WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ Sword Master of the Fallen Kingdom

Chapter 58

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Two Exiles (5)

Between those who could use mana and those who could not, there was an overwhelming gap. Sword Aura was the same. It meant condensing the mana refined within the body into the purest crystallization of destructive force outside it. Sending that force out in a long arc was even more difficult.

It was a technique only high-ranking knights from the great houses of the Empire or the Federation could use.

An ordinary commoner would have a hard time seeing a knight's Sword Aura even once. The cavalry captain was no different. He had often seen the Sword Aura used by knights or Silver-rank and above mercenaries. But he had never seen anyone control it completely and launch it outward.

So this was his first time.

His first time seeing a sight this overwhelming. His first time being blinded by a light he could not believe.

A crescent moon surged beneath the half-moon.

Kwaaaaaa!

A pure white Sword Aura curved diagonally and tore through the air with explosive force. For an instant, the surroundings shone bright. The scenery where the Sword Aura passed tilted and warped. It was a wave of mana made purely to crush everything.

Under the illusion that time had slowed, the cavalry captain took in the scene around him. Blade winds fired in every direction with the first step. Horses and cavalrymen dying to a single spell. Severed limbs and falling torches. Even the knight who had charged in with confidence, his eyes wide at the white light bearing down on him.

Is this as far as it goes?

The cavalry captain had been riding right behind the knight. If he pulled the reins, he could barely escape the Sword Aura's range, but even then, he would be the only one left. With all the cavalry dead and even the knight killed instantly, there was nothing he could do. Their opponent had shattered their entire force with a single strike. Fighting him head-on would be idiotic.

Should I run?

Death drew closer with every passing moment. The destructive white Sword Aura. In that split second between life and death, the cavalry captain felt a sensation he had never experienced before. Time stretched long in his senses.

Is this my life flashing before my eyes?

The thought lasted only a moment. He made his decision quickly. Running would get him killed anyway. Then he would settle it here. It was already too late for the knight standing in front of the Sword Aura. But if he used him as bait, he might be able to create a small opening.

"Huaaaaap!"

The knight's face twisted grotesquely as he swung his sword, wreathed in blue Sword Aura, along the path of the incoming Sword Aura. The crescent-shaped aura grazed the horse's neck and swallowed the blue blade beyond it.

White light and blue light collided. It was no contest. The crescent moon tore through the air, split the blue blade clean in two, then cleaved through the knight holding it, breastplate and all. Even that was not enough, and it flew far behind him, cutting down the dense trees in its path.

Splurt!

A beat later, a fountain of blood shot up. The severed horse's head and the knight's body, cut apart at the torso, fell to the ground.

Splat!

Organs and blood spilled out. Listening to that hideous sound, the cavalry captain rode past the collapsing knight. He gritted his teeth. The black-cloaked mercenary who had just fired the Sword Aura stood before him, and his grip tightened around his lance.

I can win.

He is not invincible. After delivering a blow of that scale, there had to be an opening. In fact, because he had released the Sword Aura, his sword was still raised high overhead.

Now.

This was the timing. It would take a little time for that sword to come back down toward him. He only had to slip into that gap. If he drew his mana up to the limit and thrust the lance in his reinforced arm as fast as possible...

Paang!

He heard the air burst. Almost at the same time, the cavalry captain was flung hard to the right from horseback. He reflexively coughed up blood.

"Keugh!"

Impact slammed into his side, and he felt his ribs crush. His vision flipped wildly. Even through the confusion of agony, he turned his eyes toward the point where the shockwave had come from. There, he saw a pale-faced mage with blond hair and golden eyes. She had been hiding behind a tree trunk, but now she had fully revealed herself and was extending her right hand toward him.

"Trai... tor..."

The mutter left him as his body struck the ground. A crushing pain spread through his whole body from his spine outward. Before he knew it, Kyle stood in front of the fallen cavalry captain.

The cavalry captain groaned softly and breathed roughly. Kyle held his blade, now free of Sword Aura, against the captain's neck. At the sharp silver edge, the cavalry captain's throat bobbed.

"Why... are you doing this?"

A brief silence passed. The cavalry captain was the first to speak. Kyle raised one eyebrow slightly and asked back.

"Doing what?"

"She is a traitor. A first-class traitor of the Empire, no less! You... should know too. What will happen to the kingdom if this fails. And yet you are making an enemy of the Empire. Sheltering a traitor against a wyvern knight, of all people..."

The cavalry captain could not continue.

The Empire. Wyvern knights.

The instant Kyle heard those words, his black eyes sank into a bottomless darkness.

Ah.

It made no sound. It was only cold. Like an extremely refined and compressed blue flame. In Kyle's eyes, the cavalry captain saw an invisible rage. He saw hatred. The depth of those emotions was so vast that it was hard to believe they could exist inside one person. Like the bottom of an abyss too deep to even fathom.

"Do you have family left behind?"

The cavalry captain's mouth opened and closed in fear. Kyle asked in a dry tone. After moving his lips a few times, the man squeezed out his voice.

"I, I do... my parents and my wife..."

"Children?"

"None... not yet..."

"I see."

Kyle raised his sword. Resignation settled in the cavalry captain's eyes as he coughed blood from broken ribs and crushed organs.

"I have no personal feelings. Rest now."

Thuk.

Kyle drove the raised sword straight into the man's nape. The cavalry captain's body twitched for a moment, then went limp. His head sagged powerlessly.

Life faded from his eyes.

"Are you hurt?"

Kyle pulled out the sword, lightly shook off the blood, and looked to the side.

Elysia was there, walking out slowly as she looked around.

"...No. Thanks to you."

"That's good. You didn't have to push yourself to use magic."

"That... I am sorry. I acted without thinking, just in case."

Elysia lowered her eyes. Kyle gave a small shake of his head.

"No. I wasn't blaming you."

He swept his tired gaze over the area. The dead knight and cavalry captain. The cavalrymen killed by Kyle's wind blades.

All of them were regular soldiers of the Kingdom of Brendel. Their status was different from mercenaries. But Kyle did not waver in the slightest. He had already made an enemy of the Empire. One more southern kingdom joining that list changed nothing. If anything, he felt lighter. Now, the only option left was to move forward.

Kyle pulled himself out of his brief thoughts and checked the corpses one by one for useful items or possible clues.

There was no real harvest. Their weapons were all far worse than Kyle's, and they had no letters or items that might serve as information.

"The hunting hound... already ran."

It had probably read the situation and fled the moment the cavalrymen and knight charged.

Kyle did not care much. Viscount Leonard had no troops left to send after them anyway. There were no more pursuit squads behind them.

They were safe for now. At least until the wyvern knight arrived.

"Mercenaries, and now cavalry too. There were quite a lot of them. Were all of them pursuers sent from the gate?"

"Most likely."

"What a shame. It would have been nice to get a little more information."

Elysia muttered as she examined the corpses with the same expressionless face as Kyle. Kyle, who had been checking the knight's body, confirmed there was nothing useful and stood.

"It is enough that the wyvern knight hasn't reached the gate yet."

"What will you do now? Move right away?"

"We should. As planned, we rest after crossing the mountain."

"In that case, what about riding horses?"

Elysia made a suggestion. Just then, a horse came down between the trees where Elysia had been hiding. It seemed to be one that had survived when they dealt with the other cavalry group earlier.

"Conveniently, exactly two survived."

Elysia glanced beside Kyle. Right there stood the cavalry captain's horse, which had just lost its rider.

"Needless to say, I am tired, but you look exhausted too, Kyle... If we ride, we can save time, but more than that, we can preserve our strength."

It was a reasonable suggestion. Refusing would have been stranger.

Nothing she said was wrong.

But Kyle did not answer. He could not.

"Surely... you can ride, can't you?"

Elysia asked in surprise. For a knight, horsemanship was as important as swordsmanship. A knight who could not ride was no better than half a knight, no matter how good he was with a sword.

"...No."

After staring at the cavalry captain's horse for a while, Kyle spoke quietly. His inability to ride was purely a psychological problem. There was nothing wrong with his body. Kyle was not foolish enough to turn away from reality out of weakness, not in an urgent situation like this.

"I was just sorting out my thoughts for a moment."

"......."

"We move right away."

Kyle spoke firmly. He could not stay frozen forever. The times had changed. So had Kyle.

When he left the Lenore Magic Tower, he had already sworn to set down all lingering attachment and hesitation. He had promised himself he would not run away. That was why he had accepted Elysia's commission. If he had chosen to stand against the Empire, then he had to stop being bound by the past and move forward.

I'm sorry, Sieg.

Silently repeating the name of his black beloved horse, the one he could no longer see, Kyle took the reins without hesitation and climbed into the saddle. The horse snorted, but did not reject Kyle's touch. Elysia glanced at him, then mounted the horse that approached her with practiced ease.

"What about cleanup?"

Holding the reins, she looked around and asked.

"We leave it as is. We don't have time to burn them."

"True. If we start a fire, the time is one thing, but it will also reveal our location."

"Crossing the mountains hasn't changed anyway. Moving even a little farther is better."

Not long after, Kyle and Elysia rode down the mountain path once more. In the quiet night, the clatter of hooves rang long through the air.

Neither of them looked back even once. The reality given to them was far too harsh to sit and reflect on the past. They only faced forward.

To put as much distance behind them as possible. To secure a future.

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