/
Juan realized that ‘that time’ referred to when Gerard Gain had stabbed the emperor.
“So you weren’t certain, but still wanted to kill me. Why? Is it because I was worshiped like a god among the humans? That’s what Nienna told me—that your hatred of gods led to you developing a hatred for me as well.”
Juan recalled Nienna telling him about the theory that Barth is fine with dead gods, but not a living god.
In fact, Barth didn’t really care whether the people of the empire worshiped dead gods with indigenous faith. His hatred was only focused on living gods.
Barth snorted.
“I can’t say that it’s completely unrelated to that. However, if that was all, I might have just left your side in the first place, since there are still many gods to kill beyond the boundary and in the Crack. But…”
At that moment, Barth stopped—he seemed quite hesitant to continue answering.
“If I committed an injustice against you, don’t hide it and just tell me. Doesn’t a sinner deserve to know his sins?” Juan asked as if he was rushing Barth.
“...The biggest problem is that you didn’t do any injustice against me. You are innocent.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess you can be considered a sinner if being born into this world itself is counted as a sin. Your sin wasn’t committed by you—just like Gerard Gain.”
Juan couldn’t understand why Barth mentioned Gerard Gain’s name in this situation. He looked at Barth, expecting an answer, but Barth just shook his head.
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I respected and admired you, emperor. You’ve done me a great favor that I will never be able to repay you. But… you also gave me a reason that forced me to kill you. It’s probably for the best that you don’t know. Consider it my last act of loyalty toward you. I do want to kill you, but the loyalty I had given you wasn’t fake. Hah… It’s complicated to explain.”
Juan felt frustrated, since he couldn’t tell why an honest warrior like Barth had no choice but to feel complicated and hide the reason for his actions.
“I opened up the door for Gerard to enter the Imperial palace because I had no way of organizing my complicated mind back then. I guess that’s how I made up my mind. After all, I had known for a long time that Gerard was looking for an opportunity to kill you,” Barth said as he looked into Juan’s eyes.
“You knew that Gerard was trying to kill me? What was his reason?”
“It’s similar to my reason, but at the same time, it's completely different as well.”
“I have no intention of playing games with you!”
Barth laughed out in a low voice when Juan shouted in an angry voice.
“Anyway, I thought I had made up my mind by killing you through Gerard. But I guess I was wrong. Day by day, I grew older as I watched your worshippers ruin the empire that was established by you. And here I am, looking so old today. I actually didn’t have to live this long anyway.”
“So you’re planning to hide why you did what you did until the end?”
“That’s right, emperor. Do you want me to give you a hint if you are really that desperate? You would deny it, but you’re a god. You are a human god that humans have never had before in their history. That’s the reason why you’re cursed and that’s the reason why I want to kill you. Isn’t that enough?”
Juan sighed. It seemed like scolding Barth wouldn’t help to open his mouth. Instead, Juan chose another way to get an answer out of him.
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance you didn’t have forty-eight years ago.”
“A chance?”
“I’ll give you a chance to kill me today.”
Barth frowned, almost as if he couldn’t understand what Juan was talking about.
Juan twisted his lips and continued to speak.
“But, if you are unable to kill me, you lose. Then, you’ll have to tell me the whole truth.”
“Hah.”
Barth burst into laughter as if he was dumbfounded by Juan’s offer. A smile slowly spread over his face, and then eventually he laughed a laugh so loud that it echoed throughout the entire battlefield.
“What a ridiculous bet. I’ve already declared that I’m going to kill you. But you think you can just ask for something in return?”
Barth slammed his sword into the ground.
“Alright. I guess there’s really no reason for me to refuse your offer.”
Barth snapped his fingers and strode toward Juan.
For a moment, Juan felt like Barth had gotten much younger. His beard and the wrinkles on his face were still there, but his eyes were shining brightly like those of younger warriors.
Juan looked at Barth as if he was curious.
“I just told you that I will give you a chance to kill me. Why would you put down your weapon when…”
Juan couldn’t even finish his words.
Instead of answering Juan’s question, Barth Baltic just swung his fist as hard as he could. The moment Juan blocked Barth’s fist that was coming toward him, it felt like the thing he blocked wasn’t a fist but an iron club.
Juan quickly staggered back, his vision blurring for a moment. He realized that Barth really meant it when he said ‘I will kill you.’ Barth had swung his fist with all his might with the intention of killing Juan for real.
“Damn it. Why the hell were you even using a sword in the first place?”
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“Just because I had it with me,” Barth answered joyfully.
Barth once again swung his fist as Juan faltered and failed to reposition himself properly.
At that moment, Juan suddenly took a posture to dodge Barth’s attack and dug into the gap revealed by him to punch his chest, causing Barth to gasp for air and curl up in pain.
“I might be much smaller than you, but…”
Juan smirked.
“I had never been bigger or stronger even when I fought with gods.”
***
Bang!
Pavan remembered hearing this sound when he once destroyed the gates of a castle gate with the help of a siege weapon. However, there were no castle walls or siege weapons around—only a wide plain, countless soldiers, and two men who were clashing into each other with their flesh and blood body. Pavan couldn’t really figure out how such a sound could be made by the collision of bare fists.
It had been a long time since the sun went down. However, Pavan lit up the torch and instructed the soldiers to watch out so that they could be prepared to join the battle at any time. And the same was true of the emperor’s army.
However, the area around Juan and Barth was already bright even without a single torch around them.
Crack! Crack!
“I have no idea how that sound can even be made from two people bumping into each other… but I’m scared even more by the fact that they don’t seem to be the slightest bit tired even after facing each other’s attacks since earlier in the day,” Raul Riort, the elite knight of the Order of the Capital, muttered to himself.
“They might end up fighting forever if they are left alone,” Pavan answered with a sigh.
“What’s wrong with the Regent? I understand him charging at the front line, since everyone knows that no one can stop him, but dueling before the battle? With his bare hands, too?”
“The enemies are chasing the illusion called the emperor. Those people are only united under that illusion, so their unity might collapse quite easily if that illusion is destroyed. This whole thing won’t end with us just killing the army gathered around the Magic Tower—we might even have to deal with Nienna.”
Pavan came up with a reasonable answer, one which he had thought about for a long time on his own.
“Do you really think so?” Raul asked back with a frown.
“No. To be honest, it just seems like the Regent has gone crazy.”
“If the opponent has shaken the Regent in such a way and is powerful enough to be able to hold out against him… Hmm…”
Pavan knew what Raul meant to say. Most of the soldiers and knights probably had similar thoughts as well.
The legend of the emperor was often mentioned along with the legend of Barth Baltic. It was said that Barth Baltic was on par with the emperor when it came to strength, and was the most trusted comrade of the emperor.
There was only one person who could fight on the same level as Barth Baltic.
“Do you think the Regent will win?”
Raul asked as he tried to pretend to be calm.
However, Pavan didn’t know the answer to this question either.
Raul looked back at Pavan when he didn’t get an answer.
“If the Regent ends up being killed in action, you will naturally be assigned the next commander, Captain. If the time comes, you will have to command three hundred thousand Imperial troops, as well as one hundred sixty knights of the Order of the Capital. You should probably think about what decision you’re going to make in advance.”
Once again, Pavan didn’t answer Raul.
At that moment, raindrops started to fall from the sky. Pavan raised his hand as he looked up at the sky. The heat emanating from Juan and Barth’s fight was creating clouds in the sky. The clouds waved every time Juan wielded his sword, while a small cloud was wrapped around Barth whenever he swung his fist.
Pavan had a hunch that they were in for heavy rain.
***
Sutra’s fiery flames followed a chaotic trajectory in the dark.
Juan dug into Barth’s gap by performing the fourth stage of the Baltic Sword. Sutra’s flames spread around the surroundings like a fog made up of flames. The ruthless trajectory left by Fog Solution that penetrated the opponent was well-suited for the heat.
Barth looked as if he was about to be engulfed by a ball of flames. However, the fierce flames that had been pressuring Barth were blocked in just an instant.
Crash!
With a loud crashing sound, Juan realized that Sutra had been blocked by Barth’s counterattack.
Then, Barth swung his fist toward a small gap in Juan’s defenses created by him retrieving Sutra.
Juan blocked Barth’s attack with Sutra, but the shock of the attack penetrated Sutra and slammed against Juan.
“Keuk…”
It was said that among the martial arts of Hornsluine, there was a technique that penetrated the opponent’s outer defense and attacked their insides. Barth was using this technique with ease, almost as if he was simply breathing.
Hornsluine’s martial arts, which had a history of thousands of years, were holding out quite well against the Baltic Sword.
‘Even if I ignore his martial arts, I still can’t believe that he is blocking Sutra with just a bare fist.’
Juan almost felt as if he was clashing against a sword that was as powerful as Sutra, rather than bone and flesh.
Usually, the person holding a weapon was at an advantage over a person using their bare fists due to the distance between the two. However, Juan couldn’t get any of the advantages of using a sword, considering Barth’s huge size that was unique to the Hornsluine.
Juan inadvertently recalled ‘Magic Formations,’ a type of magic unique to the Hornsluine. Hornsluines were naturally a magic-resistant race that couldn’t directly use magic. Instead, they created a method to bring out magical effects through sculptures or architecture.
It was a dangerous magic because ordinary people might be caught up in the power, but it wasn’t a big deal to Hornsluines who had such a high magic resistance.
‘What if his body and skeleton have naturally become suitable for magic formations through more than one hundred years of training?’
Juan had never thought that such a thing was possible, but Barth’s strong body couldn’t really be explained otherwise. Juan also thought that perhaps his innate traits have helped the development of his body to some extent, since Barth was an unrivaled figure even among the Hornsluines.
‘He isn’t giving me the time to perform Instant Impermanent.’
Instant Impermanent, the fifth stage of the Baltic Sword, would still be a threat to Barth Baltic despite his power. However, its precursor movements were necessary in order to produce a magical effect with the Baltic Sword. Barth’s attacks were cleverly preventing Juan from making those precursor movements.
Barth Baltic was fighting like a fair-hearted simple warrior, but he was also a clever strategist at the same time.
“Are you planning to fight all night?”
Barth asked in a quiet voice as Juan stood in front of him as if he was measuring something.
It was true that Juan was injured by Barth’s attack which penetrated through Sutra. However, it wasn’t enough to bring him down.
“It is quite a bad look for me, since I’m fighting with a weapon, while you’re fighting with your bare fists.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little too late to say that? I prefer using bare hands to weapons. It’s better to use my bare hands to use all my skills anyway. And…” Barth continued to speak as he pointed to Sutra. “It seems that you haven’t even fully drawn out all the power from Sutra yet. As far as I know, Sutra doesn’t give off such red flames when you’re using it to fight. It seems like I’m not the only one who has gotten old, am I?”
Juan smiled bitterly. Sutra normally burned with white flames, just like it did when Juan successfully tamed it in front of Dane Dormund.
However, the current Sutra was only giving off a calm red flame.
“It’s such a difficult weapon to tame. It seems like my current condition is still insufficient to be able to properly use it,” Juan answered.
“That’s no better than me using my bare fists then.”
“Then I don’t have to feel guilty about using it.”
“You speak as if you’ve been going easy on me all this time.”
Juan smiled bitterly as he looked down at Sutra in his hand.
“You’re fighting with the intent to kill me, but I’m fighting to keep you alive and hear your answer.”
Barth lifted up the corners of his lips.
Suddenly, Juan felt as if Barth was moving faster than he was during the day.
And this wasn’t just an illusion. Some of Barth’s white hair had turned black here and there, and his wrinkles had shrunk as well.
“It seems like I’m at an advantage now. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to hear my answer if you end up dying.”