The Peaceful Life Of A Maid Who Hides Her Power And Enjoys It - Chapter 126
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 126
“But that has nothing to do with the Baroness…”
“Do you really think it has nothing to do with her?”
“…”
“Of course, ‘when you find a complete settlement, report to me’ can hardly be considered a grand oath.”
So that was the oath between them. As the Swordmaster said, it wasn’t much of an oath…
“Well done, Jin. Your purity has led the Weatherwax Baroness before me.”
The Weatherwax Baroness?
‘Was drawing me out the goal all along?’
A cold sneer appeared at the corner of the Swordmaster’s mouth.
“A woman who might be Grey Weatherwax, a maid, or Andert Pager’s sister.”
Jin swallowed dryly and glared at the Swordmaster.
“…What do you intend to do with the Baroness?”
“That’s not for you to know. The oath has been fulfilled, and your usefulness ends here. The conversation will be between the Baroness and me, so you may leave.”
“I cannot do that.”
“Jin.”
A low voice warned Jin.
“Don’t make me take my former disciple’s life with my own hands.”
Jin gripped her sword tightly.
Jin bit her lips until they bled and whispered while standing more firmly in front of me.
“…Baroness, please escape.”
-Come! If you come, I’ll end it. I won’t lose!
Then the clear resonance of Jin’s sword crying out rang in my ears.
“It seems he’s targeting the Baroness. And Duke Jilhark never lets go of a target he’s decided to eliminate.”
I know that better than anyone.
The Swordmaster intends to kill me. The killing intent he’s showing me now is proof of that.
‘Rather than wondering why… we’ve been entangled for quite a long time, longer than I thought.’
He’s searching for Dian Ket’s Legacy.
He’s been extremely aggressive, continuously sending assassins to the Weatherwax Family and even sneaking directly into the royal stronghold to steal it.
Moreover.
‘Berkleygraytown is a family called the Emperor’s Sword. Could the Swordmaster really be unaware of the royal-led resurrection experiments and the origins of 【Berid Ret】?’
Rather, his actions were likely connected to the royal court.
‘He must be connected to Natasha.’
The Swordmaster was, in some ways—no, in almost every way—a more troublesome existence than Raphael. However, I can no longer just keep retreating.
So I’ll face him head-on.
“Jin. I’ll ask about today’s events later, so get behind me…”
But Jin’s body suddenly lunging forward was much faster than me pulling her back.
“Wait, Jin!”
That belligerent inspector!
Sharp sword energy wrapped around Jin’s white blade. The Swordmaster didn’t avoid her bold challenge. He skillfully countered and occasionally probed for openings, making it look almost like a sparring match.
“Foolish, Jin. Have you forgotten that I am both your master and benefactor?”
Unlike the Swordmaster who pressed forward slowly but surely with leisurely movements, Jin seemed particularly flustered.
That foolish girl. What’s the point of learning swordplay day and night? Her mind is so rushed that she can’t properly use the swordsmanship she’s refined.
“You’re the one who tried to use me to harm an innocent person!”
“Ridiculous. Such blame-shifting. Don’t forget that it was you, not I, who left for the Weatherwax Family while leaving traces of the oath.”
“You…!”
“I overestimated you. I shouldn’t have sent you away from Berkleygraytown. Contrary to your confidence, you’ve become quite pathetic.”
Jin’s composure was visibly shaken.
-I’m going! I’ll go and end it. I’ll defeat you…
The increasingly chaotic resonance proved that fact.
‘She’s been perfectly identified not only in physical weak points but psychological ones as well.’
But the Swordmaster’s rhetoric is merely a means. I focused on the Swordmaster’s goal.
I don’t know why he wanted to draw me out… but setting aside the reason, it could be called a very Swordmaster-like scheme.
The Swordmaster is prepared to use any means necessary to achieve his purpose.
But not every aspect was typical of the Swordmaster.
‘At least not his current appearance.’
He was provoking Jin more than necessary.
The Swordmaster fundamentally respects his enemies. This kind of purely wasteful provocation is…
“Look properly, Jin.”
Then, the Swordmaster’s movements that had been relentlessly pressuring Jin became faintly blurred.
“Your vain desire to pursue strength will drive the one you’re trying to protect to death.”
An elegant strike.
That was my first thought upon seeing the Swordmaster’s sword falling diagonally.
Among the swordsmen I know, none wields such neat and picturesque swordsmanship. So the sword aimed at me would also be admirably clean.
“No! Lady Daisy, please dodge!”
However, there was one question.
The Swordmaster’s sword was flying in a direction that would barely miss my solar plexus.
Was it a mistake?
‘Impossible.’
This is what the Swordmaster intended.
Thanks to that, my growing doubt returned to the beginning.
Why did the Swordmaster keep provoking Jin? Why is the Swordmaster delivering a strike that falls just short of me?
‘…Could what he wants be?’
A hypothesis that suddenly occurred to me flashed through my mind like lightning.
Could my prediction be correct? It was close to gambling, but in the end I chose not to dodge the sword.
The sword that fell like a guillotine pierced straight into the left shoulder.
“Ugh.”
Into Jin’s shoulder, not mine.
Jin, who had stepped back a few paces, clutched her wounded shoulder.
“…Swordmaster.”
Disappointment and regret seeped from her rough voice.
“I thought you were at least someone who understood propriety…!”
It was a quite emotional outcry, but somehow I felt a chilling coldness that reached to the bone.
This nerve-stimulating aura.
I hurriedly checked Jin’s face. Hot killing intent was pouring from her unfocused eyes.
Complete synchronization with the Black Knight.
‘Is it because she lacks experience? The synchronization is too fast!’
Without wavering, I kicked Jin’s side.
“Snap out of it, Jin!”
I mounted her fallen body and created a sword wound on her struggling right leg.
“Gasp!”
“Calm down. Control your breathing and focus on this pain. Can you feel the wound on your right thigh?”
I can’t hear the sword’s resonance.
That was natural. The resonance had already become one with Jin, manifesting as an irrational Black Knight.
“Ugh, ahhh…”
“I’m not telling you to let go of the sword. Just accept it, Jin. You don’t need to abandon it or try to dominate it.”
“…”
“You are a Black Knight. Don’t forget that fact. I’ll watch your back, so you just focus on yourself.”
Control is ultimately a matter of personal self-restraint.
Even if I pressed Jin down with my strength to make her immobile, it would be useless if Jin herself couldn’t escape from synchronization with the sword.
In extreme terms, it meant she could potentially struggle without rest and starve to death at this rate.
That was when it happened.
“…Jin?”
Jin’s movements stopped abruptly like a puppet with severed strings. She collapsed as if dead, eyes closed and completely motionless.
I hurriedly brought my finger under her nose. Fortunately, she was still breathing.
“Leave her be.”
It was the Swordmaster’s voice.
“Whether Jin can overcome the wall or not depends entirely on the child herself. All we can do is maintain her physical peace. If she’s attacked while in a state of selflessness, she could fall into brain death.”
A state of selflessness.
In other words, the process of overcoming a wall. That’s right, according to the Swordmaster, Jin was currently overcoming her first wall.
‘…As I thought.’
The Swordmaster had deliberately pushed Jin to her limits.
So she could face her first wall in an extreme situation.
‘Was this the original purpose?’
There was something unsettling about accepting it that way. What was unsettling was simply the existence of the Swordmaster himself.
“It’s not your first time experiencing this, yet you’re acting foolishly.”
The Swordmaster’s rebuke wasn’t wrong.
Facing a swordsman who had fallen into selflessness wasn’t my first experience. In the past, I had a similar experience.
During wartime, on the day the Swordmaster overcame his third wall.
‘He speaks as if he knows my identity.’
It was uncomfortable. Even more so because it was the Swordmaster.
I tore my holey cardigan to stop the bleeding from Jin’s shoulder as I answered.
“How could I be otherwise with you right in front of me?”
“Did you think I would harm Jin? That’s an uncharacteristically dull judgment from you.”
Despite having targeted my life, the Swordmaster sat down across from Jin quite naturally.
“Still, your quick grasp of my intention is praiseworthy. Swordsmen like you are rare.”
Swordsmen like you.
That expression again. Daisy Weatherwax, not Grey Weatherwax, had never even drawn a sword in front of the Swordmaster.
“What is your purpose?”
At that question, the Swordmaster’s gaze became hazy as if tracing distant memories.
“Purpose… There are always many of those. A person cannot live their entire life with just one purpose. If you’re asking about one of them.”
But such haziness soon disappeared.
Sharp green eyes of unfathomable depth pierced through mine with direct intensity.
“Reuniting with you was my first purpose, Count Andert.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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