*Cling-clang-clang.*
Sword clashed against sword. Rayrn pulled his blade back and tried to adjust his stance, but Count Ofern would not let him. He was refusing to let Rayrn regain his momentum.
‘He doesn’t miss a beat.’
What decided a fight between masters was breathing. That tiny gap that occurred when one exhaled and prepared to inhale again. It was common for that gap to widen and determine victory or defeat.
Count Ofern was aiming for that gap.
The gap in Rayrn’s breathing, which was still young compared to the fully grown Count. He was trying to pierce through that opening.
‘Is he not going to go easy on me just because I’m his son?’
Rayrn did not back down either. He trusted his body, which had undergone Transcendence. Even though it was young, it was a body reconstructed to be perfectly suited for Mugong.
His breathing was also deep and long.
*Clang-clang-clang!*
The Count, realizing this, changed his swordsmanship. He relaxed the strength in his ring finger and swung the blade loosely, as if letting it flow.
*Whoosh—*
To the untrained eye, it looked like a sword that had lost all its vigor.
‘I shouldn’t be fooled.’
It was a blade fully loaded with the Count’s Aura.
*Whoosh— whoosh—*
The swinging sword multiplied its numbers in an instant. Using the flowing Soulforce, dozens of swords aimed for Rayrn’s neck.
‘Left.’
Rayrn dodged the blade with his sharpened Heavenly Qi Movement. The Count’s Illusion Sword followed him, but this time, Rayrn was faster.
Trivial tricks were bound to crumble before overwhelming power.
*Boom!*
He unleashed a Heavy Sword technique to counter the Illusion Sword. A force as heavy as a mountain crushed the Count’s illusory blades.
“Excellent!”
“……Go easy on me.”
*Wuuuung—*
Was he getting excited?
The Count, a natural-born martial artist, flared his Aura. It was the Aura of an Aura Master—a perfected Aura. In the Murim, one could often see those who used Sword Qi, but those who could use Sword Force were rare.
Using a perfected Aura meant revealing one’s full power. It was the same as projecting the very spirit one had planted to complete that Aura!
Clashing against a perfected Aura was like facing the entire life of the swordsman wielding it.
‘Oh boy.’
*Wuuuung—*
Rayrn also loaded power into his sword to respond.
‘If I lack strength, I have to make up for it with technique.’
The advantage Rayrn had over the Count was his understanding of Mugong. He unleashed the Great Heavenly Star Sword Art, infusing his blade with Sword Qi.
‘It’s still lacking… but this should be enough.’
*Taaaang!*
The Count’s sword and Rayrn’s sword collided. It was a clash between a perfected Aura and an immature one!
Logically, Rayrn, the immature one, should have suffered the loss.
*Cling-clang-clang-clang—*
But Rayrn used a trick. He twisted his blade. He imbued it with his deep understanding of his techniques. Though he might be lacking in Aura, Rayrn was superior in his understanding of Mugong.
*Boom!*
“……”
He withstood the Aura while suffering less damage than expected. The Count’s eyes sparkled with surprise.
‘I need to go further!’
There was an opening. To make up for the loss suffered from clashing with the Aura, he had to widen the gap here.
*Crash!*
But the Count was faster. The Count’s sword, infused with Aura once more, stretched out and struck.
It was a brutal strike forced through by sheer will. But its effect was certain.
*Thud!*
The Count’s sword was pointed right at Rayrn’s neck.
“……I lost.”
“Phew……”
Only then did the Count exhale a rough breath. Perhaps the Count had been tense as well, for sweat was pouring down him just like Rayrn.
Wild, uncontained Aura was still lashing out at the surroundings.
“When my son is fighting with one arm tied behind his back, I would lose all face if I didn’t win.”
“Using magic in a spar would be cheating.”
It had been quite fierce for a spar. It was rare for a father and son to use Aura in a duel.
It was likely because the Count had the confidence to control his Aura perfectly, but still.
“Haha. Even so, it was difficult. You are amazing. Your technique is far too high for it to be attributed simply to the power of an artifact.”
“It is all thanks to your teaching, Father.”
“No. If you had used magic as well…… this father of yours would have been the one to lose.”
The Rayrn that Count Ofern faced was strong!
Rayrn was both a Mage and a swordsman. Count Ofern was a pure swordsman.
Even so, the level at which Rayrn fought sword-to-sword was not inferior to the Count’s. It was a battle that would have been difficult for the Count without using his Aura.
“You are incredible, and I am proud of you.”
Even the Count, who tried to limit his praise lest his son become arrogant, had no choice but to acknowledge his skill.
Perhaps it was because Rayrn had grown to heights he never imagined.
‘You’ll be even stronger tomorrow, Father.’
Unaware of what Rayrn was thinking, the Count’s gaze toward him was nothing but warm.
Rayrn, scratching his cheek as if embarrassed, brought up another topic to change the subject.
“Thank you for granting permission this time. Thanks to that, I was able to fully mobilize the Black Crows.”
“It is a project you are pushing for. It is only natural for this father to help.”
Through the Black Crows, Rayrn had been steadily drawing people away from the Marquis’s House.
‘I don’t even need the nobles.’
He didn’t even look for minor nobles with talent.
Except for Mages. Rayrn judged that the knights in the House Ofern were sufficient due to their training methods.
Naturally, the talents he chose to spirit away were administrative officers or people from the merchant groups operated by the Marquis’s House.
In this world, those with power, like Mages or knights, tended to be treated with preference.
‘They were suffering quite a bit.’
Since that was the trend, administrative officers were inevitably neglected when a war broke out. The Crows exploited that gap perfectly.
They had already converted more than twenty people.
Unfortunately, those who failed to convert lost their lives to the Crows’ cold blades.
“I hear the Marquis’s supply lines have collapsed thanks to you.”
“It was an unexpected effect.”
Even if they were not treated well, people like administrative officers were indispensable.
When the Black Crows converted or killed them…
‘It became even more chaotic.’
The chaos in the Marquis’s Territory grew.
Even if they were waging a war, it was inevitable when the people who should be moving behind the scenes for logistics disappeared.
“The Crows are singing your praises because of it. They said they never thought of doing things this way.”
“……Well, I didn’t expect this much either.”
“Even so, it happened because of you.”
The chaos in the Marquis’s Territory was nothing but a blessing for the Count’s House.
Count Ofern was the type to provide support by any means necessary once he decided to trust someone.
After pondering for a moment while catching his breath, the Count offered his own form of help to Rayrn.
“I will pull more personnel and attach them to you. Try to bring in even more of those refugees you mentioned you were recruiting.”
“……Um. Yes, Father.”
Internally, Rayrn thought differently.
‘I was hoping to focus on my training for a while after delegating the work…… I guess that’s not happening.’
He had other plans, but he had no choice but to agree.
The days of him delegating work to his subordinates and having time for himself were unfortunately over for now.
“Then I shall head out immediately.”
“Yes. I trust you.”
With the Count’s expectations on his shoulders, Rayrn joined the efforts to gather refugees.
‘This is why you have to meet the right superior… *sigh*.’
‘Was my choice wrong back then……?’
Pling and Esty were both out in the outskirts of the Count’s territory.
It was to carry out Rayrn’s orders.
Esty was classifying and inspecting the newly arrived talent. Pling was implementing measures to gather refugees.
The sad fact was that even with Pling and Esty gone, the work in the Spiritual Land was running smoothly.
The work at the Refinery and the foundry all went well without them. It was likely thanks to Rayrn designing everything well from the ground up, but for the two of them, it felt like they were given more work just as they were finally getting used to it.
“……I sometimes wonder if my choice to hand over that list back then was right.”
“I didn’t know I’d be buried in work like this. I was quite excited when Viscount Baxien died.”
Though they were grumbling and complaining, the two were quickly reviewing documents. As expected of the talents Rayrn had handpicked, their processing of the work was fast.
Esty was a commoner. Pling was a noble. Although their statuses were different, they were both administrative officers under Rayrn and were building a sense of comradeship (?) through their struggles.
Pling, who had been looking over documents with a gloomy expression, suddenly brightened up.
“Let’s see. This one is from the Main Castle. Oh. Oh-oh-oh!”
“What is it?”
Pling, who had received the document, immediately handed it to Esty.
“Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!”
Esty’s face also brightened. On the document…
-I’m coming too. Damn it.
A short note was written stating that Rayrn was coming down to these outskirts.
These two knew Rayrn’s abilities better than anyone.
Rayrn was someone who usually left work to others as if he found it bothersome. However, when he personally touched a task, he showed faster processing than anyone else.
In reality, it was because he had the prestige of leading a clan as Jegal Hyeon and a lifetime of experience wrestling with paperwork as Kim Seonggeon.
But to the two who didn’t know that, Rayrn was nothing short of the ‘God of Administration!’ In their eyes, Rayrn was the only person who could develop and process everything he touched so quickly.
“Let’s pray for his swift arrival!”
“Of course!”
To escape from this hell, Rayrn would surely perform the tasks quickly!
Once he arrived, they might be liberated from this hell of paperwork.
“Please come quickly!”
***
But a short while later, the two realized that there was a bigger hell above the one they were in.
‘……Should I call this the Great Hell……?’
Rayrn, who had come down to the outskirts by the Count’s order, did not look to be in a good mood.
“Wow. You still haven’t managed to bring in all the refugees? Huh?”
“……That’s. Refugees are still constantly flowing out from the Marquis’s Territory even now. Because of that, the work never ends.”
“You sure have a lot of excuses.”
Rayrn, looking like a sergeant in his final days of service picking on a fresh recruit who just arrived, said, “Give it here. Let me see.”
“Here it is!”
He immediately began inspecting the documents Pling handed over.
‘They’re doing well. But the method is problematic.’
While he was on his way, Esty had secured thirty personnel.
In Pling’s case, he had already secured more than 10,000 refugees and was moving them.
It had only been one month since the work started. Anyone would say it was a fast pace.
However, Rayrn himself…
“Wow. This is slow.”
He was not satisfied with the speed.
‘How many people are in the Marquis’s Territory?’
Even if it was barren, the Marquis’s Territory was still the Marquis’s Territory. Its population was about 1.5 times larger than that of the Count’s House.
Manpower was national power—no, territory power!
Rayrn calculated that he would pull at least 100,000 refugees from the Marquis’s Territory this time.
‘It’ll take time.’
He planned to continuously suck in refugees to increase the population. Normally, this would be impossible. No Lord would easily allow their subjects to be taken away.
But since the chaos in the Marquis’s House was intensifying, it was entirely possible.
“I-is it really that slow?”
“Yeah. This speed won’t do. If you just use the Black Crows to spread news to the refugees, when will you ever get them all out?”
Rayrn planned to increase the possibilities this time.
‘I need to pull them out quickly so I can return to the castle. I need to get at least 50,000 out.’
Pling’s method was good, but normally, these things required diversification.
“Don’t you think we should use other methods besides this?”
“Just give us the word.”
“Yeah. I’ll tell you, so our Pling just needs to execute it.”
“……”
Pling’s complexion turned dark and gloomy.
“Esty, you help too.”
“Uwaaaaagh! I knew I shouldn’t have handed it over back then!”
“……Stop talking nonsense. And don’t lose your mind.”
Esty was in the same boat.