The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1540 'It's certain!' Raon clutched his chest, which was pounding as if it would burst. 'It's Grandfather's back.' A back as straight and broad as a great mountain. He could tell because he had watched that back hundreds—no, thousands of times. It was the back of Glenn Zieghart, the Swordsman he trusted more than anyone else. "Grandfather!" Raon approached the chair where Glenn sat and called out to him at the top of his lungs. "….." As if hearing Raon's voice, Glenn moved his neck briefly, then slowly turned around. Whoooosh! As Glenn turned around, the world changed, as if the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation had unfolded. The mysteriously unfurled expanse of the cosmos—like a masterpiece painting with constellations etched in white dots upon black paper—vanished in an instant, and a red carpet unfurled through the empty air. On either side of the noble red carpet, untouched by a single speck of dust, pillars as thick as the world tree stood in a row, and at its end rose a pure white staircase. "Zieghart's Lord's Manor…." Raon's jaw trembled slightly. Just from seeing those magnificent pillars alone, he could tell it was Zieghart's Lord's Manor. It was the place where he had spent the most time with Glenn, so there was no way he could fail to recognize it. Whoooosh! Above the staircase, shining brilliantly enough to seem sacred, a golden throne was revealed as though a veil had been lifted. Zieghart's throne. There sat the seat of power that every Swordsman on the Continent envied and longed for. Rumbbbble! Upon that throne, which everyone reached for but could never touch— Sat a Swordsman even greater than it. The Sword God, Glenn Zieghart. Grandfather's appearance was different from his final moments in the mortal world. His Golden Hair, having regained its vitality, shone brilliantly as if every single strand held starlight within it, and though traces of the years still remained on his face, a boyish vigor bloomed there, just like his heart that had never let go of its dream. Through achieving Ascension, Glenn Zieghart had transmuted the traces of aging he'd carried as a human into a sacred, exalted state. Behind Glenn's back, every sword strike he had ever swung since his birth remained as an afterimage, forming a single enormous sun that painted a godlike halo around him. The hand that gripped his sword still bore its calluses, but what flowed from his fingertips was not Sword Aura—it was the very principle of this world. The flow that Raon had barely managed to grasp in order to cut down Derus Robert continued in Glenn's hand as naturally as breathing. The universe supporting Glenn's feet couldn't bear his weight, swirling like a black hole, and starlight orbited around him as if in worship. Glenn's eyes were like blades steeped in the deep of night; merely looking into them felt as if it would split flesh from soul. Without a trace of anger or wrath, heaven and earth held their breath, and though he hadn't taken a single step, the laws of the world fell into alignment. Glenn Zieghart, resting his chin with a bored gaze as though even Ascension itself was tedious, felt less arrogant than simply natural. 'This is….' Raon couldn't bring himself to meet Glenn's gaze, which held the Void within it, and swallowed hard. 'So this is Glenn Zieghart, having achieved Ascension.' An overwhelming pressure that seemed to dry up his very blood. Just meeting his gaze made it hard to breathe, as if he'd been sent back to the Judgment Ceremony where he first met Glenn. "Mm…." Raon's fingertips trembled as he looked into Glenn's sunken gaze. His stomach churned, unable to predict what words might come from his mouth. "Raon…." Glenn gazed steadily at Raon, then parted his firmly closed lips. "You've done well." The Sword God's hollow eyes, having ascended to the ranks of the divine, softened just like those of a grandfather facing his grandson. "Huh…?" Raon blinked blankly as he looked at Glenn. 'You've done well… he said?' Words entirely different from what he'd expected had come out of Glenn's mouth, leaving his mind blank. "I was always watching over you." Glenn rose to his feet with a faint smile. "Your effort, your resolve, and even the final knot you tied. I was watching all of it." He nodded, saying he had watched everything Raon had done. "Honestly, I regretted it a great deal." Glenn let out a heavy sigh. "I thought that by Ascending against my will, I had done you a great disservice. Because the burdens I left behind were far too heavy." He bit his lip slightly, as if he had known it wouldn't be easy for Raon alone to stop Derus Robert and the Demonic Dragon of Destruction. "But you fulfilled that heavy wish of mine." Glenn smiled proudly and took hold of Raon's shoulder. His hand was still warm, and gentle as well. "You borrowed the strength of the bonds you built, proved your own Martial Prowess, and declared the war's end. That's something even I couldn't have done." Glenn nodded gently, saying it was something only Raon could have done. "I'm proud of you, Raon." He embraced Raon tightly, saying he was grateful and proud that his grandson had accomplished what he himself had failed to do. "Grandfather…." Raon bit his lip hard, held in Glenn's embrace. Hearing the words "I'm proud of you" from the person whose praise he'd wanted most, the tears he had held back while parting with his loved ones threatened to spill out. "Grandfather. Actually, I…." Raon bit his lip hard, just as he was about to tell Glenn the true feelings he had been hiding. "Actually, you know. There are a few annoying immortals here in the Heavenly Path." Glenn's dignified yet affectionate tone turned coarse. "There's a bald bastard from another world who Ascended around the same time as me, going on and on about how his son is a genius of the century who's going to Ascend at the youngest age ever. And a catfish-whiskered old man who acted all high and mighty as my senior—until I beat him up—bragged that his granddaughter became the pinnacle of her world at forty." He bared his teeth, as if the mere thought of it irritated him. "Kheh-heh-hem! But both of those bastards couldn't keep their mouths shut once they saw what you accomplished!" Glenn's cheeks flushed red, just like whenever he couldn't hold back from bragging about Raon in the Lord's Manor, and he let out a string of coughs. "Of course they couldn't! Because their son and granddaughter could never beat the Demonic Dragon of Destruction like you did!" Just as he raised his voice, as if someone were listening— "Noooooo! My kid was about to, I tell you! That kid is just too fast!" "Uhm, my granddaughter doesn't have a marriage partner yet, how about meeting her once? Sh-she might be a little older, but she's pretty!" A rift in the dimension opened, and a balding middle-aged man and an old man with catfish-like whiskers poked their faces through. They seemed to be the two immortals Glenn had mentioned. "I told you! My kid's the best!" Glenn lifted his chin with his nose held high, as if he'd been bragging about Raon to the two immortals all along. "Can your son take down the Demonic Dragon of Destruction? Or can your granddaughter Ascend right this instant? How dare you shove your sorry excuses in my face!" He snorted, saying those immortals' son and granddaughter couldn't even come close to Raon. "Grrgh! Th-that is…." "R-right now, Ascension is quite difficult, isn't it…." The balding immortal and the catfish-whiskered immortal, having nothing to say, only let out pained groans. "Kh-heh-heh! Actually, it's not just those two." Glenn covered his mouth with both hands to hold back the laughter threatening to burst out. He seemed quite worked up, his flush having spread past his cheeks all the way to his earlobes. "This entire heavenly realm is paying attention to you!" He nodded eagerly, like a drumstick keeping rhythm, saying it wasn't just the two immortals he'd crushed, but every immortal across the entire Heavenly Realm who was paying attention to Raon. "Knghhh, my kid should have received that attention...." "My kid is also a genius among geniuses." The bald immortal bit his lip, regretting that his son hadn't received the other immortals' attention, and the catfish-whiskered immortal sighed as well, saying his granddaughter's genius seemed to have been buried. "I admit that your son and granddaughter are also outstanding talents. They are ones who can come to the heavenly realm someday. However...." Glenn pursed and closed his lips over and over, as if he had too much to say, and continued speaking quickly. "Compared to my grandson, they're nothing but fireflies before the sun! They're not even the same species! There's no one on Raon's level, even here in the Heavenly Realm!" He said that even in the Heavenly Realm—a place only the most extreme geniuses could reach through the utmost effort—Raon was still special, and finally lowered the hand covering his mouth to burst into hearty laughter. "Ah, here he goes again…." "It's exhausting. That man's lecturing." The two immortals sighed, saying they were sick of it. Yet, seemingly having nothing to refute, they couldn't argue back. "Here he goes again?" Raon tilted his head as he looked at the two immortals. "That's right. Whenever your name comes up, that man appears out of nowhere and starts bragging about you! I'm sick to death of it!" The bald immortal shook his head, saying Glenn's ears seemed to be open everywhere. "The problem is, it's all true, so we can't refute it or argue back. That's what makes it even more maddening…." The catfish-whiskered immortal squeezed his eyes shut, saying that even if he wanted to argue, he had no way to refute it. "I'm quite the doting fool myself, but I've never seen a doting fool like that in my entire life. He once shook his leg so hard while watching footage of you that it split a mountain in the Heavenly Realm!" "It's not just your talent—that man's doting foolishness is also the best in the Heavenly Realm." The two immortals sighed, saying that Glenn's doting foolishness was even more astonishing than how impressive Raon was. "And what's even worse is…." Just as the catfish-whiskered immortal was about to say something— "How much longer do you intend to interrupt this warm time between grandfather and grandson!" Glenn frowned at the immortals. "Begone!" As he waved his hand, the dimension the two immortals had opened was severed as if cut by a sword, and vanished. "Keh-heh-hem! No one else will come now." Glenn, looking a little embarrassed, cleared his throat just as he used to in the Lord's Manor, covering his reddened face with his hand. "Those two are just old fools spouting nonsense, so you don't need to pay them any mind." But he seemed quite worked up, his forehead flushed red as well, so no matter how much he wanted to hide it with his hand, he couldn't. "Heh heh." Raon let out a faint laugh, looking at Glenn's face, flushed red like a ripe apple. 'He's doing well.' He had been worried about how Glenn would be doing after Ascending, but seeing him now, he seemed to be spending his time even more joyfully than when he'd been in Zieghart, and that was a relief. 'Except….' Could he please just stop praising me now? He'd known Glenn was a doting fool, but he hadn't expected him to keep it up even in the Heavenly Realm. Hearing those words from immortals he'd just met for the first time, he felt embarrassed enough that heat seemed to rise to his own face too. 'If Wrath had seen this, he would have called him a damn doting old fool.' Raon smiled faintly. Wrath truly hated Glenn's doting foolishness, so if he heard it had continued even in the Heavenly Path, he would have been utterly exasperated. "Those foolish idiots stole our time." Glenn approached with a somewhat subdued expression and lowered his chin slightly. "Shall we talk about everything we haven't been able to say to each other?" As he snapped his fingers, the world changed once again. Whoooosh! The antique carpet and sturdy pillars melted away, revealing a well-worn table and chairs, along with a familiar, cozy ceiling. This time, it was the dining hall of the annex building. "Now that you're all grown up…." Glenn brought two glasses of liquor from somewhere and set them down on the table. "We should have a drink." He pushed one of the glasses toward Raon, suggesting they talk over a drink. "Raon. You go first." Glenn drank from his glass first, looking into Raon's eyes. "Isn't there something you've wanted to tell me for a while now?" He wore a faint smile, as if he already knew what was troubling Raon. "Mm." Raon bit his lip slightly, recalling the regret Glenn had expressed as he vanished. Speaking about his reincarnation wasn't easy, but he didn't want to miss this second chance, so he lifted his heavy lips to speak. "Grandfather. Actually, I…."