Marco blankly stared at the broken sword in front of his eyes—it was a holy sword that was granted with His Majesty’s Grace. The blade of the sword shattered and its broken pieces cut into his skin, but Marco still couldn’t take his eyes off of his broken sword.

It was impossible for a holy sword to break. In fact, such a thing had never happened ever since the beginning of Eternal Rule.

Marco saw Juan smiling at him while he was looking at the broken sword with a dumbfounded look. Only then did Marco realize that Juan had been repeatedly attacking only one specific spot on his holy sword despite their fierce battle. Although Marco had thought that Juan’s attacks were messy and some of his moves were unnecessary, Juan had actually been striking only one spot of the holy sword, as if he was picking at it stubbornly with only a needle. It seemed impossible, just like a drop of water trying to pierce through a rock, but the holy sword granted with His Majesty’s Grace was broken in vain.

When Marco flinched and trembled due to the shock of the destruction of his holy sword, Juan swung his short sword toward him to put an end to the battle.

At that moment, Velkre struck his sword toward Juan. Having been completely focused on his battle with Marco, Juan couldn’t dodge Velkre’s sword and ended up getting his cloak cut. However, Velkre realized that he failed to do any damage to Juan due to the cloak having a mushy texture that absorbed the shock.

Velkre frowned upon seeing the cloak that Juan had draped on his shoulder and observing the gruesome and negative energy that it exuded.

‘It is certainly no ordinary cloak.’

In the meantime, Juan rolled over and escaped the area which was within reach of the Templars.

“Brother Marco. Are you okay?” Velkre asked with concern.

Although Velkre wasn’t fond of Marco as he wasn’t the most obedient subordinate, Marco was still a valuable asset to the Order of the Evil Snake.

Marco didn’t answer Velkre and quietly looked down at his broken sword as if he was still greatly shocked by the fact that his holy sword broke. Velkre found it hard to believe that Juan was able to push Marco to such an extent.

“I did have some doubts before, but I’m glad that I can confidently confirm your identity now,” Velkre said.

There was no doubt that Juan was the devil of Tantil that the Pope had ordered to eliminate. Velkre, who had been exhausted by carrying out unhonorable missions up until now, felt motivated for the first time in a long time.

Juan appeared to be quite exhausted from the battle, but he seemed to be raring to continue the battle.

“So you want to go at it again?” Juan asked.

“I’m quite impressed by your skills. Though I’m not sure if I saw everything properly since it all happened so fast… are you perhaps using the Baltic Sword? At stage four?”

“It’s my first time trying so hard in a battle like this. I’m also glad that I learned something from it. It’s hard for me to say what stage I’m on. I just swung my short sword rapidly—that’s it.”

Although Juan did use the fourth stage of the Baltic Sword, the Fog Solution, detailed and sophisticated control was unnecessary. Rather, what was most important was attacking using the most optimal route while minimizing his movements. Even those on the third stage of Baltic Sword could perform such an attack.

While Marco was extremely fast, his swordsmanship was rather terrible. Juan didn’t need to use such tricks; he could’ve easily won against Marco even without them, but he wanted to put Marco in his place through a frontal confrontation.

It was hard for Velkre to be sure, but he judged Juan to be an expert in the Baltic Sword after considering Juan’s footwork and the way he swung his short sword. Having witnessed Juan using Blink, an extremely high ranked Grace, on top of being so skilled in the Baltic Sword, Velkre could see why the Pope was so eager to kill him.

‘He must either be the child or a disciple of one of the apostates… either way, he is a living mass of the denial of our faith.’

“Keuk…y-you fucking bastard…”

Marco belatedly stood up and gritted his teeth as if he had just recovered from his shock. Velkre frowned at Marco’s attitude of ignoring him, and only glaring at Juan.

“Back off, brother Marco. You are no match for him. He is a warrior who has been trained to the point that he is beyond you,” Velkre ordered.

“Brother Velkre! I’ve trained hard for over 10 years by tearing my own flesh and bones to master my skills. Ten years! It’s even been more than twenty years if I were to count the years I’ve spent training my swordsmanship as well. And you are telling me that I’m not any better than this little kid?”

“Yes, I am,” Velkre said sternly. “Do you think you can be that fast by just swinging your sword fast enough? No—there are countless obstacles such as damage to the joints, achieving enough acceleration as well as air resistance. The reason why this man can catch up to the speed of Blink is because every single cell in his body has been trained and engraved with the experience of his previous battles and with optimal movements.”

Juan’s skill could also be said to be the epitome of the Baltic Sword. The Baltic Sword was treated as the basis of Imperial Swordsmanship, but it was rare to find someone who had honed their skills to such an extent. Furthermore, this young man had not only the form, but also had the practical skills and countermeasures to every attack of the opponent. Velkre could recognize at a single glance that Juan was completely different from what his appearance suggested—he was extremely powerful.

“That’s bullshit! Hey! Somebody lend me a sword! If I could fight him again, then…”

Marco couldn’t be convinced of his defeat easily.

Velkre sighed, feeling frustrated upon seeing Marco’s ignorance.

‘Does he not know the significance of being able to strike only one part of the enemy’s sword with a short sword in the midst of a fierce battle?’

This meant that if Juan had physical abilities that were on par with—no, even if he had only a quarter of the physical abilities Marco had, he would have easily been able to slice off Marco’s head without taking a single wound.

“Calm down,” Velkre said.

“Please give me a chance to avenge that humiliation…”

“I ordered you to calm down.”

Velkre waved the green flagpole gently.

Then, Marco’s snake-like green eyes suddenly returned to ordinary human eyes. At that moment, Marco realized what had happened to his body.

“T-This is…”

“With my authority as the captain, I deprive you of the power of the ‘snake’ granted to you. It looks like you won’t be of any help to us right now. If you want it back, you’re going to have to work hard for it.”

“B-but Brother Velkre!”

Marco desperately called Velkre’s name, but Velkre simply ignored him and turned his gaze toward Juan once again.

“I didn’t expect Marco to end up like this. Who are you anyway? Are you really a devil?” Velkre asked.

“You won’t believe me even if I told you,” Juan derided.

The Templars raised up their Spears of Wrath as if they were about to charge toward Juan at any time, but Juan continued his words with a sneering look.

“I want to know what you think I am. Do you suspect that I might be one of the four great knights who has been living since the era of the emperor? No, maybe you think I am the emperor’s hidden child? How about one of the apostates who struck a deal with the devil to regain their youth? What are you imagining in your head?”

Quite a few of the Templars looked a little shaken upon hearing what Juan had said, almost as if they really had imagined Juan to be such things. Juan grinned and looked up at Velkre.

“Or who knows if the rumor is true? Haven’t you heard? That I might be the emperor himself?”

“You arrogant piece of…!”

Velkre wildly raised the green flagpole as if he was about to strike it toward Juan. When Juan tried to run toward Velkre, Velkre’s eyes under the visor turned green and his pupils turned vertical. A murderous intent much more dangerous that of Marco’s burst forth from Velkre.

At that moment, the sound of air being ripped emerged from the space between Velkre and Juan.

At the same time, Velkre quickly swung his flagpole to block an arrow shot in their direction, and his metal flagpole vibrated due to the impact. Velkre’s green eyes flashed and turned toward the direction where the arrow had come from.

Swallan was aiming her second arrow at Velkre.

“How dare you!” Velkre shouted.

“Back off, Mr. Templar,” Swallan said.

Velkre felt like his forehead had already been pierced with an arrow upon seeing Swallan’s smiling face.

The remaining Templars moved simultaneously to surround Swallan, but she did not budge.

“Stop meddling, mercenary. This is none of your business! You should know what it means to point a weapon toward a Templar!”

“You are the one who interfered in my business with him first. You should understand what it means for me to not make a hole in your eye right now—it means that I’ll spare your life if you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Do you think that you can pierce through the armor of the Templar? It seems like you think that you can shoot me easily because I don’t have a shield. But, I have to wonder… just now, was that a random stone that I just bounced off with my flagpole?”

“That arrow was meant for you to block. The gaps in your visor are big enough for me to aim, Templar. Test me if you want.”

Velkre glared at Swallan. Velkre could tell that the horn bow held by Swallan was no ordinary bow at a single glance. The arrow that he had just struck away was powerful enough to make his hand tingle from the shock.

Although he could easily signal the Templars with his eyes to throw their Spears of Wrath toward Swallan to turn her into dust without a single trace, he decided to have a conversation with her first. When he waved his flagpole again, his green eyes returned to their original color.

“This man is not worth protecting,” Velkre said.

“Who told you that ten thousand gold pieces weren’t worth it? The Templars must be rich, huh?”

“...Ten thousand gold pieces! Are you protecting him just for that? Collect your arrow right now, then I’ll pretend that nothing happened and even pay you the reward.”

“Hmm…? That doesn’t sound too bad,” Swallan said, then calmly went on. “But I can’t do that. The ten thousand gold piece reward is a commission fee that I’m supposed to receive after taking that young master to his destination. It’s not in the nature of a mercenary to be rewarded without fulfilling their duty. Why don’t you get moving if you’ve had enough rest?”

While Velkre was humoring Swallan’s random blabbering, Juan was already on the move.

Juan hadn’t been listening to Velkre and Swallan’s conversation, and he took the chance to get enough rest to recover his body. Then, Juan’s short sword sprung out from under Velkre’s chin, and Velkre quickly dodged as he belatedly detected Juan’s movement.

However, Juan wasn’t aiming for Velkre’s neck. Juan’s short sword broke Velkre’s saddle strap, causing Velkre to lose his balance and fall off his horse. Then Juan’s short sword flew toward his throat.

However, at that moment, Juan saw Velkre’s pupils flashing green.

‘No.’

Juan managed to stop his short sword just in time as he realized that he shouldn’t stab Velkre right now. Juan could tell that Velkre didn’t have any fear of death, but that wasn’t simply because he was a Templar. Juan felt something beyond that from Velkre—something with a lot of resentment and malice.

Instead of cutting Velkre, Juan dragged him down and quickly jumped onto his horse. Velkre seemed perplexed as he was expecting Juan to cut him.

“Run, Mr. Ten thousand gold pieces!”

When Swallan shouted at Juan, one of the Templars attacked her from behind. However, she turned her horn bow and shot an arrow at his face as if she had already predicted his actions. Although her arrow was blocked by the Templar’s shield, the arrow was powerful enough to break the Templar’s balance and drop him from his horse to the ground.

Juan rode Velkre’s horse and rushed toward Swallan, but the Templars blocked his way. Juan took a deep breath and shouted.

“Stop!”

Juan roared using His Majesty’s voice, but made sure that it was weak enough to not burden his own body.

The Templars immediately stopped moving and flinched as if they had been electrocuted by Juan’s voice alone. The Templars themselves couldn’t even understand why they were reacting to his voice like this.

While the Templars were left confused, Juan immediately guided his horse toward Swallan. Juan didn’t signal her, but she knew exactly what she had to do. Swallan quickly climbed onto Juan’s horse.

“Get them right now!”

As soon as Velkre swung the flagpole, his eyes turned dark green.

When Swallan felt an unusual spirit from Velkre, she slowly began to raise her body.

The Templars couldn’t believe the sight in front of them—Swallan was standing on the back of a running horse. Standing on a running horse was extremely difficult by itself, but she even knocked her horn bow with an arrow and aimed it toward Velkre.

‘That’s impossible.’

A running horse caused one’s body to vibrate like crazy, and standing on a running horse required most of the nerves in the body to concentrate on maintaining balance. But shooting an arrow on top of that required one to have concentration that is on a whole other level. The Templars were about to shake their heads in denial, but the arrow had left Swallan’s horn bow already.

Before Velkre even realized it, the arrow pierced through the gap in his visor struck his eyeball. Velkre fell backward in an instant.

“At least I didn’t damage your armor. So don’t hate me too much!” Swallan shouted and waved her hand as she got further away from the Templars.

The remaining Templars were perplexed, as they didn’t know whether they should track Juan and Swallan or tend to Velkre’s injury. It was the first time that both the captain and the deputy of a knight order had collapsed at the same time.

Then, Velkre staggered and rose up from the ground.

“There is no need to chase after them,” Velkre said.

“Brother Velkre! Are you okay?”

“It’s just a light wound. It’s not a big deal.”

Velkre pulled an arrow out of his eye. His eyeball was completely destroyed, but the arrow hadn’t penetrated too deeply, since it was caught by the visor—he would recover soon after he received a healing Grace.

Velkre didn’t care about his eye being destroyed. What made him angry was the fact that he allowed the apostate to escape just because of his small kindness of wanting to go easy on them. Velkre broke the arrowhead in his hand.

“I’ve placed one of the ‘snakes’ on them. It’s only a matter of time before we catch them.”

***

“It seems like they aren’t chasing after us.”

Juan looked back, but there was no dust cloud chasing after them. If the Templars decided to follow them and attack, they would have already come pretty close to getting caught. It would only be natural since there was no way that the horse carrying two people on its back would be fast enough to outrun the other horses, and Juan would also have to protect Swallan on top of that. However, there was no tracking for some reason.

The wind began to chill as the sun went down. The night of the wasteland was cold and harsh.

Juan began to prepare to sleep in the open. Juan personally didn’t feel the need to take a rest, but the horse and Swallan were tired from running all day. Juan looked at Swallan, who tightly grabbed Juan’s waist with her head buried on his back, and quietly muttered as if he was talking to himself.

“The carriage overturned.”

“Don’t worry. I know how to get to Durgal anyway,” Swallan answered in an exhausted voice.

“Okay then. Get ready to rest.”

Swallan quickly completed preparing to sleep out in the open, as if she was used to sleeping out in the wasteland. Although it was cold, Juan and Swallan decided not to make a fire since they were worried about the pursuit of the Templars.

As Swallan crawled into a shallowly dug hole, Juan sat by the pit and looked down at her.

“Why didn’t you hand me over to the Templars earlier?”