Chapter 82 : All Men Who Aren’t My Brother Are Ugly

Before entering battle, one must meditate.

Erase everything from your mind except the upcoming battle, and consider one by one the possible outcomes.

It was a teaching from the commander and a culture of the Therbion Mercenary Corps.

This match felt different.

This time, he would raise his sword not as the first-class knight Usher of the Seongshin Order, but as the last mercenary of Therbion, Usher.

Though it might be dismissed as a personal feeling, he had been accepted by Bersia.

There was nothing more to hesitate about.

“Saintess, it’s about to begin.”

Bersia said.

Usher opened his eyes slowly and stood up.

Then he smiled faintly and said,

“Yes, I’ll be back.”

He who tied the knot must untie it.

Usher advanced toward the arena.

“Finally, the moment has come! The saint of Baern and the great tree will clash!!!”

“Waaaa!!!”

The roar was deafening.

The heat from the crowd was unlike anything before.

Kaol grinned and climbed up to the arena.

On the opposite side, a woman, who could be quite amusing if he played with her, glared at him with a sinister look, filling him with delight.

“Challenger! With a swift sword, she defeats the enemies targeting her brother! Baern’s greatest madwoman who loves her brother too much! The incestuous~ Tiaaaa!!!”

“Cough, cough, that’s a splendid nickname.”

As the woman frowned, Kaol’s introduction continued.

“And her opponent! The lion of Baern, now known to all! The first-class officer of the Sandstorm, the desert fox Kaaaooool!!!”

“Waaaa!!!”

Veteran mercenaries and rookies are different even in this.

When fame builds up, it’s no longer derogatory nicknames but proper titles that stick.

Just the name itself shows the weight of years spent as a mercenary.

He couldn’t lose.

He must not lose.

He must also not be afraid.

He pretended to be at ease.

“I’ll ask again. If you join me, I might give you a decent nickname. Isn’t incestuous Tia a bit much?”

It was at that moment.

“Strange. The desert fox I know is so cute and lovely, but your face…”

She trailed off with a smile as if ready to strike back.

Veins appeared on Kaol’s forehead, and the provocation only made the crowd cheer louder.

“Ah! Aaaah! Truly, incestuous Tia! All men who aren’t her brother are ugly!!!”

“…When this match is over, I’ll kill you first.”

“Kyahhh!!!”

The announcer exaggeratedly acted surprised and retreated playfully.

And so, only Kaol and Tia were left in the arena, both with flushed faces.

“I can’t let you off. Damn woman.”

“I never asked you to let me off. Try your best…”

Before her words finished.

Chwaeeng!

Kaol launched a surprise attack.

The bell had already been rung. It wasn’t grounds for disqualification.

Kaol clicked his tongue.

Though she spoke of incest and such, it seemed that she had some skill, as she defended the incoming attack without even seeing it.

It meant she wasn’t an easy opponent.

“Oh ho.”

“Such cowardice…!”

“Do you have time to talk?”

He would overwhelm her with a quick resolution.

Kaol’s shoulder shook.

Chaejaejaejaeng!

The violet sword flew through the air, cutting through space.

It was clearly a straight thrust, but the trajectory of the sword reminded one of a whip.

“Ah! Kaol’s vision has appeared! The song of the viper!”

“Awesome! Tia hasn’t even been able to counterattack once!”

“Waaaa!!!”

The crowd’s voices grew louder.

But Kaol couldn’t smile.

He gritted his teeth and widened his eyes.

What the audience missed was that…

‘She’s blocking everything?’

The Song of the Viper isn’t a high-level vision, but it’s still a “vision.”

This sword doesn’t just have a wavy trajectory, but it also has a force within the technique that forces the opponent.

Like a snake coiling around its prey, it binds the opponent with a ring of mana and strikes at their vital points—this was the effect of the vision.

But Tia was blocking it all.

Her breathing remained steady.

Her half-open eyes coldly followed every trajectory of the sword.

‘This… this is impossible…!’

This woman doesn’t know how to handle a vision.

It will touch her eventually, but for now, there was no trace of any vision in her movements.

How is this possible?

Kaol suddenly felt impatient.

At this rate, something unpleasant would surely happen.

‘If I just graze her…!’

This sword contained a curse.

Even a graze would be enough to bring her down to the ground.

Kaol added more force.

He unleashed more mana.

Chaejaejaejaeng!

He took a step forward.

He created more variables and used more trajectories.

And then, at some point, it became impossible for even Kaol to calculate the sword’s trajectory.

“The limit of a low-level vision,” Tia muttered quietly.

“It can be countered. If you focus just a little.”

And then, something unbelievable happened.

Thud!

The trajectory of Tia’s scimitar became strange.

Kaol’s breath stopped.

The announcer was in a frenzy.

“She—she stole it!!! Tia is stealing Kaol’s song!!!”

Two scimitars curled like snakes.

It was like a two-headed serpent opening its jaws.

Kaol’s mind rang with alarm.

‘She stole the vision? What nonsensical…!’

The key element of mana-based restraint was missing.

But the trajectory of the sword was perfectly Kaol’s own.

…No, it was being executed even more superiorly.

There was only one person Kaol knew who could do such a thing.

‘That creepy little brat!’

It was the same terrifying technique that the young lion of Therbion, who had died over ten years ago, once used.

Had he returned?

Such ridiculous thoughts even crossed his mind.

Despite the person before him being a woman, not a man, that thought emerged.

Thud!

The Song of the Viper stopped.

The sword rang loudly as Kaol’s chest was opened.

A chill ran down his spine.

In front of him, Tia lowered her stance and closed the distance.

She crossed the scimitars she held in an ‘X’ shape, forming a scissor-like shape.

The blades felt like the massive jaws of a beast.

In that moment, survival instincts surged.

It was no longer a matter of winning or losing. Kaol’s instincts, honed from years as a mercenary, told him:

If this continued, he would die.

But he couldn’t surrender.

‘I must not lose. Everything I’ve built will collapse!’

Why had he personally entered this match?

It was to increase his public standing.

Even if he lost, he could still justify reaching the finals.

To lose completely to a woman with no vision?

After having obtained the sword?

That would make it impossible to laugh again.

The moment he realized this, venom surged within him.

It was the venom that had turned him from just a mercenary into the first-class officer of the Lion Corps.

Even if he couldn’t win, he had to face death together.

Kaol dragged his sword down.

He gave up on defense.

Tia’s eyes widened in surprise.

Her expression, as if she hadn’t expected it, brought a small sense of amusement.

‘Why? Did you think I would surrender?’

Kaol lifted the corner of his mouth.

Tia gritted her teeth and thrust her sword forward.

Slash!

“Kugh!”

Blood splattered from Kaol’s chest.

The wound was deep. It was at the level that required immediate treatment.

Kaol forced his staggering body to stay upright.

Blood stained the ground, but his mouth was smiling.

‘It’s hit!’

The sword grazed his shoulder.

That woman would lose consciousness soon.

She would be cursed by the spirits of the warriors engraved in the sword, writhing in pain.

If she stayed standing, victory would be his.

With that thought, he began to count.

‘One, two, three…!’

But what he expected did not happen.

Tia, frowning at the torn hem of her clothes, suddenly kicked Kaol and knocked him down.

“Ugh!”

“Your collar… I brushed against it. Congratulations.”

Tia looked at the announcer, who was now dumbfounded, and he stammered out.

“The, the winner is Tia! Tia of the incest!!!”

“Could you stop calling it that incest thing now?”

Tia spoke in a tone of disgust as she left the arena.

Kaol, gasping for breath, stared at her retreating figure with bloodshot eyes.

‘Why!!!’

He screamed silently inside.

Then, he lost consciousness and was carried out.

By the time Kaol regained consciousness, the tournament was already over.

He stared blankly at the ceiling as someone told him what had happened.

The winner of the tournament was the Blue Sword.

But it wasn’t Tia who defeated him—it was Ergo, the pedophile. He was the middle-aged man who had stood as the authority beside the child mercenary leader.

He had lost to a woman who wasn’t even the winner.

The fact hung over him, and veins stood out on Kaol’s forehead.

He immediately jumped up and stormed into the royal palace’s depths.

In a private room in the deep, bang! Kaol kicked open the door.

“Hey!!!”

“Oh, you’re noisy. Ah yeah.”

Inside the room was a woman.

She had black hair, pale skin like snow, and eyes as red as blood.

When she smiled, an eerie chill filled the room.

A witch, the key figure who had helped him succeed in the rebellion ten years ago, and a chilling partner of Sandstorm.

Kaol yelled angrily.

“What was that sword? The curse didn’t work! Because of that, my position…”

“Did you see this stupid little brat?”

“…What?”

“If the curse didn’t work, don’t you think there’s a reason for it?”

Kaol scowled fiercely.

Still, the witch only laughed mysteriously and said.

“The curse gets eaten by an even bigger curse. That’s common sense.”

“What…?”

“There’s a curse in that girl’s body that even the souls of ten warriors can’t do anything about.”

The witch hummed a tune.

“Hm, what kind of curse could it be?”

She seemed quite amused.