novelraw Chapter 81 : Chapter 81
Chapter 81 : Chapter 81
Chapter 81: 4th Rank (2)
If you were to ask who the most splendid knight in Serzila was, the people of the north would all answer Mores Palaz.
Mores Palaz on the battlefield was a madman that the north couldn't help but love.
The wonder of that knight, who once roamed the Boundary with Grand Duke Aratus, was not easily forgotten even ten years after his retirement.
However, splendor and strength are different.
Mores Palaz was certainly the north's most splendid knight, but not the strongest.
The strongest knight is Toremot, the people of the north would answer with confidence.
Toremot was the successor personally chosen by Mores Palaz.
Although Mores wielded a sword and Toremot an axe, it was a trivial difference.
An outstanding warrior knew how to master a weapon that felt familiar in their hands without detailed instruction, and Toremot was a man born to be a warrior.
The axe Toremot held glinted from a young age and captured the heart of Mores, whom he had met by chance.
He was worthy of being called a disciple, but Toremot did not learn much from Mores.
He was merely taken in as a knight and given the opportunity to stand on the line of death.
On that line of death, Toremot was reborn as a Superhuman.
It wasn't that he wasn't born in a good era.
The countless lines of death in Serzila had disappeared twenty years ago when Grand Duke Aratus was placed on his Sabbatical Year.
Of course, it was Toremot's ability that took advantage of that era.
Knights who survive the countless lines of death are rare, and among them, the talent to become a Superhuman is even rarer.
When Gullen was born, Toremot was a Sword Master who had realized his essence not long before.
Gullen held a small axe like his father when he began to walk, and at the age of ten, he split a wolf's neck like firewood.
Toremot, who had become the 1st Knights Commander at the time, was so happy his mouth could have torn.
Because just like his teacher Mores, he had not taught Gullen anything.
Just as the father was, the son too was born a warrior.
Perhaps a more splendid warrior than his father.
Talent recognizes talent.
Toremot recognized at a glance that Gullen was superior to his father.
Therefore, Gullen's thought, ‘I am more special than my father,’ was not a simple misunderstanding or arrogance.
Mores was Toremot's only teacher.
He favored his teacher's educational methods and did not teach his son much.
Gullen's skills were all the fruit of his pure talent and effort.
However, few recognized that fact.
Because only talent can recognize talent. Most knights did not possess the same talent as the father and son.
That was the reason Gullen put down the axe when he joined the 1st Knights.
If he were to wield an axe, Gullen's talent and effort would be transformed into Toremot's teachings.
They would say he was walking the path his father had laid out.
Though he had never walked it, in the eyes of others, Gullen was learning the essence of the axe from Toremot.
So Gullen picked up a sword.
Assuming such a path existed, he decided to walk a separate one.
He wanted to show his talent and effort in their entirety.
‘...To whom?’
To others?
No. That alone is not enough.
From a young age, Gullen's goal was Toremot. To surpass his father.
It's a matter of time, Gullen knows.
It was an undeniable fact. He had the talent to surpass his father someday.
That time would be much shorter if he wielded an axe.
If he wielded a sword...
'Do you plan to pick up an axe only after Lord Toremot dies?'
It was nonsensical.
Such an imagination, Gullen had never once had in his life.
But... he had ended up thinking it.
He had ended up imagining Toremot dying in his head.
That was the problem.
No matter how slim the chance, he had recognized that it could happen.
It's slim, so it's okay?
He might regret thinking so.
...Like Harad, who had lost his family and was taken hostage by the north.
So Gullen opened the door.
"What."
Toremot, who was sitting blankly in his office, spat out bluntly.
"What is it."
Gullen was also blunt.
From the time he had put down the axe, the father and son had this kind of relationship.
"I heard you couldn't do anything?"
"Yes. I couldn't."
Toremot's eyes, which had intended to tease him, rounded.
It was not the reaction he had expected. Normally, Gullen would flare up at this.
"What's with you?"
"Father."
"This is the garrison, Gullen."
Toremot furrowed his brow.
As the 1st Knights Commander, he had an obligation to distinguish between public and private matters.
"I know. But let me ask you one thing."
"What is it."
Toremot was openly annoyed.
Gullen looked at the huge, crude axe placed next to the desk. The weapon of the 1st Knights Commander.
"Am I that untalented with the sword?"
"It'll be faster for me to die than for you to succeed with the sword."
Gullen furrowed his brow.
Coincidentally, it was because Toremot had mentioned death.
The 1st Knights Commander.
The second strongest Superhuman in Serzila.
But a knight is one who walks arm in arm with death.
Even a Toremot like that will die someday.
"...Please get me an axe."
Gullen said, quieter than an ant.
It was clearly audible to the Superhuman's ears.
"This brat has finally come to his senses!"
Toremot shot up, slapping the desk as if he had never been annoyed.
"Yes! I told you it's the axe for you!"
Toremot was as happy as if it were his own business.
After being like that for a while, he tilted his head.
"But why the sudden change?"
Gullen had always ignored Toremot no matter what he said.
And suddenly, his son's puberty was over.
"...I don't think you'll live that long, Father."
"Are you crazy?"
"So I'll send you off before that. With an axe."
"You patricidal bastard?"
* * *
-Are you awake?
The Grand Heir Elaine of the dream said.
In front of him, Harad was lying down.
-...Where am I?
Harad stared at the ceiling for a long time before sitting up.
His complexion was extremely pale. To the point that one might mistake his Origin for the moon, not the sun.
-My mansion.
Harad was in Elaine's bed.
It was the same room, the same bed as in reality.
-You almost died, you know.
-Ah.
-Do you remember now?
Harad nodded weakly.
-You ruined all the fun. After all the trouble of going to the Boundary.
It seemed that the Elaine and Harad of the dream had been to the Boundary.
-What happened?
-I killed them all. And I carried your collapsed self all the way here. I, the Grand Heir, carried you, the hostage.
Elaine said, taking credit with a smile.
Ellen let out a hollow laugh.
Coincidentally, the situation was similar to reality.
-They were 3rd Rank, at best 4th Rank magical beasts.
The Harad of reality had collapsed after killing a 5th Rank mage.
The Harad of the dream was weaker and more ignorant than the Harad of reality.
-You almost died to magical beasts like that.
In the dream, Elaine was more impressive.
She was always above Harad.
-The matchup was bad.
-So what.
-....
-Shabby.
Harad glared at Elaine as if to kill her.
But no fire came out.
-You have no magic power?
It wasn't that Harad was controlling it, but that he didn't even have enough magic power left to start a small fire.
-You saw it next to me. It was all eaten.
-Shabby.
-....
-You said you were almost 4th Rank, but now I see it was all bullshit.
Elaine chuckled and teased Harad.
-Just kidding. Actually, I was surprised too. I never thought you'd be so helpless.
The dream changed in an instant.
A horde of pitch-black magical beasts spread out before Ellen's eyes.
They had the form of a person, but they were just pitch black without any facial features.
Harad's flames had no effect on them.
No, they seemed to be rather enjoying the fire.
If you looked closely, the magical beasts were absorbing the flames. There were even magical beasts that were chomping and eating them. It was like seeing the natural enemy of fire.
Those magical beasts were not that difficult for Elaine.
Elaine let out a hollow laugh as she killed the magical beasts. Unlike Harad's fire, her sword cut through them very well.
-I think it was a good lesson. For me, and for you.
With the voice, the dream changed.
Elaine shook her head.
Then she stared at Harad.
-Idiot.
-Fuck you...
* * *
"Come to think of it, you almost died in your dream too."
Elaine, who had relayed the dream, said nonchalantly.
Reality was more important than some dream, I suppose.
The Harad of reality had come back from the dead.
'There were magical beasts like that.'
I nodded at the memory that had resurfaced.
Magical beasts that looked like a person painted black. They were certainly special magical beasts. They had absorbed fire.
'Come to think of it, they're similar to the rabbit.'
The Divine Beast of the Moon. That rabbit had also enjoyed my fire.
Perhaps there was a connection. I couldn't delve deeper. It was because I was glad about the dream Elaine had had.
'The fact that I was injured became a stimulus.'
It meant we had grown that much closer.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Because I'm happy."
"The dream?"
I nodded.
"Do you want to swear at me like in the dream too?"
"I don't think I'm the only one doing it."
"That's true. We seemed close in the dream."
Elaine's tone was peculiar.
"But you were always the one who started the fights."
"No way."
"What?"
"That's not my personality."
Elaine had dreamed too little.
Usually, it was Elaine who started the fights.
"That's why it's a dream, isn't it? If you did that in reality, you'd be a madman."
That wasn't wrong.
Elaine was the Grand Heir, and I was the hostage.
My status did rise over time, but the same was true for Elaine. She becomes the Grand Duke, doesn't she? She was not someone who should be subjected to profanity.
That's how special the relationship between the Harad and Elaine of the past life was.
When they were alone, they were not bound by their statuses.
"But well, I do think it might be okay sometimes."
Elaine said then.
My eyes widened slightly. It sounded like she was giving me an opening.
"Of course, I doubt that's your personality."
Elaine said so and got up from her chair.
"Get some rest now."
Her voice grew distant.
I thought she was leaving, but her presence did not disappear.
As I lay there and rolled only my eyes, I saw a bedding spread out on the floor.
Elaine was on top of it.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to sleep."
"I don't sleep in the same room as a man."
Normally, I wouldn't have refused, but today was an exception. I needed rest. And I preferred quiet.
The Elaine of the past life was talkative.
From what I've experienced after regressing, the Elaine who was just about to lie down there was not much different.
"We already slept together, though?"
It seemed I had had the dream here.
"Did I not tell you? You woke up after five days."
"..."
I stared at Elaine silently.
"What's with that look... I get it. I'll go. Get some sleep."
Elaine, as if burdened by my gaze, left the room.
"I'm okay, right?"
And then Ellen came in.
"..."
I didn't even have the strength to smile.
* * *
"Sleep comfortably. Don't mind me."
Ellen said so and disappeared from my line of sight.
She must have lain down on the floor.
I could only move my eyes; I couldn't move.
"But can I ask you something?"
She tells me to sleep comfortably.
"The tunnel. What if a high-Rank comes through?"
I had ended up in this state after killing a 5th Rank mage.
Ellen seemed to have thought of the case where a 5th Rank mage like that would come through the tunnel.
If that happened, the domain would be in an uproar.
It was a level that the knights waiting in the tunnel could not handle.
"That's not likely to happen."
"Why?"
"There's no group as conventional as mages. High-Rank mages are even more so. They all think they're enlightened."
Conventional means old.
"And old usually means cowardly."
Unlike Sword Masters, 5th Rank mages are not superhuman every moment.
They don't know when they might be exposed to death.
"It's unlikely those guys would recklessly cross an unverified passage. Who knows where the tunnel leads."
"..."
"They'll push their underlings in first to confirm its safety. They'll keep doing that, and if they decide it's not working, they'll give up."
Hmm. A sound of agreement came from under the bed.
"Can I ask another question?"
"...Go ahead."
It was as I had feared.
Elaine was talkative.
It wasn't that I was entirely without fault.
If I just said I was in pain, Ellen would stop talking.
For some reason, I didn't want to do that.
I had a thought that hearing Ellen's voice might be better than silence.
In my past life, I would have told her to please get lost.
'Is it because I've regressed?'
Certainly.
Regression must be efficient.
All the time spent with Ellen was an opportunity for stimulation.
"Why is there a hole in the ceiling?"
I was lying in a small room on the first floor of my annex. It was because the floor of the second-floor room was wide open.
"His Grace the Grand Duke made it."
"...Why?"
Ellen seemed flustered.
"The Grand Heir said he wouldn't talk to his dad."
"Ah."
"His Grace the Grand Duke must have guessed that I made him do it."
"...I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing? It's the indifferent Grand Heir's fault."
No answer was heard.
I laughed lowly.
"I'm kidding. It's no one's fault. It's a problem that ends once the ceiling is fixed."
"...I'll call someone, when you're all better."
"Thank you."
A groan was heard from under the bed.
She didn't seem to like the Grand Duke's actions.
It was a good sign, that she was taking my side.
"They say you might die."
"Hmm? Ah. You're talking about the Moon's Prophecy."
I might die.
Even that was a softened expression.
The Moon's Prophecy was foretelling my death.
"I won't die right away. I don't know about twenty years from now, though."
It had been like that in my past life.
I don't know if it will be the same this time, but I had no intention of dying easily.
"You almost died."
"But I lived."
"..."
A sigh was heard from under the bed.
It was quite a heavy sigh.
"You had the Magical Item, the ring. Why did you get hurt so badly?"
"If I had used the ring, Psina wouldn't have given me any distance."
I explained the desperate fight with Psina.
"If it had gone on like that, I would have surely died."
Psina had chosen a war of attrition.
There was nothing I could do in that war of attrition.
"I had to close the distance somehow. For that, I needed a variable. Ah. And it was essential to instill carelessness and impatience in her."
I induced carelessness by hiding the existence of the white fire until the very end, and I made Psina impatient by saying the knights would soon intervene.
"Of course, Derrick and Pisaro's intervention was an afterthought, but my choice wouldn't have changed even without them. The existence of the Magical Item had to be hidden until the very, very end."
Psina was confident that she could kill me.
That confidence became even clearer because I hid the existence of the ring.
I was in a position where I could not blur the confidence I had worked so hard to build.
"You said you knew the space in that area would break."
I nodded.
It was thanks to the precedent of Cassion.
"That's right. So at first, I waited."
Then I provoked Psina.
I expected the manifested brush to strike the space.
"The provocation was effective. Thanks to it, the space cracked. The provocation was the only variable I could create."
Psina was internally injured, and Derrick and Pisaro found the gap in the space.
It was all thanks to the magic that had slashed me to pieces.
"You could have blocked that magic with the ring and bought time."
"That was also an option."
It was a valid point.
If I had done that, my whole body wouldn't have been slashed like this.
I could have roughly handled the strokes weakened by the solar wind.
"Then Sir Derrick and Sir Pisaro would have joined in. Kubel too."
"They would have."
Two vanguards, and smoke to light the fire.
If that happened, the odds of winning would jump.
There would have been no need to throw my life away as bait.
"But someone would have died. High probability it would have been Derrick or Pisaro."
Though called the vanguard, they were closer to shields.
I had no intention of letting the knights die.
It had to be different from my past life. They had to survive. Elaine would surely have wanted that.
"If you had made one wrong move, you would have died."
"But I lived."
"..."
A sound of getting up was heard.
When I opened my eyes, Ellen was looking down at me.
Her face was complex, hard to read.
However, her eyes looked slightly moist.
"You son of a bitch..."
Ellen, saying so, was trembling.