The Villain Carries the Holy Sword – Chapter 149

Chapter 149: Sweat of Man, Blood of Human (3)

The Royal Palace of Lindbloom.

The ‘White Palace,’ originally used by Oleciren, had been tightly shut after the recent terrorist incident.

She had moved to the ‘Grand Cross,’ the heart of the palace, with Hybolt, and Abel was also given a palace.

The name of the palace was ‘Red Flower Palace.’

In the palace with the widest training ground, where the former owner was the second princess, two men were sitting.

The knight, Royal Knight Commander Wayne Siker, was sitting with his legs crossed, a sword resting on them as he took a deep breath.

He was calming his mind in a posture familiar to Eastern warriors.

Opposite him.

“Ahem.”

Abel, with his shiny brown hair, mimicked Wayne’s posture and then twisted his body uncomfortably.

His eyes, which should have been tightly closed, twitched and tried to open slightly.

“Endure it.”

“……Yes.”

“Do not think about the discomfort of your body, but imagine a calm surface like the distant sea.”

“The sea of Ethelred is far but not calm.”

Unable to bear it any longer, Abel opened his eyes and spoke.

At that moment, the corners of Wayne’s lips rose slightly. It was as if his cute son was throwing a tantrum.

And he knew the solution to this.

“I heard Young Master Cain is coming up the day after tomorrow.”

As soon as Cain’s name came up, Abel corrected his posture and closed his eyes.

“I received a message that he will be arriving around the time we spar.”

“Did you see what was written at the end?”

Whooooosh━.

A bright spring breeze blew between them.

The sunlight was warm, and a pleasant scent wafted from the red flowers planted throughout the Red Flower Palace.

At the same time, a smile appeared on Abel’s face.

“Yes. Isn’t he amazing? How can he get even stronger there? I’m definitely going to see the cliff when I go down to Ethelred.”

“Amazing indeed.”

“He’s only two years older than me, but sometimes it feels like he’s lived decades longer.”

“That’s the kind of person Young Master Cain is.”

“And yet, the way he continues to grow stronger is truly admirable.”

“Indeed.”

Wayne replied halfheartedly, and Abel, oblivious, continued to gush about Cain.

Blink━.

Wayne slightly opened his eyes.

Even as he spoke, Abel was sitting even straighter than before, his eyes tightly shut.

“That’s why I’m also doing my best to━.”

“Young Master.”

Wayne cut off Abel’s words.

Abel also opened his eyes, and the two faced each other.

“Young Master Abel has already far surpassed the skills of his peers. Even the Royal Knights cannot guarantee victory against you.”

“But my brother would win against them all, wouldn’t he?”

“…….”

“Ah! Of course, it would take quite some time against Sir Wayne.”

Even with Wayne in front of him and Cain far away, Abel spoke his mind without a hint of flattery.

It was as if his belief transcended admiration and bordered on fanaticism.

Wayne smiled bitterly.

“You don’t need to comfort me like that. After killing the Archenemy of Airian for three hundred years, the Elf Queen and the World Tree with his sword, who in this kingdom dares to compare themselves to Young Master Cain?”

“Lord Count Edmund?”

“……Except for him.”

“Then I guess there’s no one.”

“He became the strongest in the kingdom at the age of seventeen. Even if there are few strong individuals in Airian, do you think that makes sense?”

Abel tilted his head.

“It actually happened, so how can it not make sense?”

Having grown up not in the human world but spending his entire childhood in the forest, he lacked common sense.

Wayne, who had come to realize this after spending the past few days with Abel, explained patiently.

“Yes. It’s impossible for ordinary humans.”

“Then my brother is not ordinary. As expected.”

Abel’s eyes sparkled.

Wayne smiled as he watched Abel, who was usually quiet but became talkative when it came to Cain.

“And Young Master Abel is also a bit different.”

“That’s a relief. I’ve been trying to follow in my brother’s footsteps.”

“What seventeen-year-old is about to become a true Sword Master, and what fifteen-year-old participates in a battle that decides the throne of the kingdom…….”

Ever since the one who decided to side with Olivia was defeated by the ‘Knight of the Bucket,’ whose identity everyone knew but couldn’t speak of, he was the only one among the Royal Knights participating.

Abel, who was about to enter such a stage, had no sense of himself.

“Here it is.”

“Yes…… This is it.”

Wayne couldn’t refute everything Abel said due to his personality.

They were comrades who would be on the battlefield together anyway, and there was not enough time left.

“But how long do I have to meditate like this?”

Abel asked Wayne again with a frown.

He wanted to wield his sword even for a day longer.

He wanted to unleash his shining sword in a crisis where his life was at stake.

Abel and the monstrous talent breathing within him were frustrated.

The training he had done with Arna and Cain in the northern forest was already as difficult as hell, but he missed it.

“It’s already fast enough, but it’s a necessary process for Young Master Abel to overcome the wall.”

“Wall?”

“What the wall is and where it lies is different for everyone, but it’s generally the crossroads for a true Sword Master.”

“Aha. So to become a Sword Master, you have to sit like this and think?”

Abel tilted his head as if he really didn’t understand.

Wayne believed in Abel’s talent.

However, battle instinct and the talent to wield a sword were different matters. Seeing Abel like this, no different from an ordinary fifteen-year-old, Wayne smiled faintly.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

“Yes.”

“An unknown enemy appears. And when they are about to say something, what would Young Master Abel do?”

“First, I’d stab them in the neck with my sword.”

Wayne’s smile slowly turned into a wry one, and Abel added, wondering if he had said something wrong.

“Or the heart……?”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because that’s what my brother and mother do.”

“…….”

Wayne was about to say what he thought if only Cain had been mentioned.

However, he couldn’t bring himself to speak directly since Abel had brought up his mother.

He organized his thoughts for a moment and chose his words carefully.

“That’s the problem.”

“Ah! So I have to stab both the neck and the heart!”

“That’s right, but…… that’s wrong if you want to become a true Sword Master.”

“I don’t understand.”

Abel tilted his head.

His perfect brother had shown him the way, and his recovered mother had agreed.

So Abel was frustrated that Sir Wayne was telling him it was wrong.

Wayne closed his eyes again.

As if waiting for that moment, a clear breeze carrying the scent of flowers enveloped them.

“That’s because it’s not the answer Young Master Abel found.”

“Not the answer?”

“It’s the answer. Young Master Cain and Lady Arna’s answer.”

“Ah…….”

Abel realized what Wayne was trying to say. The advice of a forerunner telling a fifteen-year-old boy to find his own path.

“Following someone else’s answer is not a bad thing. But whether it’s the answer for you, Abel-nim, is another matter.”

Wayne elaborated a little more so that the fifteen-year-old boy could understand.

“Princess Oleciren loves pie. She doesn’t discriminate against any flavor.”

Abel nodded vigorously.

He remembered seeing Oleciren eating his mother’s apple pie, saying it was delicious.

“But Princess Olivia is picky. She only eats pies made with the finest ingredients by the best pastry chefs.”

“You’re saying that even if you eat the same pie, everyone’s taste is different, and the same goes for swords, with each having their own answer.”

Wayne was pleased to see Abel understand as soon as he rephrased it.

Like a sponge absorbing water, as the expression in the book went, Abel understood everything Wayne said.

“Young Master Abel’s physique and skills have already reached their limit.”

He couldn’t get any stronger than he was now unless his body grew further.

His skills had also been perfected through desperate battles.

“That’s why my brother recommended actual combat where my life is at stake.”

What was needed to break through the limit.

Arna and Cain, as former mercenaries and warriors, preferred extreme real-life combat.

“Only those with heaven-sent talent and good fortune can become stronger through such battles.”

Wayne, on the other hand, was not one of them.

As someone who had grown up strictly as a knight and lived as one, he couldn’t recommend such reckless real-life combat to a fifteen-year-old boy.

“And you need to know.”

“Know what?”

“Yourself. Only those who possess all the ingredients for growth can go the furthest when thrown into real combat.”

“Sir Wayne, you want to give me the ingredients.”

Abel nodded.

The past few days.

Cain had told him to learn a lot from Wayne before leaving, and Abel had faithfully followed his words.

Unlike the active Cain, Wayne had told him boring past stories and about various swordsmanship techniques.

Even though the Royal Knights’ training methods and swords were interesting, the theories about what kind of mindset he should have and how he should stand when holding a sword were boring.

But now he could vaguely understand.

“Yes. To be precise, it’s my answer and the answer the Knights have found.”

Cain had his answer.

Wayne had his answer.

“Now, Young Master Abel needs his own answer.”

“Answer…….”

“True Sword Masters are those who hone their will like a blade and fight against the world. In other words, it’s a path you cannot walk without knowing yourself.”

“I see.”

Abel picked up the short sword that was resting on his knees.

It was a dangerous weapon that could cut through flesh at any moment, and at the same time, a tool that could bring hope to some and despair to others.

“Then I’ll be going. Let’s have dinner together tonight as usual.”

Every night, the four of them, Oleciren, Isoel, Wayne, and himself, had dinner together.

At first, it felt awkward to gather for dinner at night even though they were training separately, but now it felt empty without it.

Thud━.

Abel put down his sword again and closed his eyes.

Wayne got up from his seat and walked into the palace with a smile.

He wondered who in the world would believe that there was a boy who challenged the title of Sword Master at the age of fifteen.

🔹🔹🔹

Whooooosh━.

The end of the wind was cold.

The warm sun of the day seemed to have exhausted all its energy and was setting in the west.

The elongated crimson sunlight illuminated the training ground of the Red Flower Palace, and Abel, who was in the center, opened his eyes.

Fwoosh, whoosh━.

The wind had changed.

The empty royal palace.

In the land where even the servants were not allowed to enter until the end of the competition for the throne, eight people were standing.

Seven of them were covered from head to toe in cloth, revealing only their eyes, like desert tribesmen from a picture book.

And the old man with unkempt white hair, Apostle Golden Dawn, stood before Abel.

“Are you Abel?”

A grating voice like scraping metal.

Thud, thud━.

Abel casually brushed the dirt off his pants and got up slowly.

“That’s right.”

“Then let’s confirm first━.”

The moment the old man inhaled to continue his sentence.

Abel-style Ardvark.

Airget-lam.

Shhhing━!

His slowness until now was all an act.

In an instant, his short sword, aimed at piercing through the enemy, thrust towards Golden Dawn’s neck.

At that moment, the seven desert mercenaries surrounding them charged.

Clang━.

Abel’s sword was deflected.

But Abel’s eyes still sparkled━!

Abel-style Ardvark.

Airgead-lámh.

Abel’s thrusts, which had deflected countless branches of the World Tree, erupted like stars in the sky.

Clang! Clang! Clang!━!

Abel, who had instantly countered the attacks of the seven, tried to drive his sword into the enemy’s neck, but it was impossible to get that far.

“Bad habit.”

Golden Dawn said, rubbing his neck.

The first attack had clearly exploited the gap in his breathing.

He thought that since the 〈Caballeros Rebellion〉 were now armed, Abel wouldn’t be able to attack recklessly again, so he continued speaking.

“Attacking without listening to your opponent is a bad habit━.”

Ardvark.

Lu Rabada.

But Abel didn’t care about such things.

━If you think they are the enemy, stab them in the neck or heart first.

Cain’s words only guided the tip of Abel’s sword towards Golden Dawn’s heart.

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