The God-Possessed Swordsmanship Genius - Chapter 8

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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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Sword Genius Possessed by a Divine Spirit, Chapter 8

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Batrolo left, cursing silently under his breath.
No matter how looked down upon Allen was within the household, a mere noble of the Owen Kingdom could not be placed above the direct line of Bishuken.
Gangcheol Seongju had a servant bring in fresh tea.

“Drink.”
“I’m honored.”

Allen drank his tea without a word.
Gangcheol Seongju watched him gulp down the scalding tea without even letting it cool, and a puzzled look crossed his face.
The Second Son of Bishuken. The gifted prodigy cursed by Bima’s Curse.
He had only just returned from his mission, yet he had come straight to see me.

“I’m glad to see you’re unharmed.”
“Thanks to your concern.”
“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“Fortunately, no.”

Allen took another sip of tea and glanced past Gangcheol Seongju’s shoulder.

“I take it the gentleman behind you is your disciple, Master.”

A young nobleman stood guard behind Gangcheol Seongju.
Judging by his attire, he was not a bodyguard, and the aura and bearing he gave off bore a striking resemblance to Gangcheol Seongju himself.
When their eyes met, the man gave Allen a slight nod and spoke.

“I am Isolde, the Master’s fourth disciple.”
“Pleased to meet you. But standing there like that makes me uncomfortable. Would you mind giving us some room?”
“Master.”

At Allen’s words, Isolde looked toward Gangcheol Seongju.
Allen was the one who had made the request, but the permission had to come from Gangcheol Seongju.
It was a blatant slight to his face, but unless he was the heir, Gangcheol Seongju’s position outranked Allen’s. This much rudeness could be overlooked.

“There’s no need to fuss over my disciple. He’s a tight-lipped one.”
“Since you won’t grant permission, Master… I apologize. If there’s something you’d prefer to keep strictly confidential, perhaps we could speak through Jeoneum.”

Isolde had no way of knowing that Allen had overcome Bima’s Curse. Even so, mentioning Jeoneum was a rudeness that was hard to let pass.
Yet confronting him about it here would only amount to admitting, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’
Unlike the earlier remark, this was something hard to brush off.
Unlike before, these were words I couldn’t just let slide.
But far from taking offense, Allen broke into a bright smile and waved his hand dismissively.

“There was nothing important to discuss, so it’s fine. I just thought you looked uncomfortable standing there.”
“Is that so?”
“Why don’t you sit down as well? I don’t mind in the slightest, so don’t give it another thought.”

Gangcheol Seongju regarded Allen with a puzzled expression as the young man kindly invited him to join them.
What on earth is this boy scheming?

“Sit.”
“Then, if you’ll permit me.”

With Gangcheol Seongju’s permission, Isolde took a seat across from Allen.
Gangcheol Seongju sat in the place of honor, while the two of them faced each other across the guest chairs.
Allen turned to Isolde and spoke.

“Your disciple seems dependable. He appears to follow your word without fail.”
“He’s still lacking.”
“Oh, I nearly forgot. I picked this up on the way here, a specialty of the Hilton Kingdom. It’s coffee-flavored candy, so do have one whenever you’re bored.”
“…Thank you.”

After that, Allen rambled on about this and that.
How the snowy mountains of the Hilton Kingdom were magnificent.
How the food there was, and how he’d gone to the black market with his brother only to have the thieves overcharge them outrageously.
Watching Allen chatter on about every conceivable subject, Gangcheol Seongju felt something strange.

Had this boy always been this talkative?
Something about him seemed different. The dark air that had lingered around him, faint but unmistakable, was gone, and he appeared to have shed a layer of skin.

“Thanks to that, I managed to cut the price at the black market down to a fraction…”
“Just as you thought.”

Then Gangcheol Seongju said it outright.

“It was me.”
“…”
“The one who interfered with your mission.”

Despite the shocking words he’d just let slip, Gangcheol Seongju sipped his black tea at an unhurried pace.
Without so much as a blink, he continued speaking.

“I leaked a little information to one of the bandits. Told him the subjugation was about to begin. And then I placed the Heavy Crossbow of the Kingdom into their hands.”
“Is that so?”
“You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“Surely not? How would I have managed that?”

Half of it was a lie, and half of it was the truth. Allen knew that Gangcheol Seongju stood behind this mission.
In his previous life, too, the man had confided exactly the same story to him.
Back then, Gangcheol Seongju had even come looking for him. The reverse of how things stood now.

“If you’re angry, go and tell the Head of the Family. Though I can’t say whether he’ll take your side.”

He wasn’t particularly angry.
The anger over this matter had long since been spent, back in the distant past.
There was no need to tattle to his father either. His father already knew all about it, and Gangcheol Seongju was convinced that his father had tacitly approved of his actions.
This was a provocation.
A challenge to go running to his father, since he could do nothing on his own strength.
But Allen asked for the reason before anything else.

“Why did you do it?”

He knew the answer, yet he asked anyway.
Not the Gangcheol Seongju of that time, but the one sitting before him now.
The answer was the same as before.

“It was because of your brother.”

Gangcheol Seongju had been a supporter of Lucas.

“Because your brother has no interest in the position of Head of the Family.”
“That’s the reason?”
“Well, unlike your brother, you don’t want to become the Head of the Family, do you?”

Judging by this alone, Gangcheol Seongju truly had a sharp eye for people.
He knew that Lucas had no ambition for the headship, and that Allen had not lost his dream even while suffering from Bima’s Curse.

“Your elder brother has ability but no dream, and your younger brother has no ability but has a dream. I’ve always wondered. Perhaps it was because of you that your brother gave up on his dream.”
“You’re blaming me for that? Besides, I’m just a fool under Bima’s Curse.”
“That’s the problem. If you were more qualified than your brother, I might have backed you. But that isn’t the case, is it?”

The first time I heard those words, I cursed so hard I couldn’t even count the insults.
He was saying that I stood in his way, dreaming of the head of the family when I was inferior to my brother?
It meant that someone cursed shouldn’t even dare to dream. It meant I should keep my head down and live within my station.
But Allen’s feelings as he heard this now were entirely different.
Was it because he had lived far longer than before and come back? Or because, unlike then, he had now overcome the curse?
Whatever the reason.

“Then allow me to change my question.”

Allen’s question in response to Gangcheol Seongju was not the same as before.

“Is the reason this one’s been smirking the whole time because he delivered heavy crossbows to the bandits?”

Isolde, who had been listening to the exchange between Gangcheol Seongju and Allen, did not look surprised in the least. Instead, he kept wearing that sneer.
The question was directed at Gangcheol Seongju, but the answer came from Isolde.

“That’s exactly how it happened, Lord Ei.”

It was the kind of reaction that seemed to say, So what are you going to do about it?
An affirmation.

“So it was true.”

Allen nodded.
And in that very instant.

Whoosh.

Allen, who had been seated across the table, lunged forward in a blur.

Swish.
Crack!

Allen’s sudden kick came down hard on Isolde’s shoulder. Isolde, who had instinctively tried to draw his sword and fight back, staggered violently to the side.
Allen seized Isolde’s arm, still seated in his chair, and yanked it backward.

Startled, Isolde shrieked out.

“W-wait!”
“No.”

Krrrk!

Isolde’s arm bent in a direction that made one wonder whether it could possibly be safe.

“Aaaagh!”

A scream tore through the reception room.
Alarmed attendants and guards rushed in through the door. Gangcheol Seongju simply raised a hand, as if it were nothing, and sent them back out.

“You should have said, ‘I’m sorry,’ not ‘That’s exactly how it happened.'”

Allen let go of the arm he had been gripping. Isolde rolled across the floor, writhing as though in agony.
His screams soon gave way to sobbing. Allen ignored him and spoke.

“Do you still think my elder brother suits the head of the family better than I do?”

* * *

Allen didn’t do anything special about Isolde’s injury.
If he’d meant to heal it, he wouldn’t have broken the arm in the first place, and there was a good chance this would be swept under the rug.

‘He won’t be able to make a fuss about it, not for now.’

If anyone wanted to argue about who was at fault, they’d have to start with why this had happened at all.
That would bring out that Gangcheol Seongju had interfered with Allen’s mission, and he was the last person who’d want that known.
In the end, he’d surely settle things by saying his disciple’s arm had been broken, and nothing more.

Leaving the reception room, Allen ran into Lucas on his way back to the separate quarters.
While Allen had been meeting with Gangcheol Seongju, Lucas had finished his own business with their father.

“Were you on your way to see me?”
“You certainly made quite a scene.”

It seemed he’d heard about the commotion in the reception room on his way to find Allen.

“I made a point of being loud about it. Thought I’d spread a rumor that the idiot Second Young Master broke a disciple of Gangcheol Seongju’s arm.”
“Do you really not mind calling yourself an idiot like that?”
“You’re the one who told me, isn’t that right? This is my place in the family now.”

Lucas had indeed said something like that when he’d come back to the family, Allen remembered.
The moment Allen had returned to the family, he’d been thinking about changing that position. Subduing Gangcheol Seongju’s disciple was simply the first step.

“I’ve been wondering about something for a while…”

Lucas asked, recalling the sight of Allen taking down the bandits.

“When did you get this good?”
“Does it show?”
“It’s not just the bandits. At the Amsang, you noticed that I’d hidden my guards without inflicting fatal wounds on them. And that was before you’d overcome the curse. Yet now you’re subduing Gangcheol Seongju’s disciples?”
“He was only the fourth disciple. And it was a surprise attack.”
“A surprise attack only works if you have some real skill behind it. Are you hiding your strength from me?”
“Who knows.”

Allen’s answers stayed vague.
Lucas frowned at the way he seemed unwilling to answer.

“You said it yourself, didn’t you? Once we returned to the family, we’d be rivals.”
“That… I did say that.”
“Understand, then. Shouldn’t a person keep thirty percent of what they have hidden?”

He said it, but Allen’s true thoughts were different.

‘Sorry. No matter what, there’s no way I can explain this.’

How could he possibly say that he’d come from the future, and that thanks to it he had decades’ worth of experience?
It was better to keep it a secret. If he said it, Lucas would take it as a mockery and only grow more irritated.

Fortunately, Lucas didn’t seem too bothered.
Instead, he let out a heavy sigh and changed the subject.

“Was it that guy, by any chance? The one who ruined your mission from behind the scenes?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Haa.”

Lucas sighed deeply and spoke.

“……I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’s not like it was your fault.”

Allen smiled awkwardly. It wasn’t something his brother needed to apologize for.

“Is that why you came?”
“Not exactly. Father asked me to pass something along.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll be given a new mission before long.”
“Before long, as in when?”
“Beats me.”

Had he succeeded on his first mission and returned, his Sword Squad would have been officially assigned. But Allen’s mission this time had been neither a failure nor a success.
That must be why the next mission was coming down so quickly.

“Then I’d better hurry.”
“Hurry for what?”
“I have somewhere I need to go. Oh, right. The money I borrowed for the elixir…”
“Forget it. It’s pocket change. Think of it as a gift to celebrate the lifting of your curse.”

Lucas hadn’t come to find Allen merely to pass on their father’s words.
A flicker of worry crossed his face.

“Gangcheol Seongju, don’t provoke him too much. He’s not your match yet.”

He was worried.
That Allen might lose his temper and end up clashing with Gangcheol Seongju, and get hurt in the process.

“Don’t worry so much. He’s got his own skeletons, so he won’t make this public. And I have no intention of picking a fight I can’t win.”

No matter how petty his schemes had been, Gangcheol Seongju was a giant. Compared to him, the Allen of today didn’t even register.
Allen felt an urgent need to grow stronger, and quickly.

‘To do that, I need to…’

The reason Allen meant to set out in four days in such a hurry.

‘Right now, I need that elixir.’

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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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