I Tried To Be Her Loyal Sword

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27th Chapter

Kwah-reep!

I landed in front of the Duke’s Mansion, mana swirling around my feet. The ground trembled, creating a dark, hollow crater beneath me. I struggled to steady my wobbling body as emotions surged, making it difficult to control my aura.

“Who goes there!”

The knights guarding the Duke’s gate drew their swords, tense and alert. They stepped forward cautiously into the dimness, their eyes widening in surprise as they spotted me.

“M-Mir?”

“Why is Lord Mir here…?”

“I’m really sorry, but please step aside.”

Swiish.

I unsheathed my sword coldly. There was no time for explanations. I directed my blade at the bewildered knights, who wore confused expressions without understanding the situation.

“I need to see the Duke right now.”

Their expressions hardened upon seeing the gleaming sword under the lamplight, and they stepped forward to block my path.

“I’m sorry, but unauthorized entry is prohibited.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s too late tonight. If you request a formal visit tomorrow, I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting with the Duke, even if it means forcing it.”

Despite being a rude intruder in the dead of night, they remained polite and seemed determined in their resolve. I felt disgusted at the respect and trust reflected in their eyes.

“I need to see him right now. Please, move aside.”

I couldn’t back down.

Holding Aria’s cold body tightly in one arm, I gripped my sword with the other, struggling to maintain my composure. My recently fatigued left arm ached, and now I had to swing the sword with my tired right hand, which had barely been four days removed from the battle against the monsters.

Exhausted from the battle and barely able to keep my wits together due to my crumbling sanity, cold sweat dripped down my body, and I trembled uncontrollably. My vision blurred with tears and hallucinations, making it difficult to distinguish shapes.

“If you stop me, I will kill you.”

I had to protect the small figure nestled in my arms, no matter what. Even if it meant dying here.

“…Then there’s no choice.”

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to point my sword at you, Lord Mir… but we must stop you.”

Despite being the intruder, the knights showed a complex mix of guilt and remorse. They understood that I was beyond their capabilities yet stood firm, fulfilling their duty as knights, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of becoming the villain.

It would be a waste of time to say anything more; I covered my sword with aura. The greedy, black aura that seemed to consume even me engulfed the sword that had been gleaming silver.

I had come here without any voice modulator nor any disguise, and the knights’ confusion likely stemmed from realizing that the young man they assumed was Mir was actually a girl. I had also abandoned my life-saving identity as Mir to preserve my own neck.

If the Duke’s sword couldn’t protect me here, then the only remaining option was death.

Swish!

I silently swung my sword at the two knights charging at me. Knowing that a close-quarter fight could endanger Aria, I shot my aura from a distance. They struggled to parry the attack.

“Damn it! Lord Mir!”

I never intended to resolve this through a fight; I didn’t have time for that. I delayed them with my aura and leapt into the air, intending to clear the gate.

“Lord Mir! There’s a barrier around the door! It’s dangerous!”

‘I know.’

I was surprised that even after I had become the intruder, they still showed concern for me, but there was no turning back.

I wrapped Aria in layers of aura. With the sensation of mana rushing out of me, the entirety of Aria’s body turned black, providing a protective barrier as if she had been thrown alive into flames.

Typically, noble households are equipped with electric shock barriers against intruders. The gate wasn’t exceptionally high because the barriers were in effect. A normal person would be cooked instantly by the power of the barrier.

Bang! Quak!

But I was a Sword Master.

The black aura, shaped like a crescent moon, collided with the barrier. A tremendous noise echoed as if the Duke’s mansion itself had trembled. The dark shroud that covered the sky clashed with the bright light of the falling snow, enveloping the barrier in violent darkness.

‘I won’t lose someone I love again in this snow.’

Tears well up again.

Ching!

The barrier exploded.

Thud.

I threw myself through the shattered barrier and landed in the Duke’s courtyard. The snow piled up from the explosion melted away. My trembling hands nearly dropped the sword, but I gathered my resolve and embraced Aria tightly. Fortunately, Aria hadn’t a single hair harmed, but my body, which unleashed wild aura at the center of the explosion, throbbed painfully as if shocked by electricity.

‘It hurts.’

It was surprising that I was still standing; I felt like a wreck. I roughly swept my singed hair back and took unsteady steps.

“…Lay down your sword and surrender, Lord Mir.”

The four knights guarding the Duke’s mansion aimed their swords at me. I didn’t reply and repelled them with my aura. As the black vortex of aura swirled violently, I charged toward the door.

Cough.

Aria, nestled in my arms, coughed up crimson blood. I could feel her life force dwindling.

‘Damn it!’

My mind went blank.

I sprinted towards the Duke’s steel door. I had to break through that door to see the Duke immediately. I banged on the door with nothing but urgency.

“Damn it! Open the door! Come out!”

I banged and banged again. Tears flowed without pause. Hitting the steel door with my unwrapped fists, a sickening noise erupted, and blood leaked out, but what mattered to me was that Aria was spitting up blood.

“Don’t do this, Lord Mir! This is problematic!”

“Open the door! Please!”

I desperately screamed as I harshly pushed away the bewildered knights approaching. Aria’s breathing was growing weaker.

“Get the hell away!”

Having come this far, I had nothing to lose. I pumped my condensed aura into the gaps of the battered steel door and shaped it into a vortex, pushing back all living beings around the door.

‘I will break it.’

Drawing upon my nearly shattered mana circuits, I unleashed my aura, pouring my entire soul into the blade. The singular thought reigning in my mind was:

‘I must save Aria.’

With a frenzied motion, I swung my sword.

Bang-!

The tumultuous roar broke the surroundings as the steel door disintegrated into dust.

“Ah…”

The servants, paralyzed with fear, and the bewildered knights were left speechless. Clutching Aria, I desperately pleaded with them.

“…Please, let me see your master.”

“I am Taylor, the head butler of the mansion. May I ask your name?”

After what felt like a thousand years of silence, someone finally spoke.

A finely dressed elderly gentleman with white hair. Despite the shattered door burst, he still maintained his composure and decorum, showcasing his skill.

My vision swam, and I struggled to see clearly. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. The area around my eyes, wet with tears, throbbed painfully.

“I’m Mir.”

“Yes, Lord Mir. What brings you here…”

“Please call the Duke. I will explain everything later.”

My voice cracked as I spat those words out. I gritted my teeth, holding Aria, who was growing colder by the moment.

There wasn’t time for any back and forth.

“I’m sorry, but that might be difficult. The Duke has already gone to bed.”

He wore a look of confusion. Taylor tried to uphold his manners even amidst my rudeness, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury to reciprocate his courtesy.

“I’m really sorry.”

I scraped every ounce of mana laced through my veins and muscles, as the bloodlust painted my eyes crimson.

The atmosphere became suffocating with hostility, pressing down on all living beings present.

Taylor, faced with the raw bloodlust of a Sword Master, trembled uncontrollably.

“I need to see the Duke right now.”

I scanned the servants and knights around me with eyes that glowed red with fervor. The raw energy of my rage filled them with terror, their eyes wide with fright. I even noticed a few with weak wills collapsing like puppets with cut strings.

“…Please, tell me why you are here. If you remain like this, I cannot assist you.”

Taylor asked, his voice steady though trembling with natural fear, even as he tried to restrain the knights from aiming their weapons at me.

Gazing into Taylor’s eyes, I detected a flicker of pity beneath his steady demeanor.

“My sister… she’s sick. Please, call the Duke…”

I had grown desperate enough to lean on that faint flicker of sympathy.

Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. A look of concern and sympathy flickered across Taylor’s expression.

“I’m not aware of your circumstances, but I’ve heard Lord Mir had a significant role in defeating the monsters near the Village of Lujou. In gratitude for your help, I can summon a physician at my discretion.”

“A physician won’t do!”

I screamed in agony with a raspy voice.

‘If only a physician could help…!’

I didn’t want to live such a miserable life anymore. I wouldn’t be crushed beneath the feet of monsters, nor would I be looked down upon by others.

Tears obscured my vision.

“Cough…”

Blood seeped through my thin dress shirt. In her unstable breathing, Aria coughed up blood onto my chest again.

“Duke, call Duke Caesar Crisis! I said to call for him!”

Screaming as if I would tear my heart out, I clung to Aria tightly, my heart racing furiously. As Aria’s breaths slowed down, I grew more frantic. The servants stepped back, trembling in fear.

Tears poured down without ceasing. My legs trembled, making it difficult to stand.

‘This is hard.’

Ultimately, I couldn’t withstand it, crumpling to one knee. The accumulation of physical and mental fatigue, built up over a long time, rushed in like an ebbing tide.

I felt as if everything that had kept me standing was collapsing.

How was I supposed to live this way? I hadn’t rushed here to see such an end. I wanted to make Aria happy, and this couldn’t be how it finished. Was I truly happy all this time?

My body felt heavy. Exhausted, I no longer found meaning in mustering any strength. I just wanted to close my eyes and enter a sleep from which I would never awaken. I questioned why I had lived thus far and why I should continue living ahead. I wanted to tear out my aching heart. My soul felt hollow and empty.

What had I been living for?

All the thoughts I had cramped into a narrow space since childhood flooded back. Left alone for survival, postponed as they were “not for Aria,” the agonies I had tried to forget surged forth in a colossal shock, breaking free from their cramped confinement.

‘If Aria dies… why am I living?’

A jumble of dark thoughts intertwined, creating a bizarre hue.

I was a Sword Master. I was a big sister. The incessant mantra that I must not crumble shattered into fragments.

Once my mind began to unravel, my body followed like a domino falling helplessly.

‘I want to rest.

I want to collapse. I just wanted to let go of everything and break down, unloading every responsibility and burden, wanting only to find rest.

Both my body and mind were worn out.

‘But.’

Roughly wiping away my flowing tears, I clenched my teeth and stood my trembling legs back up. I swayed dangerously close to breaking down but did not.

I knew all too well that I couldn’t, and wouldn’t.

Those who had something to protect could not fall apart.

Taylor, who was alternating glances between me and the staircase in the hall with a look of concern, finally spoke.

“The Duke is currently in bed…”

“Whom do you serve!”

“…Huh?”

Suppressing the seething rage within, I met Taylor’s eyes with my fiery gaze.

I thought of all those aristocrats I had met as clients. Sitting upright, their noble demeanor looking down on others, believing they were above everything.

“I ask you, who do you serve and whose commands do you heed?”

I spat each word as if chewing them over, mimicking the bearing of nobility. I straightened my back and bore down on Taylor with an oppressive stare. He quickly wiped the bewilderment off his face and bowed his head solemnly.

“I am a servant of the House of Crisis. I obey only the orders of Duke Caesar Crisis and those who bear his bloodline.”

Caesar and those of his bloodline.

“Then hear my command.”

Within that category, I too was included, as Caesar’s daughter.

“…No way.”

A strange light flickered in Taylor’s eyes. The realization that an assumption he deemed impossible had turned out to be true.

I took a deep breath. I wore no voice-modifying artifacts, had not hidden my long, dark hair beneath my hood, nor draped my small form in a grand cloak. Without any of the elements of my identity as Mir, the sole thing that truly made me Mir was the mask.

Laughing almost to tears, I hesitated not and threw my mask away.

Thud.

“Ugh.”

“…Lysia.”

The area froze in shock. Taylor, facing me head-on, gaped and swallowed hard.

For the first time, I revealed my identity before others, standing before them as if I had stripped bare. My desperate attempt at self-concealment from my mercenary days was now laid bare before all.

I recalled not long ago the facade of Duke Caesar. The same swirling black hair, the same indifferent red eyes, the same air of authority that demanded all to bow before him.

Moreover, I thought of the sword that had become so precious to me. A small boy, astonishingly similar in features and synchronized in combat with me, having shown a seamless combat partnership.

“I am Kashmir Crisis, the daughter of Duke Caesar Crisis.”

Anyone who has seen my face behind the mask could not deny it.

“Lead me to my father. This is an order.”

That I, who bore the blood of the black dragon, was demanding it of him.

A tremendous ripple spread across the area.