Chapter 73
Patricide.
“Leave the family? What do you mean by that, Sister?!”
Several decades ago, at the Leinrant estate.
The one glaring at the still-young Heinkel with venomous eyes was the Helian of those days.
“I said I have no more business with the Leinrants, Heinkel.”
As she said that, Helian tore the Leinrant crest from her chest and threw it onto the floor.
“...!”
“Lady Helian...!”
The head butler Berkman and the other knights also widened their eyes at Helian’s actions.
“Other noble houses are all busy expanding their territories, yet we alone are stuck living like this.”
But Helian ignored all their gazes and continued speaking.
“With the forces we’ve stationed at the Wall, we could advance east immediately!”
Starting with those words, Helian spoke passionately to Heinkel as though this were her final chance.
“Then why won’t you allow it?! What’s so wrong with stationing Imperial troops at the Wall?!”
The conflict between the current duke, Heinkel, and Helian was nothing new.
The core issue between them was the Wall.
Helian advocated placing Imperial troops there, while Duke Heinkel opposed it.
“For the sake of the Leinrants, this is the better cho—!”
“For the sake of the Leinrants? Don’t make me laugh, Helian.”
The one who interrupted with his usual mocking tone was Ian.
“Brother, what are you—?!”
“The title the Empire promised to grant you in exchange for allowing the garrison. And the land.”
As Ian spoke with a hardened expression, Helian’s face flushed red.
“...!”
“Did you think that idiot wouldn’t notice your backroom deal just because he’s stubborn?”
At Ian’s words, Helian whipped her head around.
Heinkel and the knights following him.
And behind them stood a woman watching her coldly.
“Priscilla, you bitch...!”
As Helian growled through gritted teeth, Heinkel slowly opened his mouth.
“I did not oppose this because Sister accepted bribes.”
Bribes.
At that word, Helian clenched her fists tightly.
“The North was land made independent two hundred years ago by our founder, Lord Berkel, in exchange for defeating Archimond.”
Unlike the Empire’s other ducal houses, the appointment of the Duke of Leinrant required no imperial approval.
Though technically part of the Empire, the Duchy of Leinrant was effectively an independent nation.
Speaking of that truth, Heinkel continued.
“We must protect the North. That is the Leinrants’—”
“That damned duty, that cursed tradition!”
Kwachik—!
Helian stomped down on the Leinrant crest she had thrown to the ground, crushing it beneath her heel.
“It’s because you idiots keep clinging to that worthless tradition and hesitating like fools that you’ve all ended up like this! Don’t you get it?!”
Expand. Increase your influence.
Stop living as the Empire’s sword and live gloriously like true nobles.
The resentment Helian had always harbored while preaching those ideals seemed to explode all at once.
“...Even so.”
But after hearing her words, Heinkel merely narrowed his eyes.
“The Leinrants must protect the North.”
“...!”
Helian glared at him upon hearing that.
Heinkel. Their dead father Rudel. The generations before him and before that as well.
Weren’t they all trapped here because they were bound by that mission to protect the North?!
“Exactly. That’s why I’m leaving this place.”
But she was different.
She knew nothing of duty or missions.
And she could never understand fools like them who bound themselves to such things.
After reaching that conclusion, a deep sneer spread across Helian’s face.
“You understand exactly what it means for me to leave this place, don’t you?”
Helian had long since seized control of the collateral branch faction.
Using them, she had steadily increased her influence within the family.
“Try clinging to that precious duty of yours until the very end.”
With those words, Helian turned her back and spoke.
“Because the next time we meet, you’ll be handing your ducal seat over to me.”
There was no further conversation.
Helian left the family behind and walked outside, frowning at the especially gloomy sky.
“You’ll fail.”
A voice suddenly spoke beside her.
Turning her head, she saw a woman with long silver hair sitting atop a tree branch.
“Claire.”
Heinkel’s second wife.
Claire la Justia.
“What... did you just say?”
Helian asked venomously, but Claire’s eyes were directed not at her, but at the sky.
“Your Grace’s plan. It’s going to fail.”
Her tone was gentle, as though she were merely telling an old story.
That calm, composed attitude only infuriated Helian further.
“A filthy barbarian immigrant dares to spout such absur—!”
Helian suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
What had that woman just called her?
Your Grace?
‘Nobody should know I’m heading to Paul Wyvern...’
But only for a moment.
Looking at Claire smiling brightly toward the sky, Helian shook her head.
‘She’s insane. Thinking about it is pointless.’
Unlike the meticulous Priscilla, Claire was an incomprehensible, bizarre woman whose thoughts could never be read.
Helian forcefully ignored Claire’s words and walked toward the carriage bound for Paul Wyvern.
“She really left. There’s no turning back now.”
Claire quietly murmured while looking up at the sky.
Wooooong—!
The instant she finished speaking, a blue light began glowing within her eyes.
A clear radiance, shining like polished sapphire.
“So you have to stop her.”
Raindrops began falling from the gloomy sky, soon dampening the face of the woman perched upon the tree.
“Can you do it, Klein?”
Yet rather than minding the rain, she merely smiled brightly, almost as though she enjoyed it.
“Heinkel—!”
Swish—!
There were no openings in Heinkel’s swordsmanship.
The moment Helian tried regenerating, he cut her apart again.
The moment she tried resisting, he blasted her entire body away.
Kaaang—!
But by now, Helian’s body had become one where Holy Blood flowed in place of actual blood.
The amount of mana pouring from her body was nearly limitless.
“There’s no end to this!”
Even after Heinkel’s sword blew her apart dozens of times, her body continued regenerating endlessly.
“AAAAAAH—!”
BANG—! KUWAKWAANG—!
With explosive impacts, Helian and Heinkel’s swords collided repeatedly.
A battle where lacking skill was compensated for through regeneration, while the sharpness of the blade was compensated for through overwhelming mana.
“I’m not the same person I used to be anymore!”
I clicked my tongue as I watched not only her mana, but even her body itself, gradually becoming more monstrous.
KAAANG—!
Sparks exploded as Heinkel knocked Helian’s sword aside.
KWAJAK—!
Unable to withstand the impact, Helian’s sword shattered.
But Helian didn’t care in the slightest.
She simply tore off the entire hand holding the sword.
Pudeudeuk! Pudeuk!
And almost instantly afterward, a brand-new hand and sword sprouted from the severed wrist to replace it.
“The Duke of Leinrant must always be the Empire’s strongest knight, right?”
The same words Heinkel once told Delline.
And before that, words the former duke Rudel had once spoken to Heinkel.
“Look at me now, Heinkel!”
Spreading both arms wide, Helian shouted like a madwoman, intoxicated with herself.
“Unlike you, who’s growing more exhausted by the second, I can keep regenerating forever!”
Though Heinkel had not yet lost his brilliant radiance, no one knew how long it would last.
Pointing out that fact, Helian charged at Heinkel once more.
Claaang—!
“Now I can beat you! I am the Empire’s strongest knight—!”
Perhaps encouraged by the sight of Heinkel gritting his teeth, Helian’s sword gradually began to pressure him harder and harder.
“No.”
But Heinkel’s blade instantly cut off Helian’s shout.
Kagagagak—!
Heinkel swung his sword upward in a vertical arc.
Helian’s body, which had been rushing toward him, split in half in an instant.
“No matter how much power you wield that isn’t truly yours, you will never defeat me.”
“You bastard…!”
As Helian’s body hurriedly began regenerating, Heinkel’s sword moved again.
‘Once? No. This is…!’
Heinkel’s blade came slashing down in the opposite direction from before.
But the flow of mana within that strike was far from an ordinary frontal slash.
Kiiiiing—!
As if struck by artillery fire, Helian’s body began losing its form.
What my eyes detected from Heinkel’s attack was dozens of strikes.
And every single slash contained the essence of the Meteor Sword.
“Aaaagh—?!”
The Meteor Sword was a secret art that condensed mana at the tip of the blade and fired it into a single point.
Even using it once normally required numerous preparatory motions.
Yet Heinkel had overlapped the technique dozens of times in a single motion.
His ability to control and compress mana.
And the harmony with his specialty—the high-speed swordsmanship that had once defeated the former family head, Rudel.
It was a Meteor Shower (流星雨).
Kwakwakwakwaang—!
After the blast of mana light spread outward, an entire corner of Paul Wyvern Castle exploded apart.
“Damn it, what the hell is that?!”
“The defensive forces, retreat immediately! Everyone, get away!”
“Uwaaaagh?!”
One of the castle towers collapsed entirely from the aftershock of Heinkel’s technique, and Helian’s soldiers caught in it screamed in terror.
“That opened up a route in.”
Looking across the battlefield, the knights of Laia were entering through the castle gate that Delline had opened.
While the defenders were desperately trying to stop them, a massive breach had formed in the rear.
“Charge through there!”
“We can win! All troops, advance!”
Without missing the opportunity, the commanders of the duchess’s faction shouted orders to the soldiers.
Now it was only a matter of time before the defending forces were crushed.
All that remained was eliminating Helian, the root cause of this civil war.
‘And right now, that Helian is…’
“Ugh…! Gghhhhhh—!”
Her body utterly destroyed, Helian crawled across the ground while trying to piece herself back together.
“Why… why?! How?!”
Heinkel’s sword had blown apart her entire body in a single strike.
Perhaps even her regenerative ability had reached its limit, because the speed of her recovery had visibly slowed.
“I went this far… I spent decades building everything up, so why can’t I defeat them?!”
With absolutely nothing going her way, Helian descended into furious madness.
Whether she couldn’t find the words to refute him, or lacked even the strength to argue anymore—
Toward the silently trembling Helian, Heinkel slowly walked forward.
“With this, the civil war you caused comes to an end, Helian.”
“H-Haha…”
At Heinkel’s voice, Helian slowly lifted her head.
After endlessly regenerating herself, her body had become even more frail than when we first met her.
Shrrng—!
“Why?! Why is it only me…!”
“Because you made the wrong choice.”
I opened my mouth toward her.
“This is the price of choosing a pathetic shortcut… trying to grow stronger by feeding on the lives of others.”
“…!”
Heinkel’s sword pointed toward Helian’s neck.
A brief silence passed.
But as if he had finally steeled his resolve, Heinkel raised his sword toward her.
“This is the end, Sister.”
And just as Heinkel was about to bring his sword down—
“Even so… in the end, you still called me ‘Sister.’”
At her weak voice, Heinkel’s sword stopped right in front of her face.
Stab—!
“Ggh…?!”
And at that very moment—
“This is what happens when you hesitate like an idiot at the very end.”
With those words, Helian’s body suddenly swelled.
Swaaaash—!
Fragments of Helian’s flesh rose into the air and shot toward Heinkel’s neck.
What sprouted from them were fangs overflowing with poison.
Even a mere graze would have been nearly fatal.
“With this, Heinkel, you—!”
“You think I’d let you kill him?”
Using the Phantom Sword, the Crystal Sword sliced apart every fang before piercing Helian’s heart.
Stab—!
By now, her corrupted heart had reached the point where it could create Sacred Blood on its own.
I swung the Crystal Sword upward, cleaving through her body, then swept it horizontally and severed her head.
Slash—!
The Crystal Sword that severed souls.
Having lost the source of her power, Helian’s body collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.
“…!”
“I knew it would end like this, Father.”
Even until the very last moment, Heinkel had been unable to finish Helian off himself.
As I spoke to him, the knights who had finished dealing with the other monsters came running toward us.