Chapter 197 – 56. The End of the Ordeal (1)
“I… Hey. You.”
Erti raised his head and looked at me. Then, she lowered her head as if to hide her blushing cheeks.
I put the long, sausage-like piece of unidentified meat into my mouth. It seemed like it was reminiscent of that part.
Erti’s cooking skill was good and the taste was not bad. After biting off the tip, I answered.
“I am listening. Speak.”
Even after saying that, Erti couldn’t get his words out easily. He said only when he had finished one sausage.
“Did you sleep well last night?”
“I slept very well. Maybe it’s because I’m exhausted from the ordeal. It sounds like you slept very well without a single dream. I am in good shape.”
Then Erti put on a very disappointed expression. I should have known that what happened last night would remain as a dream. I guess I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t remember any of them.
“You really haven’t had any dreams? You are a man of your prime. Living alone with a woman like this… You might have had a dream like that. I… I might have appeared in my dreams living with you.”
“Is that so? Well, I don’t know if that’s the case with other men. But I’m not that kind of bachelor.”
At my words, Erti’s expression suddenly changed. It was an expression of resentment and regret.
“Still, it’s just the two of us for a few days, and that’s strange. Isn’t it? Unless you’re a eunuch… You don’t have to lie about being ashamed. If a man is not removed periodically, he will have wet dreams…”
“Hmm. I hear you say it again. I didn’t have a wet dream, but I think I was dreaming something…”
At those words, Ertiga’s face turned red again.
“Okay. Hurry up and remember!”
“But I don’t think it was a dream in which you came out. And in a dream, if anyone appeared, it would have been other noble ladies or female acquaintances I knew. There are many young and attractive girls in the Pantheon.”
Saying that, Erti went beyond her resentment and looked like she was about to cry.
“What do you mean! Cheeky!”
Erti’s first experience. But if the first experience opponent can’t remember anything. It must be a shock to her as she has been dreaming of her romance for so many years.
She said, ‘Because she said that there was another woman in her dreams.’
I decided to stop provoking Erti more here. It looks like she still needs more time to get through her ordeal.
“Calm down. Erti. Doesn’t that mean I can’t afford it? However, if I can stand against you, who uses the power of Graiel… I might be able to afford to keep dreaming about this and that. Erti is attractive enough. I might be dreaming of you.”
She pretended nothing was wrong, and she blurted out the words nonchalantly. She responded that Erti was attractive.
“Really? Well, I still cut your throat every day…”
“It’s because of the ordeal, so there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Ugh. That’s right. Surprisingly, you also have eyes for women.”
She was delighted with her little compliment. It was a short night though. Erti also seemed to have been tamed by my tyrant.
After breakfast, the ordeal continued. The two of them headed to the hill of the village they always went to.
“The last time you pointed a sword at me yesterday. You fought back against me in unison. Do you remember that feeling?”
I nodded. I tried to do lucid dream training in order not to lose that sense. It failed because of Erti’s night raid.
But thanks to moving my body all night. Rather, she learned a new sense of martial arts.
“I remember. It won’t be trivial to cut your throat like before.”
“You have enough confidence. I know. If so, that means the time has come for you to enter into a real trial.”
It seems that the confrontation with her so far was her kind of ordeal tutorial. Erti held out her hand to me.
“Take my hand. I will enter the battlefield.”
I obediently took her hand. But when my hand touched her, Erti was startled.
“What if I catch you like that!”
“Then how do you catch it? Shall I put my hand back?”
“No. It’s not… Never let go…”
Sensitive enough to respond to even the slightest touch. The look that is obviously conscious of me. I almost laughed at the attitude that was different from the first time.
Soon, the two entered the Wernigue Plain.
***
‘As expected, it’s different from before.’
A space recreated by Erti. It was the plain of Wernigue, which he had already been to. And until the point, it was the same as the moment of the battle I saw a few days ago.
However, at that time, if it was a spectator like a ghost, dwelling in the body of a soldier or knight.
That now I have become a member of the surprise attack, risking my life. I became an Essenmund soldier and decapitated the demon beast that rushed in front of me.
“Charge!! Charge! Make your way! Dedicate your life to create a path for Your Highness to advance!!”
I hear the commander of the White Night Knights shouting from the side. Everywhere was full of magical spirits. Rosario of Agnes. And it was completely different from when he endured that magical power with the body of the blessed Julian.
A terrible curse tightens my neck. Even so, with the body of a soldier, I was enduring the curse well.
Belief in the body makes the mind stronger. However, even with the body of an ordinary soldier, the monster does not feel afraid.
‘Then, did my mental strength also grow?’
Also, I am not afraid of death. No, actually, I’m afraid. Because I know very well how terrible the moment of death is.
And because I’ve experienced how futile death is. He takes up his sword to survive the surprise attack that cost his life.
‘Lion Heart Sword’s form. The lion heart sword I want to draw…’
At that moment, he cut the head of the demon that was rushing at him again. It was probably a monster that looked like a type 3. The expression of the knight who was leading the soldiers around me momentarily surprised me.
“How can a single soldier kill a Type 3 Witchbeast with a single knife…”
He sees me as a soldier. And the body was also that of an ordinary soldier. However, the will to use that body was different.
‘I am Julian von Reinhardt. And I will survive with this name.’
The blood of heroes passed down from generation to generation. Although the current body is not Reinhardt’s body. My will remembers the blood of that family.
Its roots plant unshakably on the ground, making them join in this crazy ambush at the risk of their lives.
‘Fusion formula… I have to make it usable even with a body like this.’
And a new practice method that I invented myself. Fusion.
Reinhardt’s body could withstand it, but an ordinary body couldn’t.
But I had a different idea. Until this time, if the side effects were suppressed as much as possible with the body’s performance. Now, the fusion ceremony itself was intended to be transformed and controlled.
Runaway mana. It trains the mana inside me that runs rampant like a lion that cannot be tamed. There is no need to suppress that spirit.
It is just to determine the direction of the runaway. And at the end, the lion’s fangs can bite the enemy’s neck with a rough bite.
To draw out the shape of my sword without going against its power.
It was an abstract concept. Its essence was simple. Without having to run me in all directions. The opponent dies and I survive only the final blow. Preparing by planning from the beginning.
‘So you don’t have to waste your energy on your own. By following the flow. I use the inertia of the practice method only for a moment when it is necessary.’
I instantaneously created a runaway flow of mana. Then, the torrent was passed through the mana heart and transformed into refined mana.
The mana blade decapitated the beast. Meanwhile, another soldier’s throat was cut.
“Max!! Damn it!! Dead again!”
No, he was a knight, not a soldier. Before I knew it, the remaining allies around me were less than half, no half half.
And at the forefront of the surprise attack, there was a female swordsman wielding a golden aura blade.
‘Atlin…’
The lion sword is expressionless. But I saw tiny water droplets form in her eyes, then disappear. At the same time, another knight’s life was lost.
In an instant, Atlin’s holy sword, Siertia. The color of the Aura Blade on that sword changes.
It is now midnight when the sun has disappeared. However, even that night, the golden flashes that lit up everywhere faded.
A sword body that gradually takes on a jet-black light. As if reflecting the despair of the swordsman, the blade echoes as if it were torn apart.
“… Advance!! Spare your life! I will swallow your lives and survive until the end! Make your way!”
The Aura Blade that swallows that death. Seonohui (先奧義) pole night. I saw the sword form of despair drawn by the swordsman in the pitch-black darkness.
Reinhardt’s Lion Heart Sword. Seon Oh must go through before reaching that extreme. And in this ordeal, it was also the stage that I must realize.
“To save someone. Someone dying contradiction. Atlin was an unprecedented genius even in the Reinhard family. The despair would have been greater. Even Atlin, who was so strong, couldn’t save me all.”
And Erti, who dwells in the imperial sword, said quietly.
After a while I also didn’t see Etlin and the last knights enter Greiel’s headquarters.
He died as his torso was pierced by a demon.
***
Three more days passed. It is now evening time after the ordeal.
The ordeal on the battlefield was different from the rehearsal a few days ago. In other words, it means that Yulian did not experience as many deaths as he did when he confronted Erti himself.
But instead, he had to experience the death of countless soldiers in the field. A surprise attack in which thousands of soldiers risked their lives in one night.
‘To have Julian personally experience that surprise attack. That’s the purpose of this ordeal.’
The comrades who were charging side by side until just now. It was a terrible scene where the comrades became corpses in an instant. It couldn’t be easy for a twenty-one-year-old fledgling to stay sober.
So, the newlyweds now have delicious meals and a bathtub to relieve body fatigue even though it is a small house. Erti prepared everything for his ordeal.
‘Of course, that’s… It’s not an ordeal that will keep you sober.’
However, that is only a temporary measure. In the end, it was Yulian himself who had to endure. Erti worried about him every day.
Yulian, who was eating dinner right in front of his eyes, had a calm expression. It seemed calm.
‘I’m eating well.’
But. It was extraordinary how his skills improved day by day while using the body of an ordinary soldier. Erti was also surprised every time.
It is already the polar night of Sunoh. Because Julian was also instinctively aware of the sword form of despair that Atlin had created.
Because it’s a soldier’s body, it’s limited to mana blades, not aurors. With Yulian’s own special technique, it captures jet-black mana in an instant.
‘As expected, Reinhardt… A descendant of Atlin. And the meaning of the name Reinhardt… That means you’re getting to know it too.’
Atlin ordered the charge even though he knew all the soldiers would die. The weight of the many deaths she carried. Its weight was brutally pressed against Atlin’s shoulders as her alter ego and swordsman.
‘In that short night… My hair turned white.’
And if it’s the future that Agnes told Erti about.
The young Reinhardt in front of me must have been destined to carry the weight of death on his shoulders, no, more lives than Atlil.
‘Still, I’m doing well.’
However, Yulian’s growth was much faster than he thought.
First day on the battlefield. He died a long time before reaching the headquarters in the body of a soldier. Now, he survived and arrived right in front of Graiel’s headquarters.
At this rate, it means that the day when he will confront Greiel himself is not far away.
The goal of this ordeal. It means that the state of the extreme night of Seonoh is not far away. As Erti, the helper of this ordeal, it was something to rejoice.
‘By the way… Why am I regretting it?’
Even if the ordeal ended like this, it wasn’t like breaking up with Yulian. Rather, if Yulian successfully completed the ordeal, he would become his own master.
But this newlyweds house is special. A place where he could be alone with him. And it is the place where Atlin’s dream of living as a country girl is contained.
‘And… When I leave this place. Yulian, you won’t be the only one looking at me.’
Though he took his own virgin. Even if it was a holy sword, Erti was just a sword.
Even if she is human. Just like his father Riel did. There must be many women around Yulian. It would be impossible to monopolize his mind.
‘Then… At least here, where we’re alone…’
While you’re thinking like that. Julian finished eating.
“I really enjoyed the meal. Then I’m alone. I will go to bed first.”
“Do by that way. Good night.”
So calmly sent Yulian back to his room. Erti also entered her room. But as soon as she entered the room, she sighed.
“Phew. Such a strong sexual love… Even if we share love, that insensitive you can’t remember it at all. I am upset.”
Last few nights. Erti visited Yulian’s room every day, aiming for when he was asleep. That’s how she borrowed his dream and she shared her sexual love with him.
After the shocking first night, I couldn’t forget everything about Yulian. It was force majeure.
But tonight, I was worried. In this house filled with memories of Atlin. Not only Erti…
The man who took her first, Yuliane, too… I wanted to leave an unforgettable memory. But not a dream In a reality where each other’s consciousness is fine, I didn’t have the confidence to talk to him directly… Bare skin.
However, Erti soon captured her heart.
‘Okay. Let’s bump into each other!’
Summons her spirit and purifies her entire body. Then, using the power of the space behind her, she lightly sprayed perfume on her body. I also put on some makeup.
And Erti opened the door to Yulian. Just in time he was awake and not asleep.
