Chapter 62
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 62
"Yurien!"
The moment I saw crimson bloom across his white uniform, my reason shattered completely.
Never again—I never wanted to witness that sight again. The pale man stained red. My heart seemed to stop. My mind went blank. Before thought or judgment could form, my body moved of its own accord. I launched forward without hesitation.
[Wait, hold on, calm down....]
The Demonic Sword spoke, but I couldn't hear it.
My slender frame soared above the flames like a bird. The singed hem of my dress spread like wings as I moved. I reached the swinging arm of the black giant, used its forearm as a springboard, and launched again. At a height where I could look down upon the giant's head. Violet eyes blazed with crystalline fury.
'How dare a mere monster....'
Mana flowed and crackled along the blade of Amethyst, as if my rage itself were transferring into it. Purple flames erupted, expanding along the blade's edge to become a line that tore through the air.
As the owner of Bardegiosa, I instinctively knew where its core lay. The mana stretched forth like a spear, piercing straight through the black giant's crown. The giant shrieked silently and crumbled. I didn't watch it fall. Before my heel even touched the ground, dodging the flames, I was already checking on Yurien.
Anxiety surged to unbearable heights, my fingertips and toes going numb with cold. How badly was he hurt? Please, not a serious wound. Right, Shay is here—if I ask her to heal him, that would work. Yes, that would be fine. I can't bear to watch you die twice. Please.
"Yu...."
[...Master, I clearly told you to calm down, didn't I?]
My trembling eyes met his wide, sky-blue gaze directly. Yurien stood perfectly upright, staring at me with a dazed expression. I, speechless, slowly examined his condition.
There was blood. A long scrape ran across his forearm, staining his white uniform. But it was an extremely minor wound. The skin was merely torn in a long line. The length made it bleed profusely, but the depth was shallow. It barely qualified as an injury at all.
Only then did reason return. Come to think of it, until moments ago, Yurien had been handling the black giant with ease. It had taken time only because the giant was a regenerating monster and its core was difficult to locate. Realizing this, I froze in place.
'What have I just done...?'
Behind me, the black giant's remains collapsed with a rumbling crash. The wind from the impact made my hair and dress flutter. The flames lay down then rose again in the breeze. Among the giant's remains lay the village resident who had orchestrated this, but neither Yurien nor I had the presence of mind to check on them.
[Well, uh, Master, at least you didn't expose me, so maybe it'll work out somehow? Or we could just kill him and destroy the evidence. Dead men tell no tales!]
The Demonic Sword offered what might have been consolation or fanning the flames. I felt my mind go white for a different reason than before.
The silence stretched long. In that interval, the remaining two or three mud giants shrieked grotesquely and lunged at us. I stood there, soul departed, as they attacked.
Yurien moved. He dispatched the remaining giants cleanly with Langiosa, then turned back to me. The color had drained from my face entirely—I looked like a porcelain doll. Only the crackling of flames echoed around us.
I couldn't think. Even if the Demonic Sword hadn't been exposed, this was incomparably worse than with Baraha. I had revealed it with my own hands to the one person I absolutely could not let know. How to resolve this, whether resolution was even possible—everything seemed impossibly distant.
As Yurien finished with the remaining giant, he seemed to have calmed down, his expression composed. He hesitated slightly while observing me, then carefully called my name.
"Echinacea Loaz."
At that call, I trembled as though struck by lightning. Without thinking, I stumbled backward.
When danger arose, I typically charged forward rather than retreated. That had been my pattern. But in this moment, I simply wanted to vanish from this place. Yurien was an opponent I could not face.
"Echinacea Loaz? Are you alright?"
Yurien called to me again. My face had gone beyond pale to a sickly blue. I turned and tried to flee.
"Wait...!"
Yurien spun around and seized my arm. I reflexively wrenched free and staggered backward. My wide violet eyes trembled like a small boat caught in a storm.
Seeing that, he strode toward me. I retreated unsteadily. During our sparring matches, he would stop when he saw me back away. But not this time. He advanced swiftly and grasped both my shoulders. Even as I struggled to escape, he didn't release me.
Yurien had never laid hands on me carelessly before. Even when he embraced me right after we escaped the Nodule, he had yielded weakly when I pushed him away.
But not now. His hands on my shoulders were firm. I could have thrown him off with mana, but the thought didn't reach me. After the commotion I'd just caused and being caught, I couldn't possibly use mana with him right in front of me.
Without mana, my body was merely a delicate young woman whose training was barely begun. Escaping a knight's grip was impossible. If I retained my wits and employed cunning, perhaps—but now I was simply trembling in terror.
Yurien looked down at me. I averted my gaze. He steadied his breathing, then spoke as if driving a nail.
"I knew."
I stopped struggling. The words reached my ears and slowly registered. I looked up at him blankly. His piercing sky-blue eyes, as if seeing through a person, held me entirely. As if he knew what I feared, he spoke again.
"I knew, so don't worry."
"...What, what do you mean?"
"That you can use mana."
He answered quietly to her question, wrung out like water from a cloth.
You knew? How? How did you find out? Then why did you pretend not to know? Since when have you known? Question marks spun endlessly in my mind. Echinacea Loaz, completely bewildered, stammered out her words.
"You... you knew...... How...... Since when......."
How could he have known? Had there been an opportunity for him to discover it? Had I been careless? Or perhaps—he had recognized that I was the Demonic Sword's master based on memories from before the regression. As my scattered thoughts converged on that point, it felt as though my entire body's blood turned to ice shards, tearing through me from within.
'If he's found out that I'm a demon, then I.......'
If I were branded as the Demonic Sword's master, I would be hunted by the Mage Tower and the Changtian Knights, watched warily by every nation, and my family would suffer. My peaceful life would shatter completely.
But before that, I could imagine Yurien de Harden Kirie looking at me with hatred. I didn't want to see that sight. Never. Even though it was inevitable.
Echinacea Loaz lowered her head and covered her face with both hands. Held by his grip on her shoulders, she couldn't escape, so she hid her face. Her body temperature plummeted while only her eyes burned hot. Scalding tears pooled and threatened to overflow. Her breathing grew ragged, making it hard to stand. A terror rose within her—the sensation of falling into an abyss beneath her feet, never to touch sunlight again.
Yurien de Harden Kirie's hands steadied her wavering body. He kept his grip on her shoulders while bowing his head toward her, trying to glimpse her face through the gaps between her fingers. Then he felt her shoulders trembling violently within his grasp.
Yurien de Harden Kirie's expression crumbled. Hidden behind her hands, she couldn't see it. His lips, which had been moving as if he wanted to say something, closed with determination. He bent at the waist, lowering himself to meet her gaze.
"Echinacea Loaz, look at me."
He whispered softly. Echinacea Loaz still kept her face buried beneath her hands. Her breathing came in ragged gasps. He continued quietly.
"If you wish to hide it, I will hide it for you. If you desire it, I will also endeavor to forget. So look at me."
Though his tone was blunt, it sounded like a plea. I couldn't understand the meaning of his words. Hide that I'm the master? Try to forget? Why on earth would he do that?
I lowered my hands. Through the blur of pooled tears, I could see his face right before me. His eyes wavered as he saw the tears. He composed his trembling expression and spoke carefully.
"Because I knew you were the master, I wanted to spar with you. I will now answer the things I said I would answer after we sparred."
Yurien de Harden Kirie, holding onto her as if she might flee, crafted a lie he thought she could accept.
"I told you I saw you at a coming-of-age ceremony and remembered you. At that time, I recognized the talent you possessed. So I took a personal interest, and the moment you became a cadet, I accepted you as my squire."
"Talent...... You recognized it? How?"
At the coming-of-age ceremony, she had been an ordinary noblewoman who had never held a sword. When Echinacea Loaz asked in confusion, he hesitated for a moment.
"......It's not that I knew you were the master. I simply knew that once you held a sword, you would excel beyond anyone else. I recognized that point because I am the master of Rangiosa."
"Does Rangiosa have such an ability?"
Because Echinacea Loaz hadn't met the owner's conditions, she couldn't wield Rangiosa. So even though she had gathered all ten Giosa, she knew nothing of Rangiosa's abilities beyond what was widely known.
Yurien de Harden Kirie gave a bitter smile for a moment. Then, without answering that question clearly, he moved on.
"I began to suspect you were the master when I met you at the Fountain, and I became certain during the freshman ranking tournament."
"The Fountain......."
"Your hands were not the hands of someone who enjoys the sword. I observed you during the entrance exam. To use that level of technique while bearing almost no signs of physical training—it would be impossible without being accustomed to mana. So I harbored suspicion, and watching you during the freshman ranking tournament, I became certain."
"You were there during the freshman ranking tournament?"
"Not officially."
Unofficially, meaning he had watched in secret. Echinacea Loaz opened her mouth in surprise, then closed it. His words slowly pieced together in my mind.
So from the coming-of-age ceremony, he knew I was a genius and remembered me, and when I happened to enroll at the Military Academy, he quickly made me his squire? Because he coveted my talent? And then, seeing skills that were exceptional yet didn't match my untrained body, he realized I was the master, and his desire to keep sparring was because of that too.
[That guy's got nothing but swords in his head, hasn't he?]
The Demonic Sword muttered. It was hard to deny those words. As absurdity washed over me, the burning sensation in my eyes subsided. A single tear that had already pooled simply rolled down my cheek.
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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