Chapter 184

The very next day, with Irexana’s full support, Leon’s party had finished their preparations and were moving swiftly. They didn’t even need to push at full speed; simply running fast was enough. Crossing the empty stretch between Jugend’s border and the Clyde Empire wouldn’t take even half a day.

“

Um

, Mr. Hero?” Karen called.

“Yeah?”

When Leon turned at her voice, he found her wearing a hesitant expression.

She asked cautiously, “Was that... really the right choice? Just brushing Cedric off like that...”

When Leon received Cedric’s request to travel with them, relayed through Irexana just last night, he had decided to refuse on the spot. No matter how he tried to see it, Cedric’s intentions felt impure.

So, Leon had not only rejected the request but also asked Irexana to mislead him, pointing him in the opposite direction of their true destination. Cedric would never imagine that Irexana, the Cardinal and Grand Meister himself, might feed him an outright lie.

“It’s fine. What you’re worried about won’t happen.”

Reassuring Karen, Leon recalled the brief clash of blades he’d had with Cedric.

Truly, he was worthy of the name “Sword Demon”. He was more blade than man, a monster in human form. Why he had asked to accompany Leon, or what hidden purpose he carried, Leon couldn’t guess. Whether good or evil, his intent was a complete mystery.

A single Swordmaster’s strength might be tempting, but an ally he couldn’t trust would only increase the risk.

That man is too dangerous.

Strength aside, his very nature was alien. When Leon had crossed blades with Cedric and looked into his eyes, he had felt a chill. It was colorless. The man was holding his sword with the intent to kill, yet his gaze contained not the faintest trace of murderous will.

El-Cid, reading his thoughts, spoke.

—You caught it perfectly. Even if he looks rational on the surface, the world he sees is nothing more than things he can cut and things he cannot. He has no interest in what he can cut but obsesses over what he cannot.

By something he can’t cut, you don’t mean...

Leon’s hand reflexively brushed his belt. El-Cid confirmed his suspicion.

—Yeah. The Holy Sword.

A memory flashed. During their duel in the training grounds, Cedric’s eyes had gone wild. He’d abandoned all rational strikes just to aim at the Holy Sword, and in the end, not only failed miserably but shattered his own blade. That alone was more than enough reason for him to hound Leon.

The impossibility of it made it all the worse.

Not even Rodrick in his lifetime could break this sword—what does he think he’s going to do...?

Leon acknowledged Cedric’s strength. The Aura Blade he had forged with his life—one that could “cut anything”—was beautiful in its own way. In most cases, function and form might be separate realms, but at the pinnacle, the line separating the two blurred.

Cedric’s Aura Blade could sever another of equal strength. Actually, its density was enough to slice through one that was even greater in terms of sheer output.

The Holy Sword, however, was a problem different from an Aura Blade. To destroy the Holy Sword El-Cid would mean surpassing Rodrick, who had once split mountains with a single swing.

Refusing him was the right choice.

An Aura Blade was more than crystallized power—it was a manifestation of the wielder’s very way of life and martial essence. Just as Leon had taken up the wings of the sun to challenge the impossible, Cedric had taken up a razor’s edge to cut down anything in his path.

That much was fine. The problem lay beyond that.

If he learns that his effort to cut the Holy Sword was always going to be futile, he might break. And once he does, he will go berserk.

An Aura Master was one whose heart, spirit, and body had fused and stepped into a higher realm. They didn’t waver easily, but if the very core, the heart that birthed their Aura Blade, collapsed, body and spirit alike would turn inside out.

The instant Cedric accepted that the Holy Sword was “uncuttable,” the Aura Blade he had honed his entire life would tear his mind and body apart.

And a Sword Master driven mad would, by instinct, target the cause—the Holy Sword, and the man wielding it: Leon.

—I think you’re jumping to the conclusion there, but I guess it’s not impossible. Personally, I thought he might just kill you and take the sword.

Yeah, you might be onto something there...

As El-Cid said, it was easier to compromise than to give up altogether. Either way, Cedric was a threat. Refusing his request to join them had been the right call.

Then, Elahan suddenly asked, “Hero Leon, couldn’t Cedric be an agent of the Evil Order?”

“Cedric?” Leon asked, surprised.

“Yes. I’ve never met him, but just from what Karen told me, and also what you’ve been saying, he sounds dangerous.”

Leon hadn’t even considered the possibility. Realizing why, he chuckled, and Karen, too, smiled faintly. They exchanged a look before Leon answered first.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because the Cedric I met wasn’t someone who could be swayed or controlled.”

To him, wealth and fame were worth less than a pebble in the road. If something caught his eye, he’d cut it down—beggar or emperor, without a thought for consequences.

The only reason he even stayed with the Guild was to let someone else handle the paperwork. He had no sense of belonging or loyalty.

And to force Cedric into submission would take nothing less than a bishop, one of the Nine Hells of Evil. With his personality, he’d rather die fighting than kneel to anyone.

The Evil Order were lunatics, true—but putting two maniacs in the same room didn’t make them allies. They’d just shout over each other and start brawling. Elahan seemed to accept that explanation and fell silent.

A short while later, Karen leaped lightly and pointed to the horizon.

“

Ah

, the walls,” she pointed out.

There was only one fortress in the area, and it was Alger, one of the five strongholds guarding the Empire’s border. Decades ago, during clashes with Jugend, it had stood as the foremost line of defense.

Leon’s group halted a few kilometers from Alger.

“

Hm

. The defenses are tight.”

“Of course.”

The rebellion had already erupted on a massive scale, and now, Ferma, Hispania, and the Meril Union were all stirring ominously. If Alger’s garrison were to slack off under such circumstances, one could almost call them legends in their own right.

Dozens of soldiers stood at the gates even in broad daylight, scanning the horizon. At this rate, a hundred meters closer and Leon’s party would be spotted at once.

“From here, we go in quietly,” Leon suggested.

“Understood.”

Hiding behind a massive boulder, the three began discussing ways to enter Alger.

“What about climbing the wall at night?”

“The sun won’t set for hours yet.”

“If I use my shadows to cross space...

Ah

, no good. The whole fortress is covered in detection magic. Finding a blind spot would take at least half a day.”

“If the gate were open, we could’ve used our false identities... makes me wonder why we even bothered bringing them.”

As Leon said, the three looked a little different than usual. Their hair and eye colors had been altered, their equipment dressed up to look shabbier, and even the Holy Sword was disguised as a worn-out longsword. To top it off, the badges were forged to show them as B-rank adventurers. Not that it mattered much now.

“No choice, then. I’ll have to use my secret infiltration technique,” Elahan said with seriousness.

“Secret infiltration technique?”

“You, Ella?”

The other two gave her dubious looks, but Elahan nodded proudly with a triumphant grin and explained, “I’ll have you know that I am the vice-commander of the Holy Iron Inquisitors. I’ve taken part in my fair share of infiltration operations before.”

“

Oho

...”

Seeing their expectant gazes, Elahan blushed faintly and raised both fists. Then, she gathered her power.

Holy Power and Aura fused, forming into glowing spheres. With that power in her fists, Elahan spread her legs wide, lowered her stance, and slammed both fists into the ground.

There was a

thud,

but the noise wasn’t even loud. Perhaps because she’d compressed the power to the extreme. Light burst from her fists, carving into the ground, and left a hole wide enough for several people to walk through.

It went down so deep that Karen couldn’t see the bottom. At least thirty meters, maybe more. If she’d aimed that at a person instead of the earth, there wouldn’t have been even bones left.

“Come on! Follow me!”

Elahan jumped into the hole first. The other two followed, barely hiding their bafflement.

A fall of several dozen meters was nothing to them. Landing underground with ease, Karen finally asked the question Leon hadn’t voiced.

“Hey, Ella? Do all Holy Iron Inquisitors infiltrate like this?”

“Yes! Even this, I was taught by Lady Angela. The trick is to open a passage that’s unseen and unheard.”

“R-right.”

As an assassin, Karen reconsidered what “infiltration” meant. Dozens of people capable of neatly carving through bedrock without a sound? She’d heard stories of the Inquisitors, even seen them in person, but reality still felt surreal.

A few more blows of Elahan’s glowing fists, and the group reached what seemed to be the underground of the fortress of Alger.

This time, it was Leon’s turn.

“Let’s see...” he muttered and pressed his Aura into the solid rock, sending vibrations echoing through the stone and reading the reverberations that bounced back. It was the Wave-Reverberation Technique he had developed in the tunnels of Jugend.

He swept the ground above for dozens of meters, locating a sector with no signs of people. The technique revealed not only living beings but also the layout of structures, making slipping past eyes quite simple.

Elahan’s fist once more carved a hole straight to the surface, and the three leaped out together. There was no sign of anyone.

They’d emerged into what looked like a slum, inside a crumbling building. Shadows wavered along the broken walls. Extending his senses through the area, Leon opened his eyes and spoke.

“Looks clear. No one around.”

“Better let me scout the perimeter, just in case.”

“Please do.”

At that, Karen melted into the shadows at their feet, vanishing at a speed even Leon and Elahan’s senses could barely trace.

Had it been in open light, sonic booms would have cracked the air. That was how fast she was.

“Wow! She’s even faster than before!” Elahan’s eyes went wide with admiration.

“Not faster, just more used to her techniques—at least, that’s what she told me. She shortened the process of switching shadows.”

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“I don’t really see the difference.”

“Neither do I. We don’t have the sense for shadows.”

Being Aura Masters didn’t mean they understood each other’s powers. In fact, having carved out their own worlds befitting their specific Aura abilities made others’ even harder to grasp.

How did Al Razzaz’s giant take form? How did Varg’s whirlwind coil around his legs? What was the true cutting power behind Cedric’s blade?

Leon couldn’t guess, nor could he comprehend. The Aura Blade—power born from one’s inner world—was a gift utterly unfriendly to outsiders.

Well, doesn’t matter. Not the time to worry about that.

He shook off his idle thoughts and tapped the disguised Holy Sword at his side. While Karen scouted, he was going to double-check their objective.

At his will, the sword shone brilliantly to reveal the Quest Map. The glowing map unfolded before them, marked in six colors.