Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Chapter 14. That’s Mine

The Iron Empire, Astallon.

There were twelve stars directly beneath its emperor.

Heroes called the Reapers of Steel, or the Guardians of Astallon.

Their name was Swordmasters.

“You’re probably one of the Experts, right?”

The stage immediately before Swordmaster.

Astallon had hundreds of promising talents at that level.

Whenever an existing Swordmaster died or suffered injuries too severe to continue their duties,

their successor was chosen according to the Expert rankings.

And those rankings were scored through merit.

“That’s why you infiltrated this Academy. To investigate the students’ level, and more importantly, because the empire’s treasure is being stored here.”

Stealing the national treasure, a grimoire, from the empire of magic.

There could hardly be a greater humiliation.

If someone accomplished it, their Expert ranking would obviously soar.

“You... know everything.”

Kawin heard Bain grind his teeth.

The body shape Kawin had seen during the day transformed as though it had all been a lie, and his altered voice returned to normal.

How he could reshape his body so dramatically was impressive.

But changing the fundamental quality of a person’s natural voice was difficult.

The moment Kawin heard his voice, he became certain of his identity.

-Bain! Do you know that’s your fifteenth bowl? And soup is eaten with a spoon, not drunk!

-Haha. I’m dieting right now, so I’m actually being careful.

Bain’s voice from the table across the dining hall.

Not a single word he had said then contained sincerity.

If every sentence from beginning to end was false,

‘then his identity itself must be false.’

From that moment, Kawin had set down his fork and searched his memories.

His memories of [Swordmaster of the Heavenly Slaughter Star].

One of the Iron Empire Astallon’s intelligence operations.

‘Disguised enrollment.’

That was Kawin’s conclusion after combining all the information.

Of course, luck had played a part.

He hadn’t moved specifically to find Bain. He had simply found him while ‘doing what he always did.’

Kawin searched this place every night too.

After midnight, entry into the Academy’s main building was forbidden.

So much so that warning magic had been installed.

But Kawin, who needed to find the grimoire, entered the main building every night.

His abilities made detecting warning magic easy.

[Passive: Electro-Perception]

One of the gifts Dharma’s grimoire had given him.

His mana detection far exceeded that of others, easily exposing invisible magical boundaries.

‘And those boundaries weren’t especially advanced anyway.’

That was probably why both Bain and Kawin could be here.

Shing.

Despite the faint moonlight, the blade Bain drew glowed clearly blue.

Just looking at it made Kawin’s blood feel cold.

This was the ‘Aura’ used by knights who had reached a high realm.

“Since you already know everything, this is convenient. Now I have a clear reason to kill you.”

Bain pointed the tip of his sword at Kawin and glared at him like prey.

“Showing up alone like an idiot. I would have called a professor or someone else.”

“Well. I’m not exactly innocent either.”

Kawin shrugged.

He too had trespassed into a forbidden area.

Did Bain understand what that implied?

His head tilted slightly.

“You... belong somewhere else too?”

“Hard to say. How should I put it?”

If he had spent his entire life benefiting from the empire, he should probably be loyal to Illumina.

But Kawin had been in this world for less than half a year.

At his core, he was still Cha Hoon, not Kawin.

“My circumstances are a little different. I’ll decide what to do from here as things unfold.”

“You keep speaking in riddles. Then why did you appear before me at all? Why are you asking to die?”

“I may not know about anything else, but this principle is firm.”

Despite the cold resonance of Bain’s sword, burning desire bloomed on Kawin’s lips.

“The grimoire is mine. Nobody gets to take it.”

Then he activated the Orbis within his body with full force.

The power of thunder rooted itself into every nerve.

From the very beginning, Kawin pushed ‘Lightning Speed’ to its limit.

His opponent was a Sword Expert.

Not yet a Master, but given his age, his potential was incomparable to any Tesca freshman.

‘Maybe today I’ll finally step into the realm of killing.’

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid or nervous.

But this world had its own ways.

Sooner or later, it was a mental barrier he would have to cross.

A situation like this, where failure to kill meant being killed, was the perfect moment.

Whoosh!

Bain’s figure suddenly seemed to grow larger.

It was an illusion created by how quickly he approached.

Amazingly, not even that movement produced sound.

Truly impressive.

Not merely freshmen, but even seniors nearing graduation would have their throats cut in an instant.

Whoom!

Yet Bain felt nothing at his fingertips.

Kawin, who had been standing there, vanished as though swallowed by the earth.

Bain’s head whipped around, his eyes darting everywhere.

He would never have imagined it.

That a ‘mage’ could move with such agility.

Crackle!

A knight’s sharpened instincts prickled across Bain’s back.

He spun around and faced dazzling light.

A white arrow was already floating above Kawin’s head.

‘No chant? No magic circle?’

Bain’s eyes widened.

He knew better than most what magic activated without preparation meant.

The moment Kawin pointed at him, ‘Divine Bolt’ launched as though it had been waiting.

Swoosh!

“Not happening!”

Bain shouted and swung his sword diagonally.

A sword infused with Aura could cut through any magic.

That was what Astallon’s military academy had taught him, and he had personally cut apart the spells of captured mages before.

Unfortunately for him, from Kawin’s perspective, all of their magic was ‘fake.’

CLANG!

A clear yet piercing crash.

At the same moment, darkness flooded Bain’s eyes.

He had met the incoming magic with a perfectly efficient movement.

And yet his sword, filled with Aura,

‘broke?’

The darkened blade, stripped of its light, spun uselessly through the air.

Kawin’s Divine Bolt, meanwhile, continued toward its original target as though nothing had happened.

Bain’s heart.

Pierce!

Crackle!

The pain of being impaled.

Followed by an electrical shock.

An ordinary person should have died before they could even scream.

But Bain twisted at the final instant and avoided a fatal wound.

Drip... drip...

Though the price had been one of his arms.

“Cough! Cough!”

Bain coughed repeatedly and spoke through blood-red teeth.

“Impossible... Lightning magic is supposed to...!”

“You probably learned the same thing. That it’s a worthy rival to static electricity.”

What was the most terrifying lie in the world?

A lie even the person passing it along believes is true.

In that sense, everyone in the Astallon Empire had been deceived by a terrifying lie.

They had been taught that Lightning was the least threatening magic in Illumina.

“Looks like that information became your weakness.”

Sorry, but Kawin had no intention of letting him live.

The stronger Astallon became, the more danger House Anper would face.

Perhaps Bain understood that.

Fssss...

Replacing his broken sword, a blue haze rose from his entire body.

Bain’s eyes rolled back as he muttered something continuously.

Kawin clicked his tongue inwardly at the sight.

‘That’s the problem with Astallon bastards.’

What was the first skill Astallon swordsmen learned?

Requiem.

A skill that burned one’s life force for mutual destruction.

A nation that taught little boys how to self-destruct as soon as they learned the sword.

And Astallon considered such acts noble sacrifices.

Of course, from the opponent’s perspective,

‘it’s just being an asshole who refuses to die quietly.’

An Iron Knight burning away all his life force.

Few things in this world were more troublesome.

Their potential could erupt temporarily, allowing impossible techniques.

For example,

Flash!

an ultra-high-speed dash that covered short distances like teleportation.

A technique called ‘Flash.’

For once, Kawin’s face hardened.

‘You’ve got to be kidding.’

Even under Requiem, he could use Flash, a top-class Swordmaster movement technique?

Mages had a similar skill called ‘Blink,’ but it activated slower than a Swordmaster’s Flash.

More importantly, Kawin had never learned anything like that.

Whoom!

Kawin barely dodged Bain’s broken sword.

His heart felt as though it had dropped a handspan.

What if that had been an intact sword?

What if he hadn’t known about Requiem or Flash from the original novel?

Bain’s suicide attack would have succeeded.

‘I can’t keep dodging.’

Even Lightning Speed at maximum output couldn’t shake Bain’s pursuit.

Slice!

Bain’s broken sword finally cut across Kawin’s side.

The reinforcement magic within his uniform prevented his skin from tearing, but the uniform itself was shredded.

‘He’s completely lost it. This won’t end quickly.’

Requiem burned life force, so Bain would eventually collapse on his own.

But waiting without a plan would leave Kawin badly injured too.

So he changed tactics.

‘Never thought the Challenge would help like this.’

His match against Frasel on the first day.

Watching her stubbornly release pure mana without any other attribute had given Kawin an idea for his second technique.

Calling it a skill was almost embarrassing, but against an approaching enemy it was devastating.

Kawin released a mass of thunder energy from his Orbis.

He gave it no special form and chose no particular target.

An extremely simple mechanism.

In other words,

‘Storm Burst.’

RUMBLE!

A storm of lightning erupted from Kawin’s body and swallowed the surroundings.

Bain’s unfocused eyes were instantly dyed white.

Even a moth diving into wildfire wouldn’t have looked this reckless.

Bain leaped into Storm Burst and was completely swallowed by abnormal lightning magic.

CRACKLE!

Still frozen in the posture of his leap, Bain crashed to the floor.

His entire body had turned black and red like charcoal.

Like Kawin’s uniform, Bain’s combat suit surely contained special power.

But within Storm Burst’s range, it was nothing more than a pathetic shield.

Clatter.

A small object now almost impossible to recognize.

The sword Bain had been holding slipped from his hand.

Kawin, lost briefly in thought, snapped back at the sound.

“Ah.”

Then scratched his head.

He had reduced Divine Bolt’s size to avoid destroying the main building.

But Bain’s resistance had been stronger than expected, and after using ‘Storm Burst’ as well,

“The statue that was here...”

had been reduced completely to ash.

What now?

Leaving Bain here wasn’t much of an issue, but Kawin couldn’t stay.

The main building at midnight was a restricted area.

“Right.”

Kawin activated ‘Lightning Speed’ again.

Then shot through the broken window in an instant.

Run first.

That was Kawin’s choice.