The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 48

The idea of rankings started in the Valhalla Empire.

Located at the southernmost tip of the continent, Valhalla was a harsh land. It was cut off from the rest of the world, surrounded by thick, steamy rainforests. The air was heavy and humid, and the land was dry and rocky. In this isolated place, they created their own unique culture.

Valhalla was known as the sanctuary of warriors. To reach the afterlife, where honor was rewarded, the people of Valhalla risked their lives in battle.

In Valhalla, all children, boys and girls, had a coming-of-age test. They had to fight monsters. Even if they got hurt, their parents were proud. This is because Valhalla people valued bravery in battle above all else.

They always wanted to prove their strength in battle.

It wasn’t enough to simply win; they carefully wrote down the results, showing who was the strongest.

That was the beginning of the rankings. It’s human nature to want to know who is the best, and Valhalla was no different. At first, it was just a Valhalla thing, but as the Valhalla Empire got more powerful, rankings spread across the continent.

Valhalla was in charge of the rankings.

They organized the rankings based on clear proof, and the Cairo Kingdom also listed the top 100 strongest people.

Homerus, ranked 49th in the kingdom.

He stepped into the arena, and a hush fell over the crowd. He was taller and broader than anyone expected. His sword looked like an extension of his arm, and his eyes were cold and focused. His presence was shocking, not just because of his name, but because of the raw power he seemed to hold.

Lord Lawrence’s face went white. ‘A wandering swordsman?’ he thought, his heart sinking. ‘Barco is truly playing dirty.’

Everyone in Cairo knew the name “Homerus, the Wandering Swordsman.”

Like Berge, he came from a top mercenary group, but unlike Berge, who was known for leading his team, Homerus was famous for his incredible individual fighting skills.

He was called the wandering swordsman because he liked to travel around the kingdom and fight strong people.

Homerus was a 3-star swordsman. He became famous by fighting many duels. He was so good he climbed to 49th in the rankings.

If his story had ended there.

Lord Lawrence wouldn’t have been so worried.

Homerus had recently fought a 4-star swordsman who was known as the gatekeeper of the 30th rank.

He lost the duel, showing the limits of a 3-star, but he learned something at the end and moved up to the next level.

The realm of 4-stars.

The news about Homerus shocked the kingdom.

Everyone really wanted to hire a 4-star swordsman, and Homerus’s value went up every day.

Now, he appeared in the Great Warriors Battle.

Even if it was the old Homerus, people would have felt defeat just hearing his name, but the current Homerus was unbeatable in the northeastern region.

The confident feeling in the arena quickly disappeared. It was like a cold wind had swept through the crowd. People who were just cheering and laughing now became quiet, their faces pale.

Without being told, people looked at Roman Dmitry.

They wondered what he would do. Because Lawrence’s great warrior, who had to fight Homerus, seemed sure to lose.

People thought Roman Dmitry would give up and surrender in this duel.

Roman didn’t know who Homerus was.

However, just facing Homerus’s power made him realize he was a strong opponent.

“‘Interesting,’ Roman thought, a smile twitching at his lips. ‘This is getting more exciting than I expected.’

That’s why life is unpredictable.

Roman had checked Barco’s plans and found out they had borrowed money to hire the Berge Mercenary Corps.

That was all the information that was known.

Roman couldn’t find out the 30% of power that Barco had hidden, and so the day of the battle arrived.

And now.

Barco showed more than 30% of his power. No one expected he would spend so much to hire Flair and a 4-star swordsman.

‘If I had faced cunning and dangerous enemies with this kind of information, I would have lost before I even started. But that won’t happen against Barco. They have hidden their strength, but they don’t know what I am capable of.’

Before the war.

Roman prepared carefully.

He made sure there would be no problems even if he met the strong people described in the books.

He practiced hard to make up for not having enough information.

Therefore.

It was actually fun.

It was a chance to fight a strong opponent.

If the opponent was strong enough to make people scared, it was a good way to measure his own strength.

Step.

“I am……”

He was about to introduce himself.

As he was about to step forward, someone grabbed Roman’s wrist from behind.

“Surrender.”

It was Flora.

Like Lord Lawrence, she knew they were trapped as soon as she saw Homerus.

“The opponent is Homerus, ranked 49th. He’s not just ranked 49th! People say he could be top 30 soon! He’s too strong for you! This plan is completely wrong. You made Lawrence sacrifice himself, and now we have to pay the price. So, step back. Save yourself by surrendering, and pray that Lawrence’s knight wins the next duel.”

Flora.

Flora’s heart was in turmoil. She was angry at Roman for his arrogance, but she couldn’t bear to see anyone, even him, walk knowingly into death.

This was a battle he was sure to lose.

Since Homerus had no reason to spare Roman, Flora wanted him to surrender.

She was right.

Even if Roman surrendered, no one would blame him because of Homerus’s reputation.

However.

“I refuse.”

He shook off her hand.

As he tried to walk again, Flora shouted urgently.

“You’ll really die if you do that! This is Lawrence’s business. There’s no reason for you to risk your life in a battle with no chance of winning!”

Suddenly.

He stopped walking.

Without looking at Flora, Roman stared at Homerus.

He acted like he was better than everyone else.

Homerus’s attitude made Roman want to win from the moment he saw him.

“It’s my will. I don’t want to explain, so don’t get in my way.”

He didn’t care what Flora thought.

His relationship with her was over.

Roman moved his feet.

Facing Homerus, who was looking at him with interest, he said, surprisingly.

“I am Roman Dmitry of Lawrence.”

Declaration of a great warrior.

He finally crossed the point of no return.

The flag signaled the start of the duel.

It wasn’t as aggressive as the first duel.

Homerus and Roman waited for the other to move, staying calm and not rushing.

‘I have to face this small fry.’

Homerus wasn’t interested in this duel.

He had heard rumors about his opponent.

Once made fun of as Dmitry’s fool, he was now seen as different, having defeated Blood Fang and joined this battle.

If he was strong enough to destroy Flair, he was probably a 2-star aura swordsman, but that didn’t interest Homerus.

‘If it wasn’t for personal reasons, I would be fighting Fernando right now.’

Fernando is a 4-star swordsman.

He is known as the gatekeeper of the 30th rank.

Homeros was angry after losing to Roman. He pushed himself hard to become even stronger, reaching the level of the Fourth Star.

Now, he was strong enough to fight Fernando.

Homeros was getting ready for a ranking match when the mercenary guild he belonged to asked him to wait.

The guild leader said, “Homeros, we’ve agreed to a large payment for you to fight in a Grand Warrior Battle. I know you really want to fight Fernando, but please think about us. Your opponent is from a small family called Lawrence, and they don’t even have a Three-Star swordsman. This will be a very easy fight for you, just a warm-up.”

Homeros couldn’t really say no.

Since getting his A-class mercenary license, Homeros hadn’t done any real missions.

He was busy traveling the kingdom and fighting strong opponents, and the mercenary guild paid for everything.

It was a fair deal.

Homeros got to do what he wanted, and the mercenary organization became more famous because of him.

Now that he was a Fourth Star, Homeros couldn’t ignore the guild leader’s request.

It was annoying.

Just thinking about traveling to a faraway, unimportant place to fight some nobody made Homeros feel very bored.

‘Let’s finish this quickly,’ he thought.

He didn’t plan to use all his power.

Just enough to get paid.

Homeros pushed off the ground easily and swung his sword at Roman.

*Whoosh!* The blade moved very fast, making a whistling sound.

For Homeros, this was a slow, easy attack. But for most people, it would be incredibly fast – much faster than Chris or Yanson could ever move. Fighters at Homeros’ level were almost like they were from another world, they were so powerful.

The people watching thought Roman would be cut down in one hit. They thought he couldn’t possibly block such a fast attack.

But then – *CLANG!*

Roman’s sword met Homeros’ blade, stopping it with a loud, ringing sound.

Homeros immediately stepped forward and attacked again and again, but Roman didn’t back down and fought back.

Clang!

Clang! Clang!

They hit each other’s swords many times very quickly.

Homeros thought his ‘Three-Star aura’ power would easily beat his opponent, but even as their swords clashed, Roman didn’t seem to be losing ground.

It was strange to see.

Roman’s sword had only a faint aura, so weak that you could barely see it, but he was still blocking the attacks.

‘Well, look at this,’ Homeros thought.

It didn’t make sense.

It was a situation that shouldn’t be happening.

He became interested.

He wondered how Roman was using his aura, so he decided to test him by using his Three-Star aura at its strongest.

He didn’t use all of his power.

Homeros thought this much power would be enough to beat him easily.

Rumble.

Rumble.

The area around them shook.

Magical power swirled, and aura burst from his sword. His Three-Star aura was so strong that it seemed ready to finish Roman off.

It was much stronger than Yanson’s aura.

Yanson was a new ‘Three-Star’ swordsman, but Homeros was much stronger. He had mastered the ‘Three-Star’ level and become a ‘Fourth Star’ – a much higher rank.

One hit.

People stared with wide eyes.

Homeros seemed so strong that they thought Roman would definitely try to dodge this time.

At that moment…

“Hey.”

It was an angry voice.

Homeros looked and saw Roman staring at him with cold eyes.

“Try to block this.”

Flash.

His vision went blurry.

That was the last thing Homeros remembered.

He was excited about the duel with the Fourth Star swordsman.

His blood was pumping, and Roman thought he would finally have a good fight after a long time.

But things didn’t go as planned.

Homeros didn’t take the duel seriously and seemed to think he was better than Roman without even knowing how strong he was.

‘Does he think I’m weak?’ Roman wondered.

He understood why Chris had underestimated him.

It was because of his reputation.

But lately, he kept meeting people who ignored how he had changed and acted without thinking.

Roman didn’t understand these kinds of people.

How could they be so confident and not even try to know their opponent when they were risking their lives in a duel?

He became less excited.

He had prepared very carefully for this duel.

Roman had been practicing special sword techniques. He had learned the ‘Blazing Divine Art’ first, and now he was ready to use the more powerful ‘Demonic Divine Art’.

But it still wasn’t enough.

He had only recovered less than 10 percent of his original power, so Roman kept pushing himself to get stronger.

And Homeros was looking down on him.

He wasn’t trying to get people to like him.

He wanted to duel Homeros as a swordsman, and his real goal was to get revenge on Barco, not to get attention.

So, he changed his mind.

If his opponent was underestimating him, there was no reason to make the duel last longer.

“Hey.”

Whoosh.

He gathered his magical power.

He did it differently than his opponent.

The magical power rose from inside him like a calm wave, wrapped around his sword, and strongly pulled in the magical power around him.

‘Demonic Heavenly Sword Art, Third Stance,’ he thought.

The Demonic Heavenly Sword Art didn’t have a set form.

It depended on what the swordsman wanted to do.

It was an attack that was hard to predict and not normal, and its power would become much, much stronger with each stance.

This sword art was so strong, it had conquered all the fighting schools.

He gave it everything he had.

If Homeros could block this attack, he would respect Homeros’ confidence and fight with all his might.

“Try to block this.”

Flash.

He swung his sword.

That was the end of it.

Homeros couldn’t even react.

He was still trying to understand that Roman was attacking, but his sword and body were cut apart at the same time, and blood poured out.

Splurt!

One hit.

Just like with Berge.

This time, too, the fight was over in a flash.