Chapter 449: Proof of Existence (37)

0% A dumbfounded gaze stared at me.

“So you deliberately provoke others and repeatedly do things that earn their hatred. Am I wrong?”

“What are you……”

“Because you were betrayed.”

The woman couldn’t even raise her fragmented question anymore.

She just stared at me blankly. I sighed as I finished my deduction.

“You’ve lost faith in everything you once believed in… So you don’t want to trust anything anymore. I understand.”

Unable to speak, she carefully studied my expression.

After a while…

The woman silently turned her head and took another drink. I said nothing further.

“……Aren’t you the same?”

Now it was my turn to be caught off guard.

My body flinched, and my dazed eyes turned toward her. But she wasn’t even looking at me.

“You’re scared too. That’s why you act like someone whose emotions have worn away… Why is that?”

Only then could I meet her eyes.

In front of those earnest pink pupils, I couldn’t bring myself to lie.

My gaze turned slightly to the side.

“…..Because I received too much love”

She simply stared at me in silence.

I was panting, but I had to finish my sentence somehow.

“I’m afraid. Afraid of losing someone I love again… Because they were so precious.”

The wind alone brushed past my ears.

The sound of grass bending and rising again tickled my eardrums. The somewhat stuffy air, heavy with moisture, settled between the woman and me. Only the moon and stars in the sky were watching us.

After a long period of silence, the woman’s hand moved.

Thud, I reflexively caught the gourd that flew at me. It was the liquor bottle the Saintess always carried.

Before I could ask what she meant.

“……We’re alike, aren’t we?”

The sight of the woman, murmuring to herself, looked heartbreakingly beautiful.

I forgot she was gazing at the moon and thought the moon itself had descended to Earth. It was a sentiment I erased with a fake cough, embarrassed at my own thoughts.

There was only one way to hide my burning face.

I tilted the gourd and heat ran down my throat.

How much time passed like that?

On that very slope where we had shared our pasts, the woman and I were drawn into a kiss.

“I suppose I must ‘obey’ this too.”

With those incomprehensible words, and a tender smile.

“Honorably, without turning away from fate.”

I fell in love. Like fireflies opening a short festival of light at the end of spring.

*I opened my eyes while roughly breathing.

How much time had passed? By feeling alone, it wouldn’t have been strange if days had already gone by.

But in reality, time had barely flown.

Clang, clang, clang!

Sparks flew every time Yuren swung his sword, Celine’s axe sliced through the waist of one of the faceless monsters, and a shower of lightning bolts from the sky kept the blood-red whip in check.

By then, my body was drenched in cold sweat.

“Ian Oppa, I can’t hold on much longer….!”

“Uh, yeah.”

I drew my sword and hatchet with a dazed mind.

What should I do?

I still couldn’t grasp it. But my instinct was whispering to me.

Run forward.

And face it head-on.

Don’t turn away from fate.

Right after, a boom struck my eardrums.

“Ian, what are you….!”

My figure was reflected in Yuren’s shocked eyes.

I couldn’t be seen. I was too fast.

But even this was slow.

Time began flowing slower and slower.

The blood-red whip was flying toward Senior Elsie like a snake. Without hesitation, I threw the hatchet I was holding.

A silver galaxy scattered along its trajectory.

With a thud

For the first time, cracks appeared in the previously composed girl’s eyes.

As if the power of the hatchet right in front of her was beyond expectation.

Bewilderment, surprise, and anxiety.

Yes, that’s right.

That’s what a proper merchant’s attitude should be when facing such a variable. I squeezed my lungs with all my strength.

“Senior Elsie, fall back!”

“Y-Yes!”

Then, with a rustling sound, the blood-red threads danced.

Hundreds, thousands, no, tens of thousands of threads moved as if meaning to surround me. I had already been subdued by this technique once, unable to move an inch.

I couldn’t let it happen twice.

My clenched jaw trembled. The silver aura burning like a wildfire was growing larger and larger.

It was different from before.

I had already spent enough time gathering aura in my sword. It was the final opportunity created by the gap that Yuren, Celine, and Senior Elsie had made.

That momentum was formidable enough that even the girl couldn’t ignore it.

The girl gestured at me. Then, in unison, dozens of faceless monsters kicked off the ground and shot toward me. A shout burst from my mouth again.

“CELINE!”

With another boom, an explosion shook the earth.

It was Celine’s full-power strike, who had been conserving her magical power while the faceless monsters’ attention was focused on me. The ground slightly caved and the monsters’ screams filled the air.

Kreeeeeeeeeek!

If they had been standing on the ground, it would have been different, but most of them had leaped in the air to attack me. The faceless monsters, unable to withstand the aftershock, scattered randomly like leaves swept by a strong gale.

Even amid this, the blood-red threads gradually tightened their encirclement around me.

The moment I took a step forward with a thud…

A silver waterfall poured down, cutting through the blood-red threads. The threads initially seemed to resist it, but eventually began to snap and bounce away helplessly

Liberation.

It was a secret technique created by one of the only three Masters on the continent. Even if the opponent was one of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Dark Order, it was possible to face them head-on if one had sufficient aura.

One, two.

Each time my sword scattered the galaxy, the blood-red threads snapped. The girl was now screaming with an utterly panicked face.

“Block it, block it… block it RIGHT NOW!”

The blood-red sun began to extend its tentacles.

In an instant, the tentacles split into hundreds of threads and rained down a blood shower at me. But the distance between me and the girl was already too close.

Just as my sword was about to reach the girl.

Thwack, the girl’s kick dug into my solar plexus. Because I had raised my sword high, there were many openings in my stance. It was a strike that accurately exploited this.

There was no time to adjust my posture. I had no choice but to fully tank the blow.

Ugh, blood leaked out of my mouth and my posture crumbled.

Not missing that gap, hundreds of blood-red threads bound me. Victory had been right before my eyes, but the aura contained in my sword had barely reached its limit.

With blood in my mouth, my body staggered to regain its posture.

My arms were already bound and couldn’t move. The girl, who had been surveying the surroundings without lowering her guard, finally burst into laughter wholeheartedly.

“Pfft, aha, ahahahahahahaha!”

Of course, that laughter didn’t last long.

Because hatred and contempt blazed once again in the girl’s golden eyes as she ground her teeth.

Whether she liked me or hated me.

She was a woman I couldn’t figure out whatsoever. Both emotions were probably sincere.

“That’s it? That’s ALL?! You squeezed out all your strength, but too bad! I don’t know how your aura became so refined in such a short time… but it’s my victory.”

It was raw criticism.

The girl had every right to say that. I was a sinner before the girl, and also a knight facing defeat.

It was then that the girl’s foot stomped on my instep with a crunch.

I somehow endured the groan that was about to escape. Still, seeing my expression that couldn’t help but contort, the girl wore a bright, pretty smile.

“I told you to give up from the start, didn’t I? It would have been better if you had listened to me earlier, hm? And this foot, what with your foot? What are you stepping on? Anyway, the aura gathered in your sword has already been exhausted……”

Saying this, the girl’s gaze slowly turned toward my feet.

And stopped dead.

A faint silver light was burning like embers under my feet.

Blankly, the girl’s eyes turned to me. Only then did I cough up blood and laugh.

“……A surprise gift for my little sister.”

With a boom, an explosion seemed to occur and my vision turned pure white.

I couldn’t hear any sounds. The ringing in my ears testified to the damage of my eardrums. But there was still a sight my eyes hadn’t missed.

The hatchet spinning round and round as it bounced into the sky.

This was the source of the explosion. When I fought the Archmage last time, I realized that I could pour aura into the hatchet through my feet.

This was an application of that.

The blood-red threads that couldn’t withstand the world of pure white light were disappearing. The girl’s palm urgently struck my wrist while biting her lips.

With a crack, my wrist broke.

It was fine. That wasn’t my only option.

My remaining hand immediately snatched the hatchet floating in the air.

“…..Ah.”

In a time dyed in pure white, the girl’s exclamation could have been admiration, or lament.

Blood created a rainbow.

The hatchet was digging into the girl’s shoulder.