173. Cinders in the Ashes (2)

The Bernese were an aristocratic family. Literally, only the name remains, a family that is extremely proud of such a subject. That pride soon became a kind of inferiority complex. That’s why the family could never tolerate the existence of Hugo Bern, who showed deformed growth.

‘Let go of the sword! Can’t you understand that this is all useless!’

Sword training was persecution, and inaction was jealousy and contempt. There was no way he would be allowed to enter the knight academy. However, Hugo did not let go of his sword. Someday, someday, he will become a knight who protects the kingdom, just like his ancestors did in the distant past.

Believing so, Yuugo swung his sword.

“Would you like to be my escort knight, Hugo Bern?”

After 5 years and 10 years, the king passed away. And for the first time ever, the Crown Prince visited the Bernese estate. Hugo was kneeling under the crown prince, who seemed to be the same age as him.

“Don’t tell me to die for me. Not creating a situation where you would risk your life in the first place is your first goal as a future king.”

It was a strange word. The years of swinging the sword were not wrong. Hugo calmed down his trembling body before he could barely open his mouth.

“… Your Highness, I am sorry to inform you, but the method was wrong.”

I will be a knight

“If Your Highness commands God to become an escort knight, God will become Your Highness’ escort knight from that moment on.

I will serve the lord and become the sword of that person, of this kingdom.

Georges Loire looked at Hugo, motionless like a stone statue. Georges had a hunch that nothing would happen until this noble knight told him to get up.

“Raise your head.”

Hugo Berne raised his head to face Georges Loire. Hugo himself did not know it yet, but now Georges had obtained an article worthy of leaving a name in the kingdom’s history. Georges Loire’s expression tried hard to hide the joy, but there seemed to be no way to hide the trembling eyes.

“Hugo Bern. Can you make me a king?”

It was an order. There was no room for rejection.

“Isn’t Your Highness already destined to become king?”

“You can become king, but it will be difficult to keep that position.”

Georges Loire’s eyes began to glow with a strange light.

“Ask a little differently. Could you kill my uncle for me, Hugo?”

Hugo Berne nodded. No matter what he ordered, it seemed like he could do anything with just one sword.

“God, I will become a blade that cuts down those who stand in your way.”

The knight took his first step like that.

—

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Now, like a handful of ashes, it was a memory that was left behind. No, it was too short a moment to call it a memory. It had been engulfed in the whirlpool for too long, and in a mind that had grown accustomed to the chaos, it remained precariously in place without drifting for that moment.

“The sun is nice today.”

The voice of someone who was saying that. A sunny backyard. Bernardo was standing about five paces away from the scene, watching someone flapping the laundry. A white cloth fluttered in the sky. Was it the sheet of a futon or someone’s apron? Even more blurry was the person’s face. It wasn’t just the face. I couldn’t remember the voice, the name, or anything about that person.

That’s why I thought it wouldn’t be that important.

“Count?”

It was one day when Leon Bening called Bernardo. The Count, looking at the picture frame, did not seem to notice that Bernardo had opened the door and entered. Bernardo thought it was strange, but cautiously called out to Leon Benning, showing a thicker face than usual.

“Here you are, Bernardo.”

The Count turned to Bernardo and smiled uncharacteristically. As Bernardo froze, unable to say anything, Léon Benning burst out laughing.

“It’s no big deal. I knew you came. Looking at the picture for a while reminded me of the past.”

The Count said while stroking the frame. A misty sunlight filtered into the room through the window, and the Count turned the frame around the shining frame and set it down on the shelf.

“Do you recognize who this is, Bernardo?”

Leon Benning pushed the frame in a way that Bernardo could see. I saw a painting in a frame with the sunlight behind it.

A woman in a dress was sitting. Her blonde hair, close to silver, was calmly arranged and flowed over her left shoulder, and there was a softly smiling mouth, deep blue eyes, and a face with shadows from which she did not know where it came from. Bernardo involuntarily took a step towards the ledge, then stopped with a frown.

The woman in the picture was someone she did not know. Bernardo shook his head with a puzzled expression. There was still a smile on Leon Benning’s face as he looked at him.

“I do not know.”

Even so, he did not ask who the woman in the frame was. Leon Benning nodded in satisfaction at Bernardo’s attitude.

“Come to think of it, today is exactly the 10th anniversary.”

Leon Benning returned the frame to its original position. Bernardo did not know what kind of years the count was talking about, 10 years. The Count looked out the window and erased the smile from his face. In the backyard overlooking this window, Theodora would be brandishing her sword.

“Is Theodora training well?”

“Yes. He is a child with great talent. Maybe, in the future, to the point where I think it might surpass me.”

The Count narrowed his eyes and nodded softly.

“yes… At least it should be that useful to that child.”

Leon Benning turned to Bernardo.

“Did you find some useful articles?”

“… Yes. As you said, I found a knight exiled from the capital after quarreling with his superior.”

Leon Benning’s eyes shone bleakly.

“Make it ready.”

Leon Benning left the words and walked past Bernardo and left the room. As soon as Leon Benning left the room, Bernardo approached the picture frame on the shelf. Turning the frame, I could see the woman’s smile again.

“… .”

Bernardo brushed the glass of the picture frame. Following his thumb, he left a faint trail on the glass of the frame. A woman’s smile, and a count’s smile. Bernardo put the frame back and walked out of the count’s room at a brisk pace.

A corner of my head felt like it was being stabbed somehow.

—

“We will go first.”

Bernardo Lennon drew his sword and looked at the knights blocking his path. Frankly, it was none of Bernardo’s business what they did. He was going to die anyway, and it would be better if he died without Hugo Bern’s power at all.

Auras were flowing from the swords of the puppets. They were not moths who did not know Hugo’s skills. It was just a move to buy time so that Bernardo could deal with Hugo Berne a little more comfortably. They are puppets that only work for the purpose set by Leon Benning. But Hugo did not sympathize with them.

“… It’s not like that.”

With cold eyes, Hugo Berne looked at the approaching knights with disgust. Above the entrance of the collapsed palace, the last image of the king emerged. Raising the will to fight, that alone was enough. The tip of the arm hanging down, the sword scratching the floor, was crying, wanting to drink their blood right away. Blue light began to gather above Yuugo’s sword.

ping.

Hugo’s hand drew a line as if lightly brushing it. From the end of the line, a gigantic tsunami rose. Like a small fishing boat in front of a storm, the knights were swallowed up by the waves caused by Yuugo. There was no explosion, no scattering explosions of light. The place that Yuugo’s sword passed through was empty, as if nothing had existed from the beginning.

A frenzy rose in Hugo Bern’s eyes. The mana pumped from the heart runs through every corner of Yuugo’s body, then returns to the heart and then to the lungs to burn. When he exhaled, the residue of mana called Sh*tpa, which was left after burning, leaked out of Hugo’s mouth, swirling into glowing smoke. The remains of the knights scattered at his feet made him look even more like a demon.

“Raise your sword.”

Hugo Bern, who had vaporized several knights without leaving a single drop of blood, moved forward. It was an unspoken pressure for Bernardo to come out and receive the sword. The knights who barely survived Hugo Bern’s first blow raised their swords and stood up again, and Bernardo waved his hand to stop them. The intended purpose of ‘removing power’ was achieved more easily than expected.

“You’ve pushed yourself to bring me down, Hugo Bern. Are you really going to knock me out like that?”

Bernardo’s eyes narrowed. Even if he was the strongest knight in the kingdom, it would be difficult to say that he had maintained his full strength, since he was able to blow away several puppets.

“Did you think you would die alone?”

“I thought if I didn’t do this, the coward wouldn’t come out. Even if you die alone, shouldn’t you take the coward’s supply and salary with you?”

Hugo Bern’s Aura Blade did not fade. The swell of power vomited endlessly wriggling mana, as if there was a bottom. Hugo Bern’s way of drawing power was dangerous. It would stand still, as if it would never move, and then, without any sign or warning, it would explode and attack with the power it had accumulated.

“Are you trying to provoke me?”

“Think whatever you want.”

At that moment, the blue light that shimmered around Hugo flickered.

bang-!

With an explosion, two beams of light collided violently in the air. Hugo and Bernardo became a ray of light and swung their blades aiming at each other’s neck. Every time a sword clashed with another, a new star was created in the sky and quickly disappeared. As the blade fired with force to pierce the body, the other slashed the sword against him with force to shatter the blade. It was different from last night when it was close to the search. The two swordsmen showed their bottom and continued their desperate swordsmanship.

The colliding blades didn’t bounce off and stuck together as if they had promised. The aura became glue, tightly binding the two swords. Bernardo seemed to intend to engage in a war of attrition, pouring mana into his aura with blades facing each other.

“under-!”

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Naturally, Hugo did not follow through on that idea. Hugo’s feet dug into the ground, causing cracks. At the moment when the tug-of-war of the aura was at its most tense, Hugo disappeared from Bernardo’s field of vision.

“-!!”

Bernardo’s sword hollowly cut through the air. Another huge scar was carved on the poor ground. At that moment, Bernardo opened his eyes to the terrifying death that was approaching the back of his neck.

“bloke!”

Blue auras pierced from top to bottom poured down like they were about to devour Bernardo. The flames of the dark red aura soared.

bang-!

The sword swung from an unstable posture was putting a load on the whole body. Bernardo furrowed his brow and triggered his strength. The explosion of mana separated Hugo and Bernardo again.

““… .””

The site where the two knights clashed had turned into ruins that seemed to have been weathered over hundreds of years. The winter earth exposed its bare skin. When the fight between the two knights entered a lull, the world lost its voice as if it had become mute and deaf.

“Tell me.”

It was Hugo who spoke first.

“Why did Leon Benning do this? What the hell will Beninga get at the end of this bloody struggle?”

“I don’t know.”

Bernardo responded immediately.

“I just swing my sword according to his will. What he means, I do not know, and I must not tell.”

“… Right.”

After all, it wasn’t what Leon Benning was thinking that mattered.

Hugo grabbed his sword. The aura, which faded for a moment, began to burn vigorously again, as if dry firewood had been put in. If this is empty revenge, it will burn even more. To the extent that it burns itself and burns more, even burning that emptiness.

Hugo’s eyes were stained with blue waves again. Yugo’s model, which had transformed into a meteor again, was fired at the red flames. The world, which had been deaf, began to overflow with swords again. The swordsmanship of the two swordsmen began biting each other faster and more fatally than before.

bang-! bang-!

A dark red sun and a deep blue moon seemed to have risen in the sky. In that confrontation, there was no way to confirm the existence of Swordsman. The sword blade was changing from its original shape every moment due to the judgment made when the moment was split thousands of times, and the split moments were split hundreds more times.

keying-!

Bernardo’s sword passed close to Hugo’s ear. A shallow cut from Hugo’s Aura Blade was carved on Bernardo’s forearm. When red auras fell from the sky, Yugo’s blue auras tore them apart and howled.

Kwak-!

The impact of the momentary collision caused the glow of the aura to disappear, and the two knights exchanged swords as they were thrown into the air with their bare bodies. The blades that have lost the light of their aura gnaw each other greedily and emit orange sparks as if bleeding. The light of the cold iron sword, which had no mana, was scattered. As the body of the sword was sheared away, death was getting closer to them.

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Neck, right arm, heart, hamstrings, eyes.

One mistaken swordsman’s sword shot made the difference between victory and defeat, and Hugo and Bernardo exchanged life and death thousands of times in the firing line. In the fleeting moment of time, the moment of survival was fleeting, and the shadow of death continued to wrap around the nape of the neck, thinking about when to drop the blade and smiling.

Transcendence began to overflow again over the swordsman, which was human but could not be called human. Hugo and Bernardo pumped mana from their hearts without asking anyone first, and once again formed a halo of aura on the tip of their swords.

“Get off!”

Bernardo’s aura swelled. It was not a confrontation, but a blow to force defense. Sword strikes spewing out like an exploding volcano swept through the front. A bright red line is drawn over the space. The area covered by the aura turned to dust and evaporated.

“-!!”

Wigo gritted it. The pressure was like hundreds of knights pressing their swords at once. Bernardo’s blow tore down one of the palace’s outbuildings, sending Hugo into a collapsing building.

bang-!!!

My vision is blurry. Probably because of the dust caused by the collapse of the building. A sore back and a throbbing head. I could feel the gooey and dripping blood. It was as if the king’s voice was heard again in his tinnitus.

‘You finally kept this position.’

Hugo was looking down at Georges’ complicated expression. Georges II, now king, subdued and killed my uncle, who was aiming for the throne, by mobilizing knights. Although he was not very good at slander, he had to make a big decision as Georges because his power was not small. The purge, which was prepared to suffer great losses, ended faster and easier than expected. It was because the knight who led the purge was so brilliant.

‘Thank you, Hugo. This is all thanks to you.’

Even so, in the end I couldn’t protect you from other dangers. Your Majesty, God has committed a serious crime that deserves punishment.

I will take the punishment sweetly. However, please delay the timing a little.

God will completely remove your majesty’s troubles and follow you.

Bernardo stared at the collapsed building. It was an attack with all his strength, but there was no way Hugo Bern would die from an attack of just this magnitude. At that time, a blue mist slowly seeped out of the wreckage. Just as Bernardo raised his sword again and was about to land the finishing blow, Hugo Bern jumped out of the collapsed building. Wearing an aura that shines more than ever before.

bang-!!

There was a blue glowing sphere in Yugo’s eyes. Bernardo was stunned by Hugo Berne’s aura, which began to overwhelm even his own sword, and raised his momentum. When Hugo opened his mouth, burning mana spewed out like smoke. And Hugo Berne vomited the flagship to let the world go away.

“For His Majesty the King-!!”

Zeng-!

As if Yuugo’s sword was the last one, it emits a deep blue light. The red and blue halo drew a long tail, and finally caused a violent explosion and vibrated the space. In the shining sword light, two figures were facing each other with swords. Bernardo’s dark red sword was shaking in front of Hugo’s sword.

“this guy-!”

I had to hold on. Seeing that he vomited light so strongly, it seemed that Hugo did not have much time left. Bernardo’s heart vomited red and black mana along with blood.

at that time,

Yugo’s aura faded for an instant. Yugo’s sword, which had been burning so brightly, lost its light with the sudden shaking. It seemed that nothing, nothing remained in Hugo’s empty eyes. Bernardo raised his sword.

push.

Blood spilled over the winter ground.

The blade touched the cloth. And I also felt the sense of being cut off. But for some reason, Hugo Bern did not collapse.

“… ah.”

your body was bent I wanted to feel a heavy sensation down my chest, but the sword had completely pierced my body.

My feet staggered. Bernardo stumbled and fell backwards. Bernardo could see Hugo Berne looking down at him. Its right arm had been cut clean, and blood spattered across the ground.

“Did you use the aura as bait?”

The words didn’t come out right. Every time he opened his mouth, blood rushed up and ran down his face. At the last moment, Hugo Berne boldly gave up his right arm and chose to directly aim for Bernardo’s life. Hugo Bern did not answer that question, but approached Bernardo and pulled out the sword stuck in his chest. A handful of blood poured from Bernardo’s chest with a sharp metallic sound.

“ah… .”

My body felt strangely light. Bernardo groped and felt his affected part. I didn’t feel any pain. The remaining mana in his heart somehow connected his tough life, but he saw the darkness approaching him faster than he thought.

“Fleur. Now, it comes to mind.”

My mind, which had been blurry all my life, was clearing up. As life disappeared, the brainwashing of Leon Benning, who was parasitic on Bernardo’s body, was also disappearing. What were the dimly losing eyes looking at?

“… Yes, how could I have been so stupid?”

The opportunity to do something for the first time on my own was so absurdly thrown away.

Bernardo was a puppet. He was born as a puppet, lived like a puppet, and eventually died a puppet-like death without being able to break the rope.

Bernardo drew in a breath. The winter air was cold and had the fishy smell of iron. Above them, Hugo Bern’s sword fell again. Bernardo looked at the vaguely approaching blade of the sword, then closed his eyes.