Chapter 236
Chapter 236
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 236
Chapter Title: 68. The Return of the Legend (4)
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When I came to my senses, the snow-covered wasteland had vanished without a trace.
"Your Highness!"
Instead of the howling gale, all I could hear was Marquis Billefeldt calling out to me over and over.
His voice felt strangely unreal, leaving me dazed and staring blankly for quite some time.
"Your Highness! Your Highness! I've called for someone, so please just hold on a moment!"
The marquis kept shouting, oblivious to the fact that I'd already regained my wits.
His face was pale as a ghost, as if some catastrophe had struck.
At this rate, things would escalate, so I endured the dizziness and raised a hand.
"Your Highness! Your Highness! Your Highneeeeeess... Mmph!"
I clamped my hand over the marquis's mouth.
"I'm fine. But you're making me not fine."
The marquis's eyes widened as he stared at me.
"So stop yelling. Back off a bit. My head's ringing."
Only after he nodded did I release my hand.
"My apologies. You suddenly clutched your chest and groaned, so I panicked and..."
Having put some distance between us, the marquis spoke with a relieved yet still worried expression.
"My chest just throbbed for a moment. Looks like the cursed sword's influence wasn't entirely gone after all."
"Isn't that a serious problem? To think a vile thing like that could curse you."
The marquis immediately started fussing again.
I assured him it wasn't that big a deal.
Dalgarim wasn't a weapon of such lofty stature that it could leave a lasting scar on my soul.
At least, that's what I knew.
The issue was that this assessment didn't account for the 400 years I'd spent asleep.
In all likelihood, Dalgarim had drunk its fill of blood countless times during those 400 years.
Enough for a pathetic cursed sword not even worthy of my toe to affect me.
But its fundamental caliber hadn't changed, so even after slashing me dozens of times, all it could muster was a single illusion.
I recalled the illusion Dalgarim had shown me.
The image surfaced in my mind: a man kneeling in the snow-covered wasteland, head bowed.
Not a single part of his iron armor was intact, and his cloak and clothes were scarred everywhere.
Who knew how long he'd been there in the snowfield—snow piled thick on his shoulders and head, and the exposed flesh between his torn garments and armor was frozen blue.
His appearance, like a corpse frozen in midwinter cold, stuck vividly in my memory.
Throb.
Just revisiting the memory made my heart ache.
The pain he'd felt stabbing the sword into his own chest replayed vividly.
"Your Highness...?"
If not for the marquis's voice, I might have lingered in that lingering sensation, lost in a daze for much longer.
"Ah, no. Just thinking about something."
"Are you really all right?"
"I said I am."
Even after I insisted several times, the marquis stubbornly summoned someone else to examine me before finally relenting.
"Remember this. Many people hope the Knight of Dawn remains hale and hearty. I am one of them."
The marquis lectured me at length even after that before finally leaving the room, leaving me alone once more.
The scene of the howling snowfield resurfaced in my mind.
The man's image sharpened: sword plunged into his own chest, lips moving faintly.
I tried mimicking the shape of his lips.
But though everything else was crystal clear, his face was strangely blurry, making it difficult.
I persisted, repeating the motions over and over.
"Dawnlight. Darkness, sunlight, boundary..."
A string of fragmented words without apparent meaning.
After countless attempts, I finally pieced together the first sentence.
"Dawnlight tears through the darkness, and morning arrives...?"
The moment the completed sentence left my lips, a horrific headache struck.
Pain like a red-hot poker stirring my brain—I gaped open-mouthed.
The painstakingly assembled words vanished from my mind. My head went white.
I writhed in agony for what felt like ages.
By the time the pain subsided, my body was drenched in sweat.
My limbs tingled numbly.
The aftershocks of pain lingered throughout my body.
I was a wreck.
Yet still, I
"Well, now."
burst out laughing.
It was all too contrived.
"Looks like it wasn't just a simple illusion."
At first, I'd thought it was a memory from one of the pitiful souls Dalgarim had devoured.
Not anymore.
The pain hitting the instant I formed the words—too perfectly timed to be mere coincidence.
It was as if...
"A seal..."
Something unknown was deliberately obstructing my thoughts.
On a hunch, I revisited the word combination I'd mulled over moments ago.
Before I could even speak it aloud, the headache returned.
Vision whited out amid the searing pain in my skull.
"Dawnlight tears through the darkness, and morning arrives."
Writhing in torment, I pressed on with the words.
"Before the brilliant sunlight, the twilight fades away."
My tongue twisted like I was drunk.
Everything screamed at me to stop. To quit while I was ahead.
Of course, I had no intention of doing so.
If anything, the intensifying pain only fueled my defiance.
"With no place to linger in night or day."
Drip.
Blood trickled from my nose. A metallic tang welled up from within.
Riiiing.
My ears rang deafeningly. Only the shrill tinnitus pierced through.
The sky flipped, the ground surged.
I couldn't tell if I stood on the floor or thin air.
My body began sinking slowly.
Down, down.
Splash.
A hallucinated sound echoed in my ears.
Cold enveloped me.
Chill seeped in.
Moments ago my head had felt aflame; now my body threatened to freeze.
Even then, my body sank.
I reached out—nothing to grasp. I flailed my legs—nothing to touch.
All I could do was sink endlessly.
I looked down.
An abyssal darkness gaped wide, awaiting me.
I looked up.
It felt like peering at the world from beneath a frozen midwinter lake.
My room came into view.
The place I'd been just moments ago now felt impossibly distant.
Sensation faded. Even the chill vanished.
Smell and taste numbed. The metallic tang and scent in my mouth were gone.
The world around me dimmed.
My achievements, my bonds—all scattered like illusions, one by one.
Amid the hazy, indistinct fragments, I began distinguishing true from false.
And reached a conclusion.
That it had all been a dream. A pleasant dream during a long, long sleep.
I felt relief—and utter emptiness.
I laughed at the comfort of unyielding metal over frail human flesh.
I sighed at the numbness of a cold iron form.
Confusion reigned.
Was I human, or a sword?
Was I happy, or sad?
And then, in some moment, even that confusion vanished, leaving nothing behind.
In that world returned perfectly to nothingness, I murmured softly,
"Dawnlight tears through the darkness, and morning arrives."
"Before the brilliant sunlight, the twilight fades away."
The comfortable darkness encircling me twisted viciously.
It bared its teeth and lunged.
Crunch, crunch.
Shadows tore at my soul indiscriminately.
"With no place to linger in night or day."
Instead of screaming, I kept my lips moving.
In the agony threatening to erase my soul, I finally completed the final line.
"Dawnlight merely wanders that boundary."
Right then.
Crack.
A fissure split the world around me.
And
Crash.
it crumbled utterly.
Whoosh.
Sensation returned. The clammy feel of sweat-soaked clothes was unbearably repulsive.
Taste and smell revived. The blood's iron reek twisted my face involuntarily.
"Hoo."
I forced a relaxed expression and gulped in fresh air.
Only after repeating deep breaths numerous times did my faint sense of reality sharpen.
With bodily senses fully restored, the earlier sensations replayed even more vividly.
I shuddered.
"Better to die than revert to being a sword again."
I'd only felt the sensations of my sword days for an instant.
Yet it had been eternal torment.
Glimpsing the hazy world from within unyielding metal was far more horrific than I'd remembered.
I clenched and unclenched my fists, moved my body, and drew deep breaths.
I savored the sensations of humanity for a long while.
"I don't know who sealed my soul, but what a bastard."
Belated fury surged.
If I could, I'd hunt down whoever placed the seal on me unbeknownst and repay the favor.
Unfortunately, the culprit was likely long dead.
The seal predated even my memories as a sword—something from before the Great War.
Standing there blankly, my eyes fell on a sword hanging on one wall.
The archaic name engraved on its scabbard caught my eye.
Of all things, the sword I'd acquired was named Dawnlight, and the man's chant had been about Dawnlight.
What a coincidence.
The image of the man thrusting the sword into his chest resurfaced.
No pain this time.
Just complicated feelings.
"A past life, maybe..."
I'd believed I'd always been a sword, but perhaps not.
An indescribable emotion.
I recited once more the song of the man who might have been my past self.
"Dawnlight tears through the darkness, and morning arrives."
"Before the brilliant sunlight, the twilight fades away."
"With no place to linger in night or day."
"Dawnlight merely wanders that boundary."
The loneliness, grief, and inexplicable resentment I'd missed amid the seal's pain now flooded in belatedly.
My chest throbbed.
The spot where the man had stabbed ached strangely.
I shook my head vigorously.
What I'd been in the past didn't matter.
The true priorities were the present and future.
And right now, I had urgent business.
In a dim corner far from my bed stood a greatsword.
The foolish cursed sword that had failed to sever my soul but sliced away some stray seal instead.
I gripped Dalgarim.
An ominous energy seeped through my fingers.
"You've really drunk your fill of blood, haven't you."
The stench of blood wafted thickly.
My face wrinkled involuntarily.
Not just the intensity of the smell. I'd spilled plenty of blood myself in my sword days.
Yet it repulsed me deeply.
Because most of the blood Dalgarim had guzzled wasn't from battlefield soldiers or knights,
but
"Children, women, elders."
the helpless.
"This isn't even a sword."
Dalgarim didn't deserve the name.
It was merely a grotesque monster.
And I had no intention of letting such a harmful abomination roam free.
I turned.
Against one wall hung a cheeky sword still eyeing its counterpart askance.
I strode over and seized the true blade.
It quivered immediately, exhaling chill.
The air froze in an instant.
"Dinner time."
No sooner had I spoken than the frozen air thawed.
The creeping frost vanished completely.
Hummm.
It trembled.
Almost flirtatiously.