Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: A Chance for Victory
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The hands of the fiercely fighting soldiers began to slow.
Their gazes kept darting away.
An empty clearing had opened up in the middle of the pandemonium-filled battlefield.
In its center, two men were locked in a duel.
“The Count's brothers are all monsters, but…”
“To think he's facing Jahir of a Hundred Victories…”
A bloody battle that had already raged for over fifteen minutes.
They must have exchanged over two hundred blows in that time.
Baren Rodona was drenched in blood from head to toe.
In comparison, Jahir was in far better shape, but it didn't seem to be an easy fight for him either.
His armor was torn in places and covered in dirt and dust.
“Oh, you've improved quite a bit, haven't you?”
Baren merely glared in silence at Jahir's words.
“That last move was excellent. But if it were me, I probably would have done this.”
Jahir said, twirling his longsword, which was just over two meters long.
Baren grumbled internally.
*That bastard’s ‘if it were me, if it were me’… You think you’re so great.*
The truly infuriating part was that the experienced old man really could replicate his techniques in his own, more plausible way.
“You detached a strand of aura and accelerated it beforehand, right? Then you suddenly released it for a rapid burst of speed without any warning… But what about this?”
*Kaaang!*
Jahir's longsword shot out, aiming for Baren's temple.
Baren parried it and advanced.
With his relatively shorter sword, Baren tried to close the distance, but each time, Jahir skillfully pushed him back.
Then, at a certain moment,
*Kkang!*
Jahir's sword, having clashed once more,
*Taaang!*
accelerated again as if exploding, sending Baren's sword, which had been pressed close, flying.
Jahir grinned.
“Like this. Instead of thrusting in a different direction, you accelerate once more in the same direction. You just overwhelm them with power.”
*Kwak!*
Jahir took one hand off his sword and grabbed the collar of the retreating Baren.
“Then their posture breaks, like so.”
*Pwak!*
Jahir pulled Baren toward him and kicked his shin.
*Ppaak!*
Baren's feet lifted off the ground.
All that remained was a fall to the earth.
*Keuk!*
A cold sweat broke out down his back.
If I fall like this, I'll die. I'll definitely die.
The action followed the thought.
While his body was airborne, he drew a 30-centimeter shortsword and swung it at Jahir.
He couldn't just swing wildly.
A random slash would just be blocked by an aura shield.
Focusing his aura as much as possible, he aimed precisely for Jahir's carotid artery.
There, even a small amount of bleeding could be a fatal wound.
*Pwak!*
*Kung!*
It was an instant.
Baren swung his sword,
and Jahir, who had been pulling him by the collar, pushed him away instead and pulled his body back.
Taking advantage of the opening, the fallen Baren quickly got back to his feet.
*Phew… If it weren't for my sister and brother, I would have died several times already.*
The reaction speed trained by Katrina. And the precision and freedom of the ancient sword style taught by Lansen.
If even one of them had been missing, he would surely be dead.
Jahir was thinking something similar.
“Keung… Your reaction speed is one thing, but that sword of yours is incredibly sharp, isn't it? How did you manage to aim so precisely for the carotid artery in that situation? I was just going to take the hit and be done with it.”
Jahir clicked his tongue as if in disappointment.
Baren, dripping with sweat and blood, radiated malice.
“Old man. Don't be so smug. You'll go down in an instant.”
It wasn't an empty bluff.
*Almost there…*
The strategy he had learned from Kalserik was singular.
The timing to deceive the enemy.
Kalserik's theory was that even if you were pushed back again and again, you could win if you deceived the enemy just once, and he had learned that timing.
*If I just endure a little longer… an opportunity to deceive him will surely come.*
And when it came to deception, Baren was truly confident.
The sword style of the House of Marquis Rodona, the Deceiving-Killing Sword, was a technique-based style that thrived on the unexpected.
It was a style where one could be on the defensive for three hundred exchanges, only to seize a single opportunity to cut down the enemy.
So, just once.
If he was given just one chance!
*Huk-!*
That was why he had been constantly looking for it.
Suddenly, a single arrow flew in without a sound,
and as Jahir quickly twisted his body to deflect it,
Baren moved immediately, as if it had all been planned.
*Kaang!*
Baren's sword clashed with Jahir's longsword.
Sparks flew wildly from the flurry of blows exchanged in an instant.
Jahir, whose posture had been broken while dodging the arrow, was quickly put on the defensive.
*Now!*
The momentum of the fight.
The position of his gaze.
The 'person that is me' that the enemy was judging.
A single deception to overturn all of these things.
This was the very moment Kalserik had spoken of.
Baren prepared a decisive strike.
*Wooooong-!*
Baren's sword trembled fearsomely.
Aura threads streamed from it.
Jahir tensed up.
It was clearly a full-power blow.
It was daunting, but,
*A brat is still a brat.*
He was a veteran warrior who had fought a hundred battles and won a hundred times.
He had overcome crises greater than this at least five times before.
*I'll deflect it.*
Then, the opportunity would be his.
*This will be the end!*
Thinking this,
Jahir twisted his longsword.
And then.
*Pakang!*
Baren's sword, upon hitting Jahir's longsword, was deflected powerlessly.
“What…?!”
But his aura had clearly been concentrated enough to make the sword tremble, hadn't it? Aura threads had bloomed from it, hadn't they?
A sword imbued with that much aura…
went flying as if it held no power at all?
Jahir's gaze locked onto Baren's eyes.
Baren's eyes shimmered blue.
“Deceiving-Killing Sword, [Grandiose]!”
Grandiose. A bluff.
A technique that inflates a handful of aura to show it off as if it were a full-power attack.
As all of Jahir's strength was focused on blocking the false attack, Baren's true aura exploded from his left foot.
*Jjeo-eok!*
An exploding calf kick.
Jahir's shin shattered with a crunch.
“Keuk…!”
His mental fortitude in not screaming from that horrific pain was impressive, but,
“Farewell.”
For Jahir, collapsing powerlessly after losing his leg, there was no way to block the 30-centimeter shortsword plunging down like a ray of light.
“Ha? This is the end…?”
In his final moment, a hollow laugh escaped Jahir's lips.
*Puuuk!*
Baren pierced Jahir's heart, pinning him to the ground.
“Hooo… Done.”
Although he had received Rivera's help, Baren wasn't ashamed at all.
His personality was such that as long as he won, nothing else mattered.
Just as he thought,
“Great Warrior Baren has killed Jahir!”
“The enemy general has fallen!”
The soldiers roared.
Someone hoisted Jahir's corpse on a pole and raised it high.
How Baren had won—such things didn't matter.
“L-Lord Jahir…!”
“No way…!”
The morale of Lansen's army soared to the heavens, while the morale of Harun's army plummeted to the earth.
Only the result mattered.
And for Baren,
“…Now I can finally brag to my brother a little.”
This fact was the most important.
* * *
The most important thing.
Harun's guardian knight, Brida, never forgot it.
*To protect Lord Harun.*
She recalled the moment she first met Harun.
At that time, she was nothing more than a sixteen-year-old pickpocket living in the back alleys.
The moment she saw Harun, she made a decision.
To steal.
Not from Harun's pockets, but his sparkle—she desperately wanted it.
*I have nothing…*
A life lived with no family, no dreams, nothing…
Harun seemed to have everything.
Especially his eyes.
Those eyes, searching for pleasure and believing they could grasp it—she was so envious of them.
Even if it was just a scrap of cloth, she desperately wanted to possess anything that belonged to Harun.
Naturally, she failed.
She was the best pickpocket in the back alleys, but Harun was already a renowned warrior by then.
And then, a miracle began.
*'You have quick hands. Want to come with me?'*
Harun's hand, extended toward her.
Brida eagerly took that hand.
From that moment on, her life revolved solely around Harun, around that man.
“Hoo… Shit, this is a real pain in the ass.”
Kalserik, greatsword raised, was limping.
He had already lost his horse and was barely standing on the ground as he faced Brida.
He scowled and grumbled in frustration.
“Seriously, you're still playing this defensively even in this state?”
Brida, still on horseback, didn't answer and gripped her shield tighter.
Her true talent lay in lightning-fast combination attacks, but what she had learned was a defensive martial art that utilized a shield.
It was because she wanted to be the shield that protected Harun.
“Because I can't get hurt in a place like this.”
If I get hurt, I can't protect Lord Harun.
Brida's eyes gleamed.
Still, it was time to end this.
As a result of her thorough defense and continuous lightning-like counterattacks, Kalserik had lost his horse and was now limping on one leg.
“Let's end this.”
She spurred her horse.
*Heeeigh-!*
Her beloved horse whinnied, stomped the ground, and shot forward.
Brida lowered her shield and leveled her spear.
This was a moment to focus solely on offense rather than defense,
splitting the air, she aimed for that one flashing instant and thrust her spear.
But then,
“That's it. This is what I was waiting for!”
Kalserik broke into a wide grin and lunged forward.
His leg, which had seemed injured, kicked off the ground perfectly fine, and his body shot far past Brida's point of attack.
“What…!”
An opponent who had been limping the whole time suddenly becoming perfectly fine and charging forward… Brida could never have imagined it.
She had fallen for Kalserik's petty trick.
In truth, Kalserik had induced a wound that bled a lot without damaging the muscle, and had simply acted as if he were more severely injured than he was.
As a result, he had earned himself a single opportunity.
“This is how a mercenary fights, brat!”
*Kwadeudeuk!*
Kalserik's greatsword raked across Brida's chest.
*Kwang!*
Brida was thrown from her horse and slammed into the ground.
*Ah…*
The battlefield came into her wavering sight.
“Kill them!!”
“Drag them down! Kehah!”
“Grrrrr! Bite! Woof! Woof! Kill!”
A battlefield where the Kushan cavalry and the Gale cavalry were mixed together.
The brutal charge of the berserkers who had stormed into their midst.
The skill of their cavalry was superior, but in a chaotic melee, the matchup against rampaging berserkers was not good.
The tide of battle was turning for the worse.
*This can't be happening…*
She tried to get up, but she couldn't move a muscle.
Is my neck broken? I can't feel anything below my head.
Her wavering vision settled on the blue sky.
I want to reach out my hand, but it won't move.
*This can't be…*
Blocking the sky, Kalserik's bushy-bearded face appeared, along with his greatsword raised high.
*Lord Harun… I have to… protect…*
*Kwadeuk!*
The greatsword pierced Brida's neck.
“Hoo… That was tough.”
Kalserik, who had been slumping his shoulders and panting, raised his sword and shouted.
So that the entire hill country would ring with his voice.
“I, Kalserik! Have slain the enemy general, Brida!!”
Then he went back to panting in exhaustion.
*Well… at least I saved face.*
Panting, he turned his gaze.
He looked at the battlefield where Lansen, Harun, and Harun's subordinates were entangled.
*Now it's about time for the boss to settle things, too.*
*Heung.*
Kalserik forced his weary body to move and raised his greatsword once again.
* * *
A mighty roar shook the battlefield.
—Have slain Brida!!!
It was Kalserik's voice.
A sigh escaped me unconsciously.
“Hoo…”
Now I can relax a little.
This was already the third such shout.
First Jahir of a Hundred Victories, and now even Brida the Guardian.
Katrina also seemed to be holding on somehow.
While my siblings and vassals were holding out like that, I was busy running away.
Blocking and dodging the constantly attacking Royal Guard and Harun's charges that aimed for fleeting openings,
while continuously harassing the horse archers.
In the process, I took out the Royal Guards one by one, and now only two of them remain.
As a result,
my current state was quite miserable.
The horse that had been carrying me as I fled was panting for breath, and so was I.
Every time I blocked one of Harun's attacks, my aura would shatter and stab me in return, so my whole body was soaked in blood.
I was starting to feel it.
I'm at my limit…
So I have to end this fight now.
*A taunt would be a good way to start, right?*
It can narrow his vision.
“Harun. Are you okay?”
Harun replied to my question with a wide grin.
“Hm? Are you asking me? You're the one who's not okay right now.”
“Brida, who just died. Wasn't she your lover?”
I thought it was a pretty heavy taunt, but Harun's reaction was unexpected.
“If she falls here, then that's as far as she goes. But more importantly, you. Are you just going to keep running away like that? How boring.”
…
I was the one who ended up being taunted.
Something hot churned in my stomach.
What in the world… do you think of your retainers, no, your comrades…
“You're really beyond hope.”
I stopped my running horse.
I faced Harun.
“Hey.”
I threw the bent and battered cavalry spear I was holding to the ground.
“As I thought, you are not worthy of discussing kingship.”
Instead, I drew Vanroah from my waist.
Its silvery blade gleamed under the sun.
Before this sword, even ancient armaments lose their luster.
A peerless treasured sword, forged from a single piece of Star Silver.
“I've seen all I need to see,”
The sword style of the Vanroah royal family, the 'Iron Heart Sword Style,' was not a style of simply charging head-on.
Its essence was an all-weather sword style that analyzed the opponent to formulate a tailored attack.
Meaning, I wasn't doing nothing while I was running around in circles all this time.
“Now, die.”
An 'aberrant' Sword Master.
He was a being stronger than I had imagined,
but I had already found the formula for victory,
and now, I had drawn my greatest weapon.