Chapter 141

“So? Is it still amusing?”

Drip.

The golden sword slid out, and crimson blood overflowed from the wound.

Organt broke into a cold sweat and gritted his teeth, quickly enveloping the injured area with aura to seal the wound and stop the bleeding. For someone claiming to be a Master, his skill in manipulating aura was admittedly quite decent.

“W-What kind of sorcery is this? A-Ah, I see! An artifact! It’s an artifact! A sword that crosses through space! A weapon completely unheard of! Indeed! Is it an ancient relic? A wretch like you possesses a treasure far beyond your station! Hand it over immediately! Such an item only suits a noble person like myself!”

“Sorcery my ass. You people call anything you don’t understand sorcery or an artifact.”

“Do not mock me! Is there any swordsmanship in existence that I, a Sword Master, cannot comprehend?!”

“What would a scrub know when they’re just a Master, not even a Grand Master?”

“A s-scrub? Arrogant fool… You speak as if you are a Grand Master yourself.”

“A Grand Master… I usually don’t like downplaying myself. Well, let’s just go with that for now.”

“What?”

“I am a Grand Master, you punk.”

“L-Ludicrous. Even after dedicating my entire life to the sword, I, who am called a genius among geniuses, still find the boundary of a Grand Master impossibly distant. How dare you spout such bullshit in front of me?!”

I let out a hollow laugh at his self-praise.

“A genius… Then come at me. I’ve been wanting to properly fight a Master anyway. That’s why I only stabbed your shoulder instead of slitting your throat.”

“Hmph! Who would believe such a blatant bluff?!”

“That’s why I told you to come at me. If it’s a bluff, I’ll die, and if it’s not, you’re the one who’ll bite the dust, right? Isn’t a knight supposed to speak with their sword, not their mouth?”

“To disable one of my arms with a sneak attack and then ask for a fair duel—your baseness truly knows no bounds!”

“Baseness my ass, coming from the guy who was half-reclining on his chair even with an enemy right in front of him. Forget it, if you’re clad in that much gold, you must have a holy relic or two for healing, right? Stop whinging and attack. If you’re not coming, I will.”

As I picked up Astraphe and strode toward him, the panicked man flusteredly pressed one of the many rings crowding his fingers against his shoulder.

The ring shattered, and the wound on his shoulder closed up in an instant. It must have been an incredibly expensive holy relic, judging by the look of sheer regret written all over his face even in this situation.

Wait, are all those rings artifacts by any chance?

“Oh, you’re a treasure goblin!”

Whoosh!!

Astraphe, swung like a lightning bolt, collided with his broad greatsword with a violent shattering roar.

A contest of strength ensued at the crossguards. The Pure Spiritual Power infused within Astraphe clashing with the light green aura enveloping his greatsword, casting off sparks like fireworks.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle!!

“Oh… so you can at least block this? You really are a bit different since you’re a Master.”

Gritting his teeth at my mockery, the man swung his greatsword and violently shoved me back.

Huwaaaang!

Sensing his intent, I willingly allowed myself to be pushed back. Sure enough, his greatsword thrust straight forward, unleashing a deep green fire that mirrored the color of his aura.

Whooosh!!

“Oh…….”

I had heard that once you become a Master, you can manifest magic-like phenomena using your aura… but to think aura could turn into flames. It really was completely different from a Blaster.

‘But isn’t it a bit slow?’

Amused by the new experience, I lightly evaded the thick pillar of fire, which spanned nearly three meters in diameter.

However, right at that moment, the pillar of fire bent at a right angle against all laws of nature, pursuing me as I stepped aside.

“Whoa!?”

Slightly startled, I forcefully swung my sword toward the descending flames.

The golden glow of Astraphe intertwined with the brilliant white light of the Pure Spiritual Power, creating a trajectory of dawn light that ripped the green flames apart and scattered them.

Pubububuk!!

The remnants of the fire splattered in every direction.

Amazingly, the embers clung stickily to the surroundings like napalm, burning with pure malice until the very end.

“Kheheohet! You lowborn wretch! How do you like the taste of my hellfire?!”

Using my hand coated in Pure Spiritual Power, I crushed the light green embers clinging to various parts of my clothes and flashed a wide grin.

“A sticky flame. How interesting.”

“Die!”

Believing he had grasped victory, the man continuously unleashed torrents of fire with a triumphant look.

“Still, this kind of one-pattern attack is just tedious.”

Holding my breath for a brief moment, I lowered my stance and lunged forward like a lightning bolt, shattering the ground beneath me.

Boom!!

With that, I focused my mind and slashed my sword upward from below, executing a strike as clean as a quick-draw technique.

Chicak!!

The flames filling the air were split left and right by a single strike, opening a clear path directly between the man and me.

“H-Heok!!”

Jjeeeeeoeng!!

Compressing fifty meters of space in a single instant, my blade cleanly split his greatsword down the middle.

Kaaaaang!!

While the pieces of the broken greatsword drifted through the air, Astraphe lightly tapped the center of his forehead.

“That’s once.”

“W-What…?!”

“You just died once. Surely that’s not the end of your tricks? Give me more.”

“You bastard! Do you intend to make a fool out of me?!”

“Yeah. I’m literally making a fool out of you.”

“What?!”

“I did a bit of research before coming here, and your domain is an absolute mess. To feed the suddenly bloated knight orders and soldiers, you’ve been bleeding the people dry for the past ten years, haven’t you? Wow… even so, a seventy-five percent tax rate is insane. Seventy-five percent. What is this, Sinan Barony?”

Well, to be fair, it wasn’t quite on the level of Sinan Barony. This place merely stopped at exploitation, whereas over there, they fed people monster meat and literally bred them like livestock.

But… just because there was a guy who stole a million won next door didn’t mean the guy who stole five hundred thousand won wasn’t a piece of trash.

“I even heard you blocked them from moving to other domains. As far as I know, restricting the movement of peasants is illegal in the Baran Empire.”

“What of it! When the blue-blooded command, it is a virtue for the lowborn to simply obey in awe!”

“That’s exactly my point.”

“What…?”

“The point is, if a strong guy tramples them, the weak guy shouldn’t make a peep and just get stepped on, right? So, since I am the strong one here, I’m going to make a bit of a fool out of a frail wretch like you. Do you happen to have a complaint about that?”

“…You bastard!”

I stepped the blade away from the center of his forehead and flashed a bright white grin.

“You’d better fight with everything you’ve got. Because the exact moment you run out of tricks will be the moment your skull gets split in two.”

Wharrrr!

“Haaah… haaah… haaah!”

I lightly batted away the rushing flames and tutted.

“Uh-uh. The fire is getting weak. You can’t even maintain your full power for a measly three minutes? And you call yourself a Master?”

“Haaah… haaah… haaah! Who… on earth… are you? How can you deflect my hellfire with bare hands….”

“Huh? A thing like this, if you experience it just a couple of times, you can clearly see the principle of how it’s made and how it moves, can’t you?”

As I spoke, I caught the closing flames with my bare hand.

Then, as if it had belonged to me from the very beginning, I started playing around with the fire at my own whim.

Wharrr, wharrrrr!!

Watching his own flames obey me like a gentle lamb, the man’s jaw dropped.

“…H-How?”

“Skillfully.”

“……!!!”

“It seems you really don’t have anything else to show me. Your close-combat skills are actually worse than Kelly’s or Chel’s… No matter how I think about it, you fall way below my expectations. Are you really a Master?”

“You bastard!!”

My words must have struck a massive nerve somewhere, because his eyes rolled back as he rushed forward, stomping heavily with his halved sword.

And then….

Chicak! Pubuk!!

Before he could even bring the greatsword down, both of his arms flew into the air.

“Sigh… Forget it, let’s end this. It was fun in its own way, but I think I’ve played around for too long.”

As I raised my sword for the final blow, the balding man turned pale and shook his head.

“…W-Wait a moment!”

“Wait for what? If you’ve been living by the blade, you should be prepared to die by someone else’s blade.”

It was right at that exact moment, as my sword was falling toward his neck.

Crash! Kaaaaang!!

A spear flew out of nowhere, shattering the window and blocking my sword.

Chieeeeeying!

Immediately after, a ruby-colored aura blossomed like a flower from the spear, enveloping the balding man in a semi-spherical shape.

“…Hooh?”

“Elder!!”

And then, leaping down through the newly broken window, a beautiful dragonkin woman with crimson hair arrived.

“Elder! Are you unharmed!?”

The balding man’s face brightened as he shouted.

“C-Carmen…! How are you here?”

“My lord informed me that you were in danger, Elder!! The moment I heard, I flew here at full speed!”

“Y-You did well!! Kill that damnable wretch! He insulted me, he insulted the Evas family, and furthermore, he insulted your lord!”

“Understood. Leave the rest to me, and please rest easy. This humble female shall reap that scoundrel’s neck and present it before you, Elder.”

“B-Be careful! The villain’s skill is out of the ordinary!”

My brow furrowed slightly as I looked at the dragonkin woman, who was glaring at me with wide, furious eyes.

“Are you Carmen Sonya Evas?”

“I am, villain.”

“Hey, you… something about your condition seems weird.”

“What?”

“The dragonkin named Carmen Sonya Evas that I looked into was an arrogant but honorable Sword Master, with excessive pride but an equally high sense of dignity. But what’s this? ‘Lord’? ‘Elder’? You even refer to yourself as a humble female?”

At my words, she let out a mocking laugh, as if it were the most ridiculous question she had ever heard.

“What of it? My lord is my lord, and the Elder is the Elder. Compared to such individuals, isn’t it only natural for someone like me to be called a lowborn female?”

Yeah, her state really is completely messed up.

“Besides, your outfit—do you seriously walk around wearing that normally?”

Truth be told, her attire was… well, to put it politely, it was a style that fully emphasized a woman’s charms, and to put it bluntly, it was ‘erotic.’

A crimson leather tank top, short hot-pants that revealed all her lines, and a pair of gauntlets and steel boots… How should I put it, she looked like she had just popped out of a fighting game filled with pretty girls.

At that, her face flushed red, but she forced a confident expression and lifted her chin.

“Hmph! My lord commanded me to dress like this, so I merely obey him!”

A powerful sense of déjà vu made me tilt my head in an instant.

Wait. This situation is somehow very familiar. Where have I seen this before?

‘Ah….’

And then, the image of a certain mage lady came to mind—the one whose body would literally tremble with dopamine whenever she received a compliment from Shia or me, a girl who was pitiful in many different ways.

A split second later, all the puzzles regarding my questions clicked together perfectly in my head.

“Aha. So that’s how it is. No wonder… I wondered why a well-off Sword Master would marry a loser and give up her entire heart and soul. …You, something was done to your head, wasn’t it?”

Carmen narrowed her eyes at my question, as if I were talking utter nonsense.

However, my eyes did not miss it—her ear twitched in response to my query, spitting out a thin, elongated object before quickly pulling it back in.

It was a mere fraction of a second, but that was definitely a ‘living thing.’

‘…A thread? No, a tentacle? Is that the cause?’

I gripped Astraphe tightly and let out a low chuckle.

“What do you know? This is turning out to be way more interesting than I thought. Just what on earth is happening in this damnable domain?”

From inside the barrier Carmen had deployed, the balding man shrieked frantically.

“Do not listen to him, Carmen! It’s a vile trick to shake your heart…!”

Plunge!

Immediately after, a sword erupting straight through empty space pierced both of the balding man’s cheeks.

“Gah!”

“Wow, baldie. Let’s keep your mouth shut for a bit. You can do your talking later during our delightful Q&A session.”

“You bastard! How dare you strike the Elder!!”

Kaaaaang!!

My sword and her enraged crimson spear collided violently.

Zzzzzzing!!

While Astraphe vibrated faintly from failing to absorb the entire impact, I let out an internal exclamation of admiration.

‘Impressive. Excluding the transcendent beings, she’s the strongest person I’ve met here.’

Her skill was on a completely different level compared to this Master-pretender baldie. To be completely honest, wouldn’t this dragonkin lady overwhelmingly crush even three of this bald guy combined?

Of course, the one who received the bigger shock was Carmen, who was pushed back three steps, unlike me, who had taken the attack while remaining rooted to the spot.

“You, no, sir… are you a Grand Master?”

“Well, let’s go with that.”

At that, a sudden spark of sharp clarity returned to her hazy, dull eyes.

“It… is an honor. Under normal circumstances, I would have begged for your guidance for a hundred days and nights, but….”

“You useless bitch! Can you not hear my command to kill him immediately?!”

At that moment, the balding man screamed, even while spouting geysers of blood from his perforated cheeks.

With that, her eyes clouded over once again, and she gripped her spear tightly.

“…I will kill you. Villain.”

“Sigh… Lady. Let’s start by pulling out that weird thing cramming up your earhole first.”