That evening. Bellion had received a mission from Ludmira, the Princess of the First Rank.
“Never thought she’d ask me overnight… Anyway, it’s a mission. Kail, you up for it?”
“What’s in it for me?”
“A sword imbued with any magic you desire.”
A sword crafted by the same master who made the magical sword Myungwol possessed. Though Kail didn’t need a sword, he wanted a magical one.
Though he hadn’t decided what magic to imbue it with yet, the allure of having a magical sword was enough for Kail to readily agree.
Upon accepting the mission, Bellion immediately began briefing him on the details.
“I oversee a couple territories – the Peoni Viscountcy and Azral Barony… Apparently, they’ve recently come to blows.”
“So?”
“She asked us to stop them.”
“…You’re sending a Master just to break up a fight?”
“It’s precisely because it’s just breaking up a fight that we’re sending a Master.”
When Kail questioned this logic, Bellion launched into an explanation about complex political dynamics.
“It shows she has so much leeway that she can afford to send a Master for such trivial matters. It’s a show of power to her vassals.”
“But I’m not even directly under her command.”
“The underlings don’t need to know that. Just knowing she can mobilize a Master will make people tremble in fear.”
So basically, two houses with maybe a few Experts between them were fighting, and they were sending a Master to stop it.
It’d be like sending the U.S. military to intervene in a tribal conflict in South Sudan.
Obviously an overkill force projection, but the Princess seemed unconcerned.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Great, Kail. Let me inform them… ”
“But there’s one problem.”
At Kail’s words, Bellion stopped and looked at him, wondering if he’d sustained some injury during their earlier sparring session.
However, the problem Kail mentioned was rather trivial.
“If I do this, I’ll miss Academy tomorrow?”
“…I’ll handle it. We’ll count it as field training or something.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Watching Kail, a Master concerned about attendance, Bellion couldn’t help but chuckle.
* * *
The next day, Kail boarded the carriage prepared by the Princess. As befitting a vehicle used by the Empire’s highest elite, it was excessively luxurious.
The moment he stepped into the carriage, Kail locked eyes with Myungwol who was already inside.
“We meet again.”
“Are you coming too?”
“Yes, since the lady requested it.”
Myungwol gestured for Kail to sit down. As Kail took his seat across from him, he internally expressed his bewilderment.
‘Isn’t there some ancient god sealed there or something?’
Sending two Masters to stop a fight between a Baron and a Viscount household was excessive.
For a moment, Kail wondered if he was being tricked into some other mission.
But after brief consideration, he realized something:
‘Who cares.’
If he was being tricked? He could just not complete the mission and return. Or solve it and demand extra rewards from the Princess.
He had the power and authority to do so. Wasn’t he the youngest Master of the Earl family known as the Empire’s Sword? If the Princess was sane, she wouldn’t set a trap for him.
‘Is she really sending both of us for political reasons?’
Whatever power struggle was happening behind the scenes must be quite intense. Chuckling at the absurdity, Kail turned his gaze out the window and waited for the carriage to arrive.
The magic-powered mechanical horse-drawn carriage soon arrived at the contested border between the two territories.
As Kail stepped out of the carriage and surveyed the hundreds of soldiers glaring at each other with weapons drawn, he smirked.
“Quite a crowd.”
Kail contemplated how best to stop them while looking at Myungwol.
“Why are they fighting?”
“Don’t know.”
“What? The Princess’s personal guard knight doesn’t know?”
“No need to.”
Tch- Myungwol lightly lifted the scabbard at his waist and spoke.
“Stopping them is all that matters, isn’t it?”
And at that moment – Myungwol suddenly charged into the soldiers. As if waiting for this signal, both armies began rushing toward each other.
Watching Myungwol charge forward and the soldiers preparing to clash with him, Kail lightly tapped his feet.
Though Myungwol was charging fiercely, it seemed insufficient. After stomping the ground a few times, Kail activated his Aura and took to the sky.
BWOOSH-! Propelled by the recoil of his wildly erupting Aura, Kail shot forward faster than Myungwol who had charged ahead, dramatically landing between the armies.
“WAAAH-!?”
“H, human falling from the sky-!”
“T, take aim first!”
Arrows and magic flew toward Kail as he crashed into the ground. Impressed by their continued attacks despite his flashy entrance, Kail drew his sword.
Drawing an Aura Blade barehanded was too resource-intensive. After all, testers aim for maximum efficiency with minimal resources.
About 1cm of Aura Blade enveloped Kail’s drawn sword. At a glance, its presence was barely noticeable.
However, regardless of its size or length, the Aura Blade was inherently a blade of authority.
SHWING-!
“…Magic?”
“He just cut through arrows?”
“Aura Blade…”
Kail, wielding a single shining sword, cut through magic and arrows.
Even in a medieval fantasy setting with strict information control, everyone recognized the owner of the glowing blade.
Aura Master.
A superhuman who could take on an army with a single sword.
Faced with the presence of an absolute being no mere soldier could oppose, the troops immediately halted.
“You’re slow.”
“Unbelievably fast.”
“Well, that’s not important.”
Kail addressed both armies:
“I need to know which side is which…”
Hearing Kail’s words, the knights commanding these forces rushed forward, realizing this wasn’t a normal situation with a Master personally intervening.
The knights stood before Kail in attention and shouted:
“Knight Melatrin of Peoni Viscountcy…”
“I am Height, sword of Azral Baron!”
“Are you the commanders here?”
“Yes, we are!”
“Good.”
Kail presented the decree he received from the Princess to both commanders.
“Both units, disband.”
Immediately.
* * *
Despite receiving Kail’s decree, both units only retreated slightly, maintaining their distance while continuing to glare at each other.
Seeing no sign of resolution despite presenting a royal decree, Kail gathered both commanders for a meeting.
“So, why are you fighting?”
“…They’re at fault.”
“Yes, but why?”
Exasperated by Knight Melatrin of Peoni Viscountcy’s response, Kail sighed deeply and ordered a detailed explanation.
After briefly collecting his thoughts, Melatrin explained their grievances:
“There’s a large river upstream from this territory. Our domain uses that waterway for agriculture.”
However, a recent sudden earthquake changed the river’s course to flow through Azral Barony instead.
Unable to supply water, Peoni Viscountcy made various efforts to reclaim the waterway.
They negotiated with Azral Baron and began construction to create a new channel to restore the original flow.
During this process, they discovered that Azral Barony had “preemptively” created a waterway.
“Before the earthquake changed the river’s course, there were signs that Azral Barony had already created a channel as if they knew beforehand.”
“Nonsense! It naturally formed due to the earthquake!”
“Bullshit! How does such a channel form naturally!?”
Knight Height of Azral Baron’s side shouted back in response to Melatrin’s statement. They claimed it never happened; everything was fabricated.
Listening to both sides, Kail sighed deeply. He was accustomed to dealing with dragon worshippers terrorizing Academies, international terrorists, or demons resurrected by black mages.
Handling such significant matters, he found himself perplexed by this trivial political issue with no clear solution.
‘It’s not something that can be resolved with simple swordplay…’
He assumed both parties understood this fact, but apparently not. The verbal argument escalated until, in the brief moment Kail sighed, both men drew weapons and stabbed each other.
FWOOP-!
“…Huh?”
Too quick for Kail to intervene, the two men simultaneously thrust daggers into each other’s vital points, resulting in mutual destruction.
“What the…”
Had they attacked him, he could have blocked or dodged, but they completely ignored him while stabbing each other, leaving him unable to react.
Kail watched the flowing blood and sighed deeply.
Something was unfolding.
