Chapter 182
Chapter 182
Billet kept his sword pointed forward and opened his mouth.
“The power you said you’d give me? I don’t know how amazing it is. But that’s not what I wanted.”
His next words made Polia’s eyes widen.
“What I want is for you to survive and protect Kirhen. That’s the only thing I want to see.”
“Polia, you must keep living. You’ll be loved by people and become a Guardian Deity who protects this land. I really want to see that.”
Polia closed her eyes.
“……Truly foolish.”
“Well then, how about we make a bet? Whether I’m right, or you’re right.”
At Billet’s boldness, Polia finally let out a laugh.
She almost dropped the sword.
“……They’re clearly the same, yet different.”
I stopped my sword right in front of his nose.
I didn’t spare Polia out of sympathy.
I didn’t care in the slightest what kind of past he had lived through, or how he viewed me.
‘In the game, Polia, who was corrupted by mana contamination, couldn’t escape death.’
But what I wanted to see wasn’t the same ending as the game.
A different scene, freed from the absurdity that had been taken for granted in the game.
Unlike the game, Polia living on in a complete state, without falling into corruption.
That was the only thing I wanted to see.
From the start, what I wanted was Bedervel’s swordsmanship.
I didn’t want to be greedy beyond that, to the point of taking Polia’s life when he was someone I wanted to save.
I had already mastered the swordsmanship, so for me, this reward was enough.
Kwoong-!
At some point, Polia slammed the greatsword he had been holding in his mouth into the ground and planted it upright.
“I lost. Take it.”
I stood there blankly for a moment as I listened to Polia’s words.
“My longtime friend entrusted it to me for a while. Now, it’s yours.”
……Take that sword?
I stepped closer and placed my hand on the greatsword. A silver-background hologram appeared.
Greatsword of Muui
Ability: ???
Description: ???
Both the ability and the description were obscured by noise, like a bugged item.
But the moment I saw the equipment name ‘Muui’, I couldn’t suppress my shock.
‘Why does that wolf have this……?’
Muui.
In this world, it was one of the most terrifying names.
The ‘Greatsword of Muui’ was the weapon wielded by Corrupted Bedervel, a mid-boss of the final chapter.
Bedervel had fallen into corruption because he lost Polia.
‘But now, Polia is alive and well.’
That meant the appearance of that overwhelming boss had been prevented in advance.
For me, it was like killing two birds with one stone.
‘Still, this greatsword is a weapon the player can’t even use.’
It was nearly twice my height.
Since even the hilt didn’t reach me, I grabbed the blade itself and tried lifting the greatsword.
……It was so heavy that it didn’t budge at all.
I let go of the blade and clenched the air. Shuck’s card appeared in my hand.
‘What about now?’
I wrapped Shuck’s ability around my hand and tried lifting the sword again.
……This time as well, it still didn’t move an inch.
Seeing that, Polia spoke.
“You still can’t use it?”
Still? I’d never be able to use this in my lifetime.
That was how absurdly heavy this weapon was.
No, could a human even lift this thing in the first place?
Even if my Strength stat reached 100, I wouldn’t be able to wield a weapon of this size properly.
‘It’s way too big to begin with. It looks more than twice my height. How am I supposed to swing this?’
I took my hand off the sword for a moment and looked at Polia.
I’d been thinking about it for a while now, but if it was Polia, he would know.
The fact that Polia knew about ‘Muui’ was something never depicted in the game.
Thinking it might become a hint, I opened my mouth after a long deliberation.
“……Muui.”
When I answered, Polia’s eyes widened.
“You know Muui?”
“……How surprising.”
After I asked, Polia couldn’t answer for a long while.
“I never thought that name would come from your mouth.”
As if deep in thought, he closed his eyes and slowly began to speak.
“To answer you, yes. Muui was my benefactor who gave me my name, my master, my close friend, and my owner.”
Even more shocking words followed.
“The swordsmanship I taught you isn’t mine either. It’s Muui’s swordsmanship.”
“…….”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak.
The seven calamities sealed three hundred years ago by the Great Sage Gilray, founder of Yggdrasil Academy.
Enlightenment.
Destruction.
Obsession.
Inquiry.
Rage.
Void.
Muui.
‘One of the calamities that threatened humanity’s survival… Muui.’
‘And this is a weapon used by one of those calamities?’
I hastily pulled my hand away from the greatsword, but it didn’t seem to be something that negatively affected me.
‘And Muui was Polia’s benefactor?’
Then was Polia an enemy, or an ally?
……But Polia had been favorable toward me to the extent that he tried to pass on his power by ending his own life.
‘I can’t just see Polia as an enemy.’
Still, the boundary was ambiguous.
A ‘Calamity’ was humanity’s worst enemy, something that had to be defeated without exception.
Most of the villains who opposed the protagonist Ren and the Imperial Princess were also tied to the ‘Calamities’.
The reason I couldn’t live off the Dedenkman Count’s family and instead kept growing while living in a stable was, in the end, to contribute even a little to stopping the ‘Calamities’.
The reason the Academy existed, and the reason each professor took on students, was to cultivate talents capable of stopping the ‘Calamities’.
If the Calamities couldn’t be stopped, humanity would face extinction.
‘Anyway, this weapon might play some role in defeating a Calamity, so I should keep it.’
It might be beneficial to have it, but it didn’t seem like it would cause any harm.
‘For now, I’ll try taking it. Whether I can actually take it or not is another matter…….’
I opened my subspace at the hilt.
‘Let’s see…….’
Then, as if swallowing the greatsword whole, the subspace slowly descended over the blade as well.
Before long, the subspace managed to store half of the greatsword.
‘If I put the entire blade in like this…….’
Just like that, the subspace swallowed the Greatsword of Muui completely.
That enormous form vanished without a trace.
‘It got stored?’
But would the day ever come…… when I’d take it out?
It was around the time that question crossed my mind.
After confirming that I had taken the Greatsword of Muui, Polia answered me.
“All business is concluded. You may leave this place now.”
“Yeah. Thanks to you, I learned a lot. Thank you.”
I replied like that and greeted him, then turned my back and started to head down the mountain.
……Chances were, I wouldn’t be coming back here again.
As I took a few steps, Bedervel appeared, having arrived late.
“Father……?”
Bedervel alternated her gaze between Polia and me, then voiced her confusion when she saw that neither of us had even a scratch.
“You didn’t duel?”
I raised my fingers in a V sign and curled the corner of my lips upward.
“Thanks to my master teaching me well, I won.”
“……It wasn’t a life-or-death match?”
At Bedervel’s question, I shrugged.
“Well, there’s no need to kill him just to make things unpleasant. I’d have to live my whole life with the stigma of having killed the Guardian Deity of Kirhen, and I didn’t really want that.”
“……Boy.”
Tears were already welling up at the corners of Bedervel’s eyes.
“Thank you.”
Late the next evening, Kirhen Station.
Bedervel came all the way to the train station to see us off.
She looked around, confirmed there was no one nearby, then spoke to me.
“Boy. Do you remember what I said back then in the guild cafeteria? That I’d give fifty thousand gold if you caught Bedervel.”
“You did promise that. But you yourself were Bedervel.”
“Hmph. That’s why.”
With a sly smile, Bedervel hid her hands behind her back, then suddenly thrust them forward.
“Take it.”
Bedervel held out a large sack.
“As promised. Exactly fifty thousand.”
I glanced at it briefly, then looked back at Bedervel.
“But I didn’t catch my master.”
“So? Are you going to refuse it?”
I lifted the corner of my mouth and took the sack she offered.
“If you’re insisting on giving it to me, I won’t refuse.”
“How shameless. That’s just like you, boy.”
After saying that, Bedervel pulled out another sack.
“And what’s this?”
“Travel expenses, Rapin’s snack money, and a bonus calculated from all the odds and ends you worked hard on.”
When I loosened the sack, it looked like there were several dozen gold coins inside.
“Master, isn’t this a bit too much for a bonus?”
“So? Are you going to refuse it?”
“I never said I would. I’ll make good use of it.”
She was the Empire’s greatest sword and held the position of commander of the Empire’s First Knight Order.
On top of that, money didn’t seem to matter much to her in her life.
After all, she was handing me tens of thousands of gold without hesitation.
“You’re heading straight back to the Academy without stopping anywhere else?”
“Yes. I don’t have any concrete plans yet, so I’m thinking of resting at the Academy and deciding later. There’s still half of the vacation left, after all. What about you, Master? What are you planning to do now?”
“Ah. I still have things to take care of. I’ll give aid to the adventurers who came here for nothing, and since I’ve cured my father’s illness…… I’ll return to the Imperial Court.”
After being missing for several months, she was returning to her original post.
Bedervel looked at me with a satisfied expression.
“Boy, you’re something I can proudly call my acknowledged disciple wherever you go. Still, there’s one thing you lack.”
Bedervel forcefully snatched the sack from my hand.
I tried to hold onto it to the end, but lacking strength compared to her, I helplessly lost the sack and spoke.
“Basic physical strength. If you build just that up…… you’ll become quite a promising knight. Maybe I’ll even see you in the Imperial Court someday.”
Bedervel handed the sack back to me and said,
“Whether it’s the Imperial Court or somewhere else, the day will come when we meet again.”
“Of course, boy. A meeting between the strong and the strong is inevitable.”
After replying like that, Bedervel spoke again as if something had just come to mind.
“Some time ago, I received an offer to become the knight-order supervising professor at Yggdrasil Academy, but I turned it down. I was too preoccupied with my father’s situation. But now that it’s resolved…… we might meet again at the Academy, don’t you think? As professor and student.”
It was just as Bedervel formed a meaningful smile.
Pwoooo-!
At some point, a train was pulling into Kirhen Station.
“Take care, boy.”
Bedervel waved her hand with an awkward expression.
“Boy. You’re going to become someone great. If I see you again at the Academy, I think I’ll be able to proudly say you’re my disciple.”
“That might be a bit much. If I get too much attention at the Academy for being your disciple, that’d be troublesome.”
“Boy, do you not like standing out?”
“From experience, nothing good really comes of it.”
“Keh keh.”
Bedervel and I were smiling at each other.
“Then, I’ll see you again later.”
The time for the train’s departure drew near. I took a step forward.
“Unni, goodbye.”
When Rapin said her farewell, Bedervel silently waved her hand at us.
Perhaps Rapin had grown attached to Bedervel and Kirhen, because she couldn’t bring herself to step away easily.
Since we couldn’t miss the train, I eventually had no choice but to speak.
“Rapin, let’s go.”
“Okay.”
Doruruk-. Doruruk-.
Only after I replied did Rapin start dragging her bag as she followed after me.
And so, we boarded the railway leading out of Kirhen.