Chapter 326: 326

Jude slowly caught his breath.

The sight of the horizon located beyond the straight road soon faded like a haze.

He just saw it.

He had not yet reached the horizon.

But just being able to stand up straight and look at the horizon was a great achievement.

‘Sword Saint.’

Jude was now on equal footing with Elune, a Grand Sword Master.

Elf Sword Valencia thought that Jude could now compete with the other Grand Sword Masters and not just Elune.

However, he was not a true Grand Sword Master.

His transcendent physical abilities, the characteristics of Sword Origin, and the overwhelming energy of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors resulted in him having the combat power of a Grand Sword Master despite his lack of sword skills.

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If it had not been for Valencia.

If she had not helped him become familiar with the sword.

It would have been absolutely impossible for him to be equal with Elune.

But it was different now.

Jude saw the horizon on his own.

After attaining enlightenment, he truly became someone at the same level of the Grand Sword Masters and those monsters of the sword.

And what that meant.

Even though his sword skills were lacking, his combat power explosively increased because he became a person who had the combat power of a Grand Sword Master and the skills to match a Sword Saint.

‘Memories.’

He had attained enlightenment.

But it was not attained through the normal route.

He acquired it through his memories.

He once again took possession of what was originally his.

“Memories.”

Jude repeated as he swallowed hard.

His green eyes were filled with hope instead of despair, and he could now see other things besides the sword horizon.

Memories that had already faded.

But he was able to recall it one by one.

Those were not false memories or delusions.

The war between the north and the barbarians of the wild lands.

The death of his father, Count Bayer, and his older brother, Gaël.

Those who died from the continuous fighting.

The death of Maja who was worried about him and their burnt hometown until the very end.

Scarlet whom he faced as an enemy and Kajsa whom he could not even recover her body.

Lucas was his best rival.

No, Lucas was his best friend.

But he became a demonic human.

He was captured by the enemies and forcibly turned into a demonic human, eventually dying at the hands of Jude himself.

The words of the man who recovered his humanity at the last moment because of Divine Sword Balisarda lingered in Jude’s ears.

And one more person.

The reason why Jude was able to fight.

The reason why Jude had to fight.

“Cordelia.”

A girl who cared for her weak and sickly fiancé like an older sister.

A woman like the sun who never lost her smile no matter how hard and difficult it was.

She became a demonic human.

Jude had to kill her with his own hands.

“Haa… haa…”

He felt like his head was going to split.

No, his heart was burned. He felt a sense of loss as if he had lost his whole world. The fact that he had to live in a world where she no longer existed drove him to despair and madness.

“Haa…”

His breathing became heavy. His tears flowed down endlessly.

Cordelia.

Cordelia.

Cordelia.

I have to keep fighting.

To keep her dying wish, to protect the world, to somehow protect the world that Cordelia loved-

He was a person with only a shell left.

A person whose heart was burnt black and turned into ashes.

“Cordelia.”

Jude said as he cried.

He could not contain his intense emotions.

An intense sadness that came after the bliss.

And at this moment, the fact that Cordelia was in his own arms gave him joy, relief, gratitude, and numerous other emotions.

“Jude.”

Cordelia said in a stifled voice.

She felt like her entire body was going to be crushed because of his tight hug, but there was something else that bothered her more than the pain.

The tears of Jude.

Jude who was crying like a child.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Cordelia softly spoke and tightly hug Jude.

She consoled him like she used to in the past.

The past.

Like she used to in the past.

Cordelia felt that something was out of place for a moment, but she ignored it. She wanted to see Jude’s face, so she loosened her hug and faced him.

“Cordelia.”

“Yes, I’m okay. I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here. I’ll always be by your side.”

Words came out without her realizing it.

Her voice came out as if it were words she had really wanted to tell him, words that she had kept in her heart for a long time.

Cordelia caressed Jude’s cheek.

She wiped away his tears and kissed his lips, and her breathing became rough after some time had passed.

She mischievously smiled at Jude who was also panting.

“Have you calmed down?”

Jude nodded his head. He tightly hugged Cordelia again and wiped away his tears with his own hands.

“Haa…”

As Cordelia had said, it seemed like he had calmed down now.

Memories had completely dominated Jude’s own emotions in a flash.

It belonged to the other Jude.

It was clearly the memories of the Jude Bayer who used the Sword of Wind and reached the sword horizon.

But why did this happen?

He was not the Jude in the game.

In Legend of Heroes 2, Jude lost his father, Count Bayer, and his older brother, Gaël, in the war against the wild lands, but he never became Cordelia’s lover.

‘The worst route.’

He could not remember the ending of the other Jude.

But what he had gone through was already miserable.

So his ending would not have been a peaceful one either.

“Haa… haa…”

Jude relied on Cordelia’s warmth.

He continued his thoughts as he hugged her soft body.

‘Memories.’

The memories of the other Jude.

What’s going on?

If he’s not the game Jude, who is that Jude then?

A parallel world?

A Jude Bayer from another world line?

But even if that’s the case…

‘Why?’

Why did Jude himself have the man’s memories?

Several hypotheses came to his mind.

The first was the memories came from a parallel world.

For some reason, he had come to share the memories of the Jude from a parallel world.

The second was regression.

Just like in the movies and novels, Jude himself had returned to the past.

The memories of the other Jude had actually happened. It was a series of events that Jude himself had experienced in the past.

It sounded absurd, but it explained better why Jude had the memories of the other Jude than the parallel world hypothesis.

But there were two problems.

‘Then what about my past life memories?’

Jude himself was Kang Jin-ho.

He knew a lot of things that happened in Pleiades because Kang Jin-ho played Legend of Heroes 2.

But if it was a regression, where did Kang Jin-ho’s memories come from?

How would it explain his life as Kang Jin-ho?

‘The second is whether regression itself is possible.’

It was a world where magic existed.

Jude had already experienced a lot of extraordinary things.

But regression was a different story.

It went against time.

Perhaps the time of the entire universe was reversed.

Was that allowed?

Or rather, was it even possible in the first place?

He was confused.

And in the midst of this, the memories of the other Jude became blurred.

‘Let’s talk to Cordelia.’

Whether it was a regression or a parallel world, Jude thought that it was not only his problem.

Cordelia also had Hong Yoo Hee’s memories, so he did not know if she had memories of another self like Jude.

“Haa…”

He decided to calm down first.

Now that he thought of it, he was currently taking a test to get the last treasure of the Solari denomination.

For now, it was important to know if he passed the test or not, and it was possible that Gallus knew something about the memories of the other Jude.

‘So let’s calm down.’

As he slowly inhaled, he could clearly feel the existence of Cordelia in his arms.

She was so small, delicate, and soft… yet very warm.

But it was then.

“…It’s hard.”

Cordelia spoke very quietly, and Jude soon knew what he meant. He unconsciously pulled himself away and blushed.

“No, this is…”

But he could not come up with a proper excuse.

Cordelia brightly smiled instead of scolding Jude, and gently pushed him away from her arms.

“Let’s see first if we passed the test.”

Let’s do the rest later.

Let’s do the test first.

It was originally Jude’s role to rationally lead the excited side, but their roles had now been reversed.

“Okay.”

“Yes, that’s good.”

Cordelia smiled again and asked Gallus who had been looking at them from outside the arena.

“Did he pass the test?”

“He passed.”

Satisfied with his calm answer, Cordelia nodded and touched her forehead on Jude’s chest.

“As expected of my beast. I’ll give you an award later, so look forward to it.”

Award.

What kind of award would it be?

Jude cleared his throat as he grinned with a red face, and the blushing Cordelia smiled once more.

[Well… what’s good is good.]

[Anyway, let’s move forward. Not that kind of progress, but the other progress.]

Melissa spoke after Valencia, and Jude who came back to his senses soon asked Gallus.

“Sir Gallus, the person I fought just now was…”

“He’s the strongest swordsman in your memories.”

Gallus quickly responded like the default answer of a customer service agent.

It seemed that he would get the same answer no matter how many times he would ask.

“Then, I have a question too.”

“What is it?”

When Gallus generously answered Cordelia’s question, Jude also turned to Cordelia.

[Why?]

[I mean, I have a question too.]

Cordelia quickly replied with magic before asking Gallus.

“The one that he fought against… can he be only summoned here?”

Because the Jude with sad eyes was incredibly strong.

She hated seeing those sad eyes again, but if they could summon him, he would be of great help in their upcoming battles.

“Oh.”

Jude admired Cordelia’s idea and also looked at Gallus with anticipation, but Gallus’ answer disappointed them again.

“It’s not possible. He’s someone created from memories. He’s a kind of illusion. In fact, even this space itself is close to an illusion. The fact that the arena has not been damaged in the slightest is proof of that.”

“Ah.”

It was just as Gallus had said.

Despite the intense battle, the arena did not even have a single scratch.

It did not regenerate since it was not broken in the first place.

[How disappointing.]

But somehow, it was also a relief.

She found it really painful to see the Jude with sad eyes.

‘What happened?’

After that day.

After I left that day.

“Cordelia?”

“Huh? Uh, yes. No. I just suddenly got a bit dizzy.”

Cordelia laughed ‘hehehe’ and leaned on Jude who held her waist with his arm, asking with a worried expression.

“Do you want to take a break?”

“N-now? I think I’ll be too exhausted if we take a break now…”

It was an odd answer, but Jude understood what she meant. So he blushed in response.

“Not that. A real break.”

We’ll really be just taking a break.

How did you become a child who only thinks about lewd thoughts?

“Hey, isn’t it because of you? Do you recall what happened in the past few days?”

Jude maintained his shameless expression despite Cordelia’s criticism before he suddenly carried her.

“Let’s go down first.”

Because they could not stand in the middle of the arena forever.

[Now that it has become this natural, I can no longer think of anything to say.]

[Me too.]

At the time when both Melissa and Valencia spoke, Cordelia suddenly asked Jude.

“By the way, Jude. You’ve gotten stronger, right?”

“Yes.”

He had yet to properly talk to Valencia, but it was clear to him that he had achieved an explosive growth.

“Oh my.”

Cordelia hugged her shoulders and Jude felt the urge to kiss her lips again.

But as it had been emphasized several times, there was a time and place for everything.

“Should I go somewhere for a while?”

Gallus’ words were a tempting offer, but Jude shook his head. He helped Cordelia down the ground and asked as a person who passed the test.

“Champion of Solari, please open the way to the last treasure.”

When Jude politely asked of Gallus using Gallus’ title, Gallus replied with a serious expression.

“May the glory of the sun always be with you.”

Having conveyed his words of blessing, Gallus pulled out a sword and pointed to the air. A large golden arched door appeared in front of them.

The place beyond the door.

It was a place that they had never seen in Legend of Heroes 2.

But Cordelia’s angel halo and wings reacted.

Cordelia could instinctively recognize what was located beyond the slowly opening door and what kind of place it was.

The last treasure of the Solari denomination.

A place that could only be reached from the tomb of the champion Gallus.

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A sacred realm that the fire fairies had seriously protected for many years.

“Solari…”

Cordelia’s wings began to glow. Her angel halo radiated a brighter light than usual, and her divine power as an angel doubled.

A place that was full of the sun lied beyond the golden door.

The tomb of the sun goddess Solari lied beyond there.