Chapter 347: Cunning Fishing (2)
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‘Father! This is how you swing a club, right?’
Memories can be painful at times.
The older they are, the more so.
The more unreachable they are, the more effort it takes to recall them.
The more effort you put into recalling them, the more suffocating your chest becomes.
It feels as if your heart is clogged, and before you know it, you let out a suppressed sigh.
Realizing that the voice you just heard is not from reality but a fragment of a faded dream.
Like waking up on a morning when you realize the voice you heard was a piece of an old memory.
“……”
Count Frontera let out an unconscious sigh.
He still had a dazed look in his eyes.
What was that voice he just heard?
It felt so vivid, as if it was heard right next to him.
Why, then, couldn’t he find his son anywhere when he looked around?
‘It was a dream…’
He sighed again.
If he didn’t, his chest felt like it would burst.
The cheerful shout of his son’s childhood that he heard at the edge of the dream.
It made him feel like he wanted to choose eternal sleep just to hear that again.
‘Yes, it was like that back then.’
With a bitter smile, he remembered.
His eldest son had always wanted to learn swordsmanship from his father.
Whenever he saw a stick, a club, or something resembling a wooden sword, he would bring it and ask to be taught.
But what about himself?
He couldn’t teach him.
He was afraid that his clumsy teaching would ruin his son’s basics.
He had resolved to hire a good swordsmanship teacher later, even if it cost him money.
But in the end, he missed the right time.
‘The boy lost interest in less than two years.’
When he finally brought a swordsmanship teacher, his son Lloyd was indifferent.
At first, he thought Lloyd had simply lost interest in swordsmanship.
So, he sent the teacher away.
It was only later that he learned the truth.
‘He didn’t want to learn swordsmanship. He just wanted to spend time with me.’
When he realized that, he felt so sorry for him.
But by then, Lloyd had already become quite rebellious.
He had a severe adolescence.
Or maybe it was his inherent nature.
He caused trouble and havoc every day.
“…I’m sorry.”
He should have loved him more.
He should have known that there wasn’t much time.
But he didn’t.
In the end, he became a pathetic father, sighing and regretting from the morning.
At that moment.
Click.
The bedroom door softly opened.
“Are you awake?”
His wife approached in light attire.
Perhaps she had already woken up and gone for a walk.
But her eyes seemed red.
Count Frontera forced a bitter smile.
“You must feel the same as I do.”
“…Yes.”
Without words, the couple sat side by side on the bed.
They stared blankly at the opposite wall for a while and then suddenly.
“Where do you think our Lloyd is?”
“…I don’t know.”
A sigh escaped again.
He was curious.
He wanted to know.
“I just want to believe that he is fine, wherever he is, whatever he looks like.”
“Yes, I think so too. Actually, that’s why I just came back from visiting the angel.”
“…”
The count silently put his arm around his wife’s shoulder.
He embraced her.
She leaned on his shoulder.
She spoke softly, trying to sound composed.
“I was so curious. I felt like I couldn’t breathe if I stayed like this. So I wanted to ask. I just wanted to ask if our Lloyd is doing well. They say the angel can’t lie.”
Without a word, he hugged her tighter.
She continued.
“But I couldn’t bring myself to ask. It felt like it would be a terrible thing to do to Lloyd right now. I felt too sorry for him.”
“You did well.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes.”
She wrapped her hand around his.
“If we wait, he’ll tell us himself someday, right? Because he’s a good boy.”
“Yes, I believe he will.”
“That’s right. He’s a good and wonderful boy.”
Her eyes welled up with tears again.
His nose turned slightly red.
The couple, leaning on each other, made a promise.
The current Lloyd, who is like a son to them, would reveal the truth himself someday.
They believed he certainly would.
So they promised to wait, hoping and forcing a smile.
‘Because he’s a good… wonderful… diligent… and grateful child.’
♣
‘Ah, so wonderful. Ah, so diligent. Ah, thank you, our Javier!’
At the same time.
On an unknown cliff in the middle of the Pantara Mountains, far from Frontera Estate.
Lloyd was grinning broadly.
He couldn’t help it.
Because of what he was watching.
The delightful and refreshing sound of impact resounded clearly.
Boom!
That was the sound of Javier’s aura-laden strike exploding.
It was also the sound of the Spirit King’s skull, or rather head, cracking.
“…Ugh!”
Pantalarasa, the Spirit King who was suddenly struck on the back of his head.
He collapsed unceremoniously, uncharacteristic of a spirit.
And he was stunned.
‘W-what?’
The Spirit King of the Pantara Mountains couldn’t make sense of it.
The back of his head throbbed with an unfamiliar pain.
It was a kind of pain he had never experienced before.
‘Did that silver-haired human just hit me? Is that even possible?’
Floating back up like a roly-poly doll, the Spirit King reflected on what had just happened, feeling bewildered.
‘That’s impossible! That shouldn’t be possible!’
Indeed, it was impossible.
That was common sense.
Since the distant past, from the time of his birth, he had lived believing it to be an immutable truth and an unchanging law.
And that belief had never been shaken.
It had been proven many times.
‘Humans can’t physically harm me. There were a few Sword Masters I fought three times, but their aura didn’t hurt like this.’
The Spirit King of the Pantara Mountains recalled his past encounters.
As the Spirit King, he had fought three Sword Masters while protecting the mountains.
‘The first was about 1,200 years ago. A formidable warrior. The second was 980 years ago. The most recent was 110 years ago, a knight serving a king trying to build a mountain pass here.’
But he had easily repelled them all.
The reason was simple.
‘They all used aura. They tried to strike me with it. But their aura didn’t affect me. It could barely touch me, but that was it. It didn’t hurt at all. No matter how fiercely they attacked… it only felt like a gentle tap.’
In other words, a Sword Master’s aura couldn’t hurt him.
That’s why.
‘I faced their aura casually. I unleashed blizzards and subjected them to unbearable cold. Even the strongest warriors and knights fell when their body temperatures dropped. But now… why does this hurt so much?’
A Sword Master’s aura shouldn’t be able to hurt him.
That’s supposed to be the highest level a human can reach.
So no human force should be able to cause him pain or injury.
That’s common sense.
That’s an unchanging truth.
It must be so.
‘Why…?’
Boom! Bang!
Javier’s aura-infused sword was raised high.
He executed a graceful series of attacks using his thumb grip and wrist snap.
He struck the Spirit King’s face left and right, both cheeks echoing with the sound.
‘-Ack! Ugh!’
It hurt.
It really hurt, making the Spirit King tear up.
So he was even more puzzled.
‘What is this? Was aura always this painful? Or is that human using dark magic?’
But he sensed no ominous signs of dark magic from the silver-haired knight.
Which made it even more baffling.
‘What kind of human is this! Ugh!’
Could it be that he’s not just an ordinary Sword Master?
Could he be a Grand Master, a realm that was thought to be only theoretically possible?
‘Really? Is that true?’
If not, there’s no way the aura could hurt this much.
This aura had a completely different level of impact than anything he had ever felt.
Thwack! Thud!
‘…Ugh! Ugh!’
This time it was his neck and side.
For the first time since his birth, the Spirit King realized that even his neck could feel stiff.
When he was struck in the side, he felt a sensation as if nonexistent duodenal villi were performing a starfish dance.
He finally realized with his whole body.
‘This silver-haired human is really a Grand Master.’
Confusion.
A sense of crisis.
Many emotions welled up and crossed his mind.
But the Spirit King didn’t retreat easily.
Despite suffering pain and strikes he had never experienced before.
He thought of the mountain he had to protect.
He chewed over his growing anger.
‘How dare you!’
Whoosh-!
The enraged Spirit King Pantalarasa.
A severe cold wind began to rage around him.
Freezing cold rampaged wildly.
Hailstones the size of fists flew around at over 200 kilometers per hour.
The Spirit King was sure.
‘Human who dared to challenge me, taste the wrath of nature!’
He would make him unable to live or die.
He would freeze him solid right here.
And use him as an example to future intruders who might dare to challenge these mountains.
‘Grand Master or whatever! There will be no exceptions!’
Whoosh-!
An incredibly powerful blizzard storm.
The whistling sound scraped the entire area indiscriminately.
It seemed impossible for any living thing to survive in that storm.
Except for one person,
Javier.
“……”
Javier’s eyes glowed coldly.
From that moment, he displayed movements that would easily dislocate the Spirit King’s jaw.
Swish! Slash! Swirl!
He stepped lightly.
He jumped two steps forward, then suddenly stopped.
At that moment, a fist-sized hailstone whizzed past his nose at 270 kilometers per hour.
His senses had tracked its movement from the moment it flew in until it passed.
He had even predicted it.
The 471 other hailstones aiming at him were no exception.
Slash!
When his sword flashed, the fist-sized hailstones shattered into countless ice fragments.
They scattered around, shimmering.
In that light, Javier surged forward.
The blizzard, raging at dozens of degrees below zero, was no more than a gentle breeze to him.
His hair fluttered lightly as he swung his sword at the Spirit King’s head.
Bang!
‘…Gah!’
The Spirit King involuntarily shed a tear.
Simultaneously, he felt a deep, overwhelming sense of despair.
‘How? How did he break through that blizzard?’
He couldn’t understand.
It was natural.
No Sword Master, not even a Grand Master.
Should have been able to easily break through the super-ultimate blizzard storm he had created.
The temperature of the wind alone was dozens of degrees below zero.
The perceived temperature was well below minus 100 degrees.
That wasn’t all.
Within the radius of the blizzard storm, hundreds of hailstones flew at over 200 kilometers per hour.
Their direction and force were entirely random.
It was literally unpredictable.
‘While all your muscles freeze in extreme cold… facing fast and deadly attacks from all directions. Even the most sensory Sword Masters or higher beings shouldn’t be able to handle it. But how? How?’
He felt wronged.
Not knowing about Javier’s martial arts techniques.
Not knowing that the highly developed Asrahan technique allowed him to detect every movement of mana around him like a high-performance radar.
The Spirit King couldn’t understand the situation.
The constant precise strikes to his weak points by Javier were also baffling.
Thud! Thwack! Thud!
‘Ack! Ugh! Oof!’
Smack! Thud! Crack!
‘Ugh! Gasp! Huff!’
When he tried to flee, floating away.
Javier leaped up first and struck his head.
When he retreated in panic.
Javier was already beside him, mercilessly pounding his side.
The Spirit King, made entirely of pure mana.
That’s why Javier could almost 100% detect and predict all his movements and intentions.
In other words, the Grand Master Javier, wielding the Asrahan technique, was the perfect counter and nemesis to the Spirit King.
So Javier relentlessly pressured the Spirit King.
He pounded him.
He hit him repeatedly.
He struck only the painful spots.
And hit them again.
If he resisted, he hit even harder.
In the end, the Spirit King, overwhelmed by rising despair, made a decision.
‘I, I have to escape.’
This isn’t working.
For some reason.
For some unknown reason.
That human has the ability to thoroughly humiliate him.
If he kept resisting foolishly, he might really be done for.
The Spirit King Pantalarasa absolutely rejected such a sad ending.
‘Hmph!’
He gathered all his strength.
Once again, he created a super-ultimate blizzard storm.
And without hesitation, he turned his body.
While Javier was dealing with the blizzard.
In that brief hesitation, he planned to escape.
But at that moment.
The Spirit King had to face another human he had momentarily forgotten.
Swish, tap!
‘…!’
A hand reached out, blocking his escape route in an instant.
A grip infused with aura, clutching his shoulder.
A shameless smile from across that grip.
“Hello? My name is Lloyd, and I’m going to put you in cuffs now.”
‘What?’
At the moment the Spirit King flinched.
Lloyd activated his rapid charge.
