The Invincible Undefeated Divine Sword Master - Chapter 15
A Mother’s Memory
The bandit leader throws his axe. The axe from his right-hand flies directly to me in a great speed.
The bandit leader throws the axe with great strength, that it flies through the air slicing through tree branches and leaves on its way. If I got hit by that axe I would die instantly, but it is not the time to die yet.
I avoided the axe that he threw and focus on the axe on his left hand. The shape of the axe was different from the previous one.
“The shape of the axe is oddly curvy. —there’s something special with the axe.”
I thought so as I avoided the second axe. I paid a close attention to the axe which he just thrown. The axe turned around and comes back to my direction.
“I see. So, it is like a boomerang.”
It’s really easy to dodge after I know his trick. I won’t fall into that kind of cheap trick. With that in mind, I casted a fireball spell at a bandit coming from my left.
Then a fireball shoots out from my left arm at a great speed. The bandit caught in flames.
“Hey! This guy can cast magic without chanting!”
The bandit head seemed surprised.
Magic is really common in this world, but only a few people can cast magic without chanting. Even among the sorcerers of the Estark family, my father is the only one who can cast magic without chanting. Even my younger sister Ellen who is called a prodigy child in the Estark family can’t cast magic without chanting.
As expected, the bandit leader is really surprised of my magic skills, but I don’t need to explain to him why I could cast magic without chanting. There is no point in explaining it to a person who was about to die. He would die in a few minutes anyway.
The bandit leader throws axes at me nonstop. He throws the axes with great power so that I couldn’t approach him easily. However, I’m not some kind of beast who will charge at him fiercely.
No matter how many axes he has, they will run out eventually. I say it would reduce his strength by half.
The bandit leader continues to throw his axes ferociously, his throws are really strong as expected. But when he was told by his men that he has ran out of axes, he uses the last axe to slice through the head of his men.
–It seems like this man does not any need mercy after all.
I took the chance and closed the distance between us.
The bandit smiles as I charge into his direction. He must’ve thought that he has the advantage in close combat.
The bandit leader tried to split my head into two as if he was chopping a piece of wood. He has a really great speed that no normal swordsman could ever avoid. No, in fact, even I couldn’t avoid his swing either. But neither blood nor insides of my head was splattered.
“ ! ? ”
He wondered why.
“Afterimages.”
I told him as I thrust my sword down his brain from above.
It must’ve hurt a lot, but he should be dead before he can feel the pain. Then I look at his ugly and messed up face and said a few words.
“…so, bandits also bleed red.”
Perhaps because I looked like a demon who just killed their leader, the bandits fled like rats.
One of the bandits didn’t even have the strength to escape because he was really terrified.
He was a boy. Apparently, he had just become a bandit. His legs were shaking nonstop.
“Don’t kill me…”
He was in tears.
Of course, I didn’t kill the boy, I never could.
I warn him as I point the edge of my sword at his eyes.
“You may have become a bandit because you were hungry, but this is the world of a bandit is not a fun world as you thought. Today you may kill someone and get your bread, but tomorrow someone may cut you down.”
The boy nodded his head.
when I put my sword away from his face, I told him a something before I leave.
“Go home. You have a family right.”
The boy sits up at my words.
He looked really pathetic.
I did tell him to go back to his hometown, but I am sure he must have had a hard time there as well.
But even so—
“…it is quicker to create a world without bandits by stop becoming one of them than defeating one by one.”
That’s what I thought.
A world where farmers could make enough money to feed themselves.
A world that there is no need to steal.
A world where we can care for others.
If we can make a world like that, I’m sure there will be no more bandits.
It’s better than killing all the bandits, at least that is what I thought. I don’t think anyone would understand about my way of thinking, but I was wrong.
It seems that there are still some pure hearted people in this cruel world.
I saw a girl in a white hood shedding tear.
At first, I thought she was crying out of fear when she saw me kill those bandits like a demon, but I guess that was not the reason.
Then she came over to my side and hugged me.
“…poor Mr. Licht.”
“…what do you mean by that?”
“You know exactly what I mean. The truth is you love peace and harmony more than anyone else here. But your gift won’t allow you to have it.”
“…”
“Mr. Licht did cut down the bandits mercilessly, but he did so in order to minimize the killing. He showed his devilish deeds, to break the bandits’ will to fight, so he killed them more brutally than necessary.”
“That’s right. I am the devil’s bastard child indeed.”
“No, you are not.”
Leah immediately shook her head.
“If you are a devil, you won’t be able to wield a sword with that sorrow in your heart, you won’t feel any sadness and cry like this. You wield your sword while feeling mercy for your enemies.”
“I don’t have any sorrow in my heart and I’m not crying at all.”
I don’t cry. I swore on the day of my mother’s funeral that I would never cry again. I would never show my weakness to others.
But Leah caught me off guard.
She smiled gently and let tears spill from her own eyes and said.
“No, you are crying.”
She said it as she is touching my heart.
“You are crying here. Your heart is crying. I know.”
Her words brought back old memories.
A mother’s memory.
My mother was abused by my stepmother and the maidens of the Estark family. As a bastard, I was often mistreated as well, my mother told me to be strong. But when we were alone together, she would hug me and tell me to cry in her arms when I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“—I’m sorry I gave you a harsh fate. You have endured it well and you are growing up stronger than anyone else. But you know, it’s okay to cry once in a while. Children are supposed to cry all the time.”
Then she gave me a gentle hug.
At that moment, Leah’s words, Leah’s smile, was just like my mother’s.
Maybe I’ve found something I once lost.
With that in my mind, I gazed into the eyes of a beautiful girl in front of me.