The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 220

168. Introduction to Elemental Studies (2)

“What is this…”

Cahill was dumbfounded.

He feared that his painstaking search might end without any gains here as well.

‘Could there be another mechanism…? Laminu, do you sense anything else inside this tower?’

[Even if you ask me, you know better than I do, don’t you? There’s nothing.]

“…….”

Cahill bit his lip at Laminu’s answer.

‘Judging by Quonithe’s personality, I don’t think she would have hidden something secretively like Kaie Esser in Einherjar….’

Then, knowing it was a foolish act, he once again shook the *Introduction to Elemental Studies*, which was just a blank page.

“Detection.”

Just in case, he even cast a detection spell, but as expected, nothing was detected.

‘There’s nothing in this tower. There isn’t even a significant mechanism.’

Unlike his past when he couldn’t handle magic, Cahill could now quickly examine the inside of the tower.

However, that ability only brought him disappointment now.

“A wild goose chase…? I’ve been properly fooled.”

Cahill scratched his head irritably and returned the book to its original place.

“I never dreamed that a woman praised as the elementalist of the century would do something even worse than Kaie Esser in Einherjar.”

[The her I know wouldn’t do that…]

Laminu muttered, as if something was strange, as he listened to his words.

“Hoo….”

Cahill let out a low sigh.

He had hoped to find a clue by referring to *Introduction to Elemental Studies*, but since that was also a failure, he was back to square one.

Grumble…….

At that moment,

A sound of hunger came from Cahill’s stomach.

“…….”

Come to think of it, he had spent several days in the space of unconsciousness without eating anything since entering the lord’s manor.

To live, one must eat and sleep.

The same goes for fighting.

Cahill realized anew that he was not keeping the two things he had not forgotten even while climbing the hellish Parell for regression.

‘It wasn’t impatience. Rather, I was too immersed.’

Cahill gave a bitter smile.

How long has it been?

After reaching the pinnacle of the sword, he had never put in so much effort to learn something.

After obtaining Dragon Mana, he learned Kalnere’s magical swordsmanship, the Colorless Sword, with Aln’s help, and even awakened magic in the way of the sword.

Now that he thought about it, learning elemental magic this time could be the first opportunity to completely exclude the sword from magic.

[Immersion……. I thought you’d be tired of failure, but contrary to what I was worried about, you’re actually enjoying it. You’re really hopeless.]

Cahill gave a faint smile at Laminu’s words.

[What are you going to do now?]

At his question, Cahill, as if he had already made up his mind, said to him with a rather relieved expression.

“Shall we get something to eat?”

The midnight intrusion that no one would know seemed to end in failure.

* * *

“Come on, come on-!! Fresh vegetables just came in today!”

“We’ve started selling new skewers! Come on, come on!”

As soon as the sun rose after a late night, the market in Azor began to bustle with people.

Unlike the empire or kingdom where class is strictly divided, Azor, a magical city, does not have nobles.

Moreover, although it has now declared itself a free state, Tatur, which was a lawless zone, has no class, but it is a place where people with their own stories gather, so such a bright atmosphere could not be formed.

‘It’s good to see.’

Cahill felt like he was looking at the faces of ordinary people like this for the first time in a long time.

Even after returning to Tatur, he was mostly in the office, and after a few meetings, he came straight to Antium.

‘One of the reasons I’m trying to change the future is for them….’

They say to go back when you’re in a hurry [a Korean proverb meaning to slow down and re-evaluate when feeling rushed].

He wondered if he had been running too far ahead. It may not be appropriate in this situation, but after admitting failure with Quonithe’s ancient book, he felt like he had taken a load off his mind.

“Here’s your order.”

Cahill, who was looking at the scenery outside the window, smiled contentedly as he looked at the steaming food.

It was the first proper meal since coming to Azor.

Although he forcibly took over the lord’s manor, Pasio treated Cahill and his party with the utmost care after seeing Aln Zabiuss’s appearance.

However, unlike Ishrafel, Cahill repeatedly refused all meetings and focused on learning magic due to repeated failures.

‘Come to think of it, the Eastern Kingdom is surprisingly quiet….’

Cahill cut the meat on the plate and put it in his mouth. It was quite delicious for a place he had entered at random near the entrance to the city’s outskirts.

‘I hope the Eastern Kingdom’s envoy doesn’t return to their country.’

Munch…… Munch…….

Cahill stuffed his mouth full of meat and chewed.

‘It’s been about a week, so Kamma and Aidan might have arrived in Azor. I’ll have to stop by the guild after eating.’

He could have gone to a restaurant on the main street of the square, but Cahill wanted to enjoy a comfortable meal for the first time in a long time.

He was afraid that it would be annoying if the people from the Ulkas Guild recognized him.

“Oh my!! I bought it for you because you kept begging me to eat it, but what is this! What are you going to do if you make a mess like this?”

A sharp voice reached Cahill’s ears as he was lost in thought with a fork in his mouth.

When he turned his head, there was a child and a mother at the table.

The voice just now was the child’s mother.

On the table, there was an empty glass of milk, freshly made bread, and what looked like braised meat.

But when he looked closely, the milk, which seemed to have just been poured, was mixed messily in the braised meat that the family was supposed to eat.

It seemed that the child had played a prank.

“Haha, honey. Kids are all like that. Isn’t it the time to play pranks? Let’s not scold him on his birthday.”

The large man next to him smiled pleasantly as if even the child’s prank was enjoyable.

“Still. Sigh……. It’s not something we can easily come by.”

The wife sighed.

Certainly, most commoners living in the kingdoms of the continent do not buy food from stores often.

This was because the food in the stores was mostly for adventurers or officials, so the prices were high.

It seemed that the family had come out like this early in the morning because it was the child’s birthday.

‘Still, that family is a little better off. Just being able to eat together as a family.’

Cahill made a bitter expression as he looked at them.

For him, who was a minority in his childhood, his mother felt more like a woman of a great warrior than a mother’s love.

‘My mother taught me how to distinguish poison rather than giving me food. Like my father, she was also a perfect warrior.’

But he is following the surname of Kwell, who annihilated his tribe.

‘Have I forgiven my father?’

He was referring to Kwell, his adoptive father, not Kaliak. Perhaps it should have been a relationship of mortal enemies.

A self-question.

-Cahill. Go to the north. There is a cave hidden in the former territory of the Wolf Fox tribe. In that place……. Find the truth.

In his previous life, when the Holy War broke out, Kwell left him a will at the last moment when he was near death.

Since when?

When his father was keeping that secret in his heart alone.

In his previous life, he had never forgiven Kwell McGovern even once.

It couldn’t be helped.

How could he follow the one who killed his biological father and destroyed his tribe as his adoptive father overnight?

-What is in that place?

Cahill did not know why Kwell had called him, not the emperor, in the face of death.

The will he left behind.

And Cahill saw ‘it’ in the northern cave.

“…….”

If Kwell had not told him that fact, he might not have been able to make the determination to regress beyond his previous life.

‘Although it is true that he left a will containing the truth, it is ultimately like a confession several years later. I still haven’t forgiven my father.’

Even as he thought so, he felt foolish for unknowingly calling Kwell his father.

‘Maybe it’s because he was the only one who told me the truth in my previous life. Thanks to him, I came back.’

But that alone is not enough.

‘The time to meet Randal is approaching.’

Surprisingly, Cahill was thinking the same thing as Tyren. In a situation where he was watching the movements of the empire, the only variable was the fifth prince.

‘Indeed……. I’ll have to wait and see if he moves according to my will.’

He made a bitter expression and nervously stuffed the remaining meat into his mouth.

“Our son, well done. To be honest, the sauce was too strong, but the milk mixed in makes it softer.”

The man slightly covered his mouth and spoke in a voice that would not be heard in the kitchen.

“Actually, at first, both the meat and the vegetables were too strong. They didn’t go well together, but thanks to the milk, they mixed together, so it’s better.”

Then he stroked the child’s head and laughed heartily.

“But if it’s like this, you can’t taste the milk. Milk is not something you can easily buy these days, so I ordered it with a big heart……. It’s gone.”

The wife said regretfully even at the man’s words.

“It’s not gone. Instead, you got to eat a more delicious stew. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes!!”

The child answered happily.

But there was no way that the stew with cold milk would be delicious. It was just that the man was being considerate so that the child would not feel bad.

“It disappeared when mixed…….”

Cahill unknowingly repeated the words that the wife had said a little while ago.

“It’s not gone, it’s become more delicious……?”

Then he poured the water he was drinking over the sauce that was left on the tray.

“…….”

Then he stirred it around with the fork he was holding, mixing the sauce and the water. But the thick sauce did not seem to change much even when mixed with water.

Cahill took the sauce with a fork and ate it.

A terrible taste compared to before.

[What are you doing? Are you giving up and trying to become a chef?]

It was then.

The rising sun in the early morning shone through the window onto the table where Cahill was sitting.

The light gradually grew and covered more than half of the table, and gradually reached the tray with the sauce that Cahill had mixed.

The pure white sunlight covered the sauce, but this time again, nothing had changed.

‘It was added, but it wasn’t added….’

Cahill stared blankly at the messily mixed sauce sparkling in the light.

‘When water was added, the taste changed, but the light remains the same. It was added, but it remains the same.’

Thump……. Thump…….

‘It wasn’t a blank page.’

Cahill unknowingly raised the corners of his mouth.

‘It’s not that there’s nothing, so it doesn’t exist. Rather, it’s the opposite. It’s because it’s perfectly mixed.’

Quonithe was trying to say that the basis for handling spirits with different tendencies is not to continue to take away one’s existence like water in the sauce, but to combine without changing the nature of the quality, like light.

“Spirits are spiritual bodies that exist but do not exist. Unlike you, the five major attributes, light and darkness are definitely different.”

[What on earth are you thinking?]

“The reason why you can’t be combined between conflicting forces is because your color is too strong as yourself. Then, if you make that color faint…… no, transparent like the properties of light and darkness.”

Laminu’s reaction to Cahill’s words was that he did not understand at all.

“Aln will be surprised too.”

Clang—!!!

He roughly opened the door of the lord’s manor.

Aln, who was teaching Ishrafel, looked at him as he ran in, panting.

[What’s all the commotion from early in the morning? So, did the messenger who asked give you an answer?]

“No.”

[Hmm……?]

Cahill raised the corners of his mouth.

“Because what I’m about to do now is something she didn’t even think of.”

[She?]

Aln looked at Cahill with a puzzled expression.

Quonithe, who was called the elementalist of the century, was also an ordinary human who could only use one attribute.

But he is different.

“When light is combined, it eventually becomes colorless. Laminu, it was difficult because you were trying to combine your power with non-attribute power as it is. I will give you the magic power of the remaining attributes.”

[You…… you crazy bastard!!]

Laminu shouted as if he knew what Cahill was trying to do.

“From now on, I’m going to mix all seven attributes. And all with the same amount of power. Then you won’t have any complaints, right?”

[What nonsense are you talking about!! Two powers are already hard enough, but you want me to mix and roll around with six other attributes? I can’t do it even if I die!!]

With Laminu’s urgent voice, a small fire man popped out of the Ein Trigger as if trying to escape.

But the clone, which was caught before it could even jump over Cahill’s shoulder, struggled in his palm.

“From now on, I will fill all the attributes of my magic power with spirit kings. Rather, you should be proud that you are the first spirit king to become my power.”

Cahill said that and looked at Aln Zabiuss.

No,

To be exact, he was looking at Duat, who was building his form.

[If it’s Dragon Mana, you can use all attributes, so it’s not impossible……. But you’re going further and synthesizing the powers of all the spirit kings……? Doesn’t that mean you’re putting all the spirit kings under your feet?]

Aln laughed as if he was dumbfounded.

But on the other hand, looking at Cahill, who had such an absurd idea, he felt a tingling thrill.

[I’ve never seen such a greedy guy like you in my life.]

At his words, Cahill raised the corners of his mouth.