Sword Whisperer

"You've grown."

Despite Van entering the shield without much fuss, Eroc was not so surprised. He curls up the bamboo sword that is worn on Van's waist and laughs.

"Did you even meet that short new act?"

"Thanks to Lopo's teachings."

"Lopo..... It's been a long time since I heard that name. What was his last time?"

"You've already met the last one a long time ago. All I saw was his shadow."

Yes, Lopo was already dead a long time ago. It's not that he died in a negative sense. He had already prepared death a long time ago, and he had already met it before it came. Therefore, when the scheduled death came, he had no reason to be embarrassed..... or to be afraid.

"How was he?"

Van asked. Eroc smiled bitterly.

"So did she. It was over a long time ago."

They were alive, but not alive. And, perhaps..... Eroc was also no different from them.

Eternity was like a fragrant poison. People are attracted like ants to the sound of the word eternity, but in the end they only realize that there is no such thing as priceless sweetness.

"I thought I'd make an accusation..."

Why did you put them in such a position? I had to do that. You were just a weak, cowardly coward, by the way.

"I don't think you'll be sick of that accusation for three days."

"You must have heard the truth. Poor thing."

"Not as much as Eroc."

Van looks at Eroc with an unknown expression. It's a face that's no different from the first time I saw it, but Van realizes that he has now completely lost the warmth he last held.

"… why do you think we should come and finish?"

"I've always been thinking. I just put it off, put it off, put it off again."

"I know it wasn't my first time."

I've heard that story from Lopo. There have been many people who have tried to kidnap Emily with the help of Eroc. But all their attempts ended in failure. Due to a lack of skills, the vampires haven't given up yet, so I'm unlucky, I didn't pass through the forest of Eustein....

But even after that meaningless attempt, there was an end to it.

Van was here now.

"…… I hope you failed."

"And I wanted it to work."

"I guess so."

"You're a big boy."

For about two months, half had been a completely different person than before. Maybe he just needed to be an adult. There's only one way to confront him without avoiding the doubts that have been piled up in him.

'‘ If time had been as valuable to me as you were, it might have been a little different. "

But Eroc was promised eternal time, so time could not grow him. Time was worthless to him. It was just a symbol of such powerlessness, hoping that it would pass quickly and not at the same time.

Quint watches the incoming conversation between Van and Eroc with a brutish expression. I tried to understand the context somehow, but I couldn't even conceal what was going on.

"At first, it was just resentment. And then he left me with that burden..... and got me caught up in this horrible story, and that they had to end up like that..."

Eroc said nothing. He was a sinner, and he also knew that sinner's virtues were silent.

Van pulls out the bamboo sword. Eroc quietly confronts that class. Quint was the only one who thought with a embarrassing expression that should not be half dried.

"This is Lopo's message."

Van takes an apple out of his arms and throws it into the air. And it was the next moment. Van's hand moved. Faster than a light. Slower than a turtle. The moment the sword was drawn, the apple was already cut into hundreds of pieces and fell to the ground.

Eroc looks at it with a bruised expression. He was not a prosecutor, but he had lived long enough to read a life with a sword. After Van's sword, I had no choice but to read what troubles and pains lay on it.

That wasn't Lopo's word. The grievances of all those who became vampires by his Spirit were contained in the bitterness of the reality they had to face, at the end of a half-blade that split into dozens and merged.

Dozens, hundreds of lives, deaths, were expressed at the end of the sword, then blurred. Eroc looks at it with a bruised expression. Each trajectory drawn by Van's sword was a blasphemy against Eroc and a scream. And all Eroc could do was face that scream and just float in agony.

Van put a knife in it. He glances at Eroc with calm eyes.

"Faced with death, no, at the mercy of God, I realized that. The lives I took were supposed to disappear like that."

".. You did."

"It was a distressing idea. Perhaps Eroc will live with those lives for the rest of his life. With that in mind, I don't think I have anything more to say to you."

Van wanted to throw it away, even if someone gave him the Elixir of Immortality for free. How horrible and painful eternal life is, Eroc has been a living witness.

Van looked around.

"I can't see Munet."

"The child left. It's a good thing for him. With an old man who doesn't grow old forever, it's not the place to have such a young and beautiful child."

"…… It's a mute."

I didn't think Munet would have left Eroc's side. Van looks at Eroc quietly.

"The mission has been completed. Please give your will to the village. Especially so that my teacher can stay safe……"

"No problem..... But, that's not the only reason you came."

"The Guardian's Sword."

Van's eyes shook.

"Where are you?"

"I don't know where he is. But I know someone who knows where it's gonna be."

".... Are you a person of the Sunwoo family?"

"Sunwoo family?!"

Van's question raises his voice, frightened by the quint next to him. Van and Eroc's gaze touched him, and he blinked again and shut his mouth, but he was forced to feel that the story was now larger than he thought.

'Why the Sunwoo family is out of here. No, it's not. Surely if you are the guardian of the Sunwoo family...'

Quint's gaze turned to Van's waist dance. Seeing his revolution with multiple swords in it without unity, Quint takes out the story he forgot three days ago.

In the Sunwoo family who read all things, some read swords...

He always said he could be the best prosecutor in the world.

'No way, Van..?'

My heart pounds. The Sunwoo family is a lost family, but it wasn't that important to him to walk the path of a warrior, knight, or more precisely.

Most importantly, the one in front of him may one day be the strongest who has no one to stand against on this earth.

'Sunwoo Van... It's a natural resonance.'

"A Guardian's Sword. Then, from whom should I find the sword?"

"…… Guardian."

"Yes."

Eroc gives Van a handful of daggers.

"This altar contains where he is. Others might say," Guardian, "but you can read. Find him."

Eroc said.

"All the swords of this world are in him."

§

"Bar, Van. I have a question for you."

"Ask him."

"Are you really the guardian of the Sunwoo family...?"

Van looked at Quint instead of answering. It was almost halfway down the Stony Mountain of Eroc. I knew Van was locked in his thoughts, but Quint couldn't take it anymore.

"Reading a knife"? It's easy to live in a big world. "

'But I don't understand that the best swordsman in the world always comes from the Sunwoo family. How can you fall behind when you have that kind of ability?'

'..... is it loved by the bayonet? I envy you.'

Not many people knew about the Guardian. And some of them also treated it as a false rumor. If the guardians of the Sunwoo family were the best swordsmen in the world, how could the Sunwoo family disappear so easily?

Quint was also not on the side of believing in the presence of a guardian. He thought it was an unfounded nonsense that the prosecutors' romance created. But now, in front of him, there was a reason for that nonsense.

"Do you really hear the sound of a knife?"

"I don't see it any more than I hear it."

"...... I, really, was a guardian!"

Quint blushes her ear and cheeks as if she only met her lover in a dream. He gazes at Van with a strong nostril.

"What do they say?"

"Didn't you see the voice of the sword? What the hell are their voices trying to say? Oh, can you tell me what my sword is trying to say?"

Half a second after Quint's question, he looks at him with a dumb expression. Quint raises his head with a puzzled expression.

"Did I say anything strange?"

"…… No, no. Just, you know, a little poked in the back."

'The voice of the sword.'

Having heard that blatant explanation, Van has never thought of the sword 'trying to say something'.

Of course, swords with lizards, such as glass or kissin, said many things, but it felt stronger that it was the voice of their 'individual‘, not the voice of the sword.

What would Carl say? What do you want to say? When blood touches their bodies, will they be filled with joy, or will they fall into grief?

It was an unknown story in half. He looks at Quint with a grubby expression. I felt like I lost something.

"... I'll tell you later."

"Oh, let me just say that! I've been wondering about it my whole life. What does my sword say..... what do you want to tell me? Curiosity, don't you understand?"

I got it. And that's why more distribution burst. Having the ability to see the true voice of the sword, he did not really intend to have a conversation with it.

Van grabs the dagger from Eroc.

[I grabbed the dagger of a 'talking test'.]

Material: Iron

Quality:?

Owner ? (?)

Memory retention rate:?

Remarks: The dagger is lightened solely to contain the 'voice'. When you dream, you may hear his voice.

'.... This is the most unusual statement I've ever seen.'

Even with the same symbol floating, the memory didn't read as if it was blocked by something. It's the dagger used by the Guardian. I wanted to know what was different.

All that was left was to ask for sleep. If you look at your memories in your dreams, you might see something like a clue. I thought so.

It was a misfortune.

It was that night. Half asleep with a dagger in his arms, he encountered a shadow all over. You can't even see your face, your body shape, even the sword in your hand.

I felt like screaming in front of the whole body in a tingling mood, but..... he couldn't move a single lip. I thought I could understand what it was like to be a thoroughbred.

'vs, sie……. This guy, what is he?'

I can't believe I'm the same human being. Presence looked back on Van. He smiled blackly.

You still haven't figured it out. It's a child.

When he regained consciousness, Van stretched out on the bed soaked in sweat. He slowly raises his body, pulling out the dagger in his arms with a pale tired face.

"..... you didn't have much choice?"

Apparently his predecessor is not a very dainty person.