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Chapter 86
Some members of the Second Order of Knights collapsed to the ground, their legs giving way from shock.
Count Léon felt like he wanted to collapse alongside them.
Unlike the panicked people around her, Erin remained calm.
She turned to Derek and said,
“Sir Derek, please take my friends and the injured to the infirmary.”
Derek and the novice class cadets nodded blankly, their faces stunned.
It was something they had already learned before coming here, but it was still a miracle that defied belief.
Count Léon raised his sword toward Erin.
“I think I’ve already proven my innocence, don’t you?”
“You… insolent brat…!”
Count Léon couldn’t accept it.
How could someone that young possibly be a Sword Master?
Even Duke Asili had only reached the realm of a Sword Master in his mid-thirties.
This was something that broke every rule of common sense.
“I follow the Emperor’s decree. Erin Rizers, you will not leave this place alive.”
“……”
“And the same goes for the others. Caron Rizers and your companions will all die here.”
Erin lifted her eyes briefly to the sky before looking back at him.
“I wasn’t planning to let you leave alive either.”
After her conversation with Ferdin, Erin had fully resolved never again to leave those who threatened the people precious to her unchecked.
Count Léon had toyed with Ferdin’s knight cadets.
And worse, he had dared to injure Ferdin.
He put wounds on his body.
Erin tried hard to calm herself down.
It felt like her head would melt from murderous rage. She wanted to return the pain Ferdin had suffered right back to Count Léon before her eyes.
“Sir Erin, Amon’s condition is worsening. If we delay any longer…”
Derek, who was checking on Amon, felt bitter despair. So did the novice knights.
“Go, quickly.”
At Erin’s words, Philip struck the ground with his fist.
Right now, the only thing they could do for Erin was to carry Ferdin and his knights to the infirmary.
“Damn it, how pathetic.”
“……”
“Are you sure you don’t want us to stay and help you?”
Erin shook her head.
“It’s fine, Philip. I can handle this place on my own.”
Count Léon’s face flushed red with fury at those words.
“How arrogant you are, Erin Rizers!”
She was treating him like he wasn’t even there. Looking at her, Count Léon recalled Duke Asili.
That insufferable man used to act toward him in the same way Erin did now.
But that was Duke Asili—it was something he could tolerate from him.
He had no idea how Erin had become a Sword Master.
I have to erase her now.
A Sword Master in her early twenties.
She was too great a threat.
The existence of Duke Asili alone, as one of the Sword Masters, already made the Neutral Faction an almost unmanageable force.
But if a new Sword Master were to side with the Second Prince?
And this, after the Emperor had already framed the Rizers Marquisate of using black magic?
The situation had already gone beyond repair.
Surely, for now, I’m still stronger.
Just as there was a gap between him and Duke Asili, even within the same realm, there were levels of mastery.
There was no way Erin Rizers, who had just reached Sword Master, could surpass him.
Count Léon studied her. To the eye, she looked like an ordinary girl.
Shorter than average, her body not particularly sturdy. But appearances meant little.
That was what being a Sword Master meant.
Defeat Erin Rizers and erase every witness.
The fact that she was a Sword Master had to vanish completely from the story surrounding the Rizers family.
Count Léon turned his eyes.
There was Derek and the novice cadets, moving to carry Ferdin and his knights.
“Derek Atern, didn’t I say I wouldn’t let you leave?”
At Count Léon’s words, the Second Order of Knights blocked Derek’s path.
But soon after, their faces turned pale.
Boom!
Erin drove her mana-filled sword deep into the ground. With a monstrous crack, the earth split wide before them.
The Second Order all stumbled back in fright.
Some even groaned.
“Is… is that possible?”
“What in the world is this…?”
Erin’s face was cold as ice as if nothing extraordinary had happened.
Derek and the novice cadets hardened their resolve. Using the time Erin had bought them, they sprinted away.
“How dare you…!”
Count Léon’s eyes blazed as he moved to cut down the fleeing cadets.
But Erin’s sword was faster.
Her blade came flying without warning. Had he not rolled aside at the last moment, he might have suffered a grave wound.
“Such cowardice… utterly disgraceful…”
At his words, Erin spoke flatly.
“How laughable.”
“What?”
“You, a Sword Master, bullied weaker knights beneath you—and you dare to speak of disgrace?”
Erin’s eyes closed, then opened again. Her gaze was no longer the warm one she showed to her people.
It was as if winter itself had settled inside her pupils.
A murderous chill radiated from her.
“If you had just left things alone, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“……”
“Why did you have to harm my people? Why do you keep… keep coming after me…?”
For the first time since becoming a Sword Master, Count Léon felt fear.
Despite her angry voice, Erin’s beautiful face was terrifyingly expressionless, as though she had no emotions at all.
Erin Rizers had revealed her true colors.
There was no other way to think of it.
“A m… monster…”
One of the Second Order knights muttered as he looked at her.
It was as though Erin had cast aside the mask she had been wearing. With Ferdin and his knights gone, her entire presence had shifted.
What is this killing intent?
Count Léon couldn’t even think straight anymore.
Erin had begun to move in earnest.
“Your Grace, what will you do?”
At his chief knight’s question, the Duke stared at the sword hanging at his waist with a troubled expression.
Duke Asili and his First Order of Knights had stopped midway on the road to the academy.
He couldn’t bring himself to move forward easily. His chief knight understood why.
It’s been a long time since His Grace found someone he truly approved of.
The Duke had been deeply impressed with Erin.
After their spar, he would sometimes recall that match with a faint, wistful look in his eyes.
The chief knight had felt jealous of Erin, but he had never once wished for her to end up in such a predicament.
If anything, watching Erin earn the Duke’s recognition had inspired him to set his own goal.
One day, I will spar with His Grace and earn his approval.
As a knight, he wanted to defeat Erin someday—but never in this way.
“Well… I don’t know.”
The Duke was certain of Erin’s talent. But if what the Emperor claimed was true—that she had gained power through black magic—then she had to be destroyed.
There was no saving anyone who used black magic.
Knights believed that once someone used it and became a monster, even their soul became corrupted.
“But the Marquis of Rizers would never do such a thing.”
The Duke said this with a bitter smile.
“Neither he nor I were good parents… but…”
“……”
“He would never do something like that to his daughter.”
Even as he spoke, Duke Asili’s gaze never left the direction of the academy.
At that moment, his expression hardened.
“Your Grace?”
The chief knight looked at him in alarm.
“He’s here…”
The Duke placed his hand on his sword, his face unsettled.
“That one has appeared.”
“What?”
“The Sword Master who appeared during the monster subjugation… it’s him. That murderous aura is unmistakable.”
The chief knight almost fell from his horse in shock.
The First Order of Knights all reacted the same way to the Duke’s words.
“He’s… appeared?”
“Then it really was one of the subjugation force back then?”
“That murderous aura…”
The solemn order of knights became restless. That “one” was of enormous interest to them.
Another Sword Master besides the Empire’s three?
Whether he was from another kingdom, or a hidden master within their own lands, no one knew.
They couldn’t tell if he was ally or enemy—and so their faces tightened with tension.
“He’s in the academy right now?”
“Yes.”
The Duke immediately began moving toward the academy.
The chief knight, still reeling from the revelation, hurried after him.
Once inside the academy, Duke Asili’s strides only grew faster. The chief knight nearly lost him several times.
Normally, the Duke was a considerate man toward his knights, but now, in his excitement, he had completely forgotten such restraint.
