Chapter 48
I can feel nothing and think of nothing.
It feels like sinking into a deep sea filled with nothing but darkness.
‘Where am I…? Why am I here? I…’
I… What was I?
A person who has lost himself can do nothing.
It’s no different from being dead.
Without memories, emotions, or anything else, he can do nothing—and that’s no different from death.
In that deep sea of death, Luke found a path.
A dark, reproachful, unpleasant path.
And yet, he could feel it. If he crossed that path, he could find peace, with even the last handful of himself gone.
When he came to his senses, his body was already heading there.
Whatever lay beyond that path, at least he would be at peace now.
But…
‘Was it really… all right to do that?’
-Halt!
Just before crossing the path, Luke’s legs stopped. He longed for rest, yet felt he mustn’t seek it now.
There was something he had to do.
He’d already forgotten what it was, but it was something he mustn’t abandon.
Hadn’t I… lived for his sake?
My family. My friends. The citizens. I’d taken up my sword for their sake, so what the hell was I doing now, looking so pathetic?!
-Flash!
At some point, a shining sword had appeared in Luke’s hand.
It was a deep golden yellow, unlike Ian’s brilliant golden light.
A sword imbued with the power to cut through anything appeared before the last remnant of Luke’s self.
‘…I’ve slept too long.’
It was time to wake up.
…
“Aha-ha-ha! Is that it already?”
‘Purity’ couldn’t hide her laughter as she looked at Luke lying before her.
‘Swordmaster or not, the impure are so weak. A little tinkering with their memories, and they lose the will to fight right away!’
Luke had lost his memories and emotions. In this state, he couldn’t do anything.
He had no awareness that he needed to do anything, and no emotions to drive him to act.
“Heehee. ‘Mercy’ must be done by now, too. I should hurry and join…”
-Tap
“…What?”
“Swooo…”
Luke, who’d been lying motionless just moments ago, was getting back up.
“What? He should’ve lost all his memories and emotions!”
Losing one’s memories and emotions was no different from death, and Luke moving now was no different from a corpse moving.
‘But how…!’
“Hmm…”
Luke picked up his sword, pointed it at ‘Purity,’ and slowly opened his eyes.
“This is… a truly awful feeling. Dying, that is. No, I suppose I didn’t actually die.”
“Who are you?! How are you moving?! I erased everything!”
At ‘Purity’s’ horrified question, Luke gave a faint smile and replied,
“Simple. I cut through your power, the one that was stealing my memories and emotions. It was pretty tenacious, but there’s nothing I can’t cut.”
“What?!”
Luke said it lightly, as if it were nothing, but his words were anything but.
If he’d cut through her power, that meant ‘Purity’s’ ability no longer worked on him.
Luke’s innate ability was Severance: the power to cut through anything he wished. In the deep sea where he’d forgotten everything, Luke had cut through the path to oblivion.
And with it, everything he’d lost came back.
“You… cut through my power? What the hell are you talking about?!”
“Who knows… I tried it, and it worked. You don’t stand a chance now. Just die quietly.”
“Bullshit!”
‘Purity’ swung her dagger, but it had no effect on Luke now that he was back to his senses.
-Shing
Instead, Luke’s blade sliced through the dagger.
“Huh?”
“What a flimsy dagger. You thought you could take me on with something like that?”
“Don’t mess with me! It’s made of mithril! It shouldn’t break this easily! Die!”
‘Purity’ threw the dagger and tried to run, but Luke paid no mind.
He simply took a stance,
“Don’t come any closer… I said don’t come any closer!”
and swung his sword.
“Hup!”
-Whoosh!
A horizontal slash.
It was a simple sideways cut, with neither power nor finesse, but its aftermath was anything but simple.
-Shing
“Huh?”
‘Purity’s’ neck was severed, though the distance between them had been considerable.
As if her head had no right to remain attached to her neck—or as if it had never been attached at all.
‘Purity’ died without a final word, leaving behind only one last gasp.
…
“Aaaah!”
“Get back here!”
We caught Mercy as he tried to run and beat him like a dog.
Just enough to leave him right on the brink of death.
“Plia. Should I kill him?”
“I wouldn’t mind, but… let’s keep him alive for now. We might be able to get information out of him.”
“Got it.”
When ‘Mercy’ was foaming at the mouth and about to pass out, Ian spoke to me.
I really wanted to kill him, but I had no choice.
“Anyway…”
What should we do with him?
Even if we kept him alive, we couldn’t just leave him tied up.
He’d try to escape with his power somehow. But we couldn’t keep an eye on him twenty-four hours a day…
“…Should we take him to Uncle Luke for now?”
“That sounds good.”
Uncle Luke was the Imperial Knights’ commander, so he’d know what to do.
“Uncle Luke should be done by now, too, right?”
“Probably?”
Of course, we knew Uncle Luke was fighting.
We could sense a battle at the academy. They’d probably attacked Uncle Luke to keep him occupied while Mercy tried to kill us…
Hah. We won, though. What an idiot.
…
“Uncle Luke! You’re pretty badly hurt.”
“Well, this is embarrassing. Is the guy you’re dragging along with you from the Baekcheon Church?”
“Yeah.”
As we dragged ‘Mercy’ over to Uncle Luke, we found that he was much more badly injured than I’d expected.
And there was a dead woman beside him, too.
Was she a big shot like ‘Mercy’?”
“Who’s this corpse?”
“She said she was ‘Purity.’”
“I see.”
Judging by Uncle Luke’s wounds, she must’ve been pretty strong, too.
That’s why powers are so busted.
They’re hard to obtain, but once you get one, they make you much stronger without much training… Of course, every now and then, someone with a power trains hard and reaches Master rank.
The Hero, for example—Ian’s father.
The Hero inherits the ‘Hero’s power’ from generation to generation. It has things like an inventory, enhanced growth, bonus damage against demons, and so on.
Basically, you can think of it as a power with every ability you’d expect a hero to have.
But Ian’s father, the current Hero, has the Hero’s power and, through sheer talent and insane hard work, reached Swordmaster—and even Grand Swordmaster.
In most cases, an innate ability is inferior to a power, if you compare the two.
Even my ice ability probably couldn’t hold a candle to the true power of ice.
But when you become a Grandmaster, your innate ability evolves into a power.
And not just any power, but a top-tier one.
Of course, becoming a Grandmaster is so difficult that one might appear only once every few hundred years, or even a thousand.
…So what the hell is going on now, with two Grandmasters around?
Anyway, I set that aside and checked Uncle Luke’s wounds.
“So, Uncle Luke. Are your wounds doing okay? They look pretty serious.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. This is nothing.”
He said that, but his wounds looked pretty bad. There was even a hole in his stomach, like he’d been stabbed.
It was impressive that he could move around normally after taking a wound like that.
“Still, you need to get proper treatment, okay?”
“All right.”
He was definitely going to give himself first aid and leave it at that.
He’d say it was nothing.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Hup!”
“Guh?! What the—!”
“What do you think? Transportation.”
I picked Uncle Luke up. Just hoisted him right over my head.
“…Plia? Is that really necessary?”
“Yeah. Ian, hurry and come along. Bring that one.”
“Hey, you! Put me down right now!”
Uncle Luke yelled at me to put him down, but I ignored him and headed for the infirmary.
There was a high-ranking cleric waiting at the academy infirmary, so a stab wound like this would be easy to treat.
Men, always unwilling to go even that short distance…
“Put me down!!”
“Bleh.”
I ignored Uncle Luke as he kept yelling and went to the infirmary. The cleric who’d treated Ian last time was tending to another student.
“Welcome. I’m treating another patient right now, so please wait a moment… What is that?”
“An emergency patient.”
The cleric stared in shock at Uncle Luke, who was being carried overhead, and spoke.
I guess I would’ve reacted the same way.
“He may look like this, but he’s pretty seriously injured. Could you treat him quickly?”
“Oh, yes. Please lie down on the bed… What’s that hole in your stomach?!”
That’s what I’ve been saying—he’s an emergency patient.
For the record, Uncle Luke had gone quiet a while ago.
His face was deathly pale… like he’d just had a brutal reality check.
“Why am I being carried by a little kid…?”
Well, maybe you should’ve inspired a little confidence.
…
“Hey, Plia. What do we do about this?”
“What do you mean…? Oh.”
For the record, we’d left ‘Purity’s’ corpse and ‘Mercy’ with the guards.
They were members of the Imperial Knights, after all, so they knew how to handle this kind of thing.
I had no idea they had handcuffs that could suppress powers. It wasn’t even an item in the game.
It was probably made after the Demon King was defeated.
Good thing, then.