Reincarnated as the Count's Plum Blossom Swordmaster
Whooooooooooom—
Space warped, and the scenery shifted.
I was no longer in the banquet hall. I stood in a kitchen. The place looked as though someone had been preparing food only moments earlier, yet not a single soul remained. I stepped past a still-steaming piece of fried chicken that had fallen to the floor and walked out of the kitchen.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”
A scream tore through the air from the right. I turned my head. Nothing was there.
The mansion has become a labyrinth.
It was the power of the Mirror Demon, Birubiru.
Birubiru creates a labyrinth and designates one human inside it. That designated human is reflected in a mirror, and the possibilities of that person are manifested within the labyrinth to hunt the others trapped inside.
Possibilities are basically parallel worlds. In the original story, a parallel-world Kyle appeared and slaughtered people left and right.
Killing the parallel-world humans does not make the labyrinth disappear. To end this, you have to find and kill Birubiru’s contractor. Or destroy Birubiru’s true essence… but even the original Kyle, who had been a top-tier Aura Master, never managed that. If Yuria were here it might be different, but she wasn’t.
I only need to find and kill the demon contractor. The problem is that the bastard is a master of disguise… noble, knight, servant…. Odds are high he’s disguised as a noble. Disguising as a noble means you don’t have to work, so it’s convenient in every way. In the original he disguised himself as a noble too.
I couldn’t just kill every noble I found. That would weaken House Arhen’s power, and right now House Arhen and I were allies.
Thud. Thud.
I was walking down the corridor when I stopped short. Another me had appeared in the hallway. His skin was deathly pale, his eyes blood-red. He wore a black robe and held a staff topped with a demon skull.
“…Shit. I’ve been designated.”
I clicked my tongue hard.
“So you’re the original. You don’t look particularly special.”
The pale-skinned version of me raised his staff and slammed it into the floor.
Boom!
His mana stirred. From the shadows crawled a knight of rotting flesh, clad in black armor and gripping a sword. A Death Knight.
“A necromancer?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking?”
The Death Knight leveled its sword at me.
The necromancer, hiding behind the Death Knight’s back, quietly muttered something while staring at me.
Suddenly my body grew heavy. Exhaustion washed over my entire frame.
A curse?
Fortunately it wasn’t enough to immobilize me.
“Necromancer. You know I’m the original. That means you know you’re the fake.”
“And?”
“You’re being controlled by the Mirror Demon, Birubiru, right now. There’s no reason for you to attack me. Aren’t you pissed at the demon controlling you?”
“Controlled…. It’s true that looking at you and the others has filled me with the urge to kill.”
“If you’re Eugene Frucus… you’d hate being controlled by anyone more than anything. So team up with me. Let’s find Birubiru’s contractor together and kill him slowly and painfully.”
“I refuse.”
The necromancer spoke. His crimson eyes held not a single flicker of hesitation.
“You’re right that I don’t like someone controlling me. If I get the chance, I’d love to kill Birubiru and its contractor too. But right now I have something more important.”
Necromancer Eugene Frucus was completely serious. Somehow his personality was a little different from mine.
He’s a parallel-world me, so of course his personality is different?
The Death Knight edged closer. I pulled Hwaryeonbido from my inventory and gripped it.
“And that ‘more important’ thing is killing me?”
“Killing you and taking your smartphone.”
“…What?”
The necromancer pulled something from his robes and tossed it to me. A smartphone. I caught it on reflex. It was the exact same model as mine. I pressed the button. The screen stayed dark.
“No battery?”
“You fucking idiot.”
“…….”
The irritated insult left me awkward. I never expected to get cursed out by myself.
Ever since the day I awakened the Amusement Life app, my smartphone no longer needed charging. From that day until now the battery had always sat at 100%. Not having to charge it had been incredibly convenient.
“So the Amusement Life app was your goal…. You think you can use it if you take mine?”
“…I can use it. I am Seong Yujin. There’s no way I can’t use the Amusement Life app.”
He couldn’t.
He was a fake. Nothing more than a parallel-world version of me created by Birubiru. There was no way he could use the Amusement Life app.
Part of me wanted to just throw the phone at him right now and watch him despair… but human nature is weird. A nasty little “what if” thought crept in. What would happen if he actually managed to use the Amusement Life app?
Just imagining it was horrifying.
“…If you can take it, go ahead and try.”
“I was planning to.”
Clank-clank-clank.
Dozens of chains erupted from the floor and ceiling. Instead of shooting straight at me, they wrapped around every direction. They were meant to stop me from escaping.
“Go, Kyle. Kill him.”
“Kyle…?!”
The Death Knight closed in with footwork. No doubt about it—Mount Hua Sect martial arts. Its sword painted plum blossoms in the air. I stepped forward and knocked the Death Knight’s blade aside.
The first principle of countering Plum Blossom Swordsmanship is never letting the opponent finish drawing the blossoms.
Despite my attack, the Death Knight forced the blossoms into existence. Only an undead that felt no pain could pull that off.
One plum blossom was complete. Then two, then four, then eight. Instead of the sweet scent of plum blossoms, the Death Knight’s Plum Blossom Swordsmanship reeked of rotting corpses.
I bent my knees and targeted the Death Knight’s lower body. One of the weaknesses of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship was the lower gate.
Clang! Kang!
Blades met. The one forced back was the Death Knight.
Weaker than the Kyle I know. Upper-rank Aura Master…. Even being generous, maybe top-tier at best.
Crackle-crackle.
Red lightning spun around the blade of Hwaryeonbido.
Noecheonryu — Manryeo (Ten Thousand Thunders).
The spinning red lightning exploded outward in every direction. It shattered the plum blossoms the Death Knight had drawn in the air and electrocuted its body. Flames bloomed across the Death Knight as the lightning set the corpse alight.
Boom!
The necromancer slammed his staff into the floor. Shadows surged up and swallowed the Death Knight. The flames that had been burning it went out, and the Death Knight’s bulk swelled to about 1.2 times its previous size.
“I get the general idea. You possess traits or skills related to swords and lightning.”
“And you’ve got skills for controlling corpses?”
“You know well. And to add… I also have skills for controlling chains.”
Chains erupted from the walls and shot toward my throat.
Noecheonryu — Electromagnetic Barrier.
The chains that touched the barrier instantly reversed direction and flew at the necromancer. Kang! They bounced off his barrier.
“Using magnetic force, is it? Then… I just need to eliminate the magnetism.”
He waved his staff.
Clank-clank-clank-clank!
Chains wreathed in pitch-black energy appeared from ceiling, floor, and walls and lunged. From the front the Death Knight advanced while painting plum blossoms. There was nowhere to dodge. Blocking them all looked impossible too.
Then I’ll break through head-on.
Noecheonryu — Gale Thunder.
Acceleration activated. Maintained for 10 minutes. Remaining stacks: 6
Charna activated. Remaining stacks: 5
I slipped past the eight plum blossoms hanging in the air and closed on the necromancer. Hwaryeonbido’s blade split his barrier. The necromancer’s crimson eyes showed not the slightest ripple of emotion. I raised the blade again.
“Claudia.”
An enemy appeared from the ceiling. Two crossed swords crushed my rising blade from above. I backstepped before the enemy’s kick could land.
I narrowed my eyes and checked the newcomer. Black armor covered every inch of her body. But the chest of the armor swelled in a round curve, the waist was narrow, and the hips were full. Unmistakably a woman’s form.
“…Claudia? Don’t tell me it’s her?”
“Yes. Kyle’s heroine from the original. She was the first female Adventure King, but now she’s nothing more than my slave.”
Claudia charged with dual blades. Behind her, Death Knight Kyle advanced while painting plum blossoms in the air.
Damn. This is annoying. I should’ve taken out the Death Knight first instead of going after that bastard.
I kicked the ground. Black chains that had been slithering up like snakes were kicked away and sent flying.
The necromancer watched me with cold crimson eyes.
He’s a parallel-world me, but the skills and traits he has are different from mine. He doesn’t seem to have Acceleration or Full Recovery… so maybe I should try a suicide attack. If I catch him completely off guard I might kill him right there.
What made me hesitate was something else.
The Mirror Demon Birubiru. The bastard could create another fake. In the worst case, something even more troublesome than the necromancer might appear.
Then the necromancer’s crimson eyes flicked sideways. Mine moved with them.
A massive fireball lit up the night sky as it flew toward us. It smashed into a window and detonated in a powerful explosion. Yet the chains wrapping the walls remained unharmed.
Kiiiiing!
Melissa, still in her dress, cut through the chains with an Aura Blade and landed beside me.
“Master. Are you unharmed? I sensed something ominous and came, but the situation looks rather serious. Two Masters…. Madam would be delighted.”
“You came all this way just to joke?”
Melissa stood at my side. Despite her flippant mouth, her face was more serious than I had ever seen it.
“Master. We only need to hold out.”
“Holding out won’t win this.”
“Father found the demon contractor on the rooftop. He’s currently interrogating him. They decided to kill him in three minutes… so we only need to last about two minutes and thirty seconds.”
“That won’t do.”
The necromancer spoke. He, Death Knight Kyle, and Claudia all sank into the shadows. The chains that had surrounded us vanished as well.
I had lost them right under my nose. I twisted my face and slapped Melissa’s tits with my open palm.
Smack!
“You idiot! Why would you say that out loud?”
“To be called an idiot by Master… that actually feels pretty damn bad. But don’t worry. It was a lie. We just need to find and kill the demon contractor before he attacks again.”
“So it was a lie…. You’re actually pretty smart. But did you already know about this demon?”
“Madam told me. She listed the demons belonging to Panteum and told me to be careful of them.”
Melissa and I sprinted down the corridor. We had to find the demon contractor somewhere in the mansion and kill him.
“So that necromancer is a parallel-world Master? Unexpected. To think Master had that kind of possibility.”
I wasn’t particularly surprised.
I had no talent, but I had the Amusement Life app. With the Amusement Life app I could do anything. The necromancer knew that too, which was why he had tried to steal my Amusement Life app.
“Don’t tell me you fell for him?”
“Caught me, huh. I’ll be honest. Looking at Necromancer Master made my pussy tremble violently.”
“Okay. You’re getting punished later. I’ll fuck you until your pussy swells so much it turns into a steamed bun.”
“That actually sounds kind of exciting….”
We stopped running. A chill that made our spines crawl had washed over us. Almost simultaneously we looked out the window. A massive black hole had opened in the sky. From inside it, skeletons and zombies poured down in a rain of bones and flesh.
Whose doing it was needed no guessing.