Genius Gamer Reborn into a Family of Heroes

Chapter 29

Vision of the Sword King’s Throne

Kalel Duke had come to White Night Castle just for a mere semi-Polden. The fact alone was shocking enough to make one’s heart jump out of their chest…

Moreover, he waited until the knighting ceremony was over?

Leaving behind the astonished expressions of everyone, Harang stepped out of Delac Hall.

“The head of the family is waiting for you.”

Outside the hall, a young man in uniform was waiting. Although Harang was seeing him for the first time, he could recognize who it was.

‘High Master of the South and Kalel Duke’s right-hand man, Aran Paradell.’

Harang swallowed hard. Was this what it felt like to look into the eyes of a 9-star knight?

Nodding his head, Aran led the way with a mysterious smile.

In the center of White Night Castle stood a tall clock tower, with an endlessly spiraling staircase. Despite the existence of an elevator in this world, Harang couldn’t understand why they insisted on such a classic approach.

After climbing the stairs for a long time, his thighs felt pumped and he was slightly out of breath, but he didn’t show it.

‘Here, the audience chamber of White Night Castle…’

Reaching the top of the tower, Harang felt a sudden tension.

Kalambren’s palace symbolized splendid power, but conversely, White Night Castle symbolized stern and heavy strength like cold steel. Stepping in front of the audience chamber, shining entirely in gray-white, the massive doors opened by themselves, and he appeared.

Whoosh!

A strong wind blew through the iron doors, shaking his legs with overwhelming pressure.

The audience chamber at the top of White Night Castle’s clock tower was wide open without a single window.

Supported only by a few pillars, the dark clouds in the sky were clearly visible.

Rumble…!!

As Kalel Duke rose from his seat, a blue light erupted, rivaling the thunder.

Flash!

With his back to the thunderous glow, Kalel approached slowly, and Harang summoned all his strength to lift his head.

For some reason, Kalel Duke was smiling.

“My youngest grandchild, I shall give you a small test.”

“…Yes.”

“Try to cut me down.”

“…!”

For a moment, he doubted his words, but the mighty Sword King wouldn’t joke without reason.

Asking again or hesitating here would only cast doubt on his qualifications. Harang struggled to rise from his seat and drew his sword, pointing it at him.

“Ugh…!”

Even holding the sword was no easy task.

His arms trembled.

His heart pounded, his teeth chattered, yet Harang forced himself to glare at Kalel Duke.

Just showing a hint of killing intent toward him filled him with fear. Like a herbivore standing before a giant predator, even breathing was burdensome.

This was Kalel Duke’s test.

‘The young master is more formidable than expected.’

Watching from behind, Aran briefly admired him. To reveal killing intent toward a transcendent who had reached the 10-star realm meant being immediately consumed by corresponding fear.

In other words, the fact that Harang was trembling all over from fear indicated he had that much courage.

‘Even this much is sufficient…’

At that moment.

Suddenly.

“Ugh, ugh…!!”

Harang grabbed his throat and collapsed. His eyes widened, drool dribbled down, and he coughed repeatedly, struggling to breathe.

Seeing his youngest grandchild writhing in pain, Kalel Duke smiled with satisfaction, a face filled with delight!

“Cough, ugh… I’m, I’m sorry…”

Waiting patiently until Harang’s coughing subsided, Kalel Duke finally spoke when he saw Harang barely maintaining his stance.

“My youngest grandchild, you have died once.”

“…I felt it. My neck being severed and flying off.”

Aran looked at Harang in shock.

Was it even possible for a mere 2-star boy’s mental strength to feel the sensation of being killed by Kalel Duke’s killing intent?

‘How, how could that be…!’

Even Aran was terrified to reveal killing intent to Kalel and had to muster all his energy to do so. Yet a 2-star swordsman had shown killing intent to the great Kalel Duke?

Moreover, the sensation of his neck being severed was no illusion. He had truly felt ‘death.’ An ordinary child, no, even an exceptional knight would have wet their pants and fainted from such a terrifying experience, but Harang endured.

‘Just how formidable is his mental strength?’

While Aran was astonished, Kalel Duke asked a question.

“What did you feel from that moment of death?”

“…”

Harang thought for a moment, then lifted the sword he was still tightly holding.

Closing his eyes tightly, he slowly focused his concentration.

Thus, time passed.

Flutter…

Harang’s clothes fluttered slightly. But that was all.

“…I’m sorry. My skills are too lacking to fully express what I felt, and this is the best I can do.”

“Ha!”

Kalel Duke laughed, showing his white teeth. The entire audience chamber shook, the ceiling vibrating.

“Lacking? No, you have precisely understood and grasped the essence of the ‘Sky Sword.’”

“Sky Sword…”

The Sky Sword was not a secret technique or profound skill of the Kaladan family.

A sword that reaches the sky, or extends to the sky. When Kalel Duke reached the 10-star level, he created this ultimate technique through an enlightenment that broke past his limits.

He had decided to teach it only to his successor.

But for decades…

No one, not a single person, had understood or accepted the sword essence as Kalel Duke intended.

But today…

Finally, a family member who understood Kalel Duke’s cherished ‘Sky Sword’ had appeared.

With a satisfied smile, he spoke as he passed Harang.

“That is my first lesson to you. Keep honing it thoroughly. Aran, let’s go.”

“I will prepare the warp gate.”

Screech… Boom!

Even after Kalel Duke left with Aran’s assistance, Harang remained for a long time.

‘I… I can see it.’

With a face full of joy, he recalled the sword Kalel had shown and he had reproduced just moments ago.

‘Has it already been three years since I’ve been here…?’

Harang suddenly recalled the “main quest.”

The enigmatic goal given to him when he first gained consciousness in this world: to find the “Shards of Starlight.”

He had spent years training, yet—

Three years in White Night Castle. A time that could be seen as short or long. Harang knew that his life here had not been in vain.

The chance to continuously duel with talented, promising youths older than himself was meaningful enough.

It was ample time to understand what it felt like to be a “swordsman” in this world.

At first, he sparred with senior trainees out of habit, just like facing players in a virtual reality game, and was thoroughly defeated.

Players in games were ultimately ordinary humans with physical limits in reaction speed and judgment. However, warriors who trained in mana had those limitations somewhat compensated.

Harang’s attacks were almost ineffective against senior trainees with equal or faster reaction speeds, and his simulations, which were his specialty, mostly failed.

That came as a fresh shock to Harang.

‘Now I’ve somewhat adapted.’

The past three years had been a process of breaking habits Harang had developed over ten years in his previous life to face the superhumans of the Astera continent.

By learning to simulate the movements of those who wielded mana, he had gained a deeper insight.

‘What if Kyle had my level of judgment with his three-star skill?’

Harang constantly replayed his victories to temper himself.

‘Kyle was stronger than me and had higher achievements in swordsmanship, but his judgment and strategy were lacking. If he had skills equal to mine…’

He imagined Kyle with judgment equal to his own.

The result was a narrow victory.

Though Harang possessed the Silver Heart and its blessing, compensating somewhat for his slightly lower swordsmanship, the difference in sword energy from Kyle’s three-star ability was hard to endure.

‘I’ll encounter opponents stronger and with better judgment than me.’

He couldn’t always rely on luck, tricks, and sleight of hand to win.

‘I must understand true swordsmanship. Yes, I must grasp what the Sky Sword is.’

He hadn’t even grasped the concept yet. If Harang were an “ordinary swordsman,” it might have taken him years to understand the doctrine of the Sky Sword.

‘But I’m different.’

In the private training room, Harang quietly meditated and gradually drew upon his mana.

After concentrating for a long time, with cold sweat pouring down, Harang extended his left hand into the air.

“…Lightning, come forth.”

Crackle!! Harang’s left hand began to sparkle with lightning.

It wasn’t ordinary blue lightning.

Black sparks with white flames—the kind of lightning that could be seen nowhere else.

‘Word of Power, Thunder Sound.’

This black-and-white lightning, which would pierce and incinerate a target as long as the user’s magic allowed, might seem overwhelmingly powerful.

However, this lightning vanished the moment it left Harang’s body. In other words, to use it effectively, he had to be in physical contact with his target… which was impractical in real combat.

Until recently, he hadn’t grasped how to use Words of Power, but after obtaining the “Doctrine of Dragon Sword” as a quest reward, he had finally understood.

When he brought his left hand to his real sword and caressed it, the lightning transferred, igniting the sword with black-and-white sword energy.

‘Magic that can be used in harmony with swordsmanship. That is the essence of Dragon Magic left to me by Hero Kaladan and the doctrine of Dragon Swordsmanship.’

Standing up, he drew his sword and envisioned an imaginary enemy before him.

‘And the doctrine of the Sky Sword.’

The envisioned opponent was a three-star trainee swordsman.

Judgment equal to his own.

Harang slowly lowered his stance, pointing his sword at the opponent.

It was a stance unique to Kaladan swordsmanship, yet slightly different. A distinctive stance that none of Kaladan’s descendants had ever conceived!

[Kaladan Secret Art, Dragon Sword First Form]

The stance was identical to Speed Butterfly Sword, but the essence within was entirely different.

[Flying Butterfly Thunder Sword]

Whoosh! The black-and-white lightning shot out, splitting into dozens of streams, instantly overwhelming the imagined three-star swordsman.

What was the Speed Butterfly Sword?

Wasn’t it about swiftly slicing like a butterfly?

But, up until now, no one had perfectly replicated the phenomenon of a butterfly spreading its wings through swordsmanship.

‘Spread your wings.’

It looked as if a black-and-white butterfly appeared at the tip of Harang’s sword, flapping its wings. The wing movements unfolding from Harang’s sword were not just flashy.

With a light step forward, he instantly vanished, reappearing more than ten steps ahead.

Immediately after.

‘…Pierce.’

Harang’s thrust came down like lightning.

Boom…!!

A huge hole opened in the training room wall, with the lightning from his thrust escaping outside. Yet, his sequence didn’t stop there.

Up to this point, Harang had only learned and mimicked the secret art arranged by Hero Kaladan, without any intention of stopping!

Harang’s silver eyes gleamed as he flexed his arm muscles and gritted his teeth, forcefully thrusting his sword toward the sky.

Imagine, the Sky Sword.

A sword that could pierce even the heavens.

‘Slash upwards.’

Immediately, lightning soared into the sky.

[Flying Up]

Crash-!!

Completely destroying the imagined opponent, and even demolishing the walls and ceiling of the private training room, Harang collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.

‘So heavy…!’

The sword imbued with black-and-white lightning was so heavy that even Harang’s strength couldn’t bear it. It felt as if the sword was being crushed under the weight of a thousand catties.

But the effect was as certain as the weight endured.

“Hah, haha… I did it.”

He had completely demolished the wall of the private training room, creating a new door and a well-ventilated ceiling!

This was by no means the level of martial prowess a two-star swordsman could display.

“Cough!”

Of course, the price was all his mana being completely drained, leaving him empty.

“Ha… Now I understand. How to use Word of Power magic.”

As Harang calmed his pounding heart and shakily stood up, knights and instructors rushed into the private training room.

“What, what happened?!”

“Semi Polden Harang? No, this is…”

“What on earth did you do?”

“…”

Unable to reveal the Words of Power, Harang had to make excuses for a long time, saying he was practicing a new sword technique.