LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 161
TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 161
A bolt of lightning struck amidst the pouring rain.
-Rumble!
The descending lightning created a flash, and the man’s dark smile flickered before Mikhail’s eyes.
Mikhail stared at the man in front of him.
At the scar on his eye.
At that black hair.
At that unforgettable smile, glaring with veins of rage in his eyes.
“…”
Mikhail moved his rigid, frozen body and drew his sword toward the man.
It was the first time.
The first time he exuded killing intent toward someone.
The first time he wanted to kill someone.
The first time he felt the urge to tear someone apart.
For Mikhail, it was the first time.
Mikhail, who had once been bound by the conviction of justice, now raised his sword toward the man, revealing intense killing intent.
Mikhail shouted softly toward the man.
“I’ll kill you.”
Mikhail’s voice, filled with deep anger, was drenched in a glistening killing intent. His eyes, fixed solely on the man before him, held nothing but the emotion called rage.
“If only… If only it weren’t for you… If it weren’t for you!!!”
Seeing Mikhail spew out his boiling anger, the man let out an empty laugh.
“Wow… What a masterpiece.”
The man admired the trembling tip of Mikhail’s sword. It was fascinating to see the work he had created.
Most Archbishops of the Heretics were broken in some way.
Some by an extreme inferiority complex.
Others by twisted art.
And the man before him was an Archbishop of the Heretics, obsessed with the emotion of revenge.
Standing in the falling rain, the man smiled.
“How does it feel? Doesn’t your chest burn just looking at me?”
“…”
“It does, doesn’t it?”
“…”
The man spoke with eyes filled with nostalgia, as if recalling beautiful old memories.
“Do you not remember that time when you stabbed that kid in the belly with a ‘plunge’?”
“Shut up.”
“Back then, your expression was priceless, gasping for breath while your hands were ‘trembling…'”
“…I said shut up.”
The man mimicked Mikhail’s trembling hands, imitating the way he had stabbed the boy while on the verge of tears. Unable to control himself, Mikhail swung his sword impulsively.
“I said shut up!”
The man easily dodged Mikhail’s sword and stepped back a pace.
“Whoa. That was close. You’ve gotten sharper.”
The man smirked and mocked Mikhail as he observed the aura rising from him.
“I knew you had talent. From the moment you ‘plunged’ that sword back then, I thought, ‘Ah… This guy’s got potential.'”
“Shut up… Shut up!”
Mikhail, overwhelmed by exploding emotions, swung his sword wildly in all directions.
The man, narrowing his sharp eyes, drew a dagger from his coat and approached Mikhail’s abdomen.
Just as the man’s dagger was about to pierce Mikhail’s abdomen—
“Snap out of it, Senior!”
With a booming shout, Hanna’s sword swiftly moved toward the man’s neck.
The man, letting out a laugh of disbelief, turned to look at Hanna.
“What is this now? Two aura users? Wow… The world really is going crazy.”
The man, wearing a troubled expression, sighed deeply and raised both hands.
“I can’t do this.”
The man began to retreat.
Hanna, without lowering her sword, kept her eyes fixed solely on the man.
Because the man was smiling.
Watching the man’s pupils dart around, searching for an opening, Hanna swallowed hard, adjusted her grip on her sword, and spoke to Mikhail.
“Snap out of it, Senior.”
“This is my fight…”
“I said snap out of it.”
Hanna spoke in a small voice to Mikhail.
“It seems you’re the target. Focus on defense.”
“I will kill…”
“Snap out of it!”
Mikhail hesitated.
He didn’t want to lose the man standing before him.
His feet, glued to the ground, refused to move as he wavered.
In the tense moment that made his entire body break out in goosebumps, the man smiled and spoke.
“What are you doing? I told you to run away.”
“Why aren’t you running?”
“That’s what you’re good at, isn’t it?”
“Why—”
“Aren’t you running away!”
With a loud roar, the man slammed the ground and charged forward.
Reacting too late to the sudden assault, Mikhail flailed as he swung his sword, but the man didn’t miss Mikhail’s opening.
Grabbing Mikhail by the neck, the man hurled him into a huge tree.
“Hahaha! See, you should’ve run when I told you to. Did you leave behind a teddy bear again like last time?”
Gritting his teeth, Mikhail wiped the red blood dripping from his mouth with his sleeve and raised his sword.
But the man didn’t wait for Mikhail, charging at him again after slamming the ground.
Hanna, rushing forward at high speed, was blocked by a group of heretics, while the man stood before Mikhail, sword in hand.
“Finally, it’s just the two of us.”
The man, holding daggers in both hands, slowly walked toward Mikhail.
“Did you feel abandoned?”
The aura emanating from Mikhail’s exhausted body began to fade.
He had rapidly consumed his mana due to his inability to control his emotions.
The man, seeing Mikhail’s aura grow faint, smiled and, with a ground-shaking sound, hurled himself toward Mikhail.
An endless confrontation began.
-Clang!
The clash between the man, swinging his sword to sever Mikhail’s life, and Mikhail, swinging his sword to sever the man’s life, echoed through the forest.
As the man’s sword and Mikhail’s sword collided, the trees in the forest trembled, and the man’s smile deepened.
“Good!”
“…”
“With those eyes desperate to kill me, come on! Do more!”
Gritting his teeth, Mikhail swung his sword. He wanted to grant the man’s wish to die, swinging his sword madly.
“Haaaaah!”
The man, smiling, parried Mikhail’s attacks.
“Hahaha! This is fun. It’s so much fun!”
“Shut that mouth of yours!”
“Ha… This is so thrilling. I’m glad I let you live back then.”
The man, keeping up with Mikhail’s sword at an incredible speed, spoke to Mikhail, who was drenched in cold sweat.
“Do you know?”
In a low, small voice.
Whispering toward Mikhail.
The man said.
“When you ran away, that kid…”
“…”
The moment the word ‘kid’ left the man’s mouth, a small crack began to form on Mikhail’s face.
Kid.
He had always wondered what happened to the boy who stayed behind after he fled.
Noticing the slight change in Mikhail, the man swung his sword broadly and whispered into Mikhail’s ear once more.
“He was alive?”
“What… did you say?”
“He clung to my leg so desperately. Even after I stomped on his face several times, he didn’t budge.”
“…No.”
‘Kuhk.’ The man’s laughter burst forth, and the cracks on Mikhail’s face widened into a massive fracture.
At the trembling tip of Mikhail’s sword, the corners of the man’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.
“I originally planned to kill you too.”
“I was going to kill him and then kill you as well.”
“But.”
The man spoke to Mikhail once again.
“That brat wouldn’t let go of me!”
Mikhail screamed at the man’s words.
“Shut up…!”
Swinging his sword with a scream filled with resentment, Mikhail’s attacks were swayed by his emotions.
It could be a lie.
He knew it might be a strategy to throw him off focus, but the storm of emotions was something Mikhail couldn’t control.
If it were that boy, he would have done it.
He believed the boy would have done it without hesitation.
A boy who had been kind to him without expecting anything in return.
“Aaaah!!! I’ll kill you!”
He believed it was possible.
Mikhail shouted, releasing his boiling rage. Like a man possessed, he swung his sword violently, blooming the Aura’s Flower to kill the man before him.
Mikhail was growing stronger.
Yet, the man, as if finding the situation amusing, didn’t bother hiding the twitching corners of his mouth and let out maniacal laughter.
“Yeah! So, do you know what I did?!”
“…”
“Do you know what I did to that kid who looked like he was about to die any second?!”
“Aaaaaah!”
Laughing like someone watching an entertaining play, the man spoke nonchalantly.
“I sold him to the heretics.”
“…”
“You know, don’t you? What those bastards do to civilians. You’ve heard the rumors.”
“…”
Seeing Mikhail’s wavering eyes, the man let out a loud sneer and mocked him.
“It’s a famous rumor. How could you not know?”
“Poor kid, huh?”
The man took a deep breath and swung his sword widely.
“Not even getting credit for being burned alive.”
The man’s dagger, slicing through the air with a sound of splitting wind, aimed to cut through Mikhail along with the trees.
With a ‘clang,’ Mikhail’s body staggered. The man kicked Mikhail and spoke.
“Those bastards said they’d buy him as long as he was still breathing.”
“…”
“So I sold him.”
-Clang!!!!
“While you were playing in a warm place! That kid was probably in a basement, unable to even drink water.”
-Creak!
“Waiting for rescue!”
-Pause.
The man smiled as he looked at Mikhail’s frozen sword.
“Burned alive. You didn’t know, did you?”
The bright aura flowing from Mikhail’s body faded. He no longer had mana or the strength to endure.
Mikhail stared at the man with a hollow expression.
Seeing Mikhail biting his lip with a trembling, tearful face, the man smiled with delight and spoke.
“How does it feel?”
“Stop it…”
“Isn’t it fun?”
The man brought his dagger to Mikhail’s neck and spoke. Mikhail, having exhausted all his strength, raised his trembling hand to hold his sword, but it wouldn’t move.
“Send my regards to that kid.”
And the man thought to himself.
‘Though he might already be dead.’
The moment the man’s gleaming blade grazed Mikhail’s neck, Mikhail closed his eyes and shed tears.
“Goodbye.”
Just as the man’s dagger was about to touch Mikhail’s neck.
“Stop.”
A cold voice halted the man in his tracks.
-Pause.
The man stiffly turned his head to look back. He felt a killing intent so intense it seemed to freeze his entire body.
Mistaking it for the presence of an apostle, the man turned his head, and before him stood a young man wearing a mask.
The young man in the black mask was smiling at the man.
Dressed in a black uniform, the young man simply stood there, staring at him, making the man feel as though his body had turned cold.
The fear of the guillotine.
A chilling sensation, as if even the slightest movement would cause his head to fall, made the man swallow hard as he stared at the young man.
And Mikhail slowly opened his previously closed eyes.
-Kiddo.
It was a shadow that blocked out the darkness.
The fear of death.
A massive back that shielded him from despair.
Mikhail, shedding tears, gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, as if he had momentarily seen the boy’s back.
‘Again… by this guy.’
Overwhelmed by humiliation at receiving help from the man he hated most in the world, Mikhail lowered his head and let go of his sword.
-Clang.
After a long silence, the young man slowly opened his mouth.
“How about we end this here and go back?”
The man, with trembling eyes, spoke to the young man.
“What if I refuse?”
“Then you die.”
Crazy bastard.
The man let out a hollow laugh and asked the young man.
“Let me ask you one thing. Who the hell are you?”
“A human.”
“No…”
The man coughed out a bitter laugh and spoke.
“I meant, what do you do?”
The young man gave a faint smile and replied.
“I am their guardian.”