Sword Master.
It was a word which refers to those who have reached the extremity of sword, and among the many swordsmen on the continent, there were only 100 of them who had such a precious title.
At first glance, it might sound like a lot, but when you consider that the number was smaller than the leaders of the nations you can feel the greatness of it.
‘Though there are a lot of people around me…’
Right.
Bratt Lloyd had a lot of Masters around him. He even knew people who had become Masters at a ridiculously young age too.
Even Ian was a Swords Master and even Keira Finn. However, seeing Ilya Lindsay, who broke down the wall that blocked countless swordsmen their whole lives, at the age of 18 as well as Airn who was now progressing even beyond a Master, he felt a sense of deprivation, or even absurdity and jealousy.
‘I didn’t lose.’
Yet, Bratt never collapsed. He didn’t get frustrated, nor did he stop.
He still remembered those prospective trainee days.
When he thought about all that he built and everything else that he would build in the future, it seemed meaningless.
And Judith’s punch which made his mind flash. Along with his father’s advice.
If it wasn’t for them, what would he be like today?
‘… I don’t need to know.’
Right. There was no need to think about what didn’t happen. The blue haired swordsman opened his eyes and looked at his sword. And on the blue sword which was gifted to him by the chief of Durkali, a blue aura rose from it.
Seeing the light which was a symbol of a Sword Master, Bratt burst into tears and laughter at the same time.
“Haha, Hahaha…”
It wasn’t just laughing. Even in moments of excitement, Bratt was still Bratt. With a calmer personality than his peers, he realized how important this moment was.
The feeling of expressing an aura outside the body and focusing it on the sword.
Intensifying it, hardening and condensing it, and tuning into a sense of sharpness. Concentrating on all of the aspects of the Aura operation, he swung the sword. Carefully, as if he was holding a glass sword.
But that was only for a short time.
He quickly became accustomed to the Aura Sword and unfolded his swordsmanship even faster.
Wheik!
Whish!
He didn’t even have to close his eyes like Airn would to concentrate.
Rather, it was larger. As if Bratt couldn’t miss a single moment, and he burst into tears at what he saw himself doing.
He was proud. And an immense feeling of relief came up.
Perhaps because of that, his movements were rougher than usual, but he didn’t care. Rather, he sublimated it into a wave-like momentum.
The devil’s den was quickly filled with aura like waves. At that, Airn was surprised.
It wasn’t because of the Master’s swordsmanship.
It was because he wasn’t in a rush to maintain the Aura Sword. He never saw it before.
But this kind of swordsmanship suited Bratt more than ever.
Arin watched his friend deeply as if engraving the sight into his mind, and Kirill, along with Lulu held their breath, feeling the strangeness in the air.
And time passed.
Quite a lot of time had passed.
Even though they were in the den of a devil filled with unpleasant air, no one cared about it. And all of it ended when the aura on Bratt’s blue sword returned to his body.
And it was when the devil which they thought to be dead spoke.
“Hahahaha! You scumbags!”
“What? Is it still not dead?”
“It is fine. We can just kill it again.”
“Haha, you can’t. I am already dead! No matter how vicious you people are, you can’t kill a dead devil again!”
“What is that jerk saying?”
“Ah! This! This is that…”
“Posthumous curse!”
“Right! That one!”
Lulu nodded her head at Airn’s words. She had heard it from Ignet. Most devils have other ways to torment humans.
Even after death, they don’t disappear entirely and pour out terrible curses to get revenge on those who killed him.
Perhaps the stone devil was the same. No, it was weird to call it a stone devil now.
It had a body made of smoke. The appearance was like cotton popping out of a dirty stuffed toy that was torn.
And unlike the horrible appearance, the eyes were bloody.
The devil said.
“You thought I was done? No! It isn’t over until I say it is! Let me show you hell! I will give you a more terrifying, desperate and horrible space than a labyrinth. I will turn you into a body which can neither live nor die and stay stuck forever! Haha!... hahaha… Uah!”
The devil flew round and round in the air.
Lulu, which was staring blankly at it, turned into the form of a cat and jumped. It was to seize the devil.
“Fun! So much fun!”1
“You insolent thing! I am not your toy!”
“…”
“… Airn, do you know what to do now?”
While Kirill was bewildered, Bratt asked Airn.
As an educated noble, he knew about the curses. And although he never experienced it himself, he knew how terrible they were from the past records.
Of course, he wasn’t too worried.
Didn’t he already know? Airn had once subjugated a devil before. And he was much stronger than the devil too.
So he would have some thought about getting out of his current crises.
While he thought that, Airn pulled out his Aura Sword with an indifferent expression. And slammed it into the ground.
Woong!
Kwak!
Crack!
With a refreshing sound, a golden ray of light filled the devil’s barrier. Like a bonfire in a dark room.
Like the light of a lighthouse which gives hope to lost sailors. Bratt felt a surge of hope looking at the aura.
“Kirill.”
“Yes, brother.”
“Do you have any swords left?”
“Of course.”
Kirill took out miniature swords from her sorcery pocket and threw them.
And they enlarged to the size of the one Airn used.
Wong! The blonde swordsman who swung the sorcery sword a couple times looked at the devil and grinned.
The devil’s expression turned stiff.
He knew it, he knew it the moment that golden aura sword was infused into the ground that something strange was happening.
“Y-You! What the hell are you doi…”
Airn didn’t care.
He turned to Bratt and said,
“Have you ever heard of the Hero’s Sword?”
“The thing that Ignet uses? It is said that by nature it exerts powerful force against the devil…”
“Not by nature. You can learn it.”
“Is that right?”
“Right. It is a bit of a strange atmosphere, but now is the best place to learn it.”
“Hm.”
Bratt thought for a moment and then nodded.
Since ancient times trials are how heroes are born. To him who was now a Sword Master, he had that confidence and thought that this kind of hardship was nothing.
“Good. I don’t know what it is, but should I practice it here?”
“Right.”
“Then let’s start right away.”
“Okay. Firstly, I will explain the human will to protect against the devil’s desire to destroy…”
“….”
The devil was confused.
These people weren’t going to pay attention to him or the curse, but they started training and are now practicing?
Did anyone see these crazy people?
“Wow!”
“Kuak! go away!”
Lulu, who was pushed away by the devil, fell.
Startled, the devil pushed Lulu away, but a part of his body was torn. and the torn part had black smoke rise from it.
“Play with me a little more!”
“Get lost!”
“Hehehe! I won’t!”
Swosh!
Seeing the black cat not floating in the air, but teleporting from here and there, the devil felt a bit scared.
Kirill looked at the two of them, and then pulled out a mat and a tea set.
Pour!
And brewing the tea leaves in warm water, she looked around and said.
“Uh, this is so nice.”
Lulu and the devil were moving constantly. And her older brother was teaching Bratt. She wasn't bored with all that happening in front of her. To the extent where she thought a few days here would be fine.
‘If I get bored, I can just practice sorcery.’
Ten days passed.
In the meantime, Bratt Lloyd not only stabilized his Aura Sword but he was also able to learn Ignet’s sword.
Of course, it wasn’t easy.
But it worked as long as he had the will to protect.
His family.
His territory.
His friends and also his lover Judith who was more precious than his friends.
That was enough to bring out his will to oppose the devil. However, just having the will wasn’t enough.
Ignet’s vision was to materialize the emotions and will which was being taught into the form of ‘swordsmanship’.
It wasn’t just the work of the mind. It was a form made of esoteric and complex theories.
The difficulty level was so high that no ordinary Sword Master could learn it, so Bratt frowned.
But,
“…it is horribly difficult.”
“It is. But don’t you feel it?”
Grunting, Bratt mastered Ignet’s vision.
Of course, he didn’t fully master it. It could be considered as a first step forward.
But that was enough. A swordsmanship which even Sevion Brooks couldn’t learn. And doing that meant that Bratt had the talent to learn more.
“Kukuku. I was fine before, but I seem like a much better person now…”
“…”
“…”
“Can’t I even joke?”
At the same time, the Pareira siblings shook their heads and went back to their own training. Bratt wasn’t the only one growing.
Airn too renewed his will by training the Hero’s Sword, or the Sword of Heart after a long time.
He stopped dragging his worries about the future into his present self.
He let his heart which was full of knots, flow for the sake of the precious people in his life. His Family, friends, teachers, schoolmates….
It was even more heartbreaking because he forgot about them for a while.
His heart, which was shaken for a moment, turned stronger and so did his sword.
“Phew.”
Kirill was the same.
Although she was engaged in a field of sorcery which couldn’t be measured quantitatively, she was still recognized as the best talent.
No matter how strong the curse of the devil was, there was no way she couldn’t handle it.
Of course, it was difficult. The constant feeling of hopelessness and depression was taking over her. However, it was nothing compared to the difficult time when she had lived away from her brother.
‘If it is at this level, it is the perfect environment for mental concentration and training.’
Hundreds of rays of light flickered around Kirill, who closed her eyes.
Seeing the lines move around her and change into patterns Lulu seemed shocked.
Pah!
The black cat was chasing after the light.
The devil, who was watching it, also swayed and screamed.
“Kuaaak! You crazy bastards! No more! I can’t stand it anymore!”
“Hm?”
“What?”
“Get out of here. I am not going to disappear in the hands of you lunatics!”
A desperate scream.
The devil gradually moved away from Airn and others. The darkness faded. The magi which was blooming from the dead devil didn’t impose bad emotions anymore. The barrier was released.
No, to be more precise, the devil ran.
As everyone had blank expressions on their faces, Bratt, who came to his senses first, shouted.
“Catch it!”
Cats will be cats.
Sword Master.
It was a word which refers to those who have reached the extremity of sword, and among the many swordsmen on the continent, there were only 100 of them who had such a precious title.
At first glance, it might sound like a lot, but when you consider that the number was smaller than the leaders of the nations you can feel the greatness of it.
‘Though there are a lot of people around me…’
Right.
Bratt Lloyd had a lot of Masters around him. He even knew people who had become Masters at a ridiculously young age too.
Even Ian was a Swords Master and even Keira Finn. However, seeing Ilya Lindsay, who broke down the wall that blocked countless swordsmen their whole lives, at the age of 18 as well as Airn who was now progressing even beyond a Master, he felt a sense of deprivation, or even absurdity and jealousy.
‘I didn’t lose.’
Yet, Bratt never collapsed. He didn’t get frustrated, nor did he stop.
He still remembered those prospective trainee days.
When he thought about all that he built and everything else that he would build in the future, it seemed meaningless.
And Judith’s punch which made his mind flash. Along with his father’s advice.
If it wasn’t for them, what would he be like today?
‘… I don’t need to know.’
Right. There was no need to think about what didn’t happen. The blue haired swordsman opened his eyes and looked at his sword. And on the blue sword which was gifted to him by the chief of Durkali, a blue aura rose from it.
Seeing the light which was a symbol of a Sword Master, Bratt burst into tears and laughter at the same time.
“Haha, Hahaha…”
It wasn’t just laughing. Even in moments of excitement, Bratt was still Bratt. With a calmer personality than his peers, he realized how important this moment was.
The feeling of expressing an aura outside the body and focusing it on the sword.
Intensifying it, hardening and condensing it, and tuning into a sense of sharpness. Concentrating on all of the aspects of the Aura operation, he swung the sword. Carefully, as if he was holding a glass sword.
But that was only for a short time.
He quickly became accustomed to the Aura Sword and unfolded his swordsmanship even faster.
Wheik!
Whish!
He didn’t even have to close his eyes like Airn would to concentrate.
Rather, it was larger. As if Bratt couldn’t miss a single moment, and he burst into tears at what he saw himself doing.
He was proud. And an immense feeling of relief came up.
Perhaps because of that, his movements were rougher than usual, but he didn’t care. Rather, he sublimated it into a wave-like momentum.
The devil’s den was quickly filled with aura like waves. At that, Airn was surprised.
It wasn’t because of the Master’s swordsmanship.
It was because he wasn’t in a rush to maintain the Aura Sword. He never saw it before.
But this kind of swordsmanship suited Bratt more than ever.
Arin watched his friend deeply as if engraving the sight into his mind, and Kirill, along with Lulu held their breath, feeling the strangeness in the air.
And time passed.
Quite a lot of time had passed.
Even though they were in the den of a devil filled with unpleasant air, no one cared about it. And all of it ended when the aura on Bratt’s blue sword returned to his body.
And it was when the devil which they thought to be dead spoke.
“Hahahaha! You scumbags!”
“What? Is it still not dead?”
“It is fine. We can just kill it again.”
“Haha, you can’t. I am already dead! No matter how vicious you people are, you can’t kill a dead devil again!”
“What is that jerk saying?”
“Ah! This! This is that…”
“Posthumous curse!”
“Right! That one!”
Lulu nodded her head at Airn’s words. She had heard it from Ignet. Most devils have other ways to torment humans.
Even after death, they don’t disappear entirely and pour out terrible curses to get revenge on those who killed him.
Perhaps the stone devil was the same. No, it was weird to call it a stone devil now.
It had a body made of smoke. The appearance was like cotton popping out of a dirty stuffed toy that was torn.
And unlike the horrible appearance, the eyes were bloody.
The devil said.
“You thought I was done? No! It isn’t over until I say it is! Let me show you hell! I will give you a more terrifying, desperate and horrible space than a labyrinth. I will turn you into a body which can neither live nor die and stay stuck forever! Haha!... hahaha… Uah!”
The devil flew round and round in the air.
Lulu, which was staring blankly at it, turned into the form of a cat and jumped. It was to seize the devil.
“Fun! So much fun!”1
“You insolent thing! I am not your toy!”
“…”
“… Airn, do you know what to do now?”
While Kirill was bewildered, Bratt asked Airn.
As an educated noble, he knew about the curses. And although he never experienced it himself, he knew how terrible they were from the past records.
Of course, he wasn’t too worried.
Didn’t he already know? Airn had once subjugated a devil before. And he was much stronger than the devil too.
So he would have some thought about getting out of his current crises.
While he thought that, Airn pulled out his Aura Sword with an indifferent expression. And slammed it into the ground.
Woong!
Kwak!
Crack!
With a refreshing sound, a golden ray of light filled the devil’s barrier. Like a bonfire in a dark room.
Like the light of a lighthouse which gives hope to lost sailors. Bratt felt a surge of hope looking at the aura.
“Kirill.”
“Yes, brother.”
“Do you have any swords left?”
“Of course.”
Kirill took out miniature swords from her sorcery pocket and threw them.
And they enlarged to the size of the one Airn used.
Wong! The blonde swordsman who swung the sorcery sword a couple times looked at the devil and grinned.
The devil’s expression turned stiff.
He knew it, he knew it the moment that golden aura sword was infused into the ground that something strange was happening.
“Y-You! What the hell are you doi…”
Airn didn’t care.
He turned to Bratt and said,
“Have you ever heard of the Hero’s Sword?”
“The thing that Ignet uses? It is said that by nature it exerts powerful force against the devil…”
“Not by nature. You can learn it.”
“Is that right?”
“Right. It is a bit of a strange atmosphere, but now is the best place to learn it.”
“Hm.”
Bratt thought for a moment and then nodded.
Since ancient times trials are how heroes are born. To him who was now a Sword Master, he had that confidence and thought that this kind of hardship was nothing.
“Good. I don’t know what it is, but should I practice it here?”
“Right.”
“Then let’s start right away.”
“Okay. Firstly, I will explain the human will to protect against the devil’s desire to destroy…”
“….”
The devil was confused.
These people weren’t going to pay attention to him or the curse, but they started training and are now practicing?
Did anyone see these crazy people?
“Wow!”
“Kuak! go away!”
Lulu, who was pushed away by the devil, fell.
Startled, the devil pushed Lulu away, but a part of his body was torn. and the torn part had black smoke rise from it.
“Play with me a little more!”
“Get lost!”
“Hehehe! I won’t!”
Swosh!
Seeing the black cat not floating in the air, but teleporting from here and there, the devil felt a bit scared.
Kirill looked at the two of them, and then pulled out a mat and a tea set.
Pour!
And brewing the tea leaves in warm water, she looked around and said.
“Uh, this is so nice.”
Lulu and the devil were moving constantly. And her older brother was teaching Bratt. She wasn't bored with all that happening in front of her. To the extent where she thought a few days here would be fine.
‘If I get bored, I can just practice sorcery.’
Ten days passed.
In the meantime, Bratt Lloyd not only stabilized his Aura Sword but he was also able to learn Ignet’s sword.
Of course, it wasn’t easy.
But it worked as long as he had the will to protect.
His family.
His territory.
His friends and also his lover Judith who was more precious than his friends.
That was enough to bring out his will to oppose the devil. However, just having the will wasn’t enough.
Ignet’s vision was to materialize the emotions and will which was being taught into the form of ‘swordsmanship’.
It wasn’t just the work of the mind. It was a form made of esoteric and complex theories.
The difficulty level was so high that no ordinary Sword Master could learn it, so Bratt frowned.
But,
“…it is horribly difficult.”
“It is. But don’t you feel it?”
Grunting, Bratt mastered Ignet’s vision.
Of course, he didn’t fully master it. It could be considered as a first step forward.
But that was enough. A swordsmanship which even Sevion Brooks couldn’t learn. And doing that meant that Bratt had the talent to learn more.
“Kukuku. I was fine before, but I seem like a much better person now…”
“…”
“…”
“Can’t I even joke?”
At the same time, the Pareira siblings shook their heads and went back to their own training. Bratt wasn’t the only one growing.
Airn too renewed his will by training the Hero’s Sword, or the Sword of Heart after a long time.
He stopped dragging his worries about the future into his present self.
He let his heart which was full of knots, flow for the sake of the precious people in his life. His Family, friends, teachers, schoolmates….
It was even more heartbreaking because he forgot about them for a while.
His heart, which was shaken for a moment, turned stronger and so did his sword.
“Phew.”
Kirill was the same.
Although she was engaged in a field of sorcery which couldn’t be measured quantitatively, she was still recognized as the best talent.
No matter how strong the curse of the devil was, there was no way she couldn’t handle it.
Of course, it was difficult. The constant feeling of hopelessness and depression was taking over her. However, it was nothing compared to the difficult time when she had lived away from her brother.
‘If it is at this level, it is the perfect environment for mental concentration and training.’
Hundreds of rays of light flickered around Kirill, who closed her eyes.
Seeing the lines move around her and change into patterns Lulu seemed shocked.
Pah!
The black cat was chasing after the light.
The devil, who was watching it, also swayed and screamed.
“Kuaaak! You crazy bastards! No more! I can’t stand it anymore!”
“Hm?”
“What?”
“Get out of here. I am not going to disappear in the hands of you lunatics!”
A desperate scream.
The devil gradually moved away from Airn and others. The darkness faded. The magi which was blooming from the dead devil didn’t impose bad emotions anymore. The barrier was released.
No, to be more precise, the devil ran.
As everyone had blank expressions on their faces, Bratt, who came to his senses first, shouted.
“Catch it!”
Cats will be cats.