Chapter 420

‘As my heart leads me?’

If someone asked whether killing people was enjoyable, Jaxson had no clear answer.

No matter how many times he turned it over in his mind, he couldn’t tell whether it was enjoyable or not.

There were people in the guild who would go mad if they didn’t see blood at least once a week, but Jaxson had never been like that. Honing his skills, however, was fun. That much was certain.

“He didn’t mean you should stab your friend in the back. He meant you should survive by whatever means necessary, you fool.”

The Master’s tone had always been light, but he was right. That was the true meaning behind what his father had said.

Jaxson had simply interpreted it in his own way. At the time, he had needed that. He had been desperately searching for something to use as fuel for the flames of revenge.

“He didn’t mean you should only look forward. He meant you shouldn’t cling too hard to the past either, right?”

Once again, the Master was right.

His mother had never wanted him to become someone bound by the family name.

Jaxson had twisted even that memory into fuel.

He knew that himself.

“What I teach is not the art of killing.”

“Then what is it?”

“Figure that out yourself! Do I have to spoon-feed you everything?”

It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one should say while teaching someone how to poison food and how to detect it.

When Jaxson first met the Master, the man had asked him this:

“Will you follow me? Then I’ll teach you how to live.”

Not how to survive, but how to live.

It wasn’t the art of killing. It was merely one way to live.

The hidden killing intent was still there. His fighting spirit hadn’t faded either. But Jaxson couldn’t stop his mouth from opening on its own.

“May I stay?”

The words leaped straight out of his heart, bypassing his head.

“If you beat me, I’ll allow it.”

Encrid answered as usual, speaking from a ready stance.

‘If this is only one way to live.’

Then that alone couldn’t be a reason to live.

It was a sudden realization. A flash that came only after the words had already left his mouth.

Until now, Jaxson had never found anything his heart wanted besides revenge.

But now, one thing was certain.

Crossing blades with the man in front of him was more enjoyable than killing him.

Honing his skill and climbing higher was enjoyable.

Watching over his lover was enjoyable.

Then why not do all of it?

He asked himself and heard the answer. He didn’t even need to think it over. The answer was obvious.

“Then I suppose I may stay.”

Jaxson said.

The sunlight warmed his back. The summer sun only added more heat to his body. A faint smile appeared on Jaxson’s face beneath the shade.

That one phrase, ‘do as your heart leads,’ gave him a refreshing sense of release. It snapped the chains around his heart.

Jaxson had techniques he couldn’t use if someone was watching, or if the target was someone he couldn’t kill.

‘Why do I have to do that?’

Who had told him to? The Master had never ordered it.

It was merely an unwritten rule passed down in the Daggers of Gaor.

A useless rule he had obeyed out of habit.

Encrid wasn’t fooled by his opponent’s smile.

‘A hidden trick?’

He had keenly felt how much his skill had improved lately, and after obtaining Aker, he had grown even more restless.

He was constantly provoking the members of the Madman Company, aggressively challenging them to fights or sparring matches.

It was the same with Jaxson.

Even while seeing him deep in thought, Encrid had still subtly prodded him.

Naturally, there wasn’t a single person who could ignore Encrid once he got fired up and started provoking them.

It was the same now.

Half of what he said about beating him was a joke, and half was a provocation.

Jaxson took that bait without hesitation.

Honestly, Encrid didn’t care much about the part about letting him stay. There was simply no one available to spar with right away, and he was thirsty for a fight.

His fighting spirit surged outward. Jaxson’s body seemed to grow larger, but Encrid didn’t care.

‘If I don’t believe in myself, I can never win.’

Do not overestimate your opponent’s ability. It was a basic rule to keep before a fight.

At the same time, never let your guard down, and give everything you have.

It was easy to say, but these were the kinds of things a person could not truly do without experience and their own realization.

He placed his hand on the hilt. Settling into his stance, he took in Jaxson’s entire body. It was the process of opening his senses and confirming everything.

Always give your best.

Encrid did exactly as he always did, and nearly ended up repeating what had happened earlier that day.

===

Was it the burden on his heart?

Or perhaps the chains that had bound him until now?

Now that he had cast those things aside and turned away from them, Jaxson’s steps felt light.

Especially when he thought back to the Encrid he had just faced.

‘He’s improved a lot.’

The techniques knights used were called [Will].

And what reason was there that an assassin could not use them?

“Leaving you alone would create the greatest killer on the continent.”

The Master hadn’t said that for no reason.

Jaxson had talent. The previous Master had known that too.

Jaxson had just pierced several places on Encrid’s body with a technique he hadn’t even used against that bastard, Count Molten.

His steps carried him outside the barracks.

Two soldiers standing watch saluted him.

They seemed to recognize Jaxson.

Without returning a word, he brushed past them and walked along the wall lined with trees. Then, the voice he had been expecting came.

“Are you serious?”

It was most likely the voice of a guild member speaking as the acting Master, not as his lover.

Jaxson also knew she had watched his spar with Encrid.

“You showed things you shouldn’t reveal to someone who isn’t a target you intend to kill.”

He heard the voice, but saw no one. Jaxson also sensed five more people hidden among the trees.

Six in total. Three of them were assassins older than he was.

They were masters of poison, thrown daggers, and concealment, respectively. They were also the teachers who had taught him his techniques.

It wasn’t as though Jaxson had learned only from the Master.

But in terms of skill, he had already surpassed them long ago. Those people alone could not stop him.

And if they attacked, it would only be a pointless death, so they wouldn’t.

His lover, the Master’s daughter, wasn’t that foolish.

Jaxson was more skilled than anyone and faster than anyone when it came to reading a situation. He had not inherited the Master’s position for nothing.

“……Why did you do that?”

It was his lover’s question, the woman who had once been like an older sister two years older than him when they were children.

“Just because.”

The answer that came out was strangely similar to Encrid’s.

“I did as my heart led me.”

It wasn’t intentional, but once again, it was almost the same answer.

“Was the Master’s position that trivial to you?”

Was she disappointed? Perhaps.

Even so, Jaxson did not regret his choice. There was nothing to regret. Life was not a matter of choosing one thing and abandoning the other.

“When did I ever say I would give up the Master’s position?”

“……What?”

Only Yenatrice, the Master’s daughter and his lover, spoke.

Perhaps because she was so taken aback, she asked again, and Jaxson replied calmly.

“I’ll remain here. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up the Daggers of Gaor.”

“Do you think that makes sense?”

The poison master couldn’t hold it in any longer and spoke. The voice came from both left and right. A crude trick.

“And why wouldn’t it?”

Jaxson spoke while looking straight at the man’s hiding place.

He would show the respect due to an elder, but if the man attacked, he would die. His eyes made that plain.

“Don’t worry. No one will die here today. Let me persuade each of you, one by one.”

Arrogant words.

How could someone openly turn the entire guild against himself and still expect to survive, even if he was the Master of the Daggers of Gaor?

That was how ordinary people would think.

But Jaxson remained calm. He looked like a man doing something simply because it had to be done.

That only made him seem even crazier.

Yenatrice emerged from the shadow of the wall where she had been hiding.

Jaxson wasn’t surprised. He had known she was there already.

“You really are incredibly self-willed.”

“Am I?”

Yenatrice looked at Jaxson for a moment.

Why had she liked this man?

Yes. Because he could do things like this without hesitation.

“You’re supposed to kill the previous Master.”

The Daggers of Gaor was the greatest assassination guild on the continent. For generations, its Master had passed down his techniques to his successor, then died by that successor’s hand.

Jaxson had ignored that rule.

“You’re saying you won’t keep the rule!”

“That’s the plan.”

At the time, three assassins contending for succession had died, along with five elders. Including their followers, more than thirty people had died.

All of it had been Jaxson’s doing.

Something he had accomplished alone.

“Damn it, you lunatic. You wiped out thirty percent of the guild’s strength just to save one person?”

Her father, her teacher, her Master, had scolded him like that before peacefully closing his eyes.

The poison that had built up in his body from a lifetime of overwork since childhood had finally done its damage, but he died smiling.

“There are people who won’t stand with you.”

Jaxson looked straight into his lover’s eyes.

He saw orange irises.

He reached out a hand toward her, and she took it in hers.

Like her father, Yenatrice was quick-witted.

Especially in matters concerning Jaxson or herself.

She had already considered the possibility that he would not return and had gathered the people who would stand on her side.

Now, this was simply the process of confirming it.

The elders who had come along were all on Jaxson’s side as well.

“Speak. I’ll persuade each of them, one by one.”

Of course, that persuasion would be Encrid’s style.

Beating sense into them.

Kicking sense into them.

Just as Encrid had persuaded the constables in the capital.

And if they still wouldn’t listen?

“Keep going until they do.”

Encrid would probably say that.

Jaxson knew very well that, in that regard, he had a similar disposition.

A man who, except for saving his father, had never once in his life done what his heart wanted.

At times, he even wondered whether saving his father had truly been his own will. Perhaps even that had been for himself.

To Yenatrice, Jaxson had always been that sort of person.

So, in truth, she quietly welcomed this decision.

‘There are times in life when you act according to your own will.’

Just before he died, the former Master had entrusted his daughter to Jaxson.

And to his daughter, he had entrusted the boy he had cherished like a son.

“Even if that brat leaves the guild, take good care of him.”

Yenatrice remembered her father’s words.

===

Jaxson returned to the barracks.

On the way in, he saw Audin in prayer.

“Blessings.”

At those words, Audin—who had been sitting with his hands clasped and eyes closed—lifted his head.

What had he just heard?

It was so shocking that his prayer stopped for a moment.

Ragna, dozing in a rocking chair, quietly opened his eyes.

As Jaxson passed, he said:

“Sleep more.”

Dunbakel narrowed her eyes.

Was he insane?

Even though the meaning in her eyes was obvious, Jaxson spoke with the same indifferent tone.

“Wash up.”

Words from a man who normally would have had no reaction beyond ignoring her.

Dunbakel immediately went to wash. What he said felt like a final warning. If she didn’t listen, it felt as though he would slit her throat in her sleep.

Teresa, seeing that, began to pray.

“Lord, drive away the evil spirits.”

Without realizing it, influenced by the atmosphere, it was not a prayer to a social deity, but to the god of war.

Her husky voice rang out softly.

Passing by, Jaxson saw Rem in a corner, using a whetstone to sharpen the edge of a palm-sized hand axe.

Rem saw Jaxson too.

Their eyes met.

“Still not dead?”

“Yeah. Looks like I’ll die after you.”

Jaxson asked, and Rem answered, almost at the same time.

They were practically a matched set. In both timing and content, nothing could have fit better.

“Doppelganger?”

Watching from the side, Krys muttered to himself.

A Doppelganger was a Fiend that mimicked the appearance of its opponent.

Since the current Jaxson did not seem like his usual self.

Even though Krys had brought up the name of a rare Fiend said to appear only near the Demon Realm, Jaxson didn’t fault him for it and went straight to his room.

===

Encrid lay sprawled out with all four limbs thrown wide.

‘My judgment was off several times.’

He should have thrust instead of slashing, and since he had been wielding Aker, he should have taken fuller advantage of the famous sword’s unique properties.

‘I was also inexperienced.’

There were always things to reflect on and learn from in any fight, but when someone from the Madman Company revealed something new, there was even more left to take in.

Though he was too embarrassed to say it aloud, they were also one of the reasons he had not stayed with the Royal Guard.

‘Until I see a real knight with my own eyes.’

Until then, he was convinced that training here was better than learning in the Royal Guard.

The sunlight was warm. It felt like he could fall asleep like this.

It wasn’t laziness, but he thought he could understand why Ragna always dozed off whenever there was sunlight.

This weather was also something he could enjoy only now, and only for a short while.

In just a few weeks, or perhaps only days, the warmth of the sun would turn into scorching heat.

Because summer, the season of heat and fire, was approaching.

Winning and losing were not what mattered.

There was no time to hesitate over things like that.

Now that the civil war was over, would the kingdom be filled with nothing but peace?

Would there be even fewer reasons to swing a sword than before?

Of course not.

And more than that, the new King thought in the exact opposite way from the previous ruler.

The former Queen had dreamed of a stable kingdom, but Krang did not.

Before they parted after the send-off, Krang had spoken of some of his ambitions.

“The central continent is divided among three nations. Because of that, compared to the west, east, and south, our strength is weak. Especially since we regularly go to war with Azpen.”

“Are you thinking of signing some kind of peace treaty?”

The more Azpen was held back, the more strength Naurilia could gather. That much was obvious.

The resources consumed by war alone were immense.

And what about the soldiers who died?

At Encrid’s words, Krang answered with a gentle smile.

His tone was as casual as if he were plucking a flower blooming in a nearby bed.

“No. I’m going to subjugate Azpen.”

In dreams and ambition, Krang was no less than Encrid.

He spoke with that uniquely captivating eloquence of his.

Even though the words were meant for one listener alone—Encrid—he poured his whole being into them.

Just as Encrid staked his life on the sword, Krang burned his soul to declare his will.

“I will become the sole ruler of the central continent.”

And even then, Krang had said that becoming ruler of the central continent was only one part of the dream.

Just as Encrid believed becoming a knight would not be the end of his dream, but only the beginning, so did Krang.