ALL NOVEL Chapter 5
5 Chapter
Thud.
A silence filled with astonishment lingered in the alley. Some assassins dropped their weapons.
“……Mir?”
The man, who was trying hard to cover his wounds with his hands, stared blankly as if he couldn’t believe it. Without a word, I turned my stiff neck.
Sword Masters are those who hold a single sword and have transcended human limits. The flow of nature respects those who have surpassed their limits.
The pure aura created by a Sword Master is the answer they found by going beyond their limits. Each answer is unique, so the aura’s color varied from person to person, and the murkier it was, the rougher the answer.
The cruel sword I had found surged through the assassins like a tidal wave.
“Ahh!”
It took only a few minutes to sort out the situation. I expected it, but it was indeed a rather dull match.
“Why is Mir here……!”
The hand of the now lone third-rate villain assassin trembled. There were only three in the massive Solatine Empire officially recognized as Sword Masters, so it was no wonder he was shocked.
“But I’m a swordsman standing before a Sword Expert! I will confront you!”
A faint blue glow, barely noticeable unless looked at closely, coated the assassin’s sword.
“Haah!”
With an excessive shout, the assassin charged at me. I easily blocked it.
“Ugh, blocking my sword……! This guy is something!”
‘Ah, please……’
My hands began to cramp, threatening to drop the pipe. The face hidden behind the mask contorted in a grimace. I had intended to give him a few courtesy strikes, but his foolishness was painful to endure.
‘Let’s just end this.’
I decided to respect my ears.
“Y-You!”
The long sword and my pipe clashed with a loud noise. I minimized my aura output, fearing the local people would come out, and pierced sharply.
I spun halfway around the assassin, delivering a strong kick to his knee.
“Ugh!”
As the assassin fell to his knees, I stepped firmly on his back and struck down at the nape of his neck. With a sharp sound, he lost consciousness. Situation resolved.
‘I must not cause trouble in the village.’
To prepare for any unpredictable situation, I delicately adjusted my aura, binding the assassins tightly and tossing them far into the forest like a lasso.
‘I threw them weakly enough that they wouldn’t die, so they should know to survive.’
Indifferently thinking that, I stuffed the pipe into my pocket and dusted off my hands.
There was no one in this world who deserved death, but there were those who could be dealt with a little more roughly—like assassins who made a profession out of killing.
“You…… who are you?”
The man who had been staring blankly at me finally spoke up. I looked him straight in the eyes.
Soft, light brown curly hair. Attractive, slightly upward slanted eyes. Overall, he had a sleek vibe, but his face was sharp and solid. With red, plump lips and deep blue eyes resembling the ocean.
‘Insane.’
Even I, who had trained while gazing upon the most beautiful aria of the world, doubted my eyes at how beautiful he was.
‘It would be a huge loss for our Empire to lose a beauty like you.’
I barely resisted the urge to blurt out my superficial, appearance-centered reply.
‘Wait, a magic tool?’
I squinted for a moment. Focusing on the man, I sensed a faint magical aura emanating from him.
‘A magic tool that hides external appearances, and the source is a ring?’
A magic tool that conceals appearances is expensive even at the low end. If it was dull enough to hide the magical energy sensed even by a Sword Master, it surely must be quite pricey.
‘So he’s a rich guy.’
I clicked my tongue at the thought that things might become more troublesome than expected and approached the man to examine his injuries. The wound on his abdomen was quite deep, but it was treatable.
“Just hold on.”
I tore a strip from the hem of my long cloak and roughly applied it to his wound. The flustered man groaned but gripped my hand tightly.
“What are you doing? Why are you helping me?”
‘Like a puffed-up cat.’
I clicked my tongue slightly and answered nonchalantly.
“I told you, I’m a prince on a white horse, didn’t I?”
I stuffed the cloth into his wound. The man shot me a sharp look, but I had no time to consider his pain.
‘I thought someone raised in luxury wouldn’t be used to pain.’
His demeanor, gritting his teeth and enduring pain like it was familiar, was puzzling, but that wasn’t important right now. I quietly pushed the cloth until the bleeding stopped.
“Can you walk?”
He weakly shook his head. I sighed lightly and supported him. He flinched slightly at my touch but didn’t refuse help.
“Why did Mir just save my life? Did you take a contract?”
Even while being dragged along, he persistently questioned me. I rolled my eyes and answered without much enthusiasm.
“I didn’t take a contract. I was saving you to rob you of your clothes and valuables and to demand a ransom. Are you satisfied now?”
As I dragged him along, I cleared the branches that hung low across the path. He let out a hollow laugh.
“With that tone, you sure expect me to believe you.”
“What’s wrong with my tone?”
“You’re really lacking sincerity.”
“Sharp as ever.”
Once again, he chuckled softly. His blue eyes were locked onto me. Unlike the way he was matching my cadence, his eyes were cold and detached.
“Tell me the reason you saved me.”
“I already told you, because I’m a prince on a white horse.”
“Hah, so I’m a princess in danger now?”
“You know it well.”
“Absurd. I’ve only played the role of the prince on a white horse in my life.”
“You might enjoy trying out a new role this time.”
“Hah, hahaha!”
With a bothersome face, I answered nonchalantly, and he burst into loud laughter. As he laughed, the pain opened up his wound, and he took a deep breath to glance at me.
“Hey, won’t you tell me your name too?”
“You know it. It’s Mir.”
“Not that. What’s your real name?”
At the calm man’s question, I frowned slightly and looked back at him. His blue eyes were calm, devoid of malice or intent.
‘I’m already suspecting you like this; if I don’t say anything, he’ll only suspect me more.’
However, I couldn’t disclose my real name. Revealing it now would be akin to confessing the identity of Mir, which I desperately wanted to keep hidden. After a moment of looking around, I answered indifferently.
“……Shushu.”
It was a nickname that people called me, so it was still a name. The man, who blinked, gazed at me with eyes full of laughter.
“That’s not your real name, is it?”
“What’s your name?”
As I turned the question back to him, he hesitated. After a while of pondering, he avoided my gaze and replied.
“……Didida.”
Kuhum.
A laugh escaped me involuntarily. The man rolled his eyes, and I couldn’t help but smirk.
“That doesn’t sound like your real name.”
“That’s impossible.”
Kik.
Didida and I laughed together. Even though it was nothing special, it was a moment where we both let go of our tension momentarily.
“Ugh.”
Of course, the laughter was brief. With Didida’s wound now opened from the laughter, I needed to move quickly.
The only place to lie down was the single-person portable bed; the cabin felt a bit bleak for living but was perfect for a laboratory.
“Are you a physician?”
Didida looked around at the cabin filled with various herbs, experimental tools, and medical books with wide eyes. His blue eyes sparkled prettily.
“I’ve just studied medicine a little.”
I too was lost in old memories as I slowly surveyed the cabin.
This cabin was the place where my efforts to cure Aria were embedded in every corner.
‘It was tough.’
From around eight years old when Aria started getting sick, my days were filled with working in the mornings and studying medicine all night long.
How many nights had I spent awake and how many experiments had I conducted here? Among the countless knowledge I acquired, how desperately had I wished for a method to heal Aria?
The traces of effort and despair were abundant in this cabin, making it a place of both love and resentment for me.
‘Now I know how to do it.’
Though it was frustrating to realize the answer that eluded me for so long in a hollow way, I had no regrets about the time spent.
I would never regret the time I spent for Aria.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
I sat Didida on the makeshift bed and began crushing herbs in a mortar on the cold table. Didida, seemingly comfortable and relaxed as he adapted to the cabin, observed me intently.
“Were you really going to tell me honestly why you saved me?”
‘Still going on about this?’
Annoyed, I turned my head and met his bright blue eyes. The eyes filled with suspicion and cold rationality held a chilling gaze that matched their hue.
“I told you the answer. I’m going to use you as a hostage to be rich.”
As I focused on making the medicine and casually replied, Didida’s narrow eyes gleamed sharply.
“Are you joking? I’m asking seriously. It doesn’t seem like you sent someone from the imperial palace, so why did you save me?”
‘The imperial palace……?’
A chill ran down my neck for a moment.
‘Do nobles even send help if one is in danger?’
As someone who didn’t understand the workings of nobles, I couldn’t know the answer. Amidst my unease, Didida wore a serious expression.
“If your aura wasn’t a true black and you were a bit taller, I might have thought you were the Duke of Crisis. The Duke of Crisis has an aura that’s close to black. If that were the case, he might have had a reason to save me as a subordinate, but Mir has no reason to save me at all.”
Duke of Crisis.
At the sound of that familiar yet strange name, my hand, which had been crushing herbs, froze momentarily. I moved my hand again right away, but Didida’s narrowed eyes caught my brief halt. I pretended not to notice.
‘The only duke of the Empire, Caesar Calad Kenis Crisis.’
He is the father of one of the male lead candidates, Kal Crisis, and my father. He is recognized as the strongest swordsman in the Empire and will soon lead the army in an upcoming war.
And he will die in that war.
‘With ebony-like beautiful black hair fluttering, gazing upon the battlefield with blood-red eyes devoid of emotion, they called him a massacre demon.’
I vaguely recalled the exaggerated descriptions of the duke from novels filled with excessive seasoning.
In the stories, he was depicted as a monster who killed his father and ascended to the title of duke. Caesar was said to possess a ruthless nature, devoid of blood or tears, with a cold temperament, and it was expressed that a bloody wind blows every day in the house of Crisis.
‘That’s precisely why I didn’t rush straight to the House of Crisis.’
Had he been a normal person, I would have remembered my past life as soon as I recalled Aria and rushed to the duke. I would have clung to his trousers, pleading for mercy based on kinship.
If it was Crisis, he would possess ‘that’ elixir that could surely heal Aria.
The essence of the Fairy Forest. It was the energy of the Fairy Forest condensed and extracted into liquid form; consuming even a single drop would have transformative effects.
‘Aria suffered because she lacked energy as a fairy. She could survive for ten years just by taking a drop…
The fairy spring I currently provided her had significantly less energy than the essence of the Fairy Forest. Normally, one would periodically visit the Fairy Forest to replenish their energy, but drinking the essence would instantly relieve any energy deficiency.
‘But the reason I haven’t gone so far…’
Was that since Duke Caesar severed his father’s head, he likely wouldn’t be attached to blood ties.
The House of Crisis was my strongest card, one I had to cherish until the end; perhaps it was a double-edged sword that should be kept unused if possible.