The God-Possessed Swordsmanship Genius - Chapter 9

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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 Sword Genius Blessed by a God, Chapter 9

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In his quarters at the annex, the house steward Pedrok peered at his reflection in the mirror and muttered to himself.

“More wrinkles, I see.”

He’d lost some weight, and the dark circles under his eyes had grown deeper.
He looked like a man one step from the grave.
There was only one reason Pedrok looked this way.

‘We’re really running out of time now.’

Pedrok, clacking the abacus in his hands, let out a long sigh.
As the house steward, he was in charge of the annex’s finances. Servants’ wages, food expenses, facility upkeep, the interest that bled out every month. Every matter that involved money passed through his hands.
At present, the annex’s finances were nothing short of disastrous.

“Um…”

It had gotten so bad that a servant came to him almost every day with the same kind of news.

“Steward, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“The day before yesterday was my payday, but…”

Watching the servant hesitate to finish, Pedrok sighed heavily.

“My apologies. I failed to keep track of it.”

Pedrok took gold coins out of the strongbox. The truth was he hadn’t failed to keep track at all; it was simply that money wasn’t circulating properly.
At this rate, even the handful of servants they still had would have to be cut back.
The servant, who had finally collected his wages late, glanced at Pedrok’s face with some caution before asking.

“Are you all right?”
“Hm? All right about what?”
“About us, these days.”

In answer to the servant’s question, Pedrok smiled warmly.

“Of course I am. Nothing to worry about.”
“Ah, that’s a relief.”
“Sorry it came late. From now on, I’ll keep a closer eye on things.”

Relieved by Pedrok’s answer, the servant left the room.
Once the door had closed, Pedrok clutched his head again and let out a silent scream.
It was a situation he couldn’t breathe a word of to anyone.

‘Bishuken worrying about money!’

The reason things had grown this dire was none other than the master of this annex.
Allen Bishuken.
The man cursed by Bima’s Curse, and his master.

Whenever rumors surfaced that someone somewhere could cure Bima’s Curse, he spent money without a second thought. No matter how costly the elixir or how renowned the saint or priest, Allen did not spare a single coin.
It had gotten so bad that he had even borrowed money from a major merchant guild. Most of the budget the family sent down to the annex went straight to paying that interest.

“If you at least completed the mission…”
“Sorry about that.”

Pedrok, who had been sighing heavily, jolted upright in his seat.
The door had been firmly shut, but he’d been so lost in thought that he hadn’t noticed anyone coming in.

“Young master!”
“How have you been?”

The one who had stepped into the steward’s office was Allen.
Pedrok’s eyes lit up as he took in the sight of Allen, back from his first mission.

“What about the mission? How did it go?”
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“It wasn’t a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. The family won’t be giving us any reward.”
“No way……!”

In that instant, Pedrok felt as though the hair he had so carefully kept was slipping away from him.
Had Allen completed the mission, the family would have sent a separate reward to the annex. And Pedrok had been counting on that money.
Even if it was only the lowest-grade mission, the annex’s finances were in such dire straits that every single coin mattered.

“Are you really that short on money?”
“I’m dying here, seriously.”

Having served Allen for so many years, Pedrok unburdened himself completely, unlike the way he spoke to the servants.

The staff’s wages keep falling behind, the interest keeps piling up, and I’m not exaggerating when I say I can barely afford to buy meat. I had to dip into my own savings, you know.
“You’ve had a rough time of it.”
“If only I hadn’t bought that Hatching Grass two months ago, things would be a lot better. Why on earth does some useless bit of root cost a thousand gold?!”
“……That’s because it was me, so the root turned out that way.”
“Waaah.”

Seeing Pedrok actually tear up, Allen gave an awkward smile, feeling a pang of guilt.

‘I didn’t expect it to be this bad.’

Allen had known the annex was short on funds. Even by his own reckoning, they had left no stone unturned during this period in their effort to lift the curse.
Still, now that he had actually returned to the past, the situation was worse than he’d imagined.

‘Well, it’s all because they got the wrong master.’

Without Pedrok, this annex would have gone bankrupt long ago. It was only thanks to his effort and devotion, even dipping into his own savings, that the annex had managed to stay afloat this long.

“It’s nothing much, but here.”

Allen took a gold coin from his pocket and pressed it into the hand of Pedrok, who was struggling.

“Twenty gold coins.”
“Twenty gold……! B-but didn’t you just say the mission failed?”
“It wasn’t a failure, it was put on hold. And this is what I got for handing the bandits over to the Kingdom Guard.”

On this mission, Allen had not killed the bandits, but had handed them over directly to the Kingdom Guard.
The twenty gold was the bounty for capturing the bandits alive. And from the moment he received that reward, Allen had been thinking about the annex’s finances.
It would hardly make a dent in such a depleted treasury, but this much should be enough to settle the overdue wages.

“And I’ll be heading out again in about four days. Until then, please keep an eye on things for me.”
“Going out again? Has another mission already come down?”

Both worry and hope flickered across Pedrok’s face at once.
Allen had returned without even successfully completing his very first mission. Though Pedrok didn’t know the details, the job surely hadn’t gone smoothly.
But at the same time, given the state of the household’s finances, it was also true that Allen had to succeed in his mission and return.

“It’s not a mission. I just have somewhere I need to visit on my own.”
“Where, exactly?”
“Villermann Viscounty.”
“Villermann?”

Pedrok tilted his head in puzzlement, then seemed to recall something and asked.

“You don’t mean that dungeon they recently discovered, do you?”

The Villermann Viscounty, located in the Owen Kingdom, had a single dungeon.
It wasn’t much of a dungeon. Just one of the countless ordinary dungeons scattered across the small Owen Kingdom. That was all Pedrok knew about it.

“You’re not seriously going there? In person? Why would you waste your time on something like that?”

His reaction was one of bafflement, as if asking why anyone would bother going to a place like that. In truth, Allen had expected this response.
But at this point, he was the only one who knew the true worth of that dungeon.

‘It’s not a waste of time.’

The dungeon’s true value would only be discovered three years from now.

‘Because of the treasures found there, blood was spilled more than once. The Star Flower in particular was an elixir coveted by the Quin Family, the Empire, and even Bishuken.’

The Star Flower bloomed perhaps once a century, a rare flower. Brimming with immense mana, it was also a precious elixir.
Of all the elixirs Allen could obtain at present, the Star Flower was the most potent. If he could acquire it, he would instantly gain an enormous amount of mana.

“There’s something I can gain there. I’ve got fairly reliable information, so don’t worry too much.”
“Is this about lifting Bima’s Curse again? Who told you that? That there’s a way to break the curse there? Young master, that’s-”
“Oh, right.”

Cutting off Pedrok, whose worry was steadily growing, Allen spoke.

“I broke the curse.”
“Pardon?”

A brief silence.
But then, once he grasped what Allen meant, Pedrok’s eyes went wide.

“…W-what?!”

With eyes stretched so wide they looked ready to split, he asked again, as if to confirm.

“R-really?”
“When have I ever joked about something like this?”
“N-never. But h-how?”
“Even I find it hard to explain. Just as I don’t know why I was born with this constitution, I don’t know why the curse vanished either.”

Allen had expected Pedrok to be delighted.
No more spending money on trying to lift the curse. The money-guzzling beast was finally gone.
But instead, Pedrok’s eyes reddened with tears.
Only…

“You’ve been through so much.”

Pedrok simply clasped Allen’s hand tightly.

“Truly, truly, you’ve been through so much, young master.”

Tears welled up in Pedrok’s eyes.
A memory surfaced in his mind of the day Allen first learned of the curse.
How could such a child wear that expression? That memory still haunted him.

The true curse hadn’t been carved into Allen’s body but into his soul. From the moment he learned of it, Allen became an entirely different person.
A sense of defeat, a grudge against the world, and a fierce obsession to break the curse.
Every time Pedrok watched Allen crumble under those things, his chest felt as if it were being torn apart.
And now that curse had been cured.

Watching Pedrok bow his head and quietly sob, Allen felt a lump rise in his throat once more.
In this moment, Pedrok wasn’t thinking about the villa’s finances. He was thinking first of the torment Allen must have endured, and he rejoiced as though it were his own victory.
To think that someone like this had suffered so much because of me. Regret and guilt came crashing over him.

“Why are you crying? I’m not, and I’m not even crying. And how old do you think I am that you still call me young master? It’s embarrassing.”

Allen grinned, playing it off with a shrug.

“Anyway, I’m not going to do anything stupid trying to break the curse, so don’t worry too much.”
“Hmph, yes. Understood. In any case, congratulations, truly. This steward is…”
“Enough! Stop crying already! Instead, get me something light to eat. I’ve been walking so long I’m starving. Something simple, like a sandwich, would be great.”
“Yes! Understood. I’ll prepare your usual.”

Pedrok moved quickly, his eyes red and swollen. It looked as though he would wipe away his tears in secret the moment Allen couldn’t see him.
Watching Pedrok’s retreating back, Allen spoke silently to himself.

‘Just wait. I’ll definitely bring back a fortune for you.’

* * *

Once he had finished a quick meal of sandwiches and coffee, Allen stepped out into the small training yard attached to the villa.
Pedrok had told him to rest from his journey, but his body itched so badly he couldn’t bear it.

Schwing.

The blade slid out smoothly. He had drawn a sword tens of thousands of times in his life, but never with such a thrilling feeling.

‘I’ve held back for far too long.’

While he was with Lucas, there had been no chance to swing a sword.
Besides, he had wasted so much time searching for and taking elixirs that the journey in the carriage had been all the more cramped and hurried.
All the way here, he had told himself, just wait until we arrive. Thinking about swinging a sword with a body that had gained mana, however paltry, made his heart race.

Whoosh!

Allen’s blade cut downward in a vertical arc. He repeated the same motion several times.
He changed the trajectory and swung in every direction.
Horizontal, vertical, cutting, thrusting, rising strikes.
After running through the basic forms a few times, Allen’s brow furrowed.

“It’s heavy.”

The weight of the sword in his grip was nothing like before. Come to think of it, the last time he had swung a blade was in a future so distant it felt like another lifetime.
The difference in basic physical conditioning was enormous. His grip strength in the hand holding the sword was weak, and the solidity of his shoulders swinging the blade and the core muscles supporting his body was far lacking.
He had realized it right after his regression, but now he felt anew that his body was no longer what it used to be.

“It’ll take some time to adjust.”

There was a great gap between moving one’s body and swinging a sword. He had spent several days getting used to his new body; now came the stage of adapting to the sword.
Allen, who had kept swinging without rest, was breathing hard, his breath reaching the tip of his chin. Once his stamina had dropped to a certain point, he sat down on the ground.
With both his mana and stamina run dry, it was finally time for cultivation.

‘I need to learn how to use mana properly, and I should start the Cultivation Method.’

Refilling the mana he had drained, and accumulating more mana through that very process, was precisely what the Cultivation Method did.
Mana could be gained through shortcuts like elixirs, but the foundation of mana still lay in building it up through cultivation.

‘Master used to say it. Every time mana runs dry, it recovers even stronger.’

In that sense, mana behaved much like muscle. Each time it was torn and healed, it grew and grew stronger.
That was why the weaker a practitioner was, the faster their skill improved. Allen resolved to enjoy this blessed period to the fullest.

The moment his mana ran out, Allen sat down and began cultivating.
Thankfully, he had never once forgotten the incantations of the Cultivation Method.

As he drew external mana into his body, the mana he had exhausted began to refill. The mana within him circulated, pleasant and smooth.
It was the first time he had felt the Cultivation Method working properly. It was as if he were looking down into his own body through the eyes of a stranger.
How long had he been at it?

[Mana has increased by 1.]

Mana that had risen after he’d only just begun cultivating.
Was mana really this easy to gain?
Allen felt puzzled. Come to think of it, throughout his cultivation, he had sensed something foreign stirring somewhere deep inside his body. That was why his mana had climbed so quickly.

‘What is this?’

Soon, Allen discovered an energy he did not recognize, settled somewhere below his navel.
A massive lump of mana, hard to believe for something that should hold only 2 points of mana.
Trying to guess what this unknown energy was, Allen forgot to recite the incantations and stared with wide eyes.

‘No way…’

Allen’s face broke into a bright smile.
The energy of the elixirs he had been taking to resolve the curse still lingered in his body, every last trace of it.

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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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