Chapter 125
Chapter 125
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: Chapter 46: The Princess (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The sight of the sky splitting open wasn't all that surprising.
To put it precisely, it was more like the clouds filling the sky had parted.
Yet to Jamie right now, even that felt wondrous.
Jamie couldn't understand why his grandfather, whom he'd never even met, had left something like this for him.
No, he wasn't trying to understand right now.
The aura blade starting from Darius's hand was ordinary. He was a brawler, not a swordsman. He didn't even know the proper way to hold a sword.
The Single Stroke Sword that followed was the same. A technique passed down only to the Welton bloodline—no matter how great one's intuition, it was hard for an outsider to grasp its essence.
Yet even though it was 'Ultimate Slash: Heaven's Rift' executed in that state, Jamie's eyes widened in awe.
'He cleaved through space.'
The Single Stroke Sword was a technique that sliced space itself.
It was less a sword art and more like an intangible weapon akin to aura.
But what Darius had demonstrated wasn't just slicing space. Though merely an imitation, he had undeniably 'ripped away' a portion of space.
If a fake could only manage that much, what kind of phenomenon would the real thing unleash?
"What the hell was that just now?"
Jamie wasn't the only one shocked.
Han, being a martial artist himself, could grasp the swordsmanship Darius had displayed to some extent.
Just witnessing that technique of tearing away space sent chills racing across his entire body. He'd trained his whole life, but this was the first time he'd seen anything like it.
Wasn't it just like a mage?
'Yeah, like that guy.'
His gaze turned to Siegfried.
When the top-tier spatial mage known as the Spatial Siegfried cast his magic, it would produce a similar phenomenon. He had the skill to make it happen.
But that was possible because it was magic—a power that manifested supernatural phenomena, specialized for such feats.
Siegfried thought the same.
'A technique reaching the pinnacle.'
But Darius wasn't a mage, and the technique he'd executed was far from magic.
Yet it had produced an effect akin to spatial magic.
Siegfried knew nothing of martial arts. What use would a mage have for it? But even so, he knew the scene he'd just witnessed was shocking.
Siegfried's gaze shifted to Jamie. What had this young child seen in that spectacle?
"Whew. Not easy, as expected."
Darius let out a sigh and dusted off his hands.
After witnessing 'Ultimate Slash: Heaven's Rift' from Cherbil, he'd ceaselessly analyzed the phenomenon itself through 'Spatial Awareness.'
Yet he couldn't reach that realm in the end.
It wasn't because he hadn't learned the Single Stroke Sword or because he wasn't a swordsman.
'Grand Master.'
He hadn't reached that domain.
He probably never would in his lifetime.
With his unique exceptional intuition, he could quantify an opponent's power.
Eight years ago, the power when Cherbil had unleashed it right before his eyes...
Recalling that moment, Darius chuckled and looked at Jamie.
"Kid. Your grandfather..."
Jamie looked at him as Darius spoke.
"He was a Grand Master."
At those words, not only Jamie but Siegfried and Han also widened their eyes.
It was news they'd never heard before.
Grand Master. If 9th Class was the ultimate realm for mages, Grand Master was the ultimate for those who honed martial arts.
But just like 9th Class, no human had ever reached the Grand Master realm.
Seldam's Sword Prodigy and the Solar Church's Blade of the Sun, Blaze, were said to be the closest, but even they weren't true Grand Masters.
Yet the previous Welton Count had been a Grand Master.
Jamie had never heard such a story from his father, the current Welton Count. He didn't know if his father was hiding it despite knowing or if he truly didn't know.
"Since he never made it public, no one would know."
In his later years, he'd achieved enlightenment and manifested it as 'Ultimate Slash: Heaven's Rift,' attaining Grand Master.
Only Darius had witnessed that technique.
He'd never heard of it being used again after that, not even until the moment of his death.
"Maybe the current Welton Count knows."
The current Welton Count had been at Cherbil's deathbed.
Just the two of them, so perhaps he'd left an unofficial last will to his son.
But that wasn't the important part.
"This is a technique your grandfather perfected with the enlightenment he gained in his later years. What did you feel when you saw it?"
It was too advanced a question for a child.
Even a skilled knight would hesitate to answer. Even a Master Class would.
Han himself didn't know what to say upon hearing it.
Jamie closed his eyes.
'That guy comes to mind.'
The one who had not only reached the pinnacle with the sword but transcended it.
The advice he'd given when Jamie first learned the sword in Hayes had been immensely helpful.
He still couldn't remember his name, but what would that guy have said upon seeing this?
-There are many paths with the sword. So there's no single right answer with the sword. But you can define it for yourself, and only then can a swordsman truly wield a blade as his own.
-What the hell is this guy saying?
-What does a magic nerd know?
-This bastard?
Jamie recalled the old memory and chuckled softly.
'There are many paths with the sword.'
It had been just four months since he'd picked up a sword.
He knew he had talent. His growth speed was incomparable to others. But his understanding of the sword was still shallow.
He found it hard to answer Darius's question. He'd learned the sword from Hamilton and the Welton Count, but he'd never pondered his own swordsmanship.
He wasn't at that level yet.
So he answered.
"I don't know."
"As expected..."
"I don't know, but I feel like I do."
Darius nodded as if he'd anticipated it, then furrowed his brow at Jamie's follow-up.
He was blind, so he couldn't see Jamie's expression, but the confidence in his voice spoke volumes.
"What do you think you know?"
"That if I keep training with the sword, someday I'll reach the realm Grandfather attained."
A voice utterly devoid of doubt.
Darius couldn't comprehend how this child held such conviction.
It might just be childish bravado.
But regardless of the truth, Jamie Welton was the future head of the Welton family. The Welton blood ran thick in that small body.
And Cherbil had left 'Ultimate Slash: Heaven's Rift' for a grandson he'd never met.
'He wouldn't tell me why.'
He'd asked the same question countless times.
Why his grandson? What if he never got to meet your grandson?
Cherbil always replied the same way.
-As fate wills it.
'Is this the fate you spoke of?'
They'd met as enemies, yet now he was passing on his legacy.
Darius felt once more like he was being swept up in some grand current.
What was fate?
'Is it what this child will show?'
The flow of the world was growing strange.
Half a year since the Zenith Church had sealed its doors. The world's situation was accelerating. Several nations were adopting aggressive postures, and the underworld's atmosphere was darkening.
As if war was approaching swiftly.
No one knew when the signal flare would sound. It could be tomorrow or decades from now.
But war would come, without fail.
What would this child become by then?
"Next time I see you, I hope you're not such a little squirt."
Darius said that and turned away.
Han called out to his back.
"What? That's it?"
"What more do you want?"
"...Weren't you here to capture us?"
"Oh."
Darius lifted his head abruptly, as if just remembering.
"Right. You guys are the auction house thieves, aren't you?"
Siegfried scowled and cursed at Han.
"You madman. Why bring that up now..."
"Consider yourselves lucky."
Darius turned back swiftly, though he couldn't see, and said,
"You lived thanks to Cherbil's grandson."
With that, Darius vanished.
The three watched the spot where he'd disappeared in silence, wary of any tricks.
Fortunately, he didn't return.
"Haa. We survived."
Han released his tension and collapsed on the spot.
Siegfried clicked his tongue at him.
"Why ask that there? You got lucky. If he'd decided to target us again, we'd have had to fight."
"B-But we survived in the end."
"My image of Frontier just got even worse."
"What'd you say?"
"Enough, both of you."
As their voices rose, Jamie stepped between them to intervene.
"This isn't the time. And weren't you going to wake up Behemoth?"
"Oh. Right."
Han jumped up and rushed to where his comrades lay.
Darius's single attack had taken all three out of commission. Even a Master Class expert couldn't do that to them simultaneously.
"Izaya."
"Ugh."
Han shook Izaya, who grimaced in pain.
He'd blocked Jamie's fall, but his whole body must have been rattled. Ramu groaned similarly when shaken.
Brahma seemed to have no major injuries, having been knocked out by a blow to the nape.
"Come on out."
"Hm?"
Jamie pushed Han aside and extended his left hand.
Han stared in astonishment at the sacred golden light flowing from Jamie's left hand.
"You... that power."
"Healing."
Pyro's divinity enveloped the three.
Most of the divinity was absorbed by Izaya and Ramu.
It wasn't strong since he wasn't a formal saint, but it was enough to bring them around.
Sure enough, Brahma, with the lightest injuries, opened her eyes first.
"Ugh... Wh-What happened?"
She barely lifted her heavy eyelids and looked around.
Han approached and asked,
"You okay?"
"Han?"
"Yeah. It's me."
"What happened? Just a bit ago..."
She pressed her throbbing temple with her thumb and glanced sideways. Spotting Izaya and Ramu lying there, she suddenly remembered and shot to her feet.
"Th-That monster? And come to think of it, Han, you were hit by that monster too!"
"Calm down. The monster's gone."
"...Gone?"
"Yeah. More importantly, thank that kid. He healed you."
Han said so while eyeing Jamie's left hand intently.
The Scales of Justice symbolizing Pyro were etched there. A god's mark that appeared only in saints.
He hadn't heard from Baylor that Jamie Welton was the goddess's saint.
"...Thank you."
Jamie nodded curtly at Brahma's thanks.
"The other two will come to soon."
"Kid. Thanks to you, we survived. That left hand... I don't know what's up with it, but I won't ask now. We owe you today."
"Sorry, but don't think that'll settle it. And I won't tell you even if you ask. Privacy."
"Frontier's intel must be slow. The Pyro Church already announced it."
"...Really?"
Han's face said it was his first time hearing.
Brahma whispered something in his ear, and Han muttered with a strange expression.
"Why wouldn't they tell me something that important... Anyway, got it. But you seem to want something from us?"
"Behemoth."
"...What?"
"I want to see it too. So show me."
Han's face twisted at Jamie's proposal.