A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

“Mr. Eric, do you know that I am known as the Sword Saint?” Carrasco asked.

"Of course I know, that's why I kept my distance from you." Before he could finish speaking, Eric had already flipped himself back off the sofa.

"This distance is far from enough."

"Far, far, not enough."

As soon as the words were spoken, a white sword sliced ​​through the sofa, split the wall, and tore through the lawn.

Carrasco didn't know when he had gotten the sword in his hand, and he stared indifferently at the house he had destroyed with his own hands.

"Captain Alice, what happened to protecting me?" Eric asked Alice helplessly as he erected an ice wall to block the aftershocks.

“Colonel Eric, bullets can’t handle this kind of attack,” Alice said matter-of-factly.

"..." Carrasco glanced around, but instead of giving chase, he adopted a defensive stance.

The next second, a barrage of bullets swept in through the window, turning almost everything in the living room into a sieve.

The only thing they couldn't do was hurt Carrasco.

“As expected, you didn’t come here recklessly by yourself,” Carrasco said to Eric with a smile.

This sudden change was entirely within his expectations.

Eric... Colonel Eric, as expected of him.

"There was a noticeable commotion from the servants outside just now, and then it suddenly went quiet."

“I knew you had already made the arrangements by then,” Carrasco said.

"You can sense that?" Eric finally understood why some people called the Sword Saint a monster.

"Colonel Eric."

"In the entire capital, there is simply no one who can stand against me."

Carrasco possesses combat power exceeding expectations, far surpassing what can be categorized as an S-class hero.

A normal A-rank adventurer can face a regular army squad alone, while an S-rank adventurer can take on several A-rank adventurers.

So how exactly can Carrasco, with his extraordinary fighting ability, be suppressed?

"So?" Eric asked from behind the ice wall.

“You know very well that peace between us is impossible,” he said coldly.

Battle is inevitable, regardless of the difference in combat strength.

Carrasco is not a show-off.

However, he is confident in his abilities.

In fact, Carrasco was indeed powerful; he single-handedly suppressed all the combat forces currently sent by the capital.

He didn't even choose to run away, but fought openly and honestly.

The scene of spells and bullets exploding together has an indescribable feel to it; it's neither magical nor modern.

However, such an attack is indeed very shocking.

Under concentrated fire, the surrounding environment was utterly destroyed.

If it weren't for a strict order, the capital wouldn't have dared to launch such a ferocious attack.

However, even so, they have not been able to injure Carrasco so far.

It's not fair to say he wasn't injured; Carrasco's clothes were torn in many places by the aftershocks, and he also had some scratches on his face.

That's all.

All of Eric's forces ultimately achieved very little.

"Colonel Eric," Carrasco said to Eric as he faced the vast army.

Do you think the empire is okay as it is now?

"Do you really think the empire won't destroy itself if things continue like this?" Carrasco asked.

"Don't even think about turning me against you, it's no use!" Eric said bluntly, tugging at his collar.

Eric knew very well what kind of empire it was.

However, change is not so simple, but it should not come at the cost of people's lives.

This is the only thing Eric cannot back down on.

From the moment Carrasco decided to use human lives, he could never be on the same boat as Carrasco.

“If you can kill everyone here, I have nothing to say!” Eric said coldly, looking at Carrasco.

"But don't try to persuade me to give up until you've killed him."

Carrasco has the ability to wipe out all his own men; he certainly does.

It was only a matter of time before the entire army was wiped out.

Here, a reasonable retreat should be taken, but where can they retreat to?

Moreover, what happens after the retreat?

Carrasco is a man who absolutely has the means to overthrow a country if he leaves here.

Another war awaited the empire.

The Empire is already struggling to deal with the Federation; if Carrasco were added to the mix…

“So that’s how it is. You are not loyal to the monarch, but to the country itself, or to the people themselves,” Carrasco said with emotion.

If Eric had a wise and benevolent emperor, he would surely have achieved great things.

In Carrasco's view, this was undoubtedly the most correct form of loyalty.

Unfortunately, he couldn't be on the same side as Colonel Eric.

"What a pity," Carrasco said quietly. Indeed, it was a great pity.

As soon as he finished speaking, the white sword swept away all the soldiers in front of him, carving a path through them to Eric.

"Fight back!! Blast him to pieces!!" Eric shouted without any politeness.

Before Carrasco could even lift his foot, a barrage of comments flooded in.

Almost in the blink of an eye, all the surrounding buildings collapsed with a deafening roar.

At the same time, a makeshift prison was also bombed and buried all the people inside with bricks and stones.

Then one person pushed aside the bricks that were pressing down on him and crawled out of the pit in a disheveled state.

The man had to exert some force to push the bricks away; he was at most a little stronger than the average adventurer.

This man was Bray, who had been imprisoned for many days.

He was the only person detained in the entire prison, so he was the only one who was buried.

He crawled out of the rubble with a blank expression, looking extremely miserable.

After Bray got up, he heard a booming sound.

It's so noisy, oh, it's really noisy.

Is this what they call the capital city...? It's like this every day.

Putting aside the fact that he arbitrarily arrested people and framed himself with a baseless charge, the most important thing was that he also took away his sword.

Ah... what should he say to the capital, or rather, what should he say to the people in the capital?

Of course, he wasn't saying that the people in the capital were strange; the fortune tellers and priests were all very nice people.

However, he couldn't help but find the people and things here so boring.

Well, this is still where Lux studies, so I won't bother complaining too much.

He felt that nothing else mattered now; all he wanted was to find the lost sound as soon as possible.

Bray remained completely unfazed, ignoring the barrage of comments flying around him, and calmly walked towards a certain place.

Stray bullets and spells kept coming at him from all sides, but Bray didn't even bother to dodge.

Since he wouldn't be hit at all, there was no need for him to waste his energy.

As if he already knew what was there, he dug down with his hand and unearthed a box.

The box was smashed open and could be opened easily.

But Bray still kicked the box open roughly and took out a broken sword, seemingly venting some kind of dissatisfaction.

"Master!! Is it you, Master?"

The instant he picked it up, he heard a final, tearful voice.

The literary girl didn't say anything, only repeatedly calling out "Master," as if she couldn't say anything else.

Just from her sobbing voice, Bray knew that the girl must be very scared.

The will of self does not fall asleep just because the sword leaves the hand; in other words, the Echo is always awake.

She waited anxiously for Bray inside the box.

She believed that Bray would find her soon, but a day or two passed and Bray still hadn't found himself.

At that moment, Juexiang began to cry.

Ultimately, she was merely a newly born sense of self, and her will was not particularly strong.

She was just a girl who occasionally needed Bray's company while reading in the evenings.

"I'm sorry...it's all my fault," Bray apologized.

Everything that happened was his fault; he was so stupid.

Why should he be arrested when others are arresting him?

Why is it that if someone says they want to surrender their sword, then their sword will be confiscated?

Why am I being accused of murder when I didn't even fight back?

From now on, it doesn't matter how these things turn out.

I won't do such a pointless and foolish thing again.

"I'm so afraid that you'll never find me, Master..."

"I'm afraid one day those guys will take me and melt me ​​down..."

Like a young girl in a dream world, she choked back tears as she wiped them away.

Even books couldn't suppress the fear I'd been feeling these past few days.

If the sword is melted down, then she will disappear.

To disappear completely.

"I won't get involved in these things anymore, and I'll never let you be so scared," Bray kept reassuring Jue Xiang.

"Hmm..." Juexiang responded in a very soft voice.

"Can you read with me tonight...?"

"of course can."

To outsiders, Bray at this moment looked like a madman talking to himself while staring at a sword.

The soldiers on the battlefield, and even Carrasco, were drawn to this "madman."

That guy was completely out of place with everyone, seemingly indifferent to everything happening around him from beginning to end.

After a short while, the "madman" finally picked up the obviously broken sword and hugged it.

Bray, sword in hand, glanced indifferently at the scene of utter devastation.

So... what are these people doing doing, doing such pointless things?

He couldn't understand why a group of people would destroy their own city.

He felt that he had gone too far by cutting down a section of the sewers, and that the soldiers of the capital had actually blown up the city itself.

He tilted his head and looked Carrasco and Eric at the front without any expression.