The Reincarnated Assassin Is a Genius Swordsman

Chapter 1543 "If you wish for Ascension, I will sever the covenants that remain within you. Conversely, if you wish to stay on the surface, I will sever the shackles of Ascension so you can live as the human Raon Zieghart." Glenn gazed at Raon with warm eyes, as if he would accept whichever choice he made. "Whichever you choose, there will be something lost and something gained." "I…." Raon didn't answer right away, meeting Glenn's warm gaze instead. "There are still things I want to do as Raon Zieghart." He nodded heavily, saying he wanted to spend a little more time on the surface before undergoing Ascension. "A good choice. I knew you'd pick that one." Glenn nodded with a quiet smile, as if he had already known the answer. "Then let's begin." Just as Glenn moved his wrist as if to bring down the Heavenly Tremor, "G-Grandfather!" Raon hurriedly raised his hand. "Are you going to be alright, Grandfather? If you send me back down, surely there will be trouble with the Heavenly Realm…." He was worried about Glenn, who would be left alone on the Heavenly Realm after severing the shackles of Ascension for his sake. This would surely be a burdensome situation for him too. "Who do you think I am? I am Glenn Zieghart, the Destructive King of the North of House Zieghart. Who could possibly suppress me!" Glenn shook his head firmly, as if there was nothing to worry about at all. "Raon, don't worry about me. Go and enjoy the world, just as your name suggests." He drew a smile more tender than ever before as he swung the Heavenly Tremor down. Warm sunlight, surging waves, pitch-black darkness, a cool wind. The hand of the Sword God, embracing a world where mana circulated, severed the very root that was drawing the human toward ascension into the heavens. Kra-a-a-ack! Raon's eyes went wide as he felt the breath of the Heavenly Realm, which had been pulling at his soul, cut off. Glenn had truly severed the very call of the Heavenly Realm that had been leading him. His soul began to waver, as if it would plunge to the ground at any moment. "Ah, I haven't said my last words yet. I am the Sword God, grandfather of Raon Zieghart." Glenn smiled brightly as he lowered the Heavenly Tremor, which glowed with a soft light. "That title is the one I'm proudest of." He nodded, saying that he liked and took more pride in being called Raon's grandfather than in either of his epithets, the Destructive King of the North or the Sword God. "Let's meet again, Raon." With those final words, Glenn dissolved into a faint mist and disappeared, just as he had when he achieved Ascension. It seemed that now that the shackles of Ascension were gone, he could no longer see Glenn, who had become an immortal. "Grandfather!" Raon reached out toward Glenn, who was vanishing like sea foam. He wanted to hold his hand one last time, but his hand grasped only empty air instead of Glenn, and he began to fall downward as he was. "I promise!" Raon shouted toward the receding cosmos, as if swearing an oath to Glenn, who he knew was still watching him from that spot. "I will definitely come back!" * * * "He'll come back, huh…." Glenn wore a faint smile as he watched Raon falling toward the surface. "Yes. He'll have no choice but to come back." He nodded, as if accepting Raon's words. "Because you'll rise to a level on the surface that rivals even an immortal of this Heavenly Realm." Glenn slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, as if he were watching Raon's future. "But that's a matter for another day." Glenn sighed and shook his jaw from side to side. "I'm going to hear quite the earful over this." Unlike what he'd told Raon, he let out a heavy sigh, as if blocking the Ascension was no small matter after all. "I wonder how much of a fuss those old geezers will kick up… Hm?" Just as Glenn clutched his temples, as if the mere thought gave him a headache, Whoosh! A clear blue wind drew near and brushed through Glenn's hair, as if cooling his sweat. "What? You'll get scolded with me? Because you're the master?" Glenn let out a hollow laugh, looking at the wind as if he found it absurd. "Ha! You should be glad if you're not annihilated. Stand back." He pushed the wind back, telling it not to talk nonsense. "You say you've already got enough resilience from being beaten by me? Even now that you've become wind, you still only say foolish things." Glenn shook his head, looking utterly exasperated. "No, more importantly, why the hell are you even here!" Grumbling at the wind, he slowly disappeared up into the sky. "Stop following me already!" * * * -I-It's definitely here! Wrath smacked his lips as he pulled on the red chain hanging in the empty air. -That damned Raon brat is here! When he first discovered the red chain and found his own emblem within it, he was a little flustered. But the moment he strongly sensed Raon's presence from the empty air where the chain was lodged, he immediately pulled on it. After all, Raon had to be at the other end. -Even if he's an immortal, he can't take him away! Wrath bit his lip and kept dragging at the chain that wouldn't budge. -This King promised him first! He screamed that even an immortal of the Heavenly Realm couldn't break a demon king's promise. But no matter how hard he pulled, the chain wouldn't come loose. It wasn't because he was in a spirit form—it seemed there was simply no stopping the workings of the Heavenly Realm. -Nnngh…. Wrath bit down hard on his lip. -To think this King could be this powerless… Huh? He sighed and lowered his head, then suddenly widened his eyes. -W-What is this! Wrath gaped as he saw a blue chain embedded in his own chest. -A ch-chain? Why is there a chain lodged in this King's chest too? He lowered his hand and grabbed the chain in his chest. -Gasp! Wrath jerked his head up as though startled out of his wits. -I-It's him! It's Raon! The instant he grabbed the chain, the feeling came to him. At the other end of this chain was that Raon brat, who had run off to the Heavenly Path without even keeping his promise. -So this is the chain of the prior pledge! This King truly is a genius after all! Just as Wrath, marveling at his own prior-pledge ability, pulled on both chains at once, Ka-boooom! The sky split open, and Raon, with the two chains still lodged in him, came crashing down. -Wh-what! Wrath tightened his grip, trying to catch Raon as he plummeted toward the ground. -Raon! You little… Uwaaaaagh! But far from catching him, he couldn't control his own strength and ended up pinned beneath Raon's back, plummeting even faster. "Huh? Wrath?" Raon waved at the flustered Wrath pinned beneath his back. "What are you doing here?" -What am I doing? You went off without keeping your promise, so this King came to catch you! Contrary to his words, Wrath's eyes reddened as he shouted, clearly glad to see Raon. "Right. Thanks to you, I made it." Raon smiled brightly and nodded at Wrath. -Huh? You made it th-thanks to this King? Wrath blinked, as if asking what that was supposed to mean. "Your promise became a covenant." Raon smiled faintly, explaining that his Ascension had been stopped thanks to his promise with Wrath. "Once we're down there, I'll let you stuff yourself full with well-cooked beef, pineapple pizza, grilled shrimp, chicken stew, and bead ice cream for dessert!" He gave a firm nod, promising to keep his word about throwing a feast for Wrath as well. -R-Really! You'd better keep that promise! This King will eat all of it—the beef, pineapple pizza, shrimp, chicken stew, and even the ice cream! With tears welling in his eyes, Wrath beamed and waved his hand like a child. "Of course." Raon flicked a finger, watching Wrath laugh through his tears. "This time, for sure." * * * Above the cracked, parched earth stretched a sky mixed with ash-gray and violet. In truth, since it cast down no light, it should have been called a ceiling rather than a sky. A twilight-colored space where neither stars nor moon existed. A strange world, where even the sense of time passing grew dull, stretched endlessly along the horizon. Across the land of black ash, where something might once have lived, a man walked forward, drained of strength. "Haah…." Golden Hair, Red Eyes. The man, whose noble yet beautiful features seemed out of place in this empty, void-like world, sank down onto the ground that crumbled underfoot and heaved a sigh so deep it seemed as though the earth itself might cave in. "Where on earth is this." It was Raon. Having fallen from the Heavenly Realm, he muttered that he had no idea where on the Continent this was, shaking his head. "Why is there no moon, and no sun either?" Just as Raon frowned at the sky, whose color never changed no matter how much time passed, -...dom Wrath spoke for the first time since waking up from having fainted. "What?" Raon leaned in, asking him to say it again. -...dom, I said. "I said I can't hear you." -Devildom, I said! Wrath screeched at the top of his lungs. -This is Devildom! You madman! "Devildom?" Raon let out a small gasp of realization. "No wonder!" He nodded firmly, saying it all made sense now. "It seems like you pulling on the chain is what brought us here." Raon calmly accepted that he had ended up in Devildom, recalling what Glenn had said and the sight of Wrath pulling on the chain. "By the way, why do you have that look on your face?" He tilted his head, looking at Wrath's twisted expression. "You're the one who wanted to come to Devildom. Shouldn't you be happy?" Raon lightly patted Wrath's head, asking why he looked so glum when they'd made it to Devildom. -There's none…. Wrath bit down hard on his lip. -There's no well-cooked beef here, no sweet pineapple pizza, no savory grilled shrimp or warm chicken stew, and not even the bead ice cream this King loves so much! He let out a shriek, saying not a single one of his favorite foods existed here. -You broke your promise again! Wrath ground his teeth as he grabbed a fistful of Raon's hair. -You damned human! You said you'd throw me a feast! 'You think I knew it would turn out like this!' Not to be outdone, Raon shook his head as he yanked at Wrath's cheek. 'If you hadn't pulled on that chain like that, we wouldn't have ended up in Devildom in the first place!' He shouted back at Wrath just as fiercely, refusing to back down. -It's all because of you! "It's because of you!" The human who had risen to the rank of Sword God and the demon king who had once ruled a pillar of Devildom grabbed at each other's hair and cheeks like children, starting a fight that showed no sign of ending. (E/N: And this is the end! Appending the author's closing words) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello. "The Reincarnated Assassin is a Swordsmanship Genius," which began on September 29, 2021, has finally reached its grand conclusion with Chapter 1543 on September 23, 2026! Before we all applaud, let me first share the plans going forward: a short Part 1 side story will come out next week, and after that, following a break of about one to two months, Part 2 will begin with a volume of 20 or more chapters. As promised, Part 2 won't drag on—it'll move along even more briskly than the early parts of Part 1, so please look forward to it. Getting back to the notes, honestly, I was well aware that there were a lot of problems within the novel itself. The frustrating Runaan arc, the dragging war in the latter half, Derus Robert's resurrection, setting inconsistencies—I really messed up in quite a few ways. That said, I never once thought I should deliberately drag out the novel's length. While trying to resolve the setups I'd stacked up over more than 1,500 chapters and, at the same time, take care of the characters' narratives and growth, the latter half ended up dragging on endlessly. Of course, that narrative work and payoff of setups weren't perfect either. While writing the war arc, I often regretted not wrapping up Part 1 quickly and moving on to Part 2, but now that I've actually finished it, I still feel a certain sense of pride. Honestly, over these six years of serialization, a lot happened outside of the novel as well. I broke a finger at one point, caught COVID multiple times, had times when my neck and back hurt so badly I could barely sit, and there were countless small personal matters like family events on top of that. Even so, over these six years and 1,543 chapters, I never once went on hiatus. From the very beginning, I made a promise to myself that I would never take a break until this novel was complete, and I considered it a promise to my readers. I'm truly relieved that I was able to keep that promise all the way to today, the very end. It feels like the chain of serialization that had been lodged in me was finally pulled free, cleanly, just like the chain of covenant that had been embedded in Raon. Haha. Of course, I really, really, incredibly often posted late. There's no excuse for that. T_T. I'll work hard at Secluded cultivation and try to fix that in Part 2. There are things I wasn't able to fully unpack in Part 1. There's still the matter of those who remain on the Continent, the circumstances of Devildom, and the Ascension and Heavenly Realm where Glenn now resides. In Part 2, I'll try to unravel all of that as well. Also, since a few people around me have asked, I'll say this: Derus Robert is really dead. The reason I brought him back to life at the end was that it felt like he hadn't been properly beaten down yet, so I revived him just so Raon could overwhelm him and beat him some more. T_T. Thank you for accompanying Raon Zieghart and Wrath's journey for these six years. Let me be shameless and just say it: since you've already come this far, I hope you'll also look forward to the events that will unfold in Wrath's homeland. Well then, I'll see you all soon with the side story and Part 2!