Chapter 7. The Identity of the Monologue (1)
Chapter 7. The Identity of the Monologue (1)
1.
I immediately searched for the Sword Saint on my smartphone.
-He was originally said to be an elder of a Northern European mega-conglomerate family.
-His real name is Marcus Calenbury. He was a man who wanted for nothing, but he threw away his family, connections, and wealth to enter the Tower alone.
-No one knows exactly what skill he possesses.
-He is said to have a habit of muttering to himself from time to time.
I clicked my tongue.
"Not much useful information here."
I looked to see if there were any interview videos or the like, but there weren't even those. From what I could tell, this old man seemed to be the complete opposite of the Flame Emperor in personality. The Flame Emperor had verbally abused reporters, but he was fundamentally an attention-seeker, so he'd been exposed to the media quite a lot.
The Sword Saint, on the other hand, was a thoroughgoing mystery.
Maybe that was why the information floating around the internet was so vague. He was [said to have been] an elder of a mega-conglomerate family, [said to have] entered the Tower alone, [said to have] a habit of muttering to himself. It was all nothing but speculative information.
'Well.'
I turned my head.
A table in the corner.
There, the Sword Saint was drinking milk-vodka by himself.
'At least the information about him muttering a lot seems accurate.'
The old man was unusual even in his fashion sense. Mixing vodka into milk was one thing, but even now he was sipping liquor without any snacks, endlessly mumbling to himself.
"...Shut up. Stop making a racket. In the first place, you bastard......"
Mumble mumble.
I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, but the old man spat out a mutter every single time he tilted his glass. And with his face deeply furrowed, at that. Honestly, it was a little frightening.
'Has he got some kind of mental illness?'
A mentally ill hunter as the rank 1. It was terror itself. Wasn't it like a nuclear bomb that could go off at any moment?
'...No, come to think of it, the Flame Emperor was a psychopath too.'
Maybe going insane was a requirement for reaching rank 1.
'Anyway, the top rankers are almost all nutjobs.'
I shook my head and continued browsing for information on my smartphone. Sure enough, there was nothing but speculative information, but among it all, there was exactly one post that caught my eye.
-[Warning] NG words you must never say in front of the Sword Saint!
"Hm?"
It was an intriguing title. The site where the post was uploaded was a hunter-specialty community. It was a place where only those with a hunter license issued by the Management Bureau could join—in other words, a place where birds of a feather flocked together.
An anonymous post had been uploaded there.
-I witnessed this myself. There are NG words you must never say in front of the Sword Saint. If you don't want to die, never say these things to the Sword Saint. You'll really die.
└What is it?
└Talk about his grandchildren. A few days ago, some top rankers picked a fight with the Sword Saint at the 9th-floor hunting ground. One of them said this.
'Looking at how you behave, it's obvious what kind of character the grandchildren you spawned out in the world must have.'
'Taking after their grandpa, they're surely living off their own self-importance.'
'How ashamed would your grandchildren be if they knew you were acting like this?'
-And then he killed them.
└What? Killed them?
└Yeah. He really killed them. Actually, when he said, 'How ashamed would your grandchildren be......' his head flew off. No one could even react. In the blink of an eye, his head and body were separated.
After that, comments flooded the post.
-Stop bullshitting.
-This is another false rumor spread by a major guild.
-Just because they're a little successful, they trample all over people.
Most of the reactions were disbelief.
But the anonymous author stubbornly stuck to their claim.
-Believe it or not, suit yourselves! I just thought you should know, so I'm telling you.
-Of course, I don't think the Sword Saint was in the wrong. The bastard who dragged someone else's family into it for no reason was at fault. But it's certain that the top rankers are collectively furious because of this incident. You can tell by how the media keeps criticizing the Sword Saint these days.
-Anyway, if you meet the Sword Saint, back off. Good luck.
With that, the author stopped replying to comments.
As if they had nothing more to say.
"......"
I stared down at my smartphone and thought deeply.
'NG words you must never say, huh.'
I glanced at the corner of the bar. The elderly man was still sitting there.
"...Too noisy. I'll handle it myself, so leave it alone......"
Still muttering to himself, just as he had been since earlier.
Looking again, he really did seem mentally ill. But even if he was mentally ill, rank 1 was rank 1. The fact that this old man possessed an unimaginably incredible skill remained an unchanging truth.
'Good.'
And for me, that fact alone was enough.
'It's worth testing.'
2
"That was a good drink."
"Ah, take care!"
The Sword Saint emptied his glass and left. The moment he walked out, the drunks who had been holding their breath let out a sigh.
"He's finally gone."
"Must have dementia. What's he muttering about like that?"
"How should I know? Anyway, it ruins the taste of the liquor......"
It seemed like every customer in the bar had been waiting for the Sword Saint to leave. I was the same.
Except, in a slightly different sense from them.
"Here's the payment for my drinks."
I quickly got up from my seat. I handed the owner the payment I'd already calculated in advance. There was no time to waste.
"Ah, yes. Thank you. Come again!"
"I enjoyed the drinks. Take care."
Jingle—
The bell hanging on the door rang.
It was already late at night. Darkness had settled over the streets.
'Where is he?'
I looked around. The street packed with bars was likewise packed with people. Dozens of people laughed loudly, exhaling alcohol-warmed breath into the night sky.
'Where did he go, rank 1?'
Fortunately, it didn't take long to spot the back I'd been hoping for.
'Found him!'
It was thanks to his unusually distinctive attire. Even on this wide street, the Sword Saint was the only person in Babylon walking around in a suit.
I quickly suppressed my presence and tailed the old man.
'What skill does he have?'
My heart pounded.
'The Flame Emperor had a regression skill. It was EX-grade. What about the Sword Saint, who succeeded a generation before the Flame Emperor? Wouldn't he have an even more broken skill than regression?'
That would soon be mine. If I got lucky.
* * *
How long did I follow the old man's back?
We left the bustling district and entered an alleyway. After walking a bit more, we left even the alleyway behind. The outskirts of the outskirts. An empty field with no buildings at all. The Sword Saint walked steadily into that desolate field.
"Hm."
He stopped mid-walk.
"This should be far enough."
The Sword Saint turned around. Starlight faintly illuminated the old man's body.
"Come out now, young man."
"......"
"No one will know what happens here."
He was looking precisely at the tree where I was hiding.
I sighed inwardly.
'So I was caught after all.'
Well, of course. Hoping to tail the rank 1 without being noticed was unreasonable from the start. I readily accepted my own incompetence and walked out from behind the tree.
"I apologize. There's something I wanted to ask of you, Sword Saint, no matter what."
I tried my best to speak as politely as possible. But for some reason, the Sword Saint snorted.
"Heh. Weren't you deliberately tailing me sloppily so I'd notice? I don't know what you could possibly want from a mere old man to come at me so menacingly."
"......"
Huh?
For some reason, he seemed to misunderstand, thinking I'd intentionally made my presence known. On top of that, even though I hadn't done anything in particular, the Sword Saint was gripping his sword hilt. He was fully battle-ready. The atmosphere suggested he might attack me at any moment.
'Uh, why?'
Of course, this worked out well for me. My goal was to be killed by the Sword Saint, after all.
'But I haven't done anything besides tailing him......?'
Whether he knew my thoughts or not, the Sword Saint's expression grew even more ferocious than before. Killing intent was practically radiating from his eyes.
"...Your acting is impressive. Truly befitting an assassin who rolls around on the front lines."
"Excuse me?"
"Don't play dumb. You may be able to fool other hunters, but you cannot fool my eyes. Did you think I wouldn't know that you're a top-class assassin sent by the Black Dragon?"
Uh......
This old man was operating under a truly massive misunderstanding.
'Should I be happy about this or not?'
Anyway, it worked out. It seemed like he'd kill me even if I stayed still without bringing up his grandchildren.
But I couldn't understand at all how he'd mistaken me—a mere F-rank hunter—for a top-class assassin. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on.
"Aha! How truly despicable. To come all this way and put on an act!"
Seeing my face, the Sword Saint twisted his lips. It was such a genuinely disgusted expression that I was dying to know why he was acting that way. Surely my face didn't look like an assassin's.
"Did I not say it? My eyes can never be deceived!"
"Excuse me, sir. I'm asking because I'm genuinely curious......"
In the end, I had to ask.
"What makes you so certain that I'm an assassin... a top-class assassin, at that? I'd like to think I look fairly ordinary, you know."
"Silence."
Shing.
The Sword Saint finally drew his sword.
"I possess several skills. Among them is [a skill that reveals how many humans one's opponent has killed]. Thanks to this skill, I have survived countless crises."
"......?"
What? I still didn't understand.
'Ah.'
I understood a few seconds later.
'I killed Yoo Soo-ha.'
That was it.
Today, I had hunted Yoo Soo-ha. I had killed him because I knew what kind of monster he would grow into, but the people of this era didn't know that. I was simply a murderer.
No matter how much more frequently murder occurred inside the Tower compared to the outside world......
'Murder is still murder.'
In other words, the Sword Saint was probably seeing the number [1] floating above my head right now. That [1] was none other than the number representing Yoo Soo-ha's death.
Was it only natural for the Sword Saint to be wary of me?
"Yes, I understand, Sword Saint."
"Hm."
"I have nothing to say about you being wary of me. But please hear me out, even if you think it's an excuse. I truly had an important reason—I can't tell you exactly what it was, but I had a genuinely critical reason for doing what I did. I can swear it to the heavens."
It was a sincere statement.
But the situation turned strange. Upon hearing my sincerity, the Sword Saint's expression crumpled even further.
"Disgusting."
"Excuse me?"
"A demon who has slaughtered as many humans as you dares to spew such nonsense. I have not lived a perfectly clean life myself... but I have never committed indiscriminate slaughter like you!"
It was going from bad to worse.
I was genuinely flustered.
"No, wait, sir. Slaughter? I've only ever killed one person in my entire life."
"You lie without even a hint of shame!"
Swish.
The Sword Saint pointed the tip of his sword at me.
And then he spoke.
"I can clearly see the number [4091] floating above your head!"
I was dumbfounded.
"What kind of nonsense......"
I started to retort, "What kind of nonsense is that?" but I closed my mouth. More precisely, my mouth shut itself. I had instantly realized where the number 4091 the old man mentioned had come from.
'Ah.'
Killing Yoo Soo-ha made 1.
And then.
'The number of times I've killed myself.'
4090 times.
It exactly matched the number of times I had killed myself.
"Prepare yourself, you demon bastard!"
In that case.
"I don't know if the Black Dragon's witch sent you or who hired you, but I will kill you with everything I have!"
It meant that in this old man's eyes, I could only appear as a heinous mass murderer who had slaughtered 4091 humans.
A chill ran down my spine in an instant.
'No.'
This was a serious problem.
'This isn't about whether or not I copy the Sword Saint's skill!'
That's right.
'From now on, whenever he sees me... the Sword Saint will try to kill me!'
Because in his eyes, my very existence was that of a despicable mass murderer. Like a virus that needed to be erased from this world even one second sooner.
"W-wait!"
I reached out my hand.
"Just wait a moment......!"
At that moment.
The Sword Saint's blade flew toward me.