A cheap sword glittered in the late afternoon sun.
"Uaaaaah!"
Clang! Clang!
I received his anger, which was lashing out wildly without any direction.
His sword, which had once been a boy's... what should I say.
It was a sword that suited this place, the wasteland.
Desolate, rough, and pathetic.
They say a person's face holds their emotions, and their posture holds the trajectory of their life.
His life was lted into his sword.
The expression on his face as he swung the sword. The way he swung the sword.
Just by looking at it.
I could tell how he had lived for the past eight years.
...It was like looking at my past self.
Having lost sothing precious, pouring that sadness and anger into myself and swinging a sword.
Spending the night with guilt, blaming myself for being foolish and not being able to do anything, and regretting and resenting.
Everything was my fault, my mistake.
A pathetic, unborn being.
CLANG!
"Why!"
Clang-clang!
"Why! Why!"
CLANG!
"Why did you kill them! Why did you kill them!"
I could see the anger that was rising like a wildfire in his eyes.
Although the sword in his hand was cheap, what he was swinging was a blade of revenge that was sharper than any other sword.
A sword that had been sharpened every day for eight years, without a single day of rest, and had a sharp, blue edge.
It was that sharp, but at the sa ti, it looked precarious.
The feeling that it would break with a single clash.
Clang! Clang!
I faced his sword with my half-sword, without raising my aura...
I brought my back foot forward and took a step closer in a surprise attack.
He quickly raised his sword to defend.
CLANG!
I looked into his eyes as our swords were locked.
"You said your na was Pablo."
And then, I grinned, showing my teeth. Like a villain.
"Yes, I killed your parents. All the villagers who were like family died at my hands."
"...!"
Pablo's eyes widened.
"You ask why I killed them? Because the food was bad. Is that a good enough answer?"
The fla that had been flickering in his eyes grew larger.
"You son of a bitch!"
CLANG!
"I'll kill you!"
Pablo's sword beca rougher.
Clang! Clang!
Pablo's sword was filled with burning anger, but that was all.
Even before I fell off the cliff, even when I couldn't raise my aura, even with this half-sword that was at a disadvantage in terms of reach.
It was a sword that I could receive without much difficulty.
I had seen his skill well.
'That's enough of receiving.'
I deliberately extended my sword to the right, showing an opening.
And then, like a beast aiming for a vital point, he instinctively swung his sword.
The blade of revenge fell diagonally toward my neck.
'How predictable.'
[He can't take his eyes off the tip of the sword. Just like you used to.]
'When was that?'
I watched the sword that was flying in the exact trajectory I had intended...
Thump.
I twisted my body and hit the flat of the incoming sword with my left elbow.
With just that, the blade of revenge that had been aid at lost its intended trajectory and cut through the air.
At that simple yet sensational response, a gasp of admiration erupted from the onlookers.
I grinned at his frustrated expression.
"You're still a long way off, kid."
I gave a punch filled with inner energy to his upper body, which was wide open as his arm was raised.
Thwack!
"Keoheok!"
His waist bent, and a few drops of saliva flew from his mouth.
Hmm. He wasn't as tough as Sir Fluffy.
'I should hold back a little.'
I corrected my thoughts and moved my arms.
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack!
I took a little strength out of my fists and beat him to my heart's content.
Pablo swung his sword and tried to get away sohow, but it was no use.
I never let him go and followed him, beating him soundly.
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack!
And then, when I saw his legs buckle, unable to withstand the blows, I kicked his thigh.
Thwack!
"Keuk!"
After Pablo fell, well, it was one-sided.
I literally beat the dust out of him.
To the point where the onlookers who had been sneering at Pablo were now voicing their concern.
—Oh my... he's really beating him up.
—Isn't he going to die at this rate?
—Soone stop him.
But whether it was because my montum as I was beating Pablo was so fierce, no one actually tried to stop .
They just kept exclaiming, "Oh my, oh my."
Pablo curled up as much as possible to reduce the surface area he was being hit.
Seeing that, it seed he had been beaten up quite a lot.
I observed the guy who was groaning and swallowing his groans, and then, the mont he seed about to lose consciousness, I stopped kicking.
And then I lowered my posture and t Pablo's eyes.
He was on the verge of fainting, but the fla of revenge was still burning brightly in his eyes.
"I'll accept your revenge anyti. Co and find whenever. It'll be a good way to pass the ti."
"You... son of a bitch...!"
Grin.
After giving him a refreshing smile.
Thwack!
Finally, I kicked his pressure point with a kick filled with inner energy and knocked him out.
I had reached a level where I could even use pressure points with my feet.
I looked down at the fainted Pablo and muttered.
"You arrogant brat, trying to use the great Half-Sword Ashuban as a suicide tool."
[A suicide tool?]
I kicked Pablo with my foot and explained.
"This guy. He was going to die fighting here."
[Why? He hasn't gotten his revenge yet.]
"Because it seed impossible to get revenge. Who am I? The captain of the Sherwood rcenary Corps, the rising star, the Half-Sword Ashuban."
He had tried to build up his strength sohow to get revenge, but since it seed impossible... he must have just given up.
Should I call it his own compromise?
So this guy had intended to plunge the sword he had sharpened for this day into and die. It would be good if he could do so damage, and if not, whatever.
He hadn't sharpened it further because it seed aningless to endure more suffering and sharpen the blade.
Because I was much stronger than he had expected. Because it seed he would not be able to achieve his revenge until he died.
So, a compromise. In other words, resignation.
Since it seed there would be no difference whether he attacked now or later, he just decided to do it now. Revenge.
Pouring everything out, and relieving his guilt by saying that he had done his best for the revenge of his family and villagers.
And he wanted to stop being possessed by the ghosts of the past, to stop suffering, and to be at peace.
That's why it seed so precarious, as if it would break with a single clash.
It was natural, since he had considered this to be his last fight.
The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.
[What a weakling.]
I agree.
And to think he would challenge to a duel so openly, without even trying a surprise attack.
Was he foolish, or naive?
[He's compromising because his target for revenge seems too strong? And in such a way? It's hard to understand the mindset of ordinary people.]
"There's a world of ordinary people that our great master can't understand."
I looked around, leaving the fainted guy.
"Hey, does anyone have a rope?"
One of the onlookers threw a coiled rope at .
I flicked a silver coin at him and then tied the fainted Pablo's legs with the rope.
And then I hung him upside down from a tree that was growing next to the guild building.
The people gasped as they saw .
"No, to go that far..."
"He's worthy of being called the Red-Eyed Devil. How ruthless."
"Sherwood is Sherwood."
There were also those who shook their heads.
"What a bad taste."
"I don't know what happened with that kid, but he even challenged him to a fair duel. Does he have to go that far?"
"Ruthless? Isn't it rciful enough that he let him live? It's probably a warning not to ss with him unless you have the skills. If you don't want to be humiliated like that."
Whatever.
"Alright."
I smiled with satisfaction, looking at the work of art I had created with my own hands.
"Shall I call this work... 'The Kid's Revenge'?"
And then I looked around at the muttering onlookers and said.
"If anyone takes him down before he wakes up, I'll hang that person up instead."
"..."
The muttering onlookers beca quiet.
'This should be enough.'
He had attacked with the resolve to lose everything.
But Pablo, who had been beaten to a pulp to the point where his resolve was aningless, was hanging upside down from a tree.
After being beaten to a pulp in front of everyone and then being hung up like this?
It was unbearably miserable.
He couldn't help but vow revenge.
He would grit his teeth and sharpen his sword again to kill sohow. He would put himself on the whetstone again.
[Is this your own way of being considerate?]
"Well, I did kill all his parents and villagers. Don't I have so responsibility?"
I dusted off my hands and looked at Pablo, who was dangling.
"When revenge is over, in whatever form, there's no reason to live."
That guy's life had already beco all about revenge, and he couldn't find any other reason to live.
With this, he would beco a fuel that would not let the fla go out for a few years.
"For now, I'll be his reason to live."
If you live, no matter how, there is a future.
If you live without dying, soday, the fla of revenge will die down, and you will be able to find a reason to live.
Because life is worth living.
Then.
Until that ti cos.
I will be your reason not to die.
I will be your villain.
That is not difficult.
Because.
"I look good as a villain."
I could hear the Heavenly Demon's low laughter.
[How interesting.]
"It's a chaotic world. To think I'm playing the role of a guardian."
I don't think the people who died at my hands will forgive for this.
And it's not like the sins I've committed will disappear.
I just, wanted to do it.
There's no particular reason.
It's just my whim.
"I don't think Pablo will forgive you for this."
At the voice from the side, I looked there.
A guy of the sa age was looking at with a strange expression.
It seed to be filled with hostility, and also with curiosity.
It was the guy who had been trying to stop Pablo when he had approached .
'Damn it.'
"Did you hear everything?"
"Enough to guess why you didn't kill him."
"I don't want you to, so shut up. If you tell him, I'll kill you first."
"..."
"Hey, you're not answering?"
"Why did you kill Pablo's parents and the villagers?"
"It's none of your business."
Since he didn't answer until the end, I had no choice but to answer his question with a question, and I beat this arrogant guy up and hung him up next to Pablo.
"..."
The onlookers stared at with a speechless expression.
Whatever.
I looked at the two guys hanging side by side with satisfaction and then walked to the guild's main entrance.
At the entrance, the receptionist was leaning against the door, chewing on a toothpick.
"Well. They looked like kids. Did you have to go that far?"
"Isn't it enough that I didn't kill them?"
"...That's true."
The man opened the door and said as he went in.
"Co in. It's connected."
I followed the man into the guild.
* * *
—Hey, you idiot. What are you doing over there that the news is reaching all the way here?
"What news is reaching you?"
—They say a bloody nightmare is sweeping through the west, that the Red-Eyed Devil is wiping out the Dark Heaven Society guys, that the Dark Heaven Society guys are running away with their tails between their legs at the ntion of the Red-Eyed Devil.
Hmm. They were all pleasant rumors to hear.
What I liked most was that the nickna 'Red-Eyed Devil' had been revived.
—How did you get two terrifying nicknas? The nicknas 'devil' and 'nightmare' aren't even given to the Dark Heaven Society guys.
"Well, that's how it is. Should I say I've regained my true nature? I was a huge person in Blake."
—Oh my, that crazy bastard. The real villain is that guy.
Boris, in the crystal ball, clicked his tongue at .
"So why did you call?"
—Alright, I know you're doing well, so let's get straight to the point.
Boris said, organizing his docunts.
—One of the Sherwood guys will be heading over there soon. Don't go wandering around beating up the Dark Heaven Society again, just wait there quietly.
To think they would co over here when they were so busy beating up the Dark Heaven Society.
"What is it?"
—Hudmilla said that an important designated commission ca in for you.
"For ? What kind of commission?"
—I don't know either. Anyway, they said they sent one of the Sherwood guys, so just wait there without moving. I'm busy, so I'm hanging up.
Click.
The magic was cut off, and the crystal ball that had been showing Boris's image beca transparent.
My head tilted to one side.
What kind of commission was it that they were sending soone over here even when they were so busy?
A few days later.
A welco face ca to the dusty western city.
"Big Brother!"
The striped girl, who was waving her hand with a bright smile, was clearly the saint who had gone from being a saint who didn't believe god to a two-timing saint.
"...Siri?"
(End of Chapter)
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