The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 129

Chapter 129: You Are My Spring (4)

「During the 11th Northern Expedition.

At the time, Marquis McLoud glanced at Edmund. A knight worthy of the title of the strongest sword in the kingdom.

However, he felt too cold.

It was commendable that he didn’t indiscriminately meet people like knights chasing romance.

But he wondered if he was too indifferent to others.

“I’ve taken care of everything.”

‘Flash’, the mercenary, known as the most beautiful woman in the expeditionary force.

Even at her report, Edmund only nodded without even glancing at her.

Because the scene was so vivid, Marquis McLoud was surprised to hear that the mercenary ‘Flash’ had become Edmund’s second wife.

It wouldn’t be love.

There must be something else.

That cold Edmund and ‘Flash’, who moved strictly as a mercenary, would become one.」

🔹🔹🔹

“I don’t think this is the place to talk, Young Master Cain.”

Arna’s lemon-colored hair fluttered in the night wind. She reached out to Cain with a smile.

“Let’s go together. Abel too.”

“…….”

Cain looked at her with a slightly suspicious gaze and then took her hand. Cain reached out to Abel, and Abel immediately grabbed it.

It was a bond that seemed so strong that no one could break it.

“You didn’t budge when I asked you to go…….”

Edmund was dumbfounded, but there was nothing he could do.

And he recalled the sword that Cain had shown him a while ago.

If he was a genius with the sword, he could be strong even at a young age.

But the weight.

The weight of the grudge contained in the sword was definitely not something a seventeen-year-old boy could show.

It had the composure that only someone who had lived the life Cain spoke of could barely show.

“Cain, call me if anything happens.”

Oleciren glanced at Edmund and spoke to Cain.

“I’m pretty strong now.”

The Saintess didn’t like what she said, but since she decided to condone it, she watched in silence.

Cain nodded.

“I’ll be back soon. Don’t be pushed by Olivia.”

“Do you think I’ll lose?”

“Yes. I feel a bit of madness over there.”

Although it was blurred by Edmund’s interruption, Olivia’s insane answer was still clear.

When she realized that she was staring at her, Olivia waved her hand with a bright smile behind her shield.

Oleciren sighed as she saw it.

“……That’s true.”

Hybolt grabbed his forehead as he looked at his two daughters, and only Wareham, who also had a daughter, patted him on the shoulder.

Cain smirked at the sight that was too much to bear and then nudged Edmund.

It meant to go first.

Tat━.

As if he had appeared in an instant, his figure stretched out and moved away at an incredible speed, and the other three followed him.

🔹🔹🔹

Kuuuung.

The four of them descended to the place ‘Where Spring Falls Asleep’.

Passusssssss━.

The surface of the sea froze, and waves of ice surged in.

Rather than pitch black, the night sky, sparkling bluish with starlight, enveloped them, and the horizon of the sea, reflecting the starlight, stretched far away.

And at the end.

At the very end of this small space stood a woman.

《I knew you’d be struggling for a long time since you went without a plan, but Arna was there.》

She turns her head.

The wind blew, and Chloe, who looked about the same age as Cain now, looked at everyone.

A seventeen-year-old mother and a middle-aged father.

Cain looked back at Edmund.

“…….”

There were no words, but his eyes were cold.

Edmund shook his head.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s not like that.”

“I understand.”

“Really, it’s not.”

“Yes.”

“…….”

Edmund closed his eyes.

He felt more comfortable when they were clashing swords.

《Pfft.》

Chloe’s laughter.

She floated in the air and approached them. She was clearly a ghost.

Swoosh━.

Abel, who became able to deal with dozens of soldiers by swinging his sword, instinctively grabbed Arna’s hand.

He was a fifteen-year-old boy at this moment. Chloe looked at Abel as if he was cute.

《Is that the child from back then?》

“Yes, it’s my child thanks to you, Lady Chloe.”

《I was worried, but it turned out well.》

Arna and Chloe.

Edmund’s two wives seemed to know each other well.

Cain just blinked, not understanding the situation.

Swoosh━.

Chloe stroked Abel’s head once and stood in front of Cain.

《Hello?》

“Yes, hello.”

《I’m your mother, Chloe Ethelred. This is the first time I’ve seen you all grown up like this.》

Cain stared at Chloe.

He didn’t think of her as his mother.

That’s why he didn’t feel the anger he felt towards Edmund.

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you speak so normally.”

Chloe in Cain’s mind always smiled.

She didn’t speak.

It was like a scene engraved with a picture drawn by someone.

Chloe smiled bitterly.

《I’m sorry. The situation was too urgent.》

“I’m sure it was.”

Situation, urgent.

As soon as these words came out, Cain’s words became crooked.

“Young Master Cain.”

Arna hurriedly came and tried to speak to him.

Whirl━.

Chloe waved her arms as if to say she would speak.

《Edmund is not good with words, so I’ll just do it.》

“Do as you please.”

《Our son is very upset, isn’t he?》

Cain’s eyebrows twitched.

At the same time, Winter’s message came to mind.

[‘Winter’ is furious at Chloe for using the expression ‘upset’ about you.]

[‘Winter’ tells you to look back on your life so far and cut down that ghost right now.]

When there is someone who is angrier about your business than you are, your anger tends to subside.

Cain felt a warmth in his heart at Winter’s support and replied.

“Think of it as you wish. However, the only reason I came here is because of Little Mother’s persuasion, not because of you or Edmund.”

《…….》

Chloe looked at Cain.

An expression that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Only when the starlight made her translucent body sparkle did Chloe open her mouth.

《I don’t know if you know, but I’m a witch. The witch of ‘The Wind That Cannot Dream’. And my miracle is to see the future of where the wind blows.》

Whooooosh━.

The wind blows again.

The cold northern wind and the warmth of spring rising from the south collide.

In the middle of it.

For the first time, all five who used the name Ethelred were gathered.

《I’ve seen many futures. The futures of those who bear the name ‘Ethelred’.》

“…….”

《That doesn’t mean I see everything. I don’t know if it’s fate or the world, but it’s as if I’m only allowed to see what I need to see. Like the parade of Henerali-fe.》

[‘Winter’ is surprised.]

[‘Winter’ says Chloe’s miracle is probably reading previous timelines.]

[‘Winter’ says it’s a degraded version of ‘Autumn’s power.]

‘Thank you.’

Thanks to Winter’s explanation, Cain was able to remain calm without showing surprise on his face.

That day still comes to mind whenever he closes his eyes. The feeling of piercing Abel’s heart still lingers in his hands.

If there was a shackle on him, it was that day.

Unaware of Cain’s inner thoughts, Chloe continued speaking calmly.

《Here, on the day Abel awakens as the ‘Demon King of Common’, you run alone to kill the Demon King as if you were committing suicide.》

It was accurate.

The continent where peace came after the Demon King died.

The era when the monsters that poured over the Great Wall disappeared and the giant swords wielded by warriors became cumbersome.

Cain had no reason to live.

What do people live for?

Why should he live any longer?

[‘Winter’ looks at you with pity.]

That’s how Cain, who was wandering, ended up at Airian’s Ethelred again.

The place where Arna, who was alive and well here, died and was buried because she couldn’t withstand the curse of Glumiêm.

《I wanted to change that future.》

Chloe gradually rose.

No, not only her, but the other four also began to rise into the air.

Whooooosh━.

The wind grows stronger.

The night sky draws closer, and the stars are so bright that it seems as if they could be held in one’s hand.

《Look down.》

The land they looked down upon.

The giant line shining in the distance was the continent.

And the darkness between them was the sea, and the land spread out beneath their feet was Airian.

After rising so high that the place ‘Where Spring Falls Asleep’ where they were looked as small as a palm, Chloe pointed her finger from north to south.

《Does anything come to mind?》

“……An egg? A drop of water?”

The shape of Airian Island was wide in the south and narrowed as it went north.

It looked like a drop of water falling, and when looking at the forest and the river, it looked like two hands embracing an egg.

《Yes. Airian, though everyone has forgotten, is the land where the last myth of this world was born.》

“What does that have to do with me……”

Chloe smiled brightly.

She pointed to the edge of the cliff that protruded from the northernmost part of Airian, the place ‘Where Spring Falls Asleep’, into the sea.

《The future I saw will surely come true. Then, we need a power that can change a destiny whose future is set. Then, wouldn’t it be the myths of the past?》

“Don’t tell me.”

《Yes, I found ‘Spring’ here.》

“…….”

《The beginning of all possibilities. ‘Spring’, where life and the year begin, and all dreams bloom, is within you.》

Abel and Arna opened their mouths.

〈The Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉 were often told in fairy tales, but they were a reality in this era.

The Holy Sword, ‘Summer’, was a symbol of a hero entrusted to the Holy See by the Kreuz Empire.

The Holy Crown, ‘Autumn’, was proof of the existence of the Saintess who stood at God’s left hand.

The magic sword, ‘Winter’, was not known in detail, but Arna happened to find out while working as a mercenary.

That it was protecting the world at the Great Wall, the eastern limit of the human world.

However, it was not recorded what ‘Spring’ was or where it was, and she could not know either.

《Cain, it seems that ‘Spring’ has changed your future. I can no longer see your future.》

[23% of the world smiles.]

A world where many things had already changed.

Chloe smiled.

But Cain’s face hardened.

“It didn’t change anything.”

As they slowly descended to the ground, everyone felt the desolation in Cain’s voice.

What was once as sad as a torrential downpour, and then as angry as the scorching sun, had worn down to something else.

“‘Spring’ didn’t change anything.”

[‘Spring’ smiles bitterly.]

[‘Winter’s’ eyes are red.]

Of course, thanks to ‘Spring’, Cain and Abel were able to create the 『Four Seasons』 and restart the timeline.

But that was all.

Before and after that,

‘Spring’ did not change Cain’s life.

“It just gave me a chance.”

《That would be enough━》

Cain cut Chloe off.

“And that chance would have been fine even without ‘Spring’.”

《……?》

“……?”

Edmund, who had been nodding in agreement with Chloe, tilted his head.

Chloe also seemed bewildered.

Cain smiled.

Bitterly and wryly.

It was an adult’s smile that a boy could not make.

“Instead of seeing the future and acting on it, if you had stayed by my side, taught me about the world one by one, and been there for me, that would have been a greater opportunity.”

Did Chloe see the future first?

Or did Cain kill Abel first?

How can one logically unravel the miracle of a witch? But Cain, who had come down to the ground, calmly looked around at everyone and opened his mouth.

The one thing Cain had held onto from the previous timeline until now.

“You abandoned me. Father. Mother.”

Lonely darkness envelops Cain.

The starlight of the entire sky descends as if stroking Cain’s shoulders.

The loneliest man in the world said to the two who had forgotten reality, captivated by the prediction of the future.

“A grand opportunity is important, but to a child, the hand of someone they can hold onto is more precious.”

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