Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Semenu Degrate (2)
After realizing my reincarnation.
After deciding to kill the traitors.
I, Simurtr, missed my master.
‘My kids.’
And the next ones I thought of were my unit members.
10 years. The Doom War. The ones who spent 5 of the 8 years Exa experienced with me… a bunch of kids who were lacking in one way or another.
‘The captain wasn't normal to begin with, after all.’
The title of Grand General was just an empty name. The previous Emperor was on the side of the traitors. He had consistently kept Exa in check.
A stab in the back? I had long anticipated that I would get one someday.
‘You'd have to be an idiot not to know.’
They had all kept me in check, and I had been through several assassination attempts. I just didn't know it would be that disastrous. Or that the bastard who was my vice-captain would be involved.
‘Except for that bastard, there's no good in revealing it to the others.’
A total of seven, including myself and the vice-captain.
That was all. It was an embarrassingly small number to be called a unit.
And I had no intention of revealing my past life to the five, excluding the traitorous vice-captain.
‘Why bother the kids who are living well.’
Past life. I, Simurtr, was prepared for my identity to be revealed someday. The traitors had become heroes, and their families were praised as Hero Families.
‘There's no way I won't get caught.’
I was going to destroy such Hero Families. To not have my identity revealed in the process?
I had already keenly felt how bleak reality was through the Doom War.
‘There's no good in getting involved.’
The past that has already gone by cannot be changed, but this life is different. The revenge I intend to carry out belongs solely to Exa.
I had not the slightest intention of gathering my unit members and making them fight again.
The war had just ended, after all.
It was an era of peace. They deserved to enjoy that peace. I did not want to make them traitors of the empire.
‘Her too.’
I, Simurtr, looked at Semenu.
After obtaining the names of Grand General and Baperr, she was the first unit member Exa had taken in.
“Captain. Am I wrong?”
Her faintly emotional words and actions. That face.
It was no different from the image in my memory. She looked exactly the same as when I had picked her up on the battlefield someday.
‘What is she talking about.’
I, Simurtr, momentarily held back a laugh that was about to burst out. An elf can read minds?
Jahar or Ael might have been fooled, but to me, it was a preposterous story. Even the Elf King couldn't do such a thing.
“Am I wrong?”
“You are.”
“……”
For the first time, emotion flickered in Semenu's eyes. She eliminated the shadow foothold and lowered her tiptoes.
“Be careful of Medeoban Mectera.”
“What?”
“He hates the Captain.”
“I told you, I'm not the Captain.”
“Then what should I call you?
“Simurtr.”
“…I don't want to.”
As if she didn't like it, Semenu pouted her lips.
“You have no choice, even if you don't like it.”
“Medeoban Mectera has summoned the 3rd Sword Order.”
“Why?”
“The Selection Ceremony.”
“Wow.”
The Selection Ceremony to be held tomorrow.
Medeoban was planning to use the 3rd Sword Order for that test.
“Did you mean he hates me, not the Captain?”
“Is it different?”
“It is.”
“…This.”
Instead of answering, Semenu handed something over.
A shadow that rose into the air approached Simurtr like a hand.
“What is this.”
A green key. It was something I had never seen even in my past life.
I, Simurtr, asked while looking at Semenu who was still puzzled but openly showing her dissatisfaction.
“My blood.”
“Ugh. I don't want it.”
“It's the key to my Phantasmal Realm. I should have given it to you then. I was weak back then…”
“When was then.”
“…When the Captain disappeared.”
When he disappeared? I, Simurtr, blinked my eyes.
Not when he died?
“Put it in your eye.”
“How can I trust you and put it in? This is our first time meeting.”
“…Please trust me.”
For a moment, moisture welled up in her eyes. Semenu spoke as if pleading.
“……”
At that sight, I, Simurtr, unknowingly brought the key to my eye. As I pushed it into my pupil, the key lost its shape. It turned into smoke and seeped into my pupil.
“There, done?”
“If Mectera rejects you, come to me. Even if it's dangerous, come.”
The main fortress of the Degrate.
Its location had never been revealed. It was a place hidden by illusions. It had never been exposed even when the empire was actively searching for them.
It was a place that even Exa of my past life had never visited. Though I had experienced various parts of the continent, the headquarters of the assassins was truly a secretive place.
Semenu had said she would take me there someday if the war ended, but that promise was never kept.
“I'll be waiting.”
“…Okay.”
I, Simurtr, answered without realizing it.
Because I remembered that promise. Because Semenu, with whom I had only spent 5 years, had not forgotten me.
“It's Semenu.”
Semenu said her name and then sank into the shadows. She fell deep into the shadow as if falling into water.
***
“Hey. Little brother.”
The next day.
As I was heading to the grand training ground, Ael acknowledged me. Jahar was next to her.
“Don't call me little brother. I won, didn't I?”
“Did you hate it that much? Did you have to grit your teeth and win like that?”
“Of course. I have to win. It was a bet.”
“You should have gone easy and let me win! I'm still your older sister.”
“Who's an older sister? You're Ael.”
“Are you really not going to call me older sister?”
“Of course.”
The second day of the Selection Ceremony.
The siblings said they had asked their master, one of the elders, but had learned nothing.
The fact that this Selection Ceremony was unusual was purely Medeoban's arbitrary decision.
“Simurtr.”
“What.”
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“What is it.”
Instead, the siblings sought to resolve another question.
“Why aren't you black?”
“My hair is black too.”
“No. Not that. Your mana.”
At the exile estate, Simurtr had learned mana through self-study. He had awakened it through a manuscript of Mectera's cultivation method.
“Ah. This?”
A white sword ki strolled over my finger. The siblings let out a small gasp of admiration. Because the form was so natural.
“Yes. That.”
“It's my constitution.”
“I've never heard of such a constitution.”
‘It is strange.’
I, Simurtr, nodded. Mana would not move unless I operated the Star-Breaking Style.
It was the result of it being engraved on my soul, and the half-baked talent from my past life continuing on to my current body.
Even in this life, I, Simurtr, could not move mana without the Star-Breaking Style.
‘To be half-baked even after being reborn.’
A flaw that continued from my past life.
The Pope and the Saintess of the Holy See had not discovered anything unusual in the Exa of my past life.
It meant that it was not something like a curse. Even if the Saintess was questionable, the Pope's diagnosis was reliable.
‘Putting the Star-Breaking Style aside.’
The engraving of the Star-Breaking Style was the dragon's doing, and it was carved into my soul.
But talent or flaws belonged to the body. I had never heard of such things following through reincarnation.
‘Well. It doesn't matter, though.’
It was not a particularly important issue.
Even if something else had become possible, I would have insisted on the Star-Breaking Style.
“If you learned the main house's techniques, shouldn't it naturally be black?”
“My biological parents must have been unusual.”
“……”
At Simurtr's words, Ael shut her mouth. Thud. Jahar's forearm jabbed Ael's side.
“Sorry.”
An appearance similar to the Mectera.
Skill that surpassed the siblings.
Because of such factors, the siblings had momentarily forgotten Simurtr's circumstances.
“And tell your mother when she returns. The adopted son has no intention of taking over Mectera. Tell her not to keep me in check like Lady Janya.”
The siblings keenly felt the distance with Simurtr once again.
***
Passing the Selection Ceremony was the same as taking a place in the main house now.
Janya, who had already been thoroughly beaten by the old man, would also be preparing a trump card.
‘Arnea… I'm not sure.’
The first wife was currently away. Unlike Janya, I had never met her, nor did I have any information about her. But she wouldn't just stand by and watch when she returned.
‘She was said to be defensive. That she won over the 2nd Sword Order to hold her ground in the competitive structure Janya created.’
The siblings and Beden were very different. Children tend to resemble their parents. The father was the same, so he was excluded. Janya and Arnea were probably very different.
Considering the siblings' goodwill, I thought there was a possibility of a peaceful resolution.
“Oh.”
The green shadow had become quite friendly.
At least, that's what Simurtr felt.
“Ugh.”
“I can't get used to this feeling.”
“Really?”
While the siblings expressed their discomfort next to me, Simurtr was comfortable. My five senses were not paralyzed. I had only blinked once, yet the scenery had changed.
‘She's a good kid.’
Simurtr's gaze turned towards Medeoban's feet. To be precise, he looked at the green shadow next to Medeoban's shadow.
As his gaze reached it, the shadow squirmed as if in greeting. Simurtr almost raised his hand unconsciously.
‘Though she doesn't seem to believe a word I say.’
There was no proper evidence anyway. Simurtr soon pretended not to notice the rising shadow.
“Let us begin.”
As soon as Medeoban's words ended, the shadows once again enveloped the participants.
While the siblings felt a chill, Simurtr felt comfortable.
“A city district?”
Buildings of various heights, from the 1st to the 5th floor.
Spiderweb-like alleys running between them. And a central square visible in the distance.
The location of the final test seemed like a piece of an imperial city had been torn out.
-Survive.
The words engraved on the back of my hand were still unfriendly, but familiar.
“There will be swordsmen.”
The unprecedented extension of the Selection Ceremony. Semenu's words from the previous night.
And the ‘Survive’ on the back of my hand.
Medeoban was trying to make me fail. It was a rather plausible guess. That's what Simurtr thought.
Otherwise, there would be no reason to extend the Selection Ceremony, nor any grounds to use the 3rd Sword Order with which I had a bad relationship.
‘But why?’
There was nothing that particularly came to mind. In the first place, Mectera was a family obsessed with outstanding talent. If the adopted son was outstanding, there was no reason to refuse him.
‘They'd be ecstatic.’
That's how Medeoban was when he adopted Exa.
Medeoban, whom I met at the orphanage, couldn't contain his joy upon discovering Exa.
Though he cooled down later after discovering the flaw.
‘Because I'm not black?’
Because my mana was not the color of Mectera.
It was the most likely reason, but that too could not be a reason.
Mectera was not a word that meant bloodline. It was very different from other noble families.
The public misunderstood it, but the swordsmen belonging to Mectera knew.
‘There's no way the old man doesn't know that.’
He was not someone who wouldn't know that. He had served as the Sword Master too. It was Medeoban who had even gone to the Pope to fix Exa's flaw.
‘A man like that is doing this?’
The Medeoban of the past, the old man Simurtr remembered, would have welcomed me with open arms, just like in the orphanage of my past life.
Saying that a proper challenger had appeared after a long time.
‘This is strange.’
Simurtr recalled the gaunt Medeoban, unlike in the past. Contamination of the mana circuit by a Doom Species.
It was an injury that could be cured, but he did not do so. Looking at that, he was indeed the same Medeoban, set in the ways of Mectera's ideology.
‘Is he really going senile?’
But he had clearly changed.
The sense of unease I had felt sometime before was being revealed through the Selection Ceremony….
“You're from the 3rd Sword Order too?”
Simurtr looked at the opposite corner. 5 meters. Within the range of the Sword Net. At the corner, someone was leaning against the wall, secretly peeking this way.
“How did you know?”
Seeing the swordsman who revealed himself, Simurtr pushed aside his thoughts.
“I can tell by looking. The bastard who died by my sword was from the 3rd Sword Order too.”
If I just finish this Selection Ceremony they went out of their way to prepare, I'll naturally find out.
***
Although the swordsmen of Mectera were so crazy about the sword that they were called Sword Fiends outside, it did not mean they lacked camaraderie.
‘In fact, it's strong.’
A comrade-in-arms referred to someone with whom one could cross swords. It meant they were of the same kind.
So of course, they had to like each other. Swinging a sword without an opponent was just self-satisfaction.
“Your name is Deban? Are you here for revenge?”
If so, would they prioritize the Mectera they served? Or would a colleague from the same unit come first?
Simurtr thought it was the latter. I didn't live in the main house, so we had never met, and I wasn't a direct descendant either.
“Aww. No way.”
But Deban smiled brightly.
Simurtr was rather confident in his ability to roughly read people's emotions, but that one was not easily read.
“Then?”
“The higher-ups told us to participate in the Selection Ceremony. Our 3rd Sword Order had just returned to the main house, as it happened.”
Return. That reason for returning was also something Simurtr had created. The Head of the 3rd Sword, who was part of Janya's faction, lost his head as soon as he returned.
“He was originally a death row inmate, wasn't he?”
“That's what he was.”
The deceased Head of the 3rd Sword was said to be a former death row inmate from the northern part of the empire. He had rebelled against the Northern Grand Duke.
“He asked me to convey his apologies on his behalf if I were to meet Sir Simurtr.”
“Was that his last wish?”
“No. The current Head of the 3rd Sword.”
“Ah. The newly appointed one?”
“Yes. It was the former Head of the 3rd Sword's impulsive action, not the will of the 3rd Sword Order.”
“But the one I killed wasn't the Head of the 3rd Sword.”
“We have to do what we're told from above.”
“Just like you're here right now?”
“That's right.”
He showed no sign of attacking.
Deban, far from building up his momentum, had even relaxed his facial muscles and was just grinning.
“No thoughts of revenge?”
“Me? Not really. We weren't close. I just knew his name. Besides, it was Swordsman Keito's fault, wasn't it?”
“That's right. What about revenge for your former superior?”
“Aww. The one who carried out the execution was the Head of the Senate of Elders, you know?”
“That's also true. But is it okay for you to be like that? You're not going to capture me?”
Simurtr raised his head. In the cloudless sky, a giant clock floated instead of clouds.
1 hour 45 minutes 24 seconds. The words ‘Survive’ engraved on the back of his hand meant to survive for that duration.
“There's still plenty of time, isn't there?”
Deban also checked the time.
It was initially 2 hours. So, Deban had been chatting with Simurtr for nearly 15 minutes.
“You're quite relaxed.”
“Do I look that way?”
“You seem confident?”
Judging by his face alone, he was overflowing with leisure. What was this confidence?
Simurtr, his interest piqued, smiled deeply.
“No. I was saying that I think I'm going to lose.”
Deban said it as if it were no big deal.
“Why?”
“I saw the video of the second test.”
“So?”
“Sir Simurtr, do you think Sir Simurtr will lose?”
Deban asked back.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm confident?”
“That's the same for me.”
He's a guy who laughs a lot. That's what Simurtr thought. He didn't seem like a Mectera swordsman.
“I have a good eye, you see. I know my own limits well. Swordsman Keito didn't die because he was careless, did he?”
The corners of Deban's eyes curved up significantly.