The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 334

219. Conversation with Gordon (2)

“Cough… Cough…”

Caryl opened his eyes, coughing, his lungs burning from the frigid air.

[Are you alright?]

Aln’s voice was faint.

[See? What did I tell you? Mercy is only given when you hold the sword before a condemned prisoner at the guillotine.]

‘Be quiet.’

Caryl shifted his body.

The canyon walls soared so high their peaks vanished from sight, and the blizzard, which had been raging, had finally ceased.

[That you would be caught like this. Wonders never cease.]

[That’s why there are always variables in a contest. If the weak cannot overcome the strong, the very idea of rebelling against God is a contradiction.]

[But the problem is that the variable has occurred to *to* us.]

Despite Caryl’s mental command, the Spirit Kings continued their commentary. Annoyed by the cacophony of voices in his head, Caryl spoke again.

‘I understand you want to make fun of me, but aren’t you being too leisurely? Didn’t you consider that if I died, you would also be extinguished?’

[Hmm… I don’t think you’re the kind of person who would die from this.]

[Sounds like a complaint for not helping.]

[Calm down. As you said, we who are contracted cannot manifest our power unless you, the caster, wills it. But it’s not like we did nothing.]

Lamine spoke, attempting to mediate between Duat and Etheral.

[The moment you fell, Aln barely managed to pull you out of Gordon’s grasp using Duat’s power. Otherwise, you would have ended up like *him*.]

Caryl raised his head at Lamine’s words.

He saw Gordon collapsed in the distance.

“……”

Before worrying about Gordon’s life or death, Caryl needed to assess his own condition.

‘To make such a foolish mistake…’

Caryl bit his lip.

The secret of the North.

It was true that he had hesitated for a moment upon hearing those words. But he knew all too well that a moment’s carelessness could mean the difference between life and death.

Yet, he had made that painful mistake again.

Was it because they had been together in the Necropolis?

Or was it because of Gordon’s unrestrained demeanor?

To be honest, he had treated Gordon Fabian with a level of familiarity that he now considered overly generous.

“Kugh?!”

The moment he tried to push himself up, an excruciating pain shot through him as if he had tried to lift a mountain with his arm.

The arm he tried to use remained unresponsive, yet the pain was immense.

[Be careful. Your condition is terrible.]

Examining his body at Aln’s warning, he saw the bone of his left wrist protruding through the skin below his elbow.

He tried to move his legs, but they wouldn’t respond. Remembering his legs slamming against the rocks during the fall, Caryl sighed, noting his ankles were twisted at unnatural angles.

‘My arms and legs are completely broken. I couldn’t create a shield because of the Automata [magical constructs], so it’s no different from falling completely exposed. Well, there’s also a human who actually fell naked… The only madman on the continent who could do such a crazy thing is *that* madman.’

Caryl slowly began to gather his magic power, attempting to stimulate his damaged magic circuits.

Fortunately, he had instinctively wrapped one arm around himself for protection. If all his limbs had been shattered, recovery would have taken an agonizingly long time.

[Even if you borrow the power of attributes, it doesn’t make sense to absorb divine power. Then the Earth Spirit King, the Great Rock Lord, would have been the natural enemy who could catch God. But even he wouldn’t have the ability to contain God’s power, except perhaps for the Lightning Lord Kungen’s lightning…]

Lamine said, glancing at the collapsed Gordon.

[Perhaps the secret of the North he spoke of is related to that lost man.]

Caryl recalled the blonde man he had seen in the Eternal Ice Cave, a figure absent from his memories of his previous life.

[He is related to the Light Spirit King, Lacias. Now that we have found traces of Lacias in Nar Di Maugh’s lair, if his seal has truly been broken… Perhaps this Gordon has been in contact with Lacias.]

“……”

Caryl considered Aln’s words.

In his previous life, Gordon Fabian had died early and faded from history, making his current path unpredictable. Caryl’s original intention had been to save a Sword Master [a warrior who has reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship] who would be a powerful asset in the war against the Fallen, but he had no idea that Gordon would become entangled with the North.

‘I need to find out. If Gordon Fabian is connected to the North, and that is why Kwell told me the secret of the North… I need to know what they are thinking.’

That knowledge would be crucial in determining the future of this life.

“Hey. You’ve wasted my time. Are you alive? Gordon Fabian.”

Caryl spoke quietly.

“Kuh… Keuk…”

Gordon’s upper body, sprawled on the ground, twitched.

“…What a monstrous human being.”

“Foolish fellow. You and I are enemies. Yet you still worry about your enemy?”

“Think what you want. The reason I asked if you were alive is so I can kill you with my own hands.”

“Keu keu…”

Gordon laughed weakly at Caryl’s words.

However, his voice was hoarse, as if his internal organs were damaged, and each time his chest heaved, blood poured from his mouth. It was a wonder he was still alive.

No matter how much a Sword Master had trained his body, without magic power, he was ultimately just a human.

In a situation where both of them could have had their limbs explode and shatter as if they had fallen from the highest altitude an airship could fly, it was nothing short of a miracle that both of them were alive.

No, the possibility of that miracle was ultimately due to their abilities.

“You’re going to kill me? Then come on. You bastard. Your arms and legs are all broken, can you even walk over here? Keol keol…”

Gordon shouted, bursting into laughter.

Crack—

It was then.

Ignoring the pain from his broken legs, Caryl slammed his still-intact arm against the ground and used the recoil to stand.

One step, one step.

The sound of his joints grinding echoed from his twisted ankle, but he continued towards Gordon without hesitation.

“You think I can’t do it?”

Thud!

Caryl said, pressing down on Gordon’s neck.

“As long as there’s breath left, the fight isn’t over. Gordon, you’re underestimating war. What I regret like crazy right now is feeling even a shred of pity for you and creating this result.”

“…Crazy bastard.”

Looking up at Caryl, Gordon replied with a nonchalant expression despite the pressure on his neck.

“……”

How long had it been?

Gordon, who had been facing Caryl in silence, spoke first.

“Heal yourself first. You can kill me anytime. As you know, I can’t use recovery magic.”

Even if one does not reach the rank of Sword Master, one learns magic in the process of training Mana Blade [a technique that enhances a sword with magical energy], even as a swordsman.

Naturally, one learns at least minimal recovery magic, but in Gordon’s case, even as a Sword Master, his path was exceptional.

Instead of Mana Blade, he exerted Sword Master-level power with only his physical strength, and pushed Automata, a defensive technique, to the extreme, rather than using magic.

It may be stubbornness, but not relying on any other magic may be the source that led him to the rank of Sword Master.

“Why did you go this far? No matter how I think about it, it seems like you overdid it. It’s as if you created an incident to have a private meeting with me.”

Gordon chuckled.

“Tell me honestly. You anticipated that I would come to you and planned this, right?”

“Does that mean you also deliberately fell from the airship with me because you noticed that? You sly fox.”

Caryl said, removing his hand from Gordon’s neck.

“Gordon. You jumped off the airship with me. It was a height that people would believe you were dead. Besides, we’re in the middle of a war right now. It won’t be easy to come looking for you either. That means you’ll be free to act from now on.”

“……”

“You were trying to create a false death, unlike you. I cooperated with your play, so now tell me the truth.”

“Caryl. Why do you think Kwell brought you along during the Edict of Heresy Extermination [an official decree to eliminate those deemed heretical]?”

Caryl frowned slightly at the mention of Kwell.

“Why is that name coming up now?”

“Honestly, I couldn’t help but be surprised after I found out that you were Kwell’s son. I had a lot of thoughts.”

“Not a son, but an adopted son. And if you’re going to bring up family love in the war with the Empire, forget it.”

“I wasn’t going to talk about that. But when I found out that you were Caliark’s son and that Kwell had saved your life, I thought you should know the secret of the North that we know.”

“The secret of the North?”

“Who is the rightful king.”

Thump—

A feeling of dread washed over Caryl.

Caryl stared blankly at Gordon.

He himself had pondered the question of who the true owner of the continent was when he learned in the Eternal Ice Cave that the first Blader [a warrior specializing in blade techniques] was an ancestor of the foreign tribes.

He felt that every word Gordon spoke seemed to genuinely know the secret of the Eternal Ice Cave.

But at the same time, a question arose.

In his previous life, the location of the Eternal Ice Cave was no longer within the territory of the foreign tribes due to the Empire’s expansion, so he hadn’t given it much thought. But with the foreign tribes still present, there was no way they could have accessed the Eternal Ice Cave.

It was necessary to confirm.

What was the truth that he, as a third party who viewed the situation in a balanced way within the entangled relationship with the Empire, knew?

What was the fact that was hidden due to death, even though he knew it in his previous life?

“The third canyon going inward from the northern entrance where the Wolf Fox tribe used to live. If you follow that road, there is a cave.”

“……What?”

“I found Kwell, who was carrying out the Edict of Heresy Extermination, there and guided him to that cave.”

“……Say it again.”

At that moment, Caryl asked back, his face stiff as if he couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing.

“Where was the ice pillar you saw?”

“Why are you so surprised?”

Rather, Gordon asked back, puzzled by Caryl’s reaction, but Caryl remained speechless.

“You’re a troublesome guy. Remember it clearly. The third canyon inside the northern entrance. It’s a cave along that road.”