The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live a Normal Life

oesn’t mean I will let him hold out for a minute.
One minute—That is a wall—A wall to show everyone how great the master whom they will follow in the future is.

By making a definite mark on their first meeting, Roman sought to earn the blind trust of the applicants.

‘Let’s end this.’

Swing!

Tap tap.

Literally, in an instant, Lucas’ attacks were blown away, and Roman’s combo attack broke his defense.
Moreover, he hadn’t even used the weapon with both hands—Lucas’s face was stained with astonishment, and people thought the match was over now.

However, just then, Lucas evaded the attack by throwing himself to the ground, and before anyone knew it, he threw the sand he had prepared pre-match on Roman’s face.

Fwip!

And that—was an obvious foul.
Still, in this fight, there were no special rules.
Roman had only told the applicants to hold on for a minute, so Lucas did everything he could.

‘This is a duel where victory and defeat can make an astronomically huge difference.
I need to do everything I can to win this fight.’

Avoiding Roman’s attack was a lucky decision.
Considering the length of the opponent’s weapon, he threw himself to the ground first and, fortunately, was able to dodge the attack in only a short amount of time.
After that, he immediately sprinkled the sand he had brought in his pocket.
He had thought he could never win under normal conditions, so he thought the result would be different if he could temporarily obstruct Roman’s view.

Fwip!

Roman was successfully hit by the sand.
And as soon as Lucas fell to the ground, he got up again and ran like a bull toward Roman.

He can’t do a counterattack.
Now is my time to seize the opportunity and defeat him.

However, Lucas, who was about to reach Roman and swing his sword, looked up; then, his face became pale.

“Huh?!”

Roman was looking straight at Lucas.
Naturally, Lucas was confused.
He thought that Roman might have avoided the sand; however, as soon as he saw the sand in Roman’s eyes, he was speechless as if someone had sewed his mouth.
Clearly, Roman was hit by the sand—The foul also worked out successfully, but Roman did not close his eyes despite the stinging impact of sand hitting his eyes.
He was only looking at his opponent clearly.

The red eyes—He should have closed them tightly and complained of pain, but when Lucas saw him, he noticed Roman was only waiting for him to rush toward him.

At that moment,

Thud.

“…I surrender.”

Lucas threw away his sword.
Raising his hands, he announced he had no intention of fighting anymore.
It was a quick abandonment—He had only done it due to his experience on the battlefield.

Also, Lucas’ plan—Roman already knew about it.
Even though Roman saw him reaching into his pocket, he wanted Lucas to show him what he was capable of.
Thus, he was hit with the sand.
And despite the stinging shock, he looked straight at Lucas without closing his eyes.

‘Never take your eyes off your opponent.
That was something I learned when I was at the bottom of the Demonic Cult.
The teaching was absolutely ingrained into the trainees’ bones to the point where one’s bones would hurt.’

He remembered the past—The Demonic Cult—While learning martial arts there, the first thing the trainees trained in was to not close their eyes, no matter the situation.
A martial artist was, in the end, still a human being.
And being blind was equivalent to being dead, so they were told not to close their eyes under any circumstances.

A single blink can cost one’s life.

Just as the trainees exhaled breaths in a sequence while training in martial arts, even blinking eyes were performed through thorough calculations.
The Demonic Cult’s method was extremely cruel.
Throwing sand in the trainees’ eyes was just the basics.
There was another way of stopping a blade just before one’s eyes, as well.
Obviously, sometimes accidents occurred.
However, even when a trainee with a dagger in his eye screamed while kneeling on the floor with his head down and blood dripping from his face, the people training with him did not turn their attention.—In the world of survival of the fittest, blood and screams were like everyday things.
And knowing that the cost of the trainee’s slight flinching was the direct cause of the accident, everyone only clenched their teeth and struggled not to move.

That—was how the Heavenly Demon was made.

Lucas, I don’t know how much blood you have seen on the battlefield, but the blood that I, as Baek Joong-hyuk, witnessed was enough to flow and make an ocean.

Thud.

“…I surrender.”

Lucas surrendered.
He threw away his sword and made it clear that he had no intention of fighting anymore.
The test was now over.
However, Lucas and the other volunteers only stood in place and watched, thinking that Lucas would be punished.

‘If I had known something like this would happen, I wouldn’t have even thought of using sand.’

Lucas’ original plan was different.—He was trying to get the result of ‘Pass’ by holding on for one minute, regardless of any means or method.
However, in the end, he surrendered.
Obviously, he knew how ugly this was—Even if their necks were blown away, those who were called warriors did not dare to speak of surrender.
Nevertheless, Lucas was not like that.
He was a realist.
Recognizing his last-ditch plan had utterly failed, he was momentarily overwhelmed by his opponent and surrendered.

‘He must be disappointed in me.
No, he probably didn’t even expect anything great in the first place.’—He swallowed his saliva and awaited punishment.

He might be mad at me or announce that I am eliminated in front of everyone.—Lucas thought his greed had ruined the situation.
However, he would still have made the same judgment if he could turn back time.
Lucas was such a person.
Seeing the blood on the frontlines, he lived without shame to survive in a place like that.

However,

“Next.”

At that moment, Lucas looked up at Roman with a bewildered expression.
He did not get angry, nor did he ask why Lucas had committed the foul.
The only word he said was ‘Next’—That meant Lucas didn’t do anything wrong and didn’t need to be punished.
Thus, even a B-class mercenary who had experienced many things in the world couldn’t hide his bewildered expression due to Roman Dmitry.

Flowering of mana is when one begins to feel mana and hence, can use it to create Aura. ↩️