N/T: Translation made by our friend 'Irving'. A big round of applause for him :)
Chapter 570
(Note: Myriad Swords/Ten Thousand Swords changed to Versatile Sword)
Raon chewed his lips as he looked in the direction Rector had left.
‘I can't understand what he’s thinking.’
Rector seemed to want to say something, but at the same time, he didn't seem to want to say it. It was a crazy thought, but it really felt that way.
Thinking about his eyes, which had been dry as a desert but eventually revealed moisture, and the way he had shown the flow of the Ten Thousand Swords while fighting Aris, as if he were teaching swordsmanship, it seemed like he had come here to finish the teaching he had not been able to finish.
'It's crazy even to me.'
The story seemed ridiculous even to consider. Rector, who had revealed himself as a member of the Holy Sword Union and had claimed he would kidnap me, had actually come here to teach swordsmanship.
Yet his rationality leaned towards that direction.
'Is this self-rationalization?'
It seemed like his mind was trying to think positively because he didn't want to believe Rector's betrayal.
"Hoo..."
Raon sighing away the turmoil in his mind, approached Aris.
"Are you okay?"
"That damn old man, he held back, he didn't show his true strength.”
Aris frowned as she put her sword in its sheath.
"What do you mean?”
"The Sword Demon. If he had made up his mind, he could have cut off one of my arms, but he stopped after doing just enough."
She also knew that Rector hadn't gone all out.
"I underestimated him, the continent is vast.”
Aris looked at the sky, which was regaining its blue color, and then turned her gaze to the collapsed building. She looked at Merlin, who was standing there like a friendly ally, and tapped her sword sheath.
"Thanks for your help, but you're also after my nephew, aren't you?"
"So what?"
Merlin met Aris' eyes and nodded confidently.
"Wow, this is the first time I've seen a kidnapper so confident."
Aris laughed out loud as if she couldn't believe it.
"Not now, of course. I know it's not the right time.”
"Then why did you interfere the Sword Demon?"
“I get irritated when someone takes what's mine.”
Merlin waved her hand lightly as if to say why are you asking such an obvious question. Her black robe sparkled like an illusion.
"I'll come back again when I have the chance."
"Who sent you?"
"Wait a minute..."
Before she could even finish speaking, Aris drew her sword like lightning. Her swordsmanship reached Merlin before the blade could even be fully revealed.
Hwaaah!
However, It seems like that wasn't her real body, more like a hologram or something similar, as only her robe blurred without even receiving a small wound.
"Was it an illusion?"
"Something like that."
Merlin wagged her tongue at Aris as if teasing her.
"See you again."
She waved to Raon and disappeared like a bubble.
"Damn tricky magician…”
Aris muttered that she didn't really like Merlin and put the sword back in the scabbard.
Don't let your guard down!
Wrath, who had been hiding in fear since Merlin appeared, raised his head abruptly.
That crazy woman couldn't have just left! She must be hiding and watching!
'Come to think of it...'
As Wrath said, it seemed like Merlin was only pretending to be gone and would be watching this place by possessing another animal.
"What the hell is going on?"
Rimmer came over with a frown on his face.
"He didn't seem like the kind of person who would betray us..."
He also sighed as if he couldn't believe that Rector was a member of the Holy Sword Union.
"Your arm..."
Aris finally noticed that Rimmer's right arm was cut off and her eyes widened.
"You don't have to look at it like that. It was just an investment for the future."
Rimmer grinned and waved his left hand.
"Future?"
“Our division leader lost his arm while protecting us.”
Raon touched Rimmer's shoulder with his fingertips.
"Protecting you?"
Aris rolled her eyes as if to ask for an explanation of what happened.
"This crazy guy went into a trance on the battlefield."
"That can't be helped. It's not like you can choose to go into a trance."
"He did it on purpose."
Aris' eyes widened as Rimmer shook his head.
"Are you, for real?"
"Yes."
Raon scratched his head and nodded.
"We were in a situation where annihilation seemed inevitable, so I had no choice but to take a gamble.”
"Ha!"
Aris burst into a laugh as if in disbelief.
"So he went into a trance on the battlefield, woke up, and killed the rest of them?"
"That's about right."
"Kruuuh!”
She let out a gasp as if she had gulped down beer and stretched out her arms.
"That's my nephew! That's right. As a Zieghart, if you're going to wield a sword, you have to do crazy things like that!”
Aris hugged Raon, praising him repeatedly for either doing what he did or because the outcome was good.
"Ugh, wait, just a moment."
Raon struggled to get away, but Aris didn't let go and rubbed her cheek against Raon's. His pounding heart calmed down, perhaps because of the cool and refreshing sea scent that only she possessed.
"Aunt! Stop it!"
"Oh! Nephew!"
It wasn't until she called him 'aunt' that Aris let go of her tightly clenched arm.
"Right. I told you to call me aunt. I worked so hard to get you used to it, so why did you go back to calling me Lady Aris?" (Aris-nim)
"It's hard to call you that in the family."
"Who's stopping you? I'll take care of them!"
“It’s the head of house….”
“…….”
Aris gulped and shook her head.
“T-that person is fine. He’s my father.”
She awkwardly smiled, only calling Glenn her father at times like this.
“We greet Lady Aris Zieghart.”
The members of the Light Wind bowed their heads to Aris. Currently, Aris had no position within Zieghart, so they addressed her by name and showed respect.
“Why are we being so formal with each other? We’re family.”
Aris waved her hand with a grin.
“Just call me Aris. Oh, come to think of it, don’t I have two more nephews here?”
“B-Burren Zieghart.”
I'm Martha! Nice to meet you!”
Burren hesitantly stepped forward, while Martha, perhaps because he had seen Aris’s strength, jumped out with sparkling eyes.
"Yeah. Nice to meet you two!
Aris embraced Burren and Martha, laughing heartily.
“You two are no less than Raon. Masters at such a young age! That’s much faster than I was!”
Impressed by Burren and Martha, she praised them while affectionately patting their heads.
“……..”
Runaan, who was left alone, stood blankly for a moment before approaching Aris and hugging her first.
“W-who are you?”
Aris also seemed surprised by Runaan’s actions and her eyes shook.
“It’s Runaan Sullion.”
“Ah, you’re Rokan’s daughter!”
She smiled broadly, calling Rokan by name.
“That’s right. You come here too! No. Everyone come here!”
Aris greeted all the members of the Light Wind, perhaps to lighten the heavy atmosphere. Thanks to her unique charisma and refreshing personality, the atmosphere quickly brightened.
“But….”
Aris frowned and turned her gaze.
“What was your relationship with the Sword Demon?”
She only brought up the most sensitive question after greeting everyone.
“Um….”
“That’s….”
All of the Light Wind members lowered their heads without saying a word, as they had all been close to the Sword Demon and had even received swordsmanship training from him.
“Sir Rector taught us many things.”
Raon exhaled and opened his lips.
“When I went to the Arianne family before….”
He briefly explained how he met the Sword Demon and how they got along.
“I see.”
Understanding why the atmosphere had become tense, Aris nodded.
Surprisingly, she neither offered comfort nor encouragement. Perhaps because it wasn’t something she had experienced herself, she seemed to be careful with her words. She was an adult who knew exactly when to step in and when not to.
“You, come talk to me.”
“Eh? Why me? I'm the patient here!”
Aris waved goodbye to the Light Wind members and disappeared, dragging Rimmer with her.
"The Sword Demon is part of the Holy Sword Union? What the hell is going on?"
Burren sighed as he watched Rimmer being dragged away.
"It was just for fun! He was making fun of us!"
Martha pursed her lips, feeling resentful that Rector had played with them.
"...."
Understood. If Lunan and Runaan are the same person, the sentence would be:
Runaan remained silent, quietly gazing at the sky. Having experienced the incident caused by his brother, this current situation seemed to weigh heavily on her.
"What do you think, Vice division leader? Is it really a betrayal?"
Dorian, looking anxious, took out a snack from his pocket and chewed on it while shaking his chin.
"I don't know either."
Raon shook his head weakly, unlike his usual self. He was so confused, even more than the Light Wind members, that he had nothing to say.
"However, it's clear that Sir Rector is an enemy. Let's make sure to remember that."
"Yes...."
The Light Wind members nodded slowly. It was a response that was completely drained of energy, but they didn't press him.
"Let's report it first."
"Yes...."
As Raon reached out, Dorian took out the report form. Judging by the fact that it took him 5 seconds longer than usual to take out the item, it seemed like he was also very tired.
"Thank you."
He patted Dorian's shoulder and put his pen to the report. He pondered over what to write, and after writing down everything that had happened here, he tore up the part about the Sword Demon at the end.
'I want to tell him this in person.'
Glenn had shown a close friendship with Rector while competing with him in his swordsmanship training.
He had also seen the two of them talking to each other often lately, so he didn't want to report this in writing.
'Instead....'
He wrote a short note on the back page, something he wouldn't normally have written, and then handed it back to Dorian.
"I'll send it right away."
Dorian handed over Shielen he was carrying on his back to Krein and put the report in an envelope, preparing to send it to Zieghart.
Raon sighed as he looked at Shielen, whose expression was still hardened even though she was unconscious.
'I think I know, just a little bit, how hard it is for you.'
* * *
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Chad, the master of the Shadow Agents, ran to the audience chamber and knocked on the door.
"Head of house!"
Even before the knock could resonate inside, the door opened and Roenn's face with a faint smile appeared.
"Please come in."
"Thank you."
Chad bowed to Roenn and entered the audience chamber.
Glenn, sitting on the throne, seemed to be in a bad mood, frowning and shaking his legs. The audience chamber seemed to vibrate with the shaking of his legs.
"What is it?"
Glenn raised his empty eyes, as if to say to hurry up and tell him what he needed.
"I, I received a message from the vice division leader of Light Wind Division."
"What?”
As Chad pulled out the envelope from his pocket, a gleam of interest appeared in Glen's eyes. He lifted himself from the throne, gesturing cheerfully.
“Are the children okay?”
“Yes. There are some seriously injured, but no deaths reported. However, there was a problem in the middle….”
“Problem?”
“Yes. It seems that the Dragon Swordmaster, who appears to be in charge of the Holy Sword Union swordsmen, and Cloud, the disciple of the Holy Sword Union leader, arrived sooner than expected. The two of them immediately engaged in battle….
“Hmm….”
Glenn frowned, giving the impression that he didn’t like the speed at which Chad was reading the report.
“Can’t you read it a little faster?”
“Ah, f-fast, I’ll read it faster!”
Chad wiped his forehead, perhaps because he was nervous he dropped his sweat on the report he was holding.
“Oh no!”
Glenn was startled and reached out, and the report that Chad was holding was sucked into his palm.
“Ahem….”
Glenn evaporated the sweat that had soaked into the report and glared at Chad.
‘To let sweat touch something so precious!’
It was not common for Raon to write reports. Glenn was furious at Chad for daring to drop sweat on something that should be kept for a lifetime.
However, he couldn’t show it outright, so he just scowled and read the report.
Raon’s writing was calm and collected.
It was written in a plain-spoken manner about how he had tried to stop the betrayal of house Rakion advance, but had to kill a large number of house Rakion's swordsmen because Juan would not back down. It also described how he had then dealt with the disciple of the Holy Sword Union leader and the Dragon Swordmaster who had come after him.
‘That child took care of the rotten buds I should have eradicated.’
It had been decades since the advancement of Zieghart had stopped. It was only natural that there would be problems both internally and externally. He had been trying to deal with the vassals one by one after cleaning up the internal problems, but Raon had taken care of it as if there was no need for him to do so. The word ‘magnificent’ was not enough to describe it.
“Remarkable achievement.”
Chad raised his head slightly.
“If house Rakion had been hiding their true intentions, they would have struck us from behind at some point. It’s an understatement to say that it’s great that he stopped them before that happened.”
“The same goes for the Sullion family. If it hadn’t been for the young master Raon, Sullion family would have fallen into Syria’s hands by now.”
Roenn added a word to his statement.
“Ahem….”
Glenn nodded, his eyes ambiguous, not showing whether he liked it or not.
"Regardless of how it turned out, that rascal Rimmer must feel relieved now.”
He thought briefly of Rimmer's revenge finally coming to an end.
“I suppose so.”
Roenn also nodded with a faint smile.
"Then, will that guy go back to how he was before?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure about that. He’s fallen further than I expected….”
"Um, excuse me…”
Chad raised his hand with a pale face.
“Did you happen to check the back page?”
“Back page?”
“Yes. There’s something else on the back.”
He emphatically nodded, saying Glenn must see it.
“Hmm….”
Glenn turned the report around. The moment he saw just one line of content, his lips trembled with a bluish hue.
“He, he became a Grandmaster? That child became a Grandmaster?!”
Glenn crushed the armrest of the throne and jumped up.
“Heheheh….”
Even Roenn seemed surprised, his laughter stopping abruptly.
“Damn it!”
Glenn stomped his foot so hard that the platform shook.
“Eek!”
Chad, startled, retreated backward.
'Why, why is he reacting like that?’
He thought Glenn would be happy to hear the news, but he didn’t expect him to get so angry.
‘Didn't he cherish the vice leader of Light Wind so much?’
As he looked at Glenn, thinking it was strange, his lips slowly parted.
"I thought it wasn't the time yet, but he is already breaking the wall! To think I missed seeing that myself!”
Glenn, feeling unjust for not witnessing Raon's moment of breaking the wall, shattered the last armrest of the remaining throne into dust.
Crackle!
A red energy spontaneously rose, enveloping the platform. It felt as if an impending red storm was on the verge of striking.
"Aris. If it wasn't for that damn thing, I would have seen the child breaking the wall of Grandmaster with my own two eyes!”
"Ah...."
Chad's mouth gaped open.
‘Was that it?’
Glenn wasn't angry that Raon had become a Grandmaster, rather, he bitterly regretted not personally witnessing that moment.
‘Let’s not think about it.’
I just need to look good to Raon Zieghart.
Chad clenched his fist, determined to welcome Raon and the Light Wind Division more grandly than ever before.
* * *
Raon heard that Shielen was awake and headed to her room.
“Si, Sir Raon!”
Shielen rolled out of bed and got up right away to run over. The bruises on her thighs and arms, which had become even paler, caught his eye.
“What about my father and brothers?”
Even though the child had been tortured by her family, she asked about her father and brothers as soon as she woke up.
“Sigh…”
Raon exhaled softly and knelt down to meet Shielen’s eyes.
“I’m sorry. I tried my best, but I couldn’t keep my promise.”
“…”
Shielen swallowed hard, sinking back.
“Then…”
“The magic of the Cursed Sword had spread to his bones, and there was no other way.”
Juan Rakion was so consumed by madness that he was sucking the life out of not only his subordinates, but also his own biological son and daughter. There was no alternative but to kill him.
“Actually…”
Shielen trembled her eyelids and clenched the carpet with her small fist.
“I knew it the moment I woke up. That my wish and the outcome were different.”
“…”
"Still, I tried to hope, but the bad feeling wasn't wrong.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you said you did your best.”
The child forced a smile and shook her head.
“What will happen to me now?”
Shielen raised her trembling eyes. It seemed that sadness was more deeply embedded than fear.
"Given that I'm the daughter of a traitorous vassal family, will I be confined in Zieghart's underground prison?”
“That won’t happen.”
Raon shook his head. The current Glenn would never do such a thing, and even if he did, he would prevent it.
“What do you want to do?”
“I…”
Shielen lowered her head and thought for a moment before raising her head.
“I want to protect this house.”
“The house?”
“Yes. Because it’s where I lived with my father, mother, and brothers.”
The child bit her lip, saying that she wanted to protect even the remaining memories of her family.
“Hmm…”
Raon sighed briefly.
‘Can she do it?’
Although about half of house Rakion's members had survived, there was no guarantee that they would follow Shielen. Even if they did, it would be a difficult path for a young child.
“It’s going to be tough.”
"I'll be fine.”
Shielen nodded her head confidently, as if she had already made up her mind. Her eyes were straight and clear, as if she had made up her mind in this short moment.
'Well, after all, she's a child who tried to expose the corruption of her family.’
This child went to the Zieghart branch directly to save her family and revealed the corruption of her family. She would be able to overcome the difficulty of reviving her family.
"Then let's go to Zieghart with me."
"Zieghart?"
"Yeah. You need to meet the head of house."
"Hmm..."
"Don't worry. The head of house is a wise person."
"Ah, I see."
Shielen clenched her small fist and nodded.
"We'll leave tomorrow. Rest up."
After advising Shielen to rest, Raon left her room.
The little girl is amazing!
Wrath sniffed his nose.
In this family, there are crazy people like you, but there are also admirable kids like her that you can't hate!
Wrath teared up while giving compliments, and Raon thought, 'Yeah, at that time, I should've been a bit more naive.’
Only now did he seem to understand why Sylvia had told him that she wished he had been a little more innocent.
Raon sighed briefly, looking up at the dark night sky.
'I'm tired.'
The injury was not serious, but he felt mentally exhausted because of Rector's betrayal. He missed home and wanted to see Sylvia and the people in the annex building.
'And that person too.'
Strangely enough, he even missed seeing Glenn's face. He wanted to hear Glenn say, in a cold voice, that he had worked hard.
"I miss everyone."
Raon awkwardly smiled, and as he did, the bushes on the right side of the lodging rustled. A raccoon popped out and pointed to itself.
"Me too?"
“…”
Raon closed his eyes tightly.
