He couldn’t believe it even after seeing it. At the same time, he knew it. He knew the words that family repeated until he was sick of them.
In the first place, truth was not a matter of belief or disbelief.
“No, even if that’s the case…!”
Humans of the Nightwalker family or the Shadow Knights certainly used both aura and mana.
However, that was merely using two types of power with incompatible natures in a parallel form so they did not mix.
But the Swallow Reversion Technique that Sir Theresia had just displayed overturned common sense from its very roots.
He didn’t even know what to call that ‘energy’ in the first place.
A third something that possessed the properties of both aura and mana simultaneously.
A power that overcame the human body while also overcoming the world.
That was why it was even more incomprehensible.
Even Sien, who possessed his memories of the future, had never heard of such a ridiculous technique.
‘No, it actually makes sense.’
He thought about it and realized. A technique of this caliber wasn’t something to go around boasting about.
It likely meant that among those who had seen this secret technique, none had survived.
Even if someone had survived after killing Theresia, they probably dismissed it as something they couldn’t imitate. They likely assumed she had simply utilized the racial traits of a half-Snake Eye.
And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
It was just that the humans of the Nightwalker family were also ‘compatriots’ standing on the boundary between human and monster.
“Moreover, it seems you can’t maintain it for very long.”
Looking closer, Theresia’s breathing was ragged. Even to an enemy’s eyes, her physical exhaustion was staggering.
It meant that maintaining the technique itself consumed an absurd amount of stamina. Using such a technique without a price wouldn’t be a secret technique; it would be a cheat.
“Is there anyone else who can use this technique besides you?” Sien asked. “Actually, is this Swallow Reversion Technique even your own creation?”
“Do I have an obligation to answer?” Sir Theresia asked coldly. “I only hope that you will eventually be able to use this technique as well.”
“…Why are you doing this much for me?”
“Because I want you to become stronger,” Theresia replied. “That is also the will of Princess Roselia Charles.”
Sir Theresia was more than just a loyal subordinate to Roselia Charles. She was something more.
That made it harder to understand.
There was nothing more difficult to accept than an act of kindness from the most untrustworthy person in the world.
‘Even if they are trying to establish a nation of assassins, there’s no reason to go this far.’
He could understand using Sien to destroy the Sword Saint Roland, the idol of chivalry. But even so, there was no reason to go this far.
In fact, did it even have to be Sien?
At this point, the assassin most likely to kill Sir Roland was not Sien, but—
Laila Nightwalker, the strongest assassin on the continent and the Mother of Assassin.
“Just what are you planning…”
But the conversation ended there.
The blood-colored barrier Theresia had cast faded away.
The scenery outside the barrier wasn’t much different. No major commotion had occurred.
In the first place, the eyes of the Mother of Assassin couldn’t be hidden by a mere barrier like this.
Nevertheless, Laila had remained silent and watched. She must have seen everything that happened here.
The gears of the world were moving rapidly once again. Faster than even Sien could have imagined.
“S—Sir Theresia!”
Right then, a scream bordering on horror erupted from among the kingdom’s knights.
A massive wound was carved into her back.
Furthermore, her body, exhausted from the price of the Swallow Reversion Technique, was clearly fatigued.
“It is my defeat.”
Turning her back on that wound, Sir Theresia calmly knelt.
She did so in front of Sien, and furthermore, in front of everyone in the world.
“T—That can’t be…”
It was a result that no one there could believe.
No matter how incredible Sien was, his opponent was the kingdom’s strongest knightly force, one of the top-ranked powerhouses. In terms of the Nightwalker family’s standards, she was a warrior rivaling the highest of the Highmasters.
The murmuring grew louder. Amidst it, Sien remained coldly silent.
‘Things are about to get noisy.’
He wasn’t just talking about the commotion here. Even if he was the heir to the Nightwalker family with absurd talent, the fact remained that he had secured a victory against “The Pale Lily,” Sir Theresia.
No matter the reality, the world would only remember the result.
People would realize that Sien’s hidden claws were far larger and sharper than they had ever imagined.
This included Sir Roland the Sword Saint, the leader of the Twelve Knights and Roselia’s primary target.
“A—Ah, ahhh…”
Just then, a fussy scream rang out, as if the person screaming were the one who had been wounded.
“T—This can’t be! This can’t be happening! S—Surely, something must have gone terribly wrong!”
It was the cry of Third Prince Eric, who had not only suffered a cowardly defeat earlier but had now lost the duel meant to justify that defeat.
“The Nightwalker assassin must have played a trick! That must be it!”
Eric shouted while shaking Theresia’s shoulders as she knelt in her own blood. He didn’t care at all about her injury.
“I am sorry, Your Highness,” Theresia replied, blood trickling from her lips. “It is my defeat.”
“Wh—What?”
The question came back as if in a daze.
“You lost?”
It was a question from someone who couldn’t accept the truth before his eyes.
“Y—You lost…? Really…?”
After saying it, he burst into laughter, as if he couldn’t believe it himself.
“T—That can’t be… Y—You said you would win! You said you’d win for me! Didn’t you promise me you would definitely win?!”
“I am truly sorry.”
A silence descended. It was a freezing silence.
“Trash…” Eric muttered at the end of that silence. “This trash dared to…”
Unable to accept the situation, his disbelief eventually turned into rage as he continued.
“Y—You useless, losing bitch…”
*Shring!*
“Everything is ruined because you lost! How are you going to take responsibility, huh? You damn loser trash! You dared, you actually dared to tarnish my honor!”
He drew the sword hanging at his waist and pointed it at the defeated woman.
“Please, kill me,” Sir Theresia murmured calmly.
“Oh, I will! I certainly will! Taking 100 of your lives wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me! Did you actually think you’d return alive?!”
The Prince yelled at her, unable to contain his anger, taking his frustration out on her.
“Ha, don’t make me laugh! You have to die! I’ll kill you right now! Atone with your death, you loser bitch!”
Just as Sien was about to move as the Prince seemed truly ready to swing his sword—
“Trash.”
A voice was heard.
A voice that was cold, clear, and sharp.
Turning his head, he saw a lady with hair as deep blue as the sea standing there. She was standing firmly on the land.
“Lady Marin…”
Prince Eric’s hand stopped just as he was about to strike the female knight.
“O—Oh, my love! I knew it! I knew you would come for me!”
As if his distorted expression from a moment ago had been a lie, he gave a greasy smile, flaunting his square jaw.
“Wait just a moment! I’ll cut down this trash right now and answer your heart’s desire!”
Marin walked toward the smiling Prince Eric. Seeing her action, Eric was about to speak again while flaunting his white teeth.
*Crack!*
“Aaaaaargh!”
Marin’s hand grabbed Eric’s wrist, which was holding the sword, and twisted it. The sword fell, and Eric rolled on the ground, screaming pathetically.
No matter how incompetent she was said to be out of the water, that was only when compared to monsters like the humans of the Nightwalker family.
“Sien is 100 times better than a nauseating piece of trash like you,” Marin said.
At those words, the people of the Republic, who were intoxicated by the love story between Sien and Marin, erupted into cheers and whistles.
“…He’s 1,000 times better,” Sien muttered like it was someone else’s business amidst the swirling cheers.
***
“The Swallow Reversion Technique, you say.”
That night, at the Nightwalker family’s villa.
The matter of the Third Prince of the Charlemagne Kingdom or the Serpent Family was no longer their topic of conversation.
“Both aura and mana, and yet both mana and aura. It’s a truly absurd technique.”
“Do you have any idea what it might be?” Sien asked.
“No, unfortunately, I’ve never heard of it either.”
Lady Laila shook her head at Sien’s question. It was to be expected.
“Furthermore, in my opinion, Sir Theresia’s Swallow Reversion Technique doesn’t even seem like a completed technique yet.”
“Its duration is too short for practical use. Even she could only maintain it for a few minutes at most.”
“It’s not that it has no practical use at all. But the risk is too great. At best, it’s just a joker card meant to catch someone off guard.”
It was literally an incomplete technique.
“Still, it’s an interesting technique nonetheless.”
At the same time, the two of them were well aware of the ridiculous potential it would have once completed.
“Why don’t you try practicing it, Mother?”
Sien asked her. The best assassin on the continent and, as Theresia said, the Mother of Assassin who stood on the boundary between human and monster.
“No, unfortunately, I cannot learn that technique,” Laila replied with a bitter smile, shaking her head.
“Why is that?”
“I’m already too late.”
‘I’m too late.’ Sien fell into a quiet silence at those words, which sounded almost like resignation. He knew exactly what they meant.
The previous Sien probably would have said the same thing when he learned of the Swallow Reversion Technique’s existence.
“But you are not, Sien.”
It wasn’t like that for the current Sien.
“What do you mean I’m not?”
“You’re still young.”
At 18 years old, it was an age overflowing with endless possibilities.
“Just as Sir Theresia said, you are still an incomplete being,” Laila continued. “A being that is neither human nor monster, yet can be both human and monster at the same time.”
“Isn’t that the same for you, Mother?”
Because that was what it meant to be a human of the Nightwalker family who had completed the baptism.
“No, unfortunately, that’s not the case for me.”
Laila shook her head, contradicting Sien’s words.
“Because I am already a ‘complete monster.'”
She was not a being caught awkwardly in the middle, on the boundary between human and monster.
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