Chapter 148: Sweat of Man, Blood of Human (2)
The Saintess was too busy to go to the Ethelred territory.
That meant anyone who wasn’t busy could go themselves.
“They’re really wicked.”
A priest picked up a black piece from the coast under the white cliffs. Judging from its shape, it was a human arm.
“They burned the ship down. And these people stayed in the flames until they were completely burned.”
Another priest added.
On the makeshift operating table in front of them lay the charred torso of a man.
He frowned as he scraped away the black soot remaining in his prayers and lungs.
“Fanatics.”
“Ugh—”
Knight Asher, who came with them, turned his head away, unable to stomach the sight of the gruesome corpses.
On the other hand, Cloyd and Cain, arms crossed, listened silently to the priests’ investigation.
Then Cain called out to Cloyd.
“Sir Cloyd.”
“Yes.”
“Were there any reports of the fire or any sign of the two people who moved?”
“None. As you know, this place is deserted……”
Most of the residents of the Ethelred territory lived near Count’s Castle.
Except for the vicinity of Count’s Castle, the land was vast but mostly abandoned grasslands and coasts.
Cain decided it was time to head back.
“The Apostles will investigate anyway, and the Paladins will guard the place.”
At Cain’s words, the two men and women standing next to him nodded.
They were two other Paladins who had crossed over to Airian with the Chief Paladin.
Cain exchanged a brief glance with them and turned around.
“Asher, please assist the Holy See.”
“M, Me?”
Asher, who was about to return with Cain, turned pale.
The sight of the burned ship wreckage and the charred bodies of the sailors did not sit well with him.
“Should I ask Cloyd then?”
Cloyd bowed his head silently.
“I will do as I am told.”
How could an ordinary knight refuse and pass his duty onto the knight commander?
Asher, with a bitter expression, forced himself to speak.
“I’ll do my best.”
Seeing this, the female Paladin spoke.
“All the nobles I’ve met are obsessed with asserting their authority, but Young Master Cain is different.”
“……Well.”
Cain tried to recall the female Paladin’s name but then remembered he hadn’t been introduced.
She immediately noticed and introduced herself.
“I am Vandeca Marine. An ordinary knight of the Order of Autumn.”
“Cain Ethelred. Hmm, but…”
Cain looked at the two of them.
The Paladins he knew were those who rode colossal machines nearly 10 feet tall, tearing apart their enemies.
They were surrounded by a haze of steam from the heat of their machines, constantly praying and fighting until the very last of their ‘light’s divine power was spent.
They were the strongest fanatics.
“Your equipment seems too light.”
Unlike the heavily armed Paladins he had seen at the Great Wall, Cain was puzzled by their simple weaponry.
“Excuse me?”
“The Paladins I know are quite heavily equipped.”
“Ah, you must have seen the First Company. They are the ones who only go to the most dangerous battlefields, so even we rarely see them.”
“First Company?”
Vandeca briefly explained the structure of the Holy See’s Order of Autumn.
It was divided into a total of seven companies.
The First Company was where only the strongest and most righteous Paladins could belong, and they fought wearing ‘mechanical sublimation’.
And the one she belonged to was the Fifth Company of the Order of Autumn.
“We mainly take care of internal affairs within Henerali-fe. We are closer to the general police force of the capital.”
“I see.”
“We’re on the trail of an enemy who fled here, and it seems we came to the right place.”
Clench—
People were dead.
And they sacrificed themselves in the process of thoroughly destroying the evidence. This kind of human sacrifice meant it was definitely a cult.
“We will uncover their identities.”
The Paladins and priests were determined.
Cain, not as the temporary lord of the Ethelred territory, but as Oleciren’s friend, bowed his head.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“All things are by the light.”
🔹🔹🔹
“Sir Cloyd, you may return first.”
On their way up the white cliffs.
Cloyd turned his head, and Cain pointed in the opposite direction.
“There’s something I need to see.”
“Ah, you mean the sword marks. The lower one is from long ago, and the upper one is recent.”
He seemed quite familiar with them.
Cloyd looked back with a complicated look in his eyes.
“The Lord Count spent three days and nights without a drop of water, staring at the sword marks and attaining enlightenment. I hope Young Master Cain gains something as well.”
Perhaps Cloyd hadn’t gained anything.
Cain didn’t know if he lamented his own talent or despaired at his lack of skill, but he smiled leisurely and said,
“If I do, I’ll share it with you.”
“……Thank you.”
Swooooosh—
Waves crashed.
After the disappearance of Dungeon Eire, the sea in front of Ethelred had become peaceful.
Crash—
Relatively speaking, that is.
The waves were still rough, and the sea was so deep that it was impossible to tell where the bottom was.
Moreover, it was difficult for ships to approach as white cliffs jutted out, making it hard to land.
Step—
Cain lightly leaped across the white rocks that protruded like thorns.
The white sunlight and the blue sea he hadn’t seen in a while made his heart feel at ease.
And there it was.
Fwooosh—
The sea breeze blew.
And on the white cliff, where the wind constantly buffeted his body, were two sword marks.
“……”
Overwhelmed.
Cain’s purple eyes were glued to the two sword marks.
[‘Winter’ says the lower one was Edmund’s strike when he destroyed the dungeon.]
Beautiful.
It was a miraculous sword mark that even he couldn’t have created in the past.
‘Of course, the direction is different.’
Edmund thrust, while he slashed.
He knew that they couldn’t create the same sword mark because their paths were different.
But in front of the delicate and elegant sword mark that Edmund had created with the holy sword in hand, Cain’s heart pounded.
—My father is a Sword Master.
His own words, spoken in order to receive teachings from Lord East Johnny-Walker.
At the time, he had said it while recalling the faint memory of Edmund’s strike, but now he knew.
“A true Sword Master.”
He is not a mass-produced fake who simply sharpens his sword by pulling up his brute force.
A real one who sharpens and sharpens his will while withstanding the pressure of the world.
“Edmund is the real deal.”
Smirk—
Cain smiled.
That Edmund had said he would kill him. Perhaps if he went back to the royal capital of Lindbloom, he would fight him.
And his life would be in danger.
It wasn’t about repeating the past, but in a life-or-death battle, Cain had a hunch that he could move forward once more.
The sun slowly set.
Lost in the sight of Edmund’s sword mark, Cain only noticed the upper sword mark as it was bathed in the long, crimson sunlight.
Simple.
Rough.
It was completely different from Edmund’s sword mark, which was so beautiful and skillful.
‘A slash—!’
Cain’s eyes sparkled.
He was easily drawn to Edmund’s because it was on a similar level to his own.
But the sword mark above was different.
Only after staring at it for a long time, becoming accustomed to it as the sunlight illuminated its various aspects, could he understand.
“……Amazing.”
Perhaps even greater than the sword of the hero Abel, and even greater than his own sword, which had killed Abel.
A sword mark that transcended the realm of Sword Master by far.
[‘Winter’ asks if you want to see it.]
“See it?”
Cain tilted his head.
Shhh.
At that moment, the waves stopped.
The slowly setting sunset froze.
Like being frozen by Active, ‘Winter of Night’, the space around Cain stopped, and time slowly slowed down.
[‘Winter’ says it wouldn’t be possible with anything else, but this time, it can do it with its own power.]
Rumble—
Time reversed.
To be precise, time on the cliff reversed.
In an instant, Edmund’s sword mark disappeared, and the darkness and light flickered endlessly as the past rewound.
Swooooosh—
The sea began to move again.
A pure white cliff, devoid of any marks.
And in front of it.
Above the sea.
A man stood.
Shing—
He grasped a pure white greatsword with both hands.
The moment Cain saw it, he realized what it was.
“‘Winter’.”
[‘Winter’ says this is its memory, so it can show it to you.]
The man’s face was unclear. And as if to show that it was the past, there was no color to him.
The man, rendered only in black and white, closed his eyes, holding ‘Winter’.
Dark Sky.
Original Style.
Kyrie.
Meanwhile, Cain’s eyes widened.
His own swordsmanship, which he was more familiar with and had used more diligently than anyone else.
Dark Sky, the strongest swordsmanship created by the first Lord East with the East, and to which each successor had added their own techniques!
The man swung the first move.
Whoosh—
His sword cut through the air.
But there was no wound on the cliff.
“Kyrie……”
Unconsciously, Cain mimicked the man’s footsteps and shoulders.
It looked like an ordinary swing, but when he tried it himself, he realized.
That the man had swung Kyrie far more times than he had.
Gloria.
The second sword, Gloria.
Credo.
And the third form.
Cain gulped.
He realized that the swordsmanship he was so familiar with and thought he had perfected was only the beginning.
‘I am lacking.’
As Cain reflected on himself.
Shing—
The man sheathed the greatsword on his back.
There was no sword in his hand.
But he once again gripped the empty air as if holding a sword.
Dark Sky.
My Style.
Rhapsody.
Fwooosh—
The man’s monochrome form resonated for a moment.
The sea surged as if in praise, and the earth trembled as if unwilling to be crushed by its weight.
And so, the sword that gripped the void and cut through nothingness.
It seemed to show infinite freedom, yet also an illusory blade.
Its trajectory was unknowable, and its reach was everything his will touched.
Clank, clank, clank—
A sound like gears breaking and shattering rang out.
Boom—
With a single blow, a sword mark was etched onto the cliff.
In that moment, the whole world was him.
He turned his head.
He looked directly at where Cain was.
【This is my sword.】
Even though Cain had inherited all of Dark Sky, he was rooted to the spot, unable to move, at the sight of a sword he had never seen before and that even Johnny-Walker had never spoken of.
【What is your sword?】
Fwooosh—
The wind blew.
Like a spring dream, his illusion vanished, and the illusion shown by ‘Winter’ faded.
Crash.
The sound of waves crashing once again filled the air.
Cain stood there, dazed, until the sea spray splashed against his face as he replayed the scene in his mind.
“Who was that?”
Someone who used Dark Sky and wielded the magic sword, ‘Winter’, must have been connected to the Great Wall.
[‘Winter’ says it can’t tell you.]
“Then was that last part directed at me?”
There was a moment of silence as ‘Winter’, which always answered immediately, seemed to be pondering how to respond.
After ten waves crashed against the shore.
[‘Winter’ says that at the time, it spoke to the empty space and thought it was crazy, but now it seems like it knew and spoke.]
‘Winter’s honest words were laced with bewilderment.
Cain looked up at the sword mark left above Edmund’s.
The sun set.
Night fell.
Until darkness enveloped everything, rendering it all invisible.
“I can still become stronger.”
And Cain smiled, feeling the heart of a warrior pound in his chest.
He was starting to look forward to his fight with Edmund.
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