Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 290

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
The Beacon (4)
(Absolute Loyalty to Brad)
Passive Skill
Grade: Legendary
Level: 1
Penalty: None
Mana Required: None
Effects:
·Demonstrates the most sublime chivalry.
·Protects one’s king by any means necessary, and when the king faces mortal peril, dramatic power surges forth, granting 20-30% greater strength than usual.
·Merely standing beside the king one serves increases all stats by 5%, as well as attack power, defense, and skill damage by 5%.
·When fighting to shield one’s king from catastrophic danger, one neither fears nor yields.
·However, under no circumstances can one inflict harm upon the king.
·Should any foreign power be stripped away, something extraordinary may transpire.
Description: A power bestowed by foreign forces, a skill that only a single knight may obtain.
Yet this, it could be said, stems not from the foreign power itself, but from Lucifer’s very nature.
This is a skill Lucifer possesses.
Crossing through another doorway to reach Alhyeon Hall, I harbor doubts.
‘Was loyalty forged by foreign power?’
A form of brainwashing?
I cannot say for certain.
Yet Hyeon-su shook his head at the word “nature” written at the end of the description.
‘Even if some foreign power forced loyalty upon him, it stems from Lucifer’s nature, just as the description states.’
Yes, Lucifer was born that way from the beginning.
Willing to sacrifice even his life to protect someone.
Giving much to those he deems his own.
A man who cultivated true chivalry through a nature that even knights could never possess.
When I think about it, I know Lucifer only incompletely.
I only know he fought to protect the kingdom from the demon Gremory.
Lucifer never told me anything.
Of course, my decision to wage war against this Enya Kingdom began with the mockery of the Blood King and his ilk.
I too am a man destined to be king.
Yet would I stand idle while the Blood King took Lucifer from me?
‘When such a thing occurs, do I yield again and again?’
One cannot become king through endless compromise and concession.
Crash—!
Alhyeon Hall requires passing through many doors to enter.
As I shatter another door and press forward, a voice reaches me.
[The knight Lucifer, once your servant, suffers in agony.]
[He is even prepared for his own death.]
Hyeon-su’s lips trembled as he watched, confusion flickering across his face.
Lucifer had finally broken free from his vassal state.
Yet such a notification still reached him.
‘There are no unnecessary notifications in Ares.’
This alert must be sounding because it was connected to the current situation.
Hyeon-su moved with greater urgency and finally reached the final door.
[Knight Lucifer has been brainwashed by the Dark Mage Lili’s control orb…]
‘I must destroy the orb with a surprise attack.’
Hyeon-su prepared the most perfect trinity.
In that process came the story.
And the king whom Lucifer had cherished since birth telling him to die.
‘If I had been in such a situation, what would I have done?’
It would have felt like the entire world was collapsing.
Hyeon-su released the bowstring.
Kuuuuuuuuuang—!
Crash—!
The castle gate tore open, and the arrow struck directly at the orb the Blood King was holding.
[The Dark Mage Lili’s control orb shatters.]
[Lucifer is freed from brainwashing.]
And to the shocked Lucifer, Hyeon-su flashed a bright smile.
Lucifer had been prepared to accept his own death. I wanted to give him relief.
Passing by him, my face twisted into something terrifying. I still had not forgotten yesterday’s humiliation.
The Blood King who had looked at me as though I wasn’t even worth his time.
He was now embedded in the wall.
*
*
*
Blood King Brad was disappointed.
The man who had sealed away the demon Gremory and possessed Knight Lucifer.
From the moment he first saw him, he thought him an unexpectedly weak creature.
He was merely the lord of a small territory.
To the Blood King who once ruled fifty million subjects, he was nothing but a child.
Thus, he felt no need to regard him as worthy of combat.
Moreover, Lucifer’s plea to spare him.
He had honored it.
Of course, it was a false promise.
He felt no need to reveal his true intentions to Lucifer at that moment.
‘After consuming Lucifer, I shall return and subjugate the Master Craftsman.’
Such was the dark scheme he harbored. But the moment the arrow struck him.
[You have taken 47,431 damage.]
A searing pain tore through my chest as an irresistible force slammed me against the wall.
The brainwashing orb I had carried for so long shattered completely.
The Blood King fell to the ground and regained his balance.
“Lucifer, what once suppressed you is now gone.”
Yet Lucifer remained unchanged before and after the orb’s destruction.
He still gripped his sword, but could not draw and wield it.
The Blood King understood why.
“The brainwashing orb merely helped him become more loyal. Lucifer has walked beside me his entire life.”
This stemmed from certainty.
“…Even without it, Lucifer cannot cut me down.”
The Blood King knew this as well.
It was Lucifer’s very nature.
In this medieval setting of Ares, no knight—not even one ordered to slay his own king—could easily raise his blade.
The ideologies of modern people differed from those who lived in Ares.
In other words, the shattering of the orb changed nothing of his loyalty to me.
“Curse you!”
“What is the meaning of this!”
Knight Commander Sun, who had pursued Hyeon-su, burst into Alhyeon Hall with hundreds of knights.
“…Lucifer.”
At Hyeon-su’s voice, Lucifer could not even rise with his sword in hand.
‘So that skill’s description manifests in such a way…’
No matter how sorrowful, no matter how desperate, Lucifer was born to live and die for a single king.
And the situation I faced was catastrophic.
[Blood King Brad Lv.542]
Brad stood before me.
‘Behind him, roughly 200 knights…’
I had failed to purge the strong knights, including Sun.
I had dealt them grievous wounds and forced my way through—that was all.
The greatest problem was the skills and MP I had exhausted on the way.
‘I thought if I only faced the Blood King, I might somehow escape with Lucifer.’
I was trapped between impossible choices.
‘There’s no way I can defeat the Blood King and hundreds of knights alone.’
My level had only just exceeded 400.
Considering the Blood King’s level was in the 540s, he was the strongest enemy I had ever faced.
A chill ran down my spine—
Cold sweat trickled down my back as every muscle in my body trembled uncontrollably.
Then Lucifer spoke.
“How did you come here?”
By Lucifer’s understanding, there was no way for Hyeon-su to reach this place.
“…on horseback.”
Lucifer regarded him with an incredulous expression, even as he joked in this dire situation.
“Friends, I’ve called them.”
Lucifer furrowed his brow.
“Why would you….”
“Who knows.”
Hyeon-su swallowed the rough words forming in his mouth.
“…you must know there’s no chance of winning?”
“…truthfully, yes.”
A swift admission.
The Knights closed the distance, while the Blood King watched with intrigue.
Thus Lucifer spoke.
“Run.”
Hyeon-su remained unmoved.
His broad, towering frame blocked Lucifer’s path. There was certainly no chance of victory.
“Let’s go home, Lucifer.”
Yet in this moment, I swapped from the Royal Sword to the Twin Dragon Blade.
The swapped Twin Dragon Blade stretched toward the heavens, displaying an unyielding pride.
Even if it shattered.
Even so, I would not abandon Lucifer and flee.
[There is a vow sworn to mountain and sea…]
[Loyal righteousness remains the same, yesterday and today.]
The crimson-stained inscription carved upon the Twin Dragon Blade.
That power—the pride of refusing to surrender—extended forth.
Screeeech, screeeech-screeeech-screeeech-screeeeeech-!
[Even if it shatters]
[You have found a breakthrough in this moment of crisis.]
[The Twin Dragon Blade’s power has grown superior, shattering Artifacts across a wider range.]
[Legendary Grade. The Blood King’s armor shatters.]
[Legendary Grade. The Blood King’s sword shatters.]
[Epic Grade. Natalie’s sword shatters.]
Every Artifact in the hall breaks.
In that opening, I face the Knights pouring in.
Shing-!
Shing-shing-shing-!
Moving with the speed of light, I cut through the Knights without yielding an inch.
The Blood King’s gaze fixed upon Lucifer’s hand.
Flinch-flinch-
“Ugh!”
Each time I strike, Lucifer’s hand flinches.
He wishes to fight for him, yet cannot move—for slaying the offspring of the king he once served would be akin to slaying himself.
The Blood King marvels at such sacred loyalty, at the instrument of his own creation.
He delights in this man, so thoroughly indoctrinated by brainwashing that he cannot even raise a sword against him once.
Thus, he yearns to crumble the convictions and righteousness of that insignificant lord once more.
Once more, he wishes to affirm that Lucifer shall be his eternal tool.
After all, soon enough, he will become his strength and perish.
[Beginning Life Force Absorption.]
He speaks while draining the power from Lucifer’s vacant gaze.
“…Lucifer, I wish to hear the oath of chivalry from you, as on that day.”
The day when cherry blossoms scattered in profusion.
The oath that Lucifer, transformed from soldier to knight, had sworn while prostrate before him.
“It is my request.”
Like a fool, Lucifer begins to recite here.
From the very beginning of that recitation, without even a moment’s hesitation, he proves himself still my loyal tool.
“No, Lucifer!”
Hyeon-su’s anguished cry echoes behind him as he recites.
The oath of chivalry.
“It is the path of destiny already written.”
That vow was made while watching the scattered cherry blossoms fall on that day.
“I, Lucifer, kneel before one man at that path’s threshold and swear with steadfast lips.”
Today was different.
“Ugh!”
He recites amid the screams of the lord of the territory where he had briefly stayed—growing ever more drenched in blood as he battles hundreds of knights.
Before the king who wears a joyful smile while draining his life force once more.
“I, Lucifer, shall become a knight for you alone.”
[HP has fallen below 27%.]
The lord dies while his life force is stolen away.
“Lucifer…! Let us… return home!”
“Kuhak, kuhahahaha!”
At this second oath, the Blood King laughs aloud.
“I, Lucifer, shall become a blade for you alone.”
“Unbroken and never retreating, I shall be a knight for you.”
The Blood King marvels.
The mightiest knight in all the world swears a second oath before him.
Could there exist a king as great as himself?
He marvels, watching those lips open for the final time.
“Become my strength, Lucifer!!!”
He knew his own name would be spoken.
And yet….
The light in Lucifer’s eyes—those eyes that had only ever gripped and wielded a sword—suddenly transforms.
“His name is Hyeon-su.”
Screeeeeeeech—!
The Blood King’s thoughts froze in paralysis.
His body was cleaved diagonally, and the one who had knelt rose to his feet.
Facing the spray of blood, he gripped the sword with both hands once more.
Only now did Hyeon-su understand.
Every notification in this world had a reason.
Why the system had warned him of Lucifer’s danger.
His emotions were shifting by the moment.
Of course, even so, Lucifer was born under a fate that prevented him from ever cutting down a king.
It stemmed from his very nature.
Born solely to protect one person, Lucifer could never in his lifetime cut down a king.
Yet now, the notifications that continued made it possible.
The method was simpler than he had imagined.
“…You are the lord I shall serve!”
The method was to embrace a new master in one’s heart.
One who embraced a new master could cut down anything that threatened him.
Blood King Brad’s eyes wavered.
“No one shall harm my lord!”
[Passive Skill ‘Unconditional Loyalty to Brad’ is being modified.]
Ding!
[It has been changed to ‘Loyalty to Hyeon-su’.]
Lucifer, gripping the sword with both hands, drew it back.
[He will stand for you more than any knight, and will never break in protecting you!]
Screeeeeeeech—
To protect his new king, Lucifer cut down the old one, and Brad shrieked.
[It is recorded in history.]
It begins to be written.
The legend of a small territory’s lord and the mightiest knight.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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