Chapter 390: Bread and Dagger (88)
Chapter 390: Bread and Dagger (88)
The eyes are the window to the soul.
If one looked closely enough, it was possible to guess, at least roughly, what was in another person's heart. This was especially true if that person had lost their composure.
The woman standing before me was exactly like that.
First came doubt, then expectation, followed quickly by despair and resignation.
In the end, the only emotion left in those blue eyes was a profound sense of distrust.
She spat out her question.
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'm saying there’s a way to break the curse."
"That’s impossible."
Her declaration was so sharp it felt like it could draw blood.
The woman’s reactions were always consistent.
Either extreme rejection, or she would turn to drink.
At least when it was the latter, one could talk to her. But when she wasn't drunk, like now, she seemed as precarious as cracked glass.
Even now, the way she glared at me through gritted teeth made it clear.
If I provoked her just a little more, she looked ready to cut me down.
"Do you have any idea how much I’ve suffered?! You couldn't possibly know! A life cursed from the moment of birth... I’ve explored every single possibility over the years. But the only thing that ever remained was despair! And yet, you’ve only known me for a few days, and already you—"
"You just have to become a Master."
Perhaps because she had never once considered the answer I offered, her heated voice came to a dead stop. Her eyelashes trembled slightly.
Her face was a mask of confusion, as if she didn't know how she was supposed to react.
It was understandable. Even to me, the one who had suggested it, the proposal felt quite absurd.
"Once you become a Master, you can do more than just reconstruct your physical body; you can distort reality itself. Naturally, the curse embedded in your bloodline would be resolved as well."
"Do you even hear yourself?"
Her voice had softened somewhat, perhaps out of sheer exasperation.
Nevertheless, the sharpness of her tone remained unchanged. The gaze she leveled at me was as keen as a blade.
"Of course, it’s true that I am standing at the threshold of becoming a Master. But there have been hundreds of swordsmen who reached this level over the past few centuries... and do you know how many of them actually became Masters?"
"That was when you were alone."
I deliberately shrugged my shoulders, putting on an air of importance.
Her expression clouded with even deeper suspicion, as if asking what on earth I meant.
There was no need to drag it out. I got straight to the point.
"You know, don't you? That I’ve been tasked by His Majesty the Emperor to collect the secret martial arts of various organizations."
"Don't tell me... you're asking me to hand over the secret techniques of the Sword Circle?"
"You're the only one left anyway."
'Absolutely not.'
Her face looked ready to add those words immediately, but I had no intention of giving her an opening.
My persuasion continued.
"Besides, you hold the qualification of Grand Master of the Sword Circle. You can just think of it as taking me in as a disciple of the sect."
"Even so..."
"The world might end."
At my heavy warning, the woman’s mouth snapped shut.
How could she not know?
That was the very reason she, who had been holed up in the mountains, had come all the way to this desolate North.
She had lost her sect, her family—everything.
All due to the conspiracies of the Dark Cult that lurked everywhere.
"We have to gather our strength. The Holy Kingdom, the Empire, and even the United Kingdoms have agreed to this... and besides, this will help you too."
"You intend to pass on the secret techniques of each organization. Then, a new path might reveal itself."
Since she already understood, there was no need for further explanation.
Instead of answering, I simply stared at her.
The look meant: What are you going to do?
The woman hesitated for a moment, but the conclusion of her dilemma was obvious.
The world might end anyway.
To keep the lineage of her sect alive, she had no other choice.
Before long, a deep sigh escaped her lips. It was a sign of surrender.
"Fine. I accept."
"Good choice. I'll speak well of you to His Majesty, so—"
In the next instant.
Thwack! Her elbow slammed into my solar plexus. There was no room for me to even think of resisting.
I hadn't even realized she had moved in the first place.
My breath hitched, and a stifling pain spread through my entire body. By the time I regained my senses, I was rolling on the ground.
For a moment, I clutched my chest, gasping in pain.
As she looked down at my dazed form, the woman spoke with an air of total indifference.
"Training in the Sword Circle begins the moment you enter. From now on, always keep 'Stillness in Motion' in mind."
"What on earth does that even—"
Whoosh. Her figure was suddenly right in front of me again.
The movement wasn't necessarily fast. But because there was absolutely no preamble, it felt beyond rapid—it felt elusive, as if she were a ghost.
A cold sweat broke out on my back as I realized it instinctively.
This was the secret of the Sword Circle.
The woman made her declaration to me.
"Everything."
That my training from now on would be anything but smooth.
"It’s not just swordsmanship. Footwork, brawling, or even the smallest details of daily life."
With an expressionless face and a cold voice that radiated a chill, the girl made an impossible demand of me with a perfectly calm look.
"Until you master Stillness in Motion, stay by my side at all times."
I let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.
And from that day, the hellish training began.
Yet, the reason this memory brings a warm sentiment is... well.
Because back then, there was still hope.
It was before a certain man butchered his emotions.
Coughing violently, I opened my eyes.
My vision was blurry. My muscles, which had exerted every ounce of strength in a short burst, felt like shackles.
Shackles weighted down by heavy iron balls.
The surroundings were pure white. A fierce blizzard lashed against my prone body.
Telling me to get up right now.
Telling me that if I didn't, I would die.
I decided to graciously accept Great Nature's warning.
I nearly fell several times while staggering to my feet.
I slipped, I collapsed.
Nevertheless, I stood firm on the frozen ground. I could still feel someone's presence before me.
It was a man with pitch-black mud dripping from his entire body.
His hideous face was distorted by burn scars, and his movements were frantic as he flailed about, trying to scoop up the filthy mud.
I let out a raspy chuckle.
"N-no! The Lord's blessing, our hope!"
"Is that pittance what you call hope?"
I inhaled sharply and threw the question at him. The man's gaze turned toward me.
I could feel a powerful obsession in those bulging eyes.
He stood up, swaying. Like me, his physical condition appeared to be at its worst.
"...You don't know."
I didn't bother to refute him.
I simply wiped my eyes with my sleeve. The dried blood shattered like ice as it met the cold wind.
"Since I was a child, I insisted that everyone must be forgiven. Because that was the will of the Heavenly God! But after coming to the North, I felt nothing but despair whenever I looked at the Elves. Why can we not forgive one another?"
He wasn't even using formal speech anymore.
I played along mockingly.
"And so?"
"Then one day, I was attacked by Elves and left alone deep within the coniferous forest. That was when I met that child."
"An Elf, I take it."
"Yes! That child offered bread to me, her enemy! Do you have any idea how precious that is to the Elves?!"
I looked around as I listened to Leoric's story.
My sword and hand axe seemed to have been flung far away. And from even further off, I could hear faint sounds of breathing.
They were familiar presences.
It seemed the Princess and Seria had also been caught in the final explosion. Though it was a mystery why I was the only one who hadn't been blown away.
Meanwhile, Leoric's outpouring continued.
"Exhausted by hunger, I felt destiny that day... I took in the girl who was shivering from the cold, and before long, the two of us became so close we looked like father and daughter. No, at the very least, I thought of that child as my own daughter!"
In the end, only Leoric and I remained here.
No one could help me. Leoric was in the same boat.
Two men who hated each other's guts, both in a wretched state.
I suppressed a dry laugh.
What needed to be done was as good as decided.
"That was when the humans attacked us. In truth, I might have been able to stop them... If only I had ambushed them from behind just before they set fire to the food stores! But the meager teachings I learned from the Heavenly God Religion made me hesitate!"
"So what happened?"
"It burned. Everything..."
This was our final conversation.
There was no harm in listening to his grievances a little longer.
Perhaps I would learn some information I hadn't known before.
While doing so, I subtly tensed the muscles in my arms and legs.
It was time to start loosening up.
The final battle was imminent.
"In that pit of fire, I thought: with such a cruel fate, with such agony, how could anyone possibly forgive? It was foolish arrogance. And on the day I woke up after being in a coma for days, what awaited me was the corpse of my daughter, who had starved to death."
"So you attacked innocent humans? For the sake of your petty desire for revenge?"
"No, to make them take responsibility for creating this hell!"
Inky steam began to billow from between Leoric's gritted teeth.
Though he had lost most of his power, some strength seemed to remain, like smoldering embers.
It wasn't bad.
A one-sided battle wouldn't be a fitting conclusion.
"You people turned our lives into hell! Did you ever even dare to imagine? That we were living so miserably?"
"No."
It was a simple, blunt response.
Leoric's long-winded story stopped at those two syllables. He studied me with a momentarily bewildered look.
So, I gave him the answer he wanted.
"I know nothing. I knew nothing of what the Elves' lives were like, or even how the human paupers were living... I knew nothing at all."
Leoric ground his teeth at my quiet admission.
His wide-eyed stare, looking as if his eyes might pop out at any moment, was striking. He wore the face of a benevolent religious man, but deep inside, a profound hatred resided.
A hatred for the humanity that had killed him and his stepdaughter.
Only then did I realize I wasn't afraid of Leoric.
Unaware of my thoughts, he spat out mangled words.
"Then, it’s been decided who is in the right."
"Then do you know?"
I snapped the question back before he could even find an opening for a rebuttal.
Leoric's brow furrowed. He looked like a witness facing an unreasonable interrogation.
So, I had to press him even harder.
"The feelings of the Elves who had to sacrifice their families and neighbors just to survive? The heart of the older sister who realized her younger sister was addicted to drugs? And the dignity of the Elves that you destroyed?"
"Don't give me that sophistry... Everything was done just to stay alive."
"And that's how you've been trampling over them."
Gasping for breath, I took a step forward.
Leoric did not back down. A pitch-black flame was burning in his eyes.
"Eking out a living day by day by sacrificing beloved family and neighbors? How is that any different from the life of a beast? The Elves I saw weren't like that... They maintained their dignity as Elves even if it meant gnawing on tree bark."
"Nonsense... Even that is a futile gesture if life itself isn't sustained!"
"No, isn't it actually that you've been ruthlessly ignoring that fact?"
The middle-aged man finally couldn't take it and bit his lip.
His gaze looked as if he might shed tears of blood at any moment. Well, it was only natural; everything he believed in had crumbled.
I intended to sever even the last rope he was clinging to.
"Because your life was hell, you've been making everyone else's life hell! Just to fit them into your petty revenge and sympathy... You used hunger as a weakness to brainwash the Elves and make yourself their savior. So, did it feel good? Did it feel like you were doing for them what you couldn't do for your daughter?"
"Shut up..."
Twitch, twitch.
The black pupils disappeared from Leoric's eyes. The sight of veins bulging across his arms, neck, and even his face was surreal.
Nevertheless, I didn't stop.
I, too, wanted to clear away the resentment I had been harboring.
"Was there even a single Elf who was happy to fill their belly by selling out their own kind? Was there even one Elf who was happy, calling that pathetic sacrifice 'hope'?!"
"You people made us this way!"
"Yes, and you too... You also played a part in creating this hell!"
All the emotions to be vented had been poured out.
Panting heavily, I took my stance.
I didn't need a weapon. In any case, the item Senior Delphine had given me just in case was still in my possession.
Leoric's body, his fists clenched so hard they bled, began to tremble violently.
"I... I am not wrong..."
Gush. Black mud, like blood, was vomited from Leoric's mouth.
The mud gave off an ominous smoke and soon dissolved into the air. Before long, mud began to overflow from every one of Leoric's orifices.
His mouth, his nose, and even his pores.
It was as if his entire body were weeping.
Amidst that flood of filth, Leoric let out a desperate scream.
"I am not wrong!"
There was no need to listen anymore.
I kicked off the ground, and my lunging fist exploded against Leoric's jaw.
And Leoric's fist slammed into my face in return.
Blood sprayed as the figures of the two men collapsed. It was an acrobatics of wrecks.