77. The Mask
It was ten years ago that River found out about their engagement.
The young River didn’t know the details… I heard later that Yeongji was in a very dangerous situation in the past.
It is said that the condition for the Sword Saint to help was that he be engaged to the only daughter of the Seymour family.
It had been less than a week since he had seen her face to face.
He stayed in the same mansion for the engagement ceremony and lived there for about a week, then he never saw him again after they broke up.
My memories of the Sword Saint were short but intense.
“Nice to see you River.”
The first time I saw the sword castle was not in the mansion in Seymour’s estate, but in the border area between the empire and the kingdom.
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The Sword Master, who introduced himself with a friendly smile, looked like an impressive old man, but the young River could see that something unknown and black was hiding deep inside his eyes.
But at the time I didn’t know what it was.
I just thought that he was shy of a man he was seeing for the first time.
He was shocked when he got engaged to a man who looked like he was over 60 years older than he got to know out of the blue, but he didn’t hate it at that time.
The swordsman resembles a hero from an old story.
A dependable physique that requires you to look up to the point where your neck hurts, and a smile that can’t be erased from your face.
Excellent swordsmanship and culture that can be felt in the way you speak… It was like a picture of a hero.
In fact, the swordsman was a real hero of an old story in the Clover Kingdom.
A hero who establishes numerous specialties, defeats monsters, and protects the kingdom of clover… At that time, I definitely admired him.
Until he realized it was a mask.
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It was a very hot day.
The incident occurred while taking a walk near a stream to cool off.
At the riverside, where there was little attention from others, the swordsman slaughtered three children of serfs who were coming down from the upper stream.
They didn’t do anything wrong.
The biggest reason was that there were no other people around me.
The next reason was that it was unpleasant to see the muddy water flowing down from the upper stream.
River trembled in fear as she saw the sword castle running like lightning and slaughtering children of her age, then coming down smiling like the first time with her face stained red from blood spray.
He looked at River, who was terrified at himself, and said, “Is there something wrong?” He looked around himself for a while before saying a word.
“These clothes are dirty.”
After that, until the day they returned to the manor after the engagement ceremony, River was afraid of the Sword Master and could not meet his eyes.
“The next time we meet, you must have grown up. Healthily… Keep your promises and grow well. Because you are my precious treasure.”
The Sword Saint was smiling as he touched River’s belly with his large hand.
It was definitely something I had been doing every time for the past week, but now I’m terribly frightened.
As he grew older, the fear of the Sword Saint, which he had only seen once when he was young, came closer and closer to his nose.
And when the promised day approached when he became an adult, River fled to the academy.
The opponent is the master of the Clover Kingdom.. He wants to go to an academy in another country, but he won’t get permission to enter.
My primary goal was to earn time there for three years.
After that, the secondary goal is to somehow become strong enough not to be swayed by the Sword Saint.
Atlas, a relationship formed after coming to the academy, said that within a year, he would raise his skills to the highest level of expert.
In the meantime, I found out that people were coming from the Clover Kingdom’s academy.
Even if people come from the Clover Kingdom, the Master Swordsman will not be able to enter the Empire.
I couldn’t have imagined that they would allow it just because I was curious about how it would turn out.
I was breathless just looking at the figure of the swordsman proudly entering the academy.
He snatched the river like an eagle snatching prey.
“How are you here….”
“Is there any reason why I shouldn’t come to see you? No… Didn’t you think you could come?”
As soon as he was caught in the air and floated up, the swordsman laughed out loud as he saw River tremble in fear.
He landed in an abandoned building away from the academy’s main building, laughing cheerfully as if running away to the academy was no big deal.
“Don’t be so rigid. It’s a little annoying, but I’m patient with it.”
As soon as his feet touched the ground, River shook off the Sword Master’s hand.
The Sword Master narrowed his eyes as he watched Reaver walk away from him.
“Looks like you’ve dated a cute boyfriend… I had no idea it was like that. Is that why you hate me so much?”
When Atlas was mentioned, River’s expression hardened.
Recalling the last memory.
The little hand that grabbed his hand that was anxious after seeing the Sword Saint,
When the flying Swordsman lifted himself up, the face of Atlas, who had been trying to hold his hand until the end, came to mind.
“Others… Don’t touch me.”
“Why? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone’s castle wall is different… It’s not that perverted to like guys who are smaller and cuter than you.
Isn’t that a bit perverted? Actually, I’m not too fond of you. Let’s be honest with each other.
That’s not what’s important. It’s more important that you keep your promise.”
The swordsman took out an artifact resembling a dagger from his bosom.
The dagger, which consists of a blade that looks about 17cm long and a wooden handle that looks like 8cm, is unusual in that the blade part is not metal.
No, it was strange to even call it a blade.
It’s because it looks like some creature’s horns are attached to it.
The swordsman pointed it at River.
I wondered if I was going to stab him, but the swordsman just thrust his dagger into River’s face.
“Grab it.”
“….”
As soon as he accepted the dagger, the blade of the dagger began to glow faintly.
The swordsman was very satisfied with that appearance.
“Um… As promised, you are still a virgin… Ok then that’s it It’s not my part-time job no matter who you dated, but… Your virginity is mine, so I have to keep it like now.”
At the word chastity, River’s face wrinkled.
Maintaining virginity is a condition he put forward while getting engaged to her.
I thought to myself that he was a very perverted old man, that he believed in the superstition that youth would come back when he received virgin blood even though he had become a master.
“This level of rebellion was well kept, so I’ll treat it cutely… But nothing more than that.
If you do nonsense one more time, then I’ll tear people around you one by one, not you.”
“…If you touch a citizen of the Empire, the Imperial First Sword will not stand still.”
Perhaps he wanted to rebel a little bit, as soon as the words of the first swordsman came out, the swordsman’s attitude suddenly changed and he grabbed River’s collar with one hand and lifted him up.
“Khehehe..!”
“Ha..!! You think I’m afraid of that bitch..? You treat me like a bitch…?!!”
The Sword Saint’s breathing became more and more rough as if he was getting angry.
It was difficult to breathe when I lifted it with violent force.
If I had grabbed his neck with this grip, it would have broken right away.
“No… Shall we tear them all apart right now? The first sword of the Empire won’t stay still?? How many can I kill before that bitch comes?
I heard that the academy of the empire is well-prepared, but I’ve never tried it before to see if it can hold up well against the master, so it’s very interesting.
First, let’s kill your little boyfriend. It would be very fun to just pull out its neck and throw it like a baseball.”
“Stop…”
I was afraid of the excited swordsman.
The cruel words he spoke hit River’s chest like a hammer.
I’m not making an impossible threat.
He was a master with enough skills to do so, and a man with morality who had no hesitation in doing such things.
He’s someone who can massacre innocent children just because it’s objectionable… And feels no guilt about it.
When I said that I would draw blood in my eyes and massacre at will, I thought of the corpses of children who were murdered by the stream.
Atlas’s head overlapped with the child’s head floating on the blushing stream.
My body trembled in fear of the man in front of me.
River could withstand threats to himself…But he couldn’t withstand threats to the people he held dear.
It was so terrifying to see his loved ones get hurt by his own actions.
“I was wrong… I won’t rebel anymore, so please…Don’t do that…Please…”
As he cried out in fear and begged for mercy, the Sword Saint, who had bloody lines on his face, quickly changed his expression, as if he liked it very much.
“Yes, it should have been like that a long time ago. If it had been like this from the beginning, it would have been good for both of us.”
“Khehehe.. Haa.. Haa…”
He put the river back on the ground with a refreshing smile that made it hard to imagine that he was the one who growled just before.
When the lack of oxygen was supplied all at once, River breathed heavily, and the Sword Master kindly stroked his back and straightened his messy clothes.
“If you keep your promise like now… I will wait for you until you graduate from the academy. But don’t forget… You are my treasure.”
Sword Saint Adolf came up to River’s nose and touched her abdomen with his violent hands.
It was a rough, disgusting touch that I wanted to shake off, but I remembered what he had just threatened and couldn’t shake it off.
All he could do was close his eyes and wait for the time to pass.
“That means it’s my property.”