Star-Embracing Swordmaster (Full)

Marcella quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the boy in front of her with a furrowed brow.

It was a face she missed, but it was also a face that shouldn't be here.

"Leave, quickly."

With all her strength, Marcella pressed her lips together in desperation.

"Go!"

The urgency in her tone, barely above a whisper, was palpable.

Tears still lingered on Marcella's cheeks.

Vlad tilted his head as he looked at her.

So the moment had come.

The place that had been my home.

He spoke with his eyes, fighting back tears in the dim light.

"…!"

Something shiny falls from the sky.

Above the mire of men's desires, Vlad watched the starlight flow pathetically.

It would be a flower, even if it fell to the ground and was trampled, if it still retained its fragrance.

The boy slowly rose from his seat, smelling the rose for the first time in a long while.

It was time to wipe away his tears.

***

"....."

Madame sensed the tension between the blonde man and Marcella.

But she was also a survivor of the alleys.

Accustomed to such contingencies, Madame gestured silently to the men sitting at the back table.

"Get him out!"

The men who received Madame's signal stood up one after another.

They seemed to be at least more than ten people.

All were Jack's subordinates sent here.

"But you should pay first."

However, even amidst an unsettling atmosphere, the blonde man rose casually and simply looked at Madame.

His blue eyes flashed with red veins.

"Before giving 100 gold coins to Madame, I need to make some calculations on my own."

Madame was taken aback. The man who until recently seemed like a young noble now resembled a hungry wolf.

"What calculations?"

Madame swallowed carefully before opening her mouth.

The men filled with lust began to slowly back away from the impressive momentum emanating from the blonde man.

At that moment, Jack's henchmen, who had been silently observing, slowly drew their knives and approached.

In an atmosphere like an impending storm.

"Lame Jack."

The man who slowly raised his head spoke.

"There's something I must receive from him."

Upon hearing the name of someone she didn't expect at all, Madame was bewildered and wanted to ask what it meant, but...

Splat-

Suddenly, she felt blood on her face and could do nothing but shut her mouth.

A henchman of Jack's, attempting to sneak up from behind, crumpled powerless.

"Stay here and wait."

A trickle of blood dripped from Vlad's sword.

"Because if I don't get it from them, I'll get it from you."

The wolf released from its cage let out a hungry drool.

After a long time, and with inevitable tasks ahead of him.

"Clear the way! Move!"

"What the hell is going on with that guy?"

From a place where lust ran rampant, it suddenly turned into a murder scene in the back alleys.

Guests who saw that began to scream and shout in terror.

"Go for him now!"

"Where did that bastard come from?!"

Unleashed beasts.

Fleeing from desires.

Vlad smiled faintly as he saw Jack's men charging at him, growling.

"I guess I missed this…"

Vlad felt his toes sinking back into the filth.

But it didn't matter.

The star the boy had once dreamed of was now in his hands, not high above the forge.

"Bastard, who sent you!"

"...Who sent me?"

Vlad couldn't help but chuckle at a phrase he hadn't heard in a long time.

So he answered.

The name of someone who had been in his heart for so long.

"Jorge."

"What?"

With those words, Vlad drew a dagger from the sheath at his waist.

It was the dagger of the man who had picked him up and told him to carry it at all times.

"Jorge sent me."

Jorge's dagger, along with the sword, was plunged into the men's throat.

Although he fled breathless that day, not today.

The boy had navigated many rivers to shout his name.

So today, in this place.

He had returned with the right to shout his own name.

"Here's Vlad you've been looking for!"

Marcella covered her mouth with her hand, stifling the exclamation.

She remembered.

The boy who had shouted behind the knight of the blue moon who was leaving.

"Come to kill me like that day!"

Vlad struck again and again.

The shackles around his ankles.

"That bastard was Vlad!"

"And he survived!"

Understanding the boy's cries, the beasts charged, sharp teeth gleaming.

"Come, bastards!"

With bright red blood, the man running towards him was being dragged into the boy's world.

One scream for every sword.

One life for every scream.

Vlad, with furious eyes, made his way through Jack's men.

He wouldn't leave any alive, not even for Marcella, who cried tears of blood.

Vlad dodged with the steps taught to him by the knight as they lunged at him, tearing their ears off as he had been taught in the alleys.

It was a messy move, but one that sought only effectiveness.

"Ah!"

Although some tried to flee from the boy's ferocity, there was no mercy for them.

Vlad grabbed the man attempting to escape, pulling him by the hair as he fell and plunging his dagger into his throat.

Blood flowed like a fountain, covering the floor of the establishment with a chilling cold.

"No, it's not us!"

"Please, forgive us!"

Those who had been dragged here by desire cried out, clinging to the wall.

Though his anger was not directed at them, he could bear no more.

"Ah!"

Vlad grabbed one of Jack's men hiding among the crowd and without hesitation plunged Jorge's dagger into his throat.

The man's eyes rolled in his head.

"Ah, ah!"

The last of Jack's men, who had managed to reach the door, staggered, trying to rise in desperation, but what awaited him were the guards of Soara surrounding the entrance.

"Why don't we finish this inside? We'd be better off."

Vlad's calm voice from behind, though oddly tranquil, sent a shiver down the man's spine.

"No, please, no!"

"No."

Vlad trampled the Jack's man lying on the ground and, mercilessly, slit his throat with his dagger.

The man clung to the wound on his neck, trying to stop the constant flow of blood, but it was a futile struggle.

"If they had caught me that day, they wouldn't have let me live either."

It was one of the laws of the streets—if you can't kill, you die.

"Ah ahh."

In the alley, where only silence reigned, Jorge's dagger swallowed the last scream of someone.

***

The Smile of Rose.

It used to be a symbol of the streets of Soara, but now it was a nest of worms where a man drank.

"Another drink."

With the hook on his left arm, he broke the ice and let it drop into his glass in front of him.

"Boss, you've had too much to drink."

"...."

The subordinate beside him tried to persuade him to stop, but One-handed Jack just stared at his glass without saying a word.

The knight of the prostitutes, Jorge.

Since he disappeared, the streets of Soara had practically become his property, but One-handed Jack was not pleased.

Rather, he sank more and more into alcohol every day.

And as he deteriorated, so did alley life.

"Is this all I can do my way? Forget about empty words, pour me another drink."

"Yes, boss..."

Watching as the liquor rained down like rain, One-handed Jack turned his head to look at his subordinates below him.

The boys chatted unknowingly.

Would they know?

Our lives are determined solely by those above.

"A shitty life."

Although he lived in a dark alley, One-handed Jack was ambitious.

He would ascend higher.

He wouldn't stop here.

That's why he didn't hesitate to steal and use the bodies of his enemies to ascend gladly.

Winners are above, losers below.

He firmly believed that everything was obtained through victory, but here he was, despite his defeat.

That day he had lost to Jorge.

But in the end, it was Jorge who died.

"This shitty world."

Someday, I'll be like that too.

Someone above will decide my fate.

Like Jorge, who died so pathetically that day.

"In the end, it means nothing."

One-handed Jack downed the bitter liquor in one gulp and trembled with the excitement of boiling alcohol.

It was a night when he couldn't sleep without getting drunk.

Bang!

"Boss, boss!"

At that moment, a man opened the door so abruptly that everyone present turned around.

"Boss, there's a big problem!"

"What's going on?"

"Why? What's happening?"

One by one, Jack's men asked as they watched the man run up the stairs to the fourth floor, breathless, but the man who had suddenly appeared just ran up the stairs until he was out of breath.

"Boss!"

"What the hell!"

Only when Jack was in front of him could the man speak with difficulty between short breaths.

"We're surrounded!"

"What?" 

Jack's brow furrowed at the man's unexpected words.

"This place?"

"Not just here, but…"

The man reporting swallowed hard and then spoke in a low voice.

"The entire back alley is surrounded. The soldiers have surrounded us."

"Get out of the way."

One-handed Jack, who finally put down his glass of alcohol due to the unusual look, roughly pushed the man in front of him and got up.

"Boss!"

"Are you okay?"

The subordinates came forward to support Jack as he staggered down the stairs.

"Shit..."

As he descended the stairs, Jack looked outside through a confused gaze.

The back alleys of Soara, shrouded in darkness.

Instead of the lights that should be tempting customers from the night-lit streets, there were lights of another kind surrounding him.

"Open the door!"

Jack shouted as they finally reached the ground floor, and his men hurried to open the door.

"What the hell."

As they stepped out, they were greeted by a crowd of torches.

Under those torches were the figures of soldiers standing in an orderly manner.

"Ha."

Jack, the one-handed man observing the scene, let out a sound that he didn't know whether it was a sigh or an exclamation.

"Boss, we're surrounded, we're surrounded."

"I know."

But even in the face of the threatening sight, One-handed Jack remained indifferent.

"...Looks like we have company."

"What?

"You shouldn't be here, you should be preparing for the guests."

Moving away from the lights that would bring the end, One-handed Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

It was more reassuring to see doom right in front of him than the anxiety of not knowing when it would come.