The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 97

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – Episode 97

Black Divine Tree (4)

One day before the operation, Yoo Seong-woo decided to dedicate more time to overseeing the swordsmanship of the three divers.

He had been checking on them once or twice a week, but he felt they needed more intensive training.

All three had accumulated considerable combat experience, but it still wasn’t enough for the challenges ahead.

They primarily fought monsters.

Most of these creatures were rampaging, mindless beasts, or even if they possessed intelligence, they lacked sophisticated combat techniques.

Therefore, the three divers were ill-prepared to face enemies with superior skills and tactical awareness.

The best of the three was Baek Woo-hyun.

Perhaps due to his frequent sparring sessions with members of the Bonkuk Sword Association [a Korean swordsmanship organization], he displayed better movements and reactions than the other two.

However, his skill was only at the level of sparring.

In a real combat situation, his movements would likely become stiff and predictable, so Yoo Seong-woo pushed him mercilessly.

The three of them were beaten over a thousand times in total during the rigorous training.

A person who would even beat his own sister mercilessly for the sake of training.

That was Yoo Seong-woo.

All three were S-class divers, so their recovery was remarkably fast; bruises healed quickly, allowing Yoo Seong-woo to push them as much as he deemed necessary.

Of course, pain and fatigue accumulated, but Schuel handled that.

She used spirit magic to cast a healing spell that relieved some of the accumulated fatigue.

“Praise this body, humans.”

“Master, are all High Elves like this?”

“Only she is like that.”

Probably.

Schuel puffed out her cheeks and playfully tapped Yoo Seong-woo’s side with her tiny hand, signaling him to stop making unnecessary comments.

It didn’t hurt much.

It was just cute.

‘I think Ji-woo used to hit me like this when she was little. It hurt like hell back then.’

How could a child’s hand be so spicy [a Korean expression for surprisingly painful]?

Was it because I stole a bite of her ice cream?

I remember agreeing to buy her two new ones to make up for it.

Anyway, Yoo Seong-woo was about to resume training the three after a short break when a diver waiting outside the Abyss approached him.

“I apologize for interrupting your training. Um, that’s… it seems you have a visitor, Mr. Yoo Seong-woo.”

“A visitor for me?”

“Yes. But it seems like an important guest, so I took the liberty of delivering the message.”

An important guest?

The only person Yoo Seong-woo could think of was Yoo-wol.

Other than her, he didn’t know anyone who would be considered an important guest.

After a moment of consideration, he decided to meet them.

A visitor who arrives at a time like this couldn’t be an ordinary guest.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

Yoo Seong-woo left Schuel and the three divers inside the Abyss and emerged alone.

The diver who had come to fetch him said, “I’ll take you there by car.”

“No, call them here. If they wanted to see me, they must have something to say directly.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll inform them.”

They weren’t far from Bukhansan [a mountain on the outskirts of Seoul].

If they had something to say, they would arrive soon.

When the diver relayed Yoo Seong-woo’s message by phone, the response was that they would come immediately.

It seemed like some very eager individuals were coming as guests.

Soon, a car began to approach.

A large foreign car. A Rolls Royce stopped in front of Yoo Seong-woo.

The rear door opened automatically, and a small figure stepped out.

She was wearing a black robe and a pointed hat.

Beneath the pointed hat, wavy golden hair caught the eye.

In one hand, she held a staff of ancient wood that was taller than her.

The girl, who looked like a little witch straight out of a fairy tale, looked up at Yoo Seong-woo.

Blue eyes were set in her doll-like features.

“Are you Yoo Seong-woo?”

“Yes. What business do you have with me?”

At his question, the girl glanced at Bukhansan.

Then she turned her gaze back to Yoo Seong-woo and spoke in halting Korean.

“I am Jeanne, the Witch of the Holy War. One of the twelve elders of Walpurgis, the Witch Guild of Europe.”

“A witch?”

At the word “witch,” Yoo Seong-woo drew Ilseong [his sword].

All the witches he knew were crazy women.

They spread plagues, led monsters to attack villages, and dropped magical bombs from the sky, doing all sorts of insane things. He was sick of witches.

It was close to a kind of PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder].

As he suddenly drew his sword and began to emit murderous intent, the witch who introduced herself as Jeanne was startled and desperately shook her head with both hands.

“No, no! No fight!”

“C, calm down! Mr. Yoo Seong-woo!”

It wasn’t just her who was embarrassed by Yoo Seong-woo’s actions, but also the diver standing next to her.

As he continued to display his intent to kill, Jeanne trembled, put down her wooden staff, and knelt in front of him.

Then, bowing her head as if prostrating, she said, “Submission-!!”

Yoo Seong-woo became the man who made a girl kneel on the dirt floor in broad daylight.

* * *

Yoo Seong-woo calmed down when Jeanne knelt and began to tremble.

However, he didn’t return Ilseong to its sheath but stuck it in the ground and began a conversation with Jeanne.

Of course, she was still kneeling, and Yoo Seong-woo was looking down at her.

“The Witch Guild is the name of a guild that encompasses Europe?”

“Yes. The Witch Guild is made up of magical divers, and the twelve elders are all S-class divers. All the elders of the Witch Guild are S-class.”

“Yes, yes, that’s right. I’m S-class.”

Jeanne fidgeted and took something out of her arms.

A small bead.

She tapped the bead with her finger and said, “Translation magic. In hand.”

“If I hold this in my hand, it will translate what you say?”

Nod, nod.

Yoo Seong-woo looked at her suspiciously but took the bead and held it in his hand.

Then, Jeanne’s halting words began to be heard in smooth Korean.

Yoo Seong-woo frowned at the first translation magic he had ever encountered.

“Cheer up. Master Yoo Seong-woo.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Then what should I call you?”

“Just call me Yoo Seong-woo.”

“Yes, Yoo Seong-woo. I came to invite you to the Witch Guild. In return, I’m here to help you deal with that tree.”

“So, you’re saying you’ll help me deal with that tree in exchange for inviting me?”

It was a slightly strange condition.

As he twitched his eyebrows, Jeanne continued, “I thought you wouldn’t accept just an invitation… so I came as a representative of Walpurgis. Will you accept my request?”

“That’s something to think about. I don’t know what the Witch Guild is like, and I don’t want to go to a place full of witches.”

“What kind of prejudice do you have against witches…”

“They poison water sources and spread plagues, lead monsters around, and drop bombs on me while I’m sleeping so I can’t sleep, and they’re crazy bitches who catch people and boil them in soup. In the place I was, those were called witches.”

Jeanne realized where his witch hatred came from.

Everything he said sounded like a personal experience.

He had been so badly hurt by witches that he shuddered at the mere mention of the name witch.

He was saying that because he didn’t know what the witches of Earth were like, so there was one more reason to take him to the Witch Guild.

“The witches there are different from the witches here. So I really hope you’ll visit the Witch Guild at least once, Yoo Seong-woo.”

“That’s beside the point. Why does the Witch Guild want to see me?”

“That is…”

Jeanne looked at the diver standing next to Yoo Seong-woo.

Then he stepped into the Abyss with good sense.

As his figure disappeared, Jeanne opened her mouth.

“I think you already know, but the Witch Guild is also aware of the Ascension Church.”

“You guys are also aware of the Ascension Church?”

“Yes. The Ascension Church is taking root not only in Korea but also in other countries. The Witch Guild, based in Europe, is aware of this and continues to investigate. In the meantime, I heard about that tree… and flew here in a hurry.”

Jeanne’s gaze turned back to the tree.

A gaze tinged with some discomfort.

Yoo Seong-woo realized that the emotion he felt in her gaze was genuine.

A gaze as if seeing something that shouldn’t exist.

Yoo Seong-woo felt the same way, so it seemed that the Witch Guild shared his desire to drive out the Ascension Church.

“And they knew you were at the center of it and decided to contact you.”

“…What is the purpose of the Witch Guild? If witches gathered like that, there must be a purpose.”

“…Of course, it’s a peaceful life. How long have they been persecuted just because they are smarter than others, or because they have special knowledge? The Witch Guild is an old organization founded to protect such witches.”

“You seem to be talking about the story before the Abyss appeared on this land.”

At his question, Jeanne gave a slightly bitter smile.

‘Are you saying that witches existed before the Great Disaster? Outwardly, there are no traces of magic.’

If that was her true form, then a few questions arose.

Her appearance was that of a girl.

But Jeanne possessed a profundity that did not match her appearance.

As if she were dozens, no, hundreds of years old…

Was she a witch who gained power after the Abyss sprouted up?

Or from before that…

Yoo Seong-woo stopped thinking after a moment of consideration.

The world had already changed strangely, but it didn’t matter if there were strange people from before that.

Wasn’t the Bonkuk Sword of the Bonkuk Sword Association also a sword made to fight monsters, not humans?

“Then what kind of help can you give me to get rid of that black tree?”

“In my opinion, that looks like a corrupted form of the Elven Divine Tree. If it’s a fairy tree… the Witch’s Elixir might be helpful.”

“What’s that?”

“Witches have been skilled in all sorts of things since ancient times: magic, pharmacology, and even alchemy… Thanks to that, the existence of witches is never left out of all kinds of traditions.”

“For example?”

“Morgan from the Legend of the Round Table… the witch who gave immortality to King Arthur with herbs.”

Jeanne told several other stories.

Mainly stories related to witches.

After finishing the story, she said that she would provide medicine to get rid of the tree, and Yoo Seong-woo thought about it carefully after hearing the story.

‘I won’t be able to gauge this witch’s skills just by receiving medicine.’

Yoo Seong-woo wanted to find out more about witches.

As she said, the witches of Earth were not particularly good, but they weren’t evil either.

If you think about it, they were people who moved for profit, selfishness, or curiosity, just like him.

If the witches of another world were crazy bitches who were only filled with malice and committed murder…

Jeanne in front of him seemed like a witch who truly desired peace.

This may also be a disguise, but at least for now.

So Yoo Seong-woo made an irresistible offer to find out her true skills.

An offer that would make Jeanne’s eyes widen like lanterns.

“If you cooperate with me in going inside the tree and completely removing it, I will accept the invitation.”