Chapter 162: Public Ranking Match (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 162: Public Ranking Match (1)
The Temple of Valhalla.
Willas, a priest of the Cairo branch, grumbled as he watered the wilting flowers.
"How utterly tedious."
For the past year, the Temple of Valhalla had been suffocatingly dull.
Normally, even if they weren't a daily occurrence, ranking match applications would trickle in just as the boredom became unbearable. But now, as if they had all made a secret pact, not a single person stepped forward to request a match. Willas knew exactly why. The moment Roman Dmitry returned from the Southern Front and mentioned the ranking matches, the rankers abruptly ceased all competition with one another.
"Exactly one year from now, Roman Dmitry will trigger a massive upheaval in the Cairo Kingdom's rankings. Anyone who wishes to prove themselves should hone their skills over this year and prove their worth against him."
It was an extraordinary declaration.
Roman Dmitry was a monstrous talent watched by the entire continent. Regardless of victory or defeat, simply showing a strong performance against him could instantly elevate a swordsman's standing.
After all, what was the ranking system? Ultimately, it was a battlefield where those starved for honor fought tooth and nail to prove their worth. Naturally, they gravitated toward stages with the largest audiences and the greatest rewards. Thus, the rankers of Cairo followed Roman Dmitry's lead and entered closed-door training one after another. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of the Cairo Kingdom. Because a single swordsman in his mid-twenties had turned the continent upside down, the kingdom's greatest warriors were engaging in a collective silence never seen before.
Willas understood their feelings. If the opponent had been anyone else, the ranking matches wouldn't have ground to a complete halt like this.
‘Roman Dmitry stands on a very peculiar boundary. His official rank is 100th due to his duel with Homeros, but he proved his true strength by defeating Butler, the second-ranked swordsman of the Hector Kingdom. That is where the problem begins. Logically, the 100th ranker should prove himself step-by-step starting against the 99th ranker at the bottom, but his actual strength is already considered on par with Cairo's absolute strongest.’
From 1st to 99th. They were all Roman's prey.
Since they didn't know what approach he would take, the swordsmen remained on high alert against a potential challenge. Furthermore, there was one glaring detail that held Roman Dmitry back in the eyes of the public.
His youth.
People still harbored lingering doubts. They acknowledged that Roman was strong, but they wondered if his achievement of defeating Butler had been somehow exaggerated. If so, this could be an incredible opportunity. Since reaching such a transcendent realm in one's twenties was practically impossible, Cairo's swordsmen secretly hoped to claim the glorious achievement of striking down the great Roman Dmitry.
It was an ambiguous boundary. As a result, Cairo was steeped in silence. With the emergence of an anomaly like Roman, the rankers hid themselves away and honed their skills to the absolute limit.
‘No matter what choice he makes, it is certain that the moment Roman Dmitry moves, Cairo's rankings will be pushed down one by one.’
It was an undeniable certainty. According to Valhalla's intelligence network, the duel with Butler was genuine. Whether Roman challenged from the top down or from the bottom up, Roman Dmitry alone was going to force every ranker in Cairo to step down a peg.
It was then.
"Priest! Priest Willas!"
A devotee of Valhalla sprinted over, gasping for breath as he shouted in an urgent voice.
"We have received word from Roman Dmitry! He is finally initiating the public ranking matches you've been waiting for!"
At those words, a bright, childlike smile spread across Willas's face.
* * *
At that exact moment, Marquis Benedict received the same report.
"...So, he is finally making his move."
Over the past year, he had done his absolute utmost to recruit Roman. Although Roman Dmitry had set a strict deadline of one year, Marquis Benedict firmly believed that persistence would claim the ultimate prize. He regularly sent lavish gifts, personally attended to the Dmitry family's events, and even sent his own daughter on one occasion in an attempt to win the young man's favor.
Despite all his efforts, Roman never gave a definitive answer. He might have secured more of Roman's goodwill than the other nobles, but a firm commitment remained elusive.
‘The recent international situation is highly volatile.’
The Kronos Empire was like an active volcano. No one knew when they would erupt, driven by the warmongers within who fiercely advocated for continental conquest. Above all, key figures from the magic towers within the Kronos Empire had recently vanished without a trace.
It had started with Phoenix of the Frank Kingdom. At the time, people dismissed it as an isolated incident involving a single magic tower, but as tower masters went missing one after another, whispers of a dark conspiracy began to spread. Naturally, the Kronos Empire, claiming to have suffered the greatest damage, expressed outward fury. Convinced—or at least pretending to be—that it was the work of rival nations, they raised their voices, declaring that now was the perfect opportunity to conquer the continent.
Kronos's power was terrifyingly formidable. Even though the world knew exactly what ambitions they harbored, no one dared poke the hornet's nest, terrified that those ambitions might become a bloody reality.
The same was true for the Valhalla Empire. Although Valhalla had rapidly expanded its power thanks to the geographical advantage of its tropical rainforests and its lack of shared borders with Kronos, it still couldn't guarantee victory in a direct, all-out war.
It was a powder keg waiting for a spark. In times like these, the weak nations felt the most suffocating anxiety. Cairo, which shared a direct border with Kronos, could be invaded at any given moment.
‘War with Kronos is an inevitable reality. When they cross our borders and fully unleash their ambitions, Cairo will need a highly organized, unified power structure to resist them. We already exposed fatal internal flaws during the battle on the Southern Front. Now is the time for change. If the Noble Faction can just recruit Roman Dmitry, we will no longer have to stand by and watch this fragile power structure persist.’
The Royal Knights. Roman was the final puzzle piece Benedict desperately needed to annihilate them.
That was why he had waited so patiently, even as Roman kept him dangling on a string. He was a man well worth the wait. If they could secure Cairo's greatest talent, overthrowing the country would be child's play for the Noble Faction.
‘A weak king cannot survive this chaotic era. But if, by some chance, Roman Dmitry does not give us the answer we want...’
Crack.
He crushed the teacup in his grip. His goodwill had stemmed entirely from hope. The moment even a shred of that hope was denied, Marquis Benedict would not leave a dangerous variable like Roman unchecked.
Blood dripped from his lacerated palm. Wiping it away with a silk handkerchief, he called for his vassal.
"So, where is Roman Dmitry now?"
He assumed the young man had come to the capital. Since most of the high-ranking swordsmen resided there, the vassal's reply completely defied his expectations.
"...Well, Roman Dmitry is currently in the North."
The North.
That made his intentions crystal clear. Roman Dmitry had chosen to climb up from the very bottom.
* * *
Rank 99.
Jayden swallowed hard as he stared at the letter he had received a few days prior.
[As a ranker of Cairo, I hereby request a ranking match against the 99th-ranked Jayden.]
Finally, the time had come. Roman Dmitry, the subject of endless rumors and speculation, had finally begun to move in earnest. Contrary to expectations that he would target the high rankers first, he had singled out Jayden as his very first opponent.
Objectively speaking, this was an overwhelmingly one-sided match in Roman's favor. There was no need to even bring up his victory over Butler; his achievement of defeating Homeros alone was more than enough to crush all of Cairo's mid-to-low-tier rankers.
However, Jayden viewed this duel as a golden opportunity.
‘Roman Dmitry is someone aiming for the absolute summit. If he truly possesses the strength the rumors claim, he wouldn't want to waste his energy in a war of attrition against low-ranking swordsmen like me. Perhaps the rumors are exaggerated. Anticipating an eventual defeat against the true high rankers, he is intentionally using us as scapegoats to boost his own reputation.’
It was a plausible hypothesis. If Roman's strength was the real deal, skipping meaningless battles and challenging the 1st ranker directly would be far more logical. All he could gain from fighting the bottom ranks was a string of victories that everyone already expected. If fatigue accumulated in the process, he couldn't guarantee victory in his subsequent matches.
Perhaps that was his angle. If he accumulated fatigue and suffered minor injuries, he could use them as a convenient excuse to gracefully back out later.
That was exactly why Jayden did not avoid the duel. He showed up on the specified date, his sword at his side, and faced Roman Dmitry.
‘He really is young, just like the rumors say.’
His mid-twenties youth was undeniable. Hearing rumors that Roman had already scheduled his next match, Jayden's competitive spirit flared up fiercely.
‘I will give it my all from the very first second.’
He didn't actually expect to win. But even in defeat, he wanted to prove exactly what kind of swordsman Jayden was.
Willas acted as the referee. Having rushed over the moment he received the application, he quickly checked the combatants and immediately signaled the start of the duel.
Flutter.
"Begin!"
The signal fell like a bolt of lightning.
At that exact moment—
Thud.
Jayden's consciousness plunged into a deep, distant darkness.
* * *
The onlookers were struck with absolute horror.
Just one second. The duel was decided in a single instant.
Roman seemed to blur forward in a flash, and before Jayden could even attempt to draw his sword, Roman struck his vital point with devastating precision.
That was the end of it. His monstrous reputation was indeed well-deserved. The crowd stood completely speechless, their mouths hanging agape. They knew Roman was strong, but just like Jayden, they had secretly harbored that lingering doubt of "what if."
Willas rushed over to check Jayden's condition. Seeing that the man was completely unconscious, Willas looked up at Roman in disbelief.
"This was such a one-sided match that it was practically meaningless. Is there really a need for you to go through such troublesome duels? With your skills, Lord Roman Dmitry, you could easily challenge the high-ranking rankers right away. Why not skip these matches and start from around the 30th rank instead? Surely you know that starting from the very bottom offers no benefit to someone aiming for the absolute top."
Willas had heard the whispers too. The rumors that by challenging the 99th ranker, Roman was looking for a convenient excuse to run away later. If he defeated opponents up to a moderate rank and then withdrew due to "accumulated fatigue," Roman could secure his honor while avoiding the true powerhouses. It was considered a highly clever strategy. Leaving behind a sense of 'hope'—even if accompanied by doubts—would be far more advantageous than suffering a humiliating defeat.
Roman spoke calmly.
"I understand why you say that, Priest Willas. However, that is precisely why I must climb up from the very bottom."
The rumors of the world and the life Roman Dmitry had lived provided the justification.
If he had been hailed as a peerless genius of swordsmanship since childhood, people would have watched his ascent without a single shred of doubt. But that was not the truth. Before Baek Joong-hyuk took over his body, Roman Dmitry had been known as the Dmitry family's fool. His era of infamy vastly outweighed his brief tenure as Cairo's hero.
Because of that past, people couldn't help but doubt him at every turn. Even as they hailed him as a hero, they constantly questioned whether his strength was truly as absolute as the rumors claimed. This duel with the 99th ranker had only fueled those suspicions. No matter how one looked at it, if he truly desired the summit, there was no logical reason to overexert himself like this.
"I am well aware of the rumors circulating because of this duel. The reason people doubt my choice is likely because they believe someone with my past cannot claim the summit of the Cairo Kingdom. That is why I made this decision. From the very bottom to the absolute top. If I crush every single powerhouse without stopping, then no matter what kind of life I have lived, not a single shred of doubt will remain."
With those final words, Roman turned around. His next duel was already scheduled.
Watching Roman's retreating back as he walked away, Willas felt his blood boil with sheer excitement.
‘Now this is it.’
From 99th to 1st. Roman had just declared he would face them all. Whether the world doubted him or not, Roman's vow to shatter those doubts through sheer, overwhelming violence brought genuine joy to Willas's heart. In his tedious life in Cairo, he had been waiting for a monster exactly like Roman.
Though he didn't know where Roman's challenge would finally hit its limit, Willas prayed he would hold out for as long as possible.
News of the anticlimactic duel immediately swept through the Cairo Kingdom like wildfire.
* * *
The first victory.
People took it for granted. Yet, they were still bound by their skepticism.
"It's an arrogant challenge, but isn't he pushing himself too hard? Roman Dmitry has set an impossibly tight schedule. No matter how great of a powerhouse he is, if he has to manifest his Aura day after day, fatigue is bound to accumulate. How on earth does he plan to win against the high-ranking rankers at the end?"
"Exactly. And he can't afford to drag his feet either. Didn't he declare that he would challenge all the way to the 1st rank without stopping? If he keeps delaying his schedule to rest, it would make his grand declaration look pathetic."
This ranking match was an unprecedented event. Even those who fully acknowledged Roman Dmitry believed that reaching the 1st rank from the 99th was an insurmountable task.
One person a day. That meant at least 99 days of consecutive combat. Ending that entire grueling schedule in flawless victory was practically impossible.
Yet, it took less than a single week for every last one of those doubts to completely vanish.