Chapter 102 : Chapter 102

Translator: AkazaTL

Pr/Ed: Sol IX

***

Chapter 102 — Uninvited Guests (1)

It was noon, the sun riding high. People who had finished their morning duties were taking a short rest. The warmest, sleepiest hour of the day — perhaps the most peaceful moment of the day — and they arrived then.

“Please identify yourselves.”

The Karavan domain had changed from before. Unlike the old days when a few neighbors kept watch, there were now formally hired guards. They were laughable to call knights and were no great swordsmen, but they faithfully performed their duty. And a guard’s duty was to control the entry of those whose identities were uncertain.

“Please identify yourselves, quickly.”

The guards were old men. Typical of Verdí region elders, they had never learned swordsmanship properly. Instead of a sword they held long spears they could hardly wield.

Unfamiliar with sensing Mana, the elders leveled their spearheads and sternly warned the newcomers. Their skill was fit only to catch wild beasts, but still they did not back down.

When the old guards leveled their spears, Hailyn’s golems that had been loitering nearby walked forward. They were the legacy of the black magician Jerry Selfit. Thanks to the witch Audrey’s help, the golems had been enhanced; they were now powerful enough to handle an ordinary 「Sword Walker」 without difficulty.

In this rural backwater they were an overwhelming presence. In fact, the Karavan domain’s security was kept not by the old guards but by those terrible golems. To the naive folk of the Verdí region, golems were no different from monsters of legend.

But.

“Old guards who couldn’t hold a spear and golems mashed together in a mess.”

The uninvited guests were not the naive country bumpkins of Verdí. They were not beggars who wanted food and drink, nor were they thieves wandering because they could not endure the Iron Kingdom’s harsh reality.

“They’re unbearable.”

The uninvited guests at the Karavan domain’s entrance were an armed force of roughly thirty. Knights clad head to foot in plate. They were the sort who could erase a village of Verdí from maps before a day had passed.

“Identify yourselves! Show your papers!”

Bravely, before such beings the old guards continued to do their duty. At the shouting of the elderly guard, the knight at the very front approached without a word.

He quietly kicked the guard in the chest. The old man could not even cry out as he tumbled across the packed earth. He hit a wall, bled, and slumped. When he lowered his head he no longer breathed. In an instant one man had died.

The knight who casually killed the guard spoke in a flat tone.

“Is that identification enough?”

The moment one guard lost his life, the golems that had been patrolling nearby reacted. They perceived those who had just killed the guard as enemies. The ritual sigils Jerry Selfit had sewn into the stitched flesh flared, and the additional runes the witch Audrey had carved shone in turn. The swollen muscle masses charged.

The knight sliced at the charging golem three times.

The golem shattered into dozens of pieces and collapsed. The knight who had destroyed the golem still stood where he had been. He turned his gaze to the guard who was still clutching his spear.

“Is our identification proven now?”

Another old guard hesitated at the knight’s question. One of his comrades had died.

The golems — creatures like the stuff of legend — had been cut down in an instant.

What answer would be proper? After a brief thought the old guard spoke.

“No — not proven. You are enemies……”

It wasn’t sudden heroism that welled up in the guard. Since his days were numbered anyway, he would fulfill his duty to the end and fight. If he surrendered and survived, it would be disgraceful; but if he died fighting, he would return to the gods in glory. But the uninvited guests were crueler than the guard imagined.

“The old one’s gone mad.”

The knight approached the guard who had leveled his spear and, this time, held back and kicked him. He had deliberately not killed him. With a sickening crack the guard collapsed and coughed. With every cough a spray of red blood poured out. Pain beyond imagining arrived.

Gasping, the collapsed guard did not let go of his spear. He lunged the spear forward somehow.

The thrust touched the knight. But it made a ting sound, not the dull thuk of bone-breaking.

“Ah…….”

“He’s truly gone mad, isn’t he?”

The spearhead, made of scrap iron, could not pierce the knight’s armor that had dozens of magical sigils engraved on it. It could not even mar the decorative finish.

The knight strode up to the fallen guard, seized his head, and began slapping his face.

The guard’s lips burst and teeth rattled out. The old guard whimpered from pain. The knight did not stop and kept striking his cheeks.

As the brutal scene unfolded, residents who had watched from inside screamed. Amid the cries an enchantment stone — a guardian charm gifted by an orc shaman — glowed. A ward to block and expel outside enemies. The powerful charm activated; as green light bathed the domain, those gathered in the center realized uninvited guests had come.

Thus the uninvited guests made their arrival known in a grand fashion. To the master of the Karavan domain.

***

It had been a day like any other. I was training with my sword.

“……?”

The sky had turned green. I blinked as if I had seen wrong, but it remained green. I couldn’t tell what phenomenon it was. In the Sky Mountains they said winter skies could bloom into five-colored aurora — maybe it was similar? Did it mean a new tourist attraction for the Karavan domain? As that trivial thought crossed me, Hailyn came running urgently from afar.

“Master! Uninvited guests! Uninvited guests are here!”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“That green light over there just flashed! The guardian stone the orc shaman gave us activated—!”

“The guardian stone activated? But when the black magician Jerry Selfit tried to invade before, that never happened……”

“That time they weren’t as strong. These enemies are so powerful the guardian stone’s full magic had to be triggered to barely block them!”

“Stronger than that time.”

The phrase struck my ear. Hailyn’s face didn’t look like she was joking to scare me. I stopped training, grabbed my sword, and followed Hailyn toward the village entrance.

“It’d been quiet lately, then again……”

Seol Yoon, who had been helping with my training, was with us. So the three of us — Seol Yoon, Hailyn, and I — ran. Hailyn led and explained the general situation she had perceived while running.

“At least ten enemies. And the hostility I sense is unusual. It’s at a level you don’t see around here……”

“Is it another band of thieves? Or wild animals nearby?”

“No. If it were that, my golems would’ve handled them. But the cores of the golems positioned near the entrance to keep watch have been entirely destroyed. No local thieves could so neatly annihilate the golems’ cores. Absolutely not.”

What kind of enemy then? I could not imagine it. As we ran I heard sounds: residents’ screams, voices shaking with fear. When we reached the entrance and peered in, people panicked and fled toward the domain’s interior.

“What is this…… Arhan?”

“……”

“Arhan, what’s wrong?”

The screams and the fleeing villagers brought back memories I did not want to recall.

‘This domain must be erased.’

A terrible memory I did not want to remember.

The worst uninvited guests had come the year I turned fifteen. When they visited our domain it looked exactly like this.

From the hilltop I had seen that day’s slaughter clearly. A dominant power that took life as if harvesting autumn crops.

The village I’d loved turning into a land of death, the metallic smell of blood, my mother clutching my hand and shouting in terror.

‘Arhan, you have to run! Arhan—’

When that moment replayed in my mind a hot rage filled my head. Why? I had finally regained something of my former life, finally restored my precious land’s vitality — why now? As anger burst, my pace quickened remarkably.

I ran toward the opposite direction of the fleeing villagers. Seol Yoon called my name from behind, but I didn’t stop. My second heart raced, and 「Paths」 extended through my body, granting superhuman power.

At superhuman speed I reached the village entrance in an instant.

There were roughly thirty knights.

They were arrayed in ranks of five and ten; at their front stood one knight. He wore high-grade armor from head to toe. Beside him lay the ruined remains of a golem and the corpse of the old guard who had been killed.

“Oh? Even this backwater has a decent swordsman……”

The knight turned his head the instant he sensed me. I did not look at him. Instead I looked at the other old guard he was holding. Unlike the dead guard, the man still drew breath. But his condition was hideously mangled. His face was swollen beyond recognition from how much he’d been beaten. Wrinkled skin was stained with blood; broken teeth rolled on the ground. From his split lips he breathed out, and the wounded old guard sobbed and muttered.

“Save me, save me please, save me please…….”

As he said that, the knights lined up behind chuckled. They all mocked the ugly, pitiful, ruined old man. In that scene I ironically recalled the memory again.

‘I will personally step up and correct this world steeped in sin and rot!’

My father who’d sounded utterly mad when he’d vowed that, the father who had boasted himself invincible and raged, the father I loved who died with his eyes wide open.

‘Your father ended the same way. Acting like a mad knight, howling when his woman died and glaring at me like a dog. But all he did was glare. Ridiculous.’

And the man who had insulted my father — the moment I remembered what he’d said about my father’s end, an uncontrollable fury exploded.

I drew my sword.

I inhaled and drove off the ground. At the same time I extended the 「Line」 across the world I saw.

The knight holding the old guard’s head moved the moment my Line reached him. He let go of the guard’s head and drew a blade alive with aura from his waist.

My Line had been smooth — until his Line intersected it.

A clang sounded. I opened my eyes to see my blade and the knight’s blade locked. Beyond the edged steel I saw his eyes through the helmet slit.

“Oh ho, a usable blade.”

“……”

“I see who you are.”

He spoke meaningfully. Immediately after, the knight’s sword moved in a strange trajectory. Not like a blade, but like a living creature. It coiled like a snake and sought my wrist, very fast and precision-perfect. I released my sword hilt, caught the falling blade, and stepped back.

“……?”

I stepped back and slowly lifted my head to glare at the knight again. That swordsmanship — it felt familiar. I had seen that technique before. Not long ago. It was the technique used by the opponent in the last duel of the 「Infinite Duel」 I had fought three times. That opponent’s technique. So then……

“You’re the 「Sword Demon」. Fighter of the Steel City, Liam.”

“Rhapsody.” The lazy idler, the great house’s blade.

“I didn’t expect to meet you so soon.”

“You came looking for me?”

“Yes, I came looking for you.”

“Why?”

The mysterious knight answered my question.

“To hold you accountable for daring to touch the master of the Six Free Cities.”