Chapter 247 : Chapter 247
Side Story 6. Raven (3)
Only after passing through twelve iron doors did we finally reach the end of the secret passage.
What blocked our path was a door patterned with dark oak grain.
“Young master, that door looks like the back of a bookcase.”
“That is right. It is a bookcase.”
“...What?”
“I said it is the bookcase in the Family Head’s office. Go push it.”
However, Reina looked at me suspiciously.
“Are you certain I can simply push it?”
Apparently, hurting herself earlier when she struck the mithril-alloy iron door with her sword had left quite an impression.
“Stop asking questions and do as I say.”
“Understood.”
Reina cautiously approached the bookcase and began pushing against it.
RUMBLE!
RUMBLE!
The bookcase rotated easily, and a beam of light from beyond gradually illuminated the secret passage.
Naturally, that light was coming from the Raven Family Head’s office.
“Young master! It really moves!”
And once we stepped completely beyond the bookcase, we found a woman pointing a sword at us.
‘Lucy!’
She had grown into a proper young lady, but her face still retained the features I remembered from her childhood.
Was this what people meant when they said blood was thicker than water?
The moment I saw Lucy, a smile naturally spread across my face.
Of course, the voice that came from her was ice-cold.
“Assassins sent by Calstein, I presume.”
Without showing any panic, Lucy calmly infused mana into her sword and glared at us.
“But how long have you been hiding inside that secret chamber?”
Lucy thought the passage was merely a hidden room.
Well, there was no way she could have passed even the first iron door.
“It would be faster to explain with a sword than with words.”
I immediately drew Bastian.
“Young master!”
Reina jumped in alarm at the sight.
“Stop making such a fuss.”
She kept reminding me of someone.
Choi Ho-joong, the very embodiment of overreaction.
SWISH!
I thrust my sword toward Lucy and moved into the center of the office.
CLANG!
Our swords collided, and the metallic ring echoed through the room.
Then, without a word, the paths of our blades began to stir the air.
SWISH!
SWISH!
Lucy’s swordsmanship came stabbing toward me.
Right, then left.
I became her mirror.
Left, then right.
Whenever Lucy slashed at me, I used Bastian to redirect her sword.
Like a pair of dragonflies dancing together, our swords moved side by side.
SWISH!
SWISH!
I was not merely following the trajectory of her blade.
I matched everything—the flow of mana, the changes in force, even the variations within the swordsmanship itself.
Thus, the two swords drew countless straight lines and curves as though they were one.
Before long, Lucy’s expression stiffened.
She had sensed that something was strange.
This was something an assassin sent by Calstein could never have done.
“Haa.”
At last, Lucy stopped her sword, steadied her breathing, and glared at me.
“Who are you?”
“The successor to Raven swordsmanship.”
At my answer, Lucy bit down on her lip.
“You dare deceive our family before my very eyes?”
“No.”
“Judging by your swordsmanship, you must belong to some distant Branch Family of ours, but your arrogance knows no bounds! You came with only two people while plotting treason?”
As she spoke, Lucy alternated her gaze between Reina and me.
Then, at some point, her brows drew together.
Her eyes had settled on Reina.
“D-Do not tell me you are...!”
“That is correct, Family Head! We have met once before, have we not? I am Reina, a knight affiliated with Cheonra!”
“Reina! Then why are you here?”
“It may take a little while to explain....”
Still, having Reina with me would probably make the explanation somewhat shorter than it otherwise would have been.
***
While Reina temporarily excused herself, I spent some time alone with Lucy.
After hearing my entire story, Lucy stared at me blankly.
“Are you truly Brother Johan’s successor?”
“Do not worry about anything unnecessary. I have no intention of taking the position of Family Head from you. I am not of Raven blood, after all.”
“That is not what matters! Tell me! Where is Brother Johan now?”
Lucy fired off the questions in rapid succession until tears eventually welled in her eyes.
“I can tell you one thing for certain. He will never appear in this world again.”
“Why? Is my brother... dead?”
“It would not be entirely wrong for you to believe that.”
After all, I truly had died once.
“Please tell me!”
“I am sorry, but that is all I can say about it.”
I drew a firm line, and Lucy eventually burst into tears.
I could neither gently embrace her nor reveal my identity.
It had always been like this between Lucy and me.
I had never shown her much affection as an older brother, and after early childhood, Lucy had always found me difficult to approach.
“The reason I sought you out was to convey his wishes.”
“My brother’s wishes?”
“Yes. He said this: the Family Head of the Raven Family must always be someone others fear. Even if you show mercy and tolerance to those around you, that must never change.”
Lucy let out a deep sigh at my words.
The Raven Family was currently nothing like that.
They were even on the verge of receiving a declaration of war from another family.
“If Brother Johan were here, they would never have dared dream of doing something like this!”
“You cannot live forever in his shadow.”
“I know that, but I am still....”
Lucy could not finish her sentence.
She knew her own shortcomings well.
Compared to the previous Family Heads, her strength was woefully inadequate.
She had taken the position of Family Head at far too young an age, before she had been properly prepared.
And after becoming Family Head, she must have had countless responsibilities demanding her attention besides swordsmanship.
“After crossing swords with you, I can say that your fundamentals are not bad. You were taught fairly well.”
I knew Lucy had never had enough time to properly inherit the Raven Family’s swordsmanship.
Considering that, her current level of achievement was impressive.
“However, your mana reserves are far too lacking for a Family Head.”
“That is my greatest weakness.”
It would have been nice if Kalia overflowed with spiritual medicines like some other dimensions did, but this world was not like that.
Even a spiritual medicine capable of increasing one’s mana by the slightest amount could only be obtained through an extraordinarily rare stroke of fortune.
“Here. Take this.”
I handed Lucy a small vial.
“What is this?”
“Mana Essence.”
I had retrieved the last remaining one from the secret passage.
It was of no use to me now anyway.
And because of the restrictions of the Abyss, I could not take it back to Earth.
“But why would you give something like this to me...?”
“My master asked me to deliver it to you, so simply accept it.”
“My brother did?”
I nodded.
“I told you, did I not? What kind of person he believed the Family Head of Raven must be.”
“I understand. If my brother sent it, I will accept it. He must want me to become even a little stronger.”
Lucy took the vial and opened the stopper.
Then she immediately let out a gasp.
She had sensed the concentrated mana contained within it.
“So this is the Mana Essence I have only heard about!”
Of course, it would not raise her mana to some dramatic extent.
Still, it could advance her progress by two or three years.
In Kalia, an effect of that magnitude was more than enough to qualify as a tremendous stroke of fortune.
“What are you doing? Drink it.”
“What? Ah, yes!”
Lucy immediately swallowed the essence in the vial.
GULP—
The effect was instantaneous.
The mana already within Lucy’s body reacted and began accepting the new power.
Her eyes widened.
“This is incredible!”
“It is not that extraordinary a change. The fact that you are still weak has not changed.”
“Even so!”
“There is something more important left.”
“Something more important?”
“Your swordsmanship.”
“...Ah!”
“Although I inherited his swordsmanship directly, you are the one who possesses the Raven Family’s legitimacy. In other words, I am not the one who should carry Raven swordsmanship into the future.”
“Then, could it be...?”
“Depending on how you understand Raven swordsmanship, what is passed down to later generations will inevitably change in subtle ways. That is why I intend to examine your swordsmanship as the Family Head and correct anything that is wrong.”
Lucy’s eyes trembled at my words.
Then she answered in a quavering voice.
“Please teach me well.”
***
Blood would tell, after all.
Lucy was a remarkably sharp child.
In only a single day, she absorbed every correction I had given her.
“Then attack me again with the same technique.”
“Yes!”
Lucy’s feet moved swiftly.
The motion with which she pushed off the ground had become far more natural.
SWISH!
And that tiny difference afforded her a fraction more leeway in controlling her mana.
It was a moment shorter than one hundredth of a second, but that tiny breath of time increased the completeness of Raven swordsmanship.
BOOOOM!
Lucy’s sword shot toward me, cleaving through the air.
‘Remarkable progress.’
The most important element in learning swordsmanship was a sudden moment of enlightenment.
Lucy had changed to an astonishing degree.
When I swung Bastian and knocked her sword aside, Lucy naturally redirected the mana I had sent toward her, minimizing the recoil.
“Ah!”
“Do not exaggerate.”
“I am sorry. I should be able to endure this much, but the sound just slipped out.”
Lucy scratched her head in embarrassment.
“That sort of gesture is not befitting a Family Head either.”
“I know. But I do not know why I keep acting like this.”
“Like what?”
“This might sound ridiculous, but I just find myself wanting to act spoiled around you. There does not seem to be much of an age difference between us, either. It really is ridiculous, is it not?”
“It is rather ridiculous.”
“I am sorry. I should be taking my training more seriously.”
Even as she said that, Lucy smiled shyly again.
If it had been Shin Ah-yeon, I would have scolded her.
But I could not bring myself to do that to Lucy.
She kept reminding me of how she had looked as a child.
“Still, you have improved considerably.”
“Really?”
“You understand things quickly, as expected of his younger sister. Of all the swordsmen I have met recently, you have the greatest talent.”
“Thank you. It has been a long time since anyone praised me like that.”
“You are not exactly in a position where people would normally praise you.”
“Even so. It would have been even better if Brother Johan had praised me himself.”
Lucy smiled wistfully.
“Did he never say anything like that to you?”
“Not even once.”
“Not once?”
“No. He was always so reserved with me.”
Had I really been that kind of person?
“Still, I do not think that was how he truly felt. I heard that on the day I became so ill I nearly died, my brother went out in the middle of the night to find medicine for me.”
“You know about that.”
“What?”
“I-I mean... he would occasionally talk about you. He simply was not someone who expressed his feelings openly. I am certain he cared deeply for his younger sister.”
“...Yes. I am certain he did.”
Lucy nodded and fell into thought once more.
And at that moment—
“Family Head!”
One of Lucy’s retainers rushed toward us.
“I believe I told you not to disturb me while I was training.”
“My apologies, Family Head. But this is an urgent matter.”
“An urgent matter?”
“Calstein has finally sent its declaration of war.”
Lucy’s expression instantly hardened.
What had been coming had finally arrived.
But she had no reason to worry.
Because I was here now.