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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“How dare you!”
Hayun drew her White Cloud Dragon sword.
The white blade shone brightly, even in the darkness of the Demon Realm Forest.
However, the beauty of the sword didn’t reflect its true power.
Clink.
The White Cloud Dragon, considered a masterpiece in the human world, was stopped by a single finger.
Hayun’s eyes widened in shock, and the Priestess of Time, sensing her confusion, smiled slyly.
“You don’t know how to use a sword at all. Although I suppose I’ve unintentionally taken many things from you already.”
Creak.
The Priestess of Time slowly raised her hand, still holding the White Cloud Dragon, and opened her mouth.
A wave of pressure, as if she were about to devour it whole, washed over Hayun.
“Do you mind if I take this sword too?”
“……!”
Hayun’s body froze, but her instincts took over.
She released her left hand and drew the sword at her right hip, swinging it at the Priestess.
Having only one arm, the Priestess was forced to let go of the White Cloud Dragon and step back, licking her lips in disappointment.
“I recently lost my weapon. It seems I need something stronger to face the monstrous beings I’m dealing with.”
“Shut up! This sword was my mother’s!”
“Oh my?”
The Priestess of Time covered her mouth with her hand, but a chilling smile peeked out from between her fingers.
“That’s a shame.”
Despite her words, Hayun could tell that the woman was gazing at her sword with a predatory hunger, like a snake about to strike.
She wanted to charge forward and cut her down, but the Grand Witch’s low voice stopped her.
“Calm down. You can’t defeat her with brute force alone.”
Hayun nodded, taking a deep breath to steady herself.
Daniel had repeatedly emphasized the importance of remaining calm in battle, how losing control only gave the enemy an advantage.
The woman before her was a monster.
A brief exchange of blows was enough to confirm that.
She was probably one of the strongest beings in the Demon Realm Forest.
Hayun, on the other hand, was just a student at the academy.
Even though she had a talent for swordsmanship, she was still just a bud waiting to bloom.
So she focused on her strengths.
‘People are always swayed, shaken, and lost. It’s unavoidable. But you can remain calm in any situation. Even when you’re shaken, you always find your center. That’s a great talent for a swordsman.’
To defeat an opponent far stronger than herself, she needed to identify their weaknesses and exploit them.
She needed to be unpredictable, to attack from unexpected angles.
But more importantly, she needed to believe in herself.
Think positive.
She recited the strengths Daniel had acknowledged, bolstering her confidence.
‘Focus. Like I said before, if you don’t let your emotions control you, you can become the strongest swordsman in the academy.’
Daniel’s words, spoken by the bonfire, echoed in her mind.
‘No, maybe you’re already the strongest.’
His words, more than the sword in her hand, were her most powerful weapon.
“Grand Witch, is there any way to defeat her?”
“It’s impossible.”
The Grand Witch’s blunt answer shattered Hayun’s newfound confidence, but…
“We might not be able to kill her, but we can at least inflict some serious pain.”
Hayun nodded at the Grand Witch’s amendment and stepped forward.
“I’ll take the front line. Please support me.”
“I never thought I’d entrust my life to a little girl like you.”
Normally, the Grand Witch would have fled without hesitation.
There was no reason for her to get involved in this fight.
But she realized she couldn’t escape.
Hayun’s White Cloud Dragon sword had drawn the Priestess’s attention, and those cloudy eyes, devoid of any readable emotion, held only chaos.
The Grand Witch knew that if she showed even a hint of weakness, those hands would pierce her heart.
Moreover…
“……”
She saw the future.
The witches’ gift of prophecy had activated the moment she laid eyes on the Priestess.
She saw the massacre in their village, the witches slaughtered, their bodies strewn across the ground, and the Priestess standing over them, laughing.
To prevent that future from coming to pass, the Grand Witch, her body slick with cold sweat, began to prepare her magic.
Hayun stepped forward, gripping her two swords tightly.
“Hayun, eldest daughter of Herbert Len and Yunran Len.”
She inhaled deeply.
The heavy air of the Demon Realm Forest, which had felt so oppressive before, now seemed to invigorate her, filling her with a surge of energy.
“I reclaim the Len family name I once abandoned.”
The Priestess watched the girl, her finger resting on her lips.
The girl, so fragile, yet so fierce, a tragic figure in a cruel world.
“And I will avenge my family by striking you down.”
Hayun charged towards the Priestess, her movements calm and collected.
Her blades flashed, cutting through the heavy air of the Demon Realm Forest.
She swung both swords in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized, amplifying their power.
But…
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Her swords were met with ‘bone’.
It was a grotesque, monstrous bone, far too large and misshapen to belong to a human.
It was probably the spine of a creature that lived in the Demon Realm Forest.
The bone ‘sword’ erupted from the ground, landing in the Priestess’s hand.
With a flick of her wrist, she blocked Hayun’s attack.
Her full-powered, two-handed strike…
Stopped by a makeshift bone sword.
The Priestess didn’t even flinch.
But Hayun wasn’t fazed.
She stepped back, creating distance between them.
Her priority was buying time.
She didn’t know what kind of magic the Grand Witch was preparing, but it was their only hope of harming the Priestess.
“Haa…”
Hayun took a deep breath, preparing to attack again, but…
“You’re very composed. You don’t seem like an 18-year-old student.”
“……”
How did she know she was 18?
Hayun racked her brain, but she couldn’t think of any way the Priestess could know that.
She doubted Heaven Len had told her.
He would have avoided talking about Hayun, wanting to erase her from his memory.
“How has your relationship with Daniel McLean changed?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh my, didn’t he tell you about that? He doesn’t trust you as much as I thought. Perhaps his feelings are still muddled, since he only received your memories.”
“……”
Hayun was confused, so she swung her swords again, trying to escape the conversation.
Clang! Clang!
This time, she attacked with a flurry of quick strikes, hoping to find an opening in the Priestess’s one-armed defense.
“You’re still deceiving yourself. Daniel McLean is a truly repulsive man. He can’t even recognize a girl’s feelings when they’re this obvious.”
“Shut up.”
“Do you know how self-centered he is? He’s protecting the apocalypse that will destroy the continent, just to satisfy his own desires. He doesn’t care if you all die.”
“I said shut up!”
The Priestess blocked every attack with ease, using only one hand and a makeshift bone sword.
Her words, delivered with a leisurely smile, were chipping away at Hayun’s composure.
“He’s in love with the elf, Eris, and that’s all that matters? His feelings are more important than yours? You just want him to be happy?”
“Shut uuuup!”
“Hehehe. How amusing. You’re just running away, aren’t you? You think you’re not good enough for him, compared to the other girls. That’s why you’re hiding your feelings, trying to escape.”
“……”
“You have no idea how pathetic that is, do you? Want to know why you’re trying to push Daniel towards Eris?”
Clang!
Their swords clashed.
The Priestess of Time effortlessly blocked both of Hayun’s swords, her smile widening as she continued her verbal assault.
“You want him to be with a woman you can never compete with. You need an excuse, a way to tell yourself that you could never have him, no matter how hard you tried.”
“That’s not true!”
“May Plov is too frivolous, a delinquent with no depth. Rin is beautiful, but falling in love with the apocalypse? That’s impossible. ”
Hayun wanted to cover her ears, to shut out those venomous words, but she couldn’t.
“Sen? A heartless, bloodstained assassin? Adriana is gone, lost in the forest. Elise, despite being a princess, is broken and vulgar.”
Hayun was no longer confused, she was just bewildered.
How did this woman know so much about them?
Her head was spinning.
“Eve is timid. Besides her voluptuous body, I don’t see anything she has over you.”
“……”
“None of them are overwhelmingly superior to you. So if any of them ended up with Daniel, you would be left alone, crying and regretting your cowardice.”
Those words, though simple, struck a chord within Hayun’s heart, like a ripple spreading across a vast lake.
“Ah, you could have had a chance.”
“Shut uuuupppp!”
“Oh my?”
Seeing Hayun’s sword raised high above her head, the Priestess of Time smiled slyly.
“Your movements are getting sloppy.”
Crack!
From her right breast to her left waist.
The bone sword sliced through Hayun’s flesh.
The jagged, uneven blade ripped through her skin, sending a wave of pain that made her want to scream.
Then, the Priestess’s kick landed, sending Hayun flying backwards.
If she hadn’t crashed into a tree, she would have flown even further.
The tree snapped in half as if struck by an axe, and Hayun collapsed on top of it, coughing up blood.
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