A Wish to Grab Happiness

Volume 9, Chapter 231: Five Seconds

A brave man. A hero. That man was stronger than anything else. He was the one who helped the weak and crushed the great evil. He was someone who had received the favor of God.

The old man certainly got his own name. Only those who were baptized by Great Holy Church and received a title could name themselves.

Surely, decades ago the Great Holy Church finally “created” a hero. I see, if I thought deeply about it, the old man Richard Permilis was once given the title of hero, so it was not strange. And yet, it seemed hard to believe at the same time.

After all, the chosen one was said to be a person who respected morality and valued justice. If one looked at Richard Permilis, then he would see that he was the exact opposite. Were the eyes of the former Great Holy Priest cloudy in a way?

Maybe Richard Permilis was a good person in the past. Oh no, that would be ridiculous. It felt like a silly story where wood stones laughed.

And now Richard Permilis acted like a brave man, yes, like a hero, but it didn’t matter. No matter how much I struggled, I would inevitably confront him here. The only undeniable fact on the battlefield was that I had to cut his neck.

The enemy soldiers stuck out their spears and rushed to this place with a momentum that was unmatched by their previous moves. The silver spears reflected the dark red of dusk, emitting a murderous intent.

Immediately, some of the Heraldic soldiers around me turned into dead flesh. I saw signs of grieving hearts when their bodies hugged the menacing spears with their bellies.

In the dense smell of death, I stepped out while kicking the ground and deflecting the deadly spearheads.

At the expense of the Heraldic soldiers’ lives, I jumped to the feet of Richard Permilis, holding the treasure sword with both hands. The enemy was still on horseback. No matter how hard I wielded the treasure sword, it was not reachable. However, I didn’t have time to push further.

I had five seconds. If I couldn’t finish everything in five seconds, I would be gone for sure. I would surely die, and of course, everyone would die as well. This attack was probably not worthy, but I had to bet on it with all my might. That was my only excuse.

I made the tip of the treasure sword crawl in the trajectory I once saw.

I recalled the blow that the former Caria once did to break the soldiers on horseback in Gharast. It seemed unlikely that I could copy the swing as it was. However, if I did enough to create the orbit, I would just put my fingers on the horizon that I longed for.

In that moment, my fingertips groaned when I wielded the treasure sword. The spine that invaded my whole body got a clearly distorted twist. The sight of my muscles ripping apart floated in my head.

The purple blade of my sword shined. The orbit of the sword tip drawn in the air was incomparable to the sophisticated and beautiful flash of Caria’s sword movement. That was why, that one swing did not cut the horse’s head just like Caria did once in the previous timeline, but it ended up creaking the horse’s neck bone and bending it in a distorted direction. I felt a very unpleasant feeling of gouging a big meat with my own hands.

A painful and unpleasant sound struck my earlobes. The horse roared and bled to death.

…One second.

The horse screamed and collapsed. I took the blade and returned back to its original position, a position where I pointed it towards the place where Richard Permilis would be.

My vision was covered in blood, and I did not capture anything. Therefore, I was swinging my sword by relying only on intuition and conviction.

Richard Permilis. I believed, no, I truly felt that he would swing his sword against me after falling from the horse.

*metallic sound*

There was a sound of iron clashing with iron tightly. Sparks appeared before my eyes. The black sword emerged from my bloody field of vision, as if I were catching the sword I was expected to seize.

…Two seconds.

Wearing gray armor, the old man Richard handled the large black sword as if it were a piece of paper. His eyes, which were full of a murderous intent, were looking straight at me.

After all, I was right here. And he was right before me as well. Richard Permilis, my devilish teacher. This time, our swords finally reached each other.

There were no words anymore. On the contrary, we hardly breathed. The moment I sighed deeply was the moment I leaked my exhalation. I knew, needless to say, that victory or defeat meant life or death in a blink of an eye.

With the treasure sword and the black sword overlapping one another, I gritted my back teeth. There was no time to push the blades together. If I stalled this confrontation, time would become my enemy’s ally. Richard Permilis was probably aiming to earn some time.

I twisted my wrist and unraveled the space where my sword was engaged. There was a small space between me and Richard.

The moment I tried to step in to strike again, an explosive pain emerged in my left eye, and my upper body leaned back naturally.

…Three seconds.

「Ah…Gahh! 」

Richard Permilis’ right fist hit my face. Breathing leaked heavily while leaning back. My vision became blurred, and the shock that shook my brain made it blank for a moment. If I couldn’t endure it, my whole body would lose power momentarily. A sharp pain in my creaking skull ran throughout my body.

I knew my teacher would not lose this temporary gap. Beyond my blurred and hazy view, there was a figure of Richard Permilis wielding the black sword.

Apparently, he didn’t feel like trying to earn time now. He was only thinking of cutting off my head with that murderous intent in his eyes.

He tried to kill me within this gap. He behaved like a hero. It was ironic how this man tried to be a brave and great man by portraying a heroic behavior.

Oh, my chest trembled with joy. Richard Permilis, who was out of reach as my teacher, was now coming to kill me with all his strength. There was nothing more glorious than this.

There were countless people in this world who spoke badly of Richard Permilis. He deceived and trapped other people. He was a man who once grabbed glory but accused of being a fool after abandoning that status.

But for me, the old man was an unmistakable hero. He saved me from the bottom of the rotten mud. He gave me wisdom as a helpless rat. I was sure that I would perish without him. I bet that my heart wouldn’t even burn for something if my head was still covered with mud. I would be certainly dead by now.

Ah, that’s why. I held the treasure sword firmly with both hands. A purple light emerged from the blade of the treasure sword. The inscription “Hero Killer” shone like no other.

…Four seconds.

He had to die here. I had to take away the life of my teacher with my own hands, because he was a great wall himself.

Richard Permilis’ black sword swung at my left shoulder, trying to sever my heart and break the sky. The treasure sword that faced the ground was unlikely to meet that strike, even so.

Intuition was telling me. In such a case, I would not surpass my teacher. Richard Permilis was not a person I could surpass by having normal behavior.

If I retreated from here, I would never be able to reach my teacher again. Then, there was only one thing these limbs could do.

While feeling the black sword bursting in the air, I directed the treasure sword from the ground by using the power of my entire body towards the upper left. It wasn’t as swing to protect myself. It was, however, a swing to cut off Richard Permilis’ life.

I was going to die. But I did not care. If I couldn’t overcome my teacher, then there was no point in having these limbs or a pulsating heart. It was better to die without regrets than going back to those days when I couldn’t do anything and lived without meaning.

The black and purple flashes drew smooth lines in the battlefield. The barbaric voices and the ongoing battlefield music gradually distanced from my ears before I knew it.

…Five seconds.