The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 141

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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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Chapter 141

With a sound like dozens of sheets of paper being torn apart, the doppelgänger’s body began to convulse.

“Kiiieee….”

Its flesh melted like molten metal poured into a furnace, and beneath it, the Restaurant Manager’s form was revealed. Covered in viscous slime, he looked like a chick that had just broken free from its shell.

“Did it work?”

I lowered the Soul Reaper Sword. The doppelgänger no longer moved. It merely flowed away like water, accompanied by faint whimpers.

-You struck true. The core is definitely shattered.

‘Thank goodness.’

-I told you how, but I never thought you’d actually pull it off.

Wrath looked up at me, his eyes narrowing. The forced union of divine and demonic power had clearly astonished him as well.

“The Restaurant Manager is still alive, so it’s over—”

My eyes widened as I reached to pull the Restaurant Manager from the doppelgänger’s corpse. The fading dark magic suddenly surged with renewed intensity.

“No!”

I forcibly tore away the doppelgänger’s slime that was coiling around the Restaurant Manager and sent him flying backward.

Whoooosh!

The moment I drew the Mana Artisan’s aura to its peak, the black magic mana that had been condensing within the doppelgänger’s melting flesh erupted into black flames.

Boom!

With a deafening roar that shook heaven and earth, the compressed black energy exploded. The force was so terrifying it twisted my body, but to my eyes resonating with the Ring of Fire, the trajectory was already visible.

I drew my blade and brought it down in one fluid motion. A crimson streak cleaved through the darkness, splitting it in two.

Crash!

The fractured dark mana bypassed both me and the Restaurant Manager, detonating across the snowy plain. Had it struck us head-on, the impact would have been catastrophic, but my instantaneous reaction and the precise trajectory of my blade created a perfect defense.

“Damn them.”

I furrowed my brow, glaring at the blackened, lifeless ground. They had obliterated the doppelgänger beyond investigation—Eden truly was a group far removed from normalcy.

-Those Eden bastards must all be insane.

‘Second to none in madness across the Continent.’

Though I had only encountered them three times, even Wrath seemed to have grasped that Eden was a collective of lunatics.

I turned back to check the Restaurant Manager’s condition. His skin was melted in several places, and his vitality had been severely drained, but fortunately, it wasn’t fatal.

‘I need to start with recovery, but… huh?’

I was about to use my aura to restore the Restaurant Manager’s condition.

Uuuuung!

Black foam began rising from the doppelgänger’s mangled corpse. The decayed remains, which had resembled rotting leaves, gathered into spheres and coalesced into the shape of a human face.

A large hat with a brim, a long nose, a face full of wrinkles. It was the appearance of an old woman who looked shabby.

“You saw it well. Very well indeed!”

The old woman’s mouth opened. Contrary to her appearance, her voice belonged to a young woman—sultry, composed, and tinged with profound madness.

“So it was you.”

“What?”

“You killed Bingarui and destroyed Cheongjugui’s plan.”

The old woman grinned wickedly, tilting her chin to one side.

“There’s no way an old, sickly Milend could have stopped Cheongjugui’s scheme. Everything today, everything back then—it was all you.”

The old woman’s gleaming black eyes swept across my entire body with a viscous intensity.

“You….”

I narrowed my eyes. Not a monster—a person. And that mask belonged to a witch. If there was a witch in Eden, there could only be one.

An existence that had abandoned the position of Grand Mage of the kingdom five hundred years ago and walked the path of monsters. It was Merlin, the Betrayer Witch, the very figure who appeared in the fairy tales Sylvia had read to me.

“Are you wearing Merlin’s mask?”

“You know me? You actually know me? Really?”

The old woman’s voice rose like a cocktail, sickeningly sweet.

“Ah, how delightful. Absolutely delightful. Your instincts are sharp, your perception is keen—I adore everything about you.”

“What?”

“What you should have taken from here wasn’t the Siren’s vessel—it was you. You were the real prize all along!”

Her undulating voice rippled with unbridled desire.

“Won’t you come with me?”

“What are you—”

“Your cold gaze, your frigid voice, that face of yours—perfection itself. Come with me. I’ll make you the greatest man alive.”

Merlin’s face, composed of doppelgänger corpses, crept closer inch by inch.

“I’ll let you live forever at my side.”

Merlin’s mouth—nothing but a mask—split wide open. Seeing those lips stretched all the way to her ears, a chill raced down my spine.

“Disappear.”

I furrowed my brow and brought my sword down, but Merlin’s face reformed instantly, as if I had merely sliced through smoke.

“That decisiveness is admirable too.”

Merlin drew closer with ragged breaths. Now her body was materializing as well, not just her face.

-How dare this ignorant woman target the King’s soul and body!

Wrath gritted his teeth and rose to his feet. Surging cold and fury erupted like a volcano, engulfing the space around us.

-What are you doing! Cut her down like before! Become one with the sword while she’s careless and tear through that magic!

‘Become one with the sword….’

He meant for me to achieve Divine Sword Unity and strike her down, just as I had when saving the Restaurant Manager.

I sheathed the Soul Reaper Sword and drew it once more.

-What are you doing! Use that wretched thing and cut her down!

‘I think I can do it.’

The sensation from piercing the doppelgänger’s core moments ago still lingered in my hands. I felt I could achieve Divine Sword Unity alone now.

“What are you planning? What else do you intend to show?”

Merlin’s eyes blazed with yellow madness.

“Show me more. I’ll witness everything with these eyes.”

I closed my eyes without responding. What I needed to cut through wasn’t the form before me, but the flow of magic that controlled it.

Moments ago, when I severed the doppelgänger alongside the Soul Reaper Sword, I felt as though the blade had become my arm. I had to find that sensation again.

A deep, resonant hum echoed forth.

I resonated the ring of fire and awakened the aura of perfect harmony. The blazing aura wrapped smoothly around my body and the blade.

But it wasn’t perfect yet. I needed to move more slowly, more naturally.

I refined the aura twisting along the blade’s edge with the fluidity of water.

The blade and I were one.

Divine Blade Unity—a state where one could imbue their will into the sword itself. And to reach that state, above all else, one needed a natural flow.

As the aura wrapped around my body and blade without the slightest discord, the sword no longer felt like a sword. It felt as though my arm had simply grown longer.

I brought the blade down from its raised position toward the sky, maintaining that sensation.

It was neither swift nor slow, neither powerful nor weak. A perfectly ordinary sword strike.

Yet within that strike lay my unwavering will to cut down my enemy.

Kwaaaaaah!

The crimson slash imbued with intent tore through Merlin’s vessel completely.

“Aaaahhhhh!”

A scream erupted from Merlin’s lips for the first time. Blood dripped steadily from beneath her mask. The Divine Sword Fusion had affected not just her magic, but her true body as well.

“You’ve reached Divine Sword Fusion without even using a Demon Sword? You’ve grown that much in this time?””

The scream was brief. A voice filled with praise and delight followed in its wake.

“Ah, we’ll meet again soon. You’re mine. I won’t give you to anyone….”

Merlin couldn’t finish her final words before dissolving into smoke and vanishing.

“Insane woman.”

I lowered my sword and exhaled deeply. I was far more relieved not to hear that woman’s voice anymore than I was pleased about achieving Divine Sword Fusion.

-That lunatic dared to covet this king’s body. She’s particularly mad, even among Eden’s ranks. Had I been able to move, I would have frozen her to the bone.

Wrath waved his hand dismissively.

“Who said this is your body? My body is mine.”

I sighed as I watched Wrath cross his arms.

‘But…’

I glanced around the surroundings. We were now outside Habun Castle. While the wager condition was to not leave Habun Castle, it referred to this general area, but if he wanted to nitpick, he could easily find a loophole.

Yet Wrath didn’t move. He merely glared at Merlin’s melting form while grumbling that I shouldn’t covet what was his.

-Hmph, I have no intention of claiming victory in this wager with such trivial means. There’s no need to stare at me like that. What do you take me for?

‘He revealed that the Restaurant Manager was inside the doppelgänger, gave hints about divine sword unity, and now… why are you acting like this? You said you’d die if you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, so are you finally breaking free?’

-Truly, you are a madman.

Wrath shook his head back and forth.

-I must have told you before. I do not abandon my subordinates and servants. That old man is not the grandfather of the third maidservant for nothing. If we can save him, then we should.

‘Hah…’

I let out an involuntary laugh at words I never expected to hear.

Now that I thought about it.

It was Wrath who had told me that Sylvia was tormenting Lunan Slion back then.

Could it have been genuine?

It seemed Lunan Slion and Martha hadn’t been joking when they called Yua a handmaiden. The one who was mad wasn’t me—it was that self-proclaimed Demon King.

-And….

Wrath gazed toward the peak of the Sturrin Mountains, a chilling smile crossing his face.

-I need not even factor this matter into our wager. In truth, I believe I shall devour your body myself.

*

*

*

A grotesque chamber where the flesh of humans and monsters hung like ornaments. From a bone table at its center, an incongruously gleeful voice emanated.

“Hehehehe.”

A woman wearing the mask of Merlin, the Witch of Betrayal. Blood dripped from the edge of her chin. Simultaneously, a moan escaped her lips—yet it carried ecstasy rather than pain.

“Ahhh.”

The woman lifted her mask slightly. She caught the falling blood on her fingertip and placed it directly upon her tongue. Her crimson lips curved into a smile as she savored the taste.

“I will bring him back no matter what. By any means necessary. That face, those eyes—I won’t let any other woman have them….”

Her clasped hands trembled violently. She seemed unable to contain herself, consumed by fervent desire.

A deep, resonant hum reverberated through the air.

As the woman wearing Merlin’s mask clawed at her own flesh with elongated nails, the void shimmered—and a skull mask materialized, its eye sockets ablaze with cerulean flames.

-What happened? Why has the doppelgänger’s life signal vanished?

“It’s dead.”

-What? How is that possible!

“Milend has grown stronger. He sensed the doppelgänger’s presence and rescued the Siren’s vessel.”

Crimson lips twisted upward beneath the slightly lifted edge of Merlin’s mask. She had deliberately named Milend—someone entirely uninvolved in this affair. She had no intention whatsoever of mentioning Raon.

“And what kind of modification was that anyway? Not only did the fool expose its identity through sheer stupidity, but it kept babbling about targeting the Siren’s vessel.”

-With your sorcery, you could have stopped it beforehand.

“I told you I was merely observing.”

-Damn woman….

“Our objectives are not aligned. Besides, I had no particular interest in the Siren’s vessel.”

-What became of the Siren’s vessel?

“It lives.”

-A relieved exhale.

Satisfied that the vessel remained alive, the skull mask released a breath of relief.

-Insane woman. I should never have entrusted this task to you.

He glared at Merlin’s mask with eyes blazing like molten fire, then dissolved into smoke and vanished.

“Hnngh…”

The woman pressed Merlin’s slightly lifted mask firmly against her face, exhaling a sound between a gasp and a laugh.

“That child belongs to me. I cannot give them to anyone.”

*

*

*

I used the pure energy of the Thousand Harmony Palace to cleanse the Restaurant Manager’s body of the faint dark magic and restore his vitality. Color gradually returned to his pallid face.

‘Fortunate that I caught it in time.’

Any later and the damage would have been irreversible. I had been blessed with good fortune.

“Phew…”

“Raon!”

“Inspector!”

As I exhaled in relief and hoisted the Restaurant Manager onto my back, I heard the voices of Dorian and Yua calling from behind.

When I turned around, I saw Milend and the soldiers with shocked expressions, and Dorian rushing over while carrying Yua on his back.

“G-Grandfather!”

Yua leaped down from Dorian’s back and wrapped her arms around the Restaurant Manager’s arm.

“Grandfather! Wake up! I won’t complain about working anymore! Please!”

“Yua.”

Yua’s chin trembled as she looked up at me.

“It’s alright. There’s no need to worry.”

As I smiled and nodded, Yua let out a whimper and collapsed to the ground.

“Waaaaahhh!”

Upon hearing that the Restaurant Manager was safe, Yua burst into tears—tears she had held back even in front of the doppelgänger.

“Y-Yua.”

Her cries seemed to act as a stimulant, and the Restaurant Manager, whom I had thought would remain unconscious for some time, slowly opened his eyes.

“G-Grandfather! Grandfather!”

Yua lifted her head. With eyes as red as a rabbit’s, she met the Restaurant Manager’s gaze and rushed forward to embrace him.

“I was scared! Grandfather!”

“I know. I’m sorry, Yua.”

As I set down the Restaurant Manager, Yua threw her arms around him and burst into even louder tears. The Restaurant Manager, though his hands trembled weakly, gently stroked Yua’s hair.

Watching the two of them embrace and reassure each other, my chest swelled with emotion. The satisfaction that flooded my heart was even greater than when I had defeated the Ice Troll Lord and heard myself called a hero.

“What on earth happened here?”

Milend narrowed his eyes as he surveyed Yua, the Restaurant Manager, and the doppelgänger’s charred, blackened remains.

“To explain from the beginning…”

I recounted everything that had transpired with the doppelgänger from Frost’s Branch to this very moment.

“Hmm, I’m too ashamed to say anything.”

Milend bit his lip firmly.

“It was unavoidable. I only discovered it by chance myself.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it. I only found out by chance myself.”

A doppelgänger—one modified with dark magic so thoroughly that no one could have easily detected it. Yet Milend held himself responsible. He not only apologized to himself but went directly to Yua and the Restaurant Manager to express his remorse, and immediately ordered the reinforcement of security measures.

A doppelgänger. It was a situation that had been modified with dark magic, making it difficult for anyone to notice, but Milend considered it his own fault. He not only apologized to himself, but also went to Yua and the Restaurant Manager to apologize directly, and immediately ordered the strengthening of security.

Seeing the true sense of responsibility a leader carries, my fist naturally clenched with renewed strength.

*

*

*

Two days had passed since the doppelgänger’s attack.

Raon stood alone in the Training Ground, sword in hand. A vertical slash descended from above, infused with the will of utmost pleasure. It was a swift blade so fast it was invisible to the eye, as though I had been drawing the sword from the very beginning.

But Raon exhaled a sigh of dissatisfaction.

“This isn’t it.”

The realm of divine sword unity that I had realized when cutting through Merlin’s mask refused to open its doors again. It seemed to be something achievable only in that singular moment.

-You have done it once, so you shall be able to do it again soon. There is no need to rush.

Wrath offered advice in an uncharacteristic manner.

‘Why are you acting like this lately?’

-This King is naturally magnanimous. Besides, your body will soon fall into this King’s grasp.

Ever since capturing the doppelgänger, he had been in this state continuously. He seemed to have gone completely mad.

“I’m not sure.”

I shook my head slowly. Just as I was about to swing my sword again, the door opened and Yua peeked her face through.

“Swordmaster.”

Yua sniffled.

“G-Grandfather has woken up.”

“Is that so?”

The Restaurant Manager exchanged a brief greeting with Yua before falling back asleep. I had been worried since he hadn’t woken for so long, but it seemed he had finally come to.

“Grandfather wanted to see you, Swordmaster. Would you be able to come with me?”

Since I had things to discuss with him as well, I nodded and followed Yua toward the Medical Tent. Upon entering the worn but well-maintained ward, I found the Restaurant Manager leaning against the wall, with Milend standing before him.

“Commander?”

I widened my eyes, not expecting Milend to be here.

“Why are you so surprised? I simply came to pay my respects.”

Milend chuckled softly and stood up. The fact that he had come in person suggested that his earlier apology was far more than mere lip service.

“Swordmaster. Thanks to you, I’ve been given a second chance at life. Had things gone differently, I would have left these young ones alone. I am truly grateful.”

The Restaurant Manager forced himself to his feet and bowed his head.

“Thank you for saving the castle’s residents. I’m ashamed that I couldn’t prevent such a catastrophe.”

Milend bit his lip and lowered his head in kind.

“Please, don’t do this.”

I tried to stop Milend and the Restaurant Manager from bowing, but neither would budge.

“This isn’t a bow from a commander, but gratitude from one person to another.”

“If you won’t accept my thanks, then I have nothing left to offer you.”

“Sigh, very well.”

Only after accepting their gratitude did the two men raise their heads.

“Sir Raon. I apologize for asking at such a time, but might I inquire about something?”

“Please, go ahead.”

“I… I heard that Eden’s spirits were targeting my granddaughter. Could you tell me why?”

Even as the Restaurant Manager had been on the brink of death, his concern remained with his granddaughter.

“That’s precisely what I need to discuss with you.”

Raon nodded in acknowledgment.

‘Since the commander is here, I can speak now.’

I was about to tell him that we should go to Zigheart together, given that Eden was targeting Yua.

The door to the medical tent burst open with the sound of hurried footsteps. It was Radin, the captain of the 3rd Scout Squad.

“C-Commander! This is dire!”

He clenched his trembling fists as he continued.

“M-Monsters are surging toward the castle wall!”

“What?”

“Monsters?”

“Their numbers rival that of a Wave!”

At the mention of a Wave, both Milend and Raon’s eyes widened as large as lanterns.

“Mm, don’t concern yourself with matters outside. Focus on your recovery.”

Milend gently patted the Restaurant Manager’s shoulder before following Radin out of the tent.

“I’ll inform you about the matter concerning Yua later.”

“Ah, understood.”

“Yua, take good care of your grandfather.”

“Yes!”

I patted Yua’s head as she answered with forced enthusiasm, then followed Milend up onto the castle wall.

And I saw it.

A wave of monsters surging forward from the distance, raising a white tempest in their wake.

‘With so many monsters moving like this, is it Eden again? They’re really persistent….’

My eyes widened as I watched the monsters, my lips pressed tight.

‘What is this?’

The momentum of the monsters charging toward the castle was starkly different from before. Where once they were consumed by hunger and madness, now….

Fear and terror.

The monsters were rushing toward the stone wall with expressions of panic, as if being hunted by something, as if the castle wall itself were an obstacle to their escape.

‘What is happening?’

I swallowed hard.

What in the world was unfolding before me?

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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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