episode_0049

You might not remember, but once, you asked me this.

You asked why I only used my left hand to wield my sword, and why I never touched myself with my left hand. Just like that.

…I couldn’t touch you.

Because it was defiled. Because it was a cursed hand.

I didn’t want to create unnecessary unpleasantness by touching you with such a grotesque hand.

Yes, that’s why it was like that back then.

In contrast, my right hand wasn’t defiled, nor was it cursed.

So, I could only touch you with my right hand.

I knew you were immune to cursed power.

…But still, just in case, I didn’t want to pass on the curse to you.

*Clang!*

*Thud.*

After struggling to parry several blows, she finally collapsed.

‘She lasted quite a while.’

Did she even manage to last over a minute?

Although she only endured that long, considering her shabby swordsmanship, I thought she lasted quite a while.

Her talent for aura was outstanding, enough to overwhelm El Cid, but her swordsmanship was a step—no, about two steps—below El Cid’s.

Her sword was that straightforward.

Though her fundamentals were solid, it was a sword lacking finesse and proper insight.

Wielding a sword by solely relying on her overwhelming talent for aura manipulation made her an incredibly easy opponent for me, who, unlike her, had dedicated everything to swordsmanship.

Even though she was a hero holding the title of Sword Master and the rank of Vice-Captain of the Shahlnu Stellarum.

‘Her aura manipulation is mid-to-high master level, and her swordsmanship… is perhaps beginner expert level.’

To speak coldly, that was exactly it.

Her swordsmanship, solid in fundamentals but almost devoid of technique and overly straightforward, made me think of just one person.

‘The Fourth Hero, Nemo.’

He was originally the Second Hero, but due to old age, he had successively ceded his position to Kara and Astolfo, a veteran who was no less than a legend of the Shahlnu Empire.

The swordsmanship of that old general, which I had witnessed during my time as a military commissioner, was identical to the swordsmanship Kara had just displayed.

Since he had served as a mentor to most heroes, earning the moniker [The Great Teacher], it must have been Nemo who taught Kara her swordsmanship, explaining why it was like this.

‘He was certainly a distinguished hero.’

However, if asked whether he was a ‘swordsman’ with exceptional swordsmanship compared to his reputation, that wasn’t the case.

While he possessed outstanding skill, enough to easily take the position of a royal knight commander in a nation, his true strengths lay in his wisdom, strategy, and excellent ability to nurture juniors.

‘Perhaps thanks to that, she achieved expert-level swordsmanship in a short period.’

However, as the war accelerated, she had less time for instruction. Moreover, with her genius-level aura manipulation, she could achieve victory against most enemies, so she lacked opportunities to gain deep insights into swordsmanship.

Furthermore, the swordsmanship possessed by the knight Nemo was excessively textbook-like and straightforward, which is why her sword was even more devoid of technique.

She possessed enough power as a hero to confront disaster and its minions, but she was an incredibly easy opponent for those skilled in swordsmanship, like me.

That was the current standing of Sword Master Kara.

*Swish—*

I slowly approached her, then raised my sword high.

Even though I was left-handed, I gripped the sword with my right hand, intending to be lenient, but Kara was overwhelmed by my sword and completely lost her will to fight.

“Hah, hah…”

Her rough breathing carried a tremor.

It was fear.

‘Despite having been to so many battlefields.’

To tremble in such fear, losing her will to fight just from being overwhelmed by an enemy.

‘No.’

She must have been to countless battlefields, but she probably had never fought a battle where her life was truly at stake.

Because of the prophets’ prophecies that all heroes must survive to subdue the disaster, she would have only participated in battles where there was a clear chance of victory and virtually no possibility of death.

So, experiencing the true fear of death by being overwhelmed by someone must effectively be her first time.

“Hah… hah…”

“……”

For the first time in 15 years, our eyes met.

Her gaze, which had looked at me with affection in my blurry memories of a distant past…

“……”

Now, with time having passed, it held not a shred of affection, looking at me as if I were a horrifying monster.

She didn’t know I was Agapé, as my terrible appearance was hidden beneath thick armor. No, she likely had no interest in a person named Agapé in the first place.

If she were to see the horrifying visage inside the armor, she would surely look at me with a gaze full of disgust, as if she had seen an even more monstrous creature than this.

…Yes,

In the past, that gaze would have torn my heart apart.

I would have felt pain, a chill, and despair, unable to escape, feeling as if I had lost the entire world.

But no longer did I feel any sorrow.

Because.

*Whoosh—*

My world was already broken.

“…Ag……pé…”

In a voice too faint to hear, she muttered someone’s name.

And whether she spoke it consciously or unconsciously, I didn’t know.

She shed tears and said,

“Save… me…”

*Stop.*

“……”

The sword halted.

As if time had frozen, the trajectory of the sword, which had been perfectly tracing a path to strike her down, froze in place.

“……?”

Enough time had passed for her to have been cut by the sword, yet nothing happened. Her eyes, which had been tightly shut and trembling in fear, slowly opened.

And as her eyelids slowly lifted, just as her navy blue eyes were about to look upwards—

*Whoosh—*

*Boom!*

A sword strike made of orange aura flew in, directly striking Morgoth’s right shoulder guard.

“Lady Kara!”

It was Maugrius.

He, a hero born and raised in Mulypen, had unleashed a full-power strike towards Morgoth.

Perhaps because of that, he was running towards Kara with a weary expression.

“Maugrius?”

“We must flee!”

He hastily supported Kara.

And just as they were about to quickly escape from the monster clad in golden armor.

*Grind…*

A distinct sound of gears interlocking was heard, and Maugrius, feeling a chill, looked back.

*Hiss…*

*Swish—*

It was him.

“Damn it…!”

It had certainly been a full-power strike.

‘He blocked it without even using aura…’

This is a monster.

He didn’t know where or how such a monster had been created.

This being was practically a monster made by directly embodying the concept of swordsmanship itself.

‘There’s no hope…’

Though it was momentary, Maugrius became convinced after witnessing his swordsmanship.

To secure victory against this monster, they would at least need to join forces with other comrades.

Or, they would have to bring Lord Orlando, who was called the strongest on the continent, to win.

Even though this thought had only lasted for a fleeting moment, the knight’s ash-gray sword was already right before his eyes.

‘I can’t block it…’

With his own strength, the weakest in the knight order, he wouldn’t be able to withstand a single blow against this sword.

Maugrius, sensing death from the sword already at his throat, tightly closed his eyes and waited for the sword that would soon cut his neck to arrive.

*Blare—*

The exotic sound of a trumpet was heard.

It wasn’t from the Imperial army; it was a trumpet sound from Lerei’s army.

Even as the youngest member of the knight order, Maugrius, who had endured the war against the legions of death for a tiresome long time, knew.

A long, sustained trumpet sound like this usually blew to announce the start of a war.

Or, that it blew when the war was over.

“……”

Having thought that far, he slowly began to open his tightly shut eyes.

Opening his eyes and looking straight ahead, he saw the ash-gray sword frozen in place, leaving a distance no more than the dirt under a fingernail.

“Huh…”

*Thud.*

He was alive.

Having preserved his life in a situation where he had braced for death, his legs gave out, and he involuntarily sank to the ground.

Behind him, Kara was staring at the knight with trembling eyes.

“Why… in the world…”

“……”

Morgoth said nothing and withdrew the sword he held in his right hand.

Then, slowly sheathing it into the scabbard at his hip, he spoke leisurely in a voice reminiscent of a cheap speaker.

“The war is over.”

“…What… did you… say…?”

When she spoke as if she didn’t understand, he looked at the landscape around them instead of answering.

Kara’s gaze followed his, moving to their surroundings.

“……”

Countless scattered corpses of the Imperial army, and undead whose cores were shattered, halting their functions.

And Captain Idel, whose arm had been cut off by Lerei…

*Flap— Flap—*

Even Danoa, who had torn her own white cloak and raised it high into the sky as a white flag.

From afar, Danoa, who had been watching them, sighed in relief and shook her head.

And Captain Idel, standing next to her, also bowed his head deeply as if assenting to her will.

“……”

Seeing the loss of will to fight in Danoa, who had excellent intuition, and Captain Idel, a renowned general counted among the best in the Empire, he realized.

That in this war, which they had naturally been confident of winning, they had been defeated.

And.

That the overwhelming power displayed by just one person had made everyone present instinctively realize that there was no chance of victory.