The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Dawn Like a Thief (3)

He who exists everywhere and nowhere.

The ‘Commons’, a group that neither the Hero nor the Great Wall’s Lord East had ever heard of.

Cain was a little surprised when Edmund mentioned them.

He asked Cain why he was surprised, and Cain told him about his involvement with the Count of Crowl and the witch hunt.

But.

‘About Abel…….’

He didn’t say anything.

He could have noticed if he had seen Cain’s past timeline, but he was reluctant to talk about it.

【I didn’t leave any detailed memories. All that remains is a vague sense that you have lived much longer than you appear to be.】

‘Spring’ had said this when he sent Chloe away. However, the guy mumbled another word as he looked back at the speechless Edmund.

【However, I’m sure you remember one thing strongly. I don’t know what it is that made such a lasting impression on that human.】

Therefore, he didn’t bother to tell him about Hero Abel’s end.

There was no need to bring it up if he didn’t remember it, and even if he did, he didn’t want to talk about it.

‘I’m sure I’ll hear about it from my mother through future predictions anyway.’

As Cain finished his thought, Edmund slowly raised his hand.

“They were more cunning than I thought. It wouldn’t have been difficult if it was just a sword fight.”

Swish━.

He slashed to the right.

It was just a flick of his wrist, but the trajectory was that of a sword.

“It was difficult to fight them with just a sword.”

Next was the left.

It was the fight he had when he first met the witch hunters of the ‘Commons’.

Whoosh━.

Cain saw it.

How Edmund’s sword moved, and what kind of people he was fighting it for.

‘They have a variety of weapons.’

Nets, ropes, sickles, poison, magic.

Not only that, it looked like he could see small bombs and guns that were exquisitely made.

They used every means of attack that humans possessed. However, they could not penetrate Edmund’s defenses.

Stop━.

Edmund stopped then.

‘Hostage?’

To defeat the strong, you have to hit their weakness. If it’s a physical weakness, you attack the body, but if it’s a mental weakness, it’s usually a person.

“They were very cunning.”

Edmund moved again.

He didn’t care about the hostage and simply took their lives one by one, like a farmer harvesting wheat in the fall.

Rather than telling them about it, Edmund, who had walked the path of the sword with those who shared his beliefs, sighed uncharacteristically.

“That’s how I finished the first battle. But the second battle was tough. In fact, I lost.”

“My father lost?”

The Empire’s Knight Duke, the Master Paladin of the Holy See, Johnny-Walker of the Great Wall, and the lords of the free cities.

Apart from the invincible who could be counted on one hand throughout the continent, Cain didn’t think there was anyone who could easily defeat Edmund.

No matter how great the abilities of the ‘Commons’ were, they couldn’t just create such powerful people, so Cain was puzzled.

Edmund pointed to the clothes he was wearing.

“Human strength is not just about swords. The food we eat every day, the clothes we wear every day, and our land. I wouldn’t care if they were targeting me alone, but…….”

“Surely the Ethelred Count isn’t that poor?”

Edmund smiled wryly.

“They were poor to begin with. It was just that the ‘Commons’ made them even poorer.”

They were cunning.

They targeted the low self-sufficiency of Ethelred’s territory and raised the price of food to the sky.

At first, other counts and marquises helped, but that only lasted for a day or two.

The market itself, where everything was traded, seemed to want to undermine Ethelred’s existence, so even the Seven Great Nobles had no choice but to move.

“After food, it was the necessities. At that time, even the knights didn’t have enough oil to maintain their armor, so they had to train in plain clothes.”

“That’s terrible…….”

━They can’t be said to be strong or weak in that sense.

He could vaguely understand what Chloe had left as a dying wish.

The Market, which humans created but which had escaped their grasp.

Technology, which could only be understood by a few skilled technicians who were directly involved.

If you could wield such things at will, what would you fear?

Even the Seven Great Nobles who had ruled Airian for hundreds of years had no choice but to waver and shake.

“But fortunately, Ethelred County was poor to begin with. Moreover, unlike other counts, there was no development.”

The hometown of knights that old knights longed to visit.

Ethelred, a territory where only meadows and the sea met and only single-story houses stood sparsely, in an era when buildings reached endlessly into the sky.

Because it was originally poor, it could endure even if it was a little difficult.

And apart from food, there were almost no essential goods that were essential for survival, so it was just inconvenient, not difficult to live in.

“If the witch hunters of the past were literally ‘hunters’, then those of this era have become fearsome beings.”

The word ‘fearsome’ that came out of Edmund’s mouth.

Cain could feel its weight.

“It was only after Chloe died that their attacks stopped. Cain.”

“Yes.”

“Can you stop them?”

“…….”

“Princess Oleciren is a witch. Of course, you won’t protect her for the rest of your life, but now that it’s known, they’ll come.”

“Those who use the silver sun as their symbol?”

Cain chuckled.

It was quite frightening.

He had once been a powerful man who ruled the Great Wall, so he knew how terrifying the power of the ‘Commons’ was.

But.

“Don’t worry.”

“How?”

“At least on this island of Airian. It might be different if it were just a count like us, but it’s different if the whole island is the target.”

Airian is an island that doesn’t need to go outside.

Over 90 percent of the trade with the continent is in luxury goods and magical materials.

In other words, it’s possible to shake Ethelred’s territory by moving the market, but it’s difficult to shake Airian as a whole with such an indirect approach.

Edmund, who had been listening, asked.

“If you put it that way, couldn’t you just shake one of the weakest territories first?”

A plan to start with a very small one to deal with a huge one.

It was a method that everyone who had studied strategy knew.

Cain looked south and said.

“That’s possible.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“That’s up to Oleciren from here on out.”

“……?”

“Because I can’t bear the weight of the crown that the one who wants to be king must bear.”

Edmund smiled at Cain’s calm but precise line.

It was because he felt that his son had grown up more than he thought.

“You’ve grown up.”

“Thank you.”

“Oleciren will probably face strong opposition from the Saintess if she ascends to the throne.”

It’s a big deal to tolerate a witch.

Furthermore, it would be absolutely unacceptable for a witch to become king.

‘And she’s already said that she’ll stop it even if she has to interfere in internal affairs.’

“I know.”

“And I’ve decided to help the Saintess.”

“Yes……?”

And Edmund continued, tapping the sword at his left waist.

“I’ve seen your past and understood the weakness of your sword.”

“Could you please elaborate?”

“If you don’t fix your weakness, you will die by my sword, which is on the side of the Saintess.”

Edmund calmly warned Cain.

Cain stared at Edmund with his mouth wide open.

“I understand now.”

“What?”

He asked back, looking like he really didn’t know anything.

He had no idea what the meaning of what he had just said was.

It was as if he was asking if there was something wrong with telling the truth as it was.

Cain thought of his old close friends who had left him.

“Why do they use the phrase ‘that’s like Edmund’”

“…….”

He realized now that he had made a slight slip of the tongue, but he didn’t bother to correct it.

Because it was true.

And because he wanted Cain to find his own weakness.

🔹🔹🔹

Woooong━.

The member of the Doctrine Protection Force who had escaped from the Holy Palace carefully walked through the intricate alleys.

It was so tall and narrow that even though the sun, which was said to shine everywhere, was high in the sky, it only cast a few shards of light.

Clang━.

The place he had arrived at was a small tavern on the corner with a wine glass attached to it.

He wrapped a gray robe around his vestments and entered with a nonchalant gait, unlike before.

Creak━.

The wooden doors that opened to both sides creaked loudly as if they hadn’t been oiled, and inside, a few idle old men from the neighborhood were drinking.

“You’re here again.”

The bartender, who was idly wiping a dusty cup, spoke to the member. Then he pointed to the chair at the bar table right in front of him.

“As usual.”

“Dikelin 12-year-old Onderlak, I understand.”

The bartender, who was still young but very friendly, took the drink out of the liquor cabinet.

Then he put transparent ice made with magic into a cheap glass that was blowing cold air and poured the drink.

And he moved his seat to the other end.

A tavern with a spring breeze that was starting to get hot.

Swish━ Swish━.

An old man with a white beard and bushy hair appeared with a bucket of water and a mop.

He had long scars on his arms and ankles.

The wounds were so old that the boundaries were blurred, but his limping gait and the trembling of his arms as he held the bucket showed that the wounds inside were still there.

“Hey, clean up here too!”

At the words of the drunkard, the old man silently raised his mop and wiped up the drink he had accidentally spilled.

Gulp━.

And the drunkard poured the water glass he was holding over the old man’s head.

“Oops, I found something dirty here too!”

“Hahaha!”

“You’re so kind!”

However, the gray-haired old man wiped his face with the mop he had been cleaning the table with, as if nothing had happened.

Ting━!

The drunkard threw a coin.

Pong━.

The coin went right into the bucket of water the old man was holding.

“Here’s a tip! Thanks for the future, old man!”

Nod━.

The old man nodded once again as if he was used to it and cleaned the tavern here and there. As he was wiping the bar table where the member was drinking at the end.

“Master, a glass of apple juice here.”

The member raised his hand and added another order.

The bartender silently poured a cool glass of juice and placed it next to him.

“Please have it.”

And he handed a glass to the old man who had just been ridiculed. The old man looked at the bartender, and he nodded once to give him permission.

Water seeped out of the mop that the old man had put down.

When the drunkards made fun of the member’s act of buying a drink for the cleaner.

Swish━.

He dipped his finger in the water from the mop and wrote.

━Cardinal Fiorelli, 〈Caballeros Rebellion〉 Airian dispatched.

The water wouldn’t stay fixed with just the touch of a fingertip. The old man, who was looking at the letters that had scattered quickly, nodded once.

Drinking the apple juice in front of him, the member wrote again.

━Intercepted on the way, Fiorelli’s warning. Chloe not forgotten.

The words that Cardinal Fiorelli had told the Golden Dawn.

At that moment, the old man’s hand stopped.

One eerie blue eye in the white hair that covered his face looked sharply at the team member and asked.

“The witch Chloe?”

A deep and thick voice that would have made hell tremble. There was a scar on his neck as well.

The team member nodded quickly.

And the old man drained the apple juice in one gulp and picked up the mop.

At that moment, his fingers moved subtly and wrote a single word.

━With our flames, we shall renew the world.

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