The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1249

 Chapter 1249

 

Whooooom!

Runaan chased after the robed man and unleashed a sword strike blazing with silvery frost.

Baaang!

The robed Eden executive bent his waist back like a bow to avoid Runaan’s sword strike, then used the recoil to flee even faster.

“Ha….”

Runaan bit her lip deeply and bent her upper body forward. White frost bloomed from the tips of her feet, and in an instant she narrowed the distance with the robed man.

Shraaaak!

Instead of unleashing another sword strike, Runaan stuck close right behind the robed man and slashed her sword toward his back. Since he kept evading the sword strikes, killing intent rose within her to stab him directly and kill him.

“Hup!”

The robed man gasped, as though shocked by her footwork, twisting his ankle and waist violently. He slipped past her blade by the narrowest margin and hurriedly retreated.

“This… will be different….”

Runaan pressed her lips tight, as if vowing never to let him escape, and launched into a relentless series of sword techniques.

From her beloved sword, Snow Flower, pure white frost surged upward in reverse, blocking the paths through which the robed man could escape.

“Ghh…!”

The robed man swallowed hard, tense at the shards of frost that looked ready to freeze flesh and bone on contact. Then, as if making a decision, he dropped down from the air and stomped the ground.

Kuuuuung!

When the robed man stamped the ground with his foot, stones and soil embedded in the ground shot up into the air and collided with the frost Runaan had created.

Kraaaash!

He did not miss the fleeting gap created when the wall of frost Runaan made was blocked, stepping on shadow-like footwork to widen the distance.

“Tch….”

Runaan, now seemingly irritated, slightly furrowed her brow and swung her sword faster and more powerfully.

The frost infused with her anger surged forward as if alive, targeting every inch of the robed man’s body.

“Kgh!”

Even under Runaan’s merciless assault, he escaped without so much as a scratch, always finding just enough space to slip away.

The speed of his footwork was fast, but the real thing seemed to be the creativity displayed in each fleeting moment.

“Huff! Huff! Haaah!”

The robed man gasped for air after narrowly evading the storm of attacks. Without once considering a counterattack, he completely exited Birdnew village and began fleeing toward Zieghart’s borders.

“Where do you think you’re going….”

Runaan narrowed her eyes and sprinted out of Zieghart’s territory. Even while moving, she fired off sword strikes in succession, but the robed man deflected them all as if he had eyes on his back.

"Fight me..."

As if feeling impatience, Runaan chewed on her lip and poured everything into her footwork. She lunged toward the robed man’s left side, trying to block his path so he could no longer escape.

But the robed man read her movement and slipped to the right the moment she closed in, maintaining the distance. It was a movement so perfect that calling him a master of escape and evasion wouldn't be an exaggeration.

“Stop running… and fight….”

Runaan kept pressing him, but the robed man, as if escaping was his absolute top priority, never once let their swords clash and only kept retreating.

Ruuuumble!

Focused solely on attack and evasion, the two crossed deep beyond Zieghart’s border and entered a denser forest.

“I….”

Runaan bared her teeth, not sparing a single glance at the rotting corpses of Zieghart swordsmen scattered around.

“I won’t… let you escape….”

Black heat burned in her pale purple eyes as she pushed onward into the darkness.

*   *   *

“What the hell is that…?”

Martha let out a hollow breath as she watched the robed man evade Runaan’s sword.

“He’s dodging Sleepyhead’s frost sword like that?”

Runaan’s swordsmanship was terrifyingly cold and sharp right now. Even Martha wasn’t confident she could deflect it so cleanly, she couldn’t understand how such perfect evasion was possible.

“Runaan hasn’t reached Transcendence yet,”

Burren said as he ran behind Martha, his eyes narrowing to slits.

“But the might and range of her sword already rival a Transcender.”

He exhaled sharply, incredulous.

“In other words, the footwork and evasion ability of that Eden executive running ahead are also at the level of a Transcender.”

“With might like that….”

Martha frowned deeply.

"Couldn't he just fight us instead of running?"

Even without properly looking back, the robed Eden executive avoided Runaan’s attacks flawlessly.

With that kind of footwork and judgment, even if she, Burren, and Runaan attacked together, he wouldn’t be pushed back, so Martha couldn’t understand why he was only running.

“That’s true,”

Burren said, tilting his chin.

“If he really possesses might at that level of footwork and evasion.”

He let out a short snort, as if the entire situation was clear to him.

“What do you mean by that?”

Martha turned to him, eyes wide.

“Look at his feet,”

Burren raised his finger and pointed at the robed man avoiding Runaan’s sword.

“He only ever move away from Runaan. There’s no motion at all that suggests he’s trying to close in.”

He raised an eyebrow, as if asking whether that didn’t strike her as strange.

“Even if you assume an ordinary warrior is running away, because of the instinct gained from learning martial arts, they don’t just move farther away unconditionally. If a gap appears, there’s also the thought, ‘Should I approach and try a counterattack?’ But that guy….”

Burren tightened his finger slightly and nodded.

“He doesn’t have that instinct at all. Even when Runaan leaves an opening, he focuses only on increasing the distance, without the slightest hesitation.”

He rested a hand on his sword, urging her to watch closely.

"Instinct to close in?"

Martha steadied her breathing and focused her gaze.

“Huh… now that I really look… yeah.”

Once she watched only his feet and movement, something clearly different from grasping the situation as a whole became visible.

Just as Burren said, the robed man showed no movement whatsoever of trying to close in or counterattack.

Like someone who had never learned martial arts at all, every ounce of his attention was fixed solely on evasion.

“It’s like his footwork only has evasive forms.”

The robed man’s footwork seemed like the highest-level martial art, but strangely, there was not a single offensive form. It didn’t feel like watching a warrior, it felt like watching prey, a small animal whose entire existence was focused on running.

“Yeah. It feels like chasing a small animal, like a rabbit or a squirrel.”

Burren nodded, clearly thinking the same thing.

“How did you even notice that?”

Martha tilted her head, baffled.

“I’ve been training with my father lately. It sharpened my observation skills,”

Burren said, flicking his finger as he mentioned training with Karoon.

“…Honestly, though, it was luck. I noticed it without realizing it.”

As if it was embarrassing to bring up training with his father now, he said it was luck and scratched his head.

“You really are the vice palace master! Bringing you along was the right call!”

Martha praised him and patted Burren on the back.

“If our guess is right, then….”

She bit her lip as she looked back at Runaan and the robed man.

“That means he’s luring Runaan.”

Only now did the situation fully click into place, and she clenched her fist.

“Yeah. There’s no other explanation,”

Burren nodded. Whether the target was Runaan specifically or not, he was certain the goal was to draw in the Light Wind Palace.

“My gut was right,”

Martha said, wrinkling her nose as she took a breath.

“The moment I saw that man, I had a bad feeling.”

The moment she saw Runaan chasing that robed man, it felt like her chest dropped with a thud.

The emotions were too intense to ignore, so she hurriedly called Burren as well and pursued them, and that seemed to have been the best decision.

“We have to stop this,”

Martha said, nodding firmly at Burren.

“So that idiot can’t follow him all the way to the end!”

“Alone, it won’t be easy, but….”

Burren drew a smile with the same look in his eyes as Martha.

“If it’s the two of us, we can do it!”

*   *   *

Raon was sitting on the throne in the audience chamber, looking over the few remaining documents.

Kuuuuung!

The doors to the audience chamber burst open, and Chad, the Shadow Agents master, rushed inside.

“Head of house!”

Chad waved an envelope smeared with dirt as he called out to Raon.

“I’m not the head of house. I’m the acting head of house.”

Raon let out a sigh and waved him off. Everyone else managed to say acting head of house properly, but for some reason, Chad always called him head of house. Honestly, it didn’t feel like a slip of the tongue.

“Ah, well, you’re basically the head of house anyway.”

Chad laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

“So, what is it?”

Raon narrowed his eyes at the envelope in Chad’s hand.

“Oh! A report just came in from a Shadow Agent who went to Birdnew Village!”

Chad opened the envelope and pulled out a white letter.

“As expected, Eden attacked while they were investigating, but the Light Wind Palace suppressed them without a single casualty. Also, the swordsmen killed near Zieghart’s border were stabbed from behind, and their entire bodies were rotted, like they’d been hit by sorcery.”

He spoke in such detail it sounded as though he’d been there himself.

“On top of that, one of Eden’s executives fled toward Zieghart border. Lady Runaan, Burren, and Lady Martha are currently in pursuit.”

Chad flashed a confident grin, saying that with those three, they’d have no trouble subduing, or killing, the target.

“I see.”

Raon tapped his finger against the armrest of the throne as he processed Chad’s last words.

‘So he’s moved after all.’

There was no way Runaan, Burren, and Martha would fail to catch a single fleeing Eden executive.

And the fact that this situation had escalated to a report meant that the enemy I was thinking of was undoubtedly luring Runaan.

The King of Essence told you again and again!

Wrath rushed right up in front of Raon, grinding his teeth.

The Ice Cream girl is in danger!

He shook his round, clenched fists, insisting they had to leave immediately.

A king isn’t someone who puts paperwork first. You’re supposed to think about the subordinates you can’t even see right now before the documents in front of you!

Wrath shot Raon a fierce glare, saying that only by paying attention to the small things, not just the big picture, could one become a real king.

“So it is a lure.”

Roenn let out a deep sigh.

“They’ve already seen how strong the Light Wind Palace is, and yet they still went out of their way to lure her. That means this isn’t a good situation at all.”

Having heard the circumstances from Evelyn, Roenn lowered his brows deeply, worried about Runaan.

“I’ll prepare to accompany you.”

Sheryl nodded, saying she would make the necessary arrangements to depart immediately.

“I’ve already contacted the Magic Tower just in case, so it shouldn’t take long.”

She added that since she didn’t know what decision Raon might make, she’d prepared in advance.

Both of them had spent years serving Glenn, and it showed, each had already anticipated what needed to be done.

Swoosh.

As if he hadn’t heard any of it, Raon calmly lowered his hand and picked up the last remaining document.

[Y-You! Are you mad?!]

‘You said that looking after the small things is what makes a king.’

Receiving Wrath’s shouting calmly, Raon read the document and even finished signing it.

‘That’s true, but I think a little differently.’

D-differently?

‘Yes. Thinking about and taking care of the small things is good, but trust is also necessary.’

As he answered Wrath internally, Raon gathered the signed documents and handed them to Sheryl.

“There might be something I missed, so please review them.”

“Ah… yes….”

Sheryl accepted the documents with trembling hands. She swallowed dryly, tense under the sudden weight and gravity radiating from Raon.

“Hah….”

Roenn also stopped smiling and blinked his eyes, flustered by the grand energy wave blooming from Raon’s very soul.

“Ugh….”

Chad lowered his head as if he had done something wrong, his whole body trembling as he let out a low groan.

Different or not, just move already!

Wrath screamed, begging him to do something, anything.

If you’re any later, they could all die! What’s the point of arriving after it’s over?!

He shook his head violently, telling him not to act ambiguously.

“Ambiguous, huh….”

Resting his chin in his hand, Raon gazed into the empty space to his right, as if he were Glenn from the days of the Destructive King of the North.

‘You don’t need to worry about that.’

This time, it will end for sure.

 

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