The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 61

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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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61
Episode 61. Scrap Metal and Bait
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Dust scattered on the night breeze, and my vision cleared.
A massive crater yawned before the Annex Building, its dark maw gaping wide—the aftermath of the Triple Incantation barrage I’d just unleashed, carpet-bombing the earth like artillery.
Between the fractured concrete fragments, the acrid reek of ozone rose in heat shimmer, twisting upward like mirage.
Asphalt melted by the blast crawled across the ground like sticky tar, while shattered stone chips clattered against each other with a clean, crisp sound.
A display of overwhelming force. The broad-shouldered man took in the savage wreckage with a sideways glance, then slowly turned his head toward me.
“Thanks for putting the sword down.”
He approached with a leisurely stride, a thin smile playing at his lips—a far cry from the urgency with which he’d rushed in moments before to block Bae Hyeon-gyeom.
He moved like a neighborly uncle out for an evening stroll after dinner, his shoulders loose and easy, tension nowhere to be found.
Yet despite that casual movement, each footfall sent pulverized concrete dust trembling across the ground as if an earthquake had struck.
Though he smiled, I didn’t relax. I kept the snap in my right wrist steady as I held the Dragon Head Sword, my senses sharp and keen as they traced the approaching man’s aura.
‘Scrap metal.’
My intuition issued a cold warning the moment I took in his gait.
Light-footed though he was, each time his shoe sole touched the ruined marble floor, a faint but distinct vibration traveled through the ground and up through my feet.
Not the dull thud of a man bearing his own weight.
A malformed tremor born from compressing a grotesque mass—something far beyond human—into the thin skin of a body.
A crushing pressure, as if a walking steel fortress were drawing near.
The man wore a shabby coat, but the muscled torso visible beneath looked chiseled from solid stone.
With each breath, his chest swelled dramatically, and I found myself seized by the illusion that the air around him was being sucked into the caverns of his lungs.
“The—the head of the Full-Strength Division… what are you doing here…?”
Behind me, Team Leader Kim Dae-han gasped raggedly, his face drained of color as he muttered the words.
A man who never lost his composure in any emergency was now visibly shaken, trembling.
His neck corded with fine spasms visible above his shirt collar.
Head of the Full-Strength Division.
I dredged up fragments of memory from before the regression.
I had no clear recollection of anyone holding that title ten years ago, at this point in time.
The Gate Management Bureau itself was a classified, secretive administrative body shrouded in shadow, and the Full-Strength Division within it was a state-level military force that actively avoided any contact with the outside world.
The chief of those hunting dogs—the man who had brought the lethal intent-drunk berserker Bae Hyeon-gyeom completely under control with a single word.
He displayed not even a trace of Aura on the surface. No killing intent that tore the air itself, no madness radiating from bloodlust the way Bae Hyeon-gyeom had.
But that perfect quietude was precisely what scraped against my nerves.
The absence of leaking Aura was evidence that the core of his Dantian was grotesquely solid and deep.
Though his exterior was serene, the Mana residue hanging in the air with each of his movements was suffocatingly dense and viscous.
Even though my Magical Power dominated the space, a vacuum within a meter’s radius of Ryu Gang-jin refused any interference whatsoever.
The path he walked was a space where even the laws of physics seemed rewritten.
Where had I felt this nauseating sensation before?
‘Charles Edward Blake.’
It was the exact same resonance as that old monster who had mastered the ultimate way of the blade—that absolute backbone that seemed one with nature itself.
The state where the act of breathing became one perfect, complete cycle.
“First meeting, then. You’re famous, so I know you well enough, but I’m afraid the courtesy goes unrepaid.”
The man stopped five meters away and spoke. His voice was low and calm, yet the resonance chamber of his throat made the entire space hum.
Each time his words traveled through the air, the bones in my chest cavity resonated faintly.
“Ryu Gang-jin.”
“Introductions are unnecessary.”
I cut off his affable greeting coldly, keeping the tip of the Dragon Head Sword angled toward his solar plexus, my gaze fixed on him.
The Magical Power pooling on the blade trembled and shrieked. My instinct was screaming—this man was a monster on an entirely different level from Bae Hyeon-gyeom just moments ago.
“Let me first clear up a misunderstanding.”
Despite my rudeness, Ryu Gang-jin stepped closer without a trace of displeasure on his face. The sound of his shoes grinding gravel beneath them was unnaturally loud.
“I apologize for my subordinate’s heavy-handed execution of his duties.”
Ryu Gang-jin glanced back at Bae Hyeon-gyeom, who knelt on one knee behind him, wiping blood from his lips, caked with dust.
The moment Ryu Gang-jin’s gaze fell upon him, the savage berserker hunched his shoulders like a child being scolded.
“Had he not overstepped, things wouldn’t have spiraled like this. Wouldn’t you agree?”
He was dismissing his subordinate’s reckless rampage as mere character and moving past it.
I didn’t respond, instead methodically scanning Ryu Gang-jin from feet to crown as if dissecting him.
Flawless.
Hands thrust casually into his pockets, weight shifted onto one leg, playing the affable uncle—yet his center of gravity was rooted to the earth like an ancient tree in perfect balance.
The total volume of Aura compressed inside that thick suit was something my current 2nd Circle perception couldn’t begin to fathom.
It was like staring into an abyss with no visible bottom.
My gaze drifted to his knuckles and thick neck. The bones of his fists, exposed to the air, were grotesquely thick and rough.
Calluses piled upon calluses, the skin itself transformed into armor.
Like Bae Hyeon-gyeom, he wielded no weapons—only his body, crushing everything in his path. The mark of a pure martial artist.
“Don’t size me up like that. I didn’t come here to fight.”
Ryu Gang-jin scratched the back of his head awkwardly and exhaled. A faint trace of tobacco clung to his breath, riding the wind to the tip of my nose.
Not a clash of abilities, but a matter of combat instinct and primal sensation—and I was outmatched by a full step.
Yet I harbored not the slightest intention of retreating, much less tucking my tail.
Behind me lay Jung Eun-jin, the Association Chair who had risked her life to save Lee Do-hyeon, now unconscious on the ground. And there was Lee Do-hyeon’s corpse—the vessel holding the truth of everything that had transpired.
If I gave ground here, control of the board would slip away to the Gate Management Bureau forever.
“I’ll be frank with you.”
Ryu Gang-jin lowered his hand and spoke with deliberate gravity. His eyes deepened as he pierced through me with his gaze.
“What do you want to do?”
The leather grip of the sword creaked as it stuck to my palm.
“Leave the Association Chair and Hunter Lee Do-hyeon behind.”
An absolute demand that admitted no compromise. This premise could not be altered. My voice cut through the night air with perfect clarity.
“Huh······.”
Ryu Gang-jin’s eyes widened fractionally, then returned to their normal size. The smile that had played at the corner of the man’s mouth vanished for the first time.
An illusion settled over me—the air around us dropping a degree or so in temperature. A single, brief exclamation from him had forcibly twisted the current of the atmosphere.
“···Let me make a proposal.”
Ryu Gang-jin stroked his chin with a thick finger, his voice dropping lower. The rasp of rough stubble against his fingertip was audible.
“We can’t go back empty-handed on the Director’s orders either. I’m a civil servant, after all.”
“I’m listening.”
As I spoke, I reached a cold conclusion within myself. In this moment, I was certain: the Ryu Gang-jin before me was one of the undisputed powerhouses of this world.
The very fact that he could lay out a negotiation table and adjust his hand with such ease in this savage standoff was overwhelming proof that he possessed absolute physical superiority over me at any moment he chose.
During those brief seconds while he delayed, drawing out his proposal,
my brain cells spun close to runaway, desperately searching for any way to bring Ryu Gang-jin down.
‘He’s strong.’
But I saw nothing. With Bae Hyeon-gyeom, I had seen it all—his movements, the direction of his muscle contractions, the flow of his Aura. Everything lay within my range of interpretation.
A perfect strategy existed for him. But not for Ryu Gang-jin.
No data, no openings, no discernible limit to his Aura. A perfect black box.
Thinking back, it was a sensation disturbingly familiar to me—that towering wall of presence I could only encounter at the 9th Circle.
‘It’s not impossible.’
If I removed the limiter, I might reach him. I still had a few trump cards left. But right now, it didn’t seem feasible.
That was the most objective and coldest judgment I had to make.
After forcing the Triple Incantation to suppress Bae Hyeon-gyeom and carve out that crater, my 2nd Circle Core’s Mana had dropped below half capacity.
The vibration of the Core near my heart fluctuated irregularly. Betting my survival against that monster in such an unstable state would be pure gambling.
Meaningless death held no place in my vocabulary. A mage does not mix steel with beasts on unfavorable ground.
“Lucky for us. I was worried you might refuse.”
As I withdrew the aura I’d been projecting and took a step back, Ryu Gang-jin smiled again with that good-natured warmth. Inwardly, I swallowed a bitter laugh.
‘Worried about whom?’
Was he worried I’d struggle and get cleaved in two by his hands? Or was he concerned about his own predicament—having to engage in wearisome bloodshed at this late hour?
Either way, it reeked of arrogant disdain.
“I won’t take the Association Chair.”
Ryu Gang-jin extended one thick finger as he spoke. Behind me, a small sigh of relief escaped from Yu Hye-sung and the Association hunters who had been holding their breath.
The taut air loosened imperceptibly.
“Even though it’s the Director’s orders, there’s no clear evidence or grounds that the Association Chair murdered Hunter Lee Do-hyeon. I’ll go with what the Ability Management Team says. We can discuss the administrative procedures later.”
Yes. With that, I had secured the most crucial card. I could not afford to lose Chairman Jung Eun-jin here.
Losing her would mean losing the Hunter Association—that massive bulwark that could overturn this rotted game board. But there was another card to play.
“But I’ll need Hunter Lee Do-hyeon’s remains.”
Ryu Gang-jin extended his second finger, his voice dropping.
The playfulness that had lingered in his eyes vanished entirely, replaced by the cold, businesslike demeanor of a public official. I furrowed my brow.
The most critical witness to the truth.
Though the body bore the trappings of an assassinated corpse with a ruptured cerebral artery, the only critical evidence capable of revealing the imprint of the Brainwashing Imprint etched into his neural tissue lay in an autopsy.
He wanted me to hand it over just like that?
“This might be before your time, so you wouldn’t know.”
Before I could even open my mouth to refuse, Ryu Gang-jin drove the wedge deeper.
“Lee Do-hyeon’s original registry—it belongs to our Bureau.”
“I’m sorry?”
What was he talking about? The shock struck my mind like a bludgeon, and my thought process froze for a heartbeat before spinning rapidly back to life.
Before my return, there was not a single line in any record stating he had belonged to the Gate Management Bureau.
He was a true educator and hunter who had devoted his entire life to the Academy. Yet now they claimed he was Bureau personnel?
I reflexively turned my head, scanning the faces of Kim Dae-han and Yu Hye-sung standing beside me, along with the hunters scattered nearby.
‘……’
I was the only one who looked startled.
Their faces were shrouded in a dark silence, as though I’d struck a nerve they’d been concealing.
Yu Hye-sung bit her lip and averted her gaze, while Kim Dae-han lowered his head.
The fact that they weren’t visibly shaken meant it was true. Lee Do-hyeon belonged to the Gate Management Bureau. At least in this timeline.
‘Where did things go wrong?’
A chill ran down my spine, cold sweat trickling along its length. The early distribution of Booster Purple and the premature emergence of the Hong Hyeol-maeng, Asia’s largest drug cartel.
And on top of that, the fundamental affiliation of the First Generation hero was completely misaligned with the history I’d known.
This wasn’t a simple butterfly effect. The world I was living in now might be fundamentally different from the past I knew—different in ways both catastrophic and unseen.
A massive web I couldn’t perceive was crawling grotesquely through the foundations of this timeline.
“Seems you didn’t know. Well, the Bureau hunter’s personal information is classified, so it can’t be helped.”
Ryu Gang-jin smiled thinly, brushing past my confusion with ease. His smile felt like a mask.
“I’d say we have plenty of justification now. Lee Do-hyeon is our colleague, and this is simply him returning to his original organization. He should go back to his roots, even in death, shouldn’t he?”
The logic of it was airtight—how could an outsider object when a family was being returned to its own? Legally and morally, he’d closed every avenue for me to intervene.
Yet I couldn’t back down. If I let him go now, all truth would be buried in darkness.
“That’s not acceptable.”
“Hmm, what exactly is your reason?”
At my stubborn refusal, even the easygoing Ryu Gang-jin’s voice finally carried a distinct chill of displeasure.
I heard Bae Hyeon-gyeom grinding his teeth in the background, the sound of him rising to his feet.
In this game of justifications, I was completely outmaneuvered.
Yesterday, my sister Kim Min-seo had passed me a pamphlet—a sordid rumor that the Gate Management Bureau’s Full-Strength Division was making contact with the Hong Hyeol-maeng, Asia’s largest drug organization.
And the leader of that armed force was standing before me now. Was I really going to hand over Lee Do-hyeon? It was like giving a fish to a cat whole.
Ryu Gang-jin might be the puppet master behind all this, or he might not. Without certainty, my only option was to probe.
To see whether this terrifying iron mass standing before me would become an enemy, or whether it would be the variable that upended the entire board, I had to cast bait myself.
Absolute bait that he could never ignore, that he couldn’t help but bite.
“I’ll admit the justification is on your side.”
I slid the sheath of the Dragon Head Sword I’d been holding into my sword belt with a deliberate click, fixing my gaze on Ryu Gang-jin.
Lowering my weapon wasn’t surrender—it was a declaration that I was setting a new negotiation table. The sweat in my palms cooled.
“But Lee Do-hyeon still has a clue.”
“What clue?”
Ryu Gang-jin’s eyes narrowed sharply. The curiosity in his pupils resembled that of a predator who’d just caught the scent of prey.
I spoke slowly, each word carved out as though chiseling bone.
“The traitor who ordered Lee Do-hyeon’s assassination.”
In the courtyard before the Annex Building, where even the wind had stilled, only my hoarse voice rang out cold and clear.
“The magical traces left behind on the corpse point directly to that spy’s identity.”
If Ryu Gang-jin was that spy himself, or the shadowy architect behind the Booster cartel, he would strip away all pretense this instant and reach for his full strength to slit my throat and seize the corpse, just to erase this false clue.
Conversely, if he was truly a soldier dedicated to the Bureau’s security, he would have no choice but to retreat, leaving this troublesome clue intact to root out the betrayal from within.
Because the moment he forcibly took the corpse, he would mark himself as ‘a traitor attempting to destroy evidence.’
Either way, the advantage swung back into my hands. My heart raced with the tension, but outwardly I held my composure.
My gaze bore steadily into Ryu Gang-jin’s eyes without wavering.
“Choose.”
I stared into Ryu Gang-jin’s flickering pupils, allowing myself a thin, bitter smile.
“Will you prove which side you’re truly on, right here and now?”
A strange silence fell across Ryu Gang-jin’s face. He said nothing for a long moment, merely watching me intently while fiddling with his hands buried in his pockets.
Only the moment of decision was approaching.

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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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