The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 311

207. The Answer Is One

“Why… are there two?”

“Why, you ask?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

Caryl, his eyes trembling, couldn’t tear his gaze from the ice pillar as he answered Altemann.

The black eyes sealed within were undoubtedly those of the Precursor of the Otherworlders he had seen in his past life.

But…

‘Who is that man next to him?’

Inside the ice pillar, the Precursor with black eyes was frozen in a pose, sword raised as if charging to kill someone.

[Amazing. That he would be sealed away.]

[Etheral, was your power involved in this sealing as well?]

[No. This was directly sealed by a god. Of course, the power of water was used to maintain its form within this world… To be honest, it’s closer to an illusion than a seal.]

‘An illusion?’

[A seal maintains the existence itself, allowing it to awaken again even after time passes, but this is not like that.]

[Indeed.]

[I see.]

Lamine and Duart responded as if agreeing with Etheral’s words.

‘What does that mean?’

Caryl asked, urging an explanation.

[It means that if you break the seal, both of them will disappear. This doesn’t seal their existence itself, but rather captures them like a painting, freezing a moment in time.]

“…”

Caryl looked at the ice pillar once more.

‘Then you guys must know who that person is.’

[Of course.]

[There’s no way we wouldn’t know.]

The Spirit Kings spoke in response to his question.

“The First Blader.”

As if hearing their conversation, the answer to the question came from Altemann. Caryl turned his gaze to him, and he smiled faintly.

“Although my ears were cut off, I am still an Elf. My affinity with spirits is higher than that of humans. You were conversing with the Spirit Kings, weren’t you? Ah, of course, I can’t hear you, so don’t worry. I can only sense their aura to some extent.”

Altemann spoke as if preemptively excusing himself, even though Caryl hadn’t asked.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like you’ve committed a crime. At least you deserve to hear about this matter.”

Caryl replied calmly.

Then, the three Spirit Kings appeared behind him and surrounded the ice pillar.

[He is right. Perhaps you, Altemann, are also curious about the being inside. Though not recorded in history, he was the Blader who led us in the Mythical Era.]

[Our leader, he was the first Blader to wield swords, magic, and spirits.]

[His name is Judex.]

It was then.

[What? Judex?]

Arhn, who had been quietly listening, exclaimed in disbelief.

“Why? Do you know something about him?”

[What nonsense are you all spouting? Judex? The name of the one who led the Bladers in the Mythical Era? Are you sealed away so long that you don’t know what’s what?]

[Impudent fool!!]

[How dare a mere human utter such nonsense to us, born from the rift. I could extinguish your soul right now.]

Lamine and Etheral snarled sharply at Arhn’s words.

[Do as you please. Then the Dark Spirit King will also disappear. Caryl and I have a soul contract. Although I am subordinate to him, conversely, if my power disappears, Caryl will also be affected. You know that well, don’t you?]

Despite their threats, Arhn merely scoffed.

[The only being who can inflict a definite blow on the gods is the 2nd Wilderness. To achieve the work you so desire, you need me.]

[……]

In the end, the two Spirit Kings fell silent at his words.

“Stop it and tell me. Arhn, what do you know about Judex?”

[Judex. That title may have been used for the leader of the Bladers in the Mythical Era, but now it refers to the highest-ranking being in the Order [a powerful religious organization]. At least, the Magic Era I lived in was closer to the present than the Mythical Era, so the meaning wouldn’t have changed much.]

“…The Order?”

Caryl looked at Altemann at Arhn’s words. He, too, nodded with a bewildered expression.

Even he, who had guarded the Eternal Ice for so long, didn’t know that the name of the Precursor sleeping inside was that.

“He’s right. I’m honestly speechless… Judex… An alias meaning Judge or Condemner, referring to a being higher than even the Order’s Bishop, one who fights only for God. How can this name coexist with Godslayer?”

Two completely different words.

But the fact that the words referred to the same being silenced everyone there.

“Judex? Does it still exist now?”

“No. It doesn’t exist currently. Like Sword Demon, it’s just a title. It’s an alias that even the Bishop can’t bestow, and it’s said that God directly designates it.”

“Hmm.”

[Caryl, you must know that the Bladers who participated in the Divine Spirit War lost their magic as the price of defeat. But there are those who didn’t lose their magic.]

Caryl nodded at Altemann’s words.

Namely, the Continentals.

Except for the North and South, those located in the center of the continent were born with magic and called the Otherworlders without magic heretics.

“Not all of humanity would have sided with the Bladers. Or perhaps there were traitors among them.”

Caryl pointed to the two people inside the ice pillar at Arhn’s words.

[Yes, we have believed until now that the Continentals were traitors who sided with God and that the Otherworlders were humanity who opposed God. But what if that was all a lie?]

“A lie?”

[Why would God, who gave magic as a reward to those who sided with him, leave the alias of Judex to the Order? From the start, the leader who led the Bladers might have been on God’s side.]

[Ridiculous.]

[How dare a soul who knows only a thousand years try to judge the cataclysmic war that regulated the world!]

As soon as Arhn finished speaking, a terrifying aura was felt from the Spirit Kings.

[Spirit Kings. I am not trying to trivialize the war you fought with your lives. But if you want to find the truth, you need to question everything.]

[……]

But only one of the three.

Duart, unlike the others, was rather calm.

“Then who is this? The man your leader is trying to kill.”

Caryl pointed to the golden-eyed man facing the black-eyed man.

[I don’t know. He wasn’t in the Mythical Era.]

[It might have happened after we were sealed. After the defeat in the Divine Spirit War, we were sealed before the Bladers. We don’t know what happened to them.]

“The problem is that the two are fighting. If Arhn is right, the truth becomes ambiguous in a situation where we don’t know who the real ally is.”

[Who is the ally? Black Eyes is the proof of the Godslayer. That much is clear.]

[I don’t know.]

It was then.

Duart, who had been silent at Lamine’s words, retorted.

[It’s not necessarily so.]

[What do you mean?]

[Have you forgotten the 2nd Wilderness? If there is darkness, there is also light. The only Spirit King born from the rift with the same power as God.]

[Could it be.]

Lamine said in a trembling voice at his words.

[Yes, Rasis of Light. The one with his power isn’t Black Eyes.]

[Duart. Are you saying that man is related to Rasis?]

[I don’t know. I was sealed with you. But if so, only Rasis would know the truth. Yula was burdened by Rasis’s power. So he would have sealed him most secretly. His sealing place is the place where God’s power is strongest. It’s likely to be the Order.]

“Rasis…”

Caryl muttered quietly, repeating the name of the Spirit King of Light.

[If you break his seal, there will at least be a possibility. We are those who lived and are living in the Mythical Era, the Magic Era, and the present era, but the gap between us is too long. Even if we put our heads together, nothing is certain.]

“You’ve said it well. Seeing this here wasn’t in vain. At least the next thing to do has come out: Retrieving the Spirit King of Light.”

[Yes, what are you worrying about? It was something you had to do anyway, so it hasn’t changed much.]

“That’s right.”

Caryl chuckled at Arhn’s words.

‘However… If that’s the case, then the seal was broken in my past life. I don’t know how it happened, but the important thing is whether Kwell knew that this seal was broken when he told me the secret of the Eternal Ice.’

Caryl considered the possibility of the sealed being’s revival, but judging from Etheral’s explanation of the seal, the possibility was slim.

But the crucial question in his mind.

Why did only one of the two people sealed together disappear, and…

Who?

Why?

Who released this seal?

All questions remained unanswered.

No, they were rather aggravated.

With the oracle soon to be faced, Caryl’s firm journey to clear the Otherworlders’ stigma and become the true master of the continent had many secrets hidden within as he gradually delved deeper.

“You said that the one who taught you the Sword Demon’s swordsmanship was the Platinum Dragon?”

“That’s right.”

“At least that guy knew about the secrets here.”

Altemann nodded at Caryl’s words.

“Whether it’s Black Eyes or Golden Eyes, the fact that God’s machinations were trying to divide humanity doesn’t change.”

Even if the suspicions deepen, one thing is clear.

“It’s better this way. This gives me a definite reason to annihilate the Empire and unify the continent even more. I can’t explain this secret to thousands or tens of thousands of people one by one. Whether it’s the blood of the Godslayer or the blood of the Condemner, if they trace their origins, they are still human. Even if that Black-Eyed Precursor is actually a fake or a traitor, it doesn’t matter.”

Caryl said quietly.

“I can start over. Once I become the new king and ascend to the continental throne, it won’t matter what our origins or bloodlines are.”

Altemann was unknowingly impressed by Caryl’s way of ending this complex situation with a single definition: that he would ascend to the throne.

“Just thoroughly ignore God’s machinations. From the beginning, I had no intention of becoming the king of the Otherworlders. If the entire continent becomes mine, they will become one under my existence.”

“A human king…”

He uttered those words as if sighing.