Chapter 104
“I’m done.”
A few more days passed, and I succeeded in finishing the novel.
There had been a small hiccup, but it hadn’t caused any problems with writing.
If anything, it had helped.
A kind of recovery from fatigue different from eating well and resting, or from receiving a priest’s blessing.
My head cleared, my body grew lighter. Negative emotions vanished completely.
My depleted vitality surged back to life.
‘So this is what a beauty’s embrace feels like….’
It was truly terrifying.
It held a devilish power.
“Good job. I’ll read it and tell you what I think.”
Aurora took the manuscript and stroked my head.
Ever since I’d added another embarrassing episode to my dark history last time, she’d been taking much better care of me.
Had her maternal instincts kicked in?
Maybe it was because she thought of her younger sibling, Aither.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. It was far better than being tormented.
“Ugh, you idiot, Grand Duke. You should’ve been nicer from the start.”
Aurora sat on the sofa reading the manuscript. She was deeply absorbed in it.
It looked like it would take quite a while to read all of it.
“Your Highness, may I go for a short walk? My back’s gotten stiff from sitting so long.”
“Sure. But you know you’re not allowed to leave the princess’s palace, right?”
“Nyeh.”
Since sitting still was boring, I stood up and left the study.
Life in the princess’s palace was good enough that my initial worries had proven unnecessary.
There was no way a place where the princess lived would have anything as hideous as a prison, and there wasn’t even a stable for slaves.
As a result, the private room assigned to me was far too luxurious for a mere slave, for a mere criminal.
The same went for meals.
Thanks to Aurora’s insistence that I needed to eat well to write, I got meals on about the same level as hers.
In terms of the necessities of daily life, it was better than living in the duke’s estate.
But there were definite inconveniences too.
To go anywhere, I had to get Aurora’s permission, just like now. Even when I needed to use the bathroom.
Aurora was quite displeased whenever I disappeared from her sight.
It wasn’t quite like a yandere girlfriend obsessing over her boyfriend……
She was probably worried that if I vanished, she wouldn’t get to read the rest of the story.
‘It wasn’t meant to be used as reference material back then.’
I never expected her to cling to it this much.
Wouldn’t this be exactly how it feels to catch the one-shot villain who writes only chapter 1 and never chapter 2?
Still, now that the novel was finished today, her obsession would lessen too.
“Phew. The air’s nice.”
I arrived in the front courtyard.
I took a deep breath.
Since I spent so much time sitting and writing, I had to loosen up like this. That was how I’d live a long life.
And health aside, at my core, I was closer to a swordsman.
‘I can’t afford to get lazy.’
If I didn’t train, my movements would grow sluggish when it came time to fight.
I couldn’t settle for comfort in reality. I never knew when or what kind of situation would come. I had to protect my own body.
“Let’s see…….”
I looked around on the ground and picked up a wooden stick of just the right thickness and length.
The sword I’d been using had broken in that battle. I asked for a new one, but they flatly refused.
So I was swinging a wooden stick instead of a sword.
“As expected, it feels better when I’ve got something in my hand.”
It couldn’t completely replace a sword, but it was better than having nothing at all.
I began to concentrate.
‘This is a sword.’
I erased the branch’s identity and overlaid the sensation of a sword upon it.
As my consciousness sank, my breathing grew faint and the noise around me receded into the distance.
Only the flow of the air settled clearly upon my skin.
-Rustle.
Overhead, a leafy branch swayed in the wind.
A single leaf fell.
Its falling path wavered irregularly, riding the texture of the wind.
In that instant, I moved my limp right arm.
-Slice.
A soft cutting sound.
The thing I had swung was a wooden stick, but the trajectory carved into the air was no different from that of a razor-sharp sword.
-Swish.
The leaf split neatly into two and fell, side by side, to the dirt floor.
“It’s working.”
The strategy I had chosen to compensate for [Supreme Swordsmanship]’s weakness.
Self-suggestion that recognized everything in my hand as a sword.
Just as I could draw sword aura by setting the edge of my hand straight, it was possible to use a branch like a sword as well.
I swung the stick repeatedly, sharpening my senses.
My movements weren’t awkward.
The effort I’d put in all this time was by no means so slight that a short break would dull my sword.
But it was clearly different from before.
‘I’ve gotten weaker.’
As my master changed and my role changed, the skills that had existed because I was a guard knight disappeared.
My physical abilities had fallen that much.
At this level, it was impossible to put out the same performance as before.
‘I need to train harder.’
The only thing I could do was hone my swordsmanship even further.
I made up for my lowered physical stats with swordsmanship.
Fighting the Imperial Knights, I felt my limits acutely.
When facing multiple opponents, especially in situations where I had to protect someone, relying solely on a sword to hold them off came with clear limitations.
Because the moment you swing a sword, blind spots are inevitable.
Not only did I have to worry about the person behind me, but the instant I made a move, they’d try to exploit that opening.
In that case.
‘Then I just wouldn’t swing a sword.’
Then I wouldn’t be constrained by space, and my movements wouldn’t create openings.
I held my breath.
I discarded the branch in my hand without hesitation.
If I didn’t need to be bound to a physical form—if the edge of my hand could become a sword, and a branch could become a sword too.
‘Couldn’t even air become a sword?’
It had no form, but if I planted the suggestion and recognized it as a sword, I could handle it like one.
The faint currents of air swirling around me.
I gathered up that flow.
I imbued it with sharpness.
I suggested to myself that it was a sword.
And then I pulled the blind faith etched into my mind into reality.
Where my gaze landed.
A branch stretching out a little way off.
‘Cut.’
I didn’t move a single finger.
I didn’t take a step.
There was no warning at all.
I simply drew the trajectory of the slash clearly in my mind.
-Whoosh!
The cutting sound split the air.
A tiny gouge appeared on the branch. The leaves trembled.
“It works.”
I quietly looked down at my two limp hands.
My body still hadn’t moved.
Even so, the sensation of swinging a sword remained vivid.
A sword technique that forges slashes out of nothing but will, unbound by physical form.
The ultimate sword aura, with no openings because it isn’t swung and no visible trajectory to read.
Formless Sword (無形劍).
It’s a sword technique that appears more often in wuxia than fantasy; literally, it’s a kind of sword art.
At my level, where I could handle any sword freely and naturally, I could manage Formless Sword as well.
With this, I wouldn’t be bound by space, and I wouldn’t leave any openings.
‘But I’m still far from ready.’
The awareness lingering in a corner of my subconscious weakened the suggestion.
And because it had no shape, it was hard to gauge the attack’s range.
The disappearance of physical trajectory and limitations also meant that, the moment I made even a slight mistake, sword strikes could spray wildly in all directions regardless of my intent.
At this rate, I could never use it in real combat.
‘More delicate. More precise.’
With the thought that I was the sword.
Again.
***
-Rustle.
She turned the page.
A blank white page.
The End etched in the center.
The words marking the novel’s conclusion greeted Aurora.
Aurora slowly closed her eyes and steadied her shallow breathing.
“Haa…….”
A long, hot breath escaped slowly between her lips.
Even though she had clearly reached the ending, the lingering echo of the story had not scattered at all.
Her body trembled faintly from the lingering aftertaste that refused to fade.
A heaviness at the fact that one world had finally come to an end.
The fullness and thrill that a clean ending gave her.
It always felt good.
It was a little regrettable, but that bittersweet feeling was part of what made novels so enjoyable.
Aurora tidied up the manuscript.
She rang the bell.
-Ding-a-ling~
Soon, the chief steward entered.
“You called for me, Your Highness.”
“It’s the finished manuscript. Make two copies, keep one, and send one to the marchioness.”
“Understood.”
“Handle it as if your life depends on it.”
The chief steward carefully lifted the manuscript and left.
Marchioness Chandler, a major figure in high society and a member of the salon.
Her natal family headed the Silver Feather Merchant Guild, which, backed by the continent’s largest paper industry, all but monopolized book publishing and distribution.
The reason the manuscript had been sent to the marchioness was to turn it into a book and sell it across the entire empire.
The author, of course, was Aurora.
If it was a novel written by an imperial princess, it would fly off the shelves at a terrifying speed.
Her status itself was marketing.
The empire’s people would naturally go wild after reading this novel. Aurora was certain of it.
The vast wealth, honor, and readers’ praise that would pour down because of it.
All those sweet fruits would belong entirely to Aurora.
“Heh-heh.”
Just imagining it was thrilling.
A laugh escaped her naturally.
I should share this joy with Leon too.
Aurora came out to the front courtyard, where Leon was.
She could see Leon sitting cross-legged beside the tree, meditating.
“Leon?”
Leon sat quietly meditating with his eyes closed.
Leaves fluttered down over his head.
The leaves drifting in the air were suddenly cut in half.
‘What is he doing?’
Anyone versed in the sword would have fainted at that sight, but Aurora was clueless about swords.
Even watching it, she felt nothing in particular.
She simply considered it a strange phenomenon.
More important than that was sharing her thoughts with Leon right away.
“Leon. What are you doing, looking so gloomy?”
The moment her bright voice rang out once more.
The chilly current that had tightly enclosed Leon’s surroundings unraveled in an instant with a pitiful pop.
His closed eyes slowly opened.
“……I was getting some fresh air.”
Leon gave off a subtly displeased air at having his concentration broken, but Aurora had no time to notice it.
“I finished the novel. It really was incredibly fun, just as expected.”
“I’m glad.”
“I’m going to copy the manuscript and send it to the marchioness. Once it rides on a major guild’s distribution network, it’ll be formally published in no time.”
“Understood.”
“If it goes well… no, it’ll definitely go well. I’ll give you a reward too, so think ahead about anything you want, okay?”
After that, everything moved along without a hitch.
Backed by the marchioness’s full support and riding a major guild’s distribution network, the novel spread across the empire in an instant.
A romance novel personally written by the Empire’s First Princess.
Although it was her first officially published work, the imperial princess title was enough to spark everyone’s curiosity, regardless of status.
The books displayed in bookstores sold out at a frightening speed.
The result was a huge success.
An explosive plot that barreled ahead without pause and an emotional arc that rose and fell like a roller coaster.
With its addictive pull that wouldn’t let go once it had you, readers had no choice but to go wild for it.
Its impact easily shattered the publishing industry’s sales records.
But there was one problem.
The heroine Isabella’s path—enduring absurd oppression in silence until she could bear it no longer, then boldly declaring a divorce and leaving to reclaim her life.
On top of that, the effect of Leon’s <Worldview Synchronization> skill gave readers the immersive feeling that they had become the protagonist in the story.
It ended up planting an uncontrollable spark in the hearts of countless women suffering through loveless marriages.
Yes.
Divorce cases within the empire skyrocketed.