Ch.8528. There Is No Next Time (2)

Like a curtain being lifted, my vision cleared.

Before me, I could see someone gripping a sword.

A familiar silhouette from behind.

He clutches the sword with a stubborn face.

But no matter how hard he pulls, it doesn’t budge.

Dozens, hundreds of attempts.

It doesn’t move an inch.

Yet he never gives up.

He challenges.

He confronts.

…At some point,

the girl who had been watching this scene with anxious eyes.

One day, she finally asked.

“Why are you so desperate to pull that out?”

Luines.

To the question from the girl with sky-blue hair,

the young man, the male, glares at her as if to kill her with his sharp eyes.

“Just because it won’t come out, is there any reason I should simply give up?”

“…Is it more important than your life?”

“Will someone die if I pull it out? Me? Or you?”

“…You will die.”

“Ah. That’s interesting. Since you’ve enlightened me with new knowledge, tell me how I’ll die.”

The girl, Luines, murmured with trembling eyes.

Her appearance was like that of a sinner in confession.

“Whoever pulls that sword will be killed.”

“Who will kill whom? You?”

“…I am a guardian.”

“What if I kill you?”

“……”

The girl remained silent.

“Whether I die or live is my choice.”

He reached for the sword again.

“Even if I live just one day, rather than living as a slave, trampled by lies!”

Despite his desperate effort, the sword still doesn’t budge.

“…Just die right now. Don’t breathe. Don’t open your eyes.”

Then the man, Venus, releases the sword.

He turns around and walks away.

Until he reaches Luines.

“If you have that disgusting face next time, I’ll tear all the skin off your face.”

“……”

“Acting all high and mighty like you’re carrying the world’s sorrows alone. Making a scene?”

“That’s… not it.”

“Then get rid of those pathetic eyes. Who are you to pity and feel sorry for? What right do you have?”

“I…”

“If you have time to be sad and resigned, do your job properly. Whether you guard, throw your life in some trash bin, whatever!”

Stop meddling unnecessarily.

As Venus turned away and disappeared, Luines followed him with anxious eyes.

“Everything you said is right.”

She agreed with his harsh words.

Without a trace of resistance.

She accepted it completely.

……

[Originally, I should have been in that one’s hand. But that changed. Therefore, I refuse by my own will to be wielded by that one.]

“……”

The sword speaks with its own will.

As if that’s surprising at this point.

[Also, refusing to be held in your hand is my will as well.]

“Skip the chatter and give me the reason.”

Even patience has its limits.

I too am at the boiling point.

[It’s because you are the successor of Grandeus.]

“What?”

What nonsense is this?

[In this era, there is no one who has inherited his progress as much as you have.]

What gibberish is this now?

[Among those who wish to follow him, no one has reached the same level as you.]

“Level? What level?”

[Don’t you know? You have already formed four stars.]

How would I know that?

Did that cursed Demon King hide something again?

Or did he not tell me because I didn’t ask?

Or perhaps.

…Even she didn’t know.

“Are you saying that because I am his successor, you cannot be held in my hand?”

[That is correct.]

“…That’s the reason?”

Am I supposed to swallow that?

[You have already received everything.]

“…?”

[Why would you covet this body?]

This deranged sword?

“Everything? Everything? What? What have I received?”

[You seem to lack awareness.]

To think I’m being pitied by a mere sword.

“Swordsmanship? Mental discipline? Or what? Chivalry?”

[What troubles you so?]

“……”

Troubled?

Me?

[I am not the answer to solve your problems. That’s something both you and I know.]

“……”

What was I excited about, what was I swayed by?

Thinking about it, it was simple.

That makes it all the more absurd.

I feel empty yet furious.

Literally, confusion itself.

For a moment, I lost myself.

Did I have expectations?

And because those expectations crumbled, do I feel betrayed, disappointed?

Did I assume it would be mine as a matter of course?

That it would become my strength?

…Is that how I took it?

“Then what are you?”

[I am simply myself.]

It was a foolish question.

The answer was extremely simple.

Clear.

The most direct wise answer.

“…Then what do you exist for?”

[Justice.]

It declares.

[Protection of good. Swift punishment of evil. Execution of balance.]

Therefore.

[As a holy sword, I am the protector of good.]

“…?”

[If you wish to wield me, you must promise to follow good. To punish evil. Can you do that?]

“No.”

I declare as well.

From the beginning.

“…Ha.”

What I needed.

…Wasn’t this.

This wasn’t what I needed at all.

[That’s right. You are incapable.]

Therefore.

[We are not destined for each other.]

====

Blood sprays from Venus’s gritted teeth.

“That damn bastard…”

Is he really determined to pull that out?

Is he determined to get his hands on it?

Is he trying to steal it from me?!

Though he glared at that back as if he would stab and kill him right away,

he couldn’t approach carelessly.

Despite such a seemingly fragile back,

there was still not a single opening visible.

It’s incomprehensible.

Standing there is something that could wither at any moment, a dry plant with bony branches.

Yet somehow, it seemed impossible to bring him down.

His will was screaming the opposite—to beat him down, stab him to death, cut off his limbs, do something—but

a faint rationality gripped his ankle.

Go now and you’ll die, it said.

That quiet abyss is now.

…In a state of unprecedented fury.

He suddenly realized.

“……”

The boy straightened his back but didn’t draw the sword.

Rather, as if he had no lingering attachment whatsoever,

he resolutely removed his hand.

And then.

“Ha…haha.”

He suddenly started laughing.

A laugh so deeply steeped in dejection and exhaustion that just hearing it could make one feel hollow.

Eventually, it overflowed into anger.

“Hahaha—! This! This is nothing but a farce! Is this all there is!”

Shouting as if he had lost his mind, he suddenly raised his right hand

into the air.

“You saw that? Please, say something!”

He suddenly started pointing and shouting.

“You shouldn’t do this to me! Do you know everything and still do this?!”

What is he shouting at?

“Of all people! To me! You! Offering me that! That holy sword?! Are you playing with me?! At least you shouldn’t have done this!”

Holy sword?

Before that, why is this guy acting like this?

Venus couldn’t understand this sudden reaction.

Perhaps none of the onlookers could understand this situation.

To that extent, his attitude and reaction.

Before and after gripping that sword of Grandeus stuck in the ground.

Were completely different.

“Demon King of Wisdom, you say?! You only know what you know, so you didn’t know what you didn’t know?! You deceived me like that?!”

This madman, has he lost his mind?

More importantly, what?

Demon King of Wisdom?

“I cannot overlook this. Child of the Hero. I intended to watch until the end, but you’ve uttered quite interesting words.”

It suddenly revealed its presence.

“?!”

Both Venus.

And Kariel who just discovered it.

They sensed its presence just moments ago.

“By the way, aren’t you going to pull it out?”

“……”

“Wasn’t today the prophesied day? Or did you choose not to grasp it despite being able to? Why?”

As if melting into darkness, it existed, and suddenly revealed its presence.

Its build was not much different from Kariel’s.

But its entire body was pure white.

As if dusted with marble powder.

Or as if smeared with bone powder.

A pale white.

Skin engraved with various patterns, a jet-black light armor attached only to the upper body.

But the entire body, from head to toe, was covered in a dark blue cape.

A dark blue paenula seemingly made of thick wool.

It hung exaggeratedly like a robe from head to foot, tickling the ground.

Thus, even in the still dark background, its presence was uniquely special.

A faint glow in its eyes.

A white radiance that seemed to emit light even in darkness, taking in Kariel.

And to its unnecessary interference, Kariel spat out as if having a seizure.

“And who the hell are you?”

A sharp tone.

But not blind hostility.

While there was some wariness.

But its essence was the aftermath of swollen emotions.

It was just bursting out and flowing like fragments and heat haze, condensed and remaining.

However.

Perhaps because that reaction wasn’t what the pale man wanted,

he lamented.

“Regrettable. Do you not recognize me, none other than myself?”

“…?”

“The one who once almost killed you.”

…What?

“I’ll give you a reprieve even now. If you don’t pull that out, your death here is a certainty.”

This time.

“No World Tree, no nation, no guards? I heard your father is rushing here. But it’s too tight on time to wait for him, isn’t it?”

“…He’s coming?”

My spine tingles.

At the same time, my mind snaps to attention.

What did the guy in front of me just babble about?

“You almost killed me? You? Who the hell are you?”

“This demon trash has gone mad!”

Suddenly.

Venus intervened.

Not just that, he rushed in and swung his sword.

Like swinging a blunt weapon rather than a sword, the slash tore through the air and seemed to strike the pale man’s body.

But the result was the opposite.

“Guhk!”

“You who follow Grandeus are not our enemies. It’s about time you fixed your habit of not listening to what I say every time.”

“You, you son of a bitch…!”

Coughing up blood, Venus rolled on the ground.

“That’s… my prey… If you touch it… don’t expect… to die… peacefully…”

“Overconfidence is a bad habit.”

It was held up at some point.

A spear emitting black smoke.

Longer than a throwing spear, but clearly not classified as a long spear or middle-stage spear, a short spear.

But even that short spear is as tall as his height.

It was very clear that it was longer than either that person’s or Kariel’s height.

“Once, I let Rueld live.”

He said.

“As a result, I unwillingly presented defeat to the Supreme One. I blamed myself then and vowed never to make such a mistake again.”

And as a sign of that apology.

“I tried to kill you.”

I thought I had succeeded.

But why didn’t you die?

“I lamented for a very long time. Your existence will eventually cause our extinction. Moreover, if I am your enemy… there’s no point in saying more.”

But why are you standing still?

Why are you quietly observing without any retaliation?

“I grew more afraid as time passed. We know you well. At least we thought we did. We believed that even that time was a stage where you were devising schemes to sweep us all away, securing your full power, and completing your plans.”

But.

“Who would have thought you’d change.”

To this extent.

“Who could have known you’d become so foolish? Has heaven abandoned you? Or has the Demon God in the underworld cursed you?”

“…Is that all you wanted to say?”

Once.

I was called a genius.

Beyond intelligence, innate and natural, the title of genius was truly meant for me.

Those around me didn’t spare their praise and admiration.

…It was an overestimation I could never accept.

My father and mother.

His Imperial Majesty.

Even others.

They often had excessive expectations of me.

…But that’s not me.

You’re not seeing me.

You were seeing my past that even I don’t know.

Even if I gather all the rumors that spread,

I simply cannot accept that it was my past self.

That’s not me.

No.

Maybe it was once clearly me.

But not now.

Perhaps for all future eternity, it will be an entity unrelated to me.

Like a hero and demon from mythology.

“But just now from your mouth, you mentioned the Demon King of Wisdom. I’m starting to discern somewhat.”

In the end, even as he died.

“Did he protect us?”

By corrupting your existence.

“Even as he neutralized your existence, he loved us, he cherished us.”

“……”

The Golden Beast, the entity called the Demon King of Wisdom,

is extremely limited within the continent.

So, at the point of mentioning that, their identity was already crystal clear.

The question is, which one of them is it?

…But I can make an inference.

The one before me had too distinct and clear a profile.

“The dull-witted Legion Commander.”

Bargo Adedima.

During the Demon King of Wisdom’s invasion, he wasn’t yet a Legion Commander.

But after the Golden Beast’s death, as time passed, he was said to have rallied the remnants of the Demon King’s army.

The actual central figure.

Now there might be several who could replace him,

but he is, so to speak, a symbol of the remnants.

Such a demon.

Kariel stared into the void.

“……”

Was this appearance unexpected for her too?

The golden girl, half-stretched in the void, lamented.

-I don’t mind you talking about cherishing and whatnot, but idolizing is a bit much.

And to Kariel.

-That one has bad compatibility with you, so don’t even dream of trying to beat it.

Maybe later, but not now.

That’s what she meant in a roundabout way.

“……”

But would the opponent go along with what I want?

I was a bit curious about that.

If I were him.

Swoosh!

“……”

There would be no reason to miss this opportunity.

Silently, as if seeping in.

Like a gentle breeze, the spear tip aimed at my neck and face.

I barely deflected it.

My hair scattered from the impact.

Some of it seemed to be cut by the spear blade, falling to the floor.

“And now, for some reason, you’re training with the sword that your father used to kill him. Was this also his guidance?”

“……”

Pale eyes pierce my inner self without emotion.

“Yes. And now you’re babbling that your compatibility with me is not good, so don’t think about beating me?”

“Hmm?”

“Also, you say you don’t mind me talking about cherishing and whatnot, but I shouldn’t idolize. What do you think about that?”