The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 19

The fragments of the sword, illuminated by the auditorium lights, sparkle in various colors.

I played the Blazing Butterfly episode countless times.

In that story, Van was always an important figure as Lucas’s friend, and he was always by his side.

Could I have truly been unaware of Van’s existence?

No way.

Until the mock battle, I studied endlessly.

Some of it was certainly to keep up with the academy lessons, but the main focus of my studies was learning how to counter my opponents.

I am not a genius.

However, I have a thorough understanding of the habits, actions, unique characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of the supporting characters.

Blazing Butterfly is the game I loved the most.

Even though they were side characters, I remember all of them clearly.

That’s why, even more so—

I want to see a happy ending, not a bad one.

I hope that this game I love so much will always have a happy ending.

My hand rises from the fragments of the shattered sword.

Thanks to my Skin of Steel, the hand that takes the shape of a blade now becomes a sword.

A living biological weapon.

I, the sword, lunged toward Van.

Swoosh!

The hand, shaped like a blade, swept past Van’s head.

What kind of insane reflexes does he have?

Even in the moment of surprise when the sword broke, Van reacted to it.

‘Tch.’

Even though I look like this, I was an athlete before I got injured.

But to those who have already far surpassed the limits of humanity, my past training didn’t mean much.

But that’s okay.

‘If I failed once,’

I will continue to the second attempt.

‘He’s coming.’

My eyes locked onto Van.

He was looking at me with a dazed expression.

But aside from that, a quiet flame had ignited in his eyes.

The unprecedented event of his sword being shattered.

For Van, it was the first time his sword had ever broken.

“You’re out of your mind.”

And that sparked a flame of competitive spirit.

Van had always possessed the flame of a desire to win.

However, for some reason, that flame had once died out.

But there was one time when his flame ignited again.

It was when he faced the flame of Lucas’s fighting spirit.

The flame that should have blazed fiercely together with Lucas.

However, when Lucas died, Van’s flame also eventually dimmed.

But now—

The flame of his desire to win,

That flame,

Was reignited by my faint spark.

Van clenched his hand.

In his hand was nothing but an empty hilt.

But he is a genius.

Crackle! Crackle!

Blue sparks burst forth.

Van’s gray hair fluttered in the wake of the sparks.

The surrounding air vibrated, and a silent roar echoed around my ears.

The Skin of Steel tingled.

My entire body was telling me.

That is dangerous.

On the empty sword blade,

Even without a visible blade, a blue sword energy appeared, baring its fangs and howling fiercely.

Grrr, grrrrr—

People say that when you encounter a swordmaster who can wield sword energy, you hear the voice of a beast.

Although the phenomenon caused by the interaction of sword energy and the atmosphere has yet to be fully explained,

It engraves one fact clearly.

The swordmaster before you is more dangerous than any wild beast.

The form of the sword energy manifested from Van’s sword without a physical blade.

The children watching gasped in shock and awe from all directions.

Even those who can envelop their swords in sword energy are rare in this world.

But to shape a pure sword energy into a blade—

It’s a skill worthy of being immediately hired by the royal knights of the renowned Hyserion Empire.

A genius.

Van demonstrated exactly what that means right here and now.

The rising shape of the blue sword energy gleamed with an eerie brilliance.

But I know.

Van, as he is now, cannot maintain the form of the sword energy without an actual blade for long.

It will only last about ten seconds at most.

For the first time today, fire ignited in Van’s eyes.

If he doesn’t finish this within ten seconds, he will lose without his sword.

And Van knows this as well.

But Van being Van—

‘He’s determined to win within those ten seconds.’

The lazy genius, Van, is the one who can pull that off.

And then, Van vanished from right in front of me.

My body tensed.

Now, I can’t rely on the tricks of my Skin of Steel.

In this situation, if I get cut even once, it’s over.

For the next ten seconds,

I must dodge everything.

“Van!”

The instructor, realizing too late that Van had pulled a dangerous card, called out to him.

But Van, having formed the sword with pure sword energy, couldn’t be stopped even by the instructor.

In his state of extreme concentration, nothing could reach him.

Right now, the only thing filling his gaze is me.

‘Yes, that’s exactly who you are.’

I looked at Van and grinned wickedly.

Van may be a genius, but he’s lazy.

However, that doesn’t mean he lacks the desire to win.

No, he has too much of it.

It was this excessive desire for victory that caused Van to ruin countless things in the past.

The same applied to his own family.

Van’s talent was exceptional, and his desire to win always called for victory.

As a result, his eldest brother, who loved the sword more than anyone, was utterly defeated in front of Van’s blade.

Afterward, the eldest brother shut himself in his room.

He abandoned the sword he once loved and avoided Van.

Van was heartbroken.

And eventually, he grew tired of his own desire to win.

He came to hate this overwhelming urge for victory.

If this is how things would be, he thought, it would have been better never to have kindled that desire in the first place.

He gave up his desire to win and chose to become lazy.

It was the bitter decision of a boy who was still young.

But now, Van’s desire to win had reignited for the first time since Lucas.

The desire he had long suppressed deep in his heart.

That craving consumed Van in an instant.

‘The first attack will target the head.’

I knew Van’s habits inside and out.

And that habit hadn’t changed even now.

The sword energy, which was originally aimed at slicing my waist, suddenly shot up, aiming for my head.

I hastily threw myself back far enough to ruin my stance.

The sword energy came so close, it sliced across the bridge of my nose.

Blood splattered.

But it wasn’t a fatal wound.

One second.

Without a blade, the sword energy moved freely and slashed into my shoulder.

A chunk of flesh from my underarm was torn away, but this too was not a critical injury.

Two seconds.

The sword energy that had curved in now aimed to strike my lower body.

At the same time, I threw a fragment of the sword I had secretly held in my hand.

Van dodged the fragment flying right in front of his face.

Thanks to that, I rolled out of the way before the sword energy could finish striking below.

Three seconds.

I kicked a shattered shield while rolling on the ground.

Van’s sword energy sliced through the floor, and the shield was split in two again.

Four seconds.

As I tried to stand, Van’s merciless sword tore through the floor of the arena, rushing toward me.

I shoved my hand into a gap between the tiles on the floor and flipped one over.

Van’s sword energy sliced through the tile.

Five seconds.

Between the cracked tiles, the sword lunged at me again.

My stance was broken, and the series of injuries had made my body falter.

I realized it.

In my current state, I could no longer dodge Van’s sword.

Victory and defeat.

The moment these two outcomes seemed to overlap—

Van and I locked eyes.

Van noticed the faint smile on my face.

The fact that I was smiling in this situation opened his eyes.

Van’s assumption that he had ten seconds to win—

That was his mistake.

This duel wouldn’t last as long as ten seconds.

Five seconds.

That was the time I had calculated for victory.

Boom!

Someone crashed into the arena, grabbed Van, and slammed him into the ground.

The force of the impact broke Van’s sword energy, and the hilt of his sword rolled across the floor.

Van’s hand, which had created the sword energy, was now glowing white from the strain.

He lifted his head in a daze.

Standing there was the second-year martial arts professor, Beganon.

She looked down at Van with a slightly irritated expression.

“Were you planning to kill your classmate with your own hands, Van?”

Hearing this, Van froze.

Then, slowly, his gaze turned toward me.

Van looked at my battered state.

His last strike with the sword,

That sword was clearly aimed to take my life.

Van realized once again that his desire for victory had consumed him.

“Ah.”

A sigh escaped Van’s lips.

He fell into a state of self-loathing.

The desire for victory, reignited after a long time since Lucas.

Lucas was strong enough to tell Van without hesitation that they would fight again next time.

It was because of Lucas that Van had someone he could constantly challenge with his desire to win.

But I am not Lucas.

Lucas is the protagonist.

And I’m just a third-rate villain who has already exited the story.

I cannot give Van an equally matched fight like Lucas could.

“…I’m sorry.”

When Van apologized, Beganon didn’t scold him further.

She then looked at me, sitting on the floor.

“Hanon, you’re getting a warning too.”

As expected of the professor.

She had realized that I had anticipated her intervention from the very beginning.

“And Van.”

Beganon called to Van, who was getting up with a sullen expression.

“Look closely at him. Even if the mock battle had continued, it wouldn’t have been your victory.”

Van slowly raised his head.

“This is your defeat for not noticing that your opponent still had a final move hidden until the end.”

Van’s eyes widened.

He now saw the faint light glowing weakly in my arm before fading away.

Beganon’s intervention,

And the move I would have used had she not stepped in.

Magic engraving.

Only now did Van realize that I had been considering both scenarios from the start.

I still had one last move hidden up my sleeve.

If the battle had continued,

Who knows what outcome Van might have faced, given he hadn’t noticed it.

“Don’t be arrogant. I acknowledge your skill with the sword, but that doesn’t mean those around you lack strengths of their own.”

Beganon’s words dug deep into Van’s core, leaving him dazed.

“Haha…”

Soon, a hollow laugh escaped from Van.

He looked at me quietly, then slowly bowed his head.

“Sorry. It seems I didn’t see anything clearly.”

Van lifted his head with a slightly relieved expression.

“I lost.”

Hearing Van’s next words, I snorted.

“Stating the obvious, huh.”

Then, who do you think won?

Van laughed in disbelief.

As I watched him, my body began to sway.

And soon enough, I realized why.

I had moved despite losing so much blood.

The relief and exhaustion of the battle being over.

Even the adrenaline that had been fueling me had faded.

The outcome had been decided from the start.

Off to bed I go.

And within my fading consciousness, I saw Isabel glaring at me from a distance.

Isabel, who had long awaited her chance to fight me.

Sorry to her, but—

Maybe next time.

Once again, I made Isabel angry today.

Thud—