Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 301

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

One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 301

Episode 301. The Fourth Night (2)

* * *

Screech, screech-!

A spine-chilling metallic sound echoing from the lower floors.

The friction of chains scraping against the edges of stairs as they climbed grew closer and closer.

Naturally.

I knew the identity of that ‘being’ approaching us through the darkness.

Grooooooo──.

An evil spirit holding a dimly flickering lantern in one hand and a blood-stained chain whip in the other.

A monster created by the curse materializing the very concept of death.

‘Gravekeeper of Rashutku.’

In the game system, it was a monster that was absolutely impossible to kill.

Since it was a being that embodied a concept, it was originally considered an untargetable entity.

‘Of course….’

Ding-!

━━━━━━━━━━━━

【Soul of the Sword Master】

(Available for use)

━━━━━━━━━━━━

‘…With this skill, I could probably take it down.’

A 12-star mythical grade ability.

An absolute power that breaks free from all system constraints.

How many difficulties had I overcome with just this one skill so far?

I had succeeded in strategies that were absolutely impossible in the game multiple times.

I had killed Barbarian the Slayer of Men in the tutorial, who was supposed to be absolutely unkillable, so that said it all.

Therefore, the Gravekeeper of Rashutku would be no exception either.

But….

‘…I mustn’t do that.’

Clench-.

I bit my lip slightly.

With new rules already in effect, killing the gravekeeper couldn’t be an option.

If that happened, an irreversible situation would unfold.

Screech, screeeech-!

“…!”

It was while I was continuing such thoughts.

The sound of chains became even more intense.

It meant the gravekeeper had approached the floor we were on.

“We need to avoid it.”

Snapping back to my senses, I warned Pean.

“Right now.”

I immediately began running frantically in the opposite direction from the gravekeeper.

“Yes. Understood.”

Pean followed me without a moment’s hesitation.

* * *

Tap tap, tap tap tap-!

Footsteps echoed along the corridor.

As I ran forward looking only ahead, the silhouette of someone came into view in the middle of the distant corridor.

A man with a familiar face.

One of the members of the Relic Investigation Team.

It seemed he had been forcibly expelled and thrown out of his room.

He was trembling in the darkness.

With a pale, ashen face and eyes filled with fear.

“Huh?”

At that very moment, the member who spotted us showed a bright expression.

“G-Gaon! Pean!”

The face of someone who had found a ray of light in the darkness.

Whoosh-.

But I passed by the member without a word.

I didn’t stop. I didn’t offer him any advice either.

“Wh-what…! W-wait! Me too…!”

Tap tap-.

The member’s face contorted with bewilderment.

He began frantically following behind us, but it was already too late.

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

Before long, a scream came from behind us.

Glance-.

Looking sideways, I could see Pean’s expression had hardened stiffly.

Various questions crossed his face.

Why we had to only run away. Whether we couldn’t fight back. Whether we had to just watch others die.

But Pean said nothing.

Even though he surely had questions or felt uncomfortable, he just silently followed behind me.

Tap tap tap-.

That was enough idle thoughts.

I observed myself.

‘My physical condition is….’

I had been running at full speed for dozens of minutes, but my breathing was still maintained evenly.

But I couldn’t let my guard down.

The sound of chains from behind was still close.

Screeeech-!

The gravekeeper was fiercely pursuing us.

Even while encountering Relic Investigation Team members and ‘harvesting’ their souls, the distance never widened.

‘Speed aside….’

It was because the Imperial Palace’s rules kept interfering with us.

Just like now.

“Stop.”

“…!”

Halt-.

Pean quickly stopped his feet.

Pean looked back at me urgently as if asking what was wrong.

I quickly explained the situation.

“There aren’t twelve steps. We need to go back up.”

“Damn it…!”

Pean showed an uncharacteristically emotional reaction.

Tsk-!

Clicking his tongue with a frustrated expression, he quickly retreated backward.

Heading back down to the lower floor, we gripped the handrail tightly and climbed up. Fortunately, this time there were twelve steps.

Creeeeeeak-!

But during that brief delay, the sound of chains had grown closer.

Closer.

And even closer still.

“Gaon!”

Pean began to voice what he had been holding back all this time.

“At this rate, we’ll be caught!”

The sound of chains from behind grew even closer, and urgency crept into Pean’s voice.

He glanced at Tristan’s cloak in my hand and continued.

“Doesn’t that cloak have a concealment function? At least you could use it to escape…!”

“No.”

I cut him off curtly.

Pean’s supersenses or a highly focused Adelia could see through Tristan’s cloak.

In other words, for those with exceptional senses, this cloak’s concealment was practically useless.

And the Gravekeeper of Rashutku was a supernatural monster that embodied death itself.

No matter how sacred the artifact, to that creature Tristan’s cloak was nothing more than a piece of cloth.

“Then how…!”

“Just hold on a little longer. I have a plan.”

I said firmly.

Right now, I wasn’t just being meaninglessly chased by the gravekeeper.

From the beginning, there was something I was waiting for.

‘It should be appearing around now…’

Right at that moment.

Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong──.

Bell sounds began ringing throughout the entire Imperial Palace.

‘…Perfect!’

11 PM.

There was a special room that opened from this time.

If we could just reach that place, everything would be resolved.

“Pean.”

“Yes!”

“Find a room where the flow of mana acts abnormally.”

“…?”

“Spread your supersenses throughout the entire Imperial Palace. Right now.”

“There’s no such room… huh?”

Pean’s voice suddenly cut off. He raised his eyebrows and shouted.

“…There is one! It just appeared!”

“Where is it?”

“The 8th floor!”

Good.

We only need to climb two more floors.

Thud thud thud thud-!

We squeezed out all our remaining strength.

The gravekeeper’s presence grew ever closer from behind.

The air froze cold, and a rotting stench pierced our nostrils. The damp aura of death flowed down our necks.

Stairs. Gripping the handrail tightly, counting numbers as we moved our feet. Twelve. One more floor. Handrail. Stairs. Twelve.

Haa, ha-.

We finally reached the 8th floor.

The sound of chains could be heard right behind us.

Now it seemed we could even hear the creature’s breathing.

No.

We actually could hear it. Rough and damp, an eerie breath carrying the scent of death.

“Over there!”

Pean shouted.

At the end of the corridor, we could see a door with faint light seeping through.

We squeezed out our last bit of strength. Our legs felt like they would give out, but we couldn’t stop.

Creak-.

As I roughly pushed the door open, Pean followed, throwing himself inside.

Whooooom-!

After closing the door with all our might.

Click-.

I immediately engaged the lock.

* * *

“Haa, haaaaah…!”

Pean’s rough breathing echoed in the darkness.

It was raw breathing he had never shown in front of me before.

It was closer to psychological pressure than physical limits.

That was understandable.

We had been chased by death itself all this time.

‘Even a heretic who has lived for thousands of years couldn’t suppress instinctive fear.’

But he was also a Sword Master.

Whoo, wha-.

With just a few deep breaths, Pean was able to calm his ragged breathing.

Heh-.

Soon after, he let out a small bitter laugh. It was a laugh that escaped as tension was released.

“…This is the first time I’ve been this scared since walking the path of a heretic.”

What’s the rush.

Considering what was about to happen, this was still nothing.

“By the way.”

After regulating his breathing for a while, Pean suddenly looked around. His supersenses began to sweep through the room.

“How strange. This space wasn’t detected at all when we explored the Imperial Palace.”

Pean’s supersenses had grasped the entire Imperial Palace.

The structure of each floor, the arrangement of rooms, even the length of corridors.

But this room we had entered didn’t exist anywhere in that layout.

It wasn’t even on the map of the Rashutku Imperial Palace, which said it all.

“It wasn’t detected at all until just a few seconds ago.”

Of course it had to be that way.

11 PM.

A room that appears randomly in the Imperial Palace at exactly that time.

Since Rashutku wasn’t well-known among players, it didn’t even have an established name.

I simply called this place the ‘Room of Requirement.’

It resembled that location from Harry Potter in many ways.

And Strawberry Latte…

“Wait a moment.”

Just then.

Pean’s voice cut through my wandering thoughts.

His heightened senses seemed to have detected something. The color drained from his face.

“Gaon, this is…”

A trembling voice.

“Don’t tell me, are all the walls in this room mirrors?”

That’s right.

…Strawberry Latte called this place the ‘Mirror Room.’

All the walls on every side were completely covered with smooth mirrors.

The ceiling too.

The floor as well.

In the endlessly repeating reflections, ‘my’ image was infinitely amplified.

[6. Never look at mirrors.]

Pean slowly turned his head toward me.

“Gaon.”

A low, sunken voice. It was cautious yet tinged with fear.

“Are you… closing your eyes right now?”

I opened my mouth with difficulty.

“No.”

Silence flowed.

For a while, no one said anything.

Pean’s face turned deathly pale.

The relief from escaping the gravekeeper had completely vanished.

Pean, who had been keeping his mouth tightly shut, slowly opened it.

“To me, mirrors are perceived as nothing more than smooth, flat objects.”

His voice sank low.

“Because reflections in mirrors have no actual mass.”

Pean’s heightened senses were sharp enough to distinguish even colors clearly through the unique wavelengths they emitted.

But even those senses were useless before images formed in mirrors.

Illusions without mass were like non-existence to him, leaving no trace whatsoever.

“So please answer me, The Protagonist.”

Pean said.

“Right now, what expression are you making?”

[If you unavoidably look at a mirror, check your expression in the mirror.]

I looked at the mirror and answered.

“I’m smiling.”

“…”

“Very brightly.”

That’s right.

The me in the mirror was smiling.

With the corners of my mouth raised as if they might tear to my ears.

[If you are smiling, commit suicide within 1 hour. That is the least painful choice.]

That scene spread endlessly across all the mirrors around.

The left wall reflected the right, the right wall reflected the ceiling again, and the ceiling reflected the floor.

The reflections amplified endlessly. Mirror after mirror, creating dozens, hundreds of ‘me.’

Hundreds of Gaons were all smiling identically.

With mouths torn to their ears. With empty eyes.

And…

“In none of those mirrors can I see your form, Pean.”

“…Excuse me?”

Pean’s figure wasn’t reflected anywhere.

In the infinite reflections created by hundreds of mirrors…

Only I existed.

“Do you remember what the Ghost Prime Minister said?”

“…”

“He said Rashutku’s nights are time for the dead.”

I paused briefly and counted numbers in my head.

It was a countdown I’d started from the moment I faced my reflection in the mirror.

“10 PM. The moment the curse chooses five people.”

I continued speaking.

“The chosen ones aren’t ‘banished’ from the room.”

“…?”

“Instead, they receive a judgment of ‘death.'”

Silence flowed.

The hundreds of Gaons smiling in the mirrors turned their heads as if staring at Pean.

Of course, that was merely my movements being reflected.

“The cause and effect were reversed.”

“…”

“They don’t die because they were banished, but rather they’re banished because they’re already dead.”

A long silence followed.

Pean couldn’t say anything.

He just stood there facing me, his entire body frozen stiff.

“But…”

Pean opened his mouth with a trembling voice.

“I don’t understand. Even if the curse killed me, why would that lead to banishment as a result…”

“Well, because Rashutku’s nights are time for the dead.”

“…!”

“It’s time granted to the dead, so would it be acceptable to just hole up in a room doing nothing?”

Pean’s lips trembled slightly.

He remained silent.

But even in that silence, I could read his emotions.

Bewilderment, confusion, and a faint terror rising from somewhere.

‘Banishment isn’t a punishment.’

I continued my thoughts internally.

‘It’s a kind of invitation. Into the Imperial Palace’s night that only the dead can walk.’

And at the end of that invitation, the gravekeeper waits.

A monster that conceptualized death itself. An entity that collects the souls of the deceased.

The Imperial Palace’s curse drives the dead outside, makes them wander the night, and finally delivers them to the gravekeeper.

“What do you mean…”

As Pean’s lips trembled, I continued speaking.

“From now on, I will save you.”

“…!”

Pean suddenly raised his head.

“It’s not just you.”

I continued speaking.

“The remaining members who were sacrificed today. And even the souls of the Empire’s citizens bound to these ruins, all of them.”

A moment of silence passed.

Pean’s lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he couldn’t utter a word.

Instead, his expression slowly changed.

From bewilderment to doubt. From doubt to realization.

And finally, the moment that realization turned into fear.

“No way.”

Pean muttered quietly.

“Gaon, you… deliberately…”

“That’s right.”

Swoosh-.

I looked at myself smiling in the mirror.

A mad smile. Even my mouth torn to my ears.

“I deliberately entered this room to look at the mirror.”

“….”

“And I deliberately didn’t close my eyes to get cursed.”

The reason is…

“Because the nights of Rashutku are time for the dead.”

I looked at Pean and.

Showed him a genuine smile.

“To save the dead, I had to die first.”

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