Chapter 658. Conversation (1)
Sword Path (劍路).
I had always wanted to reach the end of it someday.
In that sense, I wanted to have a conversation.
With that man, Shegwin, the one who was called the Sword Saint.
Someone might ask,
In the past, Shegwin did not help the Empire in its time of crisis.
In fact, he was more of an opportunist who joined the rebellion.
‘That’s not entirely wrong.’
Harkon smiled faintly.
‘But what use is that now?’
He knew.
He knew he was already dead.
In this moment, he could reminisce about the past, hold a sword in his hand, and even unleash the power of sword aura, but he was fully aware that he wasn’t alive.
Harkon spoke to Leaseheartz.
“As expected, you are from the Claudi family. I could not resist you.”
The fact that he had stabbed his own heart to stop that man didn’t change.
Was he angry?
Well, everything is a matter of perspective, isn’t it?
‘For someone who had lived a life with an expiration date, I envy it to some extent.’
The sword aura grew stronger at the crossroads between life and death.
Sword aura holds immense power that cannot be explained, but the cost is that it consumes the remaining life.
Harkon had once harbored animosity toward Shegwin, but he had let it go for this very reason.
For a moment, Harkon lowered his head and looked at his own body.
‘The end of the sword path is far away, but my body was already deteriorating.’
You must have wanted to regain your youth, even if it meant borrowing the power of demons.
I, too, have resented the hollow life I lived in the past.
But Harkon did not deceive himself.
‘Perhaps the sword path never truly existed in the first place.’
Do you understand, my lord?
Harkon felt the change in himself as he spent time with Hoyeol.
Before the Cataclysm.
When the Empire’s might reached the heavens.
The time when he first joined the Lionheart Knights.
Looking back from his current perspective…
‘…I had no pride back then.’
He had been someone who sought recognition for his insignificant origins.
A past self that repeated meaningless battles and massacres.
Some might comfort him, saying that it was something that had to happen naturally during the Empire’s expansion.
‘If that’s the case, then at least they can’t blame you, Shegwin.’
Indeed.
The lords who allied with Shegwin and advanced toward the Empire’s capital, Antonium, were those who had suffered humiliation in the Empire’s expansion wars, or their descendants.
“Everything follows, doesn’t it?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Except for one thing.”
Descendants.
Harkon looked at Leaseheartz.
More precisely, he looked at the brilliant silver hair, identical to his lord.
The symbol of the Claudi family.
‘Grandfell.’
Through the World Tree.
And through Leaseheartz.
Harkon learned that Grandfell was the embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins’ Pride.
But to Harkon, Grandfell was still ‘the Lord’.
Grandfell was the one he had just spoken of, the “one exception.”
Swish.
Harkon raised his sword toward Leaseheartz.
‘I am not Akshan’s demon hunter.’
Grandfell,
I have no ability to distinguish whether your words are sincere or deceitful.
But I am certain of one thing.
Even if you were born as the vessel of Pride,
what flows through your blood is not the malice of demons.
Harkon smirked lightly.
“Perhaps if it were pride.”
“…?!!”
Leaseheartz flinched.
Leaseheartz unconsciously took a step back from Harkon, who had assumed a combat stance.
Even the head of the Claudi family, who once ruled over the Arcana continent, could not understand the situation.
‘Resurrection? No, he is just an ordinary Imperial knight.’
Thanks to his possession, hadn’t he confirmed everything?
From his inconsequential background to his mundane desires.
In simple terms, he was just a plain, ordinary human.
But.
‘How could he push me back with just his momentum?’
How did he even come back to life?
Unless he was killed by a demon hunter, demons, as long as malice exists, can resurrect. But humans cannot. His heart, his blood, must have stopped long ago…
It was as if Harkon had pierced his innermost thoughts.
Harkon continued.
“Isn’t it strange?”
“?”
“I gave up everything, and yet, I reached the end of the sword path.”
Swish.
Harkon no longer spoke.
Instead, he acted.
Following someone’s teachings.
Harkon unleashed the end of his sword path.
Thud.
Leaseheartz’s chest was pierced.
Leaseheartz was bewildered.
In the final moments, he couldn’t even follow the movement of a mere knight with his eyes.
Was it because he wasn’t in perfect condition?
No.
This was the Arcana continent.
He was the head of the Claudi family who ruled the Arcana continent.
Even if he couldn’t fully restore his past power, to be pierced by a mere human—
A frail, old knight, no less…
‘Wait.’
Leaseheartz, clutching his chest, finally saw.
Harkon, standing with his fully restored legs, not a prosthetic in sight.
Leaseheartz, speechless at this impossible situation, heard Harkon speak.
“You wonder how I came back to life? I too wondered the same.
More importantly, how could someone as insignificant as me carry out the heavy task bestowed by my Lord? I struggled with it. But all of it was pointless.”
My Lord must have had this in mind all along.
Whoosh.
Harkon gazed at the green flame rising in the air.
It was the hellfire he had seen before in the Adventurers’ Guild.
The hellfire that burns demons, preventing them from ever resurrecting again.
Clink.
Harkon smiled at the silhouette beyond the flames.
As an Imperial knight.
He had words he needed to say to them.
“I, Harkon Kingsguard, Knight Commander of the Lionheart Knights, will convey the Empire’s apology. After the flood of demons from the demon world, His Majesty the Emperor also deeply regrets hearing your words.”
Words were replaced by action.
Clink.
Their silver arrows pierced Leaseheartz, who was in disbelief.
“Ah, no…!!”
Immediately, Leaseheartz was engulfed in hellfire, beginning to burn.
He plummeted into the unyielding pit of hellfire, unable to rise.
“It’s time.”
Having completed his mission, Harkon began to disperse into the air.
Harkon looked one last time toward the Arcana continent.
Towards the Empire’s capital, Antonium.
He thought of the Emperor who had gone before.
‘I have so much to say, Your Majesty.’
I don’t know what you would think, but I truly have a lot to say.
It’s been a short life, or maybe a long one, but thanks to the name of Kingsguard you gave me, I’ve had the rarest experiences.
Of course.
‘But it’s the kindness of those who took me in when I had nowhere to go that I owe the most.’
The world of adventurers.
In that world, Harkon and the Lionheart Knights were nothing but outsiders.
But the ‘Lord’ they spoke of never called them NPCs, which was a strange title.
Maybe it started from then.
‘…When I began to be influenced by your pride.’
Harkon turned his gaze again to the Akshan demon hunters.
Why did they come back from hell to the Arcana continent?
He didn’t need to guess to know the reason.
Harkon asked.
“You’ve come to hunt demons, right?”
The Akshan demon hunters didn’t answer.
This time, it was more action than words.
They simply looked up at the sky.
More precisely, they gazed at the rising Evil Eye in the sky.
Harkon smiled faintly.
“I won’t try to stop you…
I know how stubborn Akshan can be.”
However, there was one last thing he needed to say.
Harkon lifted his head and looked up at the Evil Eye.
“But there’s one thing you should remember.”
It was the deepest sincerity.
“Not all demons are the same.
Perhaps there are demons with greater pride than even weak humans like us.”
Harkon swallowed his final words as he gazed at the Evil Eye.
‘…I hope the one I followed is such a being.’
And so, Harkon began to resonate across the Arcana continent once again, becoming a legend.
The Akshan hunters, watching his figure for the last time, pulled their hoods tightly over their heads.
They were here to track their prey—something they had been after for a long time.
*
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Damn, it feels like my eyeballs are about to fall out.
‘Forget it, what’s the point of staring at it?’
The system window was filled with ‘■’ everywhere.
The only thing that seemed intact was the quest window for the class quest.
Because of that, I couldn’t even figure out what message was popping up at this moment. But still, with my experience as a player, I could at least make an educated guess.
‘Harkon.’
To honor him, I used not only construction magic but even [Aesthetic] to build a statue.
When I did, King Hakuna of Yusra stammered.
-“B-but, Your Excellency, isn’t the life or death of Sir Harkon still unconfirmed…? Even though we get our news from the world of adventurers, who never lie…?”
Hakuna too had received swordsmanship teachings from Harkon.
It must have been hard for him to accept Harkon’s death right away.
I could completely understand his feelings.
…Sigh.
I instinctively tightened my grip on the flowers.
‘Even I, who saw it firsthand, can’t accept it.’
But even though I didn’t want to admit it, I couldn’t deny the truth.
What I had felt with the senses of a demon hunter wasn’t simply possession.
It was nearly a complete theft.
And I had been waiting for a chance to re-enter the Arcana continent, just to recover Harkon’s body.
‘Raymon Sean.’
That bastard returned to AAU.
When I first heard that news, my anger flared up to the point my head felt like it would explode.
Is there even a need to say much?
Raymon Sean was one of the few people that Grandfell and I considered to be no different from demons.
But.
‘What’s his game?’
After checking the emergency update log, I couldn’t help but suppress my anger.
Raymon Sean had shown respect to Harkon.
In that respect, I thought like Hoyeol would.
Since Raymon Sean returned to AAU and showed respect to Harkon, there must be something behind it.
I’ll find out if it’s a trick when I meet him in person.
‘After all, even Grandfell did that.’
Just like with Paimon.
No matter how much of a detestable being someone might be, if they showed respect, you’d at least engage in conversation.
I placed the flowers in front of Harkon’s statue and immediately headed toward the Yusra branch of AAU.
‘It’s only been a few days.’
Devote yourself to Akshan.
I had abandoned all other affiliations and positions as a demon hunter and had not visited the Yusra branch in a long time.
In fact, calling it a branch was a bit much…
‘Since they got a private room in the Golden Palace.’
It might sound humble, but considering the scale of the Golden Palace, it was probably more expensive than the land of most branches.
Anyway, I accessed the internal AAU system through my general manager administrator account.
“!”
And immediately, I saw it.
The account [Admin], likely belonging to Raymon Sean.
Let’s stay calm, Hoyeol.
To be honest, I didn’t think I’d be losing my temper right now, given that Grandfell wasn’t here.
But still, Raymon Sean was someone who could say some pretty convincing things or irritate me with his nonsense. So, I had to keep my composure.
Just as I was making that resolution, the message arrived.
– I see you’ve logged in, Player Lee Hoyeol.
It seemed he was waiting just like I was.
A message from Raymon Sean came in, one after the other without giving me time to reply.
– The reason I’ve returned is simple.
– You changed my algorithm.
– From now on, the Arcana continent will proceed in a new direction.
…Wait, what?
I changed his algorithm?
Was this some sort of engineer-like expression meaning he changed his mind?
‘I’m a civil servant.’
But I couldn’t dismiss it as a bad joke, especially after the last sentence.
‘The Arcana continent will proceed in a new direction?’
Then Raymon Sean nailed it down with his next message.
– I want to consult with you about the next update.
What?!
–
–
–
Pindang: I’ve been really tired lately, I think I’ll take a break for a while
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