Chapter 209

A lavender glow enveloped Saxon’s greatsword, and a fragrance wafted through the air.

“……!”

Seeing this, Dale gasped in shock.

“How did you get that sword…!”

“Because I swore to grow stronger for you.”

Charlotte answered, and her sword swung.

Flowers bloomed along the blade’s edge.

Blossoms of the blade, Sword Blossoms.

Countless sword blossoms bloomed along the swinging greatsword’s blade, their petals surging toward Dale.

Blade petals holding fragments of a violet aura. How could one ever forget that sight?

The sword of the strongest knight of the Teutonic Order, slain long ago by a warrior from another realm—the Divine Sword Bader Orhart… The Plum Blossom Sword.

When the past Dale defeated him, the empire, fearing the emergence of one who might inherit that sword, burned all records of the Plum Blossom Sword. Yet Lord Badel, the Divine Sword, surely knew this truth.

The most noble knight in the world would not allow the sword he had pursued and built up throughout his life to simply vanish.

That is why that sword has come full circle, returning once more to this place.

To Charlotte Orhart, daughter of the Divine Sword.

“The Plum Blossom Sword…!”

The moment they saw it, the expressions of the remaining Seven Swordsmen, including the sword spirit Sephelia watching the duel, froze. They too couldn’t possibly be unaware of its meaning. No, in a sense, they were the ones who truly understood the sword’s true meaning.

“How on earth did you get your hands on that sword?!”

“Hey, lady. Have you forgotten we’re in the middle of a duel?”

Baroga, the Sword Master, extended his blade to stop Sephelia, who was about to confront Charlotte.

Immediately afterward, the sword-eared Sefilia turned her head. She looked toward the continent’s greatest swordsman, Charlotte’s master, the ‘Divine Sword, Duke Lancaster’—who was silently watching the duel between the two.

“…Your Highness?”

To the Ghost Sword’s icy question, the Duke of Lancaster did not respond.

“The head of the Lancaster family, who is more loyal to the Empire than anyone else in the world, secretly removed the taboo of Bader Orhart.”

“I was loyal to the Empire above all others.”

The Divine Sword, Duke Lancaster, sneered coldly.

“Yes, look at me now.”

After laughing, he continued calmly.

“My eldest son Richard was driven mad by those of the Red Tower who enforce the empire’s spirit of the times, and my second son Michael lost his life on the battlefield at the hands of the ‘Black Prince’. Even knowing he had likely defected to York’s side, what warning did the imperial court give me? Nothing. Not a word. This is the result of that loyalty.”

“So you betrayed the Empire?”

The sword-wielding Sefilia coldly retorted, her hand once more resting on her sword hilt.

“Betrayal, you say? I merely sought to protect the House of Lancaster.”

“Is that so.”

With those words, the sword turned its head. Gazing at the blossoming petals of the blade flowing from Charlotte’s greatsword.

Purple leaves began to scatter all at once.

They filled the air, as if spring winds were sweeping away the blossoms of a plum tree.

“I’m leaving, Dale.”

Charlotte whispered softly. Dale, too, steeled his resolve and gripped his sword more firmly.

“Gladly.”

The duel for the title of Heavenly Sword Master. The two swordsmen, hailed as the empire’s greatest talents, finally began to unleash their full power.

Whoosh!

Blade petals scattered and surged toward Dale. Yet it was not a barrage of bullets fired in recognizable patterns. It was a swarm of blade petals freely scattered from all directions, each one imbued with a violet aura potent enough to shatter flesh and bone upon contact.

It was indistinguishable from black magic that had reached a high level of mastery.

Just as knights of old could wield the power of wizards through their avatars, known as the armor of thought.

And now, before Dale stood the pinnacle of that sword—the very embodiment of a knight’s creation.

Petals scattered in all directions, the aura dwelling within them transforming the surrounding landscape.

It was like a world of magic unfolding before their eyes… The area around the sword pavilion where the Seven Swords stood guard, and where Charlotte and Dale should have been standing, began to fade away little by little.

When they came to their senses, the place had become a world existing solely for the two of them.

A spring breeze blew, and countless branches of plum trees bloomed endlessly throughout the surrounding area.

Crimson petals drifted through the air.

An inescapable plum blossom field. And those crimson petals could only mean one thing.

“Surely not to this extent…”

“You know this realm?”

Dale muttered absentmindedly, and Charlotte asked back.

“As for the Divine Sword Lord Bader Orhart’s Plum Blossom Sword, there’s no one who wouldn’t know it.”

Dale lied calmly. Simultaneously, he sheathed the jet-black demon sword ‘Hunger’ back into its scabbard.

Instead, he drew another sword.

“……!”

Charlotte’s expression froze for a moment. She couldn’t possibly be unaware of its meaning.

It was the beloved sword of the hero who had slain the divine sword, Bader Orhart: the Peacemaker.

The mediator of peace.

“How ironic.”

Seeing that, Charlotte smiled bitterly.

“What?”

“Because our situation feels just like the battle between the Empire’s hero and my father, Lord Bader.”

Dale wielding the hero’s sword and Charlotte wielding the Plum Blossom Sword. It was exactly as he said.

There was the hero, and there was the daughter of the father who had fallen by the hero’s hand.

“You are my knight, more precious than anyone else.”

“And you are my most precious lord.”

Dale spoke, and Charlotte replied.

“That’s why we absolutely cannot lose here.”

Their resolve clashed, and instantly Dale slammed into the ground.

The petals of death, scattered across the plum orchard, began to swirl toward Dale as if drawn by the spring breeze.

Simultaneously, the light of peace dwelling within the crimson petals

The light of peace, imbued within the warrior’s sword, scattered. The “Peace Compulsion,” which nullified all attacks in the vicinity, emitted a brilliant light.

A power that nullified all physical attacks. Yet that power was never absolute. The same had been true in the battle against the divine sword, Bader.

Kaang!

But it should serve as a shield to deflect the fleeting attack, the sudden swirl of death’s petals.

Clang!

‘Already…!’

Amidst the endless swirl of crimson petals, the light of peace enveloping Dale vanished in an instant. A sound like shattering glass echoed, and the blade-like petals swept toward Dale’s flesh and bone.

‘Unbelievable growth.’

Swoosh!

But before that, the Shadow Lord’s avatar overlaid itself.

Furthermore, the pitch-black blades erupting from the Dark Cavern Armor scattered, deflecting each and every one of Charlotte’s petals.

The distance narrowed, and the petals drifting toward Dale changed direction.

The plum blossom petals wrapped themselves around their flower’s master, Charlotte Orhart’s body.

After enveloping her, a violet aura exploded, and beyond it, Charlotte, who had finally reached the pinnacle of the sword, revealed herself.

She was the Knight of Flowers.

Upon the endlessly unfurling lake’s surface, the Empire’s First Prince, Lancelot, finally donned the armor of thought.

But when the divine sword Lord Bader fell, and indeed when the empire launched its unification war, Aurelia was merely the daughter of a country bumpkin. She could not possibly have known what the most noble knight in the world looked like.

“This form is that of the Divine Sword Bader Orhart, who fell long ago by the blade of a hero.”

“……!”

Yet even that martial name could not be unknown.

“Is the Divine Sword Lord Bader the culmination of the ideology you pursue?”

Thus, the six-winged Archangel Aurelia asked in return. For the culmination of her own ideals was to be the divine executor who claimed the banner of the sister goddesses.

“Ideology? Ah, that’s impossible.”

First Prince Lancelot laughed coldly.

“After the Unification War ended, the body of Sir Badel Orhart, the Divine Sword, was officially abandoned on that winter night and declared missing.”

“…….”

“But in truth, his body did not vanish.”

And it went without saying where that body might be.

“The Empire would never abandon material of that caliber.”

“That is correct. Under His Majesty the Emperor’s name, the Crimson Mage Tower seized that knight’s body. A knight of that caliber would be useful in many ways.”

Lancelot, clad in the leather armor of the Divine Sword Bader Orhart, sneered bitterly.

“Truly an unforgivable evil deed.”

“…Could you not bear to see his nobility insulted?”

“His nobility, you say? You are mistaken.”

Lancelot answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“──What the Empire insulted was ‘my’ nobility.”

“What did you just say…….”

After the Divine Sword’s body fell into the Empire’s grasp, parts of it—including the Oru Heart—were transplanted into the First Imperial Prince, Lancelot. Even the world-spanning Empire never anticipated that a ‘fragment of his self’ would remain within it.

“Are you saying you are not the Empire’s prince, but Lord Badel?”

The Divine Sword, Bader Orhart, shook his head.

“Strictly speaking, I am neither the empire’s prince nor the Divine Sword now. I am merely something suspended between them, a fusion of their consciousnesses. Or perhaps I am ‘both of them’.”

“……Why are you telling me that?”

“Because I believe in your nobility.”

Lancelot said.

“Please take up the sword, Knight of the Goddess.”

And Sir Bedel spoke.

At those words, the false Saintly Maiden Aurelia hesitated no longer. It was the same. The being before him was not the real Bardel Orhart either.

Those who, knowing themselves false, strive to be truer than truth itself.

“Prepare yourself.”

Therefore, for the six-winged Cherubim, there was no hesitation.

It was the Knight of Blossom.

Strictly speaking, it was slightly different from the avatar unfurled by the Divine Sword Bader Orhart. But that didn’t matter. For the Plum Blossom Sword Charlotte was now unfurling had reached a realm capable of creating ‘a world unto itself’.

All around was a plum orchard in full bloom, and within it stood the Shadow Lord, deploying his own avatar.

And he knew. With his current level of skill, he could never defeat Charlotte.

“Show me.”

The Knight of Plum Blossoms surely knew this truth too.

“The landscape held within your heart.”

“……”

That’s why Charlotte Orhart spoke up. Dale hesitated for a moment. But his hesitation didn’t last long.

Whoosh!

Simultaneously, a landscape of white and dark winter nights began to spread out beneath Dale’s feet.

Imbued with the darkness of the apocalypse and the primordial cold, the pitch-black castle he had built as the Shadow Lord rose majestically.

When a mage reveals their world, it holds two meanings.

Either it is an opponent worthy of affirmation and revealing one’s entire self to, or it is an enemy to be denied and excluded with all one’s might.

So then, as a mage unfolding the world of ideas, which side did the knight of plum blossoms before him belong to?