The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 1

9th Class Sword Master: The Seeker of the Sword

Prologue

Imperial Era 237.

“I can’t die like this! Not when my comrades—no, the comrades you killed—are wailing in their graves!”

A ragged gasp escaped from within the shattered helmet.

Corpses lay scattered below the cliff.

The knight, having personally cut down the soldiers he once led, cried out in a voice filled with rage upon arriving here.

“Oliver!”

The knight called out the Emperor’s name before him.

The Emperor, too, glared at him with cold eyes, as if looking at a demon.

“Kahl!”

In that moment,

the air turned frigid.

Thwack-!!!

The sharp sound of flesh being cut rang out.

The sword in Kahl’s hand was stained so red it could no longer absorb any more blood.

The knight’s sharp blade pierced the Emperor’s waist.

“Cough…”

Red blood flowed down the corner of his mouth.

The Emperor’s body collapsed.

“My close friend… how did we end up like this?”

The falling Emperor said with a hint of regret.

But the moment Kahl heard those words, he felt a surge of nausea.

“Friend…? Even at death’s door, you can’t drop the pretense.”

He wanted to say:

*I fought for you.*

*When unifying the continent.*

*Even back then, when we fought following the Divine Mandate [a supposed order from a deity to rule].*

*I stood at the forefront more than anyone.*

*Only for you!*

“Thus, Kahl McGovern has become a traitor to the Empire.”

A man had been watching this entire scene.

He said in a low voice.

“A dog who ultimately betrayed the Emperor who accepted the dirty barbarians of the North. That’s how history will remember it.”

His name was Narr Di Mauge.

He stared at the Emperor’s corpse with an indifferent expression and said.

“No one will know the reality: that the Emperor tried to assassinate the great Sword Saint [a master swordsman of legendary skill], Kahl McGovern.”

Ten years of the Divine Mandate War.

Mankind waged a long war against the terrifying monsters called Corruption.

It seemed like the end was finally in sight… so why did it end like this?

“Oliver… why did you try to kill us?”

Kahl murmured in a low voice. Returning to his homeland after the terrible war, what awaited him was not a welcome, but death.

The Ten of the Divine Mandate, except for himself,

were all dead.

Not on the battlefield, but by the hands of the humans they sought to protect.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Kahl replied coldly.

Because he wouldn’t be here anymore.

“You’re really going to do it.”

“Of course.”

He slowly nodded.

Kahl bit his lip as he stepped on the pooling blood flowing from the fallen corpses he had created with his own hands.

“Are you really going to go there? Even I, a dragon, can’t fathom what’s inside. You might have to fight things even worse than the monsters of the Divine Mandate.”

Narr Di Mauge, looking at Kahl, pointed to a massive tower in the distance.

A divine creation that even he, a dragon, couldn’t understand.

Only,

what was known was that it was a structure of the Divine Mandate that could turn back time.

Pharel.

The source of all this calamity, spewing out the monsters called Corruption.

Krrr… Krrr…

Kahl thought as he looked at Pharel, which was roaring as if it were alive and still pouring out monsters.

*I.*

‘*No matter what.*’

*Will return to the past.*

1. Opening My Eyes

“…Kahl, Kahl!”

He slowly opened his eyes at the sound of someone calling him.

The blurry vision gradually cleared.

‘*Light…*’

He turned his head.

The scenery outside the window was moving.

The sunlight sparkled through the trees.

“Are you nervous?”

There was a man in front of him, looking at him with a worried face.

“Don’t worry.”

As he stared at him in wonder, the man touched his chin with the back of his hand, as if he had something on his cheek.

It was a familiar face.

‘*Father…*’

When was the last time he had seen him alive?

Clatter-

At that moment, the chair he was sitting on shook.

Realizing that he was inside a carriage, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

He remembered.

It was a nostalgic scene.

The moment he wanted to see again so badly…

The time he wanted.

The place he wanted.

Everything was according to his plan.

‘*How long has it been…*’

The massive tower that had made him shudder was nowhere to be seen.

It was certain.

Now.

Before the Divine Mandate happened.

Smile.

The man frowned slightly, as if he couldn’t understand his expression.

Indeed, no one would be able to understand his feelings right now.

A time like countless eons.

Beyond that end.

Just.

He spat out the words he had been holding back in his heart.

‘*I’m back.*’

* * *

“You can resent me.”

The man said to Kahl as the carriage stopped.

“Your tribe is now gone, and you are the only survivor. Perhaps that anger will make you stronger in life.”

A splendid mansion despite being in the outskirts.

“Because I’m the one who killed your father.”

He said as he walked through the neatly manicured garden.

“But your father, Kaliak, was a great warrior.”

“……”

The name he had forgotten.

At that moment, Kahl raised his head and looked at the man.

Kwell McGovern.

The commander of the Empire’s Azure Knights. One of the continent’s only five Sword Masters.

And,

the man who was his adoptive father.

An era of war.

Many people had died, and were still dying.

Exactly one year ago,

the Emperor of the Empire, Tyran Shutean, issued an imperial decree.

The Edict of Heretic Extermination.

Those who deny the foreign races who do not worship gods and refuse to convert will be mercilessly purged.

Kahl’s tribe also disappeared because they were heretics.

The criteria for heresy are clear: whether or not they are born with magical power.

Imperial citizens are born with magical power, whether great or small.

But… not them.

‘*It only ended after Oliver ascended the throne.*’

The Emperor who was called the former king, whom he killed with his own hands.

The memories of that time were still vivid.

A hapless friend who believed in God until the end.

“……”

His mouth tasted bitter.

No one in the Empire had eyes like Kahl’s.

The color of his eyes was proof of heresy.

The Black-Eyed Clan.

One of the foreign races called heretics.

‘*Father.*’

Kahl looked at Kwell.

He had killed countless foreign races.

And he would destroy even more tribes in the future.

He had taken in the orphaned himself, but ironically, he was the one who had made him an orphan.

“This is where you will be staying from now on.”

How could Kahl call him father, the one who killed his own father?

‘*Three years until the Divine Mandate is given…*’

There were many things that happened.

Kahl recalled the memories of his previous life one by one and repeated them to not forget them.

Kugugugugu…

The mansion door opened.

Five boys standing in front of the door were looking at him.

Some with interest, some with fear, some with anger, some with indifference.

Someone…

Kahl scanned them.

It was a different look from the five.

Like someone who had reunited with a longed-for person.

‘*Mart, Tiren, Elliot, Randal, Jake.*’

He said their names one by one in his mind.

“Nice to meet you.”

The boy standing at the very front of the five reached out his hand to Kahl.

He was the only one who resembled Kwell.

It couldn’t be helped.

He was the only direct descendant who inherited Kwell’s blood.

The only blood relative and eldest son of Kwell, Mart McGovern.

The remaining four were adopted sons who were not related by blood, just like himself.

‘*They’re alive.*’

He closed his trembling eyes.

The memories of fighting with them to uphold the Divine Mandate seemed to flash by one by one.

“……”

The eldest, who had died with his heart pierced by a demon in the Maron Gorge, the third, who had died burned to ashes in the Kiwell naval battle, the fifth, who had died with his limbs torn apart by the teeth of a demon…

But now they were looking at him with lively faces.

Among them, the eldest, who had died most miserably, was reaching out his hand to him.

‘*Brother.*’

Kahl looked at Mart as if he was deeply moved.

Not the image he remembered of them suffering on the battlefield, but them still untainted.

They were young.

No, they should be called young.

Only then did Kahl truly realize that he had returned to the past.

Squeeze-

Hiding his surging emotions, he grabbed his hand with a calm expression.

“Now, let’s go in.”

Kwell lightly pushed Kahl’s shoulder and said in a low voice.

“Yes, Father.”

The children followed him into the mansion.

“……”

Kahl’s feet, which were stepping on the last step, stopped for a moment.

Then he slowly looked up.

“What are you doing?”

Mart McGovern called out to Kahl.

“Nothing.”

Kahl turned his head, answering with a strange expression, as if awkward yet not awkward.

Because he wasn’t looking at the sky.

But higher than that.

He was just thinking of someone.

‘*Are you watching, Yula?*’

Kahl repeated the name of the god in his mind.

The terrible trials and the bloody Divine Mandate War that she would soon inflict would begin.

‘*No, watch closely. Because I’m going to change everything from now on.*’

The feeling of his feet stepping on the carpet was good.

When was the last time he felt the touch of soft shoes instead of hard armor?

He climbed the hellish tower and came to the past.

And he came back.

Back to the past, against time.

Not by chance, but by his own will.

‘*I will change the future.*’

So, he will achieve this as well.