Chapter 138: What Was Lost

Don’t waste your strength on futile endeavors. Find your own happiness.

No matter how much I pondered, I couldn’t figure out why Thor Kim had left such words for future generations on his deathbed.

What did he regret? More fundamentally, I wasn’t even sure if these words were truly meant for possessed individuals like myself.

If possessed people appeared once every 100 years, then at Kim’s age of 93, the possessed person from 500 years ago wouldn’t have even been born yet.

‘Then perhaps these words weren’t for the possessed, but for his own family…’

Even so, I was still puzzled about what Kim meant by “futile endeavors.”

At least from what Lionel had rambled on about Kim’s life, it didn’t seem like he’d lived a life worth regretting, apart from not learning Baldo techniques.

‘I just don’t get it…’

I hadn’t spoken to Kim directly, nor was I his descendant. There was no way I could figure this out just by sitting here thinking.

If I had to guess, since he ordered the inscription to be made while on his deathbed, perhaps he had some change of heart at that time.

In the end, I learned nothing new as the day passed. With no more business here, I set out for the academy the next morning.

“Well then, Father. I’ll be going now.”

“…Alright.”

For some reason, Jessica no longer called the Count “Papa” after that day.

Though it was his own decision, the Count seemed somewhat regretful, as if he still had lingering attachments. Jessica, on the other hand, looked relieved.

“By the way, where’s my sword?”

Remembering that I hadn’t retrieved Shadowstrike the night before, I belatedly tried to go back to the garden to get it, but someone had already cleaned up.

When I asked Lionel where Shadowstrike was, he said he’d find it for me, so I left it to him. But now Lionel was nowhere to be seen.

“He said he’d be back soon, so just wait a moment…”

“Yes, mother-in-law.”

“…”

When I playfully called her that, the Countess, still seemingly displeased with me, shook her head and averted her gaze.

Well, she might act like this now, but once Jessica and I have a proper wedding and show her a grandchild or two, her heart might soften a bit.

A moment later, Lionel appeared in the distance, walking towards us with several knights.

However, whether it was just my imagination or not, their footsteps seemed unusually sluggish, as if they were hesitating.

‘What’s this? Why isn’t he carrying Shadowstrike?’

Could they not find it?

As anxiety sprouted in my chest, Lionel finally reached me.

“Um… my sword…”

“…I’m terribly sorry.”

Saying this, Lionel took something from a knight beside him and showed it to me. It was Shadowstrike, with only the hilt remaining.

Faced with this nightmarish sight that seemed too surreal to be true, I froze for a moment. Then, a knight handed me a heavy sack.

“What’s this…?”

“We gathered the blade fragments that fell in the garden. The battle was so intense that many of the blade pieces have been reduced to powder…”

The knight’s words faded out as my wildly pounding heart drowned out everything else.

The next moment, as I received the hilt of Shadowstrike and the sack containing its blade fragments, the world turned upside down, and I felt myself tilting towards the ground.

“Wh-what?! I-Ian!! Ian!!”

——

The screen froze on the image of Baldojae collapsing and spitting blood. We took a moment to reflect on the recent battle, as if savoring it.

As everyone silently mulled over the fight, the Doctor was the first to speak up.

The Doctor seemed unsatisfied with the recent battle, his voice and expression both rather displeased.

“…It ended more anticlimactically than I expected. To think a battle between three possessed individuals would end like this.”

“Is it anticlimactic because of how it ended?”

The Doctor nodded at my question and replayed the scene where Baldojae slashed both Baek Jeong-nam and Bukkake in one go.

Admittedly, it wasn’t a particularly pleasing scene to watch. However, they weren’t comrades to begin with, and it was only natural to strike when given the opportunity.

“Besides, even if Baek Jeong-nam hadn’t blocked Bukkake’s movement at the end, that final attack would have definitely hit.”

The last attack was a technique designed to deceive Bukkake’s perception of Baldojae’s range, so it would have likely connected even without Baek Jeong-nam’s interference.

“More than that, I think the real issue is with that demon sword. Ignoring regeneration ability and turning into foam? That’s just too powerful.”

“No, I don’t think it’s overpowered to that extent.”

“Looks like we’ve got differing opinions here. Why do you say that?”

“From what I can see, that technique is a type of curse. In other words, with sufficient magic resistance, deflecting such a curse would be simple.”

So, any ability can be negated with magic resistance, is that it?

Indeed, even without such an ability, without considerable regeneration power, taking that strike head-on would mean defeat anyway. Perhaps it wasn’t such a meaningful ability after all.

“You definitely have a point there. Chief, got any thoughts? Was it impressive? Good?”

“…”

The usually taciturn Chief was even more silent about this battle, his face etched with more contemplation than usual.

Just as I was starting to worry that I might have asked something strange, the Chief, who seemed like he’d never speak, finally opened his mouth.

“I’d like to say it was an excellent fight, but… considering the words that came out of their mouths, I just can’t bring myself to say it.”

“The words from their mouths? Come to think of it, they were saying things like ‘Jap’ and ‘Josenjing’ or something, right? What do those mean? I can’t make heads or tails of the language from that world.”

“…Just remember they’re not good words. I’d rather not talk about it if possible.”

It was the first time I’d seen the Chief so reluctant to discuss something. While I was personally very curious, his expression was so grim that I decided to drop it.

Well, now that we’ve more or less finished evaluating the fight, it was time to think about what comes next.

The immediate issue we faced was Bukkake, who died in that battle.

Originally, I had planned for Bukkake to face off against Baldojae later with his ninja army, but for some reason, he charged at Baldojae in a rage and was defeated as a result.

The problem now was finding someone to replace him, and there was no one with skills comparable to Bukkake’s.

“If we had to pick one person, it’d be the Sword Saint… but there’s no way to manipulate that situation, is there?”

“That would be impossible. We might be able to arrange for the Sword Saint to defeat someone, but to have them fight a new academy student… Even if the current Sword Saint has a battle-maniac tendency, that’s too much.”

“What about the successor then?”

“The successor is quite strong too, but… It would be too much for them to face Baldojae, who’s doped up on that drug. Even without the doping, I think their chances of winning would be slim.”

True, while the Sword Saint’s successor was strong, they weren’t a match for the current Baldojae.

If they underwent demonization like Bukkake, there might be a chance, but from what I’d heard, she wasn’t the type to demonize herself for the sake of getting stronger.

“So we have no choice but to leave him be for a while? We don’t have any good options right now, and sometimes insights come during periods of rest.”

“Actually, there is one possibility, but…”

Seeing the Doctor, who rarely hesitated, carefully choosing his words, I knew he must be referring to that.

Prince Euclid… or rather, the ancient demon slumbering within the princess’s body.

If that were to awaken, it would undoubtedly be a formidable opponent, more than a match for Baek Jeong-nam and Bukkake.

“But can we really summon it that easily? I heard there were several conditions that needed to be met.”

“Yes, it’s not just any demon, but an ancient one whose name isn’t even recorded. It’s impossible through ordinary means, but if…”

If we could get their consent…

——

“How long are you going to stay so dejected?! It’s depressing just looking at you!!”

“…In this situation, anyone who’s in high spirits either has something wrong with their personality or has had something happen in their past.”

For example, unless someone had their entire family murdered when they were young or something similar, it was impossible not to be dejected in this situation.

My beloved had died.

Shadowstrike, which held more value to me than an ordinary weapon, had been cruelly and meaninglessly destroyed.

Every time I looked at Shadowstrike’s hiltless blade, I was reminded of this fact, and my chest felt like it was being torn apart.

I planned to ask Otar for repairs, but it was probably impossible.

‘Those bastards… If I’d known this would happen, I would have killed them more painfully…’

I couldn’t shake the feeling that turning into foam was too merciful a death compared to the crimes they had committed.

If there had been corpses left behind, I would have dug them up from their graves and slit their throats, but they had completely turned into foam, so even that wasn’t possible now.

“Ah, looks like we’re almost there.”

At Hori’s words, I lifted my head and saw that we had already reached a point where the academy was visible.

“Where should we go first? The forge where Master Otar is? Or should we stop by the mansion first?”

“Let’s go to the mansion… My hands are shaking too much to go to the forge…”

Honestly, I could vaguely predict the outcome, but just thinking about hearing Otar say that repairs were impossible made my heart race even now.

So, the carriage headed straight for the mansion without stopping anywhere else, but…

“Neigh!!”

With the sound of a horse whinnying, the carriage suddenly came to a stop in front of the mansion’s main gate.

—