Chapter 306 – TREASURE (2)
It was no coincidence that Kirara and Sarah escaped with the royal family the moment Elio betrayed them.
This was Jude’s personnel arrangement in case of a contingency.
‘There are three Sword Masters among the elves of the Shadow Forest.’
All three Sword Masters being traitors was not part of their a.s.sumptions though.
If that had been the case, they wouldn’t have a solution then.
‘Of course, it’s because we thought that it was highly unlikely.’
The other two were not from Elio’s faction.
The elves of the Shadow Forest were definitely subordinates of Vincenzo Lombardi, the leader of the elves, and depending on Vincenzo’s will, not only the Sword Masters but also the entire elven population could become enemies of the emperor.
But unlike Elio who willingly utilized demon followers, Vincenzo Lombardi gritted his teeth at demon followers. The possibility that such a Vincenzo would join hands with the Chancellor, who not only utilized demon followers but also demons, was close to zero.
‘Anyway, if you look at Elio’s arbitrary decision.’
If the group were to split up and escape, Elio was likely to pursue Jude.
Unlike the emperor and the Royal Knights whom his forces could handle, only Elio could deal with Jude and Cordelia.
‘If we hadn’t though, he was going to make us follow him.’
In any case, the situation went as Jude had expected.
Elio Lombardi and the demonic humans chased after Jude and Cordelia while the regular elven troops went after the emperor and the Royal Knights.
‘The emperor has the most advantage in escaping since they have the Moon Crystal.’
In addition, Kirara and Sarah were professionals in running away.
Even if they couldn’t do s.p.a.ce leaps, they could still escape successfully.
‘So it would be the Royal Knights whom they will focus on pursuing.’
And if they needed power to threaten the Royal Knights, the high-ranking demonic humans who were on the same level as Sword Masters would be enough.
Thus, Jude attached Lucas and Kajsa to Leon instead of the emperor.
If their opponent was a Sword Master, it would be hard for Lucas and Kajsa to deal with even if they worked together.
But the situation would be different if it was a high-ranking demonic human.
“All right!”
The divine chain wielded by Kajsa tightly bound the body of the high-ranking demonic human.
The giant high-ranking demonic human who looked like a rhinoceros beetle tried to break the chain with his strength, but that was impossible.
“H-how?”
The chain wasn’t even as thick as his finger.
The high-ranking demonic human couldn’t understand how, but in fact, this was natural.
It was impossible for a high-ranking demonic human to break the chain that had even once suppressed a Demon Prince.
Moreover, Kajsa’s chain wasn’t just strong.
“Holy Light of the Sun!”
“AAAAACK!”
When Kajsa cast a spell, the aura of a golden sun emitted from the entire chain.
The power of the sun G.o.ddess Solari affected the high-ranking demonic humans whose powers came from h.e.l.l.
“GRAAAAA!”
The high-ranking demonic human twisted his body and tried to unleash his power, but it was not easy because of Kajsa’s strength that was beyond imagination.
Even when he twisted his body, Kajsa did not budge. No matter how big she was, she was a woman and only weighed about a few tens of kilograms at most, but she still stood up against the strength of a high-ranking demonic human.
Kajsa clearly had a limit too.
She remarkably blocked the high-ranking demonic human’s movements, but all she could do was to bind him with all her strength and mana.
Neither side had any means of attacking.
But unlike the helpless high-ranking demonic human, Kajsa had a solution.
“Lucas!”
Lucas responded to Kajsa’s call.
Holy King’s Cross Sword.
The sword of the Holy King who protected the world by slaying countless demons.
The Holy King’s Cross Sword was not a swordsmanship developed for dealing with humans. It was originally a swordsmanship made to deal with demons, so each technique of the Holy King’s Cross Sword boasted a deadly power against demons.
Lucas caught his breath.
He charged at the high-ranking demonic human who was struggling from the chains, and was not fazed by the tentacles that came rushing towards him. He evaded and blocked the tentacles with minimal movement before unfolding the sword of the Holy King.
Grand Cross.
The holy cross of heaven.
A huge white cross spread over the high-ranking demonic human’s body as he directly got hit by the Holy King’s Cross Sword’s technique. And it became one with Solari’s aura and burned the high-ranking demonic human.
“AAAAH…”
The high-ranking demonic human scattered into ashes, and Lucas exhaled as he sheathed his sword. It was like a scene from hero novel when he sheathed his sword into the scabbard, something that he had diligently practiced alone back then in his family’s territory.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
In a very low voice, Lucas recited the line of Biltwein, the protagonist of Biltwein the Hero, as the corners of his mouth were slightly raised.
He was truly satisfied with their victory.
“Oh, Lucas! I knew that I could trust in you!”
Kajsa widely opened her arms and hugged Lucas by the neck. Surprised by her unhesitant skinship, Lucas had an embarra.s.sed expression as he said.
“Uh, that is…”
“That is what?”
“I-it’s nothing.”
Lucas shifted his gaze and looked elsewhere.
Because when Kajsa hugged him by pulling his neck, Lucas’ face naturally b.u.mped right in front of Kajsa’s chest.
But Kajsa didn’t seem to mind it, or rather, she seemed to have done it on purpose as she pulled harder and said with a big smile.
“Anyway, you did well. As expected, you’re strong and cool.”
He felt shy at her open compliments, but he honestly didn’t hate it.
Because Lucas was hungry for praise and recognition as revealed in his previous match with Leon.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Kajsa’s eyes narrowed when Lucas blushed and coughed. She smiled like a magician who had succeeded in their scheme, and hugged Lucas’ waist instead of his neck as she said.
“You and I have good chemistry. Shall we work together in the future?”
“Yes, because we’re a party anyway.”
“Hnnn…”
Lucas panicked when Kajsa made a slightly displeased expression, but it was only for a moment. Because Lucas came up with an answer.
“Lady Kajsa was also amazing. Because you completely stopped the high-ranking demonic human from moving. I was really impressed.”
“Well… that… hahaha.”
Kajsa pretended not to be embarra.s.sed, but eventually laughed out loud and asked in a soft voice.
“By the way, how long are you going to talk to me respectfully?”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, we’re pretty close now, right? It feels stiff if you continue to talk to me respectfully.”
Kajsa said as she lightly twirled the end of her hair, and Lucas stammered again.
“I-it’s a bit awkward to speak casually…”
After all, Kajsa was three years older than Lucas.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just call me Kajsa.”
“Uuuh… O-okay. Kajsa-noona.”
T/N: ‘Noona’ is the Korean suffix used by younger males when they call older females. Calling someone unnie or noona signifies closeness to the older woman, but is still on the respectful side rather than the casual side.
Lucas spoke shyly, and a smile spread across Kajsa’s face again.
It was a bit disappointing that she was called ‘noona, ‘ but it was also cute, so she felt good anyway.
As for one person watching them.
“I think we should hurry up.”
Leon spoke as he and the Royal Knights looked at the two with sullen looks after defeating the elven forces that appeared along with the high-ranking demonic humans, and Lucas nodded, though he was visibly embarra.s.sed.
“Eh… Uh… Yes. Okay. Lady Kajsa… no, Kajsa-noona, let’s go.”
“Hehe, okay.”
Kajsa smiled and gestured to Leon to take the lead, and Leon let out a short sigh before he began to run in the lead.
Their target destination was the place they agreed upon to meet with the emperor.
The Royal Knights and Kajsa quickly ran, while Lucas who guarded their rear stopped and glanced back.
Beyond the Red Gate.
In the direction where Jude and Cordelia fled.
‘May you two be safe.’
The two were very strong people, but they were the only ones in the enemy camp.
After Lucas finished his prayer, he began running again.
***
Jude slowly opened his eyes.
He saw something familiar instead of an unfamiliar ceiling.
A sky covered with large branches and leaves extending from it.
It wasn’t reality.
Nor was it a dream.
It was a familiar place.
The residence of Sword Origin Valencia who lived in Jude’s own body and soul.
“My successor, are you awake?”
In response to her gentle and kind voice, Jude stood up instead of speaking.
His throat was dry.
In Valencia’s residence, only his psyche existed, but he still felt thirsty and found it hard to speak.
“Because you still feel tired.”
Valencia who was sitting on a tree stump approached Jude and held out a wooden cup.
“Drink, it will help.”
Jude swallowed the white liquid in the wooden cup as instructed.
He didn’t immediately recover his strength, but he felt like he was a bit alive now.
“My successor, can you talk now?”
“Can I… have one more cup please?”
“Please wait a second.”
Valencia said and covered the top of the cup with her palm before lifting it, and white liquid filled the cup again.
“I brought this from my storage somewhere.”
But how did you do it?
And how was this white liquid created in my soul in the first place?
Instead of questioning further, Jude immediately drank the liquid.
He didn’t know the taste at first, but it seemed like it had a savory taste.
“Is it delicious? It’s because it contains my energy.”
Valencia softly smiled and casually sat on the ground. Then he began to hear the sounds of the rippling stream and the chirping of birds.
He didn’t know because he never explored this place properly, but the inside of Sword Origin was wider than he thought and seemed to contain various things.
Perhaps the liquid he just drank was made by mixing various things inside Sword Origin.
“Haa…”
Putting down the wooden cup, Jude sighed as he let his shoulders down. The energy inside him seemed to boil and his mind became clearer and clearer, perhaps because of the white liquid.
Several minutes pa.s.sed just like that.
Jude spoke to Valencia who just waited instead of rushing him.
“I saw the sword’s inner essence.”
The horizon at the end of the road.
The point reached by the man who had been standing at a far distance.
No one told him about the words ‘sword’s inner essence.’
It just naturally came to his mind.
The sword’s inner essence.
The principle.
The ultimate realm that those who walked the path of the sword wanted to reach.
Valencia slowly nodded.
As the sword spirit of Sword Origin, she was one with Jude.
Therefore, she could clearly see the Sword of Wind that Jude used as if she was the one who used it herself.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen the swordsmanship you used. It’s a swordsmanship you never told me, and something that even you don’t know.”
The Sword of Wind.
Jude never properly learned the Sword of Wind.
Only a few basic techniques of the Sword of Wind were what Jude knew how to do.
However, the Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes used by Jude was a technique that could be called the essence of the Sword of Wind.
How did it happen?
How did he use a swordsmanship he had never learned at all?
The ultimate sword ingrained with the sword’s inner essence.
“What happened?”
Jude traced his memories again instead of immediately answering Valencia’s question.
His fight with Elio Lombardi.
In order to open the seventh door, he recalled his past memories.
He remembered what changes occurred in his body when he first opened each door from the first to the sixth, and he forcibly recreated it.
The collision and not the harmony of his Yin and Yang energies.
The immense energy that resulted from it.
He opened the seventh door and saw the horizon.
The man who stood between the horizon and him.
The female sage who appeared after a long time.
What she said to him about himself.
Jude slowly told Valencia what he had been through, and she listened to it.
“Do you perhaps… know something?”
Valencia frowned at Jude’s question.
“To be honest, it’s full of things I don’t know. The process of opening the seventh door itself is absurd.”
Valencia spoke sincerely.
She didn’t expect him to open the door like that.
Or rather, she didn’t expect that to be possible.
“However… I think I know a bit about the horizon.”
Even Valencia didn’t know about the female sage and the man.
But if Jude had perceived the horizon, so did Valencia.
“The sword’s inner essence.”
The final destination for those who walked the path of the sword.
It was the root and principle of the world.
If there was a supreme realm that only the enlightened could reach, it would be beyond that horizon.
“I also saw the sword’s inner essence.”
Valencia quietly said, but it was a truly amazing feat.
Even in the long history of elves, the number of swordsmen who arrived at the sword’s inner essence could only be counted in one hand.
“My successor, can you show it to me again?”
The Sword of Wind that defeated Elio Lombardi.
Jude nodded and stood up.
Instead of drawing the black dragon’s energy to make a sword, he took a stance with the wooden sword that Valencia gave him.
Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes.
Relying on his memory, he showed it.
Although the power was greatly weakened because he didn’t open the seventh door, what Valencia wanted to originally see was the form of Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes.
A powerful chain of attacks made up of thirteen strikes.
Valencia watched Jude’s Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes from beginning to end and narrowed her brows.
And Jude knew why.
Because Jude himself who showed off the Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes felt it.
“My successor, your sword does not contain the sword’s inner essence.”
Even Elio Lombardi who was about to become a Grand Sword Master was completely subdued by the Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes.
But that was only possible because it had the sword’s inner essence.
Jude’s sword did not contain the sword’s inner essence now.
It was just a fast and powerful swordsmanship.
“However…”
Valencia’s words trailed, but she finished it with a small smile.
“Your swordsmanship has greatly improved. That is the only thing that is clear.”
So far, Jude’s swordsmanship had been too calculated.
A domineering yet sharp swordsmanship that used his overwhelming physical abilities and immense energy.
But it was a little different now.
It did not contain the sword’s inner essence, but it was definitely a step forward.
A change that only became possible through enlightenment.
But Jude and Valencia knew. That Jude was not in a state of enlightenment now.
“Well… Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors seems to have a secret.”
Jude nodded at Valencia’s opinion.
Perhaps the female sage and the man standing on the road had the answer.
“I’ll have to talk to master when I see him.”
Because the expert on Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors was Landius.
But at Jude’s words, Valencia furrowed her brows and said with an awkward smile.
“Umm… but wouldn’t Landius be frustrated if he heard your story now?”
For trying to forcefully open the seventh door.
Valencia’s argument was quite valid, but Jude shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
It was Landius.
It was his master.
“Well… if my successor says so, then it’s fine.”
Unlike her words, Valencia had a bitter smile as if she thought otherwise, and she approached Jude again.
“Anyway, my successor, get some sleep for now.”
Because he was still far from recovery.
Valencia poked Jude’s forehead with her index finger and whispered softly, and Jude closed his eyes as if he had been enchanted.
He fell into a deep sleep again.
***
“Thank goodness. Jude’s expression looks more relaxed now.”
Cordelia had a wide smile as she was giving Jude a lap pillow, and Melissa spoke in a pleased voice.
[Yes, he seems to be sleeping comfortably now.]
“Right? Thank goodness.”
Caressing the face of the sleeping Jude, Cordelia sighed in relief.
After all, she had been really worried.
A fiancée who cared for her fiancé with a pure heart.
It was a heartwarming sight at first glance, but Scarlet had a sour look on her face.
“Why?”
“Uh… well, you see. You’re the ones who defeated an Ancient Black Dragon, so it’s not surprising for you to have defeated a Sword Master too.”
Elio Lombardi was lying in the corner like baggage.
After hearing the details from Cordelia, Scarlet admired Jude and Cordelia in various ways for getting involved in big incidents – no, at this point, for causing big incidents wherever they go, so she brought up another topic.
“Moving on, are you going to rest here for a while and leave when he wakes up? And take that elf with you?”
“Yes. Scarlet, will you like to go with us? No, let’s go together. Unnie, can you help us?”
“I’m only an unnie in times like this, huh.”
At Cordelia’s cutesy act, Scarlet snorted but she didn’t really hate it.
Because she found it very attractive to partic.i.p.ate as a Rogue Master in a major event where the fate of the empire was at stake.
‘I can see Lord Lucas there too.’
When she was in the royal capital, nothing strange happened, but when she left the royal capital, Lucas’ face occasionally popped up in her mind for some strange reason.
I want to help Cordelia.
I want to save the empire together with them.
But Scarlet was unwilling to open her mouth.
Because of one fact.
‘But am I capable of helping them?’
Frankly, she was confident in her skills. She was also proud of herself on being unmatched among opponents her age.
However, she couldn’t help but feel inferior in front of Jude and Cordelia.
Moreover, when she heard their story, it gave the impression that Sword Master-level enemies would appear even when they were doing nothing.
Considering all that, would she be of any help to them?
“Scarlet is good at swordsmanship and magic, right? You’re also good at infiltration… And since you’re from the empire, you’re also well familiar with it, right?”
“Ahem…”
As if Cordelia had read Scarlet’s thoughts, she gave the right answer.
Scarlet’s own worth.
“Ahem…”
When Scarlet coughed again, Cordelia grinned. Because she could see what Scarlet wanted.
‘She’s simple. Very simple.’
Scarlet would have complained if she had heard Cordelia’s thoughts, but Cordelia giggled and continued to praise Scarlet.
“You’re good at disguising, you know how to use your beauty, you’re skilled with your hands…”
“Okay, okay. I’ll go with you two. In exchange, you help with my task.”
Having turned red at Cordelia’s compliments, Scarlet spoke as she waved her hand and Cordelia nodded right away before speaking with her beastly intuition.
“Are you talking about that?”
The secret door of the Rogue Master that Scarlet had been trying to figure out the pa.s.sword for the past few days.
“That’s right. I thought I’d get some help from Black Cloak when he wakes up.”
She didn’t want to admit it, but Jude was a real genius.
But at Scarlet’s words, Cordelia carefully stood up instead of nodding her head.
“Cordelia?”
“You don’t have to ask help from Jude. I’ll open it.”
Scarlet laughed as though she found it ridiculous when Cordelia said it, so she replied.
“Hey, it’s not that easy. I’m not sure about Black Cloak, but Pink Bomb, it’s not something you can easily open, okay? For your information, unlocking spells also doesn’t work.”
[Mistress Cordelia, I think it’s too much for you…]
Cordelia was definitely a magic genius, but they couldn’t imagine her figuring out the Rogue Master’s pa.s.sword with that amazing talent of hers.
However, Cordelia unhesitatingly walked and stood in front of the panel attached to the secret door, and Scarlet snickered.
“Okay, feel free to try. I’m not saying this to belittle you, but if I can’t do it, so do you.”
[It sounds like a disrespectful statement, but I slightly agree-]
“It’s open.”
[-that you can!]
Melissa changed her words quickly, and Scarlet’s eyes widened.
What did you just say?
“I’ve opened it.”
Cordelia spoke once more and opened the secret door with a grin. Scarlet was literally stunned while Cordelia shrugged and gave her a charming wink.
“It’s really easy, right?”
Her body remembered even if her mind didn’t remember.
Or rather, her soul remembered since she was reincarnated.
Cordelia was still one of the best rotten waters even though she kept getting overshadowed by Jude.
But only Cordelia herself knew this.
The ignorant Scarlet blinked her eyes as if she had been struck in the back of her head with a hammer.
“Eh? EEEEEH?!”
Cordelia opened it?
I was stuck here for three days and couldn’t even open it, but she did?
Cordelia did?
That Cordelia?
[I believed in you from the beginning.]
“Isn’t that a complete lie?”
Cordelia snorted at Melissa’s words and gestured to Scarlet again.
“Anyway, it’s open, so let’s get it quickly.”
The Rogue Master’s treasure.
Scarlet unconsciously stood up at Cordelia’s beckoning and once again looked in confusion at the wide open door before she turned to the latter and said.
“Hey.”
“Why?”
“Did you do that on purpose? Like pretending to be stupid so that you’ll look cute in front of Black Cloak… was all of that actually just acting?”
[Gasp, I suddenly got gooseb.u.mps.]
Cordelia frowned at Scarlet and Melissa’s comments. They were going too far with what they were saying.
“I took care of it, right?”
And yet you criticize me just like that?
Scarlet was startled at Cordelia’s warning and immediately nodded. Rather than defying Cordelia who was cleverer – no, perhaps a slyer schemer than Jude, she focused on the Rogue Master’s treasure.