episode_0039

Raise your sword. A sword to protect. A sword made for protection.

Oleg’s sword exists for that purpose. So, when the moment comes to protect what is most precious. Oleg’s sword will finally shine.

‘…….’

I had yearned for that sword. A great knight who protects what he wishes to protect. The story of my father, a great knight, which I had only heard from my mother. Growing up listening to that story, I naturally came to yearn to become a great knight like my father.

That’s why I couldn’t help but yearn for the Duke as well. Because he embodied the most ideal knightly figure I knew. Because the sword I most wished to possess was being forged in the Duke’s hands. Even though I became unable to be a knight, I still wished for Oleg’s sword to be perfect. I wished for it to become an eternal flame, for the greatness of that sword to remain on this continent for generations.

So, even at this very moment, having stepped onto the battlefield.

“Block them!”

I was watching the battle between the undead and the knights, hearing someone’s booming cry. First, I looked at the man who had just shouted loudly with an aura-infused voice.

‘Alex.’

Centurion Alex. During my time as a Military Administrator, he was a snot-nosed kid who had just joined the knighthood after his coming-of-age ceremony, but now he was a valiant knight leading the members and soldiers.

‘He was diligent and firm in his beliefs, but his swordsmanship was merely average.’

But he’s improved a lot.

Footsteps.

“Evacuate the citizens first!”

‘Sophia.’

Cowardly Sophia. Unlike Alex, she was a genius in swordsmanship, but a coward who couldn’t even properly wield a sword due to her inherently gentle nature. She, who feared the concept of death more than anyone, was now evacuating citizens and cutting down death until the very end.

‘She’s overcome her fear.’

Perhaps because she had overcome the inner demon in her heart, a conviction stronger than that of most knights seemed to have taken root within her. Although I didn’t have the ability to hear convictions or see into people’s minds.

A low hum—

The pure aura clinging to her sword was telling me instead. How firm her conviction had become. And how steadfastly it had settled.

Footsteps.

Carrying the halberd of the Imperial Guard Captain whom I had personally killed. Escorted by El Cid and the Black Knights, I continued walking towards the city center. During that time, I witnessed countless battle scenes of knights fighting, and I could observe their swords and auras.

Then, I repeated to myself.

‘Has Oleg’s sword weakened?’

No. Cerebus was wrong. Oleg’s sword had never weakened. It had matured with time, becoming even more perfect, and the knights who had learned the sword imbued with the Duke’s teachings of conviction and wisdom had grown incredibly strong. And when such a strengthened sword found itself in a situation where it had to protect more than ever, befitting its role.

“Drive them out!”

Despite being outnumbered by nearly ten times, they were actually pushing back Lerei’s army.

‘How could anyone say it had weakened after seeing that?’

Although I had dreamed of becoming a great knight. At this moment, all of them embodied the greatest knightly figure I had ever imagined. A figure of a knight so noble and great, it was incomparable to someone like me.

“Your Highness.”

While I was lost in thought, El Cid called out to me.

“We’ve found the Duke.”

Her red eyes pointed towards one spot. My gaze followed hers to that same spot.

“…….”

Oleg’s sword is great. More brilliant, stronger than in the past. But only one person. Oleg’s symbol, more than ever, had weakened. The great teacher who had imparted his wisdom to all the knights of this city was the most dulled and weakened.

His hair was disheveled, and his eyes gazed emptily into the void. And held within his arms…

Trembling.

Even the arm of an unknown knight. As soon as I saw that sight, the scene from just before I unleashed the slash came to mind. The Duke giving up on blocking the slash, and the old knight sacrificing himself to save the Duke. As soon as I recalled that scene, I knew who the owner of that arm was.

‘Yuri.’

It was the arm of an old knight, as old as Duke Oleg himself, whose hair had been full of white even when I was a Military Administrator. We weren’t particularly close. Even during my time as a knight, we’d only exchanged a few words; I didn’t really have cause to see his face often to begin with. But whether we were close or not, he was also a comrade and fellow warrior belonging to the same knighthood. And to think that I had personally killed that comrade and fellow warrior…

‘It’s become irreversible.’

Ironically, it wasn’t after starting the coup, but only after seeing Yuri’s dead arm that I realized everything had become irreversible. That I could no longer return to the past. The oath and the promise. Even the ember named ‘dream’ that had flickered between the two shattered remnants had now completely extinguished.

“…Was it you?”

A voice surging with rage was heard. On the Duke’s raised face, a scab of hardened blood clung, having flowed down from his head.

“I asked, was it you?”

At the ominous pressure exuded by the master-level knight, El Cid and the Black Knights stepped in front of me.

“That’s enough.” “But…” “Go and help Lerei.”

Someone like El Cid could probably handle the old Duke. Even if she was just a Vice-Commander, she was still a figure who had been the Vice-Commander of the knighthood that followed the Calamity in the past. But this is something I must do. If you ask me why, I can’t give a definite answer.

“So, can you help me?”

It’s just…

“I don’t know if my sword is perfect, but I hope talents like you will be by my side, guiding me so I don’t go astray. I want you to show me the path and direction.”

I felt a very strong conviction that I had to face him.

“…Understood.”

She lowered her head, her long black hair falling loosely. Soon, she took the Black Knights and headed to the city outskirts to help Lerei, leaving only the Duke and me in this place.

“…….”

Once only the two of us remained, I looked into the Duke’s ominously glowing eyes and spoke.

“Yes.”

I killed him.

A blade whispered—

I drew my sword. And then…

“!!!!!!”

CRASH—!

BOOM—!

The sword, drawn in an instant, immediately lunged for my neck. Fortunately, I managed to block it with the halberd, and it was a good thing it was a weapon made solely of pure moonstone; otherwise, I would have allowed the attack to break through the halberd itself.

‘Even old, he’s still a Sword Master.’

It had been so long since I’d seen the Duke’s face that I had forgotten. Even though he was old, he was once a great knight who had even aimed for the Grand Master realm. In his prime, he was an elder of such incredible skill, far surpassing Duke Valium and the Imperial Guard Captain I had killed.

A ripping sound—

Along with a sound of air being torn, slashes made of aura flew at me in succession.

Clang! Grind!

It was difficult to parry. Truthfully, that’s how I felt. Even though I held one of the best-performing weapons on the continent, my weapon wasn’t a halberd. But I had no choice. If I, who had learned Oleg’s sword, were to draw my own sword and face the Duke.

‘He might recognize my true identity.’

Especially if it was the person who taught me swordsmanship, the probability was even higher.

Clang! Clang—!

‘But.’

Aura, however, I could use.

A whoosh—

“That power…!”

Because.

BOOM—!

“Ugh…!”

Now, there was no one left on the continent who would recognize my identity just because I used aura.

Thump— Thump-thump—

As he flew to the Grand Plaza’s fountain, cracks appeared in the stone statue atop it, and fragments began to fall one by one. Large, heavy fragments, enough to kill an ordinary person, rained down, but the Duke casually swept them away with sheer strength and glared at me.

“Black aura.”

That word leaped from the Duke’s lips.

“At first, I just thought it was a somewhat peculiar power.”

Footsteps.

“But then I heard of its black color, its ominous energy, and the homeland of the ‘one’ who possessed that energy. I realized it was no ordinary power.”

He swept back his water-soaked hair and looked at me.

“The master of that power is dead.”

Drip. Drip.

“But for some reason, across the Lands of Death, those in black armor were using that power.” At first, I just thought they were undead.

“I thought they were new Death Knights created by the Calamity, having extracted ‘someone’s’ power.”

But they weren’t.

“They didn’t possess dark green malevolence, nor had they lost their minds and reason.” A few years ago, I had seen them a few times on the battlefield against the armies of death. Although I hadn’t fought them directly and had only witnessed their battles from afar, the power the Black Knights used was undoubtedly a black-tinged aura.

“When I asked the Prophets, they said they were puppets belonging to a group called ‘Gram’ among the Shadow Forces.” And when I asked what the black aura was, the Prophets explained, starting from the beginning, what had been hidden within the Fallen. And where the black aura originated from. And even the story of the Golden-Armored Knight King who commanded them, and who led the Golden Age down the path of ruin.

The place where the ancient Calamity was secretly buried, and the Knight King who wielded that Calamity. Recalling his name that he had heard from the Prophets in the past, the Duke looked at him and said:

“Morgoth.”

Lord of Eldrad, the Golden City. And later, the Lord of Angband, who corrupted that place into Angband, the stronghold of calamity. When his name was uttered, the Golden-Armored Knight gazed at him without a word.

“…….”

Then, after staring for a long time, he spoke.

“Are you afraid?” “What?” “Are you afraid this city will be destroyed by the ancient Calamity? That your precious family, city, and citizens will disappear?”

For family, for city, for citizens. As the three words that supported his conviction came from the mouth of the ancient Calamity, the Duke’s pupils began to widen.

“You, where did you…” “Are you so weakened by the fear of losing everything that sustains your conviction?”

Weakened. At those words, as if he had known him before, a very old face flashed through the elder’s mind.

“You…”

Trembling.

The Duke’s body trembled.

“Fear is not the cause of weakness.”

Footsteps.

I slowly approached the Duke.

“Oleg’s sword is not one that would weaken because of such trivial emotions.”

Clink.

His hand went to the sword at his waist. Only then did the Duke’s eyes notice the sword’s presence and begin to gaze at the sword on the knight’s waist. Outwardly, it was ordinary. A golden pommel, a handle covered in black leather, and even a golden crossguard. It looked somewhat ornate, but seen only up to this point, it appeared as merely a well-made sword, nothing more, nothing less.

But.

A blade whispered—

As the knight drew the sword, the Duke gazed at his sword, forgetting even to breathe. It had no blade. The tip of the sword was sharpened to a keen point, but where the blade should have been, there was a small groove. But as the knight began to inject black aura into the sword’s groove.

Humming loudly—

The sword began to hum, and an aura-formed blade started to manifest.

“But just as Oleg’s sword is also a knight’s sword.”

His appearance began to change.

“If conviction crumbles, if one acts against their conviction.”

From the body of the knight in golden armor, to the appearance of a man with pure white hair.

“No matter how perfect Oleg’s sword, it cannot help but weaken.”

Hergil’s marble eyes were now fixed. His infinitely deep eyes directly looked at him, and he pointed his sword at the Duke, who had forgotten even to breathe.

A soft thud.

“There is no perfection.”

But the form Oleg’s sword showed, striving for perfection, was as good as perfect to me.

“However—”

However, Oleg’s sword, which I saw for the first time in 15 years… no, the Duke’s sword. It had moved even further away from perfection. Cerebus was right. Oleg’s sword, Hergil Oleg’s sword, had weakened. The light that had shone from his sword, once an idol, had now faded.

“Oleg’s sword has weakened.”

He looked at me and spoke.

“Agapé…”

Calling out the name of an old comrade. I, recalling the memory of the day I clasped hands with the elder and made a promise.

“I have come to show you the way.”

I called out the title of the master to whom I had once sworn loyalty.

“Venerable Elder.”