CH 166

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021~MOONLIKETRANSLATIONS

Cory scrunched his brows as he stared intently at the circle before nodding towards us and telling us to stand on the circle. Swan an I, then Hylli walked onto the circle as it gleamed brightly.

Cory glanced between Swan and Hylli before staring at me. He sighed.

“Man, how annoying.”

He raised his had and roughly tousled his shoulder-length blond hair. His sharp green eyes stared at me through his blond hair. Then, his gaze turned to Swan and Hylli.

“It’s so annoyinggggggg……”

I was waiting next to Hylli and Swan, waiting for the circle to activate. Cory, who held onto the hem of my shirt as I tried to leave, frowned as he muttered out a complaint.

Swan lightly slapped Cory’s hand off. Swan seemed expressionless, but there was a bit of a taunt on it.

“Useless, huh.”

“….you’re a magic user too, so don’t butt in. I have a ton of magic left.”

“Yup, you’re right. I’m off then~.”

Swanhaden shot him a smile as he replied. It was a very easygoing expression. He lightly tapped the center of the unactivated circle and muttered the activation word [Teleport].

The magic circle began to spin. The formulae in the circle began to line up and shine in intervals.

Cory stared at all of us as we were about to head out. Then, when he met my gaze, he muttered, “Be careful.” and gave me a small smile.

We arrived in an instant thanks to the magic circle.

To begin with, this magic circle had been created when Noirelle had still been obsessed with revenge and had planned on sending an army of monsters to the royal palace. Apparently, they had used the monsters to retrieve the royal heirloom before the last destruction cycle. Thanks to that, the circle was incredibly close to the heirloom.

Thankfully, we had arrived in a corner without any witnesses.

The central palace was very cold. The weather was hot outside, but sweat just disappeared when you entered.

“You can’t use any magic from this point onwards, so we need to hurry.”

Hylli stared at the walls made of magic-blocking minerals and then put on a hood to conceal his face. I also covered my face with a hood and a face shield.

But then I thought that Hylli needed to hide his face more than me, so I put my face shield on him instead. When I stretched my hand towards hi face to put the shield on, he seemed taken aback before smiling.

“It’s alright. Almost all of the people in the palace are my people. If I get caught, then it’s just going to look like I’m stealing my own property.”

He also stated that he was basically an entry-level swordmaster, so the possibility of his face being revealed to his opponent was as small as finding a needle in a haystack. He placed the face shield back on my face and rested his hand on my head.

“You can go nuts like you’re relieving stress. I’ll take responsibility, so steal the heirloom or anything else you want. All of it. Just, I’d be grateful if you steal the current empress and emperor’s items.”

Hylli lowly stated, smiling with his teeth. He looked extremely excited for someone who was planning on stealing his own family’s items. Maybe he was excited because he was basically screwing over the people he hated.

We moved swiftly and quietly. I knew exactly where the heirloom lied, so I led the charge. Hylli seemed surprised at how well I knew the layout of the palace. I couldn’t get myself to admit to the future emperor that I had memorized an illegal copy of the palace blueprint. So I decided to stay quiet.

The night sky painted its colors onto the walls of the palace. The calm color of the sky made it seem especially peaceful. We made sure to walk as quietly as possible to make sure we didn’t disturb the peace.

Not too long after we began our walk, we were able to find a suspicious-looking small, worn out wooden door. There were three guards placed in front of such a small, inconspicuous door. One of the guards, who looked to be one of the more specialized guards, yawned sleepily.

I couldn’t say that the blueprint I saw of the palace was completely accurate, but I was pretty sure that the heirloom had to be here. There was no other reason why so many guards would stand in such a dingy looking door.

Once we figured out how many people were on guard, we turned around and headed to the nearest wall.

Hylli glared sharply at the three knights. His red eyes focused on the three of them. His eyes looked up and down, as if analyzing them.

“They’re knights from the first order that the empress took out for herself.”

“What’s their skill level?”

“Probably around my skills in the second year of junior school.”

Hylli was a high-level sword expert by his second year of junior school, so that meant that the knights were on that level too. That was incredible for their young ages.

Without looking away from them, Hylli rested his hand on his sword case. He put his hand on the handle and took out his long sword blade. The sound of his blade sliding out of his sheath was sharp.

“I’ll direct their attention to me, so you guys come in when they’re distracted.”

Hylli pulled his hood down slightly and headed ahead of Swan and I. There was no hesitation in his footsteps. He started walking, then began to run with his blade ahead of him. He jumped up and landed an attack. I was awed at Hylli’s unusual forthcoming attacks.

I didn’t know if it was because they were distracted or because of Hylli’s power, but they were too quick to lose even though they were part of the first order of knights. He attacked the person on the way left with his foot and then easily blocked the attack coming from his left. I think it was more apt to say that he was flying. His robe sleeves fluttered with every movement.

I was once again reminded while looking at his flexible but sharp movements that there was nobody who could truly win against him when it came to swordsmanship.

While Hylli was easily facing down three sword experts, Swan and I tried to pass through the small door behind them.

“Old man. His rib is exposed when he raises his arms.”

Swan had been observing Hylli with a bored expression before he whispered this to a nearby knight.

“Wow, whose side are you on?!”

Hylli had a dumbfounded expression at Swan’s actions as he yelled.

Even though Swanhaden gave the knights a hint, Hylli was able to defeat all of them without issue. He kept staring behind us even as we walked through the door. Hylli was about to follow us when he looked to the side and frowned. It became noisy outside.

“Who is it?!”

“There’s an intruder in the central palace!”

Other security knights had all crowded together after hearing the commotion. All of them were armed to the teeth as they ran towards Hylli.

Hylli stared at us behind the door, then grabbed his sword once again. He looked annoyed as he clicked his tongue and stretched his neck.

“Get up there first. I’ll take care of here!”

One knight rushed towards him to attack. Hylli shoved the person away with his foot and swung his sword to gain some space.

While Hylli was protecting us from behind us, we weren’t able to go ahead easily. There were doors upon doors every time we opened one. Whenever we opened a door, there were more guards.

We didn’t really need to worry much because Hylli was behind us, but I needed to carry my sword in order to pass ahead.

I moved swiftly and without any hesitation, because any sort of hesitation would just be a weakness. Moreover, I couldn’t use any magic here, so I had to be swifter than usual. I wasn’t sure of their skill level, so I needed to hit their pressure points and make them pass out.

I tried to move to attack when Swanhaden stuck next to me and went on the defense. Swanhaden easily blocked all of the attacks that they threw my way, so we were easily able to take them down.

Swan occasionally attacked as well. He didn’t really try to attack someone when I was already hitting them. He only hit the security guards who unsheathed their swords to attack me. When he made them pass out, he made sure to use a gentle, respectful method instead of his painful sword style.

I complimented him about his kindness and lack of brutality. He then became too respectful. Whenever he made them pass out, he said, “Sorry, but I’m going to twist your neck.” Then, when he wanted to add an unnecessary attack, he would ask, “Can I twist that arm that attacked you here? I’ll make sure to snap it back in place.”

Swan’s attacks were all over the place, so he wasn’t always using his sword to attack. He had a bunch of different weapons under his belt, so he knew what attack worked best on which weapon. He used every single item near him to use the item as a weapon. He was exact in his defenses and his attacks were witty and quick. We were able to open the doors quickly.

Maybe we had passed through five or so doors. We were able to arrive at a door where there wasn’t another one.

“It looks like we’re finally here. The room’s really dark. It has to be here, right?”

The room was pitch dark. The open door illuminated a tiny bit of light into the room, but it was still dark.

Swanhaden wiped off a spot of blood from a soldier off of my cheek. At my words, Swanhaden looked around the room and nodded. He was more focused on my potential injuries than the door. I was completely fine, but I just gulped down one of his healing potions from before to lessen his worries.

The room was so dark that I couldn’t see anything.

If it was any other time, a magical device would have lit up the room. But because magic wasn’t usable in this building, it seemed like they had torches placed around the room instead, hanging on the walls. I had brought a match just in case, so I quickly lit a match.

Once there was light in the room, it became clear.

The room, completely void of outside light, seemed bare. It was completely bare. It looked like nothing was here, but I was absolutely sure that the heirloom had to be here.

I bent down and placed my hand on the dirt. I drew a line on the ground and tried to head to a particular area where the magic felt strongest, but I couldn’t feel any kind of magic so I put my hand back.

“Isn’t this it?”

Swanhaden had been looking around the room with me when he brought over a mid-sized chest from one corner. The chest had the royal crest on it, and I could see a black heap when I opened it up.

It looked exactly like the heirloom I had seen through pictures. The chest was identical too.

T/N: lmao hylli’s fighting for them and swan’s like “here’s how u can get him” PLEASE