The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 997
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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 997
“Ah….”
The first scene Merlin witnessed upon arriving at the Village was Uncle Philip—who had always greeted her with such warmth—being pierced through by a blade of cold steel.
Shhhhwack!
Uncle Philip, whose gentle hands had so often caressed her head, collapsed to the ground without even a scream, clutching at the gaping wound in his abdomen.
Gaahhh!
The knight who had run him through was no man—his eyes held the cold indifference of one dealing with vermin as he withdrew a blackened stake.
He drove the stake through Uncle Philip’s hand and pinned it to the earth.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Uncle Philip’s screams tore from his throat, but the knight paid no heed and rose to his feet.
His gaze found his next prey—the child Uncle Philip had been shielding. Without hesitation, he drove blackened stakes, corroded with age, through the child’s hands and feet.
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
Watching the child who had so often mocked and ridiculed her now shriek in agony, blood spraying from hands and legs, my mind went blank.
The heat engulfing the Village, the blood spattering across my body—it all felt like a nightmare.
Thud.
I could not bear the vertigo and collapsed to my knees. This slaughter, my first witness to such horror, was more than my young mind could endure.
Crunch, crunch.
The knight, having finished driving stakes through the child’s body, noticed me and approached with a twisted smile spreading across his face.
“Ah….”
Merlin’s lips trembled as she watched the Knight’s thick hand falling toward her head.
Splash!
Mela threw herself forward, using her body to push the Knight away and shield me.
“Oh, Aunt Mela….”
“Run! Hurry! Go to Cella!”
She waved her hand urgently, telling me to flee to Cella while she held off the Knight.
Splash!
But Mela couldn’t block the azure light erupting from the Knight’s blade, and her body was cleaved in two.
Blood pooled across the floor in a grotesque puddle. I had never imagined a human body could spill so much blood.
“Aunt Mela?”
The Mela who had always shielded me from the children who mocked me, who had given me dried fruit—I never dreamed she would die here, her legs severed.
“Run….”
Even as she lay dying, Mela waved her hand, urging me to escape. I knew death existed, but witnessing it before my eyes stripped away all sense of reality.
“You fool!”
Another Knight gestured savagely at the one who had killed Mela.
“I told you not to kill her!”
He furrowed his brow, insisting she had to be captured alive.
“My apologies….”
“Tch!”
The moment the Knight before me bowed his head, I bolted deeper into the Village.
Seeing Mela’s death, only one name filled my mind—Cella.
“Cella!”
I called out her name and rushed toward the house, but all I could see around me were villagers impaled on stakes. It felt like I was standing in the very heart of Hell.
‘Wait….’
I halted mid-stride as I sensed a familiar surge of mana emanating from the village center.
‘It’s Cella!’
Only she possessed such pure, refined mana in this village. It seemed she was locked in combat with the knights.
‘Wait. Now that I think about it….’
Why weren’t the others using magic?
The mana flowed as it always did, yet I couldn’t fathom why the people weren’t casting spells.
‘No, I don’t have time to ponder such things now.’
I bit my lip and sprinted toward where I sensed Cella’s mana.
Crash!
The knights were hurled backward with their breastplates caved in, collapsing to the ground.
It was Cella. She wielded flames and frost, along with telekinetic force, shielding the fallen villagers while driving the knights back.
“Cella!”
“Where have you been!”
Cella bit her trembling lip, realizing I had been searching for her all along.
“Thank goodness you’re safe.”
Relief finally washed over her, and she pulled me into an embrace.
“I’m so sorry.”
As I nestled into Cella’s warm embrace, my racing heartbeat finally subsided, as though everything that had transpired until now were merely a dream.
Yet this situation was no dream. Even now, the acrid stench of burnt flesh and blood reached the tip of my nose.
“Step back for a moment.”
Cella positioned me behind her, then moved to block the advancing knights.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
As she extended her hand, the magic of Shadowless Spear activated, and the charging knights were crushed along with their blades.
Whoooosh!
The knights approaching from the right were blocked by raging flames, while those from the left were trapped in frost, unable to move an inch.
Standing alone against dozens of knights, Cella—despite being a mage—evoked the image of an impenetrable fortress.
“Haa…”
Yet even she seemed to be tiring, her trembling hand rising to wipe away the cold sweat trickling down her forehead.
‘How can Cella be struggling like this…’
Cella possessed immense magical power even among the Para Race. I couldn’t understand why someone who could cast spells all day without fatigue was already breaking into a cold sweat.
“Impressive.”
The middle-aged man who appeared to be the Knight Commander lifted his face guard and nodded.
“According to the Sage, you shouldn’t be able to use magic, yet you manage this much. Truly a race that sold their souls to the Demon Race. Beasts, the lot of you.”
He clicked his tongue, as if finally accepting the reality before him.
“Demon Race? What nonsense are you spouting!”
Cella’s eyes widened as she ground her teeth.
“We received intelligence that your Para Race is connected to the Demon Race. I was confused when assigned this task, but now it all makes sense.”
The Knight Commander nodded, saying he could now use his true strength.
“I suppose I can treat you as monsters.”
“That’s insane! If you do that, they’ll attack, so should I just offer my neck?”
Cella stomped her foot roughly, telling him to come to his senses.
“…It doesn’t matter what happens. A knight has no choice but to obey their lord’s command.”
The Knight Commander said that once an order was given, there was no refusal, and pointed his sword at Cella.
“If you surrender quietly, I won’t kill you.”
“So this is how you show your true colors. Deceitful bastards.”
Cella bit her lip and brought her hands together. Mana ground roughly like sandpaper, and a massive explosion erupted before the Knight Commander.
Boom!
Yet even before such a tremendous explosion, the Knight Commander didn’t waver in the slightest. He simply brushed the soot-blackened armor from his body as if he felt no impact at all.
“Since you resisted first, I’ll come at you with full force.”
The Knight Commander nodded and brought his sword down, and a wind wreathed in crimson aura poured from the sky.
Crash!
Cella condensed her mana and erected a wall, but the Knight Commander’s sword strike was so overwhelmingly powerful that she was forced backward.
The two villagers she had been protecting rolled beneath the Knight Commander’s feet.
“So you are the master of this Village.”
The Knight Commander said she was indeed different and brought his sword down again. It seemed he intended to capture not just Cella, but all the Para Race here.
Whoosh!
Cella, seemingly without the strength to respond, held her mana like a mirror and blocked the Knight Commander’s successive slashes.
Judging from her skilled combat technique, this wasn’t her first battle against a knight.
Kyaaaaaaang!
She protected the villagers to the very end, not only blocking the Knight Commander’s blade but also parrying the strikes of the other knights.
“You should consider giving up.”
The Knight Commander shook his head as he placed his foot over the heads of the villagers collapsed beneath him.
“Not only will you be hurt, but they will be injured as well.”
“Don’t worry.”
Cella shook her head calmly and brought her hands together.
“No one will be hurt anymore!”
As she spread her mana, a blue light engulfed the entire village, and the bodies of the collapsed villagers began to glow softly.
“This is….”
The Knight Commander’s jaw trembled as he grasped Cella’s plan.
“Next time, I’ll come find you all.”
Cella bit her lip and activated a mass teleportation spell.
Whirrrrr.
But the magic circle lost its light just before completion and faded away pathetically.
“What?”
Cella stared at her hands where the light had vanished, as if she had never imagined such a situation, and exhaled sharply.
“The Sage prioritized two things when preparing this operation.”
The Knight Commander raised a finger toward Cella.
“The first is blocking your magic. And the second is….”
He chuckled softly as he gazed upon the darkened land.
“A teleportation spell—or perhaps a complete seal on scrolls.”
The Knight Commander shook his head, declaring that there would be no escape.
“Ah….”
Cella bit her lip as she watched the Village ignite once more in flames.
‘Damn it….’
She had barely managed to draw mana from the outside world to cast the teleportation spell, yet it had failed so pathetically. It seemed there was a skilled sorcerer among those who had orchestrated this ambush.
“Now it ends….”
The Knight Commander raised his sword to strike down the exhausted Cella.
“Lady Cella!”
The villagers lying at his feet seized the Knight Commander’s ankle.
“Flee!”
“We will be fine!”
“They won’t kill us!”
“Please, go!”
The villagers cried out desperately for her to escape, blocking the path of the Knight Commander and his soldiers.
“Wretches!”
The knights trampled the already wounded villagers beneath their feet and blades, rushing toward Cella.
“Ah….”
Cella glanced between the falling villagers and the trembling Merlin behind her, then made her decision and leaped backward.
“I’m sorry. If only….”
Cella wrapped herself and Merlin in a blue light as she nodded.
“I will save you, no matter what!”
With those words, she transformed into light and vanished.
“Did she alter the incantation in that moment?”
The Knight Commander’s eyes narrowed as she observed the frozen ground, now a pale blue.
“Truly a dangerous race.”
She nodded with a cold gaze, as if resolving never to let her guard down again.
“Clean this up quickly!”
*
*
*
A gust of wind swept through.
When Merlin’s eyes opened again, she found herself in a dark forest of unknown location.
“Ugh…”
Cella coughed up black blood from her mouth, clearly having overexerted herself.
“Cella!”
Merlin approached her with trembling hands.
“Are you alright…”
“You weren’t frightened?”
Cella smiled as if she hadn’t just coughed up blood, reassuring Merlin instead.
“I’m fine, but Cella…”
Merlin bit her lip as she watched Cella, unable to lift her arm properly.
“I’m okay. I just pushed myself too hard.”
Cella patted her own back reassuringly, telling her not to worry.
“More importantly, let’s move.”
She barely managed to stand on legs drained of strength.
“What? Wouldn’t it be better to rest here first and then…”
“Forcing the teleportation spell to activate increases the chance of our location being exposed. We need to leave this place first.”
Cella prioritized escaping this location and deployed a spell to erase their traces. Having broken free from the magical interference formation, she seemed somewhat relieved.
“Yes, I understand.”
Merlin lowered her gaze and bowed her head. As she breathed in the quiet air, the villagers captured by the knights weighed heavily on her heart.
“It will be alright.”
Cella embraced her and smiled gently.
“We’ll definitely see them again.”
She repeated the promise to live together—not to Merlin, but to herself, as if making a vow.
“Let’s go now.”
Cella quickly composed herself, took her hand, and walked toward the distant lights of the village.
The blue moonlight casting down behind the young mother and daughter fell like tears, shimmering as it streamed away.
*
*
*
“Indeed….”
The King nodded as he scanned the Para Race beings confined within the Royal Palace’s prison.
“Their eyes are different. They truly do appear to be monsters.”
As if brainwashed by the Sage, he muttered the word “monsters” while observing them.
“We executed some as an example, but we captured most of the people—rather, the Para—from the Village alive.”
The Knight Commander nodded matter-of-factly while observing the people with stakes driven through their limbs.
“Hmm….”
The Sage narrowed his eyes as he examined the Para Race beings with ropes wound around their necks like slaves.
“Was there perhaps a golden-haired, red-eyed woman who appeared to be the Village’s leader?”
He gestured toward the Knight Commander with his chin.
“That’s precisely what I intended to report to you.”
The Knight Commander bowed his head to the Sage.
“There was indeed a woman matching your description among the Para Race. She….”
The Knight Commander explained how Cella had rescued the people but ultimately escaped with only Merlin.
“Sigh, this is troublesome….”
The Sage shook his head, his eyes narrowing with displeasure.
“What do you mean by that?”
The King approached the Sage, his jaw trembling.
“The woman the Knight Commander allowed to escape is the most crucial figure to us. She is royalty of the Para Race.”
The Sage shook his head, saying it seemed he had failed to fill the insufficient numbers of the Para Race with royal blood.
“What are you saying now?! What do you expect me to do?”
The King flailed his hands about as if demanding an answer.
“There is no need for concern, Your Majesty.”
The Sage shook his head calmly.
“From what the Knight Commander told me, it seems they will come of their own accord.”
“Come of their own accord?”
The King blinked his clouded eyes, unable to comprehend.
“Yes. There is an excellent bait right here, is there not? If we use it well….”
The Sage laughed as he ran his hand along the iron bars of the Prison where the Para Race was confined.
“They will swallow the hook of their own volition. However….”
He smiled faintly as he looked at the King, who seemed to have aged further.
“I would appreciate it if you granted me some authority to command the other knights as well.”
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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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