LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 62
62 Chapter
‘Ah… so dirty…’
I twisted my face in disgust, feeling as filthy as seeing a pile of trash. They always pick on me, especially when I’m feeling like this.
Just as I was about to draw my sword to break down some bones and flesh,
Thud!
“Ugh! What, what’s happening?”
A menacing sword sliced through the packs around me. I couldn’t see its form, but it was like an intangible aura wrapped around the sword.
‘Here comes trouble.’
I sighed at the approaching presence I had already felt.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the alley.
It had barely been a few minutes since I saw them, yet I was already accustomed to their figure. A thick lemon scent captured my attention amid the alley’s stench.
“Those crazy bastards deserve to be shark bait!”
A furious man entered the alley.
“What the hell are you! Why are you butting in? Gah!”
“Shut up! Die!”
The man, exuding a hellish atmosphere, kicked one of the thugs. The kicked thug crashed into the wall with a loud noise. That was just the beginning, as the man began to brutally assault the thugs one-sidedly.
‘Ugh…
Watching that man fight on my behalf stirred strange feelings in me. It was amusing, like a baby kitten trying to protect a tiger, and at the same time, it felt odd that he was so enraged on my account.
I thought as I watched a man effortlessly subdue the thugs with just martial arts, without even drawing his sword.
‘He knows me already.’
My mind weighed down by previous assumptions as I compared the only visible part of the man’s face—the chin I remembered.
‘He looks somewhat familiar…’
I tilted my head in confusion. It wasn’t that my memory was poor; it was rather that the man’s face evoked a vague and hazy feeling.
‘…Is he using a magic tool that obscures his features?’
I frowned. If the sword master couldn’t see through it at a glance, it must have been quite expensive. And if it was expensive, it meant the man was wealthy. My thoughts spiraled anxiously.
“If my brain is halved, I won’t have any more dirty thoughts, right?”
Before I knew it, the man who had already knocked down three thugs pulled the sword stuck in the ground ominously. It looked like he intended to kill them outright. The moment he gripped the hilt with tension, the aura around him fluttered and then vanished quickly.
‘Looks like he’s trying to conceal his aura.’
I narrowed my eyes. The man had quickly regained control of his energy, but as a sword master, there was no way I could have missed that moment.
‘Alexandros’s aura was clearly described as white in the original story.’
In response to the many questions about why the fierce tyrant Alexandros’s aura was white, the author replied:
‘Alexandros burned away the limit that blocked his path, so his aura is a fiery color mingled with the ash that remains.’
It was truly a classic Alexandros move.
‘But the color of the man’s aura I just caught a glimpse of… was definitely a fluorescent lime green.’
A color resembling absinthe, looking as if it could melt and drip at any moment. It was distinctly different from Alexandros’s aura.
‘…Is my prediction off?’
I scrunched my face. Indeed, thinking was hard for me.
‘What’s more suitable for me is a direct confrontation.’
I swiftly approached the man aiming his sword at the thugs using mana. Shrouded in faint black smoke, it hardly took a second to reach right in front of him.
The man’s sword-hand twitched slightly as he noticed me closing in suddenly. His mouth gaped open in surprise.
“Murder is a no-go.”
He looked at me as if he couldn’t comprehend my quiet whisper. Of course, his eyes were hidden under the hood, so it seemed that way.
‘I, too, wouldn’t want to crush them if I could help it.’
No matter how composed I was as a sword master, emotions do not vanish just because my mental age is older. Those kinds of loathsome words still made me furious.
‘But soon, regardless of my wishes, I will have to kill countless people. I don’t want to add more karma to my personal issues.’
There would come a time when I’d need to wield the sword to protect what’s precious to me. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill then, even if encompassed by sympathy and pity, but not now.
‘And above all…
“There’s no need to sully your hands with such filth.”
I whispered softly with my face close to his. While I didn’t necessarily need to help, I didn’t want the man who fought in rage for me to dirty his hands because of those thugs.
“Ha…”
The man, who seemed lost in thought, let out a faint sigh. The distance was so close that I could feel his soft breath brush against my skin.
“You’re still the same, you know?”
His voice, low and raspy, whispered to me.
Saying he was the same meant he was aware of the past me.
I smiled at a man who no longer seemed to be hiding his identity.
“You’ve changed a lot, haven’t you?”
I teased him in a slightly playful tone while pulling out my sword from its sheath, tossing back his hood. The man accepted my touch as if he had been waiting for this moment.
And there were his eyes—identical to my recollections, glowing with fluorescent lime green.
A hazardous shade that made it seem as if it could quickly transform into the perfect glass of absinthe with a dash of sugar water. The very same color I had once praised as beautiful in a detestable boy. Despite its apparent danger of choking my neck, it was still a beautiful poison I wished to touch.
“Long time no see, Leo.”
I gazed at his light brown hair swaying gently in the spring night breeze, whispering the name that had sunk into memory. No matter how much a magic tool obscured one’s features, once I locked eyes with that unique gaze, there was no way I could mistake him.
“Right?”
After a long silence, he slowly opened his mouth. The whirlwind of emotions in his dazzling eyes transformed into sheer joy.
Just like the poison boiling in a witch’s cauldron, his fluorescent lime green eyes bubbled with excitement.
He slowly reached out his hand to remove my mask. His movements were careful and slow, as if he could slip away at any moment. There was no aura around searching for us, so I let him take my mask off.
As the mask was pulled down, my face felt slightly bare. He looked at my naked visage and grinned like a satisfied beast.
The distance between us grew smaller, and the man, a head taller than me, leaned down to touch foreheads, confirming our warmth together. His white forehead was quite warm.
With only each other in view, Leo smirked.
“Long time no see, Shushu.”
His low voice tickled my ear. His previously fierce eyes now contained softness, and the sharp corners of his gaze softened.
Like flaming absinthe, his burning eyes held a sweet smile that concealed danger.
“I missed you. Really.”
The boy, who had suddenly returned after disappearing for five years, had grown up to the point where I could no longer call him a boy.
Our foreheads touched as our eyes exchanged glances. Even though he leaned slightly, I had to angle my head just to meet his gaze.
I pulled back slightly, keeping my distance as I carefully observed him. He received my curious gaze with delight.
The once cherubic face had sharpened into something knife-like, and the eyes that used to hold childish stubbornness now brimmed with a peculiar intensity, like a predator after a meal.
The boy who once shone as the most beautiful child in history now exuded mature and captivating beauty befitting a complete adult.
‘This… seems like he has changed quite a bit?’
I slightly parted my lips. Although his boyish visage remained faintly, what on earth had transpired over the past five years that had caused such a daunting growth?
“You…
Are you the king of the Atara Kingdom…?”
Only one question filled my mind with Leo so close, but I swallowed the question that danced on my tongue.
In my mind, I was already 99% convinced that Leo was Alexandros, but not fully understanding the situation, I decided to hold off on asking directly.
“Why aren’t you speaking after calling for me?”
Lost in thought with a dazed expression, Leo leaned down to close the distance I had dropped. Flinching, I involuntarily spoke my thoughts without filter.
“Ah, you’re still alive, huh…?”
‘Damn it! That was way too cheeky!’
I squeezed my eyes shut, recalling my own words. We had been childhood friends, close neighbors. Even aware he might be a king, my mouth had slipped.
“Hahaha!”
Leo, blinked at my words and burst into roaring laughter. After a while, he looked at me with his eyes forming crescent shapes. It was quite an enticing look.
“Of course. I said I would come to see you again.”
‘…Is this really Leo?’
I instinctively stepped back from him. Such warmth and eloquence were unfathomable for the crazy feline Leo I once knew.
‘You… have changed so much.’
Ignoring the surging oddities within me, I attempted to be as ordinary as possible when asking how he was but, once again, my mouth didn’t listen to my brain.
“Why… don’t you call me sister anymore?”
‘Damn it! Am I really going crazy!’
I wanted to strike my mouth. The person in front of me might be a king, so I told myself to be respectful, but my mouth kept rebelling against my brain, addressing him as if it were five years ago.
At my discontented remark, Leo’s expression hardened.
“…I will never call you that, Shushu.”
In an instant, his serious face turned coldly treacherous. I felt that I had touched something I shouldn’t have, judging by the wild intensity in his burning gaze.
‘You used to call me that just fine, why…
In the beginning, he had called me all sorts of things—bastard, little shit, dead man—but near the end, he did call me sister.
Staring blankly at Leo while rapidly blinking, he smirked and slowly lifted his hand to caress my jaw.
His gentle touch was slow enough that I could push him away at any moment. Yet, for some reason, I felt a sense of danger.
As if it were plucking some hidden panic within me, his large, strong hand tickled my neck and then captured my cheek. With the mask off, his warm hand directly met my skin.
Gazing at me with eyes that seemed to be boiling with something, Leo twisted his lips into a slight smirk and leaned closer to my ear.
“Even now, you think I’m so childish that I can’t understand the meaning of this blatant behavior? How much younger do you think I’d be if I called you sister?”