145 – Tomb of the Sword (4)
It wasn’t that carriages or horses were specifically banned at the Tomb of the Sword, but everyone parked their carriages on the shoulder of the road and waited, so we got off the carriage.
“Where is the end of the line here?”
When I got off the carriage and asked the first man I saw with a spear on his back, he silently pointed out to the endless horizon.
When I saw the endless horizon of people he pointed to, I sighed.
The line at the amusement park shouldn’t be this long, but why are so many people flocking here just because there’s so much to see?
As we continued walking to find the end of the line, we noticed that the people in line were carrying something that looked like a tent on their backs.
‘Does it take that long?’
Of course it will take a long time since the line is this long, but I wonder how long the test takes so they even prepared a tent like that.
Someone would think this was a festival site rather than a tomb since there were even street vendors selling food while walking in line.
As I was walking toward the end of the invisible line, I sighed and stopped.
“Why does it suddenly stop? “There’s still a long way to go before we reach the end.”
“No, no matter how much I think about it, this isn’t right.”
If you don’t do this, the time waiting here may be longer than the time it took to get here.
In order to prevent such a situation from happening, I put my hand on the hilt of the knife and approached the nearest man, and Jessica, who had been quietly watching, jumped forward and blocked the path.
“What the hell are you planning on doing… !!”
“What is travel…?” “When have you seen me handle things so brutally?”
“I’m not stopping you because it’s always been that way!! “I don’t know what you’re going to do this time, but it’s definitely not possible!!”
Jessica seemed to think that I was trying to kill that man and take his place, but contrary to her concerns, this time she was really just trying to take my place in a way that any prosecutor would recognize.
“It’s not like that, so just step aside and watch.”
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When I approached him with my hand on the hilt of the sword, he reacted sensitively by placing his hand on the hilt of the sword, perhaps because he was wary of the sword hilt.
The prosecutors, who realized that something was strange about the situation, became nervous at the sudden situation and paid attention to me and the prosecutor I was looking at, and I pointed at him and shouted.
“Hey there!!”
“…… “What is it?”
The man responded with a tense look on his face and sweating coldly. It seemed like they were more familiar with real combat than the students at the academy, who were prepared to fight at any moment.
“I challenge you to a duel for the position you are currently standing in.”
“…… Yes?”
At my challenge to a duel, the man tilted his head and looked at the prosecutors around him who were asking the other what he meant.
The other prosecutors were looking at some kind of crazy person, and it felt like I was saying something I couldn’t do.
“Are you going to fight for my position? ?”
“Yes.”
“No… Even if I win against him, I’ll still be in this position, so why do we have a duel like that? “There is no benefit to me.”
It is natural for a swordsman to accept a duel even if there is no benefit to it. If you came here to mourn the sword, don’t you know that?
But since I wasn’t expecting him to say this, I pointed to the carriage parked on the shoulder of the road and said,
“Of course you might think so. So, if I lose, I will hand over that carriage to you.”
“…… “That carriage?”
The carriage we rode in was not provided at my mansion, but rather Jessica’s carriage. From what I heard, it was a masterpiece made by a top-class craftsman who generously provided the highest quality materials.
Its value is not just that of a carriage, but also that it is evaluated as a work of art, and anyone with even the slightest sense of aesthetics could recognize its value.
“Really… Is this your carriage?”
Of course, technically it wasn’t mine, it was Jessica’s, but it wasn’t wrong since the carriage would also be mine once we became a couple.
“Then, when there are so many people, would you lie about someone else’s carriage? It’s really our carriage, and if you win, I’ll give you that carriage.”
“…… I’ll do it.”
When a duel was established between the two of us, the prosecutors who were lining up in front and behind moved out of the way to create space.
The prosecutors who had been looking at me like I was crazy just a little while ago were now watching us with excited eyes.
“Is this distance enough?”
“Yes, this is enough.”
The distance between me and him was about 5m, which was an appropriate distance for a duel, neither too far nor too short.
“Then let’s begin.”
Almost as soon as I said that, the man pulled out a curved sword with a curved blade and made a graceful movement as if he was dancing with a sword.
Since he had his hand on the hilt of the sword before he started, I was wary of him possibly being a swordsman user, but it seems he wasn’t.
“…… “Aren’t you going to pick that one?”
“This is enough for me.”
“… ….”
Perhaps he was wary of swordsmanship as he was skilled in swordsmanship, but the man did not approach me hastily, instead circling around me, looking for my weak spot.
He moved forward by swinging the curved sword from side to side, but when he realized that he could not dig in, he took a big step back.
At first, I thought it was a natural behavior since he didn’t show any loopholes, but I slowly started to get impatient because there was no sign of him coming even if I intentionally showed him loopholes.
‘… ‘Is it taking too long?’
It’s natural that it’s taking a long time because I’m not showing any slack, but I’m not free enough to wait for that right now.
I applied for a duel because I didn’t like waiting in the first place, but wouldn’t it be a disgrace to waste time during a duel?
‘My side goes first.’
I narrowed the distance with one step and literally got in front of the man in the blink of an eye, and pulled out my sword towards the man’s curved sword.
With the cheerful sound of iron clashing against iron, the curved blade of the sword fell from the hilt and became one of the numerous monuments erected in the sword tomb.
“…… Uh?”
It happened so quickly that the man, unable to properly perceive the situation, could only stare blankly at his curved sword, with only the hilt of his sword remaining.
Other prosecutors were equally embarrassed by the current situation, which was beyond their knowledge.
Everyone was embarrassed and speechless in a situation that was far beyond their cognitive abilities.
“Do you admit defeat?”
“… ….”
The man who had been staring blankly at the broken curved blade nodded his head without saying a word, picked up the broken blade, and walked towards the end.
“First of all….”
I stood up on behalf of the man and said, tapping the shoulder of the prosecutor standing in front of me with a large sword hanging on his back.
“Hey there.”
“… “Do you mean me?”
“Yes, you’ve been watching from the side, so you know what I’m going to say without even saying it, right?”
“Rejection….”
“If you say no, it will be considered an admission of defeat, so get out of the way quickly.”
“… ….”
He hesitated for a moment, then slumped his shoulders and walked toward the end, following the man he had sent behind earlier.
“Then what’s next… ….”
“I challenge you to a duel.”
Just as he was about to send him away and talk to the man in front of him, Elaine, who was just watching from behind, challenged him to a duel.
But strangely, the person who challenged the duel was not the man in front of me, but the swordsman in front of the man in front of me.
“Why are you challenging him to a duel? “You haven’t sent the guy in the front seat away yet, right?”
“Yes… ? Since we’re going to duel with this person anyway, it’s faster if we split it up between the two of us….”
“Huh? “Is that so?”
I thought Elaine was only good at swordsmanship, but it seems he was also good at math.
In that way, Elaine and I earned our seats in a truly fair way from everyone in front of us, and we were able to arrive at the Tomb of the Sword before the sun set.
Some people agreed to the duel as if they were unaware of what was happening behind the scenes, but each time, new tombs were added to the grave of the sword.
“The sun is slowly setting….”
As the sunset colored the sky and slowly disappeared beyond the horizon, we arrived in front of a large sword stuck on a hill.
“What should I do now? “I thought there was a spirit or something waiting for me.”
“Um… “If I break that sword, won’t it come out?”
“That makes sense.”
“What makes sense!! “It might come out soon, so don’t do anything weird and just wait a little longer!!”
I had no choice but to wait for a while, and just as Jessica said, light like fireflies began to flow from the huge sword stuck on the hill, and began to come together and take the shape of a human.
Swords with ego are largely divided into two.
One is the remains of a demonic beast or a saint, or a sword born by a miracle, and my Nangana Holy Sword falls under this category.
Another case is that although no special material was used, the soul of the sword itself became accustomed to it after being used for a long time and turned into a kind of spirit. The sword in front of you now was one of these cases.
My heart began to pound with excitement as a being that only appeared in the original work appeared before my eyes.
The brilliant light emitted from the sword came together and turned into a woman of similar height to Jessica, who was holding a sword in one hand as if to prove that she was the spirit of the sword.
“… Welcome. “You are a visitor who has come to make an offering.”
She singled out me out of the three of us, and it seemed as if she knew from the beginning which of the three of us had come for the offering.
“I haven’t even said anything yet, but you already know.”
“I feel the sword’s affection for you more than the rest of the group. Then please show me your beloved sword….”