Chapter 16: Solitary (3)
It all started by accident.
Before the regression, Vikir's hunting party, the Hound Group, was raiding the dungeons that straddled the border between the Enemy and Black Mountain when they found a strange artifact.
It was a fragment of a swords manual.
It was a single torn page.
Realizing that what was written on it was strange, Vikir memorized it in his mind.
When he handed in the page in question, Hugo immediately realized that it contained something out of the ordinary.
Hugo searched through his entire library to find a book that matched this page.
What he eventually found was a swordsmanship book titled The Lurking Ambush.
It was an ancient book, found deep in the shallow shelves of miscellaneous books, not in the restricted area where the higher martial arts were concentrated.
The sudden discovery of this sword technique, buried in an unknown location, had set the entire Baskerville Street on fire.
"This sword art is the essence of our Baskerville."
Hugo raves.
At first glance, the sword technique was insignificant, but with the addition of the missing pages, the system was completely redefined.
A sword that would seemingly defend itself against an enemy's attack, then suddenly leap out and bite down on the point of death, with the sole purpose of inflicting pain on the enemy.
This sword art, which must have been written long ago by some ancestor named Baskerville, describes how to draw ten teeth.
The Baskerville Tenth Form.
Hugo, who had achieved the rank of Sword Master with only seven techniques, couldn't help but be intrigued.
... But even with Vikir's discovery of the missing first half, the book was still incomplete.
There were more missing pages in the second half.
The torn pages totaled seven.
Except for the one that Vikir found, the other six were lost.
Hugo spent the next several years collecting the torn pages of this "'Lurking Ambush'".
The Baskervilles were relentless in their pursuit.
After investing vast amounts of time and money, Hugo realized that the torn pages of the Swordsmanship Book were hidden deep within the estates of each of the seven families that supported the empire.
Naturally, Hugo set out to retrieve them one by one.
It was a project he called Operation Reclaim the Torn Pages or Operation Restore the Missing Teeth.
Vikir shook his head from side to side as he recalled the memory.
He could still smell the blood at the end of his nose.
"... It was a long, drawn-out operation.
Hugo unleashed the dogs to retrieve the page.
Whether they knew about the torn pages or not, the resistance from the other families was fierce.
For them, it was a matter of course.
No one would look good with someone else's hounds bursting into their courtyard.
The Baskervilles practically declared war on all the other houses.
Countless Baskerville hounds perished under the weight of it.
The number of siblings and companions I had grown up playing with had shrunk at an unbelievable rate.
The familiar faces of yesterday are nowhere to be seen in the dining hall.
The gaps left by the missing teeth were filled with new ones, which fell out just as quickly.
The one permanent tooth that didn't fall out through all that gnashing of teeth was Vikir's.
Vikir became a vicious right-handed black dog, fighting and fighting and fighting.
Eventually, he gathered the seven missing pages and brought them to his master.
A few fingers and toes, a pair of ears, ugly burns and cuts covering his entire body, and his lost brothers.
The reward for all this was simple and straightforward.
"Well done."
A single word of praise from Hugo's mouth. Why did he think it was enough at the time?
" ...It was a stupid life."
Vikir gritted his teeth.
Before the regression, Hugo had used all the things that Vikir and the hounds had asked for to provide for himself and his two sons.
Hugo's cultivation had risen beyond the seventh degree to the ninth, and the honor of Ironblade Baskerville had soared.
The blood of the hounds and the flesh of the dead lay beneath him.
"That will not happen in this life."
Vikir closed his eyes and recalled the pages in his mind.
Everything that had been written on those lost pages was in his mind.
Nevertheless, the reason why the pre-regression Vikir couldn't go beyond the fourth teeth was because he didn't know the original.
The pages he remembered were sparse, only seven pages at most.
Without the original, they were useless.
... But not now.
In Vikir's hands now was the original copy of the 'Lurking Ambush' sword technique!
Though seven pages had been torn out, the missing information was still perfectly clear in Vikir's mind.
The experience of fighting through multiple layers of siege, sometimes with no way to keep the pages themselves intact, and carrying them in his mind, shines through.
Soon, Vikir began to read the book.
...10The first step of a decadal eclipse corresponds to a solar eclipse. The moment a sword is drawn and shows aggression in its first trajectory, all swordplay from then on has an innate limitation...
Indeed.
If an ignorant person were to read this book, it would be treated as a bunch of nonsense.
What's the point of having 10 formulas?
But as soon as the torn pages are reconstructed and the blanks are filled in, what was once a bunch of bluster and rhetoric becomes the puzzle pieces that make up a masterpiece.
Vikir notices that the gaze of his surroundings has completely disappeared, and he moves his body accordingly.
Four teeth, honed to the limit before his regression. After that, the story begins in earnest.
The book explained how to reveal the fifth tooth, how to make the sixth tooth, how dangerous the seventh tooth was, when to reveal the eighth tooth, if the ninth tooth actually existed, and what the tenth tooth was.
Even though he didn't have enough mana and his body was immature for an eight-year-old, he would surely be able to recreate all of these things someday.
'...15 years old. Within it, he regains all of his pre-regression powers.'
Of course, it doesn't end there.
After that, you will go beyond the fifth degree, to the sixth and seventh degrees, which were unattainable before the regression.
The stain of the past, the time when you were pushed aside, beaten, and ignored by your superiors because you didn't have the aura of a Graduate, yet didn't have the swordsmanship to match, will never have to happen again.
"I'll start by memorizing the contents of the book."
As soon as the memorization is finished, the book will disappear from the world forever.
Then Hugo won't find it, and he won't have to make nine teeth.
Pretty sweet revenge for an eight-year-old, don't you think?
Vikir laughed, though dryly.
He still had more than twelve hours to go in the Mansang Library, no matter how little time he took.
For the children of Baskerville Street, it would not be too difficult to memorize a small book in that time.
Half a day from now.
Unaware of what she would become afterward, Vikir read the book.
And then, at exactly 11 hours and 50 minutes from now.
...boom!
A small fire broke out in the shallowest part of the Great Library, in the section where the janitors were gathered.
No injuries. No fatalities.
Damage was minimal, with one tome burned to the ground.
It was a small enough incident that even the servants shrugged it off.
And then, at exactly 11 hours and 50 minutes from now.
...boom!
A small fire broke out in the shallowest part of the Great Library, in the section where the janitors were gathered.
No injuries. No fatalities.
Damage was minimal, with one tome burned to the ground.
It was a small enough incident that even the servants shrugged it off.
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