Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Grand Master
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I never thought it would come to this.
The line between me and my sword vanished,
and when only our dance remained in the world, it finally began.
*Vwoooom—!*
Vanroah began to circulate the Iron Heart on its own.
The sword was circulating an aura technique!
*Vwom! Vwooom!*
The dark blue aura of the Iron Heart streamed down Vanroah's silver-white blade.
‘It’s incredibly fast.’
Why was this happening?
The Iron Heart's aura that Vanroah was generating was immense beyond reason.
An amount of aura that would normally take an hour of training poured into me in less than a minute.
I understood the reason instinctively.
‘Pure will.’
A human's will is not pure.
The desire to eat, sleep, love, and rage. A human is a swirling vortex of all kinds of wills and emotions.
In contrast, a sword's will is utterly pure.
A Sword Spirit harbors only a single will: ‘to cut’.
‘Mana is drawn by will, and it is forged by will to become aura.’
A fundamental theory in aura training that is never omitted.
What state of mind, what kind of will one must possess—the preface of every training manual began this way.
Therefore,
‘When a sword with the purest will synchronizes with me and we train our aura together… the effect is beyond imagination.’
That was what was happening right now.
Mana pouring in like a waterfall, aura snowballing in size.
Days that compressed months of time.
One week…
Two weeks…
I lost track of time.
I didn't feel hunger, nor did I feel fatigue.
I kept swinging my sword, refining my aura, and swallowing the refined aura.
*Fwoosh!*
At some point, my body began to burn with a dark blue aura.
As if I had become a scented candle,
I spread the fragrance of aura in all directions.
My flesh, blood, and nerves scattered into ash and smoke, and in their place, new cells brimming with aura grew.
A change where bones and flesh were remade. No, an evolution.
Rebirth!
I had achieved a state I expected would take another five years, pulling it forward in just two weeks.
“Fwooo…”
The moment I opened my eyes with a long breath, the senses I had held onto in my trance scattered. It was a state of the highest level, reached only for a moment. But it seemed I hadn't fully made it my own yet.
I wasn't disappointed. I was certain I would reach it again soon.
After it was all over,
I looked up at the night sky, filled with a shattered moon and twinkling stars.
“The moon… is desolate…”
I never knew my vision could change this much.
I could see the moon clearly. On its silver-gray surface, I could faintly make out…
Is that a mountain? Is that a valley?
I confirmed with my own two eyes that the moon was another world in itself.
This enchanting world, where even the passing wind held so many stories.
And so,
I broke free.
***
It was four days after my rebirth that I came face to face with the emperor's messenger, Kain Manus.
The emperor's messenger, visiting at a time like this…
My mind was a mess, but I greeted him with composure.
“So. What brings a renowned Grand Master all the way out here?”
His ash-gray eyes slowly turned toward me.
Sluggishly.
He moved so slowly it made one want to yell at him, but no one dared to step forward.
His presence still crushed the entire audience chamber.
“His Majesty… sent a gift.”
Looking extremely bothered, Kain Manus took a wooden box from his coat.
Seeing as it was too large to have come from his coat, he must have had a dimensional pouch.
*Thud. Thud.*
He approached me, holding the box.
Slowly, as if savoring each and every step.
“Hk! Stop right there…!”
“Halt… I command you!”
*Shing—!*
Katrina drew her sword, and Rivera, having drawn her bow at some point, pulled back the string.
But,
*Thud. Thud.*
Kain Manus simply walked.
The two of them couldn't move, as if frozen in place.
‘What a fun little game he’s playing.’
The man dallied as if even lifting a finger was too much of a bother.
But in reality, his aura was rampaging like a beast that had starved for days.
Before that ferocity,
Katrina, who had even drawn her sword, turned pale and trembled, while Rivera, who had drawn her bowstring, couldn't bring herself to aim.
Having suppressed everyone, Kain slowly approached until he was right in front of me and held out the wooden box.
“Open it…”
“Hm.”
The box was quite heavy. Perhaps about five kilograms.
Its surface was inlaid with complex patterns, enchanted with some kind of magic, and the flow of mana was strangely distorted around it.
I gladly opened the box.
*Whoosh—*
A fishy stench washed over me.
*Thump! Thump!*
A heavy pulse carried on the air.
“…A heart?”
It was the heart of a giant magical beast. It was black, and a red light pulsed from between its vessels.
It was repulsive and unsettling just to look at.
It felt like I was looking at something that shouldn't exist…
A truly foul feeling.
Kain Manus nodded.
“A well-prepared heart of a ‘Goenggo’… it is.”
Goenggo?
“‘The great drumbeat that crushes from afar.’ That one?”
“Yes.”
That thing was a real monster?
I thought it was just a legend.
A colossal monster, some say five meters tall, others twenty. They say it pounds the ground every day.
Anyone who hears its great drumbeat even once is said to never escape it.
A cursed drumbeat that only its victim can hear, growing louder and louder until it makes their body tremble, and finally, causes them to explode and die.
That monster was called the Goenggo.
And yet…
He sent me that monster's,
still-beating heart,
as a gift?
An object like this, unsuitable even as a poison, let alone medicine?
What on earth was he thinking?
*Swish.*
Kain Manus's ash-gray eyes slowly turned toward me.
They were observing.
No, they were testing.
It was a gaze that intended to remember every detail of my reaction to this gift.
What is it really?
The reason for this.
Is it just bad taste? To mess with me?
No. Perhaps it's a test.
To gauge me by seeing how I react to an unidentified, unpleasant gift.
Yes. If that's the case, Kain's blatant observation of me now makes perfect sense.
But…
But…
‘That’s not it.’
A thousand thoughts raced through my mind, but it didn't take long to reach a conclusion.
By the time Kain slowly blinked, I had made up my mind.
“The emperor has sent a precious gift.”
I put a smile on my lips.
As if I were truly delighted.
I gave it my all, acting with every fiber of my being, and smiled.
“Sea. This will be enshrined in the chapel in Kashu City.”
I said this with complete faith in Sea.
An unknown ‘magical beast's heart.’
And a ‘chapel.’
With those two words, I was certain Sea would understand my intentions.
“Yes, Count.”
Since this was a formal occasion, Sea called me Count.
“Tebek. It's a precious item, so handle it with care.”
Sea called the magician's name.
The representative of Kinalo's magicians. The most skilled of those who remained after Harun's invasion.
“Yesss, my lady.”
Tebek stepped forward, supporting his hunched back.
He flinched in fear upon standing before Kain, but he steadfastly took the wooden box and chanted a spell to seal it once more.
After confirming the process was complete, Sea bowed her head to me.
“Then I will go and enshrine it in the chapel.”
My eyes met Sea's.
‘I knew she’d get it.’
The same word was likely on both our minds right now.
‘Cultists.’
It was a hypothesis that had struck me like lightning.
Who would need such a grotesque heart?
Surprisingly, such people exist.
Because I had already seen something so ‘unpleasant’ before.
‘Count Ksias.’
Those bastards who perform rituals with such hideous things.
Those who slaughter countless people for their rituals.
And that bizarre unpleasantness given off by vampires, a revulsion similar to the stench of that tentacled wolf monster I saw in the past, 50,000 years ago.
All of it resembled that giant heart.
‘This is an item related to a heretical cult.’
Perhaps,
to a cultist, it was a treasure second to none in the world.
The evidence was scarce, but my sharp intuition led me to certainty.
The emperor is a cultist.
‘No wonder he was so obsessed with wars of conquest…’
Conquering. Slaughtering the common people of the conquered lands.
Thinking that it was all for the sake of cult rituals resolved many of my questions.
Based on that hypothesis, the meaning of this gift was singular.
He wanted to see my reaction to determine whether I was a fellow cultist or not.
So I made my choice.
I would pretend to be a cultist.
Thankfully, thanks to the quick-witted Sea, the deception was quite plausible.
Keep your friends close.
Keep your enemies closer.
This could be a way to gain information about the cult and, furthermore, to discover the weaknesses of the empire and the emperor.
“Hmm…”
Sea walked away with the box.
Watching her back, Kain Manus let out a strange, deflating sound.
He slowly turned his head to look down at me.
“His Majesty. He told me to bring back a return gift…”
A return gift…
If offering the Goenggo's heart and observing my reaction was the first test, then this was the second.
So he wants to know what kind of person I am through my return gift, is that it?
Fine.
I’ll show him.
I've already appealed that I'm on his side with the first test.
Now I can act as I please, can't I?
“Right. When one receives such a precious item, one must give a fitting gift in return.”
I drew out my words and reached my hand to the side.
“How about this? It seems like a suitable return gift for an arrogant envoy who dares to speak so informally to the head of a faction.”
The crime of invading without an appointment, overpowering my guards.
The crime of daring to wield aura before me to pressure my retainers.
I had more than enough justification.
I drew Vanroah, which was propped up beside me, and swung.
I aimed precisely for Kain's neck.
*Claaaaang!*
“Hah…”
When did he draw his sword?
Having easily blocked my blade, Kain let out a deep sigh.
As if to ask if this was how I was going to answer, he looked extremely annoyed as he pushed my sword away and created distance.
‘He blocked that without aura?’
I was a little surprised.
Of course, I hadn't used aura either.
But Vanroah was a peerless treasured sword, acknowledged even by the ancients.
And yet, Kain's sword received Vanroah's blow without a single nick.
Truly a great sword worthy of a Grand Master.
My mouth watered.
That famous sword…
What if I were to snap it in half?
Kain must have felt my killing intent.
I didn't hide it.
But his face showed only clear annoyance.
Even though he must know I cut down Harun, he didn't consider me an opponent at all.
Kain slowly gestured with his sword and spoke.
“Well… come on. If you can withstand five exchanges, I’ll count it as a pass.”
“Is that so?”
A pass.
I'm not satisfied with just that.
I intended to confirm it on this occasion.
A superhuman who has transcended humanity. What kind of power the Grand Master, called the strongest, possessed.
I planned to lay it all bare.
So I went all out from the start.
*Guuuuung—!*
A grand plume of dark blue aura erupted, making the audience chamber tremble.
The retainers scattered to avoid the sharp gale clawing at everything.
I mixed my Aura Blade with ancient Sword Ki and struck down with all my might.
Kain's response was simple. He merely extended his sword toward mine.
What formed on his sword at first looked like an ordinary Aura Blade.
But the moment our swords met,
*Fwoooosh—!*
My aura distorted mercilessly.
Like a torch in a typhoon.
Along the path of Kain's sword, all mana and aura spontaneously parted ways.
Through that cleared path, a brightly glowing, light green blade charged in.
‘This is… a Soul Blade!’
I finally witnessed with my own eyes the Soul Blade I had only ever heard about.
The Soul Blade, the exclusive domain of a Grand Master. Before it, my Aura Blade wavered, threatening to disperse.
The only thing holding it together was the ancient Sword Ki shimmering along the blade!
*Chraaaaaang—*
The moment the swords met, a strange, resonant sound erupted.
An immense power echoed between the swords—no, between the auras.
My Aura Blade, wavering but not breaking.
Kain's Soul Blade, endlessly hard yet vibrating faintly.
The two powers clashed head-on without yielding an inch.
Kain furrowed his brow.
For the first time, an emotion tinged his eyes.
“…What? How did you block a Soul Blade with a mere Aura Blade?”
His voice was slightly heated.
Instead of answering, I observed.
‘So, this is it. A Soul Blade.’
It was strong.
Definitely.
It distorted and scattered all surrounding aura, so it was bound to be overwhelmingly effective against anyone below a Grand Master.
If it weren't for the ancient Sword Ki, I wouldn't have been able to withstand it either.
But,
‘Surely this isn't all there is to it, right?’
The renowned Grand Master.
A Grand Master, of which there are not even ten in the entire world.
*Thump.*
My heart pounded, so curious was I about his skill.