Chapter 60
Chapter 60
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: To Home (4)
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"If you can't even handle this level, I wouldn't have the face to see Jeo."
It bore a grandiose name like Salvation Potion, but the opponent's level was still weak compared to Jeo.
And Ban was a man whom even Jeo couldn't handle.
Even in the midst of being intoxicated by the drug's energy, a sense of dismay gradually spread across the man's face. Knights who couldn't withstand it even after taking this drug were quite rare, but only now, with his senses sharpened even further, did he realize.
"How could a man of this caliber be in a place like this..."
Shionel Village was a place where all sorts of people gathered, but even accounting for that, Ban's strength was exceptional.
Raw power capable of shattering rocks barehanded dwelled in his forearms. His eyes could make out the shape of dew drops falling beneath blades of grass, and if he strained his ears just a little, he could almost hear Ban's heartbeat.
Yet why was it impossible for his sword to even reach him?
"It was better a moment ago."
Ban muttered in a low voice. It lacked the overwhelming power of now, but it had been a clean slash. But now, the man's sword was merely frantic, spewing out the endless power flowing from his body, desperate to vent it.
But that power lacked refinement compared to the Cho Clan's strength,
and had no foundation compared to Nahar's White Flame.
So, he no longer wanted to play around. Ban's Broadsword curved. The man's machete seemed to slam into the ground, and before the unbalanced man could recover, Ban's blade rested at his throat.
"The effects seem weaker than expected."
"...How... this..."
The man trembled in disbelief. He fumbled for his coat again, but in that instant, the short tachi drawn by Ban's left hand sliced his wrist.
"Urk!"
"That's enough games. Speak. Where did you get that potion vial?"
"If I tell you... will you let me go?"
"Who knows. Depends on your performance."
Of course, he had no intention of letting him go. The man probably knew that too. He bowed his head in resignation for a moment, then glared at Ban with fury-filled eyes and spoke.
"Do you know what kind of scum live in this village?"
"Not interested."
"A servant who raped his master's daughter lives here, a drunkard who killed his own child lives here, a greedy bastard who murdered his lifelong friend over a single gold ring lives here. All sins are washed away by empty words claiming they're just the past... and no one takes responsibility for the crimes they've committed."
"It's not always like that. One guy who went around endlessly killing people is about to get his punishment today."
Ban shrugged. The man glared at him with venomous eyes.
"How can a knight have such a narrow view...! This village is a sin in itself! I merely sought to punish it."
"Your sense of justice doesn't interest me."
The world was full of people claiming they were right—you could trip over them. Ban no longer wanted to hear why people thought they were right. Look at this one. Even a serial killer now had his reasons for being right.
His eyes grew cold. The aura he had been subtly concealing
erupted.
"Where's the owner of that potion vial?"
"If it's someone already dead, what then..."
The man couldn't continue. Before he could, an overwhelming aura poured from Ban. It was horrifying. More chilling than the blade at his throat.
It felt like dozens, hundreds of swordsmen were glaring at him. Ban's face became that of a woman, then an old man, then a child.
The man's arms hung limp. What on earth had he been facing? Something immense, beyond his senses, was glaring at him from within Ban.
Ban opened his mouth.
"Then you'll regret it. For a very long time."
A low, simmering rage rumbled in his calm voice. Even the onlookers watching their confrontation swallowed and trembled at the killing intent.
"...H-He's alive. Perfectly fine."
"Good. He better be."
Ban's voice dropped.
"You shouldn't have laid a finger on him."
§
As Ban and the man walked, ten guards followed behind. They planned to subdue him at any suspicious move, but it wasn't necessary. With Ban nearby, any mischief would mean his legs getting severed in an instant.
The man's hideout was a cave a short distance from the village. It wasn't a natural cave—it looked like one he had carved out with his own power.
"Huh, damn. Is this even possible...?"
The guards clicked their tongues at the cave marked with sword scars here and there. Could a human really do this? They were startled just watching Aidan chop wood with a sword, but this was digging out earth and rock entirely...
The problem was that such a monster had fallen before Ban like a child. Those who remembered Ban from childhood felt an eerie sense of his transformation.
"Master?"
Ban's voice echoed. But the dark cave interior returned no sound. Ban turned a sharp gaze to the man. He spoke in a panicked voice.
"I-I don't know! I didn't do anything..."
"Ban?"
And then. An elderly man slowly emerged from the cave. It was Jensen. Ban cried out emotionally.
"Master!"
"Hey, you punk. You'll deafen me. Speak quietly. Quietly."
"...Are you alright? I heard this guy kept you imprisoned..."
"I thought I might die, but now I'm fine. He even brought meat a few times, so I didn't starve."
"...Don't act proud, you bastard."
Ban smacked the head of the man, who wore a strangely defiant expression. He looked at Ban aggrievedly, then meekly bowed his head under Ban's cold glare.
"Now we're good. Take him away."
"...Ah, yes. Uh, right. Yeah."
A guard who knew Ban slowly began binding the man. With his knees buckling, the man lifted his head. His gaze wasn't on Ban, but Jensen.
"You know. That I did what had to be done."
"Shut up, you murderer! Thinking of those you killed makes me want to throttle you right now... but look forward to it. You won't die easy."
The guard barked at him. Ban didn't bother asking the man's name. He had no desire to remember passing lives one by one.
Jensen glanced at Ban and said.
"Is your body okay?"
"I should be asking you that."
"I'm fine. Didn't starve, didn't miss sleep..."
Silence fell after those words. It wasn't just from reunion after so long. Ban had much to say, and Jensen seemed to be waiting for those words.
"Shall we... walk a bit? Master."
§
"You can stop calling me master now."
After walking in silence for a while, Jensen suddenly spoke. Ban glanced at him.
"Isn't it ridiculous now? You're no longer a pharmacist, and what I taught you means nothing anymore. Is there reason to call me master still?"
"What you taught me wasn't just pharmacy."
"...You rascal."
Jensen smiled bitterly. Ban fell silent again. Then, hesitating, he asked.
"Master. Are you... really just a pharmacist?"
"...Yes. A pharmacist."
"A lot happened to me in the five years."
Ban didn't explain everything that had happened. He just quietly brought it up.
"And I learned I might not just be an orphan."
"No one is just an orphan."
"Not just that—I might have quite noble blood."
Jensen didn't answer. But that silence told Ban much. Ban stopped walking. Not because a river blocked their path. He slowly opened his mouth.
"Did you know?"
"...I did."
Jensen said quietly.
"And that's why I hoped you'd never know."
"...I understand."
It made sense. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and Ban's origins were one such case. All knowing his bloodline would bring was old grudges and sorrow.
"Didn't I tell you to live as a pharmacist?"
"You're misunderstanding something. I'm not dissatisfied now."
Ban gripped his Broadsword. Yuri said nothing, but even without words, her life flowed into him at this moment.
This too was a gift from his bloodline.
"Seonwoo Ban..."
Ban murmured. Jensen flinched, then smiled bitterly.
"You knew that much."
He had hoped Ban wouldn't know. He didn't want Ban's life swayed by the Seonwoo Clan's old grudges. But Ban's expression was unexpectedly bright.
"The librarian clan of Kalsmori Library, right? Said to read and record all the world's memories. Hm. If my family were alive, I might've been sorting sword manuals or something. Not that I like writing much."
"Yes. It wouldn't suit you."
"I'm grateful for the clan's blessing."
Thanks to that blessing, Ban had come this far. He gripped the Broadsword again. Its slender form, typical of a one-handed sword, seemed incapable of even cutting wood properly, but in Ban's hand, it was different.
"But I don't want to bear the clan's duty. As you know, Master, I'm not the type to take on responsibilities."
Ban grinned and gripped the Broadsword with both hands. He spread his legs, inhaled slightly, and held. The overhead stance he had practiced first. Jensen's mouth fell open at the familiar pose, but Ban ignored it.
'No matter what anyone says, you're my master.'
The memory was still vivid. The overhead slashes of a talentless, clumsy swordsman with no knack. The back of that swordsman, practicing endlessly without knowing what he was cutting.
That deficient memory became the first sprout of the swordsman Ban.
The surprise in Jensen's eyes followed Ban's sword tip. No, it couldn't keep up. It was too swift an overhead slash to follow. When he shifted his gaze to find the vanished blade, Ban's sword was already pointing at the ground...
And the river split.
Mocking the common sense that water can't be cut, the true slash from Ban's sword exposed the riverbed and surged forward endlessly. It was miraculous. The river's fish gawked stupidly before the sudden wall of the slash, and it...
Advanced half the river's width before vanishing.
"........."
The scar left on the river was quickly buried by the rushing water. But it didn't easily fade from Jensen's eyes. It was what he had dreamed of all his life. That fruitless effort without skill would bear fruit—the naive dream of that man...
Had become reality at Ban's sword tip.
"I can't cut this river yet."
Ban said. Despite achieving what Jensen could only dream of, regret tinged his voice.
"But someday I'll cut it fully. Leave a scar that won't heal on this river. Clan or whatever, I don't care. What I want to be isn't Seonwoo Clan's Ban, just..."
The world's strongest swordsman.
That statement was still so childish,
And so, perhaps Jensen could finally smile.