REAPER SCANS
Swordmaster’s Youngest Son
[Translator – Junseo]
[Proofreader – Valirius]
Volume 10 Chapter 369 - The Reason They Seek Temar’s Tomb (1)
‘Thanks to the armor, it’s way easier to hide my presence with shadow energy.’
This time as well, the warriors were unable to react to Jin’s movements in time.
He was definitely incredibly fast, but the reason why they couldn’t react was because trying to sense Jin’s presence, made faint by shadow energy, was like trying to sense a shadow behind them.
Slice…!
As the blades of the Vermont warriors imbued with aura brightly illuminated the sky, blood spurted out once again. The blood droplets were mixed with shadow energy particles and had a murky color.
‘It was too shallow.’
Unlike the first time, it didn’t kill the opponent in one blow. Bradamante grazed the warrior’s jugular vein, leaving a long, dark trail in the air.
But the trail had no ‘flow’ nor ‘sound’.
In other words, it lacked the sense of weight that should’ve come from swinging a lump of iron, or the sound of a sharp object cutting through the air.
Only an eerie energy hovered around the bleeding wound, as if a ghost had passed by.
Indeed, the warriors momentarily mistook the being that attacked them for a ghost.
Not only did it appear to rush in at incredible speed, but they couldn’t even see the blade moving.
Despite their aura lighting up the surroundings, they still couldn’t see Jin, so it wasn’t unreasonable for them to think that.
‘Where are you…? Where are you hiding?’
The Vermont warriors had the same thought.
Simultaneously, they all felt their pride as warriors shattering.
They were ambushed, but even after losing a man in a single blow, they almost lost another man in the follow-up attack.
They felt ashamed that they couldn’t identify the location of the attacker.
‘What is this…?! This isn’t Jin Runcandel, is this the strongest assassin of Nameless? Or, is it perhaps the leader of Nameless?’
As far as they were concerned, only the leader of Nameless was able to perform such an attack.
The problem was that it wasn’t the Nameless leader, but Jin Runcandel, who’d used shadow energy to erase his presence as much as possible, hiding in the darkness.
“Everyone, pair up!”
One of the Vermont warriors clenched his stomach and shouted. He was the leader of the warriors that had gathered there.
At the leader’s command, the warriors quickly paired up and were on guard, facing both directions.
Although one of them was defeated with a single stroke of the sword, they were still warriors who were generally considered the best of the best within Vermont.
‘The imperial guard, huh?’
Jin hid in the darkness of the forest and examined their clothing.
Their glistening golden shoulder pieces, the symbol of the imperial guard. Their pure white coats, stained with blood, contrasted with Jin’s shadow energy armor.
The leader stood at the center of the warriors and scanned the darkness of the forest. He was trying to find the assailant.
A cold drop of sweat was already running down his chin. His breathing was ragged from the tension and the feeling of being pushed to his limit.
Indeed, he was a man worthy of leading the imperial guard.
“Show yourself…!”
The head aimed his sword precisely where Jin was hidden in the darkness. His men were completely unaware that Jin was hiding there.
Jin walked slowly in the darkness.
The guards couldn’t help but flinch when they saw Jin’s appearance. Because of Myulta’s Rune, the shadow energy armor, and darkness, Jin looked like a shadow rising up.
“I am Rick Helter, leader of the Fifth Division of the Imperial Guard of the Great Vermont Empire. State your name.”
“Seeing how you’re going to the effort of revealing your title and affiliation, you must be scared, huh?”
“…We are carrying out a mission under the orders of his majesty the emperor. Whoever you are, I urge you not to make the foolish choice of interfering with the mission of the imperial guard and turning the entire Vermont Empire against you.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“We’ve come to meet JIn Runcandel.”
Jin couldn’t help but laugh inwardly.
“It’s been quite some time since it was revealed to the world that I’m the contractor of shadows, but it seems that the imperial guard, the highest intelligence agency of the royal family, still isn’t aware about it.”
Rick and his men’s eyes widened.
They were so nervous that they didn’t even recognize the sword that had been swinging at them, or the armor of the man before them, nor what they represented.
They simply assumed that the assassin had painted his weapon black to blend in with the night.
There was silence for a while.
Meanwhile, the eyes of Rick Helter and his men, which had been filled with fear, changed into a dark and murderous look. There was no sign of his heart wavering from shame, or of his sword tip trembling from fear.
They were the imperial guard.
Although they had mistaken their opponent and acted clumsily just now, they were people who never backed down once their goal was clear.
The moment they were first attacked by Jin, they weren’t afraid of the ‘unknown opponent’.
They were afraid that they would be taken out by a third party before they could carry out the emperor’s orders.
“Why did you want to meet me? To kill me? Or to negotiate?”
If they encountered Jin Runcandel, the guards’ top priority was to capture him.
But Rick immediately understood. It was impossible for the six of them to capture Jin Runcandel alive.
‘No, even if we had sixty, we couldn’t capture him alive.’
Suddenly, Rick gritted his teeth.
“…Get him!”
The men quickly surrounded Jin.
Rick pushed his way into the middle, swinging his sword with all his might, and at the same time, the circle of men narrowed, with swords coming at Jin from all directions.
The guards naturally expected Jin to avoid the attack. Maybe by dodging three of them and then countering after deflecting two of them.
But Jin stood tall and did not dodge their blades.
Clang, clang—!
The shadow energy armor had no gaps. Still, Rick and his men instinctively cut at where the gaps would’ve been in ordinary armor. All they got in return was a futile clanging sound as the blades bounced off.
Jin even caught a blade that came in from the left with his hand.
The blade made scraping sounds as it tried to escape his gauntlet. Jin pulled the blade toward him, and the imperial guard who couldn’t let go of his weapon was dragged forward helplessly.
Stab!
Bradamante plunged into his chest.
‘Four.’
A mark was left where the scimitar struck the shadow energy armor. The cut made by Rick Helter’s scimitar was deep enough to almost graze his skin.
But, like the super-fast regeneration of the strongest monsters, the armor was repaired in an instant. The shadow energy emanating from Jin was regenerating the armor.
At this point, though their fighting spirit wasn’t broken, it was inevitable that they would feel despair.
Swish!
“Keuk!”
“Urgh!”
The imperial guards grunted with their eyes tightly shut.
Photon Cannon.
The ancient light magic left behind by Tzenmi had a greater effect in the dark. Particularly in situations like these, when he was overwhelming his opponent.
Swish—!
Once again, blood formed an arch in the air.
The blink of an eye was enough to end a battle between skilled warriors.
So, in order for someone to survive after backing off with their eyes closed in front of Jin, they either had to be incredibly lucky or be skilled enough for Jin to require all his focus.
This time, two men were struck down at once. They were the two who faced the Photon Cannon head-on.
‘Two.’
Rick and just one of his men. That was all that remained.
They again distanced themselves from Jin and were desperately trying to come up with a way to overcome this situation.
It wasn’t hard for them to reach a conclusion.
It was impossible.
But that didn’t mean it was something they could easily admit. They couldn’t admit that they were doomed to helplessly give up their life.
It wasn’t that the imperial guards were weak. They could definitely be referred to as the strong.
However, it was unfortunate for the imperial guard that Jin was now someone who had begun to stand on a completely different level from those who were only ‘ordinary’ among the strong.
If the Imperial Guard had carried out their characteristic destructive interrogation from the beginning, even at the risk of destroying the forest, they might have been able to fight in a way that wasn’t so futile.
They didn’t have a choice anymore.
It was impossible to run away, and it was impossible to fight and win.
They were never trained to beg for their lives like dogs, and the reason they and Jin had met was to take the life of their opponent.
If there was one thing that was fairest in the world of warriors, then it would be this. That if nothing else, you at least have complete control on your attitude to death.
Suddenly Rick and his men turned around. Even though it was not a situation where they could dare turn their back.
“Your Majesty, please forgive my disloyalty in failing to complete my mission and accepting death first.”
They had turned around to bow toward Vermont’s emperor for the last time.
When the two men showed their back to him, if he wanted to, Jin could have taken their lives as easily as coughing.
“If possible, I would like to enjoy the honor of serving Your Majesty even after death.”
But he decided to respect it. It wasn’t difficult to show at least that much mercy to someone he had no resentment toward.
‘Is the Vermont emperor’s leadership that great, or is it the royal family’s brainwashing? What impressive loyalty.’
Rick and his men turned around again and took a stance.
“Thank you, Jin Runcandel. Thanks to you, I was able to pay my final respects to his majesty as a knight of the imperial guard.”
“Are you done?”
Rick nodded. Though he smiled unpleasantly for a reason Jin didn’t know, Jin paid no heed to it and pointed Bradamante at him.
Clang—!
The blades of Jin and the imperial guards clashed.
Rick’s final subordinate met his end after fifteen sword swings without even touching Jin’s armor once.
Although Rick’s swordsmanship was certainly several levels higher than that of his subordinates, he was also no match for Jin.
“Huff, urgh…!”
After a hundred sword swings, Rick was breathing heavily and covered in wounds. He had many fatal injuries, and the bleeding was so severe that even if left alone, death would soon greet him.
Thump!
Eventually, Rick got down on one knee. He couldn’t continue the fight with this injured body.
Jin looked down at him with indifferent eyes.
“I guess you’ve already said your last words.”
Rick didn’t answer, but just trembled. Jin couldn’t tell if he was feeling cold because of the bleeding, or if he was truly afraid of death now that he was its doorstep.
Slice…
It was only after he had cut off Rick’s head that he realized why he had been shaking.
Something ominous was beginning to change inside Rick’s body.
‘The blood…is forming a magic circle…?!’
The blood flowing from Rick’s body was forming a strange magic circle on the floor.
Around him, it wasn’t just Rick, but the blood of the guards who had already fallen was also forming the same magic circle on the ground.
“Jin, this is…”
Valeria said, running to Jin after sensing something strange.
“I’m not certain, but I think it’s some kind of magic circle that transforms the body.”
Reaper Scans
Translator – Junseo
Proofreader – Valirius
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Read the webtoon on https://reaperscans.com/comics/4050-swordmasters-youngest-son/
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