The Swordmaster Who Leapt Through Time Chapter 8 : The Plan

Chapter 8: The Plan

“Good work.”

Seah still looked expressionless today, though her face was a little pale as she greeted .

“What happened? Why is the Count inviting us? Did he find out? That I killed Nagi?”

Seah shook her head.

“That’s impossible. The timing doesn’t match. And even if he knew Nagi was dead, he’d assu it was the rebels’ doing.”

“Rebels?”

“Yeah. Recently, there’s been a group assassinating the Count’s subordinates. They’ve never managed to kill a big shot like Nagi… but these days, whenever soone disappears, people just assu it was them. So don’t worry.”

The Count. So he had lost all his prestige?

Before, everyone had held back their complaints out of fear of him, but now, it seed like they were bursting forth all at once, like an overinflated balloon finally popping.

Anyway, it was a relief that this wasn’t because of Nagi...

“Then why is he inviting us?”

“That I don’t know. But the real problem isn’t that. The sudden invitation... it ruined our plan to assassinate the Count.”

Seah spoke further, her eyebrows subtly furrowing.

“The original plan was to strike when the Count perford the ritual.”

One word caught my attention.

“Ritual?”

“Yeah. It’s been a while now. Ever since Oppa beca like this... the Count cos out of his keep about once a month and performs a ritual alone.”

“A religious ritual?”

“I don’t know exactly, but it’s sothing like that. Whether religion or sorcery.”

“Really? That Count Kxias?”

I found it hard to believe.

Count Kxias was an utterly self-centered philistine. If God ever gave him a revelation, he’d be the type to pick a fight saying, who are you to order around?

I had endured under him for seven whole years—would I not know that?

And now that sa Count had beco a zealot?

“Hoo,”

Seah let out a short sigh, then gazed at with eyes like deep ocean water.

“Oppa. Forget the Count Kxias you once knew. Daisy told us yesterday, didn’t she? That children are being kidnapped, and entire villages are being slaughtered. Do you know where those children and corpses ended up? All of them are being used as sacrifices for the ritual.”

“That’s....”

“It’s certain. I saw those corpses with my own eyes. And they weren’t ordinary corpses. They had undergone so kind of sorcerous treatnt... The deathly qi was so concentrated that I couldn’t even feel mana. They were filled with such foul deathly energy that there was no way they were natural corpses.”

My god.

So the Count was preparing corpses and living sacrifices just to bow down before so existence he couldn’t even know?

So much had changed in these past three years...

After I barely managed to accept reality, another new fact suddenly stood out to .

Seah. She had always been a smart little sister who knew a lot... but still.

“But how do you even know all that?”

The rebels she ntioned earlier, the fact that the ritual took place once a month, and that it used certain sacrifices—those were details that would be treated as classified information even inside the keep.

And yet she knew it all?

At my question, Seah slightly averted her gaze.

“...Because I had to survive in this city. During that ti, I built an information network here and there.”

That stung a little.

While I was losing hope and shutting myself away, my younger siblings had been struggling in their own ways to protect us?

The thought that my absence had forced them to grow up too early left a bitter taste.

Seah glanced at as if reading my feelings, then shifted the subject.

“Anyway. What matters is that the plan has completely fallen apart. Like I said before, the original plan was to strike when the Count was performing the ritual. Inside the chapel, only the Count enters. And it’s even outside the keep.”

“So basically, we would sneak into the chapel ahead of ti, lie in wait, and strike once the Count entered?”

“Exactly. Our chances go up only if we eliminate his subordinates from the equation. We can’t... do it like last ti, right?”

True enough.

When we assassinated Blood Count Delkash, we had to fight our way through the resistance of his subordinates.

That really had been hell.

So Seah’s plan was excellent.

The problem was...

“But now it’s completely ruined. The ritual is expected to happen in a week... but the Count specified that he invited us in three days.”

It was as if Kxias had seen right through our plan, sending the invitation with such uncanny timing.

Seah lowered her eyes to the floor, expressionless, lost in thought—then suddenly lifted her gaze to pierce .

“Anyway, let think of the thod. Oppa, you just focus on how to take down the Count.”

She parted her lips as though wanting to say more, then, as if steeling herself, asked in a clear voice:

“But Oppa. Can you really cut down Kxias?”

In that voice was caution, and fear.

And those words beca like firewood, setting Burson, who was beside us, ablaze.

“Th-That’s what I an. Ransen. Do we really have to fight? Kxias has completely turned into a monster now!”

On the surface, they had all followed my lead, but deep inside, they’d been hiding this unease.

They wanted to believe in ... but they had already seen once reduced to a cripple.

Of course, they were afraid.

Afraid that now, just as I had recovered, I might end up like that again.

But, as I already said, this wasn’t a matter of choice.

“Uncle Burson. There’s no other way. And… we also have a chance of winning.”

Wooong—

Through the Subspace Necklace, I pulled out a sword.

It was the very sword I had used this morning to cut down Nagi.

“A sword?”

“Looks impressive…?”

While everyone else looked puzzled, Burson alone recognized it and was moved.

“The King’s Sword, Banroa….”

The sword said to have been forged by the founding king of Banroa with the help of a dwarven blacksmith and a fairy.

A treasure bestowed with the very na of the kingdom, a symbol of the King’s authority.

“Uncle Burson, you know what this sword was made of, don’t you?”

Instead of answering directly, he recited a passage from the founding history of the kingdom.

“The King forged a sword from starsilver imbued with the energy of starlight….”

Even Seah, who was always expressionless, slightly parted her lips at those words.

“Starsilver, the silver-steel that falls from the heavens and is refined with Aura? They used an entire block of that to make this sword?”

“Exactly. A solid starsilver sword. Corrupt beings like vampires cannot withstand it. I killed Delkash with this. But at that ti… he had many subordinates, and it was my first ti fighting a vampire. This ti will be different.”

I fixed my unwavering gaze on Seah, and she slowly nodded.

“Alright. I’ll believe you, Oppa. Even if it doesn’t work out… if we die together, that’s fine.”

Wait. Why die together? What kind of thing to say is that…

“I’m joking.”

As I silently glared, Seah added that remark.

But since her face was always expressionless, I couldn’t tell if it really was a joke or the truth.

I warned her.

“That’s not a joke. Don’t say that again.”

Only after confirming that Seah nodded did I avert my eyes.

“Anyway, we’re not going to die. You make the plan, and I’ll carry it out. Even if it doesn’t go as planned… don’t worry. I’ll make it work sohow.”

If a plan was a sword, then when the plan was broken, it ant the blade had shattered.

Even so… I would still cut with a broken blade.

That was all there was to it.

* * *

Not enough.

Not enough.

I had spoken confidently to Seah.

But in truth, the situation wasn’t so simple.

The starsilver sword.

Along with the Necklace of Protection I found this ti, and the magic armor.

Even with all of these, it still wasn’t enough to defeat the Count.

So what should I do?

With what could I make up for the lack of strength?

‘Ah, damn it, why won’t it activate?’

If I could, I wanted to go back to the past once more. Maybe I could find another useful weapon.

But since that day, the Book of Fate had never responded again.

Ti was too tight to cling to it.

So only one path remained.

‘I’ll master a new swordsmanship.’

Hadn’t I just recently witnessed incredible swordsmanship?

I would make it mine.

With grit, determination, and the talent that Uncle Burson had once praised.

Srrrng—

I slowly moved my sword.

Tracing the path in my mory, slowly, slowly.

It beca clearer and clearer.

The ancient era, ten thousand years ago.

The very swordsmanship that the leader of the Cultists had displayed.

As I followed the sword paths within my mory, a chill kept running through in real ti.

‘This is insane. How could I even perceive such trajectories in that situation?’

He had toyed with —, who was called a master of the sword—as if I were a re child.

Even though I had released the overwhelming Aura of a Peak Expert, I could not easily suppress him.

That relentless, solid swordsmanship.

And that razor-sharp spirit.

‘The more I replay it, the less sense it makes.’

How many hidden stratagems had he embedded into a single movent?

Was it even possible to use a sword like that?

I had been shocked at the ti, but analyzing it step by step now, I was even more amazed.

No oracle had descended upon him—so how could he make such instantaneous judgnts?

At that mont, the words he had spoken suddenly flashed across my mind.

‘So what if your Sword Energy is colored? You’re still a half-baked swordsman who can’t even read the Heart of the Sword.’

To read the Heart of the Sword.

What on earth did that an?

It was sothing my head could not grasp…

And yet, strangely.

As I moved my body, recalling the leader’s swordsmanship, I felt as though I was just on the verge of understanding its aning.

‘Listen… to the voice of the sword.’

Now that I thought about it.

Both I and everyone else…

The swordsmanship of this era was entirely focused on Aura.

How to amplify the power of Aura.

How to control Aura freely.

We focused only on that when wielding the sword.

To us, the sword was nothing more than a vessel to carry Aura.

But ancient swordsmanship was different.

The sword itself was at the center.

It was infinitely sharp, and free.

As if conversing with the sword—or rather… as if becoming the sword itself.

‘When was the last ti… I faced the sword purely, without anything else?’

My heart pounded, as though I were eting a long-forgotten first love.

I sank deeper and deeper into the sword.

Swinging it again and again…

Gradually, I forgot everything else.

I forgot the Count,

I even forgot myself, and each breath was taken together with the sword.

Wooong— Wooooong—

At so point, the sword began to cry again and again.

It was strange, but I didn’t even think of it as strange.

Instead, I simply faced the sword and embraced it with my heart.

“Hoo….”

And then, when I suddenly opened my eyes,

Woooooong—

At the tip of my sword, which trembled ever so slightly on its own, a transparent mirage was burning.

A razor-sharp shimr, just like what the ancient swordsn had shown.

Once I did it myself, I understood.

This was definitely not Aura.

* * *

The lord’s keep of Kushan City.

Once, it had been a splendid castle adorned with glittering treasures, but now, with blackout curtains drawn over every window, it had beco a pitch-dark, desolate place.

In the grand hall, where a deathly darkness had fallen, a huge man sat alone upon his throne.

Crack—

Crack!

He lined up skull goblets filled with blood at his side, gulped them down one by one, and then hurled them to the floor to shatter, repeating the act over and over.

Creeeak—

The great hall doors opened, and a vampire approached noiselessly, lowering his head.

“Lord. A reply has returned. They say they will enter the keep in three days.”

“Is that so? At last….”

“Yes. But my lord, isn’t it a waste to kill Ransen? If he were made into a clansman, his injuries would heal, and we’d gain another Swordmaster….”

“Kuhuhuhuhu. Foolish wretch.”

Crack—

The Lord of Kushan City, Count Kxias, drained another skull goblet clean and shattered it against the floor.

“What’s the worth of a re Swordmaster? Soon, I’ll obtain far greater power.”

“What…?”

“Those ones. Without a doubt, they are nobles of the Banroa Kingdom. Didn’t you know?”

“N-No, I didn’t know.”

“That Ransen brat… he might even be the last prince of Banroa.”

“I did think his swordsmanship seed fairly orthodox… but to think such a secret….”

“Exactly. So consider it. How pleased will our master be when that noble blood is offered up? How much greater power will be bestowed upon …? Even those arrogant Five Kings will no longer be my match. Kuhuhuhu. I’ve waited so long. Until the ti when everything was ready to use them as sacrifices.”

Gulp gulp gulp—Crack!

Kxias hurled yet another skull goblet aside.

Madness burned in his eyes.

“Now then. The other sacrifices, they’re all properly prepared, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Once tomorrow’s shipnt arrives, everything will be perfectly ready.”

“Good. It must be perfect. Yes, it must.”

From within the darkness, Kxias’s wide mouth split into a white grin.

His fangs, soaked in blood, glistened.