The God-Possessed Swordsmanship Genius - Chapter 4

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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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Divine Spirit Swordsman Genius, Chapter 4

* * *

Lucas was irritated from the very start of the morning.
He had risen before dawn to train, then gone down to the tavern’s first floor and finished his meal.
A good stretch of time had passed, yet Allen still hadn’t come out.

‘What is he doing?’

For the moment, he held his tongue.
Of everyone, Allen had always been the most diligent of the lot.
He told himself the kid must simply be exhausted. Even if he looked fine on the surface, the fatigue and shock from his first mission must have weighed heavily on him.
And so Lucas downed three cups of coffee in a row on the first floor.
But when he saw the sun sitting high in the sky through the window, his patience snapped, and he ended up marching to Allen’s room.
And then.

“Spiritual Elixir!”

The moment Allen opened his eyes, he shot upright and nearly shrieked.
Once he’d paid and left the tavern, Allen looked truly impatient. His eyes gleamed like stars, and his steps were quick, almost as if he were running.
Seeing him like that, Lucas found he simply couldn’t scold him for oversleeping.

‘I’ll have to lecture him properly later.’

There was something else he was more curious about.

“What do you need a Spiritual Elixir for?”

Seeing Allen like this, Lucas ended up agreeing to buy him the Spiritual Elixir.
Of course, it was an advance. Even between family, the accounts had to be kept straight.

“It’s for me to eat.”
“You?”
“Yeah.”
“Why all of a sudden? Anyway, you…”

Lucas swallowed the rest of his words.
He knew that whatever came after would only wound his younger brother.
He could scold him over just about anything, but not this.

‘Won’t it be useless with the Curse of Bima still on you?’

Those words were Allen’s greatest sore spot.
It had been ages since Lucas had seen his brother this bright. He didn’t want to spoil the mood with idle talk.
Lucas let out a heavy sigh and smoothly changed the subject.

“If you’d completed your mission properly, they might have sent down a small Spiritual Elixir for you. Not that you’d need to spend your own money on it.”
“Still, I’m glad you’re here, Brother.”
“Me?”
“Who else would carry Spiritual Elixir money as travel funds? Only someone like you could manage that. Rich kids really are different.”
“Anyone listening would think you’d had a rough time of it.”
“Do you think so?”

Allen laughed cheerfully. Yet beneath that laughter lived not the young master of Bishuken, but a tragic swordsman whose life had been stained by battles against the Demon Race.

The two of them walked on toward the shopping district nearby.
The marketplace, where all manner of miscellaneous goods were sold, bustled with noisy crowds.

“We can’t spend too much time on this.”

Lucas glanced at the pocket watch he’d taken out and spoke.

“We have an hour. That’s how long we can stay here.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll pick something quickly.”
“Not that way. This way.”

Lucas caught Allen just as he was about to step into the shop and steered him in another direction. The place he headed for was the back of the marketplace.
A small stall tucked into a corner where few people ever passed.
There, Lucas crouched down in front of the stall and addressed the hunchbacked old man who was squatting before it.

“Do you have anything more valuable?”
“I have everything you could want. How much coin do you have, sir?”
“I have eight gold coins. If the goods are good enough, I’ll slip one into your pocket.”

A conversation passed between them that made little sense to an outsider.

“Follow me.”

The old man who had looked hunched a moment ago straightened his back as if it had never been bent and rose to lead the way.
Allen, following close behind, asked,

“Did the family give you the passphrase for this place?”
“You kept pestering me about needing a Spiritual Elixir, so I asked the family for the information. A black market of this size should have at least a decent Spiritual Elixir to offer.”
“You went and asked the family for information because of me? I’m touched.”
“Spare me the nonsense.”

Following the old man, they arrived at a small shop located underground.
Compared to the marketplace above, it was far smaller in scale.
Yet the guards posted at its entrance were of a much higher caliber.

“Welcome. You’ve come to a shop that has everything, except what we don’t have.”

It was not the old man but a young man with narrow, squinting eyes who greeted Allen and Lucas.

“I’m Mac Robin, branch manager of the Hilton Kingdom’s western office. Just call me Mac, please.”
“We’ve come to buy a Spiritual Elixir.”
“Oh my! You’ve come to buy something truly precious, haven’t you? Will you two handsome young gentlemen be the ones using it?”

As he asked, Mac studied the appearance of the two men.

‘They’re still young, and their clothes are quite flashy. Sons of some noble family, perhaps?’

Mac had met plenty of their kind before.
Well-born sons who were drunk on the fantasy that a single Spiritual Elixir would make them a formidable swordsman overnight.

‘Half-baked fools always fall for the fantasy of Spiritual Elixirs. They don’t even notice the coins in their purses trickling away under that illusion.’

Mac broke into a wide grin. It was a flawless smile, the kind he’d practiced for business.

“I’m fine, thanks. The Spiritual Elixir is for my younger brother here.”
“Oh, are you brothers? No wonder you look alike. My, with brothers this handsome, your father must be a striking man indeed!”

Watching Mac flatter them so shamelessly that he even dragged their father into it, Lucas’s brow tightened slightly.
Did this fellow have any idea whom he had just dared to mention?

“Come now, let’s start by looking around. Looking is free, after all. Hahaha!”

Mac strode ahead without a word of greeting. The real goods sold on the black market weren’t displayed out here.
A soft, friendly manner, the sort rarely seen in the dim back-alley markets.
Yet Allen, seeing that very manner from Mac, spoke anyway.

“That bastard thinks we’re easy marks, doesn’t he?”
“You noticed too?”

Lucas’s eyes brightened.
He’d been thinking the very same thing.

“A black market is dangerous by nature. Where only power and money matter, who offers kindness for nothing?”
“Doesn’t matter. There’s no black market on this continent that would dare pull this kind of game once they know where we come from.”
“Sure. If such a place existed, our family would have wiped it off the map by now.”

Allen actually found this situation to his liking.
If the other side was the first to try to play us for suckers.

“Looks like I’ll get my first gift from you at a bargain price, Brother?”

Allen grinned and stepped inside. Watching his back, Lucas wore a puzzled expression.
He had said it as though he were worried about his brother’s purse, but—

“…You said you’d pay me back?”

For some reason, it felt as though he himself, not just Mac, was being played.

* * *

“This is Bingjeong, found at the northernmost tip of the continent, and this here is Baengnyeonsam, grown in the southern reaches of the Hilton Kingdom. And this one is…”

Mac picked out a Spiritual Elixir from the goods displayed in the inner section and showed it to them.
There was nothing grand among them. This black market was never a large one to begin with.
Most of it was Spiritual Elixirs of middling quality.
Still, a Spiritual Elixir was a Spiritual Elixir, and the price tags were staggering.

“How much is this one?”

Allen picked out the one that looked the most potent among them.
And a potent one, naturally, would be the most expensive.

“You’ve chosen Eunwolcho—what a discerning eye you have! The herb infused with the power of moonlight is the finest in our shop.”
“So what’s the price?”
“Let me see… Take off this, take off that, and then there’s the pleasure of gazing at your handsome faces. It’s normally 120 gold, but I’ll settle it at 110 gold for you.”

A step behind, Lucas watched the exchange, his brow creasing.
Even to him, someone who knew little of market rates, it sounded excessive.
Was this a rip-off after all?
As if he too sensed the price was steep, Mac added an explanation.

“As you may know, the price of already costly Spiritual Elixirs has been soaring these days. The Imperial Magic Tower and the Quin Family have been buying them up all at once, and so the supply has dried up.”
“Even so, that’s far too expensive.”
“Oh my. Is that so?”

Mac’s eyes curved into crescent moons.
Up to this point, it might have been acceptable.
Snaring a mark at a black market and inflating prices was hardly unusual, after all.
But.

Tap, tap.
Scrape… scrape.

When Mac knocked on one of the side walls, a presence stirred from somewhere nearby.
The men hiding throughout the Black Market had started to move.
Lucas, who had been standing behind him with his arms folded, asked,

“Do you know how many there are?”
“Three above, four behind. Right?”
“So you do have eyes after all.”

Mac flinched at the exchange between Lucas and Allen.
Three above, four behind.
That described the placement and number of the guards hidden inside this shop.

“Ha-ha… Please don’t misunderstand. Lately, a lot of nasty types have been trying to force down prices here at the Black Market just because they’ve picked up a blade or two, so I’ve simply hired a few more guards. You don’t think you gentlemen would do such a thing, do you?”

The guards’ presences kept pressing in. They spread out across the shop, readying themselves to lunge at a moment’s notice.
Lucas unfolded his arms and asked,

“Were you planning to push goods on us by force if it came to that?”

Mac’s brow twitched, as though he’d been struck exactly where it hurt.

“Push goods? Isn’t that a bit of an ugly way to put it?”
“The Black Market comes with dangers of this sort. I understand. But tell those guards not to draw their blades.”
“What nonsense are you-”

Shhk.

That was when it happened.
From above came the faint scrape of a blade leaving its sheath.
A sound so small it could only be heard by someone paying the closest attention.

Kak!

Lucas’s sword was out before the guard, who had yet to reveal himself, could even finish drawing.

Swooosh!
Shwak!

Blood sprayed in every direction.

“Aaaaagh!”

Screams rang out from overhead and from behind. Mac couldn’t tell where or how they had been cut, but not a single guard came tumbling out into the open.

“I told you not to draw.”

Mac jolted in shock.
Lucas’s sword was already back in its sheath. He hadn’t seen it drawn, nor had he seen it returned, not even a glimpse.

‘When did he…?’

Drip, drip, drip.

Blood seeping through the ceiling dripped onto Mac’s face.
Without thinking, Mac reached for his throat. Thankfully, his head was still attached.
His face trembled with fear.

Seven of the Black Market’s guards had been felled in an instant. And they weren’t men who had stepped forward, either. These were seven who had hidden their presence and were poised to ambush.
Cutting down seven guards who had concealed their positions, at a speed no one could see?
Even as the head of the black market’s branch, he had never seen a swordsman like this.
Allen turned to Mac, whose face had gone pale.

“There’s no fatal wound, so if you treat it quickly, you won’t die. Whether you’ll be all right if you bleed too much, though, I can’t say.”

At that, Lucas looked over at Allen.
His expression plainly said, *How would you know that?*
Amid the blood spattered across the shop, Allen was still grinning from ear to ear.

“Looks like we’d better wrap this up quickly… Oh, right, how much did you say it was earlier?”

* * *

Allen hummed a tune as he walked out of the black market.
Two Spiritual Elixirs were clutched in his hand.

“Did you mean to get both from the start?”
“Not from the start. That guy just had a look on his face like he’d caught a fool, so I figured it was an opportunity.”
“Who taught you that kind of way of dealing with people?”
“Who would’ve taught me? It’s not like our family’s short on money.”

After some haggling, Allen cut the price of the Eunwolcho by three-quarters. On top of that, he wheedled a free Spiritual Elixir out of him, one about two grades below it.
By the end, Mac looked so close to tears that one almost felt sorry for him.

“Don’t do that anywhere else. You shouldn’t look like a fool, but haggling in Bishuken’s name isn’t honorable either.”
“I know, I know. I did it because it’s your money.”
“There you go again. We’re going to get a proper price, so don’t you dare go sloppy and—”
“There.”

Allen held out a small bottle to Lucas.

“This one’s yours.”
“…What is this?”
“Apparently it’s spirit-brewed liquor. There’s not much, but that’s all he had. You like drinking alone, right? For the record, I paid for that one myself.”

Lucas accepted the bottle without thinking and stared at it, bewildered.
Even if it was a rare liquor, it couldn’t possibly be worth more than a Spiritual Elixir.
Half swept up in the mood, Lucas answered.

“…I’ll drink it well.”
“It’s no big deal.”

Looking at the two Spiritual Elixirs now in his hand, Allen’s eyes sparkled.

*Right now, I’ve got the whole world in my hands.*

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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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