Chapter 97
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Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Radiant Resolve (1)
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Crack! Snap!
A harsh sound echoed from within his body.
Lloyd thought as he listened to it.
‘This deadly poison... it’s no joke at all.’
It truly was no joke.
His palm pressed against the Queen’s solar plexus.
The venomous energy being absorbed through that palm.
It assaulted his blood vessels and surrounding tissues moment by moment.
Each time, his muscle fibers and meridians screamed in agony.
Craaack! Snap!
The venomous energy trying to tear through his tissues, and his body tissues resisting.
Caught in that tug-of-war, Lloyd broke out in cold sweat.
He whipped himself even harder.
He poured more power into the Asrahan Heart Method.
The three circles spun even more fiercely.
They sucked up the poison that had invaded the Queen’s body to the fullest.
“You... how did you learn something like this?”
The Queen’s gaze looking up at him.
A mana absorption technique she had never experienced or even heard of before.
Shock, bewilderment, suspicion, and admiration all mixed together.
A wry smile tugged at Lloyd’s lips.
“Ugh, huff... if you talk like that...”
“Does it bother you?”
“It makes it a bit hard to focus on the emergency treatment.”
“But contrary to your words, you’re sucking out the poison just fine.”
“Well, if you call it whining, I’ve got nothing else to say—”
Lloyd bantered while maintaining the Asrahan Heart Method.
“Since you brought it up, it’d be even better if you cheered me on so I could put some real oomph into it.”
“Cheering you on. But blindly absorbing the poison like this could put you in danger instead. Do you have some kind of countermeasure?”
“Of course. I’ll just expel it.”
“I see.”
Was it because the poison was leaving her body?
Or because she knew he had a plan?
The Queen’s expression softened slightly.
However, her gaze looking up at him remained sharp.
“I have two more things I’m curious about.”
“Yes, ask away.”
“First. How did you notice what was happening here and rush all the way over?”
“I’ve got good instincts.”
“Instincts?”
“Yes.”
“Be specific.”
“Uh, um... are you suspecting me, by any chance?”
“Well, naturally...”
“If I were in cahoots with Sir Cherni, I wouldn’t be risking my life like this to remove the poison from you.”
“......”
“It’s true. I just happened to overhear Sir Cherni talking with the chamberlain and got a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling? What did he say to the chamberlain?”
“Something about the banquet continuing until the moon went down.”
“That sounds perfectly ordinary. Why would that—?”
“Just a hunch. His tone, his eyes... it felt sleazy.”
“Sleazy?”
“Honestly, I didn’t suspect treason at first. I just—”
“Just?”
“I figured Sir Cherni and the chamberlain were... you know, an item.”
“......”
“So I thought there might be some juicy gossip to watch, and I followed them. But when I got here, all this mess... anyway, that’s it.”
“You’ve seen an ugly sight.”
“No, not at all.”
A brief silence hung in the air.
Lloyd inwardly wiped his brow in relief.
‘Good, I’ve cleared up the suspicion against me.’
The Queen assassination attempt.
Thanks to reading the novel *Iron-Blooded Knight*, he had foreseen today’s crisis.
But no one in this world knew about it.
Not even the Queen.
The assassins’ code words were the same.
That was information only he, who had read the novel, knew.
‘Which made this the perfect setup for suspicion.’
He had charged in recklessly to save the Queen, but that very action was suspicious.
Noticing an assassination plot no one else knew about first.
Arriving at the scene before anyone except the assassins.
That alone was enough to raise doubts.
He had needed to dispel those suspicions first.
So Lloyd had pulled off his little sleight of hand.
‘Mixing truth and lies cleverly. It’s the classic shell game that always works.’
He admitted to overhearing Sir Cherni’s code words.
He mixed in the lie of ‘Sir Cherni is gay.’
He downplayed his own actions as impulsive curiosity chasing gossip.
And right now, he was literally risking his life to draw the poison from the Queen’s body.
All those elements combined for a synergistic effect.
Just as Lloyd intended, it dispelled the Queen’s suspicions.
The gaze she directed up at him softened.
“I see. But I have one more thing I’m curious about.”
“Yes, what is it this time?”
“Why has your speech become so casual since earlier?”
“......Pardon?”
“Ever since you abruptly laid me down for this so-called emergency treatment. You’ve subtly dropped the formalities in how you address me. Is that intentional?”
“Of course not, Your Majesty.”
“Your shift in tone is quicker than the wind.”
“It’s a misunderstanding, Your Majesty.”
“It doesn’t seem like one.”
“I’m truly wronged, Your Majesty.”
“Brazen, too.”
The Queen’s lips curved into a slight smile.
But it was only for a moment; her expression hardened again.
“By the way, you said Asrahan, was it?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Will he be alright against Sir Cherni?”
“......”
Lloyd shut his mouth.
It was a question he couldn’t answer lightly.
In fact, that was why he was giving it his all right now.
He was pouring every ounce of his strength into absorbing the deadly poison.
To finish the emergency treatment as quickly as possible and rush to help Haviel.
‘Haviel hasn’t reached Swordmaster yet.’
Yet he had to face Sir Cherni, a Swordmaster.
What would the outcome be?
He couldn’t guarantee it.
It was unpredictable.
‘Of course, he won’t go down easily. But I can’t relax either.’
Haviel had exceptional talent.
He had reached the pinnacle of Sword Expert and possessed triple circles.
But even combining all that?
‘There’s still an insurmountable gap against a Swordmaster.’
That was how extraordinary and fearsome a Swordmaster was.
Only another Swordmaster could stand against one.
Their mere existence rivaled strategic weapons.
Like nuclear bombs in the modern world.
The number of Swordmasters a nation possessed was a direct measure of its military power.
‘And Haviel’s facing one alone.’
Of course, in the novel, Haviel later becomes a Swordmaster.
He even ascends to Grand Master, the first in history, surpassing Swordmaster.
But that was the story in the novel.
The situation now was different.
Today, if things went wrong...
‘Haviel could die.’
Haviel was his pillar of support, his greatest insurance for the future.
He didn’t want to lose that guy pointlessly here.
Kiiiiiing—!
Lloyd ramped up the circles’ rotation even further.
He pushed them to his absolute limit.
The deadly poison absorbed from the Queen piled up around the circles.
But he ignored it.
‘Absorb it all, expel it, then run.’
And he would help Haviel fight together.
Sweat dripped from his determined face.
The drops pattered onto the Queen’s cheek.
But the Queen couldn’t rebuke him.
Lloyd’s expression, focused on the Asrahan Heart Method, was too earnest.
‘The more I see, the more astonishing he is.’
Building a suspension bridge no one had ever heard of.
He had turned his bold claim into reality, proving his abilities.
Yet now, he revealed even greater skills.
‘A technique to absorb external mana—someone else’s mana with specific properties—into himself. I never even imagined such a thing was possible.’
And yet, that imagined feat was becoming reality.
The deadly poison leaving his body moment by moment.
That was the clearest proof.
The fact shocked her, a Swordmaster, and filled her with awe.
‘Where do his abilities end?’
If possible, she wanted to find out.
It intrigued her.
It piqued her curiosity.
As the Queen looked up at Lloyd with eyes full of curiosity, the intense emergency treatment continued in the quiet lounge.
♣
Slash!
Blasting split in two.
An Aura Sword surged forward.
It slashed at Haviel’s chest.
But no blood sprayed.
‘Hm?’
Twitch. Sir Cherni’s eyebrow jerked.
For a brief moment, he had thought he’d definitely cut his opponent.
But right after swinging, he felt it.
The feedback was light.
A shallow cut.
The moment Sir Cherni realized that.
Haviel’s counterattack flashed like lightning.
Whiiish!
“......!”
It carried no Aura.
But it was fast as a beam of light.
Sir Cherni raised his sword.
Claaang—!
Haviel’s sword bounced off the Aura Sword.
In the shockwave, Sir Cherni finally saw it.
‘My strike earlier only cut his clothes.’
A glimpse of Haviel’s chest through the torn collar.
It was slashed diagonally, long and deep.
But some bare chest was visible in between.
‘Incredible reaction speed.’
Sir Cherni was purely impressed.
In fact, when he had split Haviel’s Blasting in two earlier.
When he had followed up by slashing at Haviel’s chest with that momentum.
He had been certain the fight was over.
But it wasn’t.
‘Not even a Swordmaster, yet so strong and fast. Precise, too. If we’re talking pure technique, he might be my equal—or even superior.’
The silver-haired youth before him.
He looked barely past twenty.
A monstrous, jaw-dropping talent.
But if this kid reached Swordmaster?
‘He’d surpass me in an instant.’
He had to admit it.
At the same time, a savage impulse arose.
‘But you’ll never surpass me. Because you’re dying here today.’
The thrill of crushing and trampling a talent that could go down in history.
Sir Cherni’s lips curled at the violent urge.
His grip on the sword tightened.
‘Today, I’ll kill you for sure. Go ahead, resist all you want!’
Now that he had unleashed his Aura Sword.
There was nothing to fear.
Swish, slash!
Sir Cherni’s sword lunged at an odd angle.
Blazing Aura rode the blade, overwhelming Haviel.
Claaang—!
Aura clashed with sword.
In that instant, part of Haviel’s blade shattered.
Crushed and torn by the Aura.
Haviel’s expression hardened.
Sir Cherni sneered.
“You dare try to block an Aura Sword with that level of skill?”
Kwachak!
Another downward strike from the Aura Sword.
Haviel’s blade crumbling more before it.
Sir Cherni’s sneer deepened.
“Blocked it again? I should praise you for not having your sword cleave in two.”
Crack!
Yet another downward Aura Sword strike.
One side of Haviel’s blade crumpled again.
Killing intent laced Sir Cherni’s sneer.
“Oh ho. Three defenses. Is it because it’s the Queen’s sword? How about it—want to try resisting with that technique from earlier?”
“......”
Haviel couldn’t answer.
He had no time to.
From the moment he first blocked the Aura Sword, his insides had been churning.
The shock of blocking the Aura had completely ravaged his internals.
It felt like stopping a giant’s hammer blow with his finger.
Absorbing mana with the Asrahan Heart Method was out of the question.
Each defense built up massive shock inside him.
His legs wouldn’t move.
They refused to obey.
The accumulating shock had frozen him solid.
‘Should I use Blasting?’
The thought crossed his mind briefly.
But Blasting wouldn’t work.
Even his strongest technique had been bisected by the Aura Sword earlier.
Using it again would mean his chest really getting sliced open.
‘If I were a Swordmaster.’
Blasting at that level would pierce Sir Cherni’s Aura Sword in one go.
No, he wouldn’t even need Blasting—he could counter with his own Aura Sword.
‘Lord Lloyd...’
Boom!
Another crashing blow.
It felt like being driven into the floor like a stake.
“Cough!”
Blood mixed with his cough.
His circles’ rotation slowed.
And then the fifth.
A merciless strike fell like thunder.
Crack!
“......!”
Finally, the Queen’s sword broke.
Through the severed blade, the Aura Sword descended.
‘I can’t end here!’
He had to buy even one more second.
That way, Lord Lloyd could treat the Queen.
Then Lord Lloyd would have a chance to survive.
The Queen was a Swordmaster; she could face Sir Cherni.
‘Nngh!’
Haviel swallowed his pride.
Before the descending death, to survive even one second longer.
He fell and rolled sideways.
Slaaash!
The Aura Sword barely scraped the floor, sparking.
But he survived.
Even if just for a moment.
He wanted to buy time with this extended life.
To boost the odds of Lord Lloyd’s survival, he swung the half-broken sword to meet it.
In that instant, a merciless kick flew at him.
Boom—!
“......!”
A front kick stomping his chest.
Before that heavy blow, Haviel flew nine steps down the corridor.
He crashed into a corner table and rolled across the floor.
Crash! Crack!
Splintered wood fragments.
From the debris, he barely raised his upper body.
‘It’s not over yet.’
He didn’t give up.
He reached out.
Grabbed a broken table leg.
Sir Cherni charged right up to him.
He brought down his blazing Aura Sword.
“It’s over!”
Whiiish!
The Aura Sword fell like lightning.
Haviel thrust up the table leg.
Sir Cherni grinned wide.
An Aura Sword could only be blocked by another Aura Sword.
That was absolute law.
‘And you dare face an Aura Sword with a table leg? Ha!’
Go ahead, flail all you want.
The moment that thought crossed his mind.
Thud—!
The Aura Sword was blocked by the wooden table leg.
“Huh?”
What the—?
Sir Cherni’s eyes went wide.
Right then, an unprecedented change began in the table leg.
Tsss...
Chilling light bloomed in strands.
It enveloped the table leg in savage radiance.
It was the radiant resolve that only one who had grasped the sword’s ultimate essence could forge.
Aura.