Chapter 63.1: Refrigon (8) ! Thank you to Damoon for the donations! ^^
Gillock put on his clothes with an expressionless face.
He pulled his sword from his waist, looked around, put it back in its sheath, and then fastened his belt tightly.
After getting ready, he went downstairs, and a woman approached him with a smile.
“Are you done preparing?”
“Yes.”
“Now, here. It’s an ade mixed with lemon and sugar. Drink it all the way.”
Gillock gulped down the drink the woman gave him and handed over the empty cup.
“I’ll go.”
As he walked out the front door, he looked at the woman who was seeing him off.
She was smiling brightly, but on the other side of her face, he could feel a slight darkness that could not be hidden.
It was like that every game, but today it felt darker.
The woman was Gillock’s wife.
The relationship began when Gillock saved her, who was unfairly caught by a slave trader and dragged to the prison.
Gillock thought again. You never know where life was going to take you.
He thought he would die alone wielding a sword for the rest of his life, but he met the woman and fell in love with her so deeply.
“Don’t worry, Ellie. I’ll come back victorious.”
After kissing his wife’s cheek, Gillock left the mansion.
After passing through a familiar street, he arrived at Actipol and went straight to the waiting room.
“The time is up.”
As he walked down the dark hallway to the stadium, thunderous shouts poured out.
Gillock looked around the stands once and fixed his gaze on the front.
He saw the figure of a woman standing on the other side of the iron fence.
…Reef.
He stared at her, who was glaring at this side with sullen and deeply sunken eyes.
Championship match.
He had defeated many challengers so far, but this match was special for Gillock.
The first time he saw Reef’s game was about three years ago.
It was around the time when Gillock had just become the new champion.
A young girl who could not yet be called a woman stood in the arena holding a sword.
The opponent was a man the size of a ship. A match that no one would have thought she would win.
As everyone expected, Reef was easily subdued, and the man tried to attack her without killing her right away.
Because in Actipol, whatever you did to the opponent gladiator, it was all just a performance.
But in the end, it was Reef who survived.
The scene was still clearly etched in his mind.
The figure of Reef, who had caught the man on top of her and bit his neck like a beast.
The man in fright drew his dagger and stabbed her on her side repeatedly, but Reef did not let go.
Even after the man’s body drooped and became immobile, Reef bit his neck and didn’t let go.
“···”
Gillock turned his head slightly and looked up at the arena.
He also didn’t forget.
The gruesome and evil smile on the lips of the Sixth Lord who watched that match.
‘That girl, I heard her brother has light blood disease.’
‘…Yes, that’s right.’
‘Heal her so she doesn’t die. Teach her how to fight so that she can survive in the future.’
As ordered, Gillock taught Reef many things. How to build up magical power, how to wield a sword, how to move her body…
Of course, Reef didn’t reject him either. Because she had to learn anything she could learn from anyone in order to survive in this hell.
He just taught her. Other than that, there was no exchange of emotions.
Obviously, Gillock taught her a lot, but the two had a strange relationship that could not even be considered as apprenticeship.
She got strong so amazingly fast. Yes, she was desperate, but it’s also true that she had an innate talent for fighting.
And as time passed, she became a gladiator of the fifth order in an instant, and now she was standing right in front of him to challenge for the title of champion.
It became like this, in the end…
Gillock finished his brief thought.
In the past, if it was a time when I was just living because it meant nothing, I might have just given up on this game.
But now he had a reason to survive.
Just as she had a younger brother she must save, he also had a happiness to protect.
-The championship game everyone has been waiting for! The long-awaited match begins now!
At the start of the match, Reef flew first.
Seeing her fiercely charging, Gillock calmly raised his sword.
Kaang!
The swords of the two gladiators collided.
Gillock deflected Reef’s sword strongly. She bent her back and narrowly avoided the attack that followed. He immediately swung his sword again and aimed at her leg, but was simply blocked.
The two blades, engulfed in a blue energy, collided and entangled. A dizzying parry came and went.
The main attacking side was Reef. Like a madman, she drove towards Gillock like crazy, as if she had more than one life.
Gillock was still dodging and blocking all the rushing attacks with the same blunt expression as the first time.
Reef’s appearance looked like she had lost her mind and was simply wielding her sword, but Gillock knew that wasn’t the case. There was still a cold coolness in her eyes.
She knew best that she could not defeat Gillock, the one who taught her swordsmanship, if she only relied on pure skills.
So it’s just a matter of who would get distracted first.
First, revealing a gap and finding the opponent’s gap, even if it’s just a little carelessness, prying through the gap and inserting the blade somehow was the only way to win.
However, it was only a small possibility.
Gillock, of course, had already seen her intentions. If he had been a careless human in the first place, he wouldn’t have been able to survive so long as a champion until now.
Whoops!
Gillock’s kick pierced Reef’s abdomen.
Reef sighed and stepped back. The attack continued immediately without giving her a moment’s notice.
As if he was about to launch a full-fledged counterattack now, Gillock pushed her fiercely. Reef just stepped back and was desperate to defend.
The scars were growing all over her body. It looked like she could never reverse this match to her advantage.
Reef bit her molars tightly and struggled to regain the momentum she had somehow lost.
At one point, Gillock’s sword slashed through her side like a flash.
“Argh…!”
