Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 70

Chapter 70
Kang Yoon-Soo was thrown backward. Numerous bookshelves were destroyed when he collided with them as he rolled on the ground from the immense pressure created by that one strike. He hurriedly tried to get up, but found that the blade of Ravian’s Longsword was severely broken.

‘My right wrist is broken, and so is my sword.’

He threw his sword away and hid behind a bookshelf as the sound of Helkin’s footsteps got closer.

‘Why did Helkin show up at this time?’

Helkin was an enemy who was impossible for Kang Yoon-Soo to face at the moment. He was the strongest swordsman on the continent, who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, wisdom, and combat experience.

‘I even created a lich just to avoid fighting against Helkin, so what’s going on?’

Kang Yoon-Soo pulled out the Slaughterer’s Bloodsword with his left hand. He knew very well that even if his swordsmanship surpassed Helkin’s, the gap between their basic stats was just too wide, and that he had no chance if he faced Helkin head on.

“Hey, Kang Yoon-Soo, what’s going on?” Yu Si-Do asked as he came out of the study.

Suddenly, another knight ran toward Yu Si-Do and shouted, “Wind, Bless My Sword!”

Lenox pulled his sword out and slashed multiple times in a split second, but Yu Si-Do nimbly dodged the attack.

“Hmm? What are you doing?” Yu Si-Do asked.

“You’re faster than you look,” Lenox replied.

Yu Si-Do and Lenox were left in standoff.

‘How the hell is he so fast?’ Yu Si-Do thought.

Suddenly, Kang Yoon-Soo shouted, “Don’t fight them! Let’s escape this place.”

Helkin walked toward the study where the voice had come from. He readied his sword and ran toward the back of the study.

“You dare point your sword at me?”

Helkin immediately stopped when he saw a blonde beauty glaring at him angrily. He lowered his sword and asked, “Your Highness! Are you alright?”

“Do I look alright to you?!” Princess Kisifran shouted angrily.

After lowering his sword, Helkin went to her side and said, “Your Highness, this place is dangerous. His majesty is no longer with us, so at least you will have to preserve your…”

He suddenly felt a chilling killing intent near the back of his neck. He instinctively ducked, and a sword sliced past his neck. The sword, thrown by Kang Yoon-Soo, flew over his head and destroyed a bookshelf in the study.

Kwachik!

“You son of a…!” Helkin raised his sword and…

Pukeok!

A strong force struck Helkin in the back of his head, and blood started flowing down. He sustained a minor wound, but did not collapse. He turned around and glared at Iris ferociously, saying, “You are not the princess.”

“That was strong enough to break your skull. How are you still standing?” Iris asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo immediately ran toward Iris and grabbed her. The sword aimed for her neck passed right above her head; she would have been decapitated by Helkin’s sword if Kang Yoon-Soo had not pushed her down.

Kwachik!

A bookshelf had been cut in half. Iris would have been too if it were not for Kang Yoon-Soo.

“Hey, old man! She looks like the princess, right? Can’t you hesitate for a bit before you swing your sword like that?!” Yu Si-Do protested toward the old knight.

The captain of the First Order of the Imperial Knights replied with grandeur and authority, “Even the princess would die by my sword if she tried to break my skull.”

“That’s a wise answer to my silly question. I acknowledge it,” Yu Si-Do said. He immediately bent his waist to avoid a strike from Lenox. He then stuck out his tongue at Lenox and asked, “Can’t you just let us escape?”

“I’ll pass on answering that,” Lenox replied.

“Ha, you’re no fun at all…” Yu Si-Do complained.

Kang Yoon-Soo put Iris behind him and stood in front of Helkin. Helkin, on the other hand, had already finished preparing to swing his sword. Kang Yoon-Soo stared at Helkin with a sincere and serious gaze and said, “Helkin, I know what your future will be.”

‘If it’s not possible to face him head on, I have to roll the dice at least.’

Helkin nodded and replied, “I know it too, rabbit mask. I will be killing you in a moment from now.”

Helkin swung his sword once, but Kang Yoon-Soo was able to avoid it since he had preemptively expected the sword’s trajectory.

‘I have to think of a way out.’

Kang Yoon-Soo glanced around the study. Lenox was blocking the only exit, and the only other exit in the study was a small window. He and Iris were starting to be cornered by Helkin. He asked, “Aren’t you curious as to how you’ll die later on?”

“I’m not curious at all,” Helkin replied as he swung his sword again.

Kang Yoon-Soo narrowly avoided Helkin’s attack again; it was all thanks to memorizing Helkin’s attack pattern from his previous lives. However, no matter how well he knew Helkin’s pattern, it did not make avoiding it any easier. The walls in the study started to crumble from the weight of Helkin’s attacks.

‘A simple foretelling won’t do… I need something to draw his attention.’

Kang Yoon-Soo felt his back break out into a cold sweat as he tried to come up with various solutions in his head.

‘Should I summon the undead? No, they’ll only get butchered by Helkin.’

“I know the secret surrounding the royal palace. Aren’t you curious about the person in the shadows of the royal palace, whom even the emperor feared so much he killed himself?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

Helkin did not bother replying anymore. He just walked toward Kang Yoon-Soo while wielding his sword with murderous intent.

However, the one who reacted was Lenox, who asked, “Shadows of the royal palace?”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not miss his chance to reply, “Yeah, the shadows of the royal palace. The person who will swallow the whole continent is in this palace.”

“Who in the…” Lenox trailed off and furrowed his brow. Suddenly, Yu Si-Do took out a dagger from his sleeve and threw it toward him. Lenox immediately blocked the dagger with his sword.

Clang!

The dagger that had been deflected by the knight’s sword flew toward Helkin, and Helkin immediately turned around to block the dagger flying toward him.

Kang Yoon-Soo did not miss that small opening. He charged at Helkin and muttered, “Abyssal Sword.” It was the strongest skill he possessed at the moment.

Helkin prepared to receive Kang Yoon-Soo’s attack, but Kang Yoon-Soo was not aiming for Helkin at all.

Kwachik! Rumble…! Rumble…!

A bookshelf was destroyed by Kang Yoon-Soo’s attack. All sorts of codices and books fell from it, and the rest of the bookshelves started falling like a line of dominos. A wave of books crashed down on Helkin.

“Let’s go,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he and Iris stepped over the mountain of books.

Lenox used his sword skill to charge at the trio. “Wind, Bless My Sword!”

The sword enveloped with a ferocious wind charged toward them, but Kang Yoon-Soo ducked and easily parried it. Lenox suddenly asked in surprise, “This swordsmanship… You… Are you the one from the Hatar Mountains…?”

“Get out of the way, Lenox!” Helkin shouted as he got up from the mountain of books piled atop him and charged toward the trio. The old knight swung his sword angrily with all his might.

Slaaash!

It was not an attack he could avoid, so Kang Yoon-Soo chose to stand in a defensive posture, readying his sword.

Clang!

He felt his arm breaking upon receiving Helkin’s attack, and he flew backward.

“Kang Yoon-Soo! Are you alright?” Iris asked.

Kang Yoon-Soo stumbled a bit before standing up by himself. He said, “We’ll get caught if we run into the corridor. Let’s escape through the window.”

“The window? Are you suggesting we fly or something?” Yu Si-Do exclaimed as he looked out of the window.

The Royal Library, which was directly opposite from them, was some distance away. It was not a distance a normal human being could jump across.

‘I planned to jump over it by summoning White, but I guess we have no time,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought. As Helkin walked toward them with murderous intent, he whispered to the other two, “Hold on to me.”

Helkin ferociously swung his sword, and the trio was instantly blown away by the old knight’s immense strength.

Baaam!

“Gaaah!”

Kang Yoon-Soo, Iris, and Yu Si-Do were launched into the air. The old knight’s monstrous strength blew them out of the window and they fell onto the royal palace roof.

Baam!

“Phew! We made it out alive!” Yu Si-Do was the first to speak as he got up and dusted his clothes off.

Iris did not seem to have sustained any serious injuries, but Kang Yoon-Soo, who had taken the brute force of Helkin’s sword head-on, had not come out of it unscathed. His last remaining sword was shattered to pieces, and his abdomen felt as if it were about to crumble inside him. ‘I think I broke four or five ribs…’ he thought.

Yu Si-Do helped Kang Yoon-Soo stand up and said, “Well, we managed to get away. I’m sure they can’t just follow us all the way here.”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo shook his head and said, “If it’s Helkin, he’ll definitely follow us. Let’s go down to the library before he catches up to us.”

“How will he follow us here?” Yu Si-Do asked as he stared at the other side where Helkin was.

Helkin moved a few steps back before starting to run at full speed. Yu Si-Do exclaimed in surprise, ”Is he thinking of jumping all the way here?”

Tak!

Helkin jumped off a broken section of the wall and landed lightly atop the library’s roof. He said, “I swung my sword quite seriously a while ago, but you received it quite well. You seem to have used the sword quite a bit.”

“Is this old man even human? What is he, a human bulldozer?” Yu Si-Do asked.

Helkin walked toward them. Kang Yoon-Soo looked at Helkin while lightly tapping his foot on the roof—there was only one way now.

“Iris,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“What is it?” Iris replied.

“Break the roof,” Kang Yoon-Soo commanded.

Iris smashed her fist into the roof once.

Baaam!

Helkin tried to attack immediately, but his movements were hampered by the shaking roof.

A second time.

Baaam!

Yu Si-Do bit Helkin’s leg with his fangs.

A third time.

Baaam!

The old knight and the regressor stared at each other.

A fourth time.

Baaam!

C—crack… Crack… Kwachik…!

The roof collapsed.

***

The royal library was the place that housed the biggest collection of books on the continent, and a young boy named Tommy inside reading storybooks.

‘I’ll become a scholar when I grow up!’

Tommy did not particularly like books, but he also did not like the fact that his grandfather had to fight all the time, which was why he had decided to be a scholar.

‘I really don’t like seeing blood. That’s why I have to stay up all night and read books from now on. Then I can become a scholar.’

People always said the sky would fall if one did something new all of a sudden, but would it really fall?[1]

However, the sky really did fall.

Kwachik!

The ceiling collapsed and its rubble scattered all over the library. There was nobody else in the library so early in the morning, so fortunately, nobody was trapped underneath the rubble, but Tommy was scared out of his wits.

‘Ack! The ceiling must have collapsed because I decided to start reading books!’

Tommy hurriedly closed his storybook and vowed never to touch another book ever again, but when he was about to return the book to where it belonged, he heard an unfamiliar voice call out to him, “Help me.”

It was a voice that sounded as hostile as the evil lizard’s voice in the story he had just read.

Tommy gulped as he slowly approached the pile of rubble, and he saw a man wearing the mask of a bunny underneath it.

“A-are you alright, hyunga[ref]What a young boy would call an older boy. The addition of ‘a’ at the end is usually the way babies or children say ‘hyung’.[/ref]?” Tommy asked.

“No,” the bunny said.

“H-how can I help?” Tommy asked.

“Help me get free from this rubble,” the bunny requested.

“How? The rubble is too heavy,” Tommy asked.

“Pull my arm. I can’t stand up,” the bunny said.

Tommy was reluctant to help the stranger, and he even thought that the man could actually be an evil person. However, the man had a bunny mask on, and Tommy came to a conclusion that the man must be a good person.

‘Grandpa told me not to help anyone and everyone, but it should be fine because he’s a bunny.’

Tommy grabbed the man’s arm and pulled it with all his might, and the man broke free from the rubble far more easily than he thought.

The man got up, and Tommy asked him, “Hyunga, what do you do?”

The man showed Tommy his wrist device. Tommy exclaimed, “Wow! You must be a Traveler. I’m Tommy.”

“I know,” the man replied.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked around the 6th floor of the royal library. Fortunately, it seemed he had accurately pinpointed its location.

Suddenly, he gripped Tommy’s neck tightly.

“Ack! Cough! H-hyunga!” Tommy struggled.

“I’m sorry,” Kang Yoon-Soo whispered.

A ferocious voice akin to a hostile beast rang out from the top of the pile of rubble. “Take your hands off of him this instant!” Helkin looked at Kang Yoon-Soo, his eyes trembling with anger.

Kang Yoon-Soo choked Tommy more tightly and said, “Helkin, let us go if you want to save your grandson.”

“Coward!” Helkin roared, glaring at Kang Yoon-Soo with eyes full of hate and murderous intent. He said, “To think you would try to preserve your own life by taking another’s family as a hostage. Do you have a family? Are you not ashamed of yourself?”

Kang Yoon-Soo stopped for a moment, and the hand that was choking Tommy loosened. However, he said, “I can do worse things than this if it means I can kill the Demon Lord.”

Helkin grit his teeth and sheathed his sword. “I’ll let you go, so let go of Tommy outside the royal palace. If you kill my grandson, I will hunt you down to the ends of the word,” he said threateningly.

Kang Yoon-Soo pondered for a moment whether he should ask Helkin to hand over his sword, but he remembered that the sword Helkin was using required the user to have the class ‘Knight Captain’.

“Ha! I’m alive!” Yu Si-Do exclaimed with a sigh of relief.

“It was really dangerous this time,” Iris said.

Kang Yoon-Soo found Iris and Yu Si-Do, and the trio left the royal library. Kang Yoon-Soo let go of the kid and said, “Go to your grandfather.”

Tommy gasped for air and asked while sniffling, “I-is hyunga a bad person?”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Tommy looked at Kang Yoon-Soo for a moment before running away as quickly as he could. Kang Yoon-Soo looked down at his hand, and saw that his palm was wet with sweat.

“Kang Yoon-Soo is a good person,” Iris said.

Then Kang Yoon-Soo asked, “Why?”

“Nobody asked you to, but you are trying to save the world all by yourself,” Iris replied. Kang Yoon-Soo just quietly stared at Iris. The blonde beauty covered in dust smiled and said, “That is how I think of it, at least.”