Chapter 166: Summer is Blue (2)
Swoosh
A night of heavy rain.
A chill colder than the actual temperature lingered on the terrace of Count Ethelred’s castle.
‘It’s not even winter yet.’
Cain smiled bitterly.
He thought this level of coldness was something he should only feel when writing ‘Winter of Night’.
“……”
Edmund, momentarily overwhelmed by Oleciren’s spirit, grabbed the edge of the bucket on his head.
Drip
But he hesitated as if reluctant to take it off.
Of course, Abel, who didn’t want to wear it in the first place, took it off as soon as she spoke.
“Take it off, now.”
Oleciren’s black eyes flickered like flames.
Edmund, unable to say anything further due to her spirit, took off the bucket.
“So tell me, why has that human’s sword, or whatever it is, been trying to kill Cain all this time?”
“I can’t━.”
“There are many things one can’t do in this world. But explaining things is usually something one can do.”
Step
Oleciren approached Edmund.
Even if she wasn’t a witch, anyone would back down from the pressure she emitted. But now, the out-of-spec witch’s power also surrounded her.
Normally, Edmund would have kept his mouth shut.
“Do tell.”
“……Cain has a weakness.”
But this time, he was defeated.
This was the first time since Chloe that Edmund had been pushed back like this, making him wonder if he should have come another time.
“Weakness?”
Oleciren tilted her head and looked back at Cain.
Cain, as if he’d never thought about it before, shrugged.
“But he’s strong?”
“He is strong. But he is also weak.”
Oleciren frowned. She knew how Edmund spoke, but she didn’t want to tolerate it in her current mood.
Edmund quickly added, sensing her mood.
“If he were to fight Abel now, purely with swords, he might lose.”
Cain smiled, looking at Abel.
Abel nodded, as if he had learned a deadly move from Edmund.
“……!”
On the other hand, Oleciren, as if she couldn’t believe it, looked back and forth between the two and sighed.
“Alright. Then how about doing it in a proper environment, not on a rainy night like this?”
“Your Highness, fights don’t happen in the environment you want. You strike when your opponent is at their weakest.”
Edmund said proudly.
But right after, he saw Oleciren’s brow furrow deeply.
“Are you saying you’ve been waiting for this moment?”
“That’s……”
“Abel, tell me.”
“Yes, we were waiting on the roof.”
“And you heard everything we said?”
Thump
It felt like something was falling.
Perhaps it wasn’t an object, but Edmund and Abel’s guts.
The two shook their heads vigorously at Oleciren, who harbored a chill of a different dimension. They were the spitting image of father and son, shaking their heads in the same direction and at the same speed.
“We couldn’t get close enough to hear you. We would have been caught.”
“Let’s say that’s true for you, but what about Lord Edmund?”
Edmund avoided her gaze at her question.
She knew how keen a Sword Master’s senses were.
“Didn’t hear a thing.”
Cain put his hand on Oleciren’s shoulder and shrugged.
“I blocked it with aura midway through.”
“When?”
“When you were counting to three because of the rain.”
Oleciren’s eyes widened.
If it hadn’t been aura but a sword, she would have been killed without a doubt.
Then she chuckled, waved her hand, and stepped back.
“Well, if that’s the case, an outsider like me can’t interfere any further. It’s an Ethelred matter, so deal with it yourselves.”
“If possible, I would like you to come with us.”
Edmund continued politely.
“No matter how much we spar without aura, you never know what might happen, so please watch over us.”
🔹🔹🔹
The cliffs of Ethelred.
Snap
Oleciren snapped her fingers.
At that moment, the dark clouds covering the sky within a radius of 1km around her disappeared.
The suffocating darkness cleared, revealing a vacant sky.
The three Ethelreds looked up.
Swoosh
A clear night sky and twinkling stars, which they never thought they would see amidst the loud sound of rain, and even the Milky Way, which seemed to flow with the stars, were visible.
“I understand the environment, but I blocked the rain because I didn’t want to get wet. Should I make it rain again?”
Oleciren glared at Edmund with sharp eyes that said she would burn him to the ground if he even hinted at it.
He shook his head in awe at her ability to perform miracles that even a Sword Master couldn’t.
“No. But I have one more request.”
“What is it?”
“Please tire Cain out.”
“……?”
Cain tilted his head in wonder.
Edmund smiled bitterly and opened his mouth again.
“What you will see from now on will be me attacking him as a human. The first method of that attack will be a war of attrition.”
A method of continuously deploying troops to exhaust the enemy and then finishing them off when they are weakened.
“Since I can’t drain his stamina here, please do it with your witch’s power.”
Oleciren looked back at Cain, who was scratching his cheek awkwardly.
Cain nodded and said.
“Just a moment.”
Even though Oleciren’s witch’s power was strong, it couldn’t easily touch Cain. Unless she poured it out endlessly like she did with the demon Ballam.
‘Winter, can you please allow me to be affected by her incantation for just a while?’
The reason Cain was so resistant to witch’s power was because he possessed the 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉. He only asked to be receptive for a short time.
[……]
There was no answer.
Only then did he remember that the messages from ‘Winter’ and ‘Summer’ had been cut off earlier.
As Cain, slightly surprised, was about to ask again.
『No.003 ‘Winter’…… Absent.』
『No.017 ‘Summer’…… Absent.』
『Temporary processing sequence…… Activated.』
『Reviewing ‘Cain’s’ request…… Warning.』
『Decreasing resistance to ‘eternity’ even temporarily can be dangerous. Do you wish to proceed?』
“Is something wrong?”
Oleciren asked Cain with a worried look. This was because he was staring blankly into the air, unlike his usual self.
“No.”
Cain shook his head and asked while watching the 『Four Seasons』 message that had suddenly appeared.
‘When will the two of them be back?’
He didn’t know where they went, but he missed their presence. He felt empty without ‘Winter’, who was always with him, and ‘Summer’, who felt somewhat childish.
『Information disclosure level review…… 25%』
『Information level adjustment…… Complete.』
『They will return after the current rain stops.』
It was a relief that they hadn’t completely disappeared.
Cain breathed a sigh of relief and asked the 『Four Seasons』.
‘Please proceed.’
『Temporarily decreasing ‘eternity’ resistance…… Complete.』
There was no special feeling.
But if it said so, it must be true. Cain spoke to Oleciren.
“Now, try it.”
“You think it’ll work?”
“Yes.”
Oleciren closed her eyes and slowly took a deep breath. She put more effort and care into uttering a single word than she did in creating a space by eliminating the sound of rain.
Be weary.
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack!
The unmistakable sound of gears grinding and breaking.
From Oleciren’s outstretched hands, a jet-black power, like a black snake, poured out towards Cain.
“You’re quite something.”
His breath hitched.
The ligaments that he had been holding tight screamed, and his muscles began to tremble as if they had been overworked for three days and nights.
Not only that, but his senses were also dulled, exactly like how he felt when he was exhausted.
Whizz
Edmund threw an ordinary iron sword he had brought with him at Cain. Even though exhausted, Cain was still Cain.
He lightly caught the sword and drew it.
It was a straight sword with a slightly upturned tip, similar to Agweska.
“Your swordsmanship is characterized by short bursts based on one-hit kills.”
Edmund moved, his hands clasped behind his back.
Swoosh
And Abel, after bowing his head once to Cain, drew his thin sword.
“There’s no better swordsmanship for dealing with giant monsters or turning the tide of battle.”
Edmund recalled Cain’s previous life.
Even if he forgot all other memories.
But he had wished that he would at least remember the sword that Cain had swung. Because he thought that would be the only thing he could do as a father, even if it was a little late.
“But what about prolonged battles?”
At Edmund’s words, Abel took the characteristic stance of the Ardvark.
Cain smirked and raised his iron sword.
“You thought I would be weak in prolonged battles?”
“……?”
“Well, fine.”
Cain beckoned Abel with his left hand, signaling him to come at him.
Thud
The muddy ground, softened by the rain, bounced into the air from Abel’s step.
Ardvark.
Lu Rabada.
A straight trajectory, starting from him and aiming to stab the opponent to death, erupted. At that moment, Cain’s purple eyes flashed.
Clang!
It wasn’t any special swordsmanship.
It was just that he seemed to know in advance where the trajectory of the thrust would arrive, and he simply placed his sword where it could deflect the thin sword.
Crash!
Abel stamped his foot in front of Cain.
Abel-style Ardvark.
Airgead-lámh.
And the exploding wave of thrusts!
Whoosh! Shhh
The sounds were slow.
The thin sword, reflecting the starlight, flashed, and only after he stepped back did the sound of cutting through the air reach them!
Even without aura, Abel’s thrust, which surpassed the speed of sound, was aimed at Cain’s entire body. Edmund, his hands still behind his back, spoke calmly.
“And second, you mainly use slashing attacks. Slashing is right for dealing with opponents with high regenerative abilities.”
Cain, who was dodging with minimal movement like a reed.
Slash!
Perhaps because of his exhaustion, he couldn’t move his body properly, and a long cut remained on his cheek.
“But humans are weak. A single stab can take a life.”
That’s why the Ethelred’s ‘Ardvark’, meant for facing humans, was a thin sword style, and the Great Wall’s ‘Dark Sky’, meant for facing giant monsters with high regenerative abilities, was a greatsword style.
Rip. Rip, rip
Cain’s clothes tore.
It was almost the same situation as facing a strong enemy while exhausted from a wheel warfare.
“Cain……”
Oleciren clenched her fists, even though she knew this was practice.
The awkward red blood against the blue night sky struck her deeply.
“I see.”
Thump
As if he had heard all of Edmund’s words.
As if he had seen all of Abel’s swordsmanship.
Cain took one step closer to Abel. As the distance closed, the distance for stabbing with a thin sword became awkward.
Abel instinctively tried to back away.
Thump
But it was too late.
From bottom to top.
Cain’s heavy fist slammed into the bottom of Abel’s ribs.
Thud
White Starlight Step.
Abel’s heart sank at that moment.
Like facing Glumiêm’s World Tree, Cain seemed gigantic, and the pressure he emitted made his hands tremble.
“Well, it’s not all wrong.”
Cain-style Ardvark.
Lu Rabada.
It wasn’t a trajectory created by a thin sword.
His fist, which humans were born gripping from the beginning, shot up as if it were a single thin sword.
Whoosh
Cain’s left fist was on Abel’s heart, and the tip of the sword in his right hand was in front of his Adam’s apple.
“Experience is better than any theory.”
Cain turned his head towards Edmund, as if asking if that was all.
But he was no longer the relaxed figure from before.
“Behind you━!”
Oleciren screamed.
Behind Cain was Edmund, who had bent his knees deeply and was aiming for Cain’s head with his thin sword.
Ardvark.
Final Form.
Claíomh Solais.
The sword grazed Cain’s ear and soared into the air.
Shhh
The sound spread belatedly.
Edmund smiled at the frozen Cain and said.
“I told you, I would show you the swordsmanship of humans. Humans are dirty and cunning.”
“The swordsmanship of humans……”
If Edmund had aimed for his head, he would have died. Cain looked at him and smiled.
“You are truly human.”
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Translation-(COMPLETED) – The Villain Carries the Holy Sword𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥《⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐》!!
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