Chapter 35
I did it.
That was what Yu-hyun thought when he saw the scene.
Kang Hye-rim landed lightly on the ground.
As if the world had stopped, no one moved.
Everyone only looked at Kang Hye-rim as if they were bewitched.
The enemy leader Mehmed II did not fall even after being stabbed in the chest.
He looked down at his bleeding chest, then raised his head.
What he saw was not Kang Hye-rim who stabbed him, but Dragasis who was fighting with blood.
“…”
“…”
Their eyes met in the air from afar.
Yu-hyun silently watched the scene.
The war of killing and being killed that repeated dozens of times.
They were the leaders of both sides. In a way, they were enemies.
What would Mehmed say? He wouldn’t believe it. He might have lost at the moment he was sure of his victory. Maybe he would lament his defeat, or resent Dragasis for using such a cheating method.
But.
Squeak.
“Brilliant. My nemesis.”
Mehmed II smiled.
He looked at his longtime nemesis, as if he was proud of him.
That was his last word.
Sssss.
Mehmed II’s body turned into white letters and disappeared as he calmly closed his eyes.
It was not only him.
The Ottoman soldiers who followed him also scattered like dust one by one.
Like the warm spring petals fluttering
The sight of a hundred thousand army turning into letters that filled the eyes was only beautiful.
In the world of white letters, Kang Hye-rim raised her sword.
Toward the sky, as if to proclaim her victory.
All the soldiers looked at the scene blankly.
“Did we, win?”
“Really?”
“We won! We won!”
Waaaaaa!!
A cheer erupted from the surviving suicide squad.
It spread like an infection, and the soldiers who were watching the scene nervously from the wall also shouted with joy.
Dragasis still looked incredulous.
He won.
In this hellish world where he always lost, he finally reached the end.
He couldn’t express in words this hot sense of accomplishment that filled his chest.
When he realized that fact, something hot went down his throat and filled his eyes.
Dragasis realized that he was shedding tears.
“That’s right. This is what I wanted.”
What he wished for.
It was not a simple victory.
Dragasis looked at the distant wall.
There, the soldiers, the people, hugged each other and cried with joy.
Yes.
“I wanted to see this sight.”
His homeland, hometown, and people.
He wished that they would not suffer and smile, just live happily.
It was his only wish that he never gave up in the midst of repeated deaths.
“Thank you. Really.”
Dragasis bowed his head to Yu-hyun and Kang Hye-rim.
He, who was the legitimate emperor of the Roman Empire with 2,200 years of history, bowed his head to just two people.
But no one could say anything to him.
No, who could say anything to him?
They were worthy of praise as the protectors of their country.
“Really, thank you. Even though we are made up, we will never forget this grace.”
“We are not made up.”
Yu-hyun shook his head with a gentle smile.
He felt a sting in his wound and sweat all over him, but that was nothing compared to how he felt now.
Looking at the letters fluttering in the air, Yu-hyun continued to speak.
“Don’t you laugh with joy and shed tears?”
“…”
“You are alive. You are living people. So don’t belittle yourself. Proudly as person to person, just be thankful like that.”
“Is that so?”
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Dragasis couldn’t help but smile at those words. He felt like he had thrown off all the shackles that had bound him until now. Before long, Kang Hye-rim also came over here.
“I don’t know how to thank you guys.”
Dragasis wanted to give them something in return.
But he didn’t think he could repay them with money or something like that.
He had to give them something more important, something better.
“So I’ll give you guys the title of knight.”
“That’s…”
Yu-hyun’s eyes widened at those words.
The title of a knight, especially the title of a knight of the legitimate Roman Empire, had much more weight than it sounded.
Especially in a mixed world.
“O noble and brave ones. In the name of Constantine XI Dragasis Palaiologos, I bestow upon you the title of knight without blemish.”
Dragasis held his sword vertically and recited those words.
Then white letters flowed out of his body and were absorbed into Yu-hyun and Kang Hye-rim’s bodies.
Dragasis smiled faintly.
“Although it is informal, I hope you will accept it gratefully.”
“There is no need to apologize. Rather, it is a really generous gift.”
It was not an empty word.
The title of a knight was similar to a kind of honor.
And such honors gave the owner a tremendous [Power of Story] just by existing.
A knight, and a knight without blemish who had achieved merit on the battlefield, had the power to increase all physical abilities and boost combat power exponentially.
It was a valuable gift that could never be obtained with points.
“That’s good.”
Dragasis finished his words and began to turn into letters from his toes.
He smiled contentedly.
Like a person who had thrown off all the pain and suffering, and finally attained liberation.
“I hope that endless glory will accompany your path.”
“Thank you.”
“Benefactors, thank you very much.”
“We will never forget!”
The suicide squad members who fought with him lined up behind Dragasis and each threw a word.
They smiled innocently with pureness in their eyes.
“Really! Thank you!”
And so they disappeared.
White and dazzling.
They ascended to the sky.
Suddenly.
Yu-hyun’s vision flashed white and showed him a different scenery from what he was seeing.
‘This is.’
It was a city where bright sunlight poured down.
Constantinople, where beauty was alive, was full of peace without any traces of invasion.
In it, the citizens cheered and waved their hands at a man.
Bells rang and petals fell slowly from the sky to celebrate the victory.
The man waved back at the citizens while looking at their happy faces.
He was full of smiles on his side profile that he caught a glimpse of.
What one man wanted to protect so much.
What he gave everything for and wanted to hold in his hand was everyone’s happiness.
He soon thanked everyone and turned around to look at Yu-hyun.
And he bowed his head and said.
‘Thank you.’
His vision flickered white again, and Yu-hyun returned to the original world.
Looking next to him, Kang Hye-rim looked bewildered as if she had seen the same scene.
“Ah.”
Kang Hye-rim let out such a sigh and then shed tears.
She hastily wiped her tears with her sleeve, but the tears that ran down her cheeks did not stop.
“Hye-rim.”
“I don’t know. Just… Just can’t stop crying.”
Yu-hyun did not scold her.
He had an idea of what she was feeling.
The joy of overcoming a challenge that he thought was impossible.
The sadness of not being able to protect everyone despite that.
The relief of escaping from the brink of death.
All those things were working together and shaking her heart.
‘Yes. No matter how talented she is, Hye-rim is still a novice as a collector.’
She had grown fast, but she had been active as a collector for less than a month.
Her reaction was rather normal.
‘Besides.’
Yu-hyun looked at the empty plain and muttered.
“I really… succeeded.”
He thought he would succeed.
But it was almost a gamble.
It was only possible if Kang Hye-rim awakened all her traits and gave her all.
He had almost died several times.
But he succeeded.
He cleared this world for the first time that no one else had ever cleared before.
This was an achievement that no one had achieved even in his previous life.
“Really.”
Yu-hyun looked up at the sky.
The twinkling stars in the blue sky looked down at them.
They looked at Kang Hye-rim, and Yu-hyun.
[The Spirits praise your achievements.]
[Amazing achievement! The beings of the upper world utter your names!]
[This is something that no being of the lower world has ever succeeded.]
[You gain 10,000TP.]
Most spirits thought that Yu-hyun and Kang Hye-rim would not clear this world.
Eventually, they would run away like other collectors.
They would hold on for a while and then leave.
Because, that was ‘natural’ for them.
The humans of summer were fearful and afraid of challenges.
So they thought we would fail.
[Your names are spreading throughout the mixed world.]
But we succeeded.
We betrayed everyone’s expectations.
We overcame the obstacles that seemed impossible.
We did not stop even at the brink of death, and we grasped our success with our own hands.
That’s why the spirits praised our names.
How could they not praise this?
What else could they be happy about and passionate about?
We did not stop and surpassed our limits and saved the world.
This was the story of heroes that they wanted.
[Your names are engraved in the world.]
“Hah.”
Yu-hyun could not help but laugh at the message he had never seen in his previous life.
It was supposed to be a message that only Kang Hye-rim could see.
But now Yu-hyun was seeing the same thing as her.
Yu-hyun realized once again that he was really on the stage.
He had reached the place of the protagonist that he had always wanted.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have cleared the world of thoughts!]
[The first achievement that no one has ever achieved!]
[You get 10,000TP.]
[You two have erased the curse that was engraved in this world.]
[You get an additional 10,000TP.]
[The spirits praise you.]
[You get 5,000TP.]
…
The endless array of messages hurt his eyes.
When had he ever received so many messages?
So many points?
He was a worthless extra.
He could not even stand on the stage, and no one recognized him.
Even at the moment of his death, the spirits did not care about him.
But.
“Now it’s different.”
Everyone was looking at him.
Everyone was shouting his name.
He wielded a sword while being a teller, and he fought while being a teller.
The praise of the stars falling from the sky.
The countless blessings soaked into his body like sweet rain.
All of that congratulated him who was reborn anew.
***
Beyond the horizon, the end of the world slowly faded away as if it was melting.
We cleared the world of thoughts, so now the stories that made up this world also lost their power and returned to their original state.
I watched the scene with awe-filled eyes.
It was so beautiful that it was hard to take my eyes off.
It looked like a sea reflecting countless lights as it scattered into white pieces.
Before I knew it, Kang Hye-rim, who had calmed her mind, stood next to me.
She cautiously opened her mouth.
“We did it.”
“Yes. We did.”
“I thought we wouldn’t succeed, but we did.”
“Yes. We did.”
A meaningless conversation.
But there was nothing else we could say in front of this scenery.
Before long, everything around us except me and Kang Hye-rim turned into letters.
Some disappeared as if melting away, and some were absorbed into our bodies.
We continued to talk to each other.
“We can’t go back now, can we?”
“I guess so.”
We cleared the world of thoughts that no one else had succeeded in.
And I fought directly by throwing away my protection even though I was a teller.
We had no idea how much impact our actions would have beyond Earth in the mixed world.
Maybe we would get involved in all kinds of dangerous things.
Maybe we should have lived moderately by adapting to the given reality like others.
“Still, we’ll face it together, right?”
Kang Hye-rim’s words seemed to see through my worries.
I opened my eyes wide and then chuckled and nodded.
“Yes. That’s right. No matter what happens in the future, we will surely… fight together.”
“That’s all that matters.”
The scenery scattered.
Even the boundary line became blurry and everything turned into one letter.
The world… disappeared.
The text that made up the world gathered in front of me and turned into a book.
The sixth book I’ve made.
The crystallization of my sixth painting.
It was a new feeling.
‘I…’
I always heard those words
You have no value
People should live according to their given roles
You shouldn’t look up or reach out
That’s what the world told me
-Dream big. That’s how you can succeed
I believed my mother’s words and tried to fight against that world
But I was too weak and gave up before I even fought
‘Now’
I won’t do that anymore
As if to engrave my determination on it, I wrote a new title on the book
Not [Sword Master Chronicles], but the new name of the Story that I’m going along with now
[The Story of the Fighting Teller and the Sword Master]
This is my first story that will adorn this world.
