Hyunsoo always had a mountain of work piled up.
He had to sign dozens of documents a day, including the reports Nell submitted.
He had to go to the military training grounds and check how much the soldiers had grown, or whether they had any complaints.
Every so often, he had to visit each of the territories, which now far exceeded five, and he also had to occasionally participate at the place where the blacksmiths were being taught.
Because Hyunsoo was a king, his playtime was longer than most high-rankers’, and he played Ares for an average of about fifteen hours a day.
He was so busy he could barely breathe.
Still.
About once a month, there was a day when no one sought Hyunsoo out, and Hyunsoo also set everything down.
That day was today, when he visited his father’s hospital.
After placing flowers in the vase in his father’s hospital room so it would not feel so desolate, Hyunsoo began to talk.
“The nation of Hyun is finding stability.......”
The conversation mostly centered on everything that had happened recently.
After talking for a long time like that, Hyunsoo smiled faintly and rose.
When he returned home and was about to fall into a nap, he suddenly thought of Nell, who would be wrestling with documents.
The blacksmiths who were like baby birds, hoping to learn at the forge, also passed through his mind, and he thought of Takashi, whom he had not greeted in a long time.
There’s no time to rest.
It was the life he had chosen himself, so there was nothing to be done.
With that thought, the instant Hyunsoo logged into Ares.
[Beginning in Goyad, you have founded the nation of Hyun.]
[A new episode never before seen will soon begin.]
Hyunsoo was startled by the notification he heard.
It was a notification he had not heard in a very long time.
This was recognition from the system.
It meant the story was changing unpredictably because a user had performed exceptionally well.
And this was......
Danger.
Cold sweat ran down Hyunsoo’s back.
He instinctively sensed that this would be on an entirely different level from every story so far.
Because 99.9% of the stories Hyunsoo had created until now had originated from “himself.”
But this was not that.
It was an episode related to the nation.
He could not guess in what way, or how enormous it would be.
The fact that the notification sounded the moment he logged in meant it had most likely already begun.
Sure enough.
The notification immediately rang out.
[A new story begins.]
[Kingdom Quest: Goyad is created.]
[Kingdom Quest: Goyad.]
Grade: SS
Restriction: King of the nation of Hyun.
Reward: May be received from First Sword King Baman.
Penalty upon failure: Deprivation of kingship over the nation of Hyun.
Description: The masters of the Sword King family, including Sword King Baman, have awakened. They are curious about the nation of Hyun, which was founded after separating from Goyad, and they wish to confirm whether it can inherit Goyad’s pride.
Sword King Baman and the masters of the Sword King family?
Hyunsoo also knew of Sword King Baman.
According to Barad, he had founded Goyad and had been its strongest king.
He and the kings of the Sword King family wished to confirm whether Hyun could inherit their pride.
This doesn’t seem like an ordinary matter at all, does it?
His whispers and other channels were still quiet.
Right then.
[Your vassal Bella removes “Weight.”]
What......? She removed Weight?
Hyunsoo posted in the guild chat window.
[Hyunsoo: Determine Bella’s location and report immediately!]
Weight, the artifact he had crafted for her.
If she released it, Bella would be freed from its heaviness and would gain a much lighter body and far greater power.
And the fact that she had released it implied that some kind of danger had befallen her.
[Nell: They say suspicious figures and Lady Bella are clashing near the military training grounds.]
Hyunsoo moved quickly.
[Vassal Bella is in danger.]
At the notification that rang out, Hyunsoo, sprinting across the nation of Hyun, shouted,
“KkoKko!”
Kkieeeeeee—!
A cry rang out at the same time as his call.
“Firebird.”
Amid the blaze of flames, Hyunsoo arrived near the military training grounds, and what he saw was this.
[Bella’s HP falls below 7%.]
[She is in critical condition.]
Bella, covered in blood and dying, still standing and enduring.
And three men.
“Wolf Pack.”
At the chant of the one labeled Sword King Baman, Hyunsoo’s teeth clenched hard.
“Absolute Invincibility.”
[Absolute Invincibility.]
[For 4 seconds, you ignore all damage, and formless swords cut enemies 4 to 7 times with ordinary damage.]
KkoKko, who had grasped the situation while Hyunsoo was holding Bella in his arms, blazed and reappeared in the air.
Hwarururuk—!
Appearing above them, Hyunsoo felt no need to answer their question of who he was.
Sword King family? Baman? Fuck that.
He did not know why they had come.
But he knew one thing.
They were trying to kill his vassal in his nation.
Kwa-rurururuk—!
The sword energy resembling a wolf pack, sweeping past the place where Bella had been, made his rage boil.
Holding Bella in one arm, he struck down with Throne Sword using the power he could activate immediately.
It was a power derived from them and one Sword King Barad had created in his own unique way.
“Sword King’s swordsmanship. Sword Rampage.”
[Sword Rampage.]
[60 blades tear apart all targets recognized as enemies with 410% additional attack power.]
Sixty blades of sword energy swept over them.
Baman had been shocked by Hyunsoo’s activation of it, and by the fact that he had even inherited Sword King’s swordsmanship.
Only then could he tell that this man was the king of this nation.
Is a mere blacksmith trying to imitate it?
He had said this man was a blacksmith.
This was the Sword King family’s secret technique, difficult to imitate even if one tried.
A legendary power.
But Baman, who had looked down on him, was flustered.
What is this now......?
Absolute Invincibility.
This power contained in Overlord’s Armor.
It was not a power that ended at simply defending against everything.
[Absolute Invincibility.]
[For 4 seconds, you ignore all damage, and formless swords cut enemies 4 to 7 times with ordinary damage.]
The formless swords were already stretching toward them from the ground, and from the sky, dozens of blades of sword energy fell.
Cheoooong—!
Baman raised his sword and struck away the blades, his eyes widening.
Tzzzt—!
He was bewildered by the force transmitted through his hand.
Chachachachachang—!
He shattered dozens of sword-energy blades at the speed of light.
Feeling even that was not enough, he released power from the tip of his sword.
“Crush.”
Kwa-rurururururuk—!!
The reason he even used Crush.
If he were whole, he could block and avoid all of it, but he knew Bardan and Ban would not be able to avoid it.
[All attacks in the designated direction are destroyed.]
Crush was exactly as its name suggested.
Kwa-rurururururuk—!
A force that seemed capable of crushing anything whirled and extinguished the falling blades of sword energy.
However.
Kwajaaaaak—!
Kuh!?
The formless swords unleashed by Absolute Invincibility triggered chain damage the instant they landed a direct hit.
Kwakakakakakak—!
“Ugh......!”
He planted his feet into the ground and endured the continuous force crashing into him.
Blood burst out in succession from his trained body, which was as hard as iron.
And while he endured that power.
“Firebird.”
Hwaaaaaaaaa—
Bella, held in his arms, vanished to a safe place together with the burning KkoKko, leaving behind a red feather, and Hyunsoo, standing above them in the sky like the sun, chanted again.
“Firebird.”
Hwaaaaaak—!
It happened in an instant.
Behind Prince Ban and Sword King Bardan.
And in front of First Sword King Baman.
Hyunsoo appeared together with fire.
“......!!!”
Ban and Bardan were flustered by the movement they had not expected.
“This is.......”
“A blacksmith?”
Behind those startled voices, Hyunsoo’s sword moved as he twisted his lips.
“You’ve got a lot of toys.”
It had swapped from Throne Sword to the Twin Dragon Sword and was drawn back behind him.
First Sword King Baman sneered and likewise exploded with the innate aura of the Sword King family.
[Sword King’s Presence.]
[You are afflicted with the status ailment Extreme Killing Intent.]
[You are afflicted with the status ailment Extreme Fear.]
[You are afflicted with the status ailment Extreme Helplessness.]
The red haze blooming around him and the energy gathering on his sword surged explosively, about to unleash a massive status ailment skill.
At that moment.
[Master Blacksmith’s Pride.]
[You have resisted.]
The aura of a blacksmith, refusing to back down against him, declared that it would not submit.
“Sword King’s swordsmanship, Ascension.”
A distance of only two meters, right before Hyunsoo’s nose.
A power that emitted its strongest force at close range.
By instantaneously exploding the magic power at the tip of the sword, it unleashed force as though sending the enemy up to heaven.
Kuwaaaaaaak—!
With Ascension, holding that power, he cut Hyunsoo.
Paaaaang—!
[HP falls below 70%.]
The enormous shock wave instantly reduced Hyunsoo’s HP by 30%.
A sudden drop in HP.
And Ascension, originally, also came with the status ailment “stun.”
But Hyunsoo’s presence was too high, as though piercing the sky, for him to be affected by that.
Thus.
“Uoooooh!!!”
“.......”
For the first time, chills ran down Baman’s back.
The posture of the blacksmith bleeding from the head due to the aftermath of the explosion did not collapse by even an inch.
And now, he returned it to the First Sword King with a power only he possessed.
“Now it’s my turn.”
The Twin Dragon Sword he had drawn back behind him finally moved.
“Combo, Gathering.”
Swaaaaaak—!
Ban, Bardan, and even Baman behind him were pulled into one place as though dots had been marked there.
“Accumulation.”
Together with the damage he had received from Baman, Hyunsoo crushed them with his own specialty.
“Cut Them in Two.”
Seogeoooooook—!!!
Screams burst simultaneously from the mouths of the three people being cut at the same time.
“Khah!”
“Kuhk!”
“Hup......!”
First Sword King Baman infused power into Ban and Bardan, who had suffered tremendous damage in an instant.
Swaaaaaaaa—
The two, who had nearly reached death, received a share of vitality and began recovering.
“The old geezer has a lot of petty tricks.”
And seeing Hyunsoo merely evaluate Sword King Baman as an old geezer while twisting his lips, Baman realized it.
He should not have been arrogant.
He should not have taken him lightly.
In the first place, the purpose of their visit had been to learn the reason this had become a “divided nation,” and to administer a “test.”
A power Baman had completed for the sake of later generations before he fell asleep.
A power that could only be unleashed after dying and being born again.
“Sword King’s Secret Technique.”
It might bring the end to the nation of Hyun.
But there was no need for there to be two Goyads.
“Assembly.”
[Transcendent power reveals itself!]
[The sword geniuses of every generation who lived in the Sword King family answer the Sword King’s call!]
A nation had many talents, and when one went into history, there were even more.
Ruuuuumble—!
Together with the dark clouds forming in the sky, Baman’s descendants, or the dead who now belonged to history, appeared.
Among them, one was a knight once called a Sword Demon.
One was the supreme ruler of a territory, called a Sword Sovereign.
One was a knight of close-quarters combat recorded as a hero.
Those who had served only the Sword King and lived for Goyad.
How they had died was not important.
For the geniuses of a nation to gather meant they possessed enough power to erase that nation’s capital.
The strength of the Sword King family’s knights poured down from the dark clouds.
[Sword King family Knight Lv.481.]
[Sword King family Hero Lv.494.]
[Sword King family Commander Lv.495.]
On the backs of those clad in white robes was drawn the crossed-swords emblem symbolizing the Sword King family.
All of them let the same swords hang down, yet their appearances were all different. The elite of the elite had descended upon the nation of Hyun as a disaster.
“Answer the test.”
First Sword King Baman mocked Hyunsoo.
The number of knights who answered the call reached one thousand.
Baman believed Hyunsoo, standing before nearly one thousand of them who would administer the test, would be driven to fear.
He was also certain that, as a divided nation, this small country had no strength to endure.
However.
What is this?
Baman was flustered.
He felt the illusion that the surroundings had suddenly become still.
As if a storm within silence were approaching, certain presences were drawing near.
And first.
“......Are those the ones who tried to kill my Academy children?”
A legend.
A single legend, whom Baman was certain was a legend, appeared in clothing that looked like something teachers would wear.
It was Principal Arte.
Immediately afterward.
Hihihihihihihing—!!!
“I went on a subjugation, and this is what happened while I was gone.”
A man mounted on a renowned steed appeared with one hundred elite cavalry.
Hihihihihihihing—!
Baman had never seen cavalry this beautiful and elegant.
And.
“......Scared?”
What was “scared” supposed to mean?
A mysterious handsome man approached from afar holding a single sword.
The name engraved on his chest, “Commander Luxiu,” announced that he was this nation’s commander-in-chief.
Then Hyunsoo’s lips opened.
“Firebird.”
Hwarurururuk—!!
All over the rooftops of the nation of Hyun.
“Hehe, targets.”
“......Lady Hyeji, those are people.”
“Their heads are big, so I thought they were targets.”
“......Who in the world is that woman?”
Calling human heads targets?
Seeing a woman holding an enormous greatbow of unknown origin and a man riding atop a dragon, Baman was flustered.
Kiririririk—
“What are those things that look like pirate toe grime?”
A foul-mouthed man whose old habits clearly had not died appeared holding a scythe wrapped round and round with chains.
Whip, whip, whip, whip—
Baman turned his head so many times he nearly got a herniated disc in his neck.
And amid those who filled the surroundings like that, Hyunsoo said,
“......I am not the one taking the test.”
“......?”
Baman made a puzzled expression.
What did he mean, he was not taking the test?
“I was also curious about the Sword King family’s strength.”
Soon, surrounded by all those figures, Hyunsoo gave his command.
“Begin the Sword King family’s test.”
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