Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Don't Die
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A resolute voice and expression.
I knew it instinctively.
This endlessly vast being would not grant my plea, no matter how much I begged.
Fine.
So this is how you want to play it. Is that it?
Understood.
Then I’ll have to do things my way.
“Master, then I have a different favor to ask.”
On second thought…
This actually felt more fitting.
I made my request to the Grand Duke, who watched me in silence.
“Please, grant me a lesson.”
I have to get stronger.
I can’t stand myself as I am now.
The corner of the Grand Duke’s mouth seemed to curl slightly before he answered in a majestic voice.
“This is not a bad way to begin.”
The wide-open fields were a perfect place for a duel.
Under the watchful eyes of the two mages, we dismounted and faced each other.
“The stage of Chegeom, is it? To wield such immense mana so freely and also reach the stage of Chegeom in swordsmanship. You are strong.”
With just a glance, the Grand Duke had assessed my level and slowly drew his sword.
“But you still have a long way to go. For now, it seems you must first see the destination you should be striving for. Watch closely. This is the stage of Chunggeom, Ganggi.”
*Wooooooooong—*
The Grand Duke’s sword wept.
Huh…?
My body began to tremble.
What is that…?
That’s Ganggi?
“What do you think?”
“What do I think…?”
I grit my teeth and barely managed to meet the gaze of the Grand Duke’s sword.
I could now understand why Iodine had mistaken me for a Sword Master when we first met.
At a glance, Ganggi looked remarkably similar to a Sword Aura.
The sword hummed, bathed in a golden light.
But the reality was completely different.
Facing it, there was only one thing I could say.
“Am I… still alive?”
It was death in the shape of a sword.
The moment my eyes fell upon it, I felt as if the deepest parts of my soul had been sliced away.
That sword was a boundary.
Beyond it lay nothing but the blackness of death, the cold of the netherworld.
If I were to face that sword, nothing would be able to maintain its original form.
All wisdom, all passion, would be divided and re-divided until it returned to a handful of dust.
“Death. Yes. To your eyes, this appears as death. It seems you’ve lived quite a harsh life.”
He chuckled softly and shifted the tip of his sword slightly to the side.
That alone was enough to make me leap back like a frightened cat.
“But no matter how frightening, there are things you can only learn by facing them. Come at me with all you have.”
I clenched my jaw.
Showing me a sword like that and telling me to attack.
It sounded like a sick joke, but…
“Here I come…!”
It was a necessary step to move forward.
*Gwooooooong—!*
A deep blue Aura Blade extended from Vanroah.
A storm erupted from the intense wave of power.
The sharp sword ki from the stage of Chegeom mixed with the Aura Blade, lashing out in all directions.
The green grass that filled the field was shredded into pieces and whipped into a frenzy.
A blizzard of green swept through the area.
“Hah…”
“Such power…”
The two mages watching us let out groans.
“Excellent. I cannot tell its origin, but it is a truly destructive swordsmanship. Even an upper-tier Expert would have difficulty facing that power.”
Grand Duke Laitena expressed his admiration with an air of leisure.
Alright.
Let’s do this.
My surging aura.
Even though it couldn’t cut through the wolf monster’s claws… still!
My aura has rarely let me down.
I’ll trust it one more time.
“Here I go!”
[Tempest]
*Kwaaaaaang!*
The barrier of wind was torn apart left and right, and I pierced through the path it created.
A super-speed charge.
My deep blue Aura Blade created a storm that seemed ready to tear the world asunder, but…
*Crack!*
The moment it touched the Grand Duke’s Ganggi, it was shredded like paper and fluttered away.
My Aura Blade, which had charged like an angry wolf, scattered like a terrified flock of butterflies.
All I could see before me was… the golden Ganggi, like death itself.
“Ah…”
The fragmented aura drifted about before dissolving back into mana.
I looked at the Grand Duke’s sword, resting lightly on Vanroah.
It wasn’t even a particularly famous sword.
But I knew.
If the Grand Duke had willed it, he could have split Vanroah in two with that mediocre blade.
The match was decided in a single stroke.
A vast, seemingly endless gap.
I swallowed hard and asked him.
“…Are all Sword Masters like this?”
“Any Sword Master can do this much.”
A fresh shock struck the back of my head.
In my era, 10,000 years in the future…
I had been quite confident in myself as a Sword Master…
‘The difference in class is just too great.’
I had been gravely mistaken.
‘…The upper limits of swordsmanship in this era are far higher.’
Modern aura swordsmanship allowed one to grow stronger faster.
By reinforcing the body with the immense output of aura and adding power to the sword, one could overwhelm most enemies.
However, as the stages advanced, it was the ancient swordsmanship that became more sublime.
‘Does the reversal start around the upper-tier Expert level?’
Up to the low and mid-tiers of Expert, an aura swordsman could easily dominate, but from the upper-tier, they would almost certainly lose… and upon reaching the Master level, the gap in class becomes this immense.
In fact, the werewolf-like monsters were a good example.
I couldn’t understand it at all, but their claws were hard enough to withstand my Aura Blade, and their reaction speed was fast enough to dodge my strikes.
Because of that, I was reduced to nothing more than a strong, sturdy idiot.
On the other hand, what about Iodine?
Though she was merely an upper-tier Expert, she had a move that could casually lop off the heads of those monsters.
In terms of swordsmanship—the art of wielding a sword—the ancient techniques far surpassed the modern aura-based ones.
Therefore…
There was only one thing for me to do.
Geomtak.
I must reach that stage.
Only when I could take off the monsters’ heads myself, without borrowing Iodine’s sword, would I be able to stop that absurd attack.
“…What must I do to become stronger?”
Grand Duke Laitena stared into my eyes with a piercing gaze before answering.
“The Chunggeom of a Sword Master is the art of forging a sword with your very soul. Chunggeom is complete when the sword that begins in your small universe imbues the blade held in your hand.”
“Do I have to push my communion with the Sword Spirit to its absolute limit?”
The Grand Duke shook his head.
“No. Rather than communion, you could call it convergence, and then transcendence. The paths up a mountain are many, but all meet at the summit. It is there that you meet and transcend.”
His words were enigmatic.
But the Grand Duke offered no further explanation.
“At your current stage, simply remember. Remember the feeling of the Ganggi I showed you. And that you must forge your soul into a single sword. That will be enough.”
It was still difficult to understand.
But I etched his words into my heart.
***
The following days flowed on as they had before.
I arrived at the castle, met Iodine, she freaked out about my hair and ran away, and that evening, her first lesson began.
The only difference was the change brought about by my higher level.
“Chegeom! I’m so relieved. Geomtak would have been better, but this is good enough!”
Iodine rejoiced as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
I stared at her intently.
I tried not to, but the image kept resurfacing.
The sight of her brilliant golden hair, matted with blood and trampled underfoot.
The moment she, without an aura shield like mine, had stepped in front of me to save me…
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“When one reaches the stage of Geomtak… does the sword sometimes move on its own, against the will of its master?”
“Ah, is that what you were worried about? That you might not be able to control your sword?”
No.
That wasn’t my concern.
I just wanted to know.
Back when the wolf monster launched its suicide attack, was Iodine trying to protect me out of her own will, or was it the sword moving on its own?
“Honestly, such a distinction is meaningless.”
“It’s meaningless?”
“Yes. Though we say the sword moves on its own, to reach that stage, the sword must know its master incredibly well. You could even say that what the sword does on its own is, in fact, your truest intention.”
Ah…
So, in the end, Iodine shielded me of her own accord.
In that life-or-death moment, she worried more about my safety than her own life.
And on a subconscious level, at that.
I…
I failed to protect someone like that.
“Lansen? What’s wrong?”
“…It’s nothing.”
I felt a surge of emotion welling up inside me.
***
I was worried about reality, too.
If time in the real world was passing as it was being rewound… Kushan City would be in shambles by now.
For now, I had no choice but to trust and entrust everything to my siblings and Rivera, but I still had to return as quickly as possible.
‘Eight letters were erased from the Book of Fate that time. If eight more are erased each time I fail, does that mean I have a total of two or three chances? And I’ve already used one?’
A mission I had to succeed in within one, or at most two, more attempts.
But I had no intention of using all those chances.
I hated losing, and I was worried about Kushan City.
‘I’ll succeed this time and go back, even a day sooner.’
However, despite the bone-grinding training of the past ten days, the stage of Geomtak remained a distant goal. I was in a frustrating state, feeling like I was on the verge of understanding, yet unable to grasp it.
That night, after a long training session, I went for a walk in the garden to clear my head.
Before I had walked far, I saw Iodine perched on a rock in the garden.
She was watching the stars again today.
“Are you looking at the thirteen main gods?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
I know. I know all too well. Because you told me.
“Just a feeling. Seemed like something you’d do. You can tell your location by looking at the thirteen main gods. Are you thinking something like you want to protect this place while looking at them?”
When I brought up the story I already knew, Iodine looked a bit embarrassed and averted her gaze.
“That’s right. I want to protect it. Everything I have, I received from here. Food, a home to rest my body, people like family, my dreams, this sword… it all started here. So I have to protect it. I have to repay the grace my master has shown me.”
Repaying her master’s grace…
Iodine was the same, even as she died.
‘You must… survive… You’re… Master’s only… disciple… now…’
She wasn’t afraid of her own death, but of her master’s teachings being lost. That’s what she feared more.
I let out a sigh.
Why would someone like that throw her own life away so easily?
“Iodine.”
“Yeah?”
“Then don’t die.”
“Huh?”
“Protecting things is good, but you have to stay alive for that to be possible. If something happens, think about how to survive first. You fool.”
“What?! You called your senior a fool?! I know we agreed to speak casually, but isn’t that going too far?!”
Iodine flared up and shot to her feet.
I just sighed.
This was worth two days of nagging.
Iodine.
I’ll listen to all your nagging meekly.
So please, just don’t die this time. Please.