Chapter 12: Spring Comes Forth (5)
Cain was unfamiliar with the sword ‘Ardvark’.
He wasn’t close enough to Cloyd to learn it in the past, and Edmund, the count who should have taught him, never returned.
However.
Cain’s penetrating thrust targeted Abel’s left eye.
Abel flinched for a second.
Thud!
Then Cain’s longsword brutally struck Abel’s left forearm, which was a beat slower.
Cain opened his jaws as he saw Abel’s bleeding forearm.
“If it were Ardvark, you would have deflected it lightly.”
“……That’s right.
“The problem is that you know it in your head, but your body doesn’t follow.”
“……”
Abel chewed his bottom lip in frustration.
As Cain said, he knew in his head how to move, but his body tried to unleash the familiar ‘En Zauer’, making his reaction slow.
Abel’s clothes were already torn in several places, and blood was splattered everywhere.
‘I don’t know Ardvark, but I do know En Zauer. Very nicely.’
Cain moved forward with his left foot.
stance that was lowering.
Abel took three steps back and assumed the stance of Ardvark.
“I’m going to thoroughly exploit En Zauer’s weakness.”
Cain found it easier to attack through the clearly visible En Zauer than by flipping his palm.
“If you can’t use Ardvark, my sword will eventually pierce your life.”
“Young Master!”
Cloyd called out to Cain, surprised.
The surroundings were already populated with Ethelred’s knights.
This was because Cloyd, the commander, had summoned them all in case of any unanticipated occurrences.
“Young Master Abel is still a child.”
Cain turned back to face him, frowning.
“Don’t talk like a child. Does the guy look like a child to you?”
Cain held Asher’s longsword and pointed toward Abel.
It was quiet.
He didn’t care what Cloyd said or how the knights looked at him.
There are only two of them in this universe.
A position in which he focused solely on his own sword and Cain.
Cain opened his mouth, assuming a stand opposite Abel.
“He looks like a warrior struggling to grow to me.”
“……”
Cloyd closed his mouth.
Because, unlike his head, his heart as a knight arrived at the same conclusion as Cain.
Cain grinned slightly and confronted Abel’s fierce soul.
‘Even if he’s young, a hero is a hero. He would have become great even if he had been on the front lines.’
Cain has been fighting on the front lines for the past ten years.
There, eyes and blood flowed nonstop.
There were warriors.
Those who burned their own lives on the Great Wall to prevent the invasion.
It was difficult to even breathe there, let alone leisurely teach swordsmanship. They just fought, improved, and if they couldn’t, they died.
The icy front lines were crimson with blood.
Cain, who had survived ten years as the ‘Masked Snowfield King’ on the front lines, offered his sword to Abel in his own unique fashion.
Bam—!
Cain stomped on the ground.
Abel, who was fatigued and injured, reacted slowly.
However, Abel’s fighting instincts were even sharper than before.
Whoosh—!
He avoided it while staring directly at Cain’s sword.
Flinch.
However, as he attempted to counterattack, his body tried to move in the direction of En Zauer, so he halted.
Puck!
In that space, Cain’s left foot kicked his calf like lightning.
“Again!”
“Yes, brother!”
Abel shouted, not wanting to be outdone by Cain’s powerful voice.
Abel’s defeat accumulated one-sidedly.
“Brother, I’ll do it again!”
But he does not break.
“Please, one more time, brother!”
Abel, who had sweated enough to darken a portion of the training area, was now leaking blood.
He stared at Cain with eyes that appeared to fire at any moment, and Cain confronted him calmly.
The Ethelred knights had a peculiar feeling as they watched.
Most of them clinched and unclenched their fists, remembering the Ross Marquis knights they had killed in combat.
Their stopped hearts.
Thump.
Their chests, who wished to emerge as knights.
Thum, thump.
Their hearts started to burn little by little because of the two brothers’ relentless duel.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa—!”
Abel yelled hoarsely.
It was a lament for a body that did not move as he expected, even at the very end.
“Abel.”
“……”
“I will definitely kill you this time.”
“……!”
Swish—
Cain’s left foot reaches out again. He lowered his center of gravity and held his longsword flat.
Cain’s cold words flowed out.
“You’ll never be able to stop my current offensive with En Zauer. You will only live if you extend Ardvark at the correct time.”
Cloyd shook his head forcefully while looking at Abel.
Vanderbilt wasn’t very unpleasant, but his mouth was dry.
Abel appeared threatening, and Cain was overwhelming.
“Your talent exceeds mine. No matter who you bring into the world, they will not surpass you.”
Cain gently acknowledged Abel.
He didn’t know for certain right now, but because the previous universe had already acknowledged the hero Abel, Cain accepted the fact.
“But you are yourself. That talent is not you.”
Abel blinks his eyes.
He grasped Cain’s remarks in his heart but couldn’t accept them fully in his mind.
Cain added a word to Abel, who still appeared young.
“Maintain your talent. It doesn’t matter how fast a horse is if you can’t handle it.”
Swish—!
Cain’s Charge.
Abel breathed quietly, watching Cain approach in the blink of an eye.
The world gradually slows down.
After a while, he sensed Cain stab his sword as if he could predict the future.
He’d been getting the same attack all along, but it was feasible now that Abel’s genuine talent had revealed itself!
Abel straightened his posture.
Don’t move instinctively.
Consider, judge, evaluate, and then extend the sword.
Faced with a fighting urge that did not follow him, Abel clutched his blade tightly enough to shatter it.
This moment.
The minute he realized he couldn’t stop Cain’s blow with any En Zauer!
Swish—.
The wind blew.
The invigorating sea breeze from the Ethelred shore drove Abel back.
Ardvark is a light sword.
It included the harshness of Ethelred’s coastal cliffs, the serenity of Ethelred’s blue sea, and the swordsmanship that contained the hearts of the simple people who lived there.
Abel realized.
Ardvark’s immensity distinguished it from En Zauer, which was solely used to exploit flaws.
And that his will has now overtaken the talent of his body!
Ardvark.
Lu Rabada Lau Lamhfhada.
Paaaaaaaaaat—!
Brilliant sunlight pours out from the sword Abel holds.
It transformed into a straight line of light that met the sword Cain was stabbing, and.
Ting!
It shattered Cain’s sword and soared into the sky.
Cain and Abel both came to a standstill and faced each other.
A dreadful hush fell.
“……A warrior.”
Cloyd unconsciously muttered the words Cain had said.
The world he had seen and imagined had suddenly collapsed.
Something he thought was completely inconceivable had just occurred.
Because Abel revealed the genuine Ardvark when he was about to lose his life in a desperate position.
Cloyd was also wondering.
Why didn’t Cain try to learn Ardvark?
He wondered what Cain was thinking, reflected in his purple eyes.
“How do you feel?”
Cain chuckled.
It was a smile as dazzling as the sunlight that had briefly surrounded Abel’s sword.
It was a smile meant solely for his younger brother.
“I feel like I’m going to fly.”
Abel smiled in answer.
“Congratulations. Abel Ethelred.”
“Can I ask you one more thing?”
“Anything.”
“Will I ever be able to beat you, brother?”
Abel’s eyes gleamed.
It wasn’t an eye fixated on defeating the other person, but rather a warrior’s unwavering drive to transcend the goal.
“If a new spring comes.”
Only Cain understood the meaning of these words.
He hugged Abel as soon as he was done speaking.
At that point, the knights, who had been unable to speak owing to the violent struggle and collision of wills, lifted their arms and applauded.
“Waaaaaah—!”
“Long live Young Master Cain!”
“Young Master Abel is the best!”
People naturally root for individuals who struggle hard from the bottom.
Abel was an outcast at first, but no more.
He was a boy who had sweated with them in the training area.
He was a fighter who had defied a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
He was a knight who went without halting towards an opponent he couldn’t overcome.
Now, Abel was truly an Ethelred.
Cain let go of the hug, chuckling at Abel’s strong sweat odor.
Then he turned around to face the shouting knights and Cloyd.
“Cloyd. Isn’t the present deputy commander vacant?”
It was naturally unoccupied because the Ethelred Knights were small in comparison to the region to be guarded.
“Yes.”
“I am asking as the first-born son of Count Edmund Ethelred and the heir to the Ethelred County, Abel Ethelred as deputy commander?”
In an instant, the knights dropped their arms and exchanged glances.
Cloyd opened his eyes wide but was unable to open his mouth immediately.
‘This was the right moment.’
And Cain smiled at himself.
Abel is young.
And he’s lived such a short time as Ethelred.
Even if he made a hundred concessions, he was not qualified to be the deputy commander in charge of the knights during the commander’s absence.
However, he would be unable to refuse immediately because he said this at a time when everyone was aware of Abel’s hard work and ability to persevere.
And.
“Of course, I know that Abel is not fit to be the deputy commander of a normal knight order.”
Cain spoke first.
Cloyd’s face appeared to be marked with a question mark, as if he didn’t know what to say or deny.
“But I think it’s necessary for the Ethelred Knights.”
“……Can I ask why?”
“Because you have what Abel doesn’t have, and Abel has what you don’t have.”
The knights had both power and the name Ethelred, yet they were so bland that they resembled regular civilians.
On the other hand, Abel showed them the knight’s fight that never stops once he bites.
It was a circumstance where they needed to learn from one another.
“That’s why I want to appoint Abel as the deputy commander.”
“Young Master, are you serious……”
Cloyd knew what Cain wanted and wondered whether his years as commander of the knights had been in vain.
Reforming the knights’ constitution.
He must have planned to transform the knights, who were now moving like water in water and wine in alcohol, into fierce fighters.
He also had a faint sense of why he had forcibly passed Ardvark to Abel.
Cain gazed at Cloyd without saying anything else.
‘I can force it, but that is meaningless.’
Cain had a grand vision for Ethelred. This stage was necessary to draw that vision.
When the fight ended as he intended,.
“I know that it is very important to decide the deputy commander of the territory.”
Thud—.
Two women came from the castle.
Princess Oleciren has gray, short hair and is followed by Isoel, a fully armored knight.
“I greet Your Highness.”
Cloyd couldn’t answer Cain’s words and immediately knelt on one knee and bowed his head.
“The one who was said to be coming soon was here.”
Cloyd could tell that an hour had passed by watching the sun travel across the sky.
He had no idea how much time had passed because he was so caught up in the direction led by Cain.
“I’m very disappointed.”
Words from Oleciren.
The knights were alarmed since it was unusual for her, the Gypsum Flower princess, to speak like this.
However, two people remained calm.
“Brother, is the princess a high-ranking person?”
Abel, who had spent his entire life in the northern elves’ forest, knew nothing.
“Just a little. Not that high.”
Cain gazed at Oleciren and Isoel alternately, raising one side of his mouth.