chapter 21

“What… what sort of excuse is this? Is this the reason you fight?” Alice, with a queer look on her face, mused — isn’t that debasing?

“Yeah, if I don’t cause trouble for a day, I feel uncomfortable…” Next, Merlin threatened, a stern look on his face, “If you have any comments, I will toss you into the sea to feed the sharks.”

Alice swallowed back her complaints. While rowing sullenly, she curse Merlin’s ancestors and descendants in her heart.

She felt that there’s a discrepancy — why is a idle rascal like Merlin so strong?

I have been training in the Snowy Mountains for more than a decade, yet I’m not even a match for two of Merlin’s fingers.

After spending so much blood, sweat, and tears, in the end, I was humiliated by Merlin.

The humiliation and frustration in her heart gave Alice a heavy blow.

“Mer… Merlin…”

“Hmm?”

“You have Holy tier strength, right?” Alice asked in a low voice.

“No idea.” Merlin answered truthfully. He really doesn’t know what power level he belongs to, perhaps the cheat level?

“It was through extraordinary effort that you reached this level, right? Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work?” Alice hopes that Merlin became strong through hard work, or else she will start to doubt life.

“Fool, do you really believe that? It’s clearly a scam, a cruel lie meant to have you mediocre people, who are mere foolish stepping stones, work hard and make a slight contribution to the world. Mediocre people should have their feet on the ground, should know their place.” Merlin said unceremoniously.

“How can this be?” Alice felt that her beliefs are beginning to waver.

“Geniuses are people with an absolute talent. If talent can be made up for with hard work, then what would geniuses count for?” Merlin smiled and carried on, “There is an insurmountable gap between the talented and the untalented, a gap so wide that even 1,000,000% of effort cannot bridge it. This is what we call a genius.”

“Then… then…” Alice continued to row numbly, her face as white as paper, eyes shaking, and outlook overturned, “Then how did you become so strong? Can… can you tell me?”

“Er…” Merlin retracted his gaze, then looked straight ahead and told the truth–

“My mother was the second lord of the Demon Palace, knows to you as Lucifer II.”

“I, who was born as royalty, believed that I could lead an easy life, having fun with my younger sister every day.”

“But on the 197th crusade of the Church, my mother died in battle.”

“Left on our own, my younger sister and I depend on each other to survive. But demonfolk are a cruel race where weak are prey to the strong.”

“Without mother’s protection, we were humiliated and trampled on. Everyday, my younger sister was flogged by nobles in exchange for a bit of food.”

“My younger sister was frail and sickly. Once in a cold winter, she fell seriously ill. With a lack of clothing and little to no food at home, she nearly died.”

“At that time, I set a goal. I wanted to become stronger in order to protect my younger sister.”

“I beat a rock giant in the mountains, tore a sea devil apart at sea, and slayed a dragon in the sky. I didn’t even let the monster living in the magma off.”

“I kept practicing sword techniques and swinging a rusty sword every day. I was at death’s door many a time.”

“Finally, by relying on my unyielding strength, I killed the enemies who had previously bullied my younger sister, took back the throne, and pulled out Omnia, and my quick draw skill reached level 99,999,999,999,999,999,999,999.”

“By the time I looked back, I became invincible.”

Merlin exhaled, and the blond hair on his forehead rustled with the wind.

He looked up at the storm before him with a firm and unyielding expression on his face.

After suddenly speaking so much, Merlin couldn’t help but sight–

“That’s all.”

“My past is an epic of revenge.”