79. The Sword Saint
79. The Sword Saint
Morgan quickly finished the inverse coordinate calculation, but he didn't use teleport to send me directly to the location.
"Isn't it suspicious that this is so sloppy for such a scheme? It's clearly a trap!!"
He had a point.
It was actually a common method.
But I didn't even have the time to worry about that, so I memorized the location and used Shukuchi consecutively.
The scenery spun past like fast-forwarding, and the place I arrived at was an empty wilderness.
It wasn't a trap, but the trail went cold from there.
"If I'd known, I should've dragged the Headmaster along too."
Did they fly away from here, or did they use a series of spatial movements? I couldn't see any other tracks indicating they'd traveled on foot.
Just as I was considering whether to use tracking magic, I felt a strong pulse of power deep within my body.
When I focused on the power pulsing inside me, I sensed another force pulsing elsewhere.
The fiercely pulsing golden power was... not familiar, but I could guess where it originated from.
"...So you're there."
.
.
.
.
The first thing I saw upon arrival was an altar that looked like it came from the demon church no matter how you looked at it, and a man in a thick robe who also appeared to be a demon church member.
"You are wh—kkugh?!"
The robed man started speaking as he saw me appear right in front of him,
but since he seemed to be from the demon church no matter how I looked at him, I cut his neck the instant I saw him.
The thick robe should have been cut and the human head inside should have sprayed blood, but it only scattered pitch-black demonic energy.
As expected, he was from the demon church.
Since I had rushed here because I sensed what I thought was Riber's presence, there had to be a trace of her nearby.
As I looked around, I spotted the Sword Saint raising his sword toward Riber.
I grabbed Squete, which was strapped to my back, and blocked it.
"Ho-oh... who do we have here... "
The Sword Saint grinned viciously as he looked at me blocking his sword.
I felt the force behind his sword intensifying.
It seemed like he intended to crush me with brute force, but it was manageable, so I held him off with one hand.
"?!"
As he tried to press down with force but couldn't overcome me, the Sword Saint's expression gradually hardened.
Regardless, I didn't even glance at the Sword Saint and turned my gaze toward Riber.
"Atla..s?"
Riber was making an expression as if she was seeing a ghost.
Since I suddenly popped up in front of her, it was certainly fascinating.
Her eyes were red and bloodshot as if she had been crying, and her forehead was cut, with red blood flowing down.
Other than that, she had no significant injuries on her body, but her heart was wounded.
Riber in this moment looked more pitiful than I had ever seen her.
She looked so utterly forlorn that I found myself stroking her hair without realizing it.
"Let's go back."
"How... no, why did you come...."
Riber, realizing that I was the real thing, made a despairing expression.
I couldn't know what had happened between the two of them.
At first, she just said it was family business, and Riber refused to let me get involved.
She said that letting things flow like this would be best for everyone.
If it was family business, I, who had thrown everything like that away, had no right to say anything to Riber who was trying to fulfill her responsibility.
But not anymore.
Even if I didn't know all the circumstances between the two of them, one thing was certain.
The Sword Saint had threatened Riber, and used violence.
He attacked other people, and someone close to me was harmed because of it.
No circumstances mattered more than this.
Looking like she was about to burst into tears at any moment, Riber grabbed my hand.
"No, Atlas.. you're strong, but the opponent is different! He's not like the academy students you casually knocked down, he's a Master... why did you come."
"I said I'd take responsibility. Did you take that lightly?"
The force being applied to the sword slackened.
-Clap clap clap clap
The Sword Saint, who had been trying to crush me with his sword, gave up, tucked his sword under his arm, and was clapping.
"Magnificent.... Are you playing the knight coming to rescue the captured princess? That's something to enjoy at your age; youth is wonderful."
The Sword Saint, who had been clapping with a wide grin, stopped applauding and spoke with an air of great gravity.
"Judging by the atmosphere, you're the one who took my fiancée's purity... and overnight at that! I was planning to deal with you anyway, but you strutting out here so brazenly saves me the trouble."
"How did you know? Don't tell me you go around carrying a unicorn horn and checking for virginity as a hobby??
How old are you, old man? If you get engaged to someone over 60 years younger than you, you should just be grateful, but here you are still whining about virginity."
I didn't know what his plan was, but a man his age whining about a young girl's virginity was enough to make me sick.
The Sword Saint smiled with a rigid face and raised his sword again with one hand.
He tried hard to pretend to be calm, but even without trying to analyze it, it was obvious from the outside that the Sword Saint was furious to the point of bursting.
"You bastard... you ruined the plan I've waited decades for... I see."
"Yeah, that was me. Your fiancée was amazing."
"Wha... what are you talking about!!"
At the word 'amazing', Riber's face turned red.
But the Sword Saint's face twisted more horribly than Riber's.
I swung Squete, cut the chains binding Riber's hands, then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
With one arm around her waist and her face buried in my chest, I glanced sharply at the Sword Saint.
"She's a woman too good for an old fogey like you."
"Huh.. huh??"
As I held her waist tightly, Riber's face flushed bright red, making me wonder where the person who was on the verge of tears just moments ago had gone.
If I were taller, the picture of Riber nestling perfectly into my chest would have been nicer, but I succeeded in my original purpose of provoking him.
The Sword Saint looked like he was boiling over with rage to the top of his head.
"...It seems you're eager to die quickly."
The Sword Saint drew his sword again.
The sight of the Sword Saint trudging toward me without even using his aura was similar to the attitude I had shown during duels at the academy.
An attitude that seemed to say, 'You're not even worth using aura on.'
But rather than simply that reason, the bigger problem was that using aura made it difficult to hold back against an opponent.
"Seeing as you didn't tell me about this problem, you must have really not trusted me much."
Riber, now accepting that there was no turning back after I had come this far, dropped her head.
Thinking she had gotten me involved and that we would both end up dead, she spoke as if resigned.
"You definitely said yesterday that you'd go back as soon as the work was over...
That man is a terrible person, but if I told you, you'd definitely get angry and fight him like this... it's like telling you to go die... how could I say it..."
"Yeah, it's something I brought on myself... then I'll make you believe me starting now."
A cruel smile played on the Sword Saint's lips, as he had been planning to slowly slice me up with his sword.
Against the Sword Saint, who was showing such arrogance as if to say 'come at me any way you want,' I instead slung the Squete I was holding back onto my back and raised both fists.
The Sword Saint sneered at the sight of me clenching my fists tightly.
Not even wielding a sword when my reach was already short seemed to him like a suicidal act.
"I'm going to beat that old fossil to death now. Then you'll believe me."
"What?!"
Riber was startled again as I rushed in bare-handed, but my body had already launched forward an instant before.
I thrust my fist out and charged forward, and the Sword Saint reacted by swinging his sword.
Trajectory-wise, before my fist could even touch the Sword Saint's body, his sword would slice through my torso.
'Shukuchi (縮地)'
But the single step I took placed me right in front of the Sword Saint's nose.
The fist I had swung from afar had already reached right in front of the Sword Saint's face.
"??"
The Sword Saint had an expression of disbelief at what he had seen.
But by the time he realized, it was already too late.
-Peok!!!
My right fist crushed the nose bridge of the Sword Saint Adolf Roang.
"Kuaaagh?!"
The Sword Saint's head snapped back violently.
The attitude I had shown during duels and the Sword Saint's current attitude were similar, but there was a massive difference between the two.
That difference was whether one properly gauged the skill of the opponent standing before them.
I had controlled my strength because I knew my opponents were at best Experts, but the Sword Saint, without even realizing the person in front of him was a Master, had been pulling that arrogant crap.
I understood why he had been beaten to a pulp by the Director.
Let's say he was so enraged he couldn't calmly assess his opponent, but I was also holding back my anger.
From the moment I saw the marks left on Riber's body, it was hard to stay calm.
The moment I saw the blood running down her forehead, I felt my blood boiling in reverse.
He hit her.
I wanted to cut his neck right then, but that wouldn't quell my anger.
At the very least, it felt like I'd need to beat him until his face was smashed to pieces for it to subside a bit.
"..!!!"
The Sword Saint, whose head had been snapped backward, quickly corrected his posture as befitted a seasoned veteran, but my follow-up fist was faster than his recovery.
-Peok! Peok! Peok!
"Kuaaghh?!"
My fists persistently targeted only the Sword Saint's face and connected again and again.
The Sword Saint tried to escape somehow, but no matter how he tried to adjust his stance, the distance between us never widened because of Shukuchi, and he couldn't regain his senses under the fists continuously drilling into his face.
"You... insolent!!"
"?!"
The moment the Sword Saint shouted, veins bulging in his neck, my body suddenly grew heavy.
It felt as if five boulders had been placed on my shoulders.
It wasn't enough to crush me, but it was enough time to create an opening in the relentless flurry of consecutive attacks.
"Oof!!"
In that brief window, the Sword Saint regained his stance and swung his sword again.
I dodged backward by a large margin, and the Sword Saint's sword grazed past under my chin.
"You... what kind of bastard are you."
The force pressing down on my body grew stronger, but it was bearable.
The power grew continuously stronger until the ground caved in slightly, but I still stood firm.
A power that makes objects heavy and difficult to move.
Was this the Sword Saint's own unique Law that he had awakened?
'...Something's off..?'
It was a formidable power, but it felt somewhat clumsy for something awakened by a Master.
I stared intently at him with a dubious expression.
In the Sword Saint's eyes, after the prolonged beating, there was no longer any trace of the disdain with which he'd looked down on me.
His neatly groomed beard and hair were all a disheveled mess, his nose bridge was broken with blood trickling steadily, and his mouth was completely torn, leaking blood.
The only consolation was that he didn't seem to have a black eye, so at least his face wasn't so ridiculous it was laughable just to look at.
It was a completely different attitude from the beginning.
Seeing the Sword Saint, whom she had feared so much, reduced to such a wreck, Riber looked at me with surprised eyes.
That look was so cute that a chuckle escaped me.
"There's no way you still don't know... well, should I spell it out for you?"