Chapter 126

Chapter 126 – End of Arc 5

“This is…” An incredible power surged in Wynn’s mind. His senses sharpened and he could feel every movement of the air around him, every grain of dust in the wind. A sense of omnipotence. In short, that’s what it could be called.

“Is that concession magic? But if it were…” When Liara saw Wynn and Leticia enveloped in a golden glow, she muttered in disbelief. “If that’s Concession Magic, why wasn’t the effect dampened…?”

Liara didn’t know.

“Hey, do you remember? When I was a child. The first time we met Ifelina. When I cast a spell on Onii-chan.

Once, when she was just a child, Leticia used “body strengthening magic” on Wynn. It was during a battle to save a winged girl named Ifelina, when Wynn fought a demon with great power. The demon named Veldaroth overwhelmed the knights and mages of the empire, as well as adventurers such as Oort, Louis and Eliza. At that time, Leticia imitated and improved the body strengthening magic used by the knights fighting the demons and the granting magic of Raymond, the mage son of Reynard himself, forcing the composition of the magic to be changed to be more effective only on Wynn. Wynn’s body, which had been strengthened by Leticia’s magic and had defeated Veldaroth, had been shrouded in a golden glow then, just as it was now.

“Yes, I remember.”

“Since that time, I have always thought this. To me, the ‘strongest’ has never been a knight. Neither have the heroes of stories. Not even a Sword Saint, or the Sword Crafter, or a Sword God. To me, there is only one person who can surpass them all: Wynn Bird. That is what I have always thought.” Said Leticia and took a step away from Wynn.  And then she turned to Reynard, who was watching the proceedings with a questioning look. “Reynard. It is not I, but my beloved Wynn who will take care of you from now on. It was my master’s sword that brought light to a young me trapped in deep darkness. You should try it. He is the only person in the world who has reminded me that I cannot always win.” With that, Leticia leapt down from the top of the altar. Then she came to Liara’s side.

“Letty…”

“Letty-chan.” Abel was immensely surprised by the great show Leticia had created.

The right arm holding Leticia’s sword was broken and swollen. Liara immediately looked at Leticia to cast “healing magic” on her, and then she realized.

“Are you connected to Wynn-kun with magic? No, rather, are you still giving him of your power?”

“Did you notice?” Leticia smiled happily, though it shouldn’t be an easy thing to bear. “I kissed him because he was confused. Because of that, I was able to further strengthen my connection with him. It made it easier for me to channel my magic.”

“But it also made your ability to heal yourself greatly impaired.”

“I don’t care. If Onii-chan can’t win, I don’t think anyone else can either. After all, even if I’m hurt like this, Liara, you can still heal me, right?”

“That’s true, but…” Liara let out a small sigh and lightly tapped Leticia on the head, “Your magic power is incomparable to mine in quantity, so the effect of healing magic will be weak. It’s a wound that on others would heal in an instant, but you will have to endure the pain for a while.

“I understand.”

After saying that, Liara started casting “Healing Magic” on Leticia’s right arm.

“You know what, Letty-chan…?”

“What’s wrong?”

Abel moved his eyes from side to side as if he didn’t know what to do, and then looked her in the face when he seemed to have made up his mind.

“I can’t believe I’m asking this now, but Letty-chan, are you the Brave?”

“Yes… well, that’s what they call me.”

“Really… how come I didn’t know…?”

“Well, I don’t go around shouting it, so I guess some people wouldn’t know, would they? But all the veterans in the adventurer’s guild knows it.”

“Are you serious!?”

Abel said quietly, “Damn them,” and then coughed a little. And then he asked Leticia fearfully.

“You know… with that “my beloved Wynn” thing you said before, well… Letty-chan likes Wynn?”

“Yes.” Leticia nodded with an embarrassed smile.

“I see… I see. If so, even more so, Wynn can’t lose.”

“Huh?”

“The girl he likes even kissed him and encouraged him.  Wouldn’t it be a shame if, as a man, he lost after that?” Said Abel, and sat down on the spot. “I think Wynn will win. He is strong. You may have forgotten, but I became an adventurer because I admired Wynn’s desire to become a knight.”

Between two of Wynn’s childhood friends, who were staring at him, Liara was still silently casting her “healing magic” on Leticia’s arm. There was a faint smile on her lips.

“Tch, damn the Brave, you’ve got to be kidding me. Well, whatever. If I kill you quickly, I can probably fight her being furious. That’ll be fun. So, I’ll let you die quickly.”

The words and actions provoked Leticia, who had come down from the altar. And as if to invite Wynn to attack, he deliberately did not hold the halberd and showed an opening, but contrary to Reynard’s intentions, Wynn did not move. He was holding his sword in his right hand, just like Leticia a moment ago.

“Tch, tch, tch. If you don’t move, then I’ll go for you. You don’t seem to use magic. So, how about this?” Reynard said, creating and releasing countless bullets of red light. The red lights deflected and nearly pierced Wynn’s body. They struck in the back behind the boy. “What?”

The red light bullets fell, and a series of explosions were heard. But Wynn ignored them, and Mito-Reynard stared at him with a smile.

“So, how about this?” Mito-Reynard increased the number of red light bullets. There were probably dozens of them. And with a trail of red light, they attacked Wynn at several times the speed of the previous red light bullets. But… they also landed behind Wynn, only to spread destruction with an explosion.

“I see. Letty was fighting at a level like this.”

Mixed in with the sound of the explosion, Reynard’s ears heard Wynn’s monologue.

“Tch, what are you talking about?”

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all, Letty.”

“You… are you ignoring me?!” Reynard fired a series of red light bullets. However, they all landed behind Wynn. “Why… why aren’t they hitting you?”

It wasn’t that Reynard was missing. All of the red light bullets were dodged by Wynn with the slightest movement. Even before that, the Divine Sword Princess was able to dodge Reynard’s attacks, which she sometimes deflected with her sword and sometimes blocked with her magically created shield. When Reynard realized this fact, the experience of Mito, the Sword Crafter in Reynard’s mind, rang an alarm bell: ‘Don’t let him get too close with his sword! Keep your distance and fight!’.

What the hell is this guy?!

The red light bullets failed to hit him. Next, he created a large number of stone spears from the ground, of which even hit and wounded Leticia, and rained stone arrows from the ceiling. Wynn did not even look at the sharp stone spears attacking from his feet or the stone arrows raining down from above his vision. From the very beginning, as if he knew where the spears would appear and where the arrows would fall, he dodged them by moving only half a step at a time.

Wynn’s nerves were incredibly sharp. His senses could perceive the slightest change in the floor or ceiling, and even the movement of the air. In fact, he could even pick up the movement of Reynard’s magic power.

“Eei! Take this!” Reynard raised his halberd, as if he had finally decided to fight for real.

In fact, for Wynn, it was more threatening to fight against Mito’s techniques. Because, indeed, Reynard outmatched Leticia with his mage techniques. But that was because Leticia did not have great specialized knowledge of magic. In terms of the number of techniques she could use, she was no match for Reynard, a lifelong mage. But Reynard was a mage who couldn’t even make it as a court mage.

Although he had more magical attacks than Wynn and Leticia, his base was still shallow. On the other hand, Mito’s martial skills had reached a supreme level. His skills, which had been developed through over a hundred years of training, could not be underestimated. In fact, only after Reynard killed Mito and took away his body and experience, Leticia was overwhelmed.

The mere mage Reynard, even if he had the power of a god, could not defeat Leticia. Naturally, he would be no match for Wynn either. That was why the Mito’s martial arts, the Sword Crafter, had to be a threat, but Wynn had seen his abilities once. He had watched him all the time. He had seen Leticia’s entire battle with Reynard. Wynn couldn’t take his eyes off the woman he loved so much when she was hurt.

Reynard’s halberd roared through the air, and as it approached Wynn’s head, Reynard spun and half-turned his body and threw a blow with the other end backwards at Wynn. Wynn read the attack perfectly and dodged it without letting it touch his body.

I’ve seen that technique before.

He calmly received, dodged and ducked Reynard’s attacks one after another. And then, he switched to attacking with his sword. Reynard used the hilt of his halberd to block Wynn’s attacks and tried to keep his distance. But Wynn would not let that happen. From the movement of Mito’s eyes and the momentary tension in his muscles, he knew what Mito would do. He would not allow Mito-Reynard to expand the gap. Slowly he cornered him. And then…

With a thud, Reynard was cornered against the wall. He could no longer retreat.

“Who the fuck are you?! Answer me!”

As Reynard’s eyes widened in astonishment and perhaps fear, Wynn answered him.

“Didn’t Brave Letty just say so? I am the Master of the Brave.” Then, with all his strength, Wynn channeled his magic into his sword and pierced Reynard’s body with a golden blade that shone like the sun.

“You did it, Onii-chan.”

“You did it, Wynn.”

“Y-yes.”

Leticia, Abel and Liara approached.

“But, Mito-san…” As he answered the three, Wynn kept looking at Mito’s corpse, whose crimson glow was fading.

Not that Wynn had killed him. The magic Reynard had unleashed had pierced Mito’s heart and killed him. And when Wynn stabbed him, he had effectively already died.

However, there was one thing Wynn wondered about. And that was about Reynard’s martial skills. Even if he had taken over the body through magic, could a mere mage use the experience and skills engraved on the body? He wondered if Reynard’s body could also contain Mito’s consciousness.

For decades, Mito had been in the position of Sword Crafter. When he was young and in his prime, the Sword Saint was nowhere to be found, the Sword God was in the midst of a long war, and he was not blessed with any good opponents. Time passed inexorably, and old age likewise came to Mito. His body was past its prime when a new Sword Saint appeared on the scene, on equal footing with the Sword Crafter. He had wanted to use his well-honed skills to the fullest against a strong opponent. This was a warrior’s instinct. Wynn felt the same way. Mito was not blessed with strong opponents. He wondered how Mito felt as he watched his skills get duller and duller with age.

It was during this time that Mito met Leticia in the Majil Mountains. Leticia was a being the closest thing to a god, the Divine Sword Princess, and undoubtedly the strongest being in the world. He couldn’t help but want to fight her, could he? And Mito was surprised by Reynard. After that, Reynard infused him with the power of the God of Destruction, and his body regained its youth and was taken over by the evil mage.

But Wynn was still wondering. Mito had been the Sword Crafter for several decades. With his strong will and mental strength, he might have been able to stay with Reynard without losing consciousness. And then, after regaining his body at the peak of his powers, Mito could have manipulated Reynard’s consciousness and crossed swords with Leticia and Wynn, the powerful people he had longed for.

But Mito was dead. So, this was just Wynn’s imagination. But somehow Wynn’s imagination seemed to be right, and he looked at his right palm. The sensation of having cut Mito’s body still lingered in his hand. He would remember this sensation for the rest of his life. Mito’s technique was one of the best Wynn had ever seen.

“Well, let’s go home.” Wynn said, and picked up Mito’s corpse, not caring if blood stained him. He couldn’t leave him here. He decided to ask for a small plot of land on the cape and bury Mito’s body there. At that moment, a beautiful clear high-pitched sound rang out.

“Onii-chan, here.”

The golden seal that was tied to Mito’s waist was lying at his feet, a sign that he was the Sword Crafter. The golden seal seemed to be tied to the belt with a cord, but Wynn didn’t remember cutting Mito’s waist with his sword. But strangely, the cord was cut cleanly, as if it had been cut with a blade.

“I’m sure Mito-san would want to trust you with the proof of being the Sword Crafter.”

The golden seal he received from Leticia was made of pure gold and was heavy. But to Wynn, the golden seal seemed heavier than it was. It must have been the weight of the Sword Crafter title that Mito had been protecting.

I don’t think I’m the right person for the golden seal of the Sword Crafter, but I’ll take care of him for now. Will someone worthy of handing this golden seal over to them appear someday? Or will I myself acquire the ability to wear this golden seal?

And Wynn stood up.

“By the way, Letty.”

“What’s the matter, Onii-chan?”

“Oh, I thought you were supposed to call me Wynn from now on?”

Letty’s face flushed to her ears, and she kicked Wynn’s leg.

◇◆◇◆◇

After Wynn and the others left, there was nothing but silence and deep darkness again in the ocean floor room. Suddenly, a small light emerged. At first, the small light was no bigger than a candle flame, but in the blink of an eye, it grew and took the shape of a person. The face of the person, who was dressed in a large black cloak, which was too large for the size of his body, was almost exactly the same as Wynn.

The person who looked like Wynn, covered with a pale blue light, looked around thoughtfully for a moment and then began to walk slowly toward the passage that led outside.