I Tried To Be Her Loyal Sword

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9 화

I recalled last night when I was swinging a metal pipe.

‘What if rumors spread that there’s a punk swinging a metal pipe around the capital?’

I clicked my tongue lightly and swung the pipe back and forth.

‘Well, it’s better than a sword, anyway.’

If I exerted even a little force, I’d probably cause immediate death, but as long as I managed it well, I didn’t think it would actually kill anyone.

“Let go! What do you want? Money? I’ll give you as much as you want, just let her go!”

“You nobles… Hmph! You think everything can be solved with money. Grr, sadly, this time, even money won’t save you. Hah!”

A man laughed crudely, his hands on the woman’s body. The woman, starting to tremble, was too frozen to even resist.

Crash!

I slammed the metal pipe down in front of the man’s feet, engulfed in a black aura, like some possessed being.

“Yikes!”

The man jumped back, pulling his hands away from the woman. The confident facade he had displayed just moments ago was replaced by a frightened rodent-like expression that made me frown involuntarily.

‘… Disgusting.’

It was right for the first person to find rubbish to clean it up. I walked forward with a tidy mindset.

“Wh-who are you?!”

The startled man yelled at me. Ignoring him, I cautiously approached the now terrified woman, who was still trembling from the awful pipe.

“Are you okay?”

The voice, altered strangely due to magical tools, filled the alley. The woman flinched but barely nodded.

“Your dress is dusty.”

I tenderly brushed the dirt off her dress to soothe her. I intended to help her relax, but somehow she looked even more rigid.

‘… I’m not good at this kind of thing.’

Since I had always been out hunting monsters since childhood, my relationships with people had always been awkward. I roughly pulled the metal pipe out of the ground, leaving only a little protruding.

“Wh-who the hell are you?! W-why are you doing this?!”

His tone quickly shifted to formal language, his eyes spinning aimlessly in confusion, an expression of cowardice on his face.

His tendency to be strong against the weak and weak against the strong was becoming increasingly annoying.

“You really don’t know? You pathetic dog yearning for scraps.”

I muttered in a chilling voice and slowly continued walking. The man trembled like a scared creature, stepping back, but behind him was a dead-end wall. He had turned pale.

“From your clothes… Ugh, you’re a commoner too, aren’t you?”

The cornered man shouted.

“If you’re also a commoner… Ugh, you know how nobles treat us commoners! They treat us like dogs and pigs! That woman just, ugh, called me dirty when she walked by!”

He pointed at the woman. She shivered violently.

Indeed, this Empire had a ridiculously clear class system. The poor commoners always lived in poverty, while the noblemen constantly lived in wealth. Commoners were not even allowed to speak freely to nobles. Nobles treated commoners like slaves.

It was an incredibly unfair world.

I turned to look at the woman. The once rigid figure turned pale as she met my gaze and shook her head.

“N-no! I mean, I did say dirty, but…! It was because this jerk bumped into my shoulder while drunk…”

“Does bumping into someone justify calling them dirty?”

‘Isn’t that a bit over the top?’

The woman shut her mouth tightly at my rebuttal. Her eyes trembled slightly. Raising her previously lowered head, she glared at me fiercely.

“Are you going to harm me now?”

Even though her eyes were filled with fear, her voice was stiff with pride.

‘Afraid that I might switch gears and harm her, yet…

she couldn’t throw away her pride. She was a perfect noblewoman.

“Look at that! Ugh! You don’t even plan to apologize!”

The man, reeking of alcohol, shouted. I stole a glance at him, and he was passionately ranting away.

“Nobles are all worthless scum! Hmph! They think we’re just dogs licking their feet! If you’ve lived as a commoner, you’d know, ugh, what it’s like!”

His words were filled with a madness close to rage. It was easy to guess he had suffered as a commoner.

I stood there with my arms crossed, listening to his words, and eventually, he said something he shouldn’t have.

“So, I have the right to harm nobles! Hmph! Those ignorant noble bitches deserve to be mistreated!”

Bang!

The pipe landed right next to the man’s face. Startled, he sank to the ground without even a scream.

“You sure have a loud mouth.”

I wanted to wipe my ears clean from the nonsense I had just heard. I walked forward with a sneer. The pathetic body of the man sprawled on the ground was still trembling.

“Wh-what!”

“I don’t care how much you’ve suffered from nobles or what kind of life you’ve lived.”

With a pull, I yanked the metal pipe out of the wall. The fear flickered in the man’s eyes. His body seized up, not even able to raise his face under the murderous aura I exuded as I lifted his chin with the pipe.

“But what I do know is,”

I too had grown familiar with the tyranny of nobles. There were times on my journey when a noble’s request came in, forcing me to backtrack, and times when a noble, in admiration of me, had forced me into their bed.

If I were to choose between liking or disliking nobles, I would definitely choose ‘dislike.’ Not all nobles were bad, but the ones I had encountered were not even human. I had long severed my ties with the noble class.

Yet still.

“No other victimhood can justify another offense.”

Nothing could justify an offense.

Sin was simply sin.

“But offenders should feel pain.”

The black aura that had been swirling around me slithered into the man’s body with fury.

“Kahhh!”

Completely unaware, the man screamed as the aura entered him. Not wanting to hear his ear-piercing shriek, I bound his mouth shut and wrapped him in the energy. He struggled uselessly, unable to move an inch.

The aura, as natural as it was, became the deadliest weapon when swung with killing intent, but when it entered the body under a Sword Master’s control, it didn’t become poison.

‘Rather, it just gives the body a taste of hell.’

When untrained bodies received the aura, it induced the utmost agony. It was a clear case of too much of a good thing.

•I originally intended to just give him a little smack with the pipe, but this had become my retribution against the offender.

I turned my head swiftly. The woman, who had been watching blankly, gasped and opened her eyes wide in shock.

“I’ll take care of this, so you should leave.”

It was a voice remarkably reserved for someone addressing a noble, but having done a good deed, I figured it warranted some leniency as I waved my hand.

The woman, staring at me with somewhat dazed eyes, blushed and opened her mouth.

“What is your name?”

‘Why are you asking me this now?’

I narrowed my eyes at her inquisitive gaze, and she hurriedly added.

“Reward! I want to reward you for helping me!”

Her desperate addition seemed like a hastily concocted excuse. Even though I was baffled, I shook my head.

“It’s fine. I didn’t do this for a reward.”

With my firm rejection, she anxiously bit her lip. Not intimidated, she stepped closer and grabbed my hand.

“Then, how about having a meal with me? I really want to thank you!”

“Unfortunately, I have prior commitments.”

‘Because Aria is waiting for me.’

The woman seemed eager to cling to me, but all I could think about in my head was that I needed to get to Aria quickly.

‘But…

I glanced at the hand that was holding mine. Her hand was trembling violently.

‘Her complexion is too pale. Her pupils are dilated.’

This felt like the precursor to fainting.

‘It’s too rough a trial for someone who’s lived as a noble her entire life.’

The woman was barely holding on to her consciousness, but I feared she wouldn’t last much longer.

I wasn’t the kind of person to leave someone collapsed on the ground. I was willing to provide post-service by taking her to the scouts.

As I reached out to support the wobbling woman.

“My name is Lewellin Deckardo.”

I froze.

“If you ever want a reward, you can visit the Deckardo Marquis family…”

Thud.

The woman collapsed helplessly.

After a moment of shock, I finally took a good look at the woman.

‘Her brilliantly flowing rose-colored hair. Eyes as vivid green as summer leaves. Sharp features reminiscent of a feral cat. Lips that made you want to kiss them the moment you laid eyes on her.’

She perfectly encapsulated the cliched image of a villainess.

“The Empress of the Social Circle, Lewellin Deckardo.”

The woman who had just collapsed was the main villainess of the novel “Fairy’s Night,” Lewellin Deckardo.

‘Could it be that the ominous aura I had been feeling was…

A chill ran down my spine. The dread I hadn’t felt since becoming a Sword Master seized my body.

As a Sword Master, I shouldn’t have failed to sense the presence of someone else in this alley. From the moment I stepped foot in here, I knew someone strong was watching over this place.

Yet, I had let it slide because I had felt that this person was weaker than me. I knew that before wearing a mask, no one had ever directed their gaze towards me.

I thought it wouldn’t matter if someone saw this situation as long as my true face remained hidden.

But now that I had saved Lewellin and this observer was ‘that’ person, it changed everything.

The main villainess of “Fairy’s Night,” Lewellin Deckardo, commonly known as ‘The Rose That Eats Money,’ the youngest daughter of the Deckardo Marquis family and pinnacle of wealth.

Before Aria appeared, Lewellin had maintained her role as the Empress of the Social Circle, harboring a crush on one of the male leads, ‘Reiner Ainheart.’

‘And the trigger for Lewellin’s infatuation with Reiner, according to the original story, was…’

It was when Reiner rescued Lewellin from a perilous situation.

Meaning, right now, Lewellin was supposed to be falling for Reiner.

Clang.

“I’ve been very impressed with you.”

I had completely twisted the narrative because of myself.

Someone landed behind me from the wall. I clenched my teeth at the obvious presence.

‘Damn it!’

As the excited footsteps approached me, I couldn’t bear to turn around and swallowed hard. I wanted to vanish right there.

Reiner Kartel le Noa Ainheart. A skilled individual standing before the Sword Master, the heir to the Ainheart Marquis family, commander of the Royal Second Knights Order, and,

“Ah, you’re the Sword Master.”

A complete sword enthusiast.