The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 32

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – Episode 32

The Earth Lunar Clan (6)

Yuseongwoo grabbed Yul’s nape and pulled her up like a radish.

He placed Yul, who had been pulled out of the swamp, on a relatively decent patch of land and asked,

“Looking at you, it seems like you won’t be able to move for a while.”

“To think I’d be poisoned… I didn’t even think about it because the Earth Lunar Clan has a natural resistance…”

“You’re overconfident. Besides, judging from the mixed scent of blood, it seems like you’ve been through a battle.”

“…Yes. I wanted to save them no matter what, but it was my fault. I couldn’t save a single one…”

Yul muttered dejectedly.

She tried to protect them, but she couldn’t protect anyone.

The environment within the Abyss is harsh for ordinary people.

Even the lowest-ranked Abyss is unbearable for ordinary people, and the Abyss they were in was at least Rank 4.

It far exceeded the level that ordinary people could withstand.

“It can’t be helped. You were just unlucky. Can you still not move?”

“…Just unlucky? How can you say that? How many people died?”

“Then should I say it’s all your fault they died? That’s not it. Get a grip. You were just really unlucky.”

There’s no time to be happy or sad about people’s deaths. There’s no room for such emotions.

Thinking that they died because of you, or that no one would have died if you had done better, is a futile thought.

“The people who died were destined to die that day. If you worry about such things one by one, you won’t have any sanity left.”

This was based on experience.

Yuseongwoo was not a noble hero with a selfless spirit like those in stories.

He might have been a little like that when he first gained fame and started making a name for himself in the other world.

Because there was a time when he knew that his strength could help others and tried to save more people.

“Don’t empathize too deeply with the deaths of others. You did what you had to do. The fate of others is not so easily changed.”

If you empathize and care about everything, you’ll go crazy.

Some people take kindness for granted and criticize you for not saving their family or friends.

The result is obvious.

You’re not even a hero, yet you exhaust yourself trying to save others and end up dying.

Or you can’t bear the mental burden any longer and commit suicide.

Yuseongwoo overcame this by acting selfishly when people’s criticisms became too severe, telling them to go to hell.

It was a choice made possible because he had thrown away any noble spirit of sacrifice.

He would defeat any enemies in his path, and ignore the rest.

As a result, he was able to defeat the Demon God and return to Earth, but that was why he wasn’t called a hero.

It was a choice to protect himself.

“…But.”

“But what? Don’t act like a pain in the ass. I might just abandon you here.”

“Wh-What did you say?”

Yul stared at him with wide eyes, hearing such profanity for the first time.

As the priestess of the Earth Lunar Clan, when would she ever hear such a curse?

Yul frowned, her mind suddenly snapping back to reality from the curse.

“Can you move now?”

“…Somewhat.”

“Then follow me. I’m going to take the heads of those Lizardmen.”

Yul slowly got up.

She couldn’t move for a moment because of the poison, but the Earth Lunar Clan’s poison resistance was immense.

Even though it was her first time being poisoned, she recovered quickly enough to move again.

Yuseongwoo saw her following and started walking in the direction the Lizardmen had moved.

Seeing his back, Yul asked,

“…By any chance, did you make the Lizardmen I was fighting retreat?”

“If they went in the direction I was in, then I guess so.”

“I see…”

Yul roughly guessed what Yuseongwoo had done.

He must have drawn the attention of all the Lizardmen towards him from a distance to save the others.

As evidence, Yuseongwoo’s entire body was soaked in Lizardmen fluids.

“…If we’re going to walk, can you put me down?”

“No. Who knows what might happen.”

* * *

Yuseongwoo, holding Nox, and Yul arrived at a place with a crudely built stone wall.

Below was a swamp-like waterway that only Lizardmen could navigate, and the only entrance was a single point.

“As expected, the scale is quite large.”

Yuseongwoo closed his eyes and spread his senses.

The number of lives within the small fortress caught by his senses reached four hundred, with a few exceptionally strong ones mixed in.

Among them, one was far superior to the others.

‘That guy is the boss.’

He wasn’t that strong.

Compared to Azaha, it was almost insulting to Azaha.

“This won’t take too long. Moon Rabbit, can you take care of the child for a bit?”

“Yes…”

“Aren’t you treating me too much like a child?!”

“You are a child.”

“I am, but…”

What’s with wanting to not be treated like a child when you’ve been transferred to the third grade of elementary school?

Of course, Yuseongwoo hadn’t read any childcare books, so he had no idea about Nox’s psychology.

“H-Are you planning to go alone?”

“Yeah. One person is enough. Are you going to follow? You’ll only be a hindrance.”

“…I’ll wait here.”

Yul didn’t have the confidence to enter that battlefield and come back alive.

She would if she was at full strength, but in her current condition, she would only be a hindrance.

So she sent Yuseongwoo off alone, and he walked straight ahead, drawing his sword.

It was a crude design, but the blood-red blade gleamed eerily in the sunlight shining through the trees.

At the same time, his spirit exploded.

At least, that’s how it looked to Yul.

Yuseongwoo’s small presence grew huge, and he exuded a terrifying aura that made her whole body tremble.

Perhaps the Lizardmen facing Yuseongwoo on the other side felt like they were facing some kind of demon king.

The instincts of beasts are accurate.

It meant they could distinguish well between enemies they had to fight and enemies they had to run away from.

-KrawaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!

-KrawaAAAAAA-!!

-KrawaAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!

A fierce roar erupted from the small fortress.

It was a roar mixed with the voices of all kinds of Lizardmen.

As if to solidify their will to fight without running away.

The fact that they weren’t complete beasts, but rather intermediate beasts with some intelligence, was their downfall.

Yuseongwoo slowly moved his feet.

Each step was heavy, and faint red smoke rose from the remaining footprints.

“…Is it starting?”

With Yul’s small murmur, Yuseongwoo’s sword was swung.

A horizontal slash that cut through the center around him.

A flawless, even beautiful, single strike unfolded.

For a moment, silence fell on the forest.

Even the Lizardmen’s cries, which had been noisy, subsided.

Even the sounds of insects and wind could not be heard.

It was the next moment that she realized it was the calm before the storm.

Whoo-oong-

The wind blew.

A sudden gust of wind began to shake the swamp.

Leaves scattered, and the swamp shook and overturned like a wave.

And a roar followed.

The sound, as if the sky and earth were collapsing, pounded her eardrums, and Nox and Yul instinctively cowered.

Then, the two witnessed it.

The small fortress’s walls, including the gate and the Lizardmen standing on it, were split in half and collapsed.

It was impossible to believe that a human had created such a scene alone.

Moreover, it didn’t stop there.

From the rubble of the collapsed walls, from the waterways, Lizardmen wielding weapons jumped out and moved to kill Yuseongwoo.

But he took a step and swung his sword with a light movement.

Even that was enough to make the heads of the Lizardmen, who were some distance away, fall and roll on the floor.

It was a scene of massacre.

It was more like a one-sided slaughter than a battle.

In an instant, dozens of Lizardmen who had jumped out were knocked down, and the other groups that followed were also knocked down.

In an instant, over a hundred Lizardmen fell, and the Lizardmen who continued to rush out also died one by one.

“H-How can this be?”

Yul covered her mouth as she watched Yuseongwoo slice through the Lizardmen.

She knew Yuseongwoo was strong, but he was overwhelming.

He seemed to know not only the technique and strength but also how to effectively annihilate the enemy, drawing out the entire enemy camp and killing them outside the walls.

Yuseongwoo shook off the fluids on his sword and strode forward again.

A pace that was neither fast nor slow.

Like a machine moving only with the purpose of annihilating the Lizardmen, he swung his sword and moved forward.

The number of Lizardmen gradually decreased, and when the number of those who came out dwindled, a boss-like figure appeared outside the walls.

“Why is this bastard an alligator?”

Alligators are reptiles, but suddenly he went from a lizard to an alligator.

The Lizardman, no, the Croc-man, came running with a large glaive [a polearm weapon with a single-edged blade] in one hand and Lizardmen who seemed to be his personal guards.

“KroraAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”

A scream of fear, a roar to boost morale.

Or both.

The last five remaining rushed through the muddy swamp with their webbed feet.

“…Hoo.”

Yuseongwoo, who had taken a small breath, grabbed his sword with both hands for the first time and took a stance.

Then, he slowly took a step.

The next moment, Yuseongwoo’s figure disappeared from that spot and appeared behind the rushing monsters.

Yuseongwoo sent them off to the afterlife as if there was nothing to see.

At the same time, the five monsters that were running fell to the ground.

The four Lizardmen were torn to pieces and fell, and the Croc-man, with his arms and legs cut off, screamed, not knowing what had happened.

“Noisy.”

Yuseongwoo kicked the Croc-man’s head to knock him unconscious, grabbed the armor on the back of his neck, dragged him, and returned to where Yul and Nox were.

“Now, all that’s left inside the fortress are non-combatants. Is a search for survivors possible? You have good ears.”

“Yes, yes. It’s possible. I can do it…”

“Why are you so scared? Then get up and search quickly. Unless you want to see them dying again and cry.”

* * *

“Rescue team entering!”

At the same time as the person supporting the divers shouted, the divers were about to step into the Abyss.

But, ahead of them, people began to pour out.

“I-I’m alive! I’m alive!”

“Finally, finally out!”

The people who came out of the swamp and jungle-like hell sat down on the floor and shed tears.

Paramedics rushed to them, and the rescue team stopped entering for a moment.

Yujiu approached a survivor and asked.

“What’s the situation inside?”

“I-I don’t know. Suddenly, a person with rabbit ears came and saved me.”

“Rabbit ears?”

At the word rabbit ears, the Earth Lunar Clan warriors who participated in the rescue team approached.

They were wearing consistent attire of black suits and hats, so the pressure was no joke.

“Did you just say rabbit ears? With silver-white hair?”

“W-Who are you? That’s right, but…”

“The Priestess is alive. Enter immediately and rescue her.”

“Yes. I will follow.”

As soon as they received information that Yul was alive inside, the Earth Lunar Clan warriors immediately headed to the Abyss to save her.

However, before the warriors could step in, people poured out of the Abyss again, and at the end of them, an Earth Lunar Clan member with long, silver-white hair covered in mud appeared.

“There’s no need for that.”

“Priestess!”

“Everything inside the Abyss has been resolved. The boss has been defeated and is restrained from moving. …Warriors, please cooperate with the humans to find the bodies of the dead.”

“As you wish.”

At Yul’s words, the Earth Lunar Clan warriors bowed and moved to enter the Abyss with the divers who had been organized into the rescue team.

And when all eyes were focused on Yul, Yuseongwoo, with Nox tucked under his arm, slipped out of the Abyss.