Genius Blacksmith’s Game

Barad sat in the Audience Hall, his heart heavy and tangled.
A single hawk had taken flight an hour ago.
It was a courier he’d sent to his close friend, Hyun.
It wasn’t a courier asking him to find a way to save Bella.
For Sword King Barad, the only people he could bare his heart to were Hyun and Bella.
‘No matter how I struggle, it changes nothing…….’
Sword King Barad had sent courier after courier to Ares Church.
Telling them that they needed the Saint’s Prayer.
Of course, the kidnapping of the Saint had been kept completely secret, so it was only natural no reply had come.
Just then, Marquis Lukburk and the nobles who followed him were entering the Audience Hall.
“We greet Your Majesty.”
Lukburk and the nobles—those who were forever watching for a chance to seize Sword King Barad’s throne.
Lukburk and the nobles exchanged a few greetings with Barad.
Then they went straight to the point.
“I have heard that Deputy Commander Bella of the Second Knights will die within a few days. I cannot say how heartbreaking and tragic that is.”
A faint groan slipped out of Barad’s mouth.
“I too have sought counsel in many places to save Dame Bella. But every priest of every doctrine told me the same thing—no one can save a woman wasting away from that disease.”
Lukburk saw straight through what Barad was feeling now.
And with his information network, he understood the situation clearly.
“Your Majesty, you know we cannot receive the Saint’s help.”
Barad did not answer.
“It is a reckless wish. Ares Church as an entity is far larger and stronger than our small vassal kingdom of Goyard. And the Saint herself is so noble that her name rivals Your Majesty’s own.”
Lukburk’s face was full of regret, but his voice was not.
“Moreover, the Saint’s Prayer is a special power she can invoke only twice in her entire life. A power said to bring back even the dead—she would never spend it on a mere knight. She would sooner use it when an emperor of an empire fell ill.”
Every word was correct.
Because every last thing he said was correct, Barad could not say anything back.
“I have heard that Your Majesty sent letters several times. I also know that none were answered. It is a sorrowful thing. That our Kingdom of Goyard is about to lose such a precious talent.”
A sword genius that appeared perhaps once in a hundred years.
Exactly two of them existed in the Kingdom of Goyard. One was Barad himself, and the other was Bella.
“……Your Majesty, you must decide. You must accept Dame Bella’s death and name me as your successor, so that you may calm the turmoil in the people’s hearts.”
Barad had been naming Bella as his successor.
Of course, it wasn’t a true designation.
It was to shut the mouths of Marquis Lukburk and the other nobles.
Right now, there were dozens of successors living in his heart.
Among them, there was one.
One who had most captivated his heart of late.
“Hyun cannot be your heir.”
Lukburk’s eyes sharpened like a hawk’s, sensing it.
In the capital were hounds of his that even Barad did not know.
“How could an outsider—nothing more than a blacksmith—be named heir?”
The nobles chimed in as if they were hearing it for the first time.
“Your Majesty, then please kill me instead!”
“How can a blacksmith become heir in the kingdom of the sword!”
“I feel as if I can already hear the people’s cries!”
Perfect.
Lukburk raised his hand to quell them.
“Marquis Vallo says it would be acceptable to give him some minor title at most.”
Barad realized it then.
Today, Lukburk meant to erase every one of his possible heirs in this hall.
One was Bella.
One was Hyun.
He meant to pull out all of his fangs.
To ensure that Hyun would not receive even a small title.
That was to leave him a commoner.
To keep him from ever being able to stand as Bella’s replacement as successor.
“The people may rise up when they hear the rumor. That a commoner has been named Your Majesty’s heir.”
Each razor-edged word dissected Barad.
“If he accomplishes something that everyone here can acknowledge, then the people could be persuaded, I suppose. Thus.”
Lukburk drove in the wedge.
“I wish to meet this Hyun.”
It was clear he intended to cut Hyun down here as well.
At that moment, a reply flew in.
Barad’s eyes gleamed as he read it.
He was utterly calm, without a tremor.
Then Barad lowered his composed gaze and spoke.
“Very well. Hyun says he is on his way here, so let us wait.”
“I look forward to it. To seeing what sort of man this Hyun, whom Your Majesty trusts so deeply, might be.”
Of course, those were only words.
Just then.
Barad sensed presences he could not identify.
His sensing ability was special. It was on a completely different level from ordinary people.
‘Assassins.’
Several assassins were hidden up in the ceiling.

They were not men hidden by Marquis Lukburk and the nobles in front of him.
The Kingdom of Goyard was a small vassal state, and there were many who sought to keep it under their heel.
So this was something that happened quite frequently.
Barad quickly wrote a reply to Hyun.
A hawk shot up into the sky.
 
*****
The Red Dragon Corps was an assassination group raised in the Praham Kingdom.
The assassination success rate of this Red Dragon Corps, which operated throughout the Praham Kingdom and all over the continent, was extremely high.
Deputy Commander Brock of the Red Dragon Corps, leading nine assassins.
He had infiltrated to assassinate Sword King Barad.
Relations between the Kingdom of Goyard and the Praham Kingdom were so bad that it wouldn’t be strange if war broke out at any time.
The two kingdoms constantly threatened one another.
Deputy Commander Brock gave hand signals to the members hidden in the ceiling.
‘Stand by.’
For some reason, Barad had a lot of uninvited guests today.
At the very least, the Red Dragon Corps intended to wait until all those nobles withdrew and night fell.
Brock smiled.
‘So it was just a rumor?’
It seemed Sword King Barad still hadn’t noticed them.
Of course, their concealment was special and exceptional.
They were people who had learned only how to hide themselves and how to kill.
Perhaps because of that, Brock thought it only natural that Barad failed to notice them.
Of course, that was nothing but arrogance.
 
*****
Until Hyun arrived, Lukburk and the nobles sat in the VIP room and chatted idly.
“Level 120, you say?”
One noble, hearing this [N O V E L I G H T] for the first time, wore an incredulous expression.
“What, just someone like that…….”
A noble who supported Marquis Lukburk—Lang—was flabbergasted.
He had only been echoing whatever Marquis Lukburk said, but now it had become his sincere opinion.
“I can already picture the way he’ll look.”
“How can a blacksmith possibly become heir to His Majesty Barad.”
At the same time, the image of Level 120 outsiders flashed through their minds.
Wearing shabby armor that commoners normally used, and wielding weapons not worth a second glance.
And since they had only just escaped the label of “Beginner,” they were all still clumsy and green.
They were nobles.
“With just a word from me, I could lop—off goes his head.”
Marquis Lukburk laughed at that remark.
“A fine idea. If he has even the smallest flaw, we can use it as a pretext to drag him down.”
Clumsy outsiders.
Their weak points were far too many.
Just then.
“The outsider named Hyun has arrived.”
Lukburk and the nobles quickly made their way toward the Audience Hall.
It was now all but certain that they would be able to put their plan into action.
‘A clumsy outsider…….’
Marquis Lukburk was pleased.
He was thinking of how best to toy with him.
Entering the Audience Hall and taking a place near the king, he looked down the corridor.
Step, step.
From around the bend in the corridor.
Multiple footsteps were approaching.
Then the faces of Marquis Lukburk and the nobles went pale.
Fwoooosh—
All of a sudden, a gale smashed against the windows.
An unknown pressure crushed down on them. The metallic scent of blood tickled the tips of their noses, and dozens of windows lining either side of the Audience Hall rattled violently.
Rattle rattle rattle—
Something was coming.
And Lukburk recalled something an old vassal had once told him.
‘When you stand before a Calamity of the Cult of Calamity, strange things begin to happen. They say the scent of blood tickles your nose, and your surroundings grow tumultuous as if a storm had blown through.’
That came to Lukburk’s mind.
Now, it no longer mattered who became heir.
The most evil force in the world—the Cult of Calamity!
That Calamity might be coming here.
Trembling, Lukburk tried to shout.
‘A Calamity is coming!’
No matter that he coveted the king’s throne—this was a different matter entirely.
And the only person here who could save them was the Sword King.
But his whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind, and he could not force the words out.
At that moment, a man in a long brown coat, soaked with rain, stepped in around the corner.
Every time he took a step, it looked as if black currents were rippling from the tips of his feet.
Branded on the chest of the robe he wore over it was the sigil of Calamity.
He wore the Coat of Calamity, but he was not a Calamity.
And there was something even stranger.
Alongside him, a dozen or so figures in ragged, beggar-like robes walked together into the Audience Hall.
“We greet Your Majesty.”
“Hyun, you’re finally here.”
“……!”
The shock that swept the hall was not small.
Looking at them, gathered before the doors of the Audience Hall, he spoke.
“There are this many people aiming for Your Majesty’s life?”
Flinch—
Without knowing who moved first, Lukburk and the nobles all felt a simultaneous jolt in their chests.
No matter how arrogant and lawless this man was, to just say such a thing to their faces?
He was nothing more than a commoner.
Lukburk looked at the ones he had brought with him.
Robes so filthy they might as well have been rags picked up off the roadside.
Soaked in rain, dripping dirty raindrops onto the floor.
‘He’s prepared quite a show.’
But it was laughable.
He finally understood.
Everything had been staged by Hyun and Barad……
Just then.
From the inner side of the hall, the man in the coat walked forward and took his place in the center.
“I’m going to count to three.”
A dozen or so people in ragged robes took up positions around him.
“One.”
Lukburk and the nobles had no idea what that meant.
“Two.”
In that instant—
Rustle—
At the strange presence, Lukburk and the nobles’ thoughts went blank.
Assassins.
There had been assassins hiding above.
They were horrified.
This was bad. All of them might die.
And the moment the man said, “Three……”—
The assassins struck in unison, and screams burst from the nobles’ mouths.
“U-uaaah!”
“N-no!”
Marquis Lukburk’s eyes went wide.
The assassins who had been rushing toward Hyun and the nobles.
Every one of them hung in midair, frozen in the posture of driving their daggers in.
Lukburk stared at the dagger aimed at the base of his own throat, his eyes trembling.
‘A s-stun……? Or telekinesis?’
Ten assassins, floating motionless up in the air.
One assassin was frozen with his dagger thrust right in front of Hyun’s neck; another had halted with his blade at someone’s flank.
All of the assassins were straining with everything they had to stab down, but an overwhelming force blocked their approach.
Hyun slowly lifted his hand toward the empty air.
His movement looked like something in slow motion. And the moment the hand he had raised came down—
The swords of the people in ragged robes flashed once, impossibly fast, and returned to their sheaths.
Clack—
Slaaash—
‘W-with a single slash!?’
Thud, thud, thud—assassins’ corpses dropped to the floor.
Only then did the man slowly bend a knee, smiling as he looked at Barad.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes.”
Barad smiled faintly.
And then Barad deliberately led him on.
“You’ve come a long way.”
One of the figures in robes.
The light of the world under the hood of a robe soaked with rain—she pushed back her hood and smiled brightly.
“I had no choice but to come.”
Lukburk and the nobles all unconsciously took a step back.
Those who pushed back their hoods alongside her.
The ten greatest Holy Knights of Ares Church. And the woman who revealed herself.
The most noble person in the world—Saint Aria.
At her words that she could not help but come, Barad asked, though he already knew the answer.
“Why did you have to come?”
“My benefactor. Because it was Hyun who asked, I had no choice.”
Lukburk realized.
‘No……!’
They themselves had said it. That Hyun had to accomplish a deed the people would acknowledge.
He had just done so.
He had saved the lives of eight of the kingdom’s highest nobles, and beyond that, he had saved the king.
He could already hear the people’s voices.
‘They say that man saved the king!’
‘Is that all!? They say he saved eight nobles too!’
‘Ahh, a hero born in chaotic times!’
Yes, Lukburk was certain of one thing.
‘Today, he will become a noble.’