The old man who gave his name as Angajumang continued to talk to Vikir, apparently bored.
"It feels like it's been several years since I was locked in this solitary confinement. Let's see, I make a stroke in my mind every time I count 60 seconds, and that's already over three million strokes...."
Hearing Angajumang's words, Vikir couldn't help but click his tongue.
Even for Vikir, who had gone through many hardships, the 100 days in solitary confinement were difficult and daunting.
'And you've been locked up here for so many years? I can't believe it.'
These are the words of a man he has never met and will never see again, but they are also the words of a prisoner he met in solitary confinement, not anywhere else.
"How did you not starve to death after being locked up for so many years?"
"Pushishishi – they put black bread crumbs into the bowl every two days, right?."
"The amount of water I can take in must be insufficient."
"No. You just have to suck in the dew in the air."
Vikir was silent for a moment. Dew? In this hot space?
But Old Man Angajumang was nonchalantly telling him how to survive here.
"Well, actually, you can live longer without eating breadcrumbs. You just have to slow down your metabolism extremely slowly and slowly break down the nutrients you've stored up."
"...."
"Pushishishi – Young people these days tend to try to live too hard, and too much passion is a poison. It's good to slow down and take a look at life once in a while, instead of rushing through it all. Be like stone, be like water."
It sounds like the ramblings of an old man in a back room, but the location is too important to ignore.
The solitary confinement of the Nouvelle Vague.
This is a man who claims to have been locked up for several years in a place worse than Level 9.
'If he hasn't already gone insane from being locked up here,... he must be a big-time criminal.'
Or maybe he was already insane.
Angajumang then said to Vikir.
"By the sound of your voice, you're still a young man. What has brought you to this place?"
"Where can there be old and young in sin?"
"Pushishishi- that's true. So, what were you imprisoned for? Please answer the old man's question."
"Assassination of a political enemy."
Vikir answered briefly.
Then Old Man Angajumang chuckled.
"Why were you imprisoned after doing such a good deed? Have you been rejected by your family?"
"Well, you could look at it that way."
"Well, well. It was like a hunting dog. When a rabbit falls in the mountains, it's only natural that the hunting dog is boiled and eaten."
Old Man Angajumang naturally added an afterthought.
"For some reason, I think I know where you're from, you're from Baskerville, right?"
Vikir was a bit stingy.
The old man Angajumang sensed Vikir's agitation like a ghost, and let out his usual eerie laugh.
"Pushishishi- you're right, few families are heartless enough to send a hound that has worked so hard for the family to a place like this. At best, it would be an Ironblood Swordman family or an Extreme Poisonous family."
"I take it you're familiar with the Baskervilles."
"I know. Our family was once called the Iron Blood Swordsman."
The old Angajumang man's words caused Vikir to rack his brain for a moment.
Nowadays, the Baskerville family is considered the greatest sword family, but it wasn't like that in the past.
Before the Empire was united, there were at least four other swordsman families across the continent that were more prestigious than the Baskerville.
Bahamut. Jiz. Sade. Nibelungen.
The Baskerville were somewhat of an inferior brand compared to these four.
In fact, until then, they were just a family-type mercenary group that wandered around the continent without even a small territory.
Anyway. There was a time when the Baskerville family was added to the four families above and they were called the 5th Ironblood Swordman Family.
Old Man Angajumang chuckled nostalgically.
"At that time, our family was also considered a prestigious swordsman family. However, since I gave up the sword at the time, the sword's legacy would have been lost from then on ...Hmm, no. Perhaps the family itself has ceased to exist?"
"Are there no descendants?"
"Hmm~ There was a granddaughter, but I don't know if she's dead or alive. If she's alive, she's probably older than you. Not as far as your mom.... More like your youngest aunt or oldest sister."
"You must have lived a long time, huh?"
"Yes. I've lived a long time. I've spent a lifetime on the battlefield."
The old man Angajumang chuckled bitterly.
"To expect an old man like me to suddenly adapt to a peaceful world is unreasonable. Fighting and war have been my life."
"And you still live fiercely in your solitary confinement in Nouvelle Vague. It's a consistent life."
"Pushishishi – Fierce? here? you're welcome. This place is like a resort. Right now, I am taking a leisurely rest to relieve the fatigue I suffered in the past... I plan to go out as soon as I feel better."
This was no ordinary old man who had the nerve to use Nouvelle Vague's cell as a resort.
Vikir wondered a little bit how long the old man next to him had been alive, and what a hard life he had lived.
Apparently, Old Man Angajumang was thinking the same thing.
"You seem to be able to talk to me. Do you know how to use a non-sword bimu?"
Non-sword Bimu. Just as accomplished Go players play verbally with their eyes closed, accomplished swordsmen can duel verbally with their eyes closed.
This is impossible unless they know each other's sword paths and moves.
Vikir readily accepted the elder Angajumang's request for a non-sword bimu.
"Do you know the swordsmanship of the Baskerville?"
"I know the basics, so let's get started."
Old Man Angajumang opened his mouth to begin his opening move.
Vikir did the same, unleashing his powers as he went along, creating an imaginary duel.
Baskerville 1st Form. Teeth that stab deeply into the opponent's body.
Baskerville 2nd Form. Another deep, immobilizing bite into the opponent's body.
Baskerville 3rd Form. A tooth that bites into the opponent's body and weighs them down.
Baskerville 4th Form. Slice through the opponent's body.
.
.
Vikir warmed up and proceeded to perform Baskerville Forms 1 through 4.
To his surprise, Old Man Angajumang saw through Vikir's mastery of the four forms.
"It's amazing, a young man who hasn't even reached the age of majority has mastered the Four Forms. It's like watching a middle-aged man who has spent his entire life rolling on the battlefield!"
However, after he finished speaking, he added in a laughing tone.
" ...Well, compared to this old man, you're still a greenhorn."
With that, Old Man Angajumang proceeded to make his first form.
Vikir knew nothing of the old man's swordsmanship, but Angajumang used Vikir's theories of swordsmanship to build upon his own.
Although he did not know Old Man Angajumang's swordsmanship, but knew his own, could naturally see how old Angajumang was destroying his own swordsmanship.
It was a sight to behold.
Vikir's first form was consumed by the gentle stroke of Angajumang's sword.
And the second one that followed was merely a reminder of where his main body was.
The third and fourth forms, which hadn't even gotten off the ground yet, were quickly consumed by Angajumang's attack, and soon Vikir's body was in danger of being torn to pieces.
'...What's that? It's not a normal snake?'
Vikir had to stop himself from stealing a glance.
At this point, the full extent of Vikir's power is revealed.
Baskerville 5th Form. Teeth that tear the body apart.
Baskerville 6th Form. Teeth that crush the opponent's body.
Baskerville 7th Form. Teeth that mince the opponent's body.
Baskerville 8th Form. Teeth that brings all the teeth together and holds them in place.
The ultimate in swordsmanship that Baskerville can reach. The limit of the living.
It struck back at Old Man Angajumang with tremendous momentum.
The Black Sun.
The same ultimate that had cut off the life force of 5th Corpse Amdusias had shaken the entire virtual world of Non-Sword Bimu.
However.
"Pushishishi- this really surprises me, I can't believe it, how is it possible for you to be at such a peak at such a young age?"
Old Man Angajumang was only surprised, not frightened or intimidated.
Eventually, the power of old man Angajumang clashes with that of Vikir.
There was a ferocity and aggression in the old man that one would never expect from a dying old man, a youthful madness in his brash counterattack.
A madman, a warmonger who has spent his entire life fighting and waging war.
Even Vikir had no choice but to give in to his ferocity.
'...I never knew such a madman existed in the world.'
Even Vikir had to admit that his duel with the old man Angajumang had left him in a state of shock.
A creature brought into the world solely to fight, kill, and conflict.
The very definition of a war madman.
Every breath he takes, every step he takes, every hand he stretches out, is filled with nothing but the desire to kill and destroy.
An aura that is eager to torment others. These misaligned dramatizations. This perverse virtue.
He could see now why the old man had been kept away from humanity, locked away in solitary confinement here in Nouvelle Vague, in the deepest and most inhospitable of all places.
[He's a madman, the type that should never be mixed with, regardless of species, demon or human].
Even the once-demonic Decarabia had said this.
At that moment, Old Man Angajumang laughed bitterly and said.
"Playing with you like this, I feel a little motivated. I feel a little younger."
"I'm glad to hear it helps."
"A great help. Ah! I don't know how long it's been since I've felt this way. Not since Winston and Orca. Hmm, and before that, of course, when I was fighting the Seven Counts of Baskerville."
"The Seven Counts? You mean like the Boston Terriers and the Great Dane and Isabella?"
"Who? I don't know about that. Not the current Seven Counts, but the Seven Counts of previous eras."
Well, judging by Old Man Angajumang's age, it would have to be at least two generations back.
Old Man Angajumang asked Vikir.
"Who is the current patriarch of the Baskerville family?"
"Hugo Le Baskerville."
"Hugo... Hugo... who is that? Some unheard-of rascal is running the place, and Why didn't that old CaneCorso inherit the position of patriarch?"
" ...Do you know CaneCorso?"
"I know. He was a strict and picky man. When I was young, I got into trouble a lot because I was fussy without knowing anything."
The old man Angajumang murmured in a wistful tone, as if recalling childhood games.
"I still shudder when I think of the devastation he inflicted. Pushishishi – Is he supposed to be dead now? Well, it's only natural that so much time has passed. Perhaps he was possessed by something and chased after a vision of that sword grave or something. Like an idiot with lesser strength."
"...."
Vikir fell silent.
He didn't need to be told that the Grave of Swords existed, or that CaneCorso had become a Death Knight and attained the 9th Form.
...And apart from that, Vikir thought he knew the identity of the old man Angajumang.
Before the regression, the guards of Nouvelle Vague had declared that they would not participate in the war between demons and humans.
But that was only in the early days of the war.
In the latter stages of the war, the guards of Nouvelle Vague began to fight demons on the surface, and not just to defend humanity.
The collapse of Nouvelle Vague.
As Nouvelle Vague itself disappeared, the guards and prisoners were forced to come to the surface.
'It was Orca himself, the warden, who brought down the Nouvelle Vague.'
Why would he, the symbol of Nouvelle Vague, take such an action?
There were many different theories on the subject.
But one theory is quite compelling.
It was the result of a prisoner trying to get to the surface, and Orca taking extreme measures to stop him.
It's hard to imagine how dangerous he must have been to bring down an entire Nouvelle Vague prison just to prevent one man from escaping.
As for who that escapee was, the opinions of the experts were divided...
'Perhaps it was him.'
If so, Vikir knew exactly who old man Angajumang was and what his true name was.
And given his knowledge of the long history of the Baskerville from Non-sword Bimu from earlier, he was even more certain.
Vikir was confident in his guess.
He concluded.
'... A person who should not be involved as much as possible.'
Here was a human being, even more terrible and frightening than a demon, right next to him.
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tl/n: Bimu is a power fight to see the ability and measure the depth of one's martial arts / swordsmanship