Chapter 131
Chapter 131
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 131
Chapter Title: Doubts of the Sword Saint
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Sword Saint's face was perpetually etched with dissatisfaction, yet he trailed silently behind Syria without a word of protest.
He knew full well that he was hopeless with directions.
Leyzon glanced sidelong at the Sword Saint.
His eyes blazed fiercely as they locked onto the shadow wolf, burning with the desire to cut him down right then and there.
But because of Hanok, he was deliberately suppressing his emotions.
'The Sword Saint isn't a fool.'
He was simply the type to make swift, decisive judgments.
Not an idiot by any means.
Leyzon had grasped the Sword Saint's true intentions to some extent.
Just as Leyzon sought to use the Sword Saint, the Sword Saint was now using Syria.
'Syria's overwhelming power would be incredibly useful against an Apostle.'
The Apostles created by the Transcendent of Evil were all dangerously formidable in their own right.
They devoured ordinary citizens.
And used that to plunge the world into chaos.
For the Empire, they were entities that absolutely had to be stopped.
Thus, nobles bore a duty enshrined in Imperial law.
This was a duty explicitly stated in Imperial law.
Should a noble flee solely to save their own skin, they would be captured without fail and subjected to the ultimate punishment.
Not only would their assets be confiscated, but their entire family line up to three generations would be eradicated.
This is why the Empire's nobles trembled at the mere mention of Apostles.
They were existences that could obliterate one's territory and life in one fell swoop.
Thus, whenever an Apostle appeared, nobles launched an all-out assault without hesitation.
'The Sword Saint is a noble, after all.'
The son of a marquis house, no less.
He had chosen the greater cause of slaying the Apostle over personal revenge.
'Once the Apostle is defeated and Hanok is handed over...'
The man would charge at Syria without a second thought.
Leyzon tapped the arm folded across his chest.
The difficulty of Apostles spawned by the Transcendent of Evil was random.
'To players, Apostles are just another event exploding outside the dungeon.'
Sometimes, an entire city would be reduced to ruins by one.
'Of course, with Syria, Eden, and the undead horde, any difficulty is manageable.'
The problem came afterward, when the Sword Saint lunged in. Shaking him off would be tricky.
Leyzon had no desire to kill him, since he planned to plant the man in the Imperial Palace.
'In a way, this is an opportunity.'
With the Sword Saint behaving for now, it might be the perfect chance for a talk.
'If I can persuade him here...'
He'd gain a tool to dismantle the palace from within.
'Alright.'
Even if persuasion failed, it would just lead to a fight with the Sword Saint.
Fight now or later—the outcome would be the same if it came to blows.
Leyzon made his decision with his unique mindset.
"Syria, relay this for me again."
"Yes."
Syria immediately spoke Leyzon's words through the wolf's maw.
"Sword Saint."
The shadow wolf uttered Syria's voice.
Filtered through the shadow, it emerged lower and more resonant than usual.
The compliant Sword Saint lifted his head at the call.
"Is your hatred for me because of the Blue Sparrow Knights?"
Whoosh!
A ferocious wave of killing intent erupted from the Sword Saint all at once.
It was killing intent enough to make even Leyzon recoil.
But Syria's own killing intent smothered it completely.
"Exposing your bloodlust in what you thought was a safe spot."
As Syria countered with her own intent, the Sword Saint's eyes twisted in fury.
"What intent lies behind that ridiculous question?"
He was seriously pissed.
To the Sword Saint, Syria was the object of his grudge.
For such a figure to mention the Blue Sparrow Knights—it was only natural he'd explode in rage.
"I'm not telling you to calm down."
Leyzon had no intention of quelling his anger.
"But the Blue Sparrow Knights didn't die because of me."
Instead, he planned to redirect that fury elsewhere.
The Sword Saint stared at him with quiet eyes.
Rather than venting outwardly, he let the flames rage internally.
Leyzon could sense him struggling to suppress it for Hanok and the greater cause.
So Leyzon pressed the advantage swiftly.
"Sword Saint, surely you've had your doubts too? The Blue Sparrow Knights' actions were blatantly suspicious. They had no reason to pick a fight with me..."
"Don't spout nonsense!"
The Sword Saint cut him off with a sharp rebuke.
Anger dripped from his eyes like molten lead.
But in that brief moment...
'This guy.'
Leyzon caught a faint tremor amid the rage.
And he pinpointed its source.
'He once harbored suspicions about the Blue Sparrow Knight Captain's death.'
He might have blindly pursued her upon hearing she'd killed them, but the Sword Saint had encountered various pieces of information along the way.
And doubts had surely sprouted from that.
Leyzon's eyes gleamed.
It had been a mere test balloon, but it revealed a small breakthrough.
Before he knew it, the corner of his mouth curved upward.
'In this situation, I can persuade him through talk.'
If the seed of doubt was already planted in the Sword Saint, it was simple.
Just fan it into roaring flames.
Meanwhile, words laced with hatred poured from the Sword Saint's mouth.
"Vampire Queen, it started when they stepped up to defend the city you turned into a wasteland. Are you saying you've forgotten?"
Leyzon's gaze shifted to Syria.
It didn't seem like something she'd do.
And sure enough, Syria shook her head.
She cut off the shadow wolf's voice so the Sword Saint couldn't hear.
"I didn't destroy the city. I was staying there at the time because there was a book I wanted to save."
"Did you look into why the city fell?"
"I had to leave in a hurry, so I couldn't investigate thoroughly. But one thing's certain—it was an explosion big enough to wipe out the whole city."
In truth, Syria had been framed as the culprit back then.
Undead were humanity's enemies.
And as the Vampire Queen, no better scapegoat existed.
Leyzon trusted Syria's words.
She was not the type to lie to him.
'Next time, I need to check out that city.'
Until now, issues with the other undead had pushed it aside.
But now was the time to thoroughly unravel the Blue Sparrow Knights incident.
"Syria, keep relaying."
"Got it."
The Sword Saint must have gathered intel while pursuing her.
Denying it outright here wouldn't help.
Syria resumed transmitting his voice.
"Even if I say it wasn't me, you won't believe it. So think what you will.
But surely you've noticed something off there too?
To begin with, the Blue Sparrow Knights could never have hoped to stop me."
Leyzon brazenly continued impersonating Syria.
The Blue Sparrow Knights were a fallen order.
Mocked as the "Blue Chickens," they were a low-tier knightly group.
For the palace to send them against Syria was tantamount to a death sentence.
"And yet, the Blue Sparrow Knights didn't seek outside aid. You must have suspected as much and dug into it yourself."
The Sword Saint's eyes blazed with fury, but his mouth remained shut.
He undoubtedly knew of the questions that arose during his investigation.
The annihilation of the Blue Sparrow Knights had many unresolved aspects.
But his rage had blinded him to them.
And so he doggedly hunted Syria, the target of his wrath.
'He knew it too, probably.'
The palace had swiftly buried the Blue Sparrow Knights affair.
Their records vanished in the blink of an eye.
Even as the son of a marquis, the Sword Saint couldn't halt it.
In the end, his probe hit a dead end.
Doubts and truth.
To vent his burning rage, he had only one recourse.
Hunting down the Vampire Queen, Syria Nosferatu.
Thus, he fixated on Syria.
Pouring all his fury into her, tracking her relentlessly.
But he never found her.
Syria had gone into hiding afterward.
Sticking to shadows or Leyzon's Pioneer Storage.
Faced with emptiness, the Sword Saint crumbled.
Swallowed by aimless rage, adrift.
He set aside his sword and lived in a daze.
"Your anger is justified."
Leyzon had heard about the Blue Sparrow Knight Captain from her brother.
The Sword Saint harbored feelings for her.
Though they never expressed it, both shared the same heart.
The grief and fury of losing a lover and friend.
For him, that rage was the sole sustenance for enduring a life without her.
"But you need to aim your anger straight."
Yet rage is like fire.
Fire eventually consumes its fuel, loses its power, and dies out.
No one can burn with anger forever.
Not even the Sword Saint.
His roaring flames had run out of kindling.
He could no longer live solely on fury as before.
The Sword Saint began facing reality.
And in that reality lingered the old questions about the Blue Sparrow Knights.
Only after a long time did he finally revisit the doubts he'd ignored.
"I'll say it again. The Blue Sparrow Knights' wipeout, the Knight Captain's death—I am not the cause."
Now, unclouded by rage.
Now, he could surely understand.
Leyzon could detonate the chain of doubts he'd harbored.
"Don't waste your remaining embers of anger in the wrong place. I am not your excuse for it."
For now, all he could do was lift those doubts to the surface.
But that alone would open a new path for the Sword Saint.
"......"
The Sword Saint remained silent.
His eyes gazed quietly this way.
"Just one more thing."
At last, his mouth opened.
"The necromancers searching for Blue Sparrow Knights intel—were they acting on your orders?"
The Sword Saint was hypersensitive about the Blue Sparrow Knights.
He wouldn't be unaware of the necromancers' movements.
Leyzon realized why the Sword Saint had listened so readily.
'The necromancers' search was an effort to uncover the truth.'
Even he could grasp that easily.
"Yes, that's right."
Leyzon admitted it.
There was no reason to hide it anyway.
"......"
The Sword Saint said no more.
Instead, he didn't erupt in fury like before.
That meant he could control his rage now.
Leyzon was glad to meet him at this moment.
The old him wouldn't have listened at all.
Seeing his furrowed face, Leyzon muttered inwardly.
'This is why time is the best medicine.'
And the most bitter, yet most effective.
'I'm not expecting immediate cooperation.'
At the very least, now that doubts had taken root...
He wouldn't treat them purely as enemies anymore.
"We have many questions about the Blue Sparrow Knights too."
So Leyzon tossed in one more gambit.
A stone dropping into the lake of the Sword Saint's burgeoning doubts.
"If new info comes up, I'll share it with you."
This man he'd once seen as nothing but an enemy.
The possibility that they might aid each other as allies.
From the moment he first saw Syria, the Sword Saint realized he couldn't defeat her.
An insurmountable wall stood between him and Syria.
Silver Hero-tier versus Gold Hero-tier—that was the gap.
Knowing that, he needed even more training time.
"With where you are now, you can discern the right truth."
And that was ample time for the Sword Saint to reflect on the questions he'd raised today.
Leyzon decided to trust him.
At least, in his eyes, the Sword Saint was someone reason could reach.
At that moment.
"Leyzon."
"Leyzon, sir."
Syria and Eden called out to him simultaneously.
The instant Leyzon looked up.
Boom! Thud thud!
The Insolent Plateau loomed right before them, and the ground trembled.
Simultaneously, Lainroden trees splintered and shot skyward.
And amid them emerged a colossal, grotesque entity.
The Sword Saint had already drawn his sword, radiating holy aura.
Leyzon was cloaked head to toe in his black mask.
"Syria, Eden, Hanok."
The Staff of Abundance gripped in Leyzon's hand.
"Combat."
An Apostle of the Transcendent of Evil.
The bastard had come all the way down to the base of the Insolent Plateau on its own.