The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 276

189. The Rothschilds (1)

“Human…? No, no! What on earth is that?”

Anthem Howard shouted involuntarily, staring in disbelief at the shadows slowly climbing the stairs from the doorway beneath the floor.

Clang— Whirr—

The moment their feet touched the stairs, a mechanical sound echoed as they turned to face the two men.

They were about the size of adult men, with sturdy builds and strange devices attached to them. Their faces were like expressionless wooden dolls, devoid of pupils.

Surprisingly, they were golems.

“Golems can’t operate without a pilot… Is it even possible for someone to fit inside those?”

“No.”

“Th, then…”

“They are sentinels carrying out assigned commands, relics from the Magic Era. As you know, there were golems that moved without pilots back then.”

Anthem was aware of the sentinels encountered during the excavation of ruins.

In particular, the rock cave ruins where the dwarves of the Murga royal family discovered the golem Enderus had caused significant damage to the duchy due to the numerous sentinels, a fact known to everyone in the duchy.

Even if not ruins, the sentry soldiers created by Allen Zaberius, who guarded the Spring of Arcane, showed that self-moving golems were common in the Magic Era.

“But most are only given simple commands. Those guys are just guarding the ruins.”

Karyl spoke as if the golems before him were nothing special, but Anthem’s surprise was of a different nature.

“I, I’ve never seen such small golems. To create mechanical golems of that size, the components inside must also be miniaturized…”

Creating large golems like Revol was certainly difficult, but not impossible.

This was because, as long as balance could be maintained, increasing the size of the components inside was entirely possible.

“That’s right. So, I initially thought about bringing Wingel Hart along, but I held back. It felt like it would be chaos.”

Karyl chuckled.

As Anthem said, miniaturizing the components inside a golem required technical skill.

Even Wingel Hart, known as a genius of magical engineering, said that the smallest size that the Meister Unit’s small golems could currently make was several times the size of a human.

If Wingel Hart had seen them, he would have either fainted in shock or been desperate to dissect them immediately.

“One, two, three, four…”

Karyl counted the number of golems and tilted his head slightly.

“Nine in total… The number has increased? No, were there fewer back then? There were only three.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

Anthem, unable to understand his mumbling, simply stared at the enemy before him with worried eyes.

‘Hmm, what happened? When we came to the Frost Highlands with Kay’s guidance because of the prophecy, the number of golems had already decreased. That means something happened before that…’

Karyl glared at the golems.

‘In the previous life I know, there were no significant events in the Frost Highlands until Oliver brought Kay.’

“Well, we have to deal with them first. Anthem, step back.”

He put his worries aside for now.

Whether there were three golems or three times that number, the fact that they had to be defeated to enter remained unchanged.

Clang—!!

Whirr―――!!

The moment he drew his sword, the golems crossed their arms almost simultaneously, and sharp needles popped out from the backs of their hands.

Whoosh……!!!

Again, Karyl’s figure disappeared, and at the same time, six golems stirred up snow on the ground and vanished.

“……!!”

A clash of tremendous speed.

Anthem hurriedly retreated, fearing that if he were caught in that storm, his limbs would be severed.

Hiding as if in the space Karyl had created, he bent over and watched their movements.

The meat was burning on the bonfire behind him, but he had no energy to care about that.

Gulp—

Despite the relentless flurry of swordsmanship, Anthem forgot the danger and watched Karyl as if drawn in.

“Hiss……!!!”

Karyl blocked the blade of a golem aiming for his side, twisting and gripping its ice claw.

He drew up his mana.

The Bracelet of Greed trembled as if struggling to absorb his mana.

Crack…… Crackle……!!

Karyl swung Arcane Blade with all his might along the blade on the golem’s hand.

The golem couldn’t withstand his power and bounced back, its ice claw slashing through the air.

Whoosh―!!

The ice claw barely missed the golem’s head, slicing off its horn with a sharp gust of wind.

As the golem staggered back, two of the remaining golems supported its back, while the other six rushed towards him.

Clang!! Clash clash clash!!!

The golems’ attacks poured in from all directions, moving erratically as if teleporting.

Faced with a series of attacks that continued as if they were one body, Karyl gripped his sword with both hands.

Slash―――!!!!

A sharp sound cutting through the air.

But as his sword emitted a sharp aura and split the ground, the golems that had been about to pounce on him were already scattered in all directions.

The performance of the golems, showing movements so perfect that they could be mistaken for humans, was astonishing, but even more surprising was their coordination.

“…….”

Karyl loosened his throbbing wrist.

He looked slightly surprised at the golems’ power, which far exceeded expectations.

“Hoo.”

But as if not particularly concerned, he took another breath and drew up his mana.

‘I shouldn’t waste time.’

Whoosh—

As mana exploded, his body dashed forward rapidly. Entering the golems’ formation, he twisted his body and swung his sword.

The golems, dodging Karyl’s attack, regrouped and surrounded him again.

‘They seem to be moving erratically in all directions, but the golems have a certain pattern. The wings on both sides obstruct the view, the two arms defend the attacks, and the two legs block the path.’

Even though it was a speed that could not be followed with the naked eye, Anthem turned his head as if watching the golems.

‘The third one on the lower left. The fourth one on the upper part. The ninth one on the head, so this attack will come from the first one.’

Clang―――!!

As Karyl raised his sword to block the golem’s attack, Anthem knew that his prediction was correct.

His eyes could not follow the speed of the golems, but he could anticipate their attacks.

Predicting before seeing.

‘All the flow occurs from the fifth one, the center of the nine, and becomes the most powerful force. And the center that causes that wave is…’

“……!!!”

Anthem’s eyes flashed.

“Th, that’s it!! That’s the one!!”

Anthem, who had been peeking out from the floor, risked danger and shouted at Karyl.

“Master, it’s the golem on the upper right!! The one with the broken horn from earlier!! Target only that one!”

“……!!”

Karyl’s body moved at the same time as Anthem’s shout.

“It’s the third one!! If you deflect three attacks, it will come to the center on its own!”

Clang―!!

Karyl deflected the golem’s blade. The golems standing on both sides aimed for Karyl’s back.

He deflected two fists with his left arm, pushing the golem’s face as it was.

Exhaling, he used the golem’s head as the ground and swung his leg back.

Clash clash clash……!!

As the golems dodged the attack, Karyl’s foot struck their chests.

The golems staggered and bounced back.

Karyl pushed the head of the golem he was gripping and jumped backwards, somersaulting in the air.

Clang―! Whirr―――!!!

As if trying to protect the golem with the broken horn, the remaining two golems rushed towards Karyl in the air.

But he was the one who had blocked the onslaught of nine golems.

There was no way that just two could stop Karyl. Without a moment’s hesitation, Karyl slashed Ice Claw horizontally.

Clash clash clash―――!!

Karyl’s Arcane Blade completely shattered the golem’s head, unleashing a loud roar.

Breaking through the black smoke rising from both sides of him, Karyl stepped on the chest of the last golem lying on the floor with all his might.

Crack!!

Without stopping, he thrust Ice Claw into the fallen golem.

Buzz buzz buzz…….

The last golem trembled, and as Karyl pulled out the embedded sword, sparks flew and it slumped.

“Hoo…….”

Only then did he exhale the breath he had been holding.

“How did you figure it out?”

“The golems’ movements were the same as the formation written on the stele [an upright stone slab or pillar, typically bearing an inscription] earlier. The formation is one thing, but to be able to create golems like this…”

“You’re the one who’s amazing for figuring that out and finding the solution.”

Karyl stepped on the broken golem’s head and nodded with satisfaction.

“Y, you flatter me.”

At his words, Anthem scratched his head as if embarrassed and answered awkwardly.

“Doesn’t that mean that the one who solved it is no less a genius than the one who created the formation?”

“It’s because the golem that was the center was damaged by you, Master, and couldn’t keep up with the speed of the eight, creating a gap. You would have caught them even without me, Master.”

Anthem’s words were sincere.

“With brute force, not tactics.”

“Like destroying the stele?”

“In fact, the most used tactic in war is to show an overwhelming difference in power.”

Karyl nodded at his words and looked at the golems lying on the floor.

‘But the tactics deployed by the nine golems exceeded my expectations. I wouldn’t have been defeated, but I might have struggled quite a bit.’

The power of each golem may be less than that of a Sword Master, but Karyl couldn’t help but be surprised that the coordination of the nine was completely different from the power of the sentry soldiers he had calculated based on his memories of his previous life.

‘Among the top 10 strongest on the continent, the only ones who can keep up with the speed of the golems are the five Sword Masters.’

Karyl had now crossed swords with two of those five.

Moreover, he already knew the skills of Cwell, who was said to be the strongest, from his previous life, so in terms of strength, there was no need to distinguish the ranks of the remaining two.

No, regardless of their skills, Karyl was already superior to the five Sword Masters.

He was certain that one Sword Master could not face the golems.

‘But in my previous life, these golems were broken.’

Who could have done it?

If he had to guess, it would require the coordination of two or more of the five Sword Masters, not just one.

But at the time the prophecy was given, the only Sword Masters alive were Kwon Wang Balbont and Ganes.

‘Moreover, there were no traces of the device being broken when I arrived.’

That means that the one who came before had solved the secret of the formation that Anthem Howard couldn’t solve.

‘To solve the secret of the formation and break the golems inside… That is impossible without knowledge that transcends the human realm.’

Unless Allen Zaberius was resurrected, there was only one possibility for someone with such knowledge.

‘Dragon.’

And the dragon that influenced the continent at that time was, of course, only one.

The Platinum Dragon, Nardie Mauge.

Karyl bit his lip slightly and thought.

‘He clearly revealed himself for the empire after the prophecy was given. But if that was a lie…’

The relationship between Oliver and Nardie Mauge.

And further, if we expand our thinking to the relationship between Oliver and Wooden Cloud…

‘Does that mean we can connect Nardie Mauge and Wooden Cloud?’

He looked at the underground stairs and thought.

He had never even considered that connection before. That’s because he had never imagined that Oliver and Wooden Cloud would be involved.

‘In my previous life, he clearly tried to eradicate the Blue Lore created by the remnants of Wooden Cloud.’

But if that was all a lie… And if it didn’t end there, but even Nardie Mauge was involved, then Karyl’s knowledge of the truth of his previous life became ambiguous.

He moved his feet towards the bottom.

‘Oliver, that bastard, was already on the first line of my list. But Nardie Mauge, my suspicion of you continues to deepen.’

“…….”

Karyl tightened his grip on the sword.

‘But it’s thanks to you that I was able to regress. However, the moment this suspicion becomes a certainty, the first line of my list, which has been deeply engraved for countless eons, will change for the first time.’

He doesn’t know why that guy came here. But at least in this life, he will strike first before them.

Thud― Thud― Thud―

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs echoed like the beating of a heart.