and Karin chatted warmly in their cozy leather coats.
Watching them warmed my heart too.
With my heart warming, I needed something to warm my mouth as well, so I lit a cigar.
'Anyway, time to get serious with preparations.'
Now in the north, it was time to properly help Karin.
Just like with Cecilia, Karin deserved salvation.
As the heroine and a future sprout, she needed to grow strong.
"Do you know the flower language of Sibia, by any chance?"
Suddenly.
I overheard Karin's question to Cecilia.
"What is it?"
"Sibia's flower language is salvation."