Book 7 Chapter 25

As he stroked his torn gums and his swollen, bruised cheek from being beaten by the ronin, a distant past suddenly came to mind.

- I told you not to use your strength like that!

The voice of the Dean, Auntie, who slapped his cheek and cried on the day he first tried to kill someone…

'I should have done that to Tureina, too.'

He should have beaten her to within an inch of her life and told her what she did wrong and how.

But she's already dead…

In the refreshing night breeze sweeping through the reed beds by the water, he tilted his head back and looked up at the star-filled sky.

A quiet suburb of Aurelinople.

As he was stroking Aki's hair, who was asleep with his head on his lap, Valencidis approached silently.

"What do you think of this incident?"

"I think it's too sloppy an attack for Zernix. No, it didn't even seem like an attack to begin with."

"So you think it's a trap."

"On the surface, it seemed like they were trying to provoke you into crossing the continent… but in my opinion, it seemed like they were trying to prevent you from coming, for some reason."

"You mean they're trying to prevent us from coming by talking as if there are many traps laid out?"

"Yes. The opponent is a thousand-year-old serpent. If you think only in a one-dimensional way, you'll see blood. Why did they specifically attack with such insignificant forces? What are they aiming for?"

A thousand-year-old serpent… Indeed, there's more than one suspicious point.

The Yellow City, Laphtas.

It's one of the Seven Great Cities located at the extreme southwest of the Adrion continent, and to put it simply, it's quite close to the Fire Realm.

'Are they aware of where I'm going, planning to stop by on the way…?'

Could the immense danger on the Adrion continent that Karenden spoke of refer to Zernix?

If so, what's incomprehensible is why he doesn't come directly to find me. I don't know why he's giving me time to grow.

'Or is he plotting something sinister in Laphtas? And that's why he can't move?'

Should I cross the continent quickly to stop that? No, that's dismissed.

Karenden told me to cross the continent as slowly as possible. Otherwise, I would die. Whether it was Zernix or anyone else.

"Let's reconsider this later. How is that guy?"

"His Manaheart and numerous qi flows were in a state of qi deviation, so he had to overcome several crises. If it weren't for the help of the Grand Sorceress, he would have become a cripple."

"Zernix did that to him. He attached a strange magic power to his Manaheart."

"So it was true."

The witch who was newly appointed as the Grand Sorceress of the Aurelinople Witch Association was a survivor of the Red Mountain incident, so they were able to receive considerable help.

If it had been another witch, a great commotion would have occurred before Juliana intervened.

Because his and Valencidis's existence in the Red Mountain incident was kept top secret.

"His bodily wounds are like that, but his emotional wounds cannot be healed by any magic. He became an orphan overnight, you see."

The conversation paused briefly.

He felt something pricking inside his skull. He constantly moved his stiffening tongue.

"Speaking of the Cheonhwa Sect… was it really Tureina who did it?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm certain. I was there. I'm also the one who saved that woman."

"Really?"

"Tureina made me cast a barrier over the area and spearheaded all the massacres. Because her power shouldn't be detected by the witches."

"…"

"When I lifted the barrier and went up, only that woman was alive. Tureina told me to kill her for sure, but I let her live. It seems to have become an even more cruel thing."

Valencidis said that and let out a self-deprecating, yet somewhat sad, cynical laugh.

"Even if I was just following orders, the fact that I am also an accomplice remains unchanged. This blood cannot be washed away by anything."

"Hey, Valencidis…"

"I brewed medicinal herbs given by the Grand Sorceress and made porridge. You should take it. I don't have the right."

I don't have the right, either. I wanted to say that. Because I'm the teacher of the guy who spearheaded that massacre.

I knew Tureina had committed unspeakable atrocities behind the scenes of her selection. I knew it in words, but my mind couldn't accept it.

But wasn't it called karma? I couldn't even imagine that the result of those atrocities would appear in such a distinct form.

'Damn it…'

The nutritious porridge Valencidis made was barley porridge, brewed with deer antler, ginseng, and other ingredients given by the Grand Sorceress.

After Pipi devoured a few spoonfuls, he carried Aki on his back and entered the cabin, where the guy was awake.

He was barely leaning against the headboard of the bed, but his eyes, mixed with deep sorrow and anger, were so sharp that they were intimidating.

Her name was Celine.

"Will you kill me?"

Celine, whose features were sharp and eyelashes dark, giving her a strong impression as if she had powdered her face even without makeup, said that abruptly.

"What?"

"I heard from the Grand Sorceress that you were the one who dealt with that fake Tureina. So I should actually be grateful."

I didn't deal with her.

It was too late, so I had no choice but to let her be dealt with.

"And that conical hat is a trophy… it's a secret, so I won't tell anyone, don't worry."

And it's not a trophy either.

It's originally mine. My disciple cherished it for 300 years.

Celine let out a desolate sigh and tilted her head back.

"Since that woman is dead, I have no reason to live anymore."

"…"

"I know that empty apologies mean nothing. I have no money or wealth to pay as atonement. All I have is this body that couldn't die."

So do as you please.

Kill me, take my limbs or organs. Or sell me as a slave in the Southern Republic's slave market.

Having finished speaking, Celine gazed at the moon reflecting on the water through the wide-open window.

"There's something I want to ask first."

He asked as he placed the bowl of porridge on the side table.

"Do you remember what kind of man that was, who came with you?"

"I don't know exactly. He said he would give me the power to kill Tureina, and if I accepted that power, he would also tell me her location."

Was that the thing that was parasitic on the Manaheart at the time?

Zernix, the more I see him, the more terrifying he is. Can he wield magic so freely?

That magic seemed to have even caused hallucinations, making me mistake him for Tureina. In other words, this guy was also used.

"If you had been deceived by someone you'd never met and something had happened, what about the Cheonhwa Sect? Do you know you almost died?"

As if that question was funny, as if it was laughable, a bitter smile, almost a sneer, returned.

"What kind of answer do you want? That I should rebuild the Cheonhwa Sect with my own hands? All by myself?"

Why was that?

Why was I asking such a thing at that moment?

"Next year, in the World Martial Arts Tournament, we'll immediately lose our status as a great sect, and we won't even make it into a small-to-medium sect, let alone a mid-tier one."

"…"

"We can't train new disciples in the ruins of a collapsing old dojo. Who would come? When we've become a laughingstock as a sect destroyed by one fake priestess."

As if such ridicule was flying from the world, Celine, who forced a laugh with her broken body, coughed up phlegm mixed with blood.

"Ha… I'm sorry, I'm not in my right mind right now… I should be apologizing to you, not taking my anger out on you…"

"It's okay."

"I'm alone, I've become alone… in just one day… I, I didn't survive… I don't know how you could understand this…"

He buried his face in his hands, and as he looked at Celine bearing the weight of her tears, he unconsciously responded.

"I understand."

That vast sense of loneliness that suddenly overwhelmed him…

He thought he had just escaped from the ice, but he couldn't help but understand the powerlessness of being left alone in a world where all connections were severed.

All his friends were dead, and his old disciple was consumed by darkness while waiting for him indefinitely, so he himself burned her with his own hands and buried her.

All that remained were the footprints they left behind in life, that vague yet immense world of solitude.

He knew it better than anyone.

So he could understand it.

"You understand?"

Celine glared at him with a hint of hostility in her eyes, but after a few seconds of eye contact, she let her head fall back against the headboard.

"It should have been someone like Piana Zenma who survived, not me… Pia was the most intelligent among us, and Zenma had the strongest tenacity, so they would have definitely rebuilt the sect somehow…"

In her stifled, sobbing voice, he could feel a fleeting daydream, like hope.

"Why me, of all people, to survive… they should have survived…"

Perhaps it was because he had lived, repeatedly dwelling on such agony, such sorrow. He could immediately recognize it.

This ronin, this woman named Celine, wanted to rebuild the Cheonhwa Sect.

But to bear such a burden alone, the sorrow of life was too great, and the pressure of reality was suffocatingly heavy.

- I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry.

Was it a product of his subconscious that a memory from the distant past resurfaced at this moment, or was Auntie the Dean wishing for this?

- I will educate him thoroughly, so please be lenient…

It was the day he first took the rank examination in his life. The day he earned 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rank all at once.

- Osarius School?

At that time, he utterly crushed the young master of the Serman family, who had lived his entire life in arrogant self-importance (they were one of the ten great clans under the Count Vlad family).

- What kind of trashy name is that school? The dean doesn't even have a name, so she must be a worthless trash wizard, right?

He didn't care much about being looked down upon.

But that guy insulted the school and his classmates who took him in when he had nothing, and also Auntie the Dean.

So he blasted him with all his might.

If the entire examination hall hadn't been covered with damage reduction and restoration barriers, that guy would have been torn limb from limb and died horribly.

- I saw earlier, Ken Serman, that you insulted that child's school…

It was an immense stroke of luck, or perhaps divine providence, that Ulan Page, the leader of the Magic Alliance, happened to be observing the examination at that time.

- Osarius was a close friend of Ryuken Ludwig, one of the five great archmages, during his lifetime. Ken, therefore, you have just insulted the Count Ludwig family.

When he, the greatest mage of his time, began to speak this way and attempted to mediate, the Serman side had no choice.

Other than being satisfied with Auntie the Dean bowing repeatedly in apology.

When the matter was finally settled, and he followed Auntie out of the examination hall with an expression that said he had done nothing wrong, he was slapped for the first time.

- I told you not to use your strength recklessly!

He had never been hit even once until then. Even if he couldn't use magic, even if he couldn't do his work… that was the first day Auntie ever hit him.

'That guy insulted Auntie and the school…' He defiantly raised his head and tried to argue, but soon he was speechless.

- Rin, you shouldn't use power like that. Power is highly addictive; once you start using it violently, you'll make all sorts of excuses and abuse it…

Because what shimmered delicately in the last rays of sunlight were Auntie's tears. Auntie suddenly hugged him tightly and said:

- Your power, that innate power, should not be used to harm someone like this. It's a gift from the gods to protect and cherish others…

Although he couldn't know the exact details, he wondered if his meeting with Rista hadn't been arranged by the Dean.

From that day on, Rista came to the school, and until he said he wanted to follow Rista, Auntie always had a look of deep worry on her face.

"Aki, wake up."

This is it. Just as Auntie did then, he was apologizing on behalf of his disciple.

He should have slapped Tureina and conveyed those very words. That she needed to grow up, that power shouldn't be used recklessly.

But now, his old disciple is already dead. What resides in the dragon's egg is a soul, not a memory.

"Aki, so-o-o sleepy."

While he couldn't give teachings, he could apologize as much as needed.

"This kid is my late-born younger sibling… he was born with a Heavenly Martial Physique, some old ronin told me that a long time ago."

Heavenly Martial Physique means a body of martial arts bestowed by heaven.

It is a body with transcendent magic power, divine power, spiritual power, and supernatural abilities, thanks to which one can learn all martial arts and wield any martial art dozens of times more powerfully than others.

It is a body that has been passed down as a legend among ronin, with Ryuminik, a ronin who was active with the epithet Mutian (舞天) during the period of upheaval 300 years ago, being a prime example.

Strictly speaking, Aki's potential would probably be even greater than that lecherous Ryuminik fellow.

Because a mortal body possesses magic, divine, spiritual, and supernatural powers that cannot be approached.

"Heavenly Martial Physique, that's absurd nonsense… I know he received the blessing of fire."

Celine, interrupting her own words and placing a hand on Aki's head as he stumbled with drowsiness, had her eyes widen dramatically the next moment.

"What is this… this unrealistic power? On par with the sect leader, no, perhaps even greater…"

He had read in a book once.

The World Martial Arts Tournament has four categories: junior, youth, adult, and elder, and the members of the Six Great Sects are determined by their performance in these categories.

Thanks to this, unlike the One Sword and Seven Blades, the composition of the Six Great Sects had the potential to change every year.

Of course, it rarely changed due to the enormous quality of human resources in the Six Great Sects.

"Transfer the Cheonhwa Sect's martial arts to Aki by next April. So he can participate in the tournament."

"What…?"

"I have somewhere to go, so I'll have to leave soon, but I think he'll more than conquer the junior tournament of the World Martial Arts Tournament."

It's too unscrupulous and modest to be called an apology, but if the rebuilding of the sect is their last remaining dream…

He wanted to help, even just a little.

It wasn't out of righteousness.

It was simply because, as Auntie the Dean had said then, correcting the mistakes of a beloved disciple was the teacher's responsibility.

"If you win in the adult division with your skill and Aki wins in the junior division, I think the prestige of the Cheonhwa Sect will definitely be revived, what do you say?"