Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 348: Talent And Defiance [VI]

Disoriented, Juliana staggered a couple of steps like a drunk.

Before Michael could think about finishing her, however, she began rewinding, blurring to a stop behind him.

At moments like these, she wondered why her powers couldn’t reverse the damage too. Why only momentum?

Oh well, she made the best of what she was given.

Now, if Michael could think, he would have taken a moment to do so and ask himself why Juliana would appear behind him?

Why was she still sticking so close instead of retreating?

Clearly, she had something planned, a trick was still up her sleeve.

But he couldn’t think, so he didn’t.

He just whirled, using the momentum of his spin to carry out a heinous slash.

While Juliana did manage to block it with her katana, she was still sent flying back once again. This time, she was launched back up the slope and into the woods.

Just like before, she crashed through the underbrush and collided with a sturdy tree at the edge of the clearing.

And just like before, she coughed and struggled to rise. Leaning against the trunk, she hoisted herself up and started trudging deeper into the forest.

Seeing this, Michael rushed up the incline.

He didn’t care that his ribcage was still housing the tip of her shattered blade. He saw only his target.

So he ran after her, catching up within seconds before lunging high to come for one final execution swing.

Juliana threw herself aside at the last possible moment as he plummeted down, his longsword cracking a massive fissure into the forest floor where she had stood a heartbeat prior.

But Juliana didn’t keep running.

Instead, she spun on her heel and tried to retaliate, but the boy yanked his sword up first.

She managed to block the slash once again with the dull of her katana, but the impact forced her back until she bumped into a boulder and sagged slightly.

Catching her breath, she looked down at her curved blade. Ah, damn it…

There was a hairline fracture on the steel. That soured her mood more than anything she’d been put through in the last half hour.

Up ahead, she saw Michael sprinting toward her for one last charge.

For some reason, at that moment, she closed her eyes and her mind drifted back to thoughts of her mother.

She remembered how religiously she used to watch her train when she was little. Spending her afternoons seeing her mother swing her swords had been Juliana’s favorite pastime.

Her mother’s sword art was as beautiful as the woman herself. Juliana had been too small to understand the depth of it back then, but now, when she compared her own movements to those memories, she realized how much she lacked.

Her mother had been on a whole different level.

Her footwork was like water — sometimes a calm stream, other times a crushing tide. She had always told Juliana that the sword was not a tool for hitting things, but an extension of one’s own soul.

“If your heart is loud, if your mind is in turmoil, you will miss the music of the battle.” — this was her favorite thing to say.

Of course, Juliana had been too young to understand any of it. Even now, she couldn’t fully comprehend it.

In fact, she was now convinced her mother just spouted profoundly insightful nonsense just to sound cool.

Still, one particular memory she’d all but forgotten came flooding back, so vivid it might as well have happened yesterday.

It was the first day of spring.

The sunlight was warm against Juliana’s skin, and it felt good since she’d been suffering from a three-day-old cold.

Following her usual routine, she was watching her mother practice a set of movements with her twin swords… only these weren’t the usual katas she normally performed.

Juliana recalled frowning.

“Is that a new technique, mumma?” she asked with her runny nose, even though she hated speaking through a sore throat.

Her mother turned to her. The light summer dress she wore fluttered in the breeze of their massive garden.

Standing in that field of blue roses against the backdrop of their beautiful estate, there was a sense of serenity about her as she wiped the sweat from her face and smiled a luminous smile.

She looked so pretty, so pleasing to the eye, that if someone had told Juliana her mumma was a runaway princess from a faraway fairy tale land, she’d have believed them in a heartbeat.

“Yes, sweetheart, do you like it?” Even her voice was like a calm melody. “I developed this myself. It’s called Fall Before Spring. Your mum is quite talented, you know?”

Juliana blinked. “It… it looks so sad, but so calming.”

Her mother laughed. “That emotion is called bittersweet, honey. This sword art is meant to represent life, and life is bittersweet. Without sorrow, we won’t know how to cherish happiness. Without ache, we won’t strive for comfort. Joy exists because there is sadness. Spring is lively because winter is forlorn.”

Juliana’s frown hardened. “Are you saying winter is bad? I like winter, you know.”

“You catch a cold every winter.”

…Oh, wow.

Okay.

Juliana had no reply for that.

Her silence prompted her mother to chuckle again. “I’m not saying winter is bad. But now that you have a cold, don’t you want to be healthy again so you can comfortably swallow your food? So you can sleep without a headache?”

Juliana quickly bobbed her little head as her mother dismissed her swords and walked up to her.

Crouching, the beautiful lady continued, “I’m saying no matter how long the wait is for the good times, it always ends. You can’t keep mourning things. You have to move forward believing the best years of your life are still ahead.”

After thinking about it for a bit, Juliana looked uncertain. “How do you know?”

“How do I know what, honey?”

“How do you know the wait always ends? That spring will come, that the cold will pass, and that winter will be over? What if it doesn’t?”

It was her mother’s turn to look thoughtful now.

Juliana truly thought she would reassure her, perhaps give her one of those profound speeches.

But instead, she just shrugged. “I don’t.”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t know,” she repeated. And though she was smiling still, she looked distant, as if reminiscing about something… something bittersweet. “But I believe it does. Because it has ended for me. Spring has come for me. And though I know it will soon end as well, I think my life has been good.”

Before Juliana could respond, her mother reached out and began caressing her cheeks lovingly.

This time, she looked a little sad, as if thinking about a winter yet to come. “The same way I know your life will be tough. But trust me when I say, Juli, you can’t give up on hope. You have to keep believing. Don’t forsake your own happiness, ever.”

Juliana was so small she couldn’t have possibly understood the weight of those words then.

She didn’t remember how she answered.

All she remembered was those soft lips as they kissed her forehead before her mother stood up to summon her swords again.

When the day’s practice was over, Juliana was strolling back to the mansion with her hand wrapped around her mother’s pinky finger.

“Mumma, will I be as talented as you?”

Her mother looked down at her in amusement. “Jealousy at such a young age? You really are my daughter.”

“I’m not jealous, mumma!” she rolled her eyes. “You’re just so good… will I ever be as good as you?”

“You don’t have to worry about that yet, dummy. Go make some friends instead of being so reclusive all the time.” Her mother’s hand pinched her plump cheek until she squealed. “But if you want the truth, then yes. You will be. Because, my love, you’re not just born with talent. You’re born in defiance of it.”

The walk back was mostly silent after that.

Juliana, as always, wasn’t yet aware of the gravity of those words.

But she moved on quickly from those worries, for she had bigger properties arranged in her mind. Like, “Will I also be as pretty as you, then?”

Okay, so she was a little jealous of her mother, so what?! It was easy to be jealous of the people you idolize!

Her mother burst into a fit of laughter, leaving her embarrassed. “Oh, honey, yes! Yes, of course you will. You know, I never took care of my appearance when I was young. But after meeting your father, I really changed.”

Juliana practically had stars in her eyes. “Really? You mean falling for Papa made you beautiful? So love makes you pretty?”

Her mother seemed confused. “What? No, silly, I was always pretty. Your papa just had a lot of money.”

Juliana… was utterly horrified at the implications of that revelation.

Her mother took offense. “Hey! Don’t stare at me like that! Do you have any idea how costly skincare products for Awakened are? What I’m saying is, if you ever find a man or woman you fall for, make sure to steal plenty of money from them to maintain your appearance, okay? Then slowly train them to shower you with expensive gifts. So don’t ever fall for poor people.”

…Oh, wow.

Okay.

Juliana was stunned into silence for the second time that day.

Maybe instead of a pretty princess, her mother had been an opportunistic thief in that faraway fairy tale land.

•••

“Haha,” a soft smile found its way on Juliana’s lips.

How had she forgotten about that, about her mother’s vanity and wisdom… or lack thereof?

She realized there were many memories like that one she had kept buried away, and had instead subconsciously chosen to remember her parents as some sort of perfect people.

She’d put them on a pedestal so they’d feel untouchable.

But they had their moments, too. They had their flaws, too.

They fought and worried and laughed and loved like anyone else.

She had chosen to not remember those human, happy parts of them, only nostalgia that she found comfortable.

Because if she remembered those happy times, she would eventually have to mourn their end too.

…But did she have to?

It was a bitter feeling that her family was gone, but the brief time she spent with them was too sweet to ever be forgotten.

Life was bittersweet like that, right?

Spring had passed and winter had come. And while she thought she was okay with never feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin again… she really wasn’t.

She wanted to relive the fragrance of flowers in a massive garden, she wanted to enjoy the taste of ice cream on a hot summer day, and she wanted to keep that ridiculous advice about stealing from rich boyfriends close to her heart.

She was tired and she was afraid… but she wanted genuine connections.

She wanted…

She wanted her spring back.

Her eyes felt wet as she opened them. Taking a deep breath, Juliana ignored the throb in her broken nose and the exhaustion threatening to buckle her knees.

She stopped worrying about the fracture in her blade and pushed back up, crouching to take a fluid stance with her katana pointing forward.

Her mother’s words were much more fathomable now than they were back then.

Talent was a gift. Defiance was a choice.

And she was born with the will to make that choice. That was her true nature.

Michael was less than two paces away when she began her own charge.

It was a cinematic clash as both swung their blades, a clangorous climax that drowned out the rustle of the woods.

Michael’s savage cleave met Juliana’s rising parry, but the hairline fracture on her katana was a death sentence.

The crack widened until her blade shattered into a dozen glittering pieces.

Her main sword broke as well.

Michael pivoted instantly to transition his momentum into a one-handed thrust. The longsword hissed through the air.

Juliana veered the strike off-course with her broken hilt, but it was not enough.

KALCH—!!

His blade ultimately bit through her clothes, then through her flesh and breastbone. It punched through her body and sunk inches deep… enough to pierce the spot where her heart should have been.

With that, the fight was over.

Juliana slumped forward, strength leaving her body as a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of her lips.

She raised her gaze to peer into Michael’s vacant, ashen eyes… and found him to be crying.

Michael Godswill was crying this whole time, but she had only now noticed those heavy tears running down his face even as his expression remained unchanged.

“You idiot…” she wheezed. “If you were going to cry, you should’ve tried to resist. Now I’ll feel bad if you die.”

The last part was merely a whisper.

It didn’t even reach Michael’s ears until she suddenly surged upright and grabbed his right forearm with a grip of a garrotte, her blood slicking the dark steel of his blade.

Yeah, this had obviously been a bait.

A trick she’d taken right out of his own playbook.

By letting him impale her, she had finally done the impossible. She had ensnared him.

What use was seeing the future if he couldn’t move to avoid it?

Michael barely had time to register it before Juliana twisted his arm.

At the same time, a kunai soaked with poison she’d harvested from the two-headed serpent burst up from under the soil.

Many things made sense all of a sudden.

Starting with how Juliana had subtly manipulated the direction of this battle to end up in this exact spot where she had prepared a trap.

In fact, there were likely dozens of kunai hidden underground here.

It also made sense why she chose to divert Michael’s killing blow with a broken sword instead of just retreating.

And at last, it made sense why the rune of the Bloodworm was on her right clavicle instead of left where her heart was supposed to be.

Apparently, Juliana Vox Blade, along with the will to defy, was also born with a medical condition that offset her heart to be more on the right.

This was never a noble duel of swords.

This was an ambush.

But Michael grasped it too late.

The kunai had already skewered him. His elbow joint was shattered. His grip on his sword finally went slack as Juliana kicked him hard in the chest.

Michael lurched back, fell into a roll, and struggled to his knees… only to see another kunai come whistling toward him.

KALCH—!!

This one lodged into his right eye.

Michael screamed and growled, clutching at the dagger protruding from his socket, but the neurotoxin from the two-headed snake was already melting his motor functions.

He still tried to fight it and pick himself up, but yet another kunai streaked in and broke his left knee joint, making him crumble to the side.

Now, the fight was over.