Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Singularity
Episode 16: Singular
It all began by chance.
Before the regression, Vikir's hunting party, the Dog Gathering, was raiding the dungeons that bordered the Enemy and Dark Mountain when they stumbled upon a peculiar artifact.
It was a fragment of a sword manual.
A single torn page.
Recognizing that what was written on it was unusual, Vikir kept it to himself.
When he submitted the page in question, Hugo immediately realized that it contained something extraordinary.
Hugo searched his entire library to find a book that matched this page.
What he ultimately found was a swordsmanship book named "The Sneaking Snare."
It was an old book, discovered deep in the shallow shelves of various books, not in the restricted area where the higher martial arts were studied.
The unexpected discovery of this sword technique, buried in an obscure section, had set the entire Baskerville Road ablaze.
"This sword art is the essence of our Baskerville."
Hugo exclaimed.
Initially, the sword technique was inconsequential, but with the addition of the missing pages, the system was completely redefined.
A sword that would seemingly defend itself against an enemy's attack, then suddenly lunge out and clamp down on the point of death, with the sole purpose of inflicting agony on the foe.
This sword art, which purportedly had been written a long time ago by some ancestor named Baskerville, details how to draw ten teeth.
The Baskerville Tenth Form.
Hugo, who had achieved the rank of Sword Master with only seven techniques, couldn't help but be intrigued.
...However, even with Vikir's discovery of the missing first half, the book was still incomplete.
There were additional missing pages in the latter part.
The torn pages totaled seven.
Except for the one that Vikir found, the other six were lost.
Hugo spent the next several years gathering the torn pages of this "'Sneaking Snare.'"
The Baskervilles were relentless in their pursuit.
After budgeting vast amounts of time and money, Hugo realized that the torn pages of the Swordsmanship Book were hidden deep within the domains of each of the seven families that supported the empire.
Naturally, Hugo set out to retrieve them one by one.
It was a task he called Operation Retrieve the Torn Pages or Operation Restore the Missing Teeth.
Vikir shook his head from side to side as he recalled the memory.
He could still smell the blood at the end of his nose.
"...It was a tedious, long operation."
Hugo unleashed the dogs to retrieve the pages.
Whether they had any inkling of the torn pages, the resistance from other families was fierce.
To them, it was a matter of course.
No one would look good with someone else's dogs bursting into their backyard.
The Baskervilles practically declared war on all the other houses.
Countless Baskerville dogs perished under the weight of it.
The number of siblings and comrades he had grown up playing with had dwindled at an incredible rate.
The familiar faces of yesterday were nowhere to be found in the dining hall.
The gaps left by the missing teeth were filled with new ones, which fell out just as quickly.
The one permanent tooth that didn't fall out through all that flailing about was Vikir's.
Vikir became a fearsome right-handed black dog, endlessly fighting.
Eventually, he gathered the seven missing pages and brought them to his master.
A few fingers and toes, a couple of ears, terrible burns and cuts covering his entire body, and his lost brethren.
The reward for this was simple and clear.
"Good."
A single word of praise from Hugo's mouth. Why did he think it was sufficient at the time?
"...It was a foolish life."
Vikir gritted his teeth.
Before the regression, Hugo had used everything that Vikir and the dogs had sacrificed to provide for himself and his two sons.
Hugo's stature had risen beyond the seventh level to the tenth, and the prestige of Ironblade Baskerville had soared.
The blood of the dogs and the flesh of the dead lay beneath him.
"That won't happen in this life."
Vikir closed his eyes and recalled the pages in his mind.
All that had been written on those lost pages was known to him.
But the reason why the pre-regression Vikir couldn't go beyond the fourth tooth was because he didn't know the first.
The pages he remembered were incomplete, only seven pages in total.
Without the first, they were worthless.
...But not anymore.
In Vikir's hands now was the original copy of the 'Sneaking Snare' sword technique!
Though seven pages had been torn out, the missing information was still crystal clear to Vikir.
The experience of fighting through many layers of siege, sometimes with no way to keep track of the pages themselves, and delivering them to him, shines through.
Soon, Vikir began to read the book.
...The first step of a decadal overshadow corresponds to a solar eclipse. The second a sword is drawn and displays aggression its most memorable trajectory, all swordplay from that point on has an inherent limitation...
Indeed.
If an ignorant person were to read this book, it would be dismissed as a bunch of nonsense.
Why bother with having 10 forms?
But when the torn pages are recreated and the gaps are filled in, what was once a bunch of hot air and rhetoric becomes the unique pieces that make up a masterpiece.
Vikir notices that the look of his surroundings has completely vanished, and he moves his body accordingly.
Four teeth, honed to the limit before his regression. After that, the story begins in earnest.
The book elucidated how to reveal the fifth tooth, how to craft the sixth tooth, how dangerous the seventh tooth was, when to unveil the eighth tooth, if the tenth tooth truly existed, and what the tenth tooth was.
Though he lacked mana and his body was immature for an eight-year-old, he would surely be able to reproduce these things someday.
'...At 15 years old. Within it, he regains all of his pre-regression powers.'
Of course, it doesn't end there.
After that, you will surpass the fifth level, to the sixth and seventh levels, which were unattainable before the regression.
The stigma of the past, when you were pushed aside, beaten, and ignored by your masters because you didn't have the aura of an Alumni, yet didn't have the swordsmanship to match, will never have to happen again from now on.
"I'll start by memorizing the contents of the book."
Once the memorization is done, the book will vanish from the world forever.
Then, Hugo won't find it, and he won't have to make nine teeth.
Sweet revenge for an eight-year-old, wouldn't you say?
Vikir chuckled, but dryly.
He still had over twelve hours left in the Mansang Library, no matter how little time he took.
For the children of Baskerville Road, it wouldn't be too difficult to memorize a small book in that time.
Some do it in 24 hours.
Unaware of what she would become thereafter, Vikir read the book.
At exactly 11 hours and 50 minutes from now, a small fire broke out in the shallowest part of the Great Library, in the section where the janitors were gathered.
Fortunately, there were no injuries or fatalities. The damage was minimal, with only one tome burned to the ground.
It was a small enough incident that even the servants shrugged it off.
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