Chapter Chapter 113: 12. It’s not over til it’s over (11) (2/2)

How much time had passed by.

The moments that flashed before my eyes like a revolving lantern, as if all my past memories were reliving themselves was invigorating.

I had previously said that looking forwards to the future was more efficient than looking back on the past, but only the past with Ast… no, the things that might be better called memories returned to me often.

“This time for sure.”

I will capture you.

I will not lose you again.

I am not an imbecile that would lose this opportunity right in front of my eyes.

For some bizarre reason, Ast was very popular with some very troublesome women, so the fact that I had even withheld information on Ast to my allies to prevent any intelligence from being leaked to them had backfired, but I could deal with that much.

Magic sealing device? All it did was interfere with the flow of magic power in a certain space to freeze it.

Meaning, it wasn’t that mana wouldn’t move, but it moved irregularly so that it was hard to use.

Just that.

If I moved my magic power to match the new flow, then I could use magic again.

It might be impossible for ordinary people, but was I an ordinary person?

I am a woman of the Karuan Empire.

Of those who inherited the blood of the Karuan Imperial Family, said to be the descendants of a union between man and dragon, I was the one that had most strongly received the legacy of the dragons.

As a descendant of dragons, those called the masters of magic, lords of magic, it was inconceivable that I would be unable to manage that!

“It’s over, now……”

And when Iris began to fall not far from where I stood.

“It’s over, now……”

I, too, could almost perfectly understand this flow.

I didn’t even bother to imagine that the knights would be able to defeat Ast without mana.

Disregarding how disgusting his methods had been, Ast had defeated the Sword Heaven with his sword.

And even the Sword Heaven himself had admitted that Ast’s raw skill was not below his own.

So my knights’ role was to hold out until I could completely comprehend the flow.

Because of that, I didn’t interrupt his disagreeable conversations, but only laid out orders to prevent him from becoming suspicious.

And as a result, the silver flare of sword aura blazed on the sword in my hand once again.

“Hm?”

As he looked for me who said the exact same words that he had, his eyes bulged as they focused on the sword aura glowing on my blade.

The fact that his openly shocked expression was… quite cute was my little secret.

“Holy shit?”

As always he said something that you wouldn’t believe he was saying to royalty, words that he’d have no rights to plead against were he to be executed for it, but it simply made me smile.

“This is the end.”

The will of my sword turned my steps into a dance.

And the martial art that arose from it was one of the imperial family’s secret styles.

A style that was said to have been created through imitation of an enraged blue dragon that lived in the ocean.

The Dragon King’s Sword, Chapter of Blue.(1)

“Countless Currents (千里萬波)”(2)

I watched silver waves gradually fill, then flood the small cave.

In the middle of this unfamiliar flow of mana, avoiding the knights and only aiming for Ast’s lower body is difficult.

But overcoming all these, my sword aura finally began to reach Ast’s legs.

“Were you really going to cut me!”

He deflected the first wave of sword aura with that silver weapon of his, but like its name, Countless Currents was an attack that created countless waves of sword aura crashing down on you.

As I saw Ast scream at my attack, I didn’t even think to wipe the sweat off my forehead as I shouted happily back to Ast.

“It’s alright, Ast! I won’t dislike you just because you’re missing some legs!”

My love for Ast wouldn’t disappear with just a paltry disability like that.

No, on the contrary, it is very good because then there wouldn’t be any pests attracted to him, and Ast could not run away.

“That’s not love but obsession!” Ast half-screamed as he jumped into the air.

“It doesn’t matter even if it is obsession.”

I gripped the hilt of my sword as I controlled the movements of the sword aura.

Manipulating sword aura that had already left my control was a very difficult task.

Moreover, doing so in a space under lockdown by a magic-sealing device made the task all but impossible, but right now I could surpass that impossibility.

“Hoo.”

With a short breath, the wave of sword aura leaped upwards.

And as he looked down at the sight, Ast bit his lips and,

“Do or die!”(3)

“What are you doing!”

He adjusted his center of gravity mid-air, and placed his body in the path of the wave of sword aura.

“If you want my corpse, then take it!”

That’s a fake.

Could the man who prioritised his own well-being over anything else really risk his life like that?

Ast would never do such a thing.

‘But……”

Did a way to evade my attack in that position mid-air exist?

It is impossible without magic.

But let alone using magic himself, he had a bizarre constitution where even spells casted onto him by other people simply vanished, so there was no way any such method existed for him.

“Damn… it… all!”

In the end, the one with the most to lose was me.

I wanted a live Ast, not his dead corpse.

“Haaaaaaaah!”

If I were a second late, then Ast could be diced into chunks of meat.

With all the strength I could muster, I forcibly bent the direction of the magic off-course.

Boom!

“Haah. Haa. Haah.”

I managed to end it with my sword aura just skimming beside Ast and breaking the wall behind him.

“Ast, now it really is over…”

“An opening!”

“Even now!”

Whose fault was it that I worked hard enough to drench my entire body with sweat, and he attacked in that moment!

‘But.’

Now it really was over.

Ast’s attack was to throw his only weapon, the metal bat.

I couldn’t guarantee what would happen to me if I got hit by that, but I was not exhausted enough to be unable to dodge that.

And inversely, the moment I dodged, I won.

Without the wooden bat or the metal bat, there was no way for Ast to defeat a swordsmaster.

Having perfectly evaded the metal bat thrown at me, I smiled victoriously and looked up at Ast.

“Now it’s truly over…”

‘He’s smiling?’

But before I could even finish.

The moment I saw Ast’s quaint smile and realised that something had gone horribly wrong.

“Ultimate move, Aru Punch☆”

As I heard a voice come from behind me, the world whited out.

As always, feel free to leave any suggestions and corrections in the comments.

(1) Original was 용왕검, 청색의 장, and as I do not read wuxia (KR or CN) I have little knowledge of what 장 translates to in this usage.

(2) I hate wuxia attack names. The literal translation of this would be smth like ‘(A) Thousand Leagues(2.5) (of) Torrential Currents”

(2.5) Referring to the unit of distance, literal translation would be li, same unit of distance as the Chinese one, which TIL has been standardised in the modern day to 500m

(3) I was so tempted to localise it to ‘leroy’ instead