Sharp let go of Light’s hand the moment he was hit by the sword, and he collapsed onto the floor the moment the Sword of Hemoptysis cut into his head.

Light exclaimed in surprise, “Sharp is dead!”

As Sharp seemingly lay dead on the ground, however, he slowly began to absorb the red sword embedded in his head. Gradually, the sword deformed as it was completely immersed in Sharp’s body.

[The Spirit of Swords, Sharp, has fully absorbed the Sword of Hemoptysis.]

[Sharp has absorbed a legendary sword!]

[Sharp has evolved and is now unsheathed.]

[Sharp has obtained special combat abilities.]

[You may track the location of the sword.]

[The spirit’s temperament has changed from (Depressed/Timid) to (Bold/Straightforward).]

Sharp had evolved!

Sharp’s appearance slowly changed after he was unsheathed. His body started to exude a red glow, and his gloomy, disheveled hair became neatly arranged. His slumped shoulders and back straightened, making him seem more confident than before.

Sharp rubbed his forehead and groaned, “Ah… Can’t you tell me before putting a sword in me? I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

“I wanted to save time,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Well, I don’t really mind, to be honest, and it didn’t really hurt that much,” Sharp said without even stuttering once, and his usual gloomy demeanor was nowhere to be seen.

“But… I was thinking about this before, but can I just call you by name?” Sharp asked.

“Yeah,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied.

“I like Kang Yoon-Soo because you’re calm and cool, and I’ve thought of wanting to become like you from time to time. Of course, I don’t want to become an alcoholic like you,” Sharp said with a shrug.

Henrick laughed in disbelief and asked, “Is it just me, or did this guy suddenly become very bold?”

Light seemed to like Sharp’s new personality, as she smiled brightly and exclaimed, “Sharp! You’ve become really cool! You look much taller now that you’re no longer hunched over. Let’s keep holding hands from now on!”

Light walked toward him and tried to take his hand, but Sharp pulled his hand back and said, “There’s no longer a need for that.”

“Sharp… What did you just say…?” Light murmured in surprise.

Sharp boldly replied, “I don’t really like you that much, to be honest.”

The smile on Light’s face suddenly disappeared, and her expression turned cold as she asked, “Then are you telling me you don’t want to be friends with me…?”

“Do you think anyone would really want to be friends with you? Nobody in this world would want to be friends with a crazy spirit like you,” Sharp retorted.

“Did you just call me crazy…?” Light muttered.

“Do you want me to say it again?” Sharp replied. He did not shrink back at all, boldly spitting fact after fact at Light.

Henrick snickered and said, “They’re starting to look like real twin siblings now.”

“Maybe it’s because Sharp has become very bold. He couldn’t speak up when he was timid because he was scared of Light,” Shaneth added.

Light furrowed her brow and asked, “Why don’t you want to become friends with me?”

“Hmm… It’s not normal to massacre monsters while laughing, is it? Of course, there’s nothing wrong with laughing, but the fact that you were killing them just because they refused to be friends with you is a way of thinking that even other people would find hard to understand,” Sharp replied.

“I’m not crazy,” Light said in a low, cold tone.

“Who knows? What you think and what others think might be different, after all,” Sharp said with a shrug.

Light glared at him and replied, “Is that so? Is that how Sharp thought of me all this time? I just have to stop being friends with you, then! I’ll just find another friend aside from you!”

“You don’t really have other friends aside from me, do you?” Sharp retorted.

Light clenched both of her fists, holding back tears before shouting loudly, “You became a bad person!”

“You’re saying that as if you were nice,” Sharp retorted with a shrug, maintaining his calm demeanor while not giving Light an inch.

Light bit her lip, then turned around and went back to the summon dimension.

Iris worriedly watched the two before saying, “Light seems to be very upset.”

However, Sharp just shrugged and remarked, “Light isn’t a bad spirit, but she has a tendency to only think about herself. I hope she’ll be able to fix it through this opportunity.”

“Sharp has really changed,” Iris said.

“It’s a basic right to speak one’s mind, right?” Sharp replied.

Sharp’s combat ability had also changed drastically alongside his personality. However, his current form was only a temporary one, and Kang Yoon-Soo had to make full use of him against the Imperial Knights while he was still transformed.

“It’s now time for you to fight, Sharp,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

Sharp nodded coolly and replied, “Do what you have to do, and let’s get this over with.”

***

The Imperial Knights had quenched the fire and begun searching the area around them.

The captain of the Fifth Order of the Imperial Knights, Sorden, shouted at the knights, “They must be somewhere on this mountain, since it’s impossible for them to have gone through the barrier. Don’t skimp on lantern fuel and make sure to search every nook and cranny you see!”

The knights thoroughly inspected every bush and footprint they came across. Suddenly, one of them shouted, “I found a cave here!”

Sorden gathered his order of knights and made his way over, finding a small cave entrance hidden behind a bush that had faded footprints leading into it. He looked inside the entrance and found bloodstains on the ground, and he was certain that they belonged to the man who had escaped.

“Let’s search this cave. All forces, prepare for combat before entering the cave,” Sorden ordered.

“Yes, sir!” the knights replied in unison.

The Fifth Order of the Imperial Knights, which was composed of more than forty knights, entered the cave one by one. They illuminated every corner of the cave with the lanterns they had brought. However, they failed to find any traces of the group they were searching for.

When they ventured a bit deeper into the cave, they heard a sound coming from somewhere.

Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble…

The swords on the knights’ waists started to shake.

“H-Huh?” the knights exclaimed in surprise.

The swords were not merely shaking, however. Not long after, they suddenly flew out of their scabbards toward the depths of the cave.

The knights were shocked to see their swords flying through the air. They soon snapped out of it and tried to grab their weapons, but it was already too late, as their swords had already traveled out of their reach.

Sorden was the only one who managed to react in time and grab his sword before it flew off.

“Damn it… What’s going on?” one of the knights muttered.

“Why did my sword suddenly fly off?” another knight asked.

The knights who had just lost their swords were in complete disarray. Just then, Sorden suddenly alerted them. “Someone is coming!”

Step… Step… Step… Step…

The sound of slow, leisurely footsteps echoed through the cave, and the knights raised their guard as they waited for the stranger to appear from within the darkness. However, what came walking out from the darkness appeared to be a teenage boy.

Sorden thought with a grimace, ‘A boy? No… Is it a spirit?’

It would have been difficult to say that the red aura that enveloped the boy belonged to a human, and Sorden could also tell that the mature expression he had was quite far from the sort a normal human boy would possess.

It was the Spirit of Swords, Sharp!

He walked out alone to face the Imperial Knights. As they lowered their guard at the sight of a young boy, he drew a line with his index finger.

Sukeok!

A sword flew rapidly out of the darkness and stabbed through the neck of the knight at the forefront.

“K-Kuheok…!” The knight gasped for air as blood flowed out of his mouth before he collapsed to the ground.

The other knights instinctively rushed toward Sharp instead of worrying about the death of their comrade. However, Sharp stood still in place and simply swung his finger a few times, and countless swords flew out from the darkness and stabbed into the knights’ necks.

“Kuheok!” The knights who had been stabbed let out groans before collapsing to the ground.

The knights did not stand still doing nothing. In fact, they tried their best to dodge the swords and close the distance between them and the boy. However, Sharp persistently swung his fingers and made the swords chase after them.

Sharp’s previous timid and cowardly attitude was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that had changed about him was his personality, but the way he fought was completely different from before. The swords he controlled were cruel and vicious, quite unlike his old self that would huddle in a corner at the sight of blood.

The knights discarded their pride as they picked up stones and threw them at the boy, but the swords flying around in midair easily blocked their futile attempts.

Clang!

“K-Kuheok!” The knights groaned as they fell one by one.

Sharp efficiently maneuvered the swords, striking at precisely the right time to instantly kill his targets.

Sorden parried the swords flying toward him, but all of his subordinates had already been killed by the young boy within the span of a few minutes. He was left standing in front of a pile of his subordinates’ corpses. He glared at Sharp and asked coldly, “Why did you kill my knights?”

“They died because they were weaker than me, why else?” Sharp replied with a shrug.

The young boy’s merciless and nonchalant attitude only infuriated the knight captain even more. Sorden said while grimacing, “We didn’t have any business with you.”

“Liar. You came to kill a human,” Sharp retorted.

“We were just carrying out official orders,” Sorden objected.

“Does the empire ask you to commit murder too?” Sharp asked.

“That has nothing to do with you,” Sorden said, audibly enraged.

“Then the death of these knights has nothing to do with you as well,” Sharp said with a shrug.

Sorden gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll no longer think of you as a child from this moment onward.”

“Do as you wish. I’ll just stay still,” Sharp replied, shrugging once again.

“What did you just say…?” Sorden asked in disbelief.

Sharp pointed at the dead knights and said, “I’m giving you a chance to take revenge.”

Now fully enraged, Sorden shouted, “Earth! Bless my sword!”

It was the unique skill of an Imperial Knight Captain!

This sword technique, which used the power of the earth, could display its full potential while in a cave. Sorden readied himself as the entire cave started to tremble violently. Stalactites fell from above; bats flew urgently away from the cave, surprised by the sudden shaking.

Sorden charged toward his target and swung his sword, fully infused with the power of the earth, at Sharp’s neck.

Kwachik!

Sorden felt his strike connecting against his target, and he was certain that the edge of his sword had sliced through the young boy’s neck. However, he did not hear any of the groans or screams he had expected.

He felt despair as he looked up and saw Sharp smiling instead of squirming in agony after being cut by his sword. He thought in disbelief, ‘How is this possible…?’

A chill traveled down his back, and he broke out into a cold sweat at the sight of the young boy, who was tapping on the sword embedded in his neck while smiling.

“I’m just telling you this now, but I’m a Spirit of Swords, Sharp. I’m the natural enemy of you swordsmen,” Sharp said, smiling sinisterly as Sorden’s sword melted into his body.

Sorden tried to retreat from the young boy, but Sharp grabbed him by the neck.

“K-Kuheok…!” Sorden groaned in agony while gasping for air. Sharp clenched the knight captain’s neck tightly, and Sorden felt his vision slowly fading away.

Moments before Sorden was about to pass out, a voice suddenly spoke from within the darkness.

“That’s as far as you go.”

Kang Yoon-Soo and his companions walked out from within the cave.

Sharp looked back and asked, “Why?”

“I have something to ask,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Only then did Sharp finally let go of Sorden’s neck, asking no questions.

Henrick looked over at the pile of corpses on the ground and asked in disbelief, “Does it make sense for him to suddenly become this strong just because his personality changed? He destroyed an entire knight order by himself.”

“Sharp was the highest-level spirit to begin with,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

Sharp’s combat capability had been severely limited because of his timid and depressed personality, but that limitation was removed when his personality changed. That was not all, however; he had absorbed a legendary sword and was now displaying power befitting the sword he had absorbed.

The reason why Kang Yoon-Soo had ordered Sharp to face the fifth order alone was to make them lower their guard, to prevent any of them from escaping alive to call for reinforcements.

Shaneth let out a sigh and said, “I guess we’re now criminals since we killed several Imperial Knights.”

“I suppose it will not be helpful to wear masks or disguise ourselves, since the knights have already seen our faces and know our identities…” Iris muttered.

“Well, it’s self-defense, after all. Isn’t it better than being stabbed to death by the knights?” Henrick said.

Sorden, who had just been released from Sharp’s chokehold, was shocked the moment he saw Henrick. He asked in surprise, “Henrick? Why are you, who used to be the personal artisan of her majesty, with them?”

Henrick looked depressed for some reason as he replied, “It’s a long and sad story that’s just a waste of time, so forget about it.”

Kang Yoon-Soo needed information. He placed a sword against Sorden’s neck and asked, “Who is the commander of this expedition?”

“I’ll never tell you anything. Go ahead and cut off a finger or gouge my eyeballs out. Do as you wish,” Sorden said, steeling his resolve.

“You have a four-year-old daughter, and she’s your only child,” Kang Yoon-Soo said coldly.

Sorden’s face, which had seemingly conveyed his determination not to bend to any form of torture, slowly crumpled for the first time.