Chapter 20: Blind Trust (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 20: Blind Trust (2)
Outside Dmitry Castle lay the slums where Kevin was born.
He lived in a dilapidated shack that could barely be called a home. From a young age, he helped his parents scrape by, doing everything from running simple errands to grueling manual labor. Such was the life of the poor; as a boy, he never dared to dream of greatness.
He only wanted one thing.
To live an ordinary life.
Not the life of a fairy-tale hero, but a life where he didn't have to worry about his next meal.
And yet—
Tremble.
Pant, pant.
His hands shook.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, his vision blurring with dizziness as he stared down at his own arm.
His arm.
Was cutting it off really the right choice?
Roman hadn't forced this upon him. Choosing to follow Hans would have aligned perfectly with his dream of normalcy, but Kevin couldn't shake the memory of the day he first met Roman. Roman was strong. He was a man who backed up his words, a man who effortlessly wiped out Blood Fang—a vicious syndicate Kevin had never even dared to look in the eye.
It was intoxicating.
The sheer power of true strength.
Having lived a life where he was constantly the one being trampled and robbed, Kevin simply couldn't turn away from this moment.
‘Young Master Roman promised me a new life. I must become someone useful to him.’
He gritted his teeth.
And then—
Slash!
"Aaargh!"
He hacked into his own arm.
As the sharp blade bit into his flesh, the agonizing pain threatened to shatter his consciousness, despite his belief that he was accustomed to suffering. The problem was that the arm wasn't completely severed yet. The sword Roman had tossed him was dull, and for a young boy lacking physical strength, sawing through solid bone required dozens of desperate strikes.
Grate, grate.
A sickening, dull sound echoed.
It was the sound of bone being forcibly sawed apart—a sound that sent shivers down the spine just by hearing it.
Kevin's face flushed so red it looked ready to burst. He lost all awareness of what he was even doing.
He simply kept going.
Roman had said he could become strong.
Clinging to the birth of his very first 'dream,' Kevin forced down the agony again and again.
And finally.
Thud.
The arm fell away.
All strength drained from his body. Unable to support himself, Kevin collapsed into the pool of his own blood.
It was then that everything vanished like a mirage.
The blood pooling on the floor.
The severed arm rolling beside him.
Even the agonizing pain tearing through his mind—all of it faded.
He didn't know how it was possible, but one thing was certain: he had passed the third choice.
"From this moment on, you will live as a sword that strikes in my stead."
The world shifted back into focus.
Mind still reeling, Kevin pushed himself up and bowed flat on the ground before Roman.
"I obey my lord's command."
Roman.
Following this man was the only path his life would take from now on.
*
After parting ways with Kevin, Roman returned to his room, where Hans rushed out to meet him in a flurry of panic.
"Oh, Young Master! Are you hurt? There's blood—blood on your sword!"
"It is nothing."
"But..."
"Hans."
Hans, who had been frantically checking Roman's body for injuries, slowly withdrew his hands at the firm tone.
Roman was strong. Considering he hadn't even blinked while wiping out Blood Fang, Hans realized he was overreacting. Besides, there were no visible wounds. That meant the blood on the blade belonged to someone else.
Heh.
‘What a relentless kid.’
Roman smirked.
During the incident with Kevin, Roman had never actually intended for the boy to lose an arm.
He had only planned to test the boy's resolve using a temporary illusion. However, Kevin had hacked into his own arm before the illusion could even take full effect. The blood on the sword was the result. Fortunately, by a hair's breadth, the blade hadn't cut all the way through the flesh. Had the Phantom Demon Art activated even a fraction of a second slower, the arm would have been completely severed.
The boy was a monster of sheer willpower.
He wasn't a typical genius, but his determination was so immense it had no equal.
And so, looking down at Kevin as he swore his eternal loyalty, Roman had spoken in a calm tone.
"The Mana Cultivation Method I will teach you from now on is a very dangerous power. The pain is not severe when your achievement is low, but the stronger you become, the more you will have to endure the exact kind of agony you just experienced. Yet, there is a reason I am teaching you this method. It is the fastest way for a teenage boy who doesn't even know the basics of mana to grow strong. If you master this cultivation method to its absolute limit, you will gain the power to protect those around you."
The Ghost Soul Demonic Art.
Since it couldn't be perfectly explained using the concepts of this world, Roman had wrapped it in the plausible packaging of a "Mana Cultivation Method."
Kevin had been deeply moved by those words.
In this world, a Mana Cultivation Method was not something a lowly commoner could ever hope to access.
Even though the risks were immense, the fact that Roman was personally teaching him a cultivation method made Kevin doubt his own ears. Roman was a good man. He had saved Kevin from a beating, wiped out Blood Fang, and offered a future that a mere commoner like him could never have dreamed of.
But why?
Why did he trust him so much?
Kevin could easily run away after learning the cultivation method, so he couldn't understand why Roman placed such blind trust in him.
So, he had asked.
"Why do you trust me?"
Roman had smiled.
Kevin's question was exactly like the one the Mad Demon had once asked.
Once, the Mad Demon had also been an ordinary boy, entirely deprived of the chance to learn martial arts. He, too, had learned the Ghost Soul Demonic Art through Roman. At first, he hadn't taken Roman's favor seriously. But years later, after they had conquered Murim, the Mad Demon had finally asked the reason behind that blind trust.
The answer was simple.
‘To receive blind trust, I must first trust the other person. Even if I am betrayed.’
Trust is blind.
It does not require a reason; you trust simply because you choose to trust.
But Roman did not explain all of this to Kevin. Blind trust loses its value the moment it is wrapped in flowery words. Besides, Roman had never worried about betrayal in his life. The stronger his followers became, and the more independent they grew, the more they would realize just how suicidal it was to betray the man known as the Heavenly Demon, Baek Joong-hyuk.
Therefore, he had ended the conversation with a simple, "Just because."
Now, Roman stared intently at his sword.
In the blood-stained blade, he saw a reflection of the Mad Demon. From this moment on, he would forge a bond with this boy, Kevin, who so closely resembled him.
"Things are about to get busy."
There were two weeks until the party.
About six months until the war.
Starting now, he had a great deal to teach Kevin.
*
Time is relative.
While Kevin began to live a fierce, grueling life, Chris spent his days in such tedious boredom that he wondered if this was really okay.
"So boring."
He yawned for the dozenth time.
From a distance, Chris watched Roman and Kevin.
"The basics are crucial in everything."
"Even if you only do one thing, do it correctly."
"Do not lose your focus."
It was truly an eyesore.
He understood what they were doing, but he couldn't comprehend why.
‘Why on earth did he pick up some random kid from who-knows-where and start teaching him swordsmanship?’
If the boy were some incredible genius, he could at least understand.
But Kevin was neither a great genius, nor did he possess a high status that would warrant teaching him as a favor.
He was a mere commoner.
On top of that, he was completely ignorant of swordsmanship.
A sigh escaped Chris's lips.
When he first decided to follow Roman, he had never imagined a scene like this.
‘I thought following Young Master Roman would teach me the secret to getting strong quickly. But what is this? He hasn't taught me a single thing like he does with Kevin, and he treats me like I don't even exist. If it was going to be like this, I would have been better off swinging my sword one more time by my master's side.’
His insides boiled.
Whenever the gentle breeze whistled through the gap of his missing tooth, he wanted to march over to Roman and scream at the top of his lungs.
Still, he endured.
He had chosen to follow him, after all.
He believed that if he just gritted his teeth and waited, Roman would eventually look his way.
But—
"Ah, fuck it."
Thud!
He threw his training gloves onto the ground.
It had already been a week.
Unable to suppress his anger any longer at the sight of Roman ignoring him to exclusively teach Kevin, Chris marched up to Roman.
"Young Master Roman."
"...?"
"It has already been over two weeks since I began following you. One of those weeks was wasted while you were in closed-door training, and for the other, I've been pushed aside for Kevin, doing nothing but watching him train. If you are doing this because you were displeased with how rudely I behaved at first, I sincerely apologize. So please, teach me something too, just like you do with Kevin. I promise to work as hard as I can, no matter what the lesson is."
His determination was palpable.
As Chris laid bare his resolve, Roman shifted his gaze from Kevin and stared intently at him.
"Did I not tell you? To watch and learn from your surroundings."
"...Did you seriously mean for me to just watch and learn? You aren't going to teach me anything special?"
Chris was dumbfounded.
What on earth did that mean?
He had assumed that "learning from your surroundings" was a prelude to receiving direct instruction. He simply could not accept this reality.
"Young Master! Even if I suffered a crushing defeat in our duel, I am still someone who reached the 2-Star Realm in my mid-twenties. I cannot let my talent, which the world calls genius, rot away like this!"
His protest was fierce.
As Chris raised his voice, refusing to back down, Roman swallowed a laugh.
It was exactly as he had expected.
He knew Chris wouldn't endure being ignored forever.
Roman spoke.
"Every person has their own path. Because Kevin is a blank slate, he needs someone to shape his foundation correctly from start to finish until he reaches a certain level. But you are different. No matter what teachings I impart to you right now, you wouldn't truly understand them. You would only force yourself to swallow them because I am the one who defeated you. In that state, your talent would actually produce the opposite effect."
"...So you are telling me to just keep watching?"
"No."
Roman had been waiting.
Waiting for Chris to finally push back.
Now was the time to show those who had chosen to follow him the harsh reality of things.
"To accept reality, one needs a clear result. How about this? Why don't you have a proxy duel with Kevin? If you still think you are right even after the proxy duel, I will personally teach you from then on."
Roman's proposal was completely beyond common sense.
A proxy duel.
It was an unfamiliar term, but Chris's confusion was quickly cleared up by Roman's explanation.
"The meaning of a proxy duel is simple. Kevin will be your opponent, but while the duel is underway, I will instruct Kevin on how to defeat you. So, prove your resolve by defeating Kevin, who will act as my avatar."
Roman's words were absurd.
And they made Chris's blood boil.
‘...Does this bastard really take me for a fool?’
He had admitted his defeat to Roman.
Every morning when he looked in the mirror, he stared at the empty gap where his tooth used to be and replayed that moment countless times.
But this was different.
His opponent was a complete novice who didn't even know the basics of holding a sword.
No matter what a proxy duel was, his defeat was utterly impossible.
‘Right, so breaking my tooth wasn't enough, and now you want to completely tame me? What you want is blind loyalty. But I'm not that easy. Even if I have to smash the face of the eldest son of the Lord of Dmitry, I won't just sit back and take this kind of treatment.’
His eyebrows twitched upward.
He had truly wanted to do well.
Since he had left the knights division after making a solemn declaration to his master, he desperately wanted to achieve something before returning.
And yet, he had spent two weeks with absolutely nothing to show for it.
The dissatisfaction he had barely managed to suppress finally exploded at Roman's audacity.
"Fine. Let's do this. I'll show you once and for all that I'm not someone to be taken lightly."
Chris thought to himself.
This time, it would be different from their last duel.