Chapter 45. 21, A Genius Who Transcended the Wall
"Huu, huu, huuk."
His breathing was ragged.
His muscles, fatigued from accumulated exhaustion, were stiff as if packed with sand. Every part of his body seemed to scream for mercy.
But Kal Krone couldn't rest.
If he stopped moving even for a moment, the sword from that day would resurface. Rumian's sword that had utterly destroyed the confidence he had carried all this time.
"Huuk, haep!"
Hwiiiing!
"How long has he been at it?"
"Doesn't he ever get tired?"
He could hear people chattering nearby, but Kal Krone paid them no mind. In the time it would take to care, swinging his sword even once more was what mattered.
To reach that guy's sword, to reach Rumian, this much wasn't enough.
No, perhaps.
'I might never catch up to him, ever.'
Kal Krone smiled.
It was so distorted that it would be hard to insist it was a smile, but he smiled nonetheless.
In truth, he knew it too.
What he was doing now wasn't training.
Unlike before when he concentrated on each movement and sought improvement, his current motions lacked soul. They lacked weight.
It was merely thrashing to suppress the anxiety and misery constantly welling up inside. Rather than training to advance, it would be more appropriate to call it abuse to forget.
But then.
"Pick up your sword."
Rumian Kalad appeared.
Before the very person who had plunged him into the abyss of despair, he couldn't utter a single word.
He could only watch with a dazed expression as the other man took his stance.
'What on earth is he doing? Wasn't the match already over?'
That was right. After seeing Rumian's sword, Kal Krone had already accepted defeat deep in his heart.
For a while, perhaps for his entire life, he might not be able to challenge Rumian to a duel. He was far from ready.
But Rumian didn't wait for him.
After swinging his sword through the air a couple of times, Rumian immediately charged at Kal Krone.
Kaang!
"What is this!"
"Shut up and just have a round with me."
With those words, Rumian fell silent.
Kal Krone was infuriated.
Was this to toy with him?
Or to humiliate him?
If not that, was he planning to feel superior by mocking an opponent whose spirit was already broken?
Whatever the intent, he didn't like it.
Tremendous rage burned through his body. It was an intense emotion that made him forget even the fatigue he'd accumulated until now.
Kal Krone's sword thrust out rapidly. It was a fearsome speed that even the academy's graduating seniors couldn't match.
Kaang!
Kang! Kaang-!
But regrettably, his opponent was Rumian Kalad.
Rumian Kalad, who had sliced through five statues like tofu. The very guy who had shattered his will and pride, the one he had thought was his rival until just two weeks ago.
But the current him was not his rival.
What does rival mean? Doesn't it refer to matches who must give their all to defeat each other, whose skills are comparable?
By that standard, Kal Krone himself was disqualified as a rival.
Sure enough, he gradually began to be pushed back by Rumian.
"This can't be, Kal Krone is..."
"Being pushed back?"
"Rumian Kalad, right? How did he improve so quickly?"
'Damn, damn!'
Kal Krone's face twisted violently.
Unlike during training, he could hear every word from the surrounding people. That meant his concentration had broken.
No, in truth, he hadn't been focused on the duel with Rumian from the start.
Filled with a sense of defeat, he had already taken his loss as a foregone conclusion, and the sword he swung was merely a final resistance to salvage some face.
And so he crumbled, little by little. Like a ship sinking into the deep sea, he was slowly sinking into a swamp of despair.
That was when an entirely different aura began to flow from Rumian's entire being.
Chills ran down his spine-!
Kal Krone's mind snapped to attention.
The atmosphere had completely changed.
It felt as if he had stepped into the middle of a battlefield.
A feeling that gleaming blades were eyeing him at every moment. Kal Krone looked at Rumian with a trance-like expression.
A sharp attack rained down on him. It was an attack with the same power that had been launched at the statues.
Chae-aeng!
"Kkeuk!"
Kal Krone looked into Rumian's eyes.
He could no longer feel despair. He couldn't even feel defeat.
The situation was too urgent to indulge in such fortunate emotions.
Forgetting where he was, forgetting what he had been doing, he swung his sword unconsciously.
Because he judged that was the only way to survive.
Kang, kang, kaang! The sound of real sword clashing against real sword rang out endlessly.
Everyone in the venue watched the two men's sword dance in silence. Amidst it, Rumian thought quietly.
'As expected, he is who he is.'
Right now, he was using his aura image to recreate the atmosphere of the battlefield he had experienced in his past life.
Suffocating pressure, the tension of having your head fall off with the slightest mistake.
For an ordinary person, such an atmosphere would have acted as poison, but he thought Kal Krone would be different.
By stimulating his survival instinct to awaken dormant instincts, and sharpening the talent that had rusted from despair.
If the two created synergy, he thought it might be possible to achieve explosive growth beyond merely shaking off a slump.
'No, not might. It definitely will!'
Rumian's thinking proved exactly right.
A genius is a term for those who create miracles.
And Kal Krone was a genius among the talents he had seen, second to none.
There was no way someone like that couldn't overcome this level of trial. Rumian smiled faintly as he swung his sword even faster.
In response, Kal Krone's sword opposing him also quickened.
Dead sharpness came alive, power increased. Like a soldier thrown onto a battlefield to carve out a path to survival, unbelievable latent power began to surge from his body.
Kwang! Kwaaang!
Kwaaang!
At some point, the sound of swords clashing began to ring out even louder.
Both Rumian Kalad and Kal Krone poured out their swords more strongly. Watching the intense exchange like a storm, everyone broke into a cold sweat.
Thus one minute passed, then five minutes.
Finally, when Kal Krone's concentration reached its peak.
An incredible fast sword technique burst forth from Rumian Kalad.
Peeoong!
A blade flying in so fast it felt like it would burst the air!
Kal Krone's eyes widened. He had seen this once before.
'Right, certainly.'
When he had gained new realization, carrying two swords and confidently seeking out rivals.
When his sky-piercing pride had crumbled, and he had tasted despair and defeat for the first time in his life.
When he had faced a massive wall that seemed impossible to catch, that would block him forever!
'No, that's not it!'
Kal Krone grit his teeth with a crack.
Power surged through his entire body. Dragon power he hadn't even known existed, that had been sleeping all along, awakened. His eyes flashed open.
Then Rumian Kalad's sword trajectory began to appear clearly.
Not only that, the sword trajectory he needed to draw also began to appear clearly.
Without hesitation, he thrust out his sword.
Kal Krone's sword, extended in a trance-like state, curved sharply in the air.
And fiercely struck down Rumian Kalad's sword.
Kwaaaaaaang!
A massive collision sound reverberated through the training ground.
While everyone covered their ears with surprised expressions, both Kal Krone and Rumian Kalad stepped back a few paces.
A sudden lull that came without warning.
To Kal Krone, who was looking at him with intense eyes, Rumian spoke as if it was nothing.
"Feeling more awake now?"
"...."
"You were making such a death face over just this? Because of an obstacle you'd overcome from a single spar?"
He knew well what obstacle Rumian was referring to. It must be the single sword strike he had sent at the wall.
That was why he was even more surprised.
Rumian, that guy had just done his best to help him escape his slump.
Without any compensation.
Kal Krone wore a dazed expression.
Regardless, Rumian continued to pour out his words.
"There will be dozens more of these things in the future. If you're going to mope over something this small, how ridiculous would I look? Huh? I crawled up from last place to here. I've overcome dozens of obstacles like this."
"...."
"Understand? Or not?"
Kal Krone couldn't refute.
He was certainly right.
Though Rumian now possessed talent similar to his, no, talent that surpassed his, until last year he had possessed such pathetic skills that he was called the academy's disgrace.
'And he received even worse treatment. Probably.'
Nevertheless, he hadn't broken.
He hadn't despaired, hadn't sat down. And finally, he had surpassed even himself, called the academy's greatest talent in history.
Compared to that steel-like will, his own mental strength was utterly pathetic.
Of course, this was Kal Krone's misconception.
In truth, Rumian had never experienced being in last place. Since he had reincarnated from this semester, that was natural.
But Rumian didn't think his words were 100 percent lies.
He too, as someone of lowly birth as a eunuch, had to overcome all kinds of obstacles and walls.
'There was also the physical penalty, but more than that, prejudice and contempt were harder....'
Rumian exhaled with a hmph.
Since he was someone who had broken through all that and stood at the summit, he thought he could at least say this much.
'It's been a while since I played the role of a senior.'
Of course, such meddling might not have been necessary.
To say it again, Kal Krone was a rare genius. Especially after the Sword Arts Festival, the form he showed was comparable to the King of Knights. Perhaps even greater.
'Still... it definitely helped. So it wasn't for nothing.'
Having reached that conclusion, Rumian Kalad nodded.
Hwieek, he threw his sword.
The sword flew while spinning and stuck precisely into the weapon rack.
"Someone told me life is a long-distance race."
"...."
"It's a very cliché thing to say, but I don't think it's wrong. Well... since we're people whose lives are swordsmanship, hmm, so... ah, you know what I mean? Just get the gist."
With those final words, Rumian quickly exited the training ground.
No, he added one last thing.
"Do well."
Finally, Rumian Kalad disappeared.
Watching his retreating figure, Kal Krone wore a serious expression.
All kinds of thoughts filled his head.
Shame, wretchedness, gratitude, exhaustion....
But the greatest emotion among them was respect for Rumian.
Despite being the same age, he recalled how Rumian had awakened him, who had been trapped in narrow thinking, as if he had accumulated deep experience. Kal Krone swung his sword again.
A movement completely different from just before when he had been repeating meaningless actions without enthusiasm.
Life began to return to his dead eyes.
And one week later.
The final evaluation at Tarajan Academy began.