Reincarnated as a Son of the Sword Saint and the Sage

Chapter 520: Figuring Out The Puppeteer

Clink. Clink. Clink.

It had been a few minutes since Erik and I started clashing swords with this manipulated Edward. The reinforcement knights had arrived at the scene, and they had been fighting the insurgents alongside my sister.

So far, Edward seemed to be in a match with us. But in reality, Erik and I were holding back. We were trying to extend this fight in order to gather as much information as possible. We could have folded him multiple times the moment we got serious.

In our fight, Edward had shown us some high-level magic spells other than his swordplay. This was definitely not Edward at all. To be able to execute this well, the one controlling the string was possibly a skilled magic swordsman or battlemage.

However, I noticed something familiar: his moves and magic he had been doing were arguably similar to late Prince Richard XVI of Astley. They had the same techniques and magic spells set, and they were somewhat amateur, if I may say.

From that, I could deduce that the one who was controlling Edward was probably using stones that Richard XVI had used. I could prove it when he said that he was testing his magic skill against Erik earlier.

Based on the information that Francis told me these days, I probably knew the one who was behind this. And even if I was completely unknowledgeable about it, I had my own way to figure out who the puppeteer was.

“Thousand Slice!”

Holding his great sword in one hand, Edward executed a Level 10 Sword Art technique and slashed it a thousand times in a matter of seconds. Being the target of the powerful technique, Erik resorted to countering it by doing the same technique.

“Thousand Slice.”

While each of Edward’s slash attacks was specifically aiming for Erik’s body, Erik either deflected, parried, or blocked each of them once. Their exchange created a short scene of countless sparks in the arena.

Crack.

However, since Erik’s rapier was made out of adamantine, which was inferior to Edward’s alloy of two divine-grade metals, the rapier had the risk of breaking. And around the eight-hundredth deflection, Erik’s thin blue blade finally snapped.

Ching!

Wielding a broken weapon was a huge disadvantage in a fight. But since only a third of the blade’s length broke, Erik still had enough space to fend off the remaining slashes.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

After their exchange, Erik stepped back before looking at his broken blade. Amused by the sight, Edward just laughed at Erik’s loss.

“Ha ha! Look whose weapon is broken! Do you think you could still fight in that state?”

As Edward was crackling, I conjured my Inventory and took out something from it. In my hand, there was a red sword with an intricate golden-hued hilt.

“Take this, Phantom Fencer. You can’t properly wield that sword, yes?”

Afterwards, I threw the sword toward him, which he caught by the hilt. But since we were acting, we did not know one another; Erik acted like he was surprised and confused.

“But, Your Highness Raphael, this is…”

The thing that I gave was actually a rapier with the blade made out of scarlettite and the hilt of a golden metal called sunsteel. Sunsteel was the superior version of the metal Xanthium, which was a legendary-grade alloy of orichalcum and mithrill. In short, that sword was a weapon crafted from divine-grade materials.

I crafted this sword in the first place because I want to create various weapons out of divine-grade materials—one of them was a scarlettite rapier. Actually, I wanted Mother to wield it, but I was lending it to Erik so that he could fight him without holding back.

“You can use it for the meantime. I know you can fight him without me, so I will be leaving this battle in your hands while I have to do something personally.”

I said that latter, looking at Edward’s eyes. He was confused for a few seconds before he realized what I really meant.

“Wait… Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, so I’ll be going now.”

“Where do you think you are going?!”

Edward hurriedly lunged at me and tried to swing his greatsword. In an instant, Erik appeared between us and intercepted Edward, binding his scarlet rapier with his greatsword.

“Go ahead, Your Highness Raphael. I will take care of him.”

“I owe you a favor, Phantom Fencer.”

After that, I used Warp, and I vanished on the spot.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

To find the one who was controlling Edward, I used my new ultra skill, Eye of Providence. Utilizing its subskill, Omnidirectional Perception, which had become the subskill of the ultra skill, I was able to sense the faint link of mana that connected Edward to the manipulator.

The coverage of the Omnidirectional Perception had enhanced since I acquired the Eye of Providence. But it was more than wide enough to track him down. After pinpointing his exact location, I found myself in front of a manor in the noble district of the Imperial Capital.

I knew which family it belonged to, of course; it was the estate of the Aethel family, the ones who orchestrated the insurgency in the coliseum. But since the estate was heavily guarded, I arrived here completely invisible and undetectable.

Upon landing, I immediately transported myself again to get inside the mansion. Without further ado, I teleported into a particular room and appeared in the very front of the manipulator, who was a man named Morris Aethel, Francis’s uncle.

“So this is where you are, Lord Morris Aethel.”

“Prince Raphael?!”

Surprised by my arrival, Morris jumped out of his seat, which was the family’s head office seat, before moving backward until his back hit the wall behind. I then took a glance at the table, where I saw shards of broken stones scattered on top.

“What are you doing here? You are trespassing on Aethel property.”

“Well, just earlier, Emperor Alfred has been killed.”

“What?!”

“Yeah. Edward killed him.”

“How could he?!”

“Well, apparently, he is being controlled. That’s why I am here.”

“Are you telling me that I killed His Imperial Majesty?!”

“Yes, and I am here to stop you and make you spill the beans.”