episode_0084

Orlando Ermanius da Sephiroth.

He is the current Emperor of the Sephiroth Empire, a man I had never actually met before my regression.

In his youth, he was a master swordsman, holding the title of the greatest in the vast Sephiroth Empire, and a seasoned hero. I, too, grew up reading and hearing countless tales of the Emperor’s valor, ever since I was a snot-nosed kid.

It’s truly difficult to offer a definitive assessment of the Emperor. However, my initial conclusion is that he is a person somewhat distant from cunning or meticulousness. In my opinion, the Emperor seemed overly lenient and soft towards those within his immediate circle.

It’s impossible the Emperor didn’t know that Rodrigo’s actions were far from loyal to him. I also wonder if he would have noticed the chilling aura from the Empress and Leon much earlier if he had just dealt with his soft-hearted nature.

Ultimately, the Emperor in my memories was a somewhat foolish and pitiable man who was betrayed by his own son, his body broken before he finally died.

However, due to my intervention, the Emperor, who at this time should have been completely debilitated and confined to his bed, appeared in Delphy looking quite robust.

This man, who must have noticed the assassination attempt by now, is he suspecting either Leon or Skada?

I unfolded the note and map I had received a while ago from the Emperor’s messenger, who had visited me with their face concealed by a mask.

At 8:30 PM, following the map, I arrived at a mansion named ‘Lemon Garden’ located on the outskirts of Delphy City.

It was a large mansion with a garden, but it didn’t seem to be permanently inhabited. It was likely a private villa owned by the Emperor, used when he came to Delphy for personal matters.

When I placed my hand on the doorknob and gently pushed, the closed door opened, and the mansion and its garden greeted me.

Seeing that it wasn’t occupied, I wondered if it was a secret villa used by the Emperor?

I began looking around, surveying the large and beautiful garden and mansion. The solitary moonlight was beautiful, and the late May night, with summer fast approaching, carried a hint of warmth.

The garden wasn’t explicitly maintained, but its natural fragrance made it feel tranquil and pleasant. Befitting its name, ‘Lemon Garden,’ many lemon trees grew in neat rows.

I felt a pleasant freshness that perfectly suited the cute and charming Pisces, which lifted my spirits.

“There are so many lemon trees in bloom. The scent is incredibly fresh. As fresh as our lovely Pisces.”

And then, a sword strike cut through the fresh scent, lunging towards my neck.

Ever since entering Lemon Garden, I had already been aware of someone’s presence, lurking in the darkness and suppressing their aura.

My actions, feigning distraction by carelessly admiring the garden, were a form of acting, designed to induce complacency.

As the sword strike thrust into my blind spot, I lightly dodged it as if I had eyes in the back of my head, and at the same time, I drew a dagger from my pocket and parried the sword.

Clang!

A metallic sound rang out as the sword and dagger clashed.

“You… you’re quite skilled, just as I heard…?”

The blonde woman, her face covered by a tight-fitting mask, was the Emperor’s messenger who had visited me two days ago.

The fighting spirit in her slightly aggressive and belligerent voice was considerable. From her voice and overall demeanor, she was undoubtedly still a kid, but judging by her well-trained, solid physique and seemingly expensive armor, she was more than an ordinary swordsman.

“You just swing your sword at me the moment you see me. And at my back, no less? Are you crazy?”

“Hehe. You were already aware of everything, weren’t you? To feign ignorance, it seems you’re quite the strategist, unexpectedly.”

How rude.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard a proper reason why that crazy woman suddenly swung her sword at me, but I had a rough guess. I strongly felt that the Emperor had likely sent someone to test my skills.

“I guess I’ll have to teach you some manners. Let’s fight.”

“Such confidence, huh? Just don’t end up beaten and sniveling. It’d be embarrassing for a guy to cry after losing, wouldn’t it?”

Her banter was decent, her taunting skillful, and she maintained a battle-ready stance without a hint of carelessness—nothing to fault.

Her appearance was strangely familiar… and I had a strange sense of déjà vu… Is she someone I know?

Anyway, who she is right now isn’t important, so I’ll put aside speculating about her identity for now. Since she’s with the Emperor’s side, I can just ask her later.

Against such a seemingly skilled opponent, I, too, needed to become a bit colder and more composed.

Let’s adopt the mindset of a cold, cruel assassin, piercing throats beneath the moonlight.

Putting aside my thought of using the Nine Heavens Annihilation Art for a moment, I began injecting Snow Blossom’s chill into my dagger.

The ‘heart’ I had obtained from Swanwhite’s phantom had been well-processed and absorbed by Snow Blossom within my mental landscape, significantly strengthening Snow Blossom’s power.

Lately, I had been intensively training Snow Blossom’s power, which needed to act as a leash for the flame-wielding brats. After consuming Swanwhite’s heart, my training had gained significant momentum.

I had been looking for texts that compiled fighting techniques suitable for ice powers, but I couldn’t find any even in Leone’s library. So, I’d been training by simply blending Snow Blossom’s chill into my own fighting skills, and surprisingly, it was quite fun, leading to rapid improvement.

A noticeably denser white chill, compared to when I first acquired Snow Blossom, coiled around my dagger.

As I raised my dagger, scattering blindingly white snowflakes, I simultaneously moved towards the attacker. At the same time, I drew out Snow Blossom’s chill and blended it thinly into my original footwork.

It felt like swimming on ice, swift and smooth, like a loach on ice.

Ras Etgard Style, Ice Swim Steps.

Scattering trails of chill, I slid and moved my body instantly in various directions, relentlessly pressuring my opponent.

The dagger, imbued with Snow Blossom’s power, was sharper, harder, and heavier than usual, allowing even the short dagger to continuously push back the longsword.

“Stab, swing, grab, kick.”

The rhythm of the sliding footwork was so exhilarating that I relentlessly poured out attacks while chattering playfully.

A cold, cruel assassin’s mindset, my ass.

Instead of a cold urban man, I moved my mouth and arms incessantly, like an excited back-alley salt merchant.

However, this wasn’t foolishly telling my opponent what I would do, like Irha, but rather a strategic distraction.

This was because the words spilling from my playfully chattering mouth didn’t match the sequence of my actual actions.

With my mouth, I said ‘stab, swing, grab, kick.’ But what my body executed was swinging the dagger, dodging the sword strike while slashing upwards again, and then kicking.

“Tsk..!”

At my dazzling combo, which was different from what it seemed, the rude woman let out a shallow grunt and stumbled backward.

Despite her suspicious appearance, she used quite refined and stable swordsmanship, which made the flow of offense and defense somewhat monotonous.

Her swinging and thrusting sword strikes were fast, heavy, and precise, but at the same time, their trajectories were straightforward, making them easy to counter.

However, the fierce physical strength I felt when clashing, and her precise footwork, executed without a single gap, were truly astounding enough to make one gasp.

Furthermore, the density of the mana she infused into her sword was incredibly pure and high; it was astonishing that even though she was still a kid who hadn’t fully matured, her power could clash evenly with Snow Blossom’s strength, drawn from the mental landscape.

“Ugh..! You’re really sticking to me like a leech..!”

To the woman spitting out annoyance, I deliberately initiated even closer combat.

Because I had no fear of being cut or stabbed, I intentionally took a more dangerous step, treading a perilous path as if offering my neck.

What was surprising was that the woman’s sword strikes, which had been excessively straightforward and textbook-like just moments before, were subtly becoming more flexible, as if they had already adapted to my completely chaotic movements.

But ultimately, my understanding of offense and defense was far superior, so the woman was pushed onto the defensive and began stepping backward.

“Tch..!”

The woman’s skill and stamina, immediately abandoning her attack when outmaneuvered in the mind game and instantly adopting a solid, flawless defensive swordsmanship, were quite impressive, but she was slow.

I momentarily accelerated my body, rushed in, parried her sword, and then repeatedly jabbed at the woman’s exposed shoulder with quick finger techniques.

“…..!”

As if Snow Blossom’s frigid energy had instantly spread throughout her body, the woman’s expression froze in pallor, and her movements also became sluggish.

I kicked the woman’s wrist, making her drop the sword she held, then solidly punched her masked face with my fist.

“Gasp…!”

Wham! Along with a loud sound, the woman who took a face-caving punch tumbled backward, rolling away.

“Phew… This is intense.”

However, the offense and defense had dragged on quite incoherently, and using Snow Blossom’s power consumed a significant amount of stamina, so I paused for a moment to catch my breath.

Apart from the situation itself being out of the blue, the fight was extremely enjoyable, so I felt no unpleasantness, only delight.

I feel like I’ve had this kind of heart-pounding fight before…

I looked up and saw the woman picking herself up. Her mask was caved in, which amused me, so I taunted the rude woman.

“Hey. Come on, show me your face. What’s so great about it that you’re hiding it so tightly?”

Then that incredibly rude woman spat out a response, tinged with a slight sneer but delivered seriously.

“If I show you my face? You’ll fall for me that very day and won’t be able to fight me properly. I hate hearing that I won because of my looks, that’s why I wear a mask.”

“…..”

I always feel this, but there are too many people around me who are overly confident in their looks.

Of course… it’s not entirely strange for them to be confident in their appearance since there genuinely are many beautiful men and women, but even so, someone acting like this during a fight is a first.

Even Semere, who had extraordinary pride in her beauty and truly boasted extreme loveliness, had never genuinely said something like that to an opponent during a fight.

“Oh really? But your jaw just got twisted. You probably lost a few teeth and your cheek must be swollen. Give me the other side. I’ll beat both sides until you look like a pufferfish. Do you think being pretty will work on me? My lover is already a world-shaking beauty, so I’m not impressed by that kind of thing, pal. No matter how pretty you are, you’re below my girlfriend.”

However, an opponent’s appearance has absolutely no effect on my fighting.

It was I who fought fiercely against even Semere every time we sparred, and above all, I ultimately killed the warrior of Sephiroth, who was also a world-shaking beauty.

And now? My lover is our beautiful Rosalie-nim, and all the various women I’m softly entangled with are also stunning beauties, so my resistance to beautiful women is as strong as the legendary Vajra Imperishable Body.

“Someone who clearly looks like they’ve never even held a woman’s hand, talking about a lover, what a bluff. Alright, then watch. Just don’t stammer after you see it.”

My words, ‘No matter how pretty you are, you’re below my girlfriend,’ must have infuriated that princess-syndrome patient. The woman irritably cursed at me and swiftly removed her mask.

The identity of the masked woman is revealed!

“…!!!!”

I was utterly shocked after seeing her face revealed from behind the mask.

Firstly, the woman was… indeed incredibly beautiful, just as she had so strongly boasted.

Brilliant, resilient blonde hair that seemed to hold sunlight, pure white and smoothly lustrous skin, and perfectly placed features that truly embodied the golden ratio on her small face.

An otherworldly beauty, whose self-praise, though brazen, seemed no fault at all, stood before me.

But I was by no means surprised simply because this woman was incredibly beautiful.

“Why? Now that you see it, are you so flustered you can’t do anything? Men are all the same, I guess. Still, you were somewhat useful. A wild bastard who punches a woman’s face hard enough to cave it in.”

Firstly, the divine power the woman was currently using. The swollen right cheek of the otherworldly beauty, who was grinning and triumphantly preening, was rapidly healing, enveloped in a brilliant light just like what Rosalie-nim uses—that was one reason…

The other reason was the color of the woman’s eyes. Her right eye was crimson, like a carved ruby, and her left eye a beautiful azure, like a large sapphire.

This woman, with her rare heterochromia, was someone I had known even before my regression.

“Hey, did you fall for me in the middle of a fight? You were having fun earlier because I went easy on you and didn’t use divine power, weren’t you? Hehehe… Ugh! Why are you ignoring me when I’m talking?! This guy… could he really have fallen for me…?”

Her rough, insolent tone, her crude mouth, overwhelming divine power, fatal beauty, and self-admiration.

Lea Iorca, the warrior of the Sephiroth Empire whom I had killed in Sepher before my regression, now stood before me.

Compared to that time, it was an unexpected encounter, a full ten years earlier.