Ch.81Sword Master, Juel Lazian (1)

After the battle with the black mage Faube and Kaufman.

Najin walked through the underground waterway, dragging his exhausted body after consecutive battles against formidable opponents. His steps were heavy, and his eyelids kept trying to close.

‘This feels like death.’

Najin exhaled deeply. Even with Excalibur’s recovery abilities and potions, mental fatigue and mortal wounds couldn’t be healed immediately.

Still, work had to be done.

Najin retrieved Faube’s corpse, which he had abandoned while fleeing from Kaufman, and made his way up. By the time he finally emerged from the underground waterway, the sun was already rising.

Early morning, with warm sunshine pouring down.

After being in darkness for so long, the sunlight felt rather unfamiliar. Najin squinted and blinked a few times. Only after adjusting to the sunlight could he assess his surroundings.

“……”

“……”

At the entrance to the underground waterway.

People had gathered there. They were inquisitors from the School of Blood, along with mercenaries who had agreed to assist them. Some of them noticed Najin and turned their gaze toward him.

And then, huh?

They stared at Najin with wide eyes, then noticed Faube’s corpse that he was dragging. Their eyes grew even wider, and expressions of shock escaped their lips.

Weren’t they the ones preparing their equipment and reviewing their strategy to enter the underground waterway in the early morning?

What they now faced was news that the situation had already been resolved. Najin dragging the black mage’s corpse was evidence of that fact. Even those composed inquisitors were wide-eyed, while Najin exhaled deeply.

Then a few steps forward.

Najin approached his employer, Hight, who was mixed among the mercenaries and inquisitors, and put down the corpse.

“Well……”

Hight let out a long sigh.

“You are truly remarkable.”

What Hight had asked of Najin was to handle the matter as quickly as possible. Or, at the very least, to weaken Faube’s power as a vanguard to prevent further casualties among the inquisitors.

And Najin had perfectly fulfilled both requirements.

This was the quick and clean resolution that Hight and the city lord had wanted, but……

Things didn’t go as they had hoped.

Unlike what they wanted, this incident couldn’t be concluded quietly. Not when Kephalon’s workshop, a black mage of the Seventh Circle, had been discovered beneath the city.

The day after that news spread.

The School of Blood made its move.

2.

After receiving basic first aid for his mortal wounds, Najin slept through the night in the room Hight had prepared for him. That was enough to relieve his mental fatigue, but not the gaping holes in his body.

‘That’s quite a hole he made.’

Kaufman, a warrior of Sword Seeker level.

True to his reputation, not all the holes Kaufman had made were fully healed. Of course, with his recovery abilities that already exceeded human limits, it wouldn’t take too long.

Covering his healing wounds with bandages, Najin made his way outside. When he arrived at the reception room, people were waiting to hear his explanation.

“We need a detailed explanation of how you eliminated Faube…”

Najin answered their questions.

He explained how he had eliminated Faube, and how he discovered Kephalon’s workshop while pursuing the fleeing black mage.

Of course, the inquisitors had already discovered the workshop’s location. The unnaturally interrupted blood trail had revealed its position.

“Well…”

Hight groaned as he listened to Najin’s story. In the end, they couldn’t avoid the Order’s intervention. However, he couldn’t blame Najin for that. With a sigh, Hight spoke.

“Where is Sir Kaufman Theosis?”

Najin had returned from the underground waterway alone.

And Kaufman’s body was nowhere to be found. Najin remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“He died in battle. Fighting the black mage.”

That was the response Najin chose.

Revealing that Kaufman was the Order’s hound and died by Najin’s hand would only complicate matters.

‘Not yet.’

The power, authority, and justification needed to bring down the Order.

Only when he possessed all of these would the contract Kaufman had given him be used again.

“…I see.”

Hight rubbed his forehead.

During the pursuit of Faube, she had fled to Kephalon’s workshop and cast the 4th Circle spell “Hunger of the Dead,” which killed Kaufman.

That was Najin’s testimony about Kaufman’s death.

The Hunger of the Dead turns its targets into undead, and when the caster dies, the undead crumble away, leaving no trace. This aligned with the inquisitors’ investigation results.

‘There are traces of the 4th Circle spell Hunger of the Dead being cast, using the sacrifices prepared in the workshop as mediums.’

Everything added up.

But for Hight, who had to announce Kaufman’s death, it was a bitter pill to swallow. The death of a White Star-ranked adventurer and the incorrectly assessed danger level.

‘This was our oversight.’

The compensation owed to the Cambria Foundation would be substantial. Hight’s brow furrowed.

“Thank you for your hard work. Your payment will be delivered through the Cambria Central Guild.”

With those final words, Hight left the reception room, his steps noticeably heavy. As Najin watched Hight leave, sighing deeply as if his stomach ached, he reached for a newspaper on the reception table.

During the night he had slept.

He wanted to check what had happened during that time.

As soon as he opened the newspaper and read the first page, Najin understood why Hight had reacted that way. Why he looked like he was dying of stomach pain.

“Black mage Faube, who fled to the underground of Regenoff City, successfully eliminated after pursuit.”

“However, a facility discovered beneath Regenoff City.”

“Workshop of black mage ‘Kephalon,’ who terrorized the Empire decades ago, discovered…”

After these summarizing sentences.

A large headline following those small sentences caught Najin’s attention.

“Intervention of the School of Blood.”

“The Order’s Executioner, Sir Juel Lazian, has expressed intention to visit Regenoff City.”

A workshop left by a Seventh Circle black mage.

This wasn’t something that could be overlooked, and it provided the perfect justification for the School of Blood, which judges the heretical and the wicked, to take action.

That’s why the School of Blood moved.

Their execution agency.

The being known as the walking judgment.

The Order’s Executioner, Juel Lazian.

A Sword Master with six stars was coming to Regenoff City. Najin finally understood why there had been such a commotion outside.

This was different from the bustle of preparing for a celebrity’s visit or a festive event. Rather, it was the opposite.

People were locking their doors, cleaning the streets, closing shops, and vendors were completely removing their stalls. Along with the commotion, the streets were being cleared. In a few hours, the streets would probably be as quiet as death.

To Najin, it looked like underground city residents preparing for someone from the “upper district” to visit.

3.

The Order’s Executioner, Juel Lazian.

Najin knew very little about her.

Although Najin had researched all Sword Masters, information about Juel Lazian was surprisingly scarce.

The First Pillar of the Empire, The Empire’s First Horn, Gerd.

Master of the Order of Swords, Star of Sword, Charon.

The School of Blood’s Executioner, Murderer Juel Lazian.

Despite being one of the three most renowned Sword Masters of this era, information about Juel Lazian was just a fraction compared to the other two.

Origin, life, swordsmanship, sword energy……

None of it was public knowledge.

For someone of Sword Master caliber, it would be normal to have shown talent from a young age, yet nothing was known about her childhood. All that existed were records like these:

“Ghosts roam during the Dawn War.”

“There is a girl dragging her snow-white hair. The girl kills defeated soldiers. She lives by eating corpses. If you encounter her, run without looking back.”

“Estimated, Sword Seeker.”

Eyewitness accounts from a war over 150 years ago.

“There is a mad murderer.”

“A group led by a black mage was destroyed by a white-haired girl. A Sixth Circle black mage was brutally murdered.”

“A blood-covered girl came to the School of Blood with 182 black mage corpses, demanding payment, causing the High Priest to collapse in shock.”

An anecdote from 80 years ago.

“The School of Blood’s Executioner.”

“Juel Lazian.”

“Received baptism from the High Priest and reached the realm of Sword Master in just over ten years.”

This was all that was known about her life.

Someone who had existed since 150 years ago and reached the Sword Master realm 70 years ago. As Sword Masters are freed from the limitations of lifespan, her age remains unknown.

While all of that remains unclear, the history she has stained with blood is fully recorded in the Empire’s historical documents.

Black magic, demons, the heretical and the wicked. Juel Lazian walks to places where such things fester. And when she walks, she kills everything related. She kills and dismembers people without hesitation, as if enjoying the act of murder itself.

Places where she walks become stained with blood.

That’s why the world fears and reveres her. It was around that time that she gained the derogatory title of “murderer,” but Juel herself laughed and adopted it as her epithet. She said she liked it.

-She’s properly insane.

Merlin muttered, resting her chin on her hand.

-You have no idea how much Bedivere and I screamed when she was listed as a candidate for Excalibur. That woman is just a walking human butcher.

She spoke with a disgusted voice.

-To reach Sword Master, you need to master swordsmanship, awaken your mental image, and know how to shake the world with your sword. But in my era, some madwoman proposed a theory.

‘A theory?’

-Yes, it was an insane theory, what was it again?

Swing a sword to kill people.

Take their blood, listen to the final screams of their souls, and become intimate with death itself.

-It gets complicated if you dig into the details, but the main point is this: If you kill people with a sword in the tens or hundreds of thousands, you can reach the realm of Sword Master without mental images or swordsmanship.

Najin let out a laugh of disbelief.

‘What kind of crazy…’

-Right? Even in my era, the scholar who proposed that theory was called a madwoman.

Merlin sighed.

-But Juel Lazian is someone who actually did it. A human who reached the Sword Master realm by killing many.

Not by understanding the mysteries of the sword, not by projecting her mental image onto the world, but simply by swinging her sword many times and killing many to reach the pinnacle.

“……”

Najin remained silent.

Just then, a carriage was approaching from the distance. A carriage bearing the emblem of the School of Blood. The carriage stopped in the deserted street.

Creeak.

Eventually, the carriage door opened. Unlike the carriage’s seemingly luxurious exterior, only one person had come. The distinguished guest who arrived without any escorts stepped out of the carriage.

Tap.

What emerged from the carriage was a woman of indeterminate age. Snow-white hair flowing down to her waist and skin so pale it was almost white. She was a woman composed entirely of a single color, except for her eyes.

Blood-red eyes.

The woman who stepped out of the carriage looked at Najin.

The moment he met those red eyes, Najin felt a chill run up his spine. Visions flashed before his eyes—his head separating from his body, blood pouring from his body.

Grip.

Najin barely managed to grab his left hand, which had reflexively moved to draw the sword at his waist, with his right hand. Cold sweat ran down his spine.

This was a sensation he had never felt before.

Juel Lazian, who emitted a completely different aura from Charon, spreading uncontained killing intent, was truly terrifying. When Najin looked beside him, his employer Hight had collapsed with his eyes rolled back.

-See? I told you she’s insane.

As Merlin muttered in exasperation, Najin raised his head. Juel Lazian was looking at him from a distance. Najin saw her expressionless lips move slightly.