The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1017

 Chapter 1017

 

Fwooooosh!

As soon as Raon finished speaking, the once-peaceful atmosphere in the conference hall turned icy, as if they'd stepped into a frozen cave.

“Huh?”

“Walk the same path or die? Even if you're a Zieghart, that's going too far!”

“Watch your words! Even the Four Demons wouldn’t threaten people like that!”

“Has the fame gotten to his head? He must be out of his mind.”

The swordsmen from the Blade Martial Pavilion standing behind the Queen of Swords bit their lips as they let out fierce pressure.

“If you didn’t like it, you should’ve made your decision earlier. Things have changed now.”

“A threat? We offered a choice. How is that a threat?”

“Pathetic…”

Martha, Burren, and Runaan sneered, telling them to grasp the situation.

Crackle!

As the executives of the Light Wind and the Blade Martial Pavilion released their aura and stood off, blue sparks surged above the white round table, scorching the ceiling and walls of the hall black.

“Stop.”

The Queen of Swords raised her hand and stopped the swordsmen behind her.

“Quiet.”

Raon also slightly turned his chin, stopping back Burren, Martha, and Runaan, who were about to release their Grandmaster-level energy waves.

“…”

The Thespian Emperor said nothing, and the warriors of the White Whale behind her also stood still like puppets.

“Your words are a bit harsh, aren’t they?”

The Queen of Swords sat back down and looked at him with cold eyes.

“Were you serious about what you said just now?”

Unlike when she was startled by the story about the Fallen, she remained composed this time. She seemed intent on hearing everything before deciding, a mindset befitting a transcendent.

“He must be serious. He’s not the kind of person who would throw out a bluff in a place like this.”

The Thespian Emperor gently smiled as she rubbed the teacup handle with her fingers. She seemed to have expected this situation.

“Yes. I mean it.”

Raon nodded, meeting the Queen of Swords’ cold gaze.

“Why?”

The Queen of Swords tilted her chin, demanding to know the reason behind his words.

“Our Five Kings, especially Zieghart, believe we’ve given the Five Divine Orders plenty of chances.”

Raon placed his hand on the round table, looking into the calm eyes of the Thespian Emperor and the Queen of Swords.

“What kind of chances?”

“You’re an alliance of five factions under the name of the Five Divine Orders.”

He glanced at the flag of the Five Divine Orders fluttering on the wall of the conference hall and continued.

“Sharing one flag means each faction accepts another’s problems as their own.”

“That’s right. That’s what it means.”

The Queen of Swords admitted it without hesitation. She might not know everything, but she clearly wasn’t trying to hide anything.

“The DemonBlade tried to kill me to cover up his own evil deeds, and the Demon Slaying Spear also attacked me first when I was only trying to protect my friend.”

Raon clenched the hand that had once been soaked in the blood of the DemonBlade and the Demon Slaying Spear.

“Originally, Zieghart and I should’ve held the Five Divine Orders responsible for what the DemonBlade and the Demon Slaying Spear did. But I kept that matter from becoming public…”

“That’s not true.”

The Queen of Swords raised her hand toward Raon.

“Those two already left the Five Divine Orders. This one tried to convince them to wait a little longer, but they didn’t listen and left!”

She furrowed her brow as she referred to the Thespian Emperor as this one. The relationship between the two seemed to be more than a simple alliance.

“The DemonBlade left without saying a word and ended up dying to you, and the Demon Slaying Spear left the Five Divine Orders after the Black Tower collapsed, saying he wanted to feel alive again. If I had known they would die like that, I should have stopped them by force and brought them to the Five Kings.”

The Queen of Swords clicked her tongue as if regretful she hadn’t stopped them.

‘Come to think of it…’

Raon clicked his tongue as he looked at the Queen of Swords, her brow furrowed.

‘The Queen of Swords wanted to side with the Five Kings from the beginning.’

He remembered that unlike others, the Queen of Swords had despised the Four Demons from the beginning and wanted to side only with the Five Kings.

However, even if he had a favorable impression of her, the time to overlook this incident had already passed.

“No.”

Raon slowly shook his head, almost frustratingly so.

“The Five Divine Orders never made an official announcement about the withdrawal of the Black Snake Coalition or the Demon Spear Guild. The Pirate King is the same.”

“What are you talking about…?”

The Queen of Swords knit her brows as if hearing this for the first time and turned to look at Thespian Emperor.

“Is that true?”

“…”

The Thespian Emperor remained silent and simply lowered her eyes.

“We don’t even need to hear the reason. It’s obvious. You didn’t want the outside world to know that the Five Divine Orders had lost their power and authority.”

Raon nodded as he looked at the silent Thespian Emperor.

“The Five Divine Orders were established to stay out of the conflict between the Six Kings and Five Demons, and to reap various benefits from the center of it all. But now, three out of five have gone? And during a war, no less? From the standpoint of the Five Kings and the Four Demons, that’s nothing but a feast served on a silver platter.”

As he was fully aware of the Thespian Emperor’s thoughts, he continued his explanation while watching the stunned Queen of Swords.

“To be honest, it’s not a bad decision. If it were me, I might’ve made a similar choice to you. But…”

Raon opened his eyes again and twisted his lips slightly as he looked at the Thespian Emperor.

“If you made that choice, then you should also take responsibility for it. From Zieghart’s and my point of view, it’s as if we were attacked by members of the Five Divine Orders, the DemonBlade and the Demon Slaying Spear.”

“Hmm…”

Only now did the Queen of Swords seem to understand, biting her lip deeply.

“B-but still!”

“No matter what, it’s not something we did….”

“This is something that should….”

The swordsmen of Blade Martial Pavilion clenched their trembling fists, looking as if they were wrongly accused.

“Be quiet.”

The Queen of Swords lowered her hand, silencing the Blade Martial Pavilion swordsmen completely.

“…”

The Thespian Emperor remained silent even after hearing all of it, simply staring at her empty teacup.

“Actually, there are parts I don’t understand.”

Raon looked at the Thespian Emperor sitting directly in front of him.

“After what happened with the DemonBlade, why didn’t you make an official announcement when the Demon Slaying Spear left? After the DemonBlade caused trouble, if the Demon Slaying Spear did too, the consequences would naturally fall entirely on the Five Divine Orders. You couldn’t have been unaware of that.”

The Thespian Emperor he knew was someone who would test even a stone bridge before crossing it. Having been burned once by the DemonBlade’s incident, he didn't know why she repeated the same mistake.

“Speak.”

The Queen of Swords, as if having the same thought, jutted her chin toward the Thespian Emperor.

“You’re right.”

The Thespian Emperor poured red tea into her cup and lowered her eyebrows.

“The old me would’ve immediately announced that the Demon Slaying Spear and the Demon Spear Guild had left right after the DemonBlade was defeated.”

She gave a faint smile, as if admitting Raon’s words were true, and set the teapot down.

“Then why didn’t you?”

Raon narrowed his eyes at the Thespian Emperor.

“Did you want to keep the Five Divine Orders together that badly, just for the gains?”

“…”

She didn’t respond. She only gazed at the gently rippling surface of her teacup.

“On my way here, I heard a story about you from that man.”

Raon gestured to McCain, who stood behind the Thespian Emperor.

“He said that after the Four Demons' attack, you spent your own money to rebuild the homes and lands of the residents first. Knowing you, it was probably to manage outside eyes and rumors, but I’m sure there was at least some affection for your own people in that as well.”

He let out a scoff as he looked down at the lively city visible through the window of the conference hall.

“But because of this incident, this city that you personally cultivated could have become a sea of blood by Zieghart’s hand. We had both the power and the justification, so no one could have contested it.”

Raon slowly caught his breath as he imagined the worst possible outcome.

“Everything you held dear could have been destroyed, so why did you make such a choice?”

He tilted his chin, signaling it was time for her to answer.

“Be honest.”

The Queen of Swords slammed her palm down on the round table.

“What the hell were you thinking!”

She clenched her molars, demanding an honest answer.

“Hoo…”

The Thespian Emperor let out a long sigh, like exhaling cigarette smoke.

“The Fallen. So… it’s come to this, after all.”

She gave a smile drained of strength and looked at Raon.

“Fine. This time, I’ll speak honestly.”

She nodded heavily, saying she wouldn’t hide anything anymore.

“You may have already guessed, but I can read heaven’s flow.”

She stood from her seat, pulled aside her white coat, and placed the book strapped to her thigh onto the round table.

“Heaven’s flow refers to a future that’s already been decided and cannot be changed. Using this Sacred Tome of Sun and Moon, I can read fragments of that future.”

The Thespian Emperor opened the book called the Sacred Tome of Sun and Moon and turned its pages toward the back.

“But ever since that day, I’ve been unable to see the future clearly.”

She scoffed at herself.

“That day?”

The Queen of Swords furrowed her brow, asking when that was.

“You.”

The Thespian Emperor raised her finger and pointed at Raon.

“Ever since I read Raon Zieghart’s heaven’s flow, most of the future has become blurry.”

She held up the book and showed a picture drawn at the end. On a torn page, red lines were scattered in all directions as if blood had been poured on it; it looked as if the book itself were screaming.

“This is my heaven’s flow?”

Raon frowned as he looked at the eerie patterns drawn in the book.

“I actually read the heaven’s flow and went to Zieghart for the first time. But while I was there, all the futures I had previously seen were shattered by you. So I came back here, trying to figure out who you were. And this… is what happened.”

She looked down at the torn page of the Sacred Tome of Sun and Moon again and let out a murky breath.

“From that point on, I no longer knew what I could see or what I should do. Funnily enough, I was able to know about the soul stone you were looking for. But in any case, I didn’t hesitate because I was trying to benefit from your request…”

She looked quietly at Raon and finally opened her mouth.

“I couldn’t make a decision because I didn’t know which choice would save the Five Divine Orders.”

She shut her eyes tightly, saying that ever since she read Raon’s heaven’s flow, her thoughts had gone rigid.

“It seems that very ability to read the heaven’s flow has become a shackle for me.”

She gave a faint, bitter laugh, saying that because she could no longer see the future clearly, she was no longer capable of making any decisions.

“The Fallen also would have gone to you after reading the heaven’s flow that he would not die. But the result was death.”

She nodded slightly, as if she knew exactly how the Fallen had died.

“Now it’s certain. You have the power to change the heaven’s flow—or no, to change fate itself.”

The Thespian Emperor let out a heavy breath she had been holding in for a long time, as if she could finally free herself from the Heaven’s Flow that had become nothing but a blur.

“I see. So that’s why…”

The Queen of Swords bit her lips repeatedly as if she finally understood. It seemed she had left the work to the Thespian Emperor.

As Raon had suspected earlier, the two clearly had a relationship deeper than a mere alliance.

‘Fate again, huh.’

Raon closed his eyes, recalling the title he had recently acquired <One Who Turns the Wheel of Fate>.

‘Whether I change fate… or create an entirely new one—it doesn’t matter.’

All that mattered was doing what I could do.

Without giving any more thought to heaven’s flow, the future, or fate, he opened his eyes again, focusing only on what he had to do.

“I understand your circumstances, but I neither read nor believe in the heaven’s flow, so I can’t say I empathize.”

Raon shook his head coldly.

“The reason I didn’t hold the Five Divine Orders accountable for what happened with the DemonBlade, and waited, was because you gave me information about the soul stone. But now that the incident with the Demon Slaying Spear has happened too, even that’s lost its value. So now, make your choice.”

He once again asked whether they would follow the path of the Five Kings or die here.

“Hoo…”

The Thespian Emperor placed a hand on her forehead and lowered her head.

“Meeting you has cleared the fog in my mind. I think I can make my decision now without hesitation.”

She gave a faint smile as she looked into Raon’s eyes.

“I and the Five Divine Orders will—”

“Hold on.”

Just as the Thespian Emperor was about to state her decision, the Queen of Swords rose to her feet.

“I’m still against it.”

She furrowed her brow and said she would not make her decision yet.

“Huh? But you’ve always wanted to side with the Five Kings.”

The Thespian Emperor widened her eyes in surprise at the sudden change.

“I know this one made a mistake too, and I fully understand that the DemonBlade and the Demon Slaying Spear caused trouble while they were still under our banner.”

The Queen of Swords nodded, saying Raon and the Five Kings had every right to hold them accountable.

“But I can’t be convinced by that alone. Because I am a simple-minded warrior.”

She reached for the sword resting against the round table.

“I want to decide after clashing swords with you directly.”

She tilted her chin, saying that if he defeated her, she would follow.

“That won’t be difficult.”

Raon gave a slight smile and stood up from the round table.

‘She’s someone worth fighting.’

Raon wanted to face the Queen of Swords personally. especially since Glenn had warned him about her.

“But…”

Raon looked into the Queen of Swords’s sharp eyes and lowered his chin solemnly.

“Come at me with your full strength. Don’t hold anything back.”

“If I do that…”

The Queen of Swords narrowed her icy, blade-like eyes, as if there truly was something she had been hiding.

“You’ll die, you know?”

 

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