Episode 201
* * *
Just as the ‘Black Prince’ and his swords were preparing to leave for the land of the former Teutonia Knights.
As usual, early in the morning, Dale came out to the courtyard of the duke’s castle.
“Sepia, and Lize.”
“Brother!”
As soon as Dale appeared, his little sister Lize smiled brightly.
“I heard, Brother! Everyone in the dukedom is talking about Brother becoming the ‘Auror Master’!”
“Yeah, I told you to be careful with your words, but it still reached Lize’s ears.”
Dale smiled quietly and turned his head away.
Auror Master. The ultimate sword that Dale obtained with the help of the three Seven Swords. It was a hellish training to participate in the ‘Trial of the Sword’ held in the old Teutonia Knight Nation, and in the end, Dale proved himself once again.
That being the greatest genius in the empire is by no means an empty claim.
It was a talent that could not be hidden no matter how hard one tried, and Dale smiled bitterly as if there was nothing he could do about it.
“It seems like you’re starting to get used to how to use the Circle and Aura Heart.”
“We are only just getting started.”
Now, Sepia, the wise elf and magic master of Lize, smiled, and Dale nodded.
“Then, Brother, can you use both swords and magic at the same time?”
“huh.”
Lize, who still knew nothing about the world, asked innocently, and Dale nodded silently.
“Sepia said that the completion of the first circle is imminent.”
“I guess you can’t fool blood.”
“lol.”
Dale smiled as he patted Lize’s head, and Sepia smiled quietly. Lize simply smiled proudly at the compliments from both of them.
“By the time we return from our journey, our Lize will have become a full-fledged magician.”
Dale’s Journey, the sword test held in the Teutonia Knights. Swords from all over the continent are gathering, and Dale will also participate. Not as a magician, but as a swordsman who has attained the realm of ‘Auror Master’.
You don’t have to be a knight. Not everyone who carries a sword is a knight.
That was the realization that the Jester, the Master of the Sword, had given to Dale.
But now Dale was no longer the Empire’s hunting dog. Hunting was entirely of Dale’s own free will.
“Be careful on your way back.”
“Thank you, Sepia.”
“Come back quickly, brother!”
Following Sepia, Lize smiled brightly and spoke, and the ‘hunter’ holding the sword nodded.
“Okay, I’ll be back soon, so Lize should also work hard on her magic… … .”
“Oh, this is so crap.”
And that was when it happened.
“At this age, I’m doing the sword test and I’m just f*cking around. It’s so f*cking sad… .”
Dale and Sepia’s expressions froze at the sound of a voice coming from somewhere, and Master Baro finally appeared from beyond the pillar. The swearing flowing from his mouth stopped right there.
“Hermi.”
Master Baro’s expression froze, as if he was aware that it was not good for the child’s education.
“Oh my, this is so crap. No, gasp… … .”
“… … .”
Master Baro cursed in embarrassment and swallowed his breath again. An awkward silence fell.
“No, this… … .”
To be exact, Dale was about to open his mouth to say, ‘What the hell did that crazy kid say in front of my sister…?’, but he also swallowed his breath hastily. With murderous intent rising to the tip of his throat.
“Sippal, Zola, what is a dick? Brother?”
Lize tilted her head innocently and asked back.
“Oh my, little miss, that’s… … .”
“hmm.”
Master Baro trailed off, and Dale remained silent. After a moment of silence, Dale answered.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“What do you mean?”
“A word that hits you hard.”
* * *
‘When you call me again in the future, I will come running to you and the House of Saxony without hesitation.’
Charlotte, who remembered the oath she had sworn to her lord that day, never forgot that fact.
In the midst of the distance between the two people who had grown so far apart, they also knew that their relationship would never return to how it was before.
It wasn’t about nobility of origin.
In front of the empire’s greatest genius, who grows by the day, Charlotte Orhart’s existence was nothing more than that of a princess who had to be unilaterally protected.
From the day he reached out to me, a young child who knew nothing about the ways of the world, until now.
Even after officially taking on the title of Lady Black, escorting the ‘Black Prince’, nothing changed.
Dale would never be the kind of person to throw Charlotte out when he was no longer needed. But that made his kindness all the more painful to Charlotte.
Because she knew better than anyone that her sword was not worthy of the title of a knight guarding the ‘Black Prince’.
So Charlotte left the Duchy of Saxony of her own free will and began her journey.
Despite all the taunts from the mercenaries, she proved her sword skills in various territory battles in the body of a girl, and in one city, she proved her skills by subduing a monster that no adventurer dared to attack.
To escape Dale’s care and face the harshness of the world alone.
The place that the daughter of the new sword reached was the castle of the Archduke of Lancaster, the Heavenly Sword, who was once her father’s close friend and had lost everything to the ‘Black Prince’.
A swordsman with the title of the best sword among the remaining Seven Swords of the Continent, and the only close friend that Charlotte’s father trusted more than anyone else.
It’s dark under the lamp. When the Empire thoroughly searched the territory of the Teutonia Knights and burned all the ‘Records of the Plum Blossom Sword’, no one would have thought that the Empire’s loyalist, the ‘Heavenly Sword, the Archduke of Lancaster’, was in possession of the sword.
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As a result, the prediction of the new sword Bardell was right.
What Charlotte still held in her hand was the two-handed greatsword of the House of Saxony. However, the aura contained in that greatsword was no longer the Black Sword of Saxony. It was not even the red and white that symbolized the House of Lancaster.
“… … It seems that blood is thicker than water.”
Looking at the flowing purple light, Lancaster, the Heavenly Sword, nodded quietly.
The Plum Blossom Sword, known as the strongest swordsmanship on the continent.
The speed at which Charlotte mastered that sword style was a monstrous speed that even the Heavenly Sword could not have imagined.
As if it was a sword that existed for her from the beginning.
“The scent of plum blossoms is resonating. Ah, the image of my old friend is so vivid that I can almost touch it.”
The Duke of Lancaster smiled ecstatically as he looked at the purple that was embedded in her sword.
When the Divine Sword passed his sword to the Heavenly Sword, in fact, it was as painful as mixing water and oil for the Heavenly Sword’s Archduke Lancaster to understand the sword.
But Charlotte Orhart was not like that. Like a fish in water, she absorbed the swordsmanship taught by the Heavenly Sword and grew stronger day by day.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the growth of his disciple Charlotte was the only joy for the Duke of Lancaster, who was in despair.
So the Duke of Lancaster, after a period of silence, quietly opened his mouth.
“……shallot.”
“Yes, Master.”
“I have something to say to you.”
“Go ahead.”
Charlotte smiled, holding the purple sword in her hands.
In front of that smile, the Duke of Lancaster hesitated for a moment. However, the hesitation did not last long. He simply overlapped the image of his close friend Barthel with Charlotte and quietly made up his mind.
“I wish to leave to you all that my ancestors and I have built up, the House of Lancaster.”
“… … !”
Charlotte Orchardt held her breath at the unexpected words.
“My second son, Michael, was killed in battle, and my eldest son, Richard, is broken and out of his mind. Our Lancaster family will disappear like this, and we will be recorded as losers in history.”
Titania of York claims that her eldest son Richard was driven mad by the ‘Red Tower’. At the same time, Lady Scarlett of the Red Tower claims that it was the work of the ‘Blue Tower’ and York.
But even if it was either way, it was a good thing for the current Duke of Lancaster.
“All of Lancaster that I have built will be yours.”
“But, I am from the Orhart family… … .”
“Don’t worry.”
After saying that, Cheon Geum continued speaking. With a weight that was incomparable to anything he had said up until now.
“In the Test of the Sword, I will proclaim you as the adopted daughter of the Lancaster family and the ‘official successor.’”
* * *
Among the nameless swordsmen, those who gathered to make their name known. Their numbers were innumerable, but to be honest, most of them were nothing more than rookies who did not know the ways of the world.
The sword is like magic. It is a cruel world that advocates the supremacy of thorough skill, but in order to acquire that skill, you must ultimately learn the sword from a certain school or master.
It is literally a dream come true that a talented person can reach the pinnacle of swordsmanship through self-study.
So it wasn’t hard for Dale to calculate the list of swords to be wary of through the blue spider web he had, the information network that stretched across the continent.
And among those swords, there was one that caught Dale’s attention the most.
The daughter of the divine sword Badel, the greatest sword of the continent once defeated by a warrior.
Charlotte Orchardt.
Dale also knew that she was learning swordsmanship while relying on the land of the Heavenly Sword Lancaster.
Despite that, nothing changed.
The land of the old Teutonia Knights, and especially the Blade Mountains where the Test of the Sword is held.
There, Dale will gladly strike down his opponent and obtain the hilt of one of the Seven Swords.
Even if someone stood in his way, nothing would change.
* * *
Some time later, the old Teutonic Knights.
A territory now ruled under the name of the ‘Count of Brandenburg’, a hero of the wars of conquest.
It was at that very place that the carriage symbolizing the Duke of Saxony finally arrived.
The old territory of the Empire, which can no longer even bear the name of the Knights’ Nation, has fallen into the hands of the fallen Counts of Brandenburg.
Dale got out of the carriage with his swords, and there was an unexpected face there to greet them.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Sir Helmut. And Prince Dale.”
At those words, Sir Helmut bowed his head quietly in greeting.
A woman dressed in all black, still reminiscent of a funeral. How could I forget her face?
The widow of the divine sword Bardel, who fell at the hands of the old warrior, and also the mother of Charlotte Orhart.
It was Vanessa Orchardt.
* * *
“It has been reported that the ‘Black Prince’ and the three swords of the Seven Continental Swords have come to Saxony to conduct a test of the sword.”
Malbork, the capital of the former Teutonia Knight Nation, once held by the war hero of the Empire, the Holy Swordsman.
After hearing the report there, the head of the Brandenburg Counts’ House… … Philip nodded.
“Father’s hated enemy has finally reached my territory.”
From that day on, he practiced swordsmanship and whipped himself every day without fail. However, as his father had said, the ‘Black Prince’ of the House of Saxony was not someone who could be caught up with ordinary efforts. His integrity was no exception.
No matter how ugly and cowardly it was, it was time to show all the cards I could play.
The old Teutonic Knights had been conquered by his proud father, and as proof of this, the Counts of Brandenburg and Philip had seized the very heart of the Knights’ Kingdom.
So, as the lord of the Teutonic Knights’ Territory, Philip smiled quietly.
Because it was the time to show off his sharpened sword for this very day.
