The Lazy Swordmaster

“We can’t kill him here?”

Priesia had no clue why Nainiae was saying that. Andal saw that the epidemic man’s neck was regenerating rapidly and pulled Priesia’s arm.

“Ah…”

“Let’s ask questions later.”

The epidemic man’s neck was restored to its former state in a blink of an eye. Andal held Priesia’s arm and quickly used Blink.

“… Ah!”

Priesia panicked and shut her eyes because she was pulled back without warning. She screamed.

When Andal and Priesia moved back through Blink magic, the epidemic man swung his arm at where Priesia was standing a moment ago.

“Kuuuuaaaa!”

“…?!”

Initially, the epidemic man was at quite a distance. However, he closed the distance in an instant and swung his arm. Priesia opened her eyes and gasped for air as she watched him.

‘How?!’

Priesia couldn’t figure out how the man could charge in so quickly. She vacantly had her mouth open. Meanwhile, Andal cringed and muttered,

“Is this bastard really a human? How could he demonstrate such power and speed with physical abilities alone…”

Use of mana could not be felt from the man. Despite this, the epidemic man was showing fearsome physical abilities. Andal broke cold sweat.

“Kuuuu. Uuuuu!”

The man huffed and puffed after realizing that he had missed his target. He turned his head toward where Andal and Priesia had retreated to and opened his mouth.

“Kuuuuaaaa!”

Nainiae was certain the bastard was about to charge in again. She shouted from inside the teleportation portal.

“Teacher, hurry!”

Retreating twice in a row was crumpling Andal’s pride as a dragon. However, he thought that he had no other choice at the moment and listen to Riley and Nainiae.

“… Tsk.”

Andal clicked his tongue and raised a thick wall of fire in front. With Priesia, he used the blink again to fall back to where the portal was.

“Kuuuaaak!”

As if he was incapable of feeling pain, the epidemic man passed through the wall of fire as if it was nothing. Black drool fell from his mouth. The man charged toward Andal and Priesia again.

“Kuk!”

“Ugh. What a bother! If you are going to retreat, then do it in one step!”

Riley saw that the epidemic man was extending his arm toward them from a distance that was too close. Riley was already inside the portal with Nainiae. He injected mana into the blanket he had been lying on and swung it to the front.

“… Kuuuaaak?!”

Along with waving sound, the blanket swung and it slapped the face of the epidemic man who was charging at Andal.

“Kek!”

After being struck by the blanket, the epidemic man was thrown to a wall and got stuck. At the same time, the teleportation portal created by Nainiae disappeared without a trace.

* * *

In the other world… In the world of Riley’s past life to be precise, due to the advancement of civilization, many people possessed guns or blades that possessed great firepower. However, as for the mana that was spread in abundance everywhere… Instead of being used, only extreme few could even feel the mana.

‘The beings called dragons, the ones who realized the power of mana first and started to use it… do not exist in that era, so…’

Riley, the brave hero who wielded the holy sword, was the only human who could use mana and fight.

‘Instead, there was a different kind of power.’

In his past life, the red skinned humans called the ‘demons’ existed. They were described as an enemy of humanity and said to exist for the sole purpose of destroying humans.

To stop the demons or the red skinned humans, ordinary humans shed tears of blood for a long time.

‘To stop a demons that could not be stopped by weapons, the humans gritted their teeth and opened their eyes to a new power.’

The priestess in Riley’s past life could see the future and had the ability to heal or strengthen people. There was a man who was called the human flamethrower because he could shoot flame from his bare hands. There was a girl who was called ice steps because just walking caused icicles to from along the path. Besides these people, there were many others…

‘They were…’

They possessed super natural powers. They were the espers.

‘That bastard probably… No, it must be one of the powers they had.’

Super natural powers that could be used without mana… It was the kind of power that should not exist in Riley’s current world. However, the purple people who appeared in this world were using such power.

‘Of them all, why this one…’

There was a human who could not control his power and had run amok.

The man possessed such an unusual power that even the brave hero with the holy sword found it difficult to deal with this man. In the end, the man met his horrific end while shedding black tears.

‘To think the epidemic breathe is here…’

Epidemic breathe… It was the name given to him because he spread a horrifying epidemic in all his surroundings. He was unable to control his own power because of two reasons.

‘On top of that…’

First, he was completely overwhelmed by his own epidemic. He was experiencing gruesome pain everyday to the point of begging to be killed.

‘… he is already complete.’

Second, the esper original powers were only the stench and the epidemic, but someone had forced another supernatural power into him.

‘I don’t know who was the bastard that did it, but… He was already awakened. He didn’t just have the power of epidemic.’

The man didn’t even bat an eye when he was caught on Andal’s fire. The sword with holy power pierced through his neck, yet the wound rapidly regenerated. These were the proofs.

‘We might as well drop a nuclear bomb on him.’

Riley thought a nuclear bomb, a weapon from his past life, would be better. The epidemic man was that dangerous. Epidemic breathe was literally called a walking calamity and he had showed himself in this world.

* * *

Instead of Riley who was no good at conversations, Nainiae, who knew about Riley’s past, explained the human calamity who was called epidemic breathe.

“Epidemic breathe?”

“Yes.”

Of course, Nainiae omitted everything about Riley’s past life. She only explained briefly about the man’s epidemic breathing.

“The fact that he is spreading epidemic is a headache as it is, but he doesn’t have limits on coming back to life?”

“Having unlimited life… That’s against the order of the world. There is no way Goddess Irenetsa would ignore this either.”

Having heard Priesia, Riley narrowed his eyes and thought about all purple humans he had met so far. Riley mumbled,

“Order of this world huh…”

Being able to raise the dead and control them like puppets, being able to read other people’s minds, being able to use monstrous strengths and others… The supernatural powers that had only existed in his past life were being used in this world. It was right to assume that the natural order of this world was already out of balance.

“So, how are you going to hunt him down?”

“I am not sure…”

Having heard Andal’s question, Riley crossed his arms and avoided his gaze. As if he was not sure, Riley blurred the end of his sentence.

‘If this was before he awakened, we would have been able to end him after pouring in the holy power.’

Riley thought about how the man was drooling as if he had lost his mind. He was roaring like a wild beast and charging in. Frustrated, Riley clicked his tongue.

‘In the current situation, the only way to kill him is…’

As far as Riley knew, there was only one way to end the epidemic man.

“… As I thought, I don’t know.”

Riley, the one who knew the answer, shook his head and said he didn’t know.

“You don’t know? In that case, how are we supposed to kill this bastard? He keeps coming back to life no matter how many times we kill him.”

“Didn’t you say he is a walking calamity? If we don’t stop him soon, many people will die!”

“He is stuck in an underground tunnel. Maybe he will roam around freely in there. If we are lucky, he might go down deeper by digging some more tunnels.”

Riley casually muttered. Priesia tightened her fist and shouted,

“But!”

Andal extended his arm out to gesture Priesia to calm down. Andal asked Riley,

“In the worst case scenario, the opposite could happen and he might run out of the tunnels then…”

“…”

Riley didn’t answer.

“As I thought, this situation won’t end with just one human.”

Because Riley was keeping his silence, Andal judged that the situation must be serious. Priesia was standing next to Andal. He pushed her toward Riley and Nainiae and said,

“It’s fine. From here on out, we will handle it on our own.”

“What do you mean?”

“…”

After being pushed to Riley’s side, Priesia turned to look at Andal and asked. Andal looked at Priesia, took a long pause and said,

“It’s as I said. We will handle it on our own.”

Afterwards, Andal turned his eyes into red flames. He ignited fire from the bottom of his feet and used teleportation.

Wharrururururu!

Andal disappeared after a large flame surging up. Priesia vacantly blinked her eyes and turned her head.

“Where’s Mr. Andal?”

“Others… What I mean is, he probably went to see the other dragons. That’s probably what he meant earlier.”

“Other dragons?”

Nainiae thought about the other dragons she had met before and directed her gaze to Riley who was vacantly staring at empty air.

“Young Master.”

“Nainiae.”

It seemed Nainiae was also thinking what Riley was thinking. They had similar looks on their faces.

“As I thought. You need the sword, right?”

Nainiae whispered quietly so Priesia could not overhear it. Riley nodded and said,

“As I thought, you knew?”

“Your past life… I remember it too.”

Thinking about Riley’s past life that was placed in her head only a while ago, Nainiae asked what Riley was going to do now.

“Are you going to find the sword?”

Because Nainiae had told him about one of the purple humans having his ‘holy sword,’ he thought about it and pondered about what to say to Nainiae.

“That epidemic breathe was not in possession of the sword.”

Riley would have known immediately if his sword was near him.

“It was the same with everyone else. It means the other bastards didn’t have the sword either. In that case…”

So far, Riley had met five purple humans. To complete the Six Parts that they had mentioned, Riley needed information about the remaining part.

“Then it is very likely that the remaining one has the sword.”

Riley was unable to finish the sentence. So, Nainiae, who had her fist touching her lips, mumbled.

“That’s probably how it is.”

Because he was not sure what to do, Riley scratched his head. Wondering if there was any new information, he asked Nainiae,

“What about Reutrina’s side?”

He wondered if any fish had been caught in the net called Reutrina, so he asked. However, Nainiae shook her head. Her answer was, ‘nothing in particular.’

“Tsk. This one’s current location is unknown and there is no clue. It is not like we could go around the world with Nara. How are we supposed to find this one?”

Finding it to be such a bother, Riley messed up his hair. Priesia was trying to sneak up on him, so Riley turned his head toward her.

“Ah, I’m sorry. You were here too?”

“Since a while ago, the two of you have been whispering things to each other. What were you two talking about?”

“They are secrets. Private matters.”

“Hm…”

Priesia narrowed her eyes and was about to fill her eyes in golden light. Riley crumpled his face and raised his hand.

“That’s enough.”

“You are trying to hide it, so I have no other choice.”

“Are you saying you can pry into other people’s private life because you are a Priestess? Before I sell you to Solia, change your eyes back.”

“Ah, I got it. I got it.”

She succumbed to Riley’s threat. She changed her eye color back to normal. She looked disappointed.

“I don’t find it comfortable to threaten a Priestess either.”

“…”

Despite the words, the look on Riley’s face was telling a complete different story. Nainiae was peeking at Riley’s face from the side. On his behalf, Nainiae asked Priesia,

“Ms. Priesia, what are you going to do now? You got here because we abducted you to heal my teacher, but… The situation now is a little different.”

“Um…”

Having heard her question, Priesia pondered about it for a moment. She asked Riley a similar question.

“Young Master Riley, what are you going to do now?”

“Me?”  

The question circled around and came to him. He wondered about what to say. It seemed he was still undecided. He shrugged his shoulders and said,

“I haven’t make any decision in particular yet.”

Earlier, he said he was not sure about how to stop the epidemic breathe. Now, he had no way of finding the holy sword either. Because of this, due to lack of any alternatives, Riley was thinking if he should just return to the mansion.

“Is that so?”

Having heard his answer, Priesia remembered something she had been forgetting. She floated an exclamation mark on her face and said,

“Ah! Now that I think about it…”

Riley was still indecisive about whether he should wonder around or just return to the mansion. Having heard Priesia, Riley looked at her.

“Have you met Mr. Ian?”

“…?”

Riley tilted his head to the side.

“What?”