Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Different Auras
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I’d come to the past.
And not just any past, but the Age of Magic, a full ten thousand years ago.
Who knew the Book of Fate had a function like this!
But it was far too absurd to just marvel at and move on…
It didn't matter.
‘If I've really traveled back ten thousand years…’
If that was truly the case, there was only one thing I needed to think about right now.
Beyond this torch-lit corridor… there…
‘Is there really an elixir?’
A miraculous medicine that could restore not only severed limbs but even a damaged aura core.
The name ‘elixir’ melted away all my questions.
What the Book of Fate was, how I would return to my own time… all that nonsense.
Those were problems for later.
An elixir was right there…!
A chance to reclaim everything I'd lost…!
Thump.
For the first time in a very long while, my heart began to pound.
* * *
“Thankfully, the elixir is safe. The sacrifices are fine, too.”
The man in the deep hood lifted a finger-sized glass vial that sat on one side of the altar.
At that moment, I hesitated.
‘Should I strike?’
Should I kill them all right now and seize the elixir?
There were twelve people around me.
The six hooded figures who'd come with me.
And the six warriors guarding the altar.
Still…
‘Isn't it worth a try…?’
My heart snarled.
Telling me to act now.
But,
I glanced over at the man who seemed to be their leader.
He bothered me.
The others posed no threat at all…
But my instincts kept warning me away from him.
‘…This is ten thousand years in the past. I don't know this era.’
I forced my seething heart to calm down.
This era was called the Age of Magic.
An age that produced sublime magical artifacts unimaginable in the modern day.
‘Who knows. They might use magic. I have to be careful.’
Fighting mages was always tricky and dangerous.
It was true in my time, so how much more so in a place called the Age of Magic?
‘For now, I'll gather information and look for an opening.’
I blended into the group and observed the situation.
The leader gave an order.
“Pair up and search for intruders. Kaltic, Krum. To the east passage. Seirung, Totun, to the west passage. Seruas, Lansen. To the north passage. I will guard the altar here.”
I was stunned once again.
‘He knows… my name?’
He had clearly called me Lansen.
Just in case, I checked my senses once more.
Nothing was out of place.
Arms, legs, toes, shoulders, fingers. They were all mine.
I was, without a doubt, the Lansen who had lived in the year 1351 of the Continental Calendar.
My prosthetic right arm and left leg were still there, and the wound Nagi gave me still throbbed.
The Book of Fate was in my coat, and the longsword at my waist was the one I always used.
All my belongings were with me; only a black, hooded robe had been added over my clothes.
In that case,
‘Is this… some kind of suggestion?’
There was no way they could know me, yet they did.
And they mistakenly believed I was one of their comrades.
Only powerful magic that interfered with the mind could produce such a result.
‘The Book of Fate… What in the world is it?’
Time travel, automatically teaching me an ancient language I'd never heard, changing my clothes, and even interfering with the minds of those around me.
Even for an ancient artifact… does this make any sense?
My mind was in chaos.
But for now, I pushed down all the questions that arose.
The matter at hand was more important.
“What are you standing around for? Let's hurry.”
One of the hooded men, the shortest of the group, came up and tapped my shoulder.
‘So this is Seruas.’
My partner for searching the north passage.
I followed him, my mind racing.
‘What should I do now?’
Since the group has split up to the east, west, and north, should I pick them off one by one?
No. Maybe I should find the intruder first.
I'm curious how the people of this era fight, anyway.
As I walked down the north passage, lost in thought, a sound reached my ears.
The unnatural sound of a breath, thin and suppressed.
‘How lucky.’
It was the intruder.
No one but an intruder would need to hold their breath like that.
Judging by the presence I felt, they seemed to be a low-level Expert.
‘But why are they doing that? They could just circulate a little aura to erase the sound…’
I looked at Seruas. Surely he'd noticed too?
But,
‘…he didn't notice?’
…What is this?
An Expert trying to pass that off as stealth, and Seruas failing to notice it.
In my time, not even an Expert, but any aura user would have noticed…
‘Is the development of swordsmanship lagging behind?’
A civilization that went all-in on magic, leaving swordsmanship impoverished?
It was a plausible theory.
Well, I'll know soon enough.
There was a corner up ahead.
The intruder was hiding right behind it.
And Seruas was heading straight for it without a care.
A clash was imminent.
I heightened my senses.
How do the people of this era fight?
Shnk!
A cold, metallic sound rang out.
To my fully focused eyes, the entire scene unfolded in slow motion.
A blonde woman burst out from around the corner.
Clad in silver armor, her sword was wreathed in a shimmering, heat-haze-like energy.
Startled, Seruas angled his sword to block the attack.
His sword, too, was wreathed in that same hazy energy.
The woman's sword cut Seruas,
in two.
Sword and all,
as smoothly as slicing tofu.
Goosebumps prickled down my spine.
‘…What? She sliced through both the sword and the man…? How?’
The result itself wasn't all that impressive.
I could also cut through a chunk of steel and a person at the same time.
But not like that.
‘No… The sword was quite slow, wasn't it? And why was the cut so clean? There was almost no sound.’
If I had done it…
I would have had to swing my sword at least twice as fast.
And I couldn't have cut so cleanly.
My powerful, destructive Sword Aura would have shattered the blade and left the flesh torn and ragged.
In contrast, her slow sword divided Seruas so smoothly it was as if he had always been in two pieces.
Even the blood spurted from the wound with a delay.
And there was something else that was strange.
‘Is that even Sword Aura…?’
Sword Aura is the state where the blade is dyed with the color of one's aura.
But this woman's sword had no color.
Just a transparent haze shimmering over the blade.
‘It's different… Completely different. Is this a form of swordsmanship that developed entirely differently from my era?’
Curiosity and tension over this unknown power rose in me at the same time.
I stared hard, observing the woman.
Thud.
Seruas's body collapsed. Between the two halves, the woman's blue eyes seemed to burn.
Shing!
The moment the woman's feet kicked off the ground, I ducked my head.
Her silver blade passed over my hair.
A dizzying sharpness I had never felt before gave me goosebumps.
Even though her blade didn't touch me, the haze flowing along it cut through my hair, which fluttered down.
Is it like an Aura Thread?
To be cut without the blade even touching me…
The more I watched, the less I understood.
‘…Let's just clash and see.’
There was a limit to what I could learn from observation alone.
I drew up my Sword Aura with all my might and clashed swords with her.
Claaaang!
A repulsive force exploded from the tip of my blade.
“Kyaa!”
The haze clinging to the woman's sword shattered into pieces.
The woman staggered back from the impact.
I was a little taken aback.
‘What? Its durability is pathetic, isn't it?’
I never thought it would break in a single blow.
‘But…’
This was strange, too.
‘My blade is damaged?’
That flimsy energy cut through my aura and chipped my blade?
‘What a truly strange power…’
I glanced for a moment at my nicked sword.
The woman, who had staggered back, muttered with a pale face.
“Geomgang? No, that's not it… It's a bit strange?”
She seemed flustered, too.
So I'm not the only one who finds this strange.
My sword must look strange to you, right?
‘First, a confirmation.’
Sword Aura, in the end, is about processing mana into aura and imbuing a sword with it.
That was common sense in my era… but it doesn't seem to be the case in this one.
They use some unfathomable method to create that haze,
‘This is doable.’
I'll admit it's incredibly sharp.
But that was all it had.
Its durability is far inferior, and their technique for reinforcing the body with aura seems quite primitive.
It doesn't seem like she knows how to use magic, either…
If this is really all she has,
she's no match for me.
Vwooom-!
A deep blue Sword Aura stained my blade.
‘Should I capture her first? If I bring back the intruder… I might be able to create an opening.’
If I lower their guard and launch a surprise attack, I might be able to easily dispose of that leader who gave me such an ominous feeling.
So how should I capture her? Cut off her legs?
As I was contemplating this,
the woman, who had been retreating, seemingly intimidated by my Sword Aura, cried out in desperation.
“Have you no shame? A swordsman like you, siding with a cult that kidnaps children…!”
Those words struck me.
“…Children?”
I reacted instinctively to the familiar word.
The woman snarled, clenching her teeth.
“Are you playing dumb? I've already confirmed the traces. Where are the children? Don't tell me they've already been… used as living sacrifices?”
Her fury blazed.
Children?
Kidnapping?
Living sacrifices?
I took a large step back.
I stared at the woman for a moment before asking bluntly.
“How old?”
“What?”
“How old are the kidnapped kids?”
“Hah? Still playing innocent…”
“How old.”
Sensing my killing intent, the woman flinched before answering with a suspicious gaze.
“From seven to fifteen years old. Thirteen of them in total.”
The moment I heard that, I made up my mind.
“What in the world are you plotting…?”
Facing the bewildered woman, I calmly suppressed my presence.
My ears were wide open, meticulously sensing even the faintest vibrations transmitting through the floor beneath my feet.
After a moment, the woman's eyes sharpened again.
“You… were you waiting for reinforcements? You coward!”
The hazy energy rose again from the tip of her readjusted sword.
At the same time, the voices I'd been waiting for came from behind me.
“Seruas was taken down?”
“Let's join in.”
It was the hooded figures who had gone to search the east passage.
Perhaps there was some device on Seruas's dead body; I had sensed them approaching not long after he died.
This was good. It saved me the trouble of hunting them down.
Hooo-
I waited for them to pass right beside me.
I relaxed my shoulders.
And,
now!
At the perfect moment, I exhaled sharply and swung my sword in a wide circle.
Shk!
Tzgk!
The necks of the two men were caught in the circular arc of my blade.
“Krrk!”
“Keuk!”
With the sound of gurgling blood, the two men's bodies slid across the floor.
Pools of blood formed beneath their flailing bodies.
Good. So that leaves three of them?
“Wha… What are you doing?!”
The woman's eyes went wide, her mouth agape.
She must have been shocked to see me suddenly cut down my own allies.
I gave a simple reply.
“I changed my mind.”
When you think about it, there's no reason for me to fight this woman, is there?
I have to get rid of those suspicious hooded figures—the cultists?—anyway… It's better to side with this woman.
Besides… she said she came here to save young children.
‘I know that feeling all too well.’
I flicked my sword once and sheathed it.
I nodded at the woman.
“Let's be on the same side. I was never one of those cultists to begin with.”
“Huh?”
She's a bit slow on the uptake.
Has she never seen a betrayal before?
“Never mind that. Just bring up that hazy thing and pretend to fight me. Quickly.”
It'll be easier to kill the rest as they come.