The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 997

 Chapter 997

 

“Ah….”

The first thing Merlin saw upon arriving at the village was Uncle Philip, who had always greeted her warmly, being stabbed by a blue blade.

Chwaaak!

Uncle Philip, who used to gently pat her head with his warm hands, collapsed to the ground clutching his pierced stomach, unable even to scream.

Puhhhk!

The knight who stabbed Uncle Philip didn’t look at him like a person. With cold eyes, as if dealing with an insect, he pulled out a pitch-black stake.

He pinned Uncle Philip’s hand to the ground with the stake.

“Guaaaaagh!”

Uncle Philip let out a scream, but the knight paid no attention and stood back up.

The knight immediately searched for his next prey, the child Uncle Philip had been protecting. He drove the same kind of rusted black stakes into the child’s hands and feet.

“Uwaaaaagh!”

Watching the child, who always teased and mocked her, scream and bleed from their limbs left Merlin in a daze.

The heat that enveloped the village, and the blood splattered on her own body, all felt like part of a dream.

Drip.

Unable to withstand the dizziness, Merlin fell to her knees. The scene of slaughter unfolding before her eyes was something her young self simply couldn’t bear.

Thudududuk.

The knight who had staked the child now turned to Merlin with a twisted smile, as if he had noticed her, and began to approach.

“Ah…”

As Merlin trembled, watching the knight’s thick hand descend toward her head—

Thud!

Aunt Merra shoved the knight away with her body and saved her.

“Ah… Auntie…”

“Run! Quickly! Go to Lady Sella!”

As she held the knight off, she waved her hand for Merlin to flee to Sella.

Slash!

But aunt Mella couldn’t block the blue light that burst from the knight’s sword and was cut in half.

Blood soaked the ground. Merlin had never imagined that so much blood could come from a person.

“Auntie…?”

She never imagined that aunt Mella, who always protected her from the teasing children and gave her dried fruit, dying with her legs severed.

“Hurry…”

Even in that moment, aunt Mella waved her hand, telling her to run, before drawing her final breath. Merlin had known what death was, but seeing it unfold before her own eyes made reality completely fall apart.

“You fool!”

Another knight furiously gestured toward the one who had killed aunt Merra.

“I told you not to kill them!”

He furrowed his brow, saying they were to capture them alive no matter what.

“S-sorry…”

“Hrgh!”

While the knight in front of her bowed his head, Merlin turned and ran deeper into the village.

After seeing aunt Merra die, only one name surfaced in her mind, Sella.

“Lady Sella!”

Calling out her name, Merlin ran toward the house, but all she saw around her were villagers impaled on stakes. It felt like she was standing in the middle of hell.

‘Wait…’

As she was running toward the house, Merlin suddenly stopped. From the center of the village, she felt a familiar mana wave.

‘It’s Lady Sella!’

There was no one else in the village who could wield such pure mana. It had to be her, fighting the knights.

‘Wait. Now that I think about it…’

Why isn’t anyone else using magic?

Mana was still flowing like usual, yet none of the others were casting spells. She couldn’t understand why.

‘No, there’s no time to think about that now.’

Merlin bit her lip and ran toward the source of Sella’s mana.

Crash!

Knights were flung away, their breastplates crushed as they hit the ground.

It was Sella. Using fire, frost, and telekinesis to protect the fallen villagers and push back the knights.

“Lady Sella!”

“Where were you!?”

Sella bit her trembling lips, saying she had been looking everywhere for her.

“Still, I’m glad you’re safe.”

Finally able to breathe again, she pulled Merlin into an embrace.

“I-I’m sorry…”

As Merlin sank into Sella’s warm embrace, the trembling of her heart calmed, as if everything that had just happened were a dream.

But this wasn’t a dream. The smell of burning and the stench of blood still lingered at the tip of her nose.

“Stay back for a moment.”

Sella gently pushed her behind and stood in front of the knights.

Kwa-dudududuk!

As she extended her hand, a chantless spell activated, crushing the oncoming knights and their swords.

Rumble!

The knights charging in from the right were blocked by flames, and those on the left were frozen in place, unable to move.

Despite being a mage, Sella alone held off dozens of knights, like an impregnable wall.

“Haaah…”

But even she seemed to be tiring. Her hand trembled as she wiped the cold sweat from her brow.

'For Lady Sella to be struggling like that...'

Among the Para, Sella possessed tremendous magical power. She could use magic all day without tiring, so why was she already drenched in cold sweat?

“Impressive.”

A middle-aged man, who appeared to be the knight commander, lifted his faceplate and nodded.

“If what the sage said is true, you shouldn’t be able to use magic at all. But to pull that off... as expected of a race that sold its soul to the demons. Beasts, the lot of you.”

He clicked his tongue, saying there was no choice but to accept the truth now.

“Demons? What nonsense are you spouting!”

Sella glared with wide-open eyes, gritting her teeth.

“We received intel that you Para are connected to demons. I was confused when given this mission… but now it makes sense.”

The knight commander nodded as if he could finally go all-out.

“It’s safe to treat you like monsters now.”

“Madness! You think we’ll sit still and offer our necks when you attack us like this?!”

Sella stomped the ground roughly, telling him to come to his senses.

“…Whatever happens doesn’t matter. A knight must obey their lord’s orders.”

The knight commander said refusal was not an option once the order was given, and pointed his sword at Sella.

“If you surrender quietly, we won’t kill you.”

“So this is how you act in the end. Deceitful scum.”

Sella bit her lip and brought her hands together. As her mana ground together like sandpaper, a massive explosion erupted in front of the knight commander.

Kuwaaaaang!

But even in the face of that powerful blast, the knight commander didn’t budge. He simply dusted off his scorched armor as if he had felt nothing.

“You resisted first, so I’ll strike hard as well.”

With a nod, the commander brought down his sword, and a crimson aura-coated gust of wind poured from the sky.

Jjeooooooong!

Sella compressed her mana into a barrier, but the knight commander’s strike was too powerful, and she was forced backward.

Two villagers she had been protecting rolled under the commander’s feet.

“So you’re the master of this village.”

The knight commander said she was clearly different and swung his sword down again. It seemed he intended to capture not only Sella, but every Para here.

Wuuuung!

Sella, seemingly out of strength to speak, gathered her mana like a mirror and blocked his successive strikes.

Her proficient combat showed that this wasn’t her first battle with knights.

Kyaaaaang!

She blocked not only the knight commander’s attacks but also the sword strikes from the other knights, protecting the villagers until the end.

“You’d better give up now.”

The knight commander shook his head as he placed his foot atop the heads of the fallen villagers at his feet.

“Not just you, they will get hurt too.”

“Don’t worry.”

Sella calmly shook her head and brought her hands together.

“No one else will be hurt now!”

As she spread her mana, a blue light swept over the entire village, and the bodies of the fallen villagers began to emit a soft glow.

“This is…”

The knight commander seemed to realize what she was trying to do and his jaw twitched.

“I’ll be the one to come for you next time.”

Sella bit her lip and activated a multi-target teleportation spell.

Wuuuuuung.

But just before the magic circle was completed, it lost its light and faded into nothingness.

“What?”

Sella exhaled in disbelief as she stared at her hands where the light had vanished, something she’d never imagined happening.

“The sage emphasized two things as most important when preparing for this mission.”

The knight commander raised a finger toward Sella.

“First, to block your magic. And second…”

He looked at the ground where the light had died and smirked.

“To completely block teleportation magic and scrolls.”

The knight commander shook his head, saying there was no way for them to escape.

“Ah…”

Sella bit her lip as she looked at the village, now once again in flames.

‘Damn it…’

She had barely managed to draw in external mana to activate the teleportation spell, but never expected it to fail so completely. It seemed there was a skilled sorcerer among those who planned the attack.

“Now it ends—”

Just as the knight commander was about to swing his sword down on the weakened Sella.

“Lady Sella!”

The villagers who had collapsed at his feet grabbed hold of his ankles.

“Run!”

“We’ll be fine!”

“These bastards won’t kill us!”

“Please, get away!”

The villagers shouted for her to escape, blocking the path of the knight commander and the other knights.

“You wretches!”

The knights trampled over the already wounded villagers with their feet and blades as they charged toward Sella.

“Ah…”

Looking between the collapsing villagers and Merlin trembling behind her, Sella seemed to come to a decision and leapt backward.

“I’m sorry. I will…”

With blue light wrapping around both herself and Merlin, Sella gave a firm nod.

“I’ll save all of you. I promise!”

Leaving those words behind, she vanished in a flash of light.

“Did she alter the spell mid-cast?”

The knight commander narrowed his eyes as he looked down at the ground, now frozen blue.

“They really are a dangerous race.”

With a chilling glare, he nodded as if vowing not to lower his guard again.

“Clean this up quickly!”

*   *   *

Fwoooosh!

When Merlin opened her eyes again, she found herself in a dim forest she didn’t recognize.

“Guh…”

Sella coughed up black blood, clearly having pushed herself too far.

“Lady Sella!”

Merlin trembled as she rushed to her side.

“A-Are you okay…?”

“Did I scare you?”

Sella smiled as if nothing had happened, trying to reassure her despite the blood.

“I-I’m fine. But Lady Sella, you…”

Merlin bit her lip as she looked at Sella, who couldn’t even lift her arm properly.

“I’m fine too. I just overdid it a little.”

Sella patted her on the back, telling her not to worry.

“But more importantly, we need to move.”

She struggled to stand on her weakened legs.

“Huh? Shouldn’t we rest first…?”

“Because I forced the teleportation spell to activate, there’s a high chance our location will be discovered. We need to get out of here first.”

Sella said that leaving this place came first, and began casting a spell to erase their traces. Now that they had escaped the magic-blocking array, she seemed to be slightly more at ease.

“Ah, okay.”

Merlin lowered her gaze and nodded. As she breathed in the quiet air, the villagers who had been captured by the knights came to mind, and her heart grew heavy.

“It’ll be alright.”

Sella embraced her and gave her a gentle smile.

“We’ll definitely see them again.”

She repeated those words, not to reassure Merlin, but as if vowing it to herself—that they would live together again.

“Let’s go.”

As if she had quickly composed herself, Sella took Merlin’s hand and began walking toward the distant lights of a village.

Behind the young pair, the blue moonlight shimmered faintly, like it was shedding tears.

*   *   *

“Indeed…”

The king nodded as he looked over the captured Para locked up in the palace dungeon.

“Their eyes are different. It really wouldn’t be wrong to call them monsters.”

He muttered monsters while looking at people, as if he had been brainwashed by the sage.

“We killed a few as a warning, but most of the villagers, no, the Para in the village, were captured alive.”

The knight commander nodded calmly as he looked at the people with stakes driven through their arms and legs.

“Hmm…”

The Sage narrowed his eyes as he examined the Para with ropes around their necks like slaves.

“By any chance, was there no blonde-haired, red-eyed woman who seemed to be the village’s leader?”

He gestured with his chin toward the knight commander.

“I was just about to report that to you.”

The commander bowed slightly to the Sage.

“There was indeed a woman among the Para, just as you described. She…”

He explained how Sella had rescued the villagers but ultimately escaped with only Merlin.

“Haah… That’s not good.”

The Sage shook his head, frowning.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The king’s chin trembled as he stepped closer to the Sage.

“The woman the commander failed to capture is the most important to us. She’s of Para royal blood.”

The sage shook his head again, saying they could have compensated for the lack of Para by using the blood of royalty, but now that opportunity had been lost.

“T-Then what are we supposed to do now?!”

The king flailed his arms, demanding an answer.

“No need to worry.”

The Sage calmly nodded.

“From what the commander told us, it sounds like she’ll come to us on her own.”

“Come on her own?”

The king blinked, confused.

“Yes. After all, we have a perfect bait right here. If we use it well…”

The sage swept his hand across the iron bars of the cell holding the Para and smiled.

“She’ll take the bait herself. But…”

He glanced at the king, who looked even older than before, and gave a faint smile.

“I would like you to grant me a little more authority to mobilize the other knights as well.”

 

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