Solo Swordmaster - Chapter 126

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 126: Because I Saw It

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“Oho, you’re quite well-informed for chicken meat. To recognize at a glance that my Unique Skill is 『Rule of Law』.”

Velos spoke as though genuinely surprised.

In this age, with thousands of Unique Skills and too many Rare Skills and Common Skills to count, recognizing a Unique Skill on sight was not something anyone could do, even if it took the form of a code of laws.

But for Yoo Na-gyeong, a former PAB agent, it was only natural.

Which was why she was even more bewildered.

[How can you use 『Rule of Law』? That’s Grand Duke Beopjeong’s Unique Skill!]

“Is there a problem with that?”

[Of course there is! Unless you’re Grand Duke Beopjeong in disguise...!]

Yoo Na-gyeong stopped short.

A Unique Skill was a Skill of which only one existed.

That was an absolute truth in the Iron Age, and why Players with Unique Skills were considered special.

But if someone possessed the exact same Unique Skill?

There was only one answer.

“Why is that surprising?”

Dumbfounded by the answer she had reached herself, Yoo Na-gyeong was mocked by Velos.

“If the previous owner died, it is common knowledge that another Player may be granted that Unique Skill.”

That was right.

When the owner of a Unique Skill died, it was rare, but not unprecedented, for another Player to receive the same Unique Skill.

After all, there was still only one owner of that Unique Skill, and it was ultimately the contracted Constellation that granted it to a Player.

So logically, there was nothing wrong with Velos’s words.

Except for one thing.

[Grand Duke Beopjeong is dead?]

“Is that not why I can use 『Rule of Law』?”

[That’s impossible! Why would someone who fought the Summoning Monarch to a draw die?!]

Yoo Na-gyeong demanded.

Even if there had been a slight advantage involved, a Player who had not reached level 100 drawing with a Monarch was a legendary achievement.

That was why, despite her disappearance, few had worried for her safety.

For someone like Grand Duke Beopjeong to have died without anyone knowing was difficult for anyone to believe.

But the moment Velos spoke again, Yoo Na-gyeong suffered an even greater shock.

“After poisoning her, cutting off her limbs, and throwing her to monsters, even Grand Duke Beopjeong died in the end.”

[...]

What did you say you did?

“Did you not hear me? Or are you pretending not to have heard?”

His cold smile and mocking tone.

Faced with that unmistakable confirmation, Yoo Na-gyeong felt the blood drain cold from her entire body.

[You killed Grand Duke Beopjeong?]

“It was quite an enjoyable assignment.”

[And the ‘Strict Judge of the Law,’ Grand Duke Beopjeong’s Constellation, handed 『Rule of Law』 over to you after you killed its contractor?]

“That is more or less what happened.”

[That’s insane!]

“There is no reason it cannot happen. It is the great Constellation that decides whom to grant a Unique Skill to.”

[But that would mean it is practically...]

Yoo Na-gyeong could not bring herself to continue.

Something came to mind.

It was vague and indistinct, yet it felt unbearably ominous and horrifying.

She did not know how to define it.

“Whether it makes sense or not is not for you to decide.”

But Velos did not care what Yoo Na-gyeong might say.

He merely wore a cold sneer.

“Just as deciding whether you live or die now rests entirely with me.”

[...]!

Yoo Na-gyeong wore a despairing expression as she watched Velos reach for her.

Now that she could no longer use spatial teleportation, escaping him was impossible.

And just from that murderous smile, she could easily guess what he intended to do to her.

‘I knew I shouldn’t have interfered.’

Cursing her own foolishness for committing such a suicidal act, Yoo Na-gyeong squeezed her eyes shut.

[Chief, please make sure you delete my phone’s search history!]

* * *

“W-W-W-W-Wait!”

“Are you rapping? Those rhymes are pretty smooth.”

“Even if you’re going to kill me, hear me out first! I got a secret, an important secret to tell you!”

“Pathetic. You’ve already died dozens of times, and you want to sell secrets just to preserve that one miserable life?”

“I wouldn’t go this far if I was just dying! You keep killing me so damn fast, Comrade!”

Ryu Gang-cheol shouted while holding both hands up.

Perhaps because he died so easily, Ryu Gang-cheol had assumed a surrendering posture even before Rimon appeared this time.

At his words, Rimon stopped the sword he had been about to swing and spoke flatly.

“Fine. You get exactly one minute. Start talking.”

“What am I supposed to say in one minute?!”

“Then die, asshole. You think I don’t know you’re trying to stall for time?”

Rimon spoke with sharp finality.

Ryu Gang-cheol clicked his tongue.

Then, looking over Rimon’s white hair, the scar around his eye, and the sword in his hand one after another, he asked,

“You’re that Simon Akapala, the last Sword Master or whatever, right?”

“Rimon Aspelder, asshole.”

“Wasn’t your relationship with the Seven Dragons Society bad? That’s what the old textbooks say.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“So the textbooks are wrong?”

“Of course they’re wrong.”

Rimon snorted.

“There’s no way my relationship with the Seven Dragons Society was merely bad. Calling bitter lifelong enemies childhood friends would be about as inaccurate.”

Rimon and the Seven Dragons Society had tried to kill each other well over a thousand times.

How could they merely have had a bad relationship?

Watching Rimon proudly boast of the grudge accumulated over centuries, Ryu Gang-cheol asked with a dumbfounded look.

“...Then why are you interfering in this?”

“Because I feel like it.”

Just because he and the Seven Dragons Society were enemies did not mean he had any reason to leave bastards like the Liberation Brigade alone.

After saying so bluntly, Rimon looked at Ryu Gang-cheol with chilly eyes.

“Now that the pointless talk is done, tell me that secret of yours. If it’s important information, I’ll use the blunt side of my blade next time.”

“That’s a double-edged sword! It doesn’t have a blunt side!”

“I meant I’ll just kill you.”

“You call that a negotiation?!”

“It is a negotiation. If you keep spouting nonsense, I won’t cut you next time. I’ll beat you to death.”

Once Ryu Gang-cheol had been beaten to death, he would understand how lucky he had been to die cleanly to a single sword strike.

Rimon smiled grimly.

For a moment, Ryu Gang-cheol stared in disbelief at the smile, which was as murderous as those of the Liberation Brigade’s own killers.

Then he sneered.

“Don’t be so confident. This isn’t the time for you to enjoy playing with me.”

“What bullshit are you talking about?”

“By now, my Comrade should be tearing Leviathan apart.”

As though venting his frustration at having dozens of clones cut down by Rimon in succession without putting up proper resistance, Ryu Gang-cheol grinned.

“I admit you’re pretty strong, but it’s already too late for you to go back and stop it. If you want to blame someone, blame that stupid head of yours...”

Crack!

It happened in an instant.

Rimon swung his sword and struck Ryu Gang-cheol’s neck with the flat of the blade.

Since the edge had not hit him, Ryu Gang-cheol’s head did not come off. Instead, his neck snapped at an unnatural angle, and he began coughing up bloody foam.

Rimon spoke quietly.

“One minute’s up.”

“Ghk... I was still... talking...”

“Then you should’ve told me an important secret, asshole. Instead of running your mouth about pointless bullshit.”

“You’ll... regret this.”

Ryu Gang-cheol forced a sneer.

But with his broken neck, he looked ridiculous rather than threatening.

Rimon sneered back.

“I doubt it. I think you lot already made the mistake of targeting Leviathan.”

“What are you...?”

Thud!

As though he could no longer be bothered dealing with him, Rimon kicked Ryu Gang-cheol in the head, twisting his already crooked neck a full 360 degrees.

Then he clicked his tongue.

“Players, honestly.”

Diversionary tactics, my ass.

They planned all sorts of schemes while neglecting the basic rule of knowing themselves and their enemy.

It was exactly the sort of thing Players would do.

Had they not treated even crime as a game, charging headlong at an enemy in one, and instead properly investigated the Seven Dragons Society, they would not have devised such a moronic plan.

“If you’re going to attack somewhere, shouldn’t you at least find out who’s there first, you idiots?”

Who had planned this entire affair.

Who their enemy was.

Lamenting the idiots who had rushed in triumphantly without knowing even such obvious things, Rimon took three steps toward Ryu Gang-cheol’s next clone.

* * *

Crash!

[...]

Huh?

Yoo Na-gyeong had resigned herself to dying for the second time and left behind what was not quite a last message.

Just as Velos reached to grab her, his body flew through a wall like an isekai protagonist struck by a truck, all the way to the other side of the inverted-pyramid corridor.

Then, after crashing into a scented oil shop and being soaked in oil from shattered bottles, a decorative candlestick fell over and set him on fire.

“I have a question.”

Yoo Na-gyeong blankly blinked at the scented oil shop, where Velos was buried beneath flames before being covered by fire suppressant gas pouring from the ceiling.

Following the voice, as clear as jade rolling across a floor, she turned her neck with a creak.

“Why did you ask someone to delete your search history?”

When had she arrived?

The empty air that had been vacant moments ago.

A girl appeared there, as though drawing back a curtain of space from the slender hand that had protruded only to its elbow.

Yoo Na-gyeong’s beak fell open.

[...]

Princess? Big Sis, why are you popping out of there?

“Who knows?”

The girl with ebony-black hair, Li Qing-yu, smiled as always and picked Yoo Na-gyeong up, violin case and all.

She set Yoo Na-gyeong on her shoulder, slowly ran her other hand over the case, and murmured quietly.

“So this was their objective.”