Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 109

Eirene watched Cainchel’s retreating figure and called out Horizon’s name.

“Horizon.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Help him and drive away the uninvited guests.”

Horizon’s hand, gripping his sword, tightened.

It was unpleasant enough to fight alongside a human, but to help him?

“…Are you saying I should move according to a human’s orders?”

Eirene pointed to Cainchel’s food, which was about to be tasted. Each dish looked appetizing, made with ingredients from the elves.

“Can’t you feel the kindness contained within? He tried to make food that even elves could enjoy. He used all the skills he could for that purpose. I can tell without even tasting it. This is truly a very kind dish.”

“Are you evaluating him based on mere food?”

“You’ve been fighting humans for so long that you’re starting to talk like one. He made food for elves, so shouldn’t we evaluate him as elves?”

Eirene approached the World Tree and flicked a branch with her slender finger.

Then, the wind spirit residing there giggled and began to dance.

Horizon was startled when the ancient spirit residing in the World Tree enveloped him, and he exclaimed.

“The wind spirit should only be used to protect Your Majesty! Please take it back!”

“With that, you’ll be able to block some of the flames. I know you distrust humans, but I want to trust the kindness that can create such food, and the courage he showed by running out before anyone else here.”

Horizon bit his lip.

Eirene was young.

She didn’t know even half of what humans had done to the elves.

So, he had to go.

To be ready to cut off the human’s head if he tried anything even slightly suspicious.

“Understood. I will drive away the uninvited guests according to Your Majesty’s command.”

With that, Horizon ran towards the outskirts of Eldrad, where the uninvited guests were said to be.

@

Horizon quickly caught up with Cainchel.

The power of the ancient spirit that the Queen had bestowed upon him made his steps even lighter.

“I will join you. But human, let me ask you one thing. Why did you run out before anyone else? Protecting the World Tree is the elves’ job.”

“It’s also a chef’s job to chase away flies that are making noise while the guests are eating.”

“Heh… Is that so? Just flies, huh? But be careful, they seem like rather large flies. It would be unsettling if you died before the cooking competition is over.”

Cainchel chuckled.

He felt strangely acknowledged by Horizon.

As they approached the outskirts of Eldrad, they could feel the intense heat.

It was as if the entire forest was on fire.

‘Destroying the forest to this extent would be difficult with just one or two explosion spells. What on earth is going on…’

They arrived at the place where the uninvited guests had appeared, and he understood the reason.

Through the flames, they could hear the painful screams of people wearing cultist robes.

“I, I don’t want to die!”

“Ah, Antares! P, please have mercy! Aaaagh!”

“Hehehe! Keeheeheet! Keeheeheeheet! The wrath of Satan! Wrath is boiling over!”

There, dozens of people were gathered around a man wearing a gray priest robe.

Cainchel activated Fallen Star. Then, he felt an immense hostility that made his hands tremble.

A rage that seemed like it would burn everything in this world.

It was Antares, the arsonist of the Church of the Seven Sins, who used magic imprints [a technique where magic is activated by sacrificing a body to forgotten gods].

When Antares snapped his fingers, the bodies of the cultists exploded, and 3rd circle fire magic was activated.

“What is that human? He’s using strange techniques.”

“That’s a technique called Magic Imprint, which activates powerful magic by offering the body as a sacrifice to forgotten gods.”

“…Good heavens. So, those humans aren’t here willingly.”

Horizon groaned, his face turning white. He nodded only after hearing Cainchel say that he had fought against Magic Imprints several times.

Nymue tightened her grip on the bouquet of roses in her arms.

“Finally, I’ve found you, arsonist.”

That was the man who had burned down the World Tree of Britannia.

The face of him laughing as he turned countless elves into charcoal flashed through her mind.

An Antares’ subordinate screamed as he saw the arm of the man next to him explode.

“Aaaagh!”

If he stayed like this, he would end up in a similar state. In the end, he turned around and started to run away.

Antares cackled.

“Where are you going? As long as the Magic Imprint exists, you can’t escape from my grasp! Iheeheeheeheet!”

With his gesture, the body of the subordinate who was running away exploded.

The Magic Imprint’s rampage.

Cainchel had seen something similar before.

Perhaps that was why he had brought in the Peddler’s Alliance.

Antares’ technique had evolved to be even more vicious.

Nymue’s body trembled at that cruel sight.

“T, to kill his own subordinates with his own hands…”

“…To stop the activation of the Magic Imprint, you must either knock the opponent unconscious or destroy the body with the Magic Imprint engraved on it. Abel and Nymue, please take care of the subordinates. And Horizon, please prevent the wildfire from spreading any further.”

Abel’s Enatos Xiphos [Abel’s sword] was specialized in dealing with multiple enemies.

And with Nymue’s weapon, the bouquet of roses, it was possible to subdue those who were far away.

Among the group, only Cainchel had experience fighting Antares.

Horizon nodded, realizing that it was best to follow the instructions.

Cainchel jumped down from the tree and swung his sword at the cultists who had Magic Imprints engraved on their bodies.

“Onion Swordsmanship!”

Then, several arms with Magic Imprints engraved on them flew away, spurting blood.

Antares saw Cainchel, who had suddenly appeared, and let out a bizarre laugh.

“Keeheet? Aren’t you the little brat who was with Hector? What brings you to Eldrad?”

There was no need to answer.

First, he needed to defeat as many cultists as possible to reduce the number of Magic Imprints that could be activated.

As Cainchel’s group quickly defeated nearly ten cultists, anger flashed in Antares’ eyes.

If he burned the forest, the elves would lose their power.

But a little brat was ruining everything.

“In order to spread the wrath of Satan throughout the world, the World Tree is just a hindrance! Wrath! This wrath! Will burn you all to ashes!”

Cainchel bit his lip.

There was no reason left in Antares’ red eyes.

Literally a flame that burned everything with anger.

When Antares gestured, the body of the cultist standing behind him swelled up.

“I, I don’t want to die…, Kkuaaaaak!”

And the 3rd circle magic, Fire Wave, was activated.

“Ah, no! Cainchel!”

Nymue, flustered, ran towards Cainchel, but she couldn’t stop the rampaging Magic Imprint.

And a huge wave of fire engulfed the space where Cainchel was standing.

“…Ah!”

Nymue’s face was filled with despair. Cainchel, who had followed her to help, was killed by the enemy’s magic.

But something was strange.

If the Fire Wave magic was activated properly, a huge flame should have erupted.

But only black flames rose, and no flames were visible.

As if blocked by something.

“Euhit? What on earth is going on…”

The smoke cleared, and Cainchel appeared, reaching out his hand.

Nymue let out a sigh of relief and shouted.

She felt like she was about to cry with joy.

“Cainchel! You’re safe!”

Cainchel shook off the black smoke clinging to his body and muttered.

“It’s too lukewarm. The heat in the kitchen is hotter than this.”

As a result of making countless dishes, Cainchel’s fire resistance had become 50.4%.

It was at a level where even 3rd circle fire magic couldn’t do any damage.

Activating Booster and injecting Aura [magical energy], the muscles in his legs swelled as if they would burst.

Cainchel’s body kicked off the ground and shot forward. His target was Antares’ right arm.

Swish-!

Antares stared blankly at Cainchel, who had cut off his arm.

An attack of incredible speed that was hard to believe a Sword Knight had made.

Cainchel, using Booster, showed a movement close to a Sword Master for a moment.

A beat late, blood spurted from Antares’ shoulder.

“Kk, kkeueuk! Th, th, what is this technique…”

As the amount of Aura he could handle increased, the power of Booster increased several times.

“Haven’t seen it before? It’s a technique that a master who spent his whole life training his body passed down to a disciple who could only train his body.”

Cainchel signaled to Horizon and Nymue, who were making blank expressions.

Now was the chance, while Antares was flustered.

“Bouquet of Roses!”

“Haaaaat!”

As expected of those called the first swords of the elves, their swords were fast and strong.

In an instant, nearly ten cultists fell to the two elves’ swords.

“Eeeeeek!”

Antares, enraged to the point of madness, roared like a wounded beast. Then, an amazing thing happened.

Antares’ right arm, which Cainchel had cut off, wriggled and returned to its original position.

“Isn’t that a complete monster?”

The number of cultists had dwindled to about ten.

With the Magic Imprints they had, they could only use fire magic up to the 4th circle.

In the end, Antares prepared a final blow.

“Euhehehehe! It seems like you avoided it once by luck! But if I activate all the cultists’ Magic Imprints! It will be a little hot!”

Then, the bodies of the remaining cultists swelled up greatly.

Now, they couldn’t stop the Magic Imprints that had begun to rampage.

‘How can I stop the magic? Wait a minute…’

Cainchel recalled Hector’s appearance when he was fighting Antares.

He had created Aura in the shape of a triangular pyramid and even blocked the great magic, Explosion.

And he had a similar technique.

“That’s right! Meringue!”

Cainchel instantly created a large bubble and threw it at the cultists whose Magic Imprints had begun to rampage.

Kurururung!

At the same time, a huge chain explosion occurred that shook the entire ground.

Even if it was a meringue made of Aura, it couldn’t block everything.

The meringue broke, and the explosion burst outwards.

But the meringue Cainchel made was not just one.

‘Thirteen…, fourteen…. I held on!’

Creating fifteen meringues at the same time consumed almost all of the Aura remaining in Cainchel’s body.

But he barely managed to block Antares’ final blow.

Antares screamed as all the attacks were blocked.

There were more than 30 cultists with Magic Imprints engraved on them. That was enough to turn the entire Eldrad into a sea of fire.

But most of them had fallen to the two elves’ swords.

And that fire resistance that blocked the 3rd circle fire magic with his bare body, what on earth was it…

“H, h, how!”

Cainchel glared at Antares with cold, sunken eyes.

The arsonist who worshiped Satan, the king of wrath, and tried to burn everything.

The man who had been manipulating countless people from behind using Magic Imprints.

Antares, flustered, tried to activate the Magic Imprint engraved on his finger.

“Bouquet of Roses!”

Swish-!

But the bouquet of roses that Nymue swung cut off Antares’ arms from the shoulders.

An exclamation burst from Nymue’s mouth.

“Ah!”

In that way, the guardian who had failed to protect the World Tree of Britannia was able to fulfill her duty.

Antares, who had lost both arms, could do nothing.

The Magic Imprints he had boasted about and the cultists he had believed in had all disappeared.

Cainchel approached such Antares and muttered.

“A guest like you wouldn’t be welcomed in any restaurant.”

The sword containing Aura began to shine brilliantly.

He hadn’t checked, but the remaining amount of Aura was probably 0 now.

“E, euaaaaak!”

Cainchel blew off Antares’ head as he screamed.

World Tree Guardian #3