The silent training ground. Fragments of embers swaying in the night wind. A full moon dyed red.
“……Of course, the march south is not far off, so I think it would be best not to overdo it.”
I gripped the hilt of the broadsword. It felt quite different from a magic staff.
Yulie said,
“To begin with, this is a pure spar that does not involve the use of mana. It will not strain your body. If your skill matches your confidence, Professor.”
There was no emotion in her voice. I looked at her.
I had not planned to clash with her directly from the start, but I did not feel as though I would lose, either.
“Very well.”
The most efficient way to utilize 「Comprehension」 in combat was “analysis.”
To fiercely and accurately dismantle a swordsman’s characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses, then respond with tactics suited to them.
“However, I will ask one last time.”
I stood on the empty dirt ground.
Yulie borrowed a real sword from one of the knights. Whirrr— She deftly swung the sword into her grip and said,
“Even now—”
“A long tongue is useless.”
“…….”
“I’ll put the main point first. Knight Deia, your forms are especially trash.”
“What…… No!”
Yulie finally shouted in anger. Her distorted face was filled with rage and indignation.
A knight’s swordsmanship, to put it simply, was a linking of “forms,” and a form was the “method” of connecting the trajectory of the sword in the most efficient way.
In other words, it was like an extremely precise theory.
However, that swordsmanship ultimately came down from its founder. It was a sword art developed to suit the body and strength of the one who created it, and as time passed, it was no longer rational for each individual knight who inherited it.
Thus, they altered the forms according to their own tastes and abilities.
But most of those variations were not efficient at all.
They did not even consider efficiency in the first place.
From physical factors such as the ratio of the upper and lower body, the length of arms and legs, the size of hands and feet, the quality of muscles and the shape of the skeleton, even the area of the skull, to athletic abilities like leg strength, grip strength, and elasticity, physical traits like flexibility and agility, instantaneous judgment speed, and even the intelligence to interpret combat……
One had to tailor swordsmanship while considering all of an individual’s strengths, but without meticulous analysis, that degree of self-objectification was difficult.
And the uniquely ignorant nature of knights, who loathed such analysis as “talking too much,” played a part as well.
“Come.”
Today, I would teach Yulie that “efficiency.”
* * *
Grit—
Yulie tightened her grip on the sword.
She was by no means careless, but neither did she worry about defeat.
To purely compete in swordsmanship was an opportunity to teach Deculein, who looked down on her skill, his place.
Moreover, her comrades, seniors, and junior knights were here with her. Now that she had been insulted in front of all of them, she could not withdraw halfheartedly.
Of course, she would not allow such agitation to consume her body. Rather, she would cool her mind and body even further, cutting off in advance any variables her emotions might cause.
Yulie was approaching this sword dance with that much seriousness.
“…….”
On the other hand, Deculein showed little enthusiasm. There was nothing special about his stance, and rather than resolve, he seemed annoyed. His sword dangled as though it might touch the ground.
Of course. He had probably never learned swordsmanship properly.
“Are you ready?”
Even when Yulie asked, there was no answer. Only the dry northern wind, brittle enough to crumble, brushed against her cheek and scattered.
“Answer—”
“……You talk too much.”
He gathered four fingers together and crooked them. Come first— that sort of provocation.
Even then, he did not take any particular posture. He looked like an obvious beginner.
Yulie’s lips twisted.
She truly did not know what he was relying on to lecture a knight on the sword, but if he insisted on yielding the first move, then she would gladly shatter him with a single exchange carrying all her strength……
Yulie lowered her body and charged.
* * *
I yielded the first move.
Yulie thrust with a broadsword just under one meter long. My armament was the same type of sword as hers.
I raised the flat of my blade and blocked the thrust. Then I tried to scrape my blade upward and knock Yulie’s sword away.
However, Yulie nimbly retreated. A backstep as slight as a needle.
My sword belatedly traced an upward diagonal path to the right, and Yulie, who had already moved out of the sword path, immediately dug into the opening.
I forcibly twisted my joint and struck my sword down.
Yulie read even that response.
Shaaaak—
The sharp sound of sword brushing sword. Yulie lifted her own sword powerfully, deflecting my blade at an angle, and leapt in close as though into my arms.
A fatal proximity. With Yulie one step inside my chest, I shoved her with my shoulder.
Thud—!
“Keuk!”
Struck by the shoulder charge of 「Strong Bones」, Yulie was flung far away. Watching her, I shook my head.
In a situation without mana, weight—in other words, the difference in physique—became a meaningful condition.
Yulie, her brow furrowed, rushed in again. This time, she carefully adjusted the distance and curved her sword in.
A succession of smooth sword strikes flowing like a stream of water.
Now that I had crossed swords with her directly, it was indeed worthy of being called the sword of a knight who had perfectly internalized the basics.
I blocked Yulie’s series of attacks in my own way.
Clang—! Clang, clang, clang—!
A close fight born from sword meeting sword, rotating, and scraping.
However, my sword was of a different nature from any textbook or standard. It looked rough, if anything, but Yulie’s sword could not pierce through me.
That was because her sword was extremely standard. She might think she was mixing in feints in her own way, but all of them fell within a predictable range.
That was Yulie’s first problem.
Clang——!
As sword and sword danced, fierce sparks scattered, and the sharper the sound became, the more the heat of the training ground intensified.
In contrast, the knights gradually sank into silence.
Gwen, who had been watching with a sneer at first, had long since frozen over with a cold gaze.
Clatterrrrr—!
Sword and sword collided, raising a hot gust.
Clang——!
Time flowed slowly. Beyond the mirage of frictional heat and the stagnant air, beyond the swords locked together, Yulie’s eyes glared at me.
Clang—! Clang, clang, clang—!
While receiving Yulie’s sword, I changed my breathing.
This was the blooming of 「Iron Man」 and 「Strong Bones」. A type of mental art that strengthened the body through breathing.
———
A strange vibration rang in my ears.
Then my vision cleared brightly, and the natural things of the world touched my skin with different weights.
The rustling dirt floor of the training ground. Pieces of bonfire that had lost their flame. The dry chill held by the night wind.
My enhanced five senses keenly accepted every part of that environment, grasped the enemy before me, and thoroughly carried out the formula for victory.
“Where do you find the time to look awa—”
I swung my sword at Yulie as she muttered something. The momentarily amplified muscular strength broke Yulie’s balance.
Flustered, Yulie retreated far with a backflip and began to assess me.
“…….”
“…….”
A silence arrived after a long while, and even the weeping of the swords briefly ceased.
Everyone on the training ground was watching us while holding their breath.
“……You are not all talk.”
At Yulie’s praise, I replied with a sneer.
“Deia, you are not Zeit. And yet you are copying Zeit’s swordsmanship exactly as it is.”
“…….”
That was Yulie’s second problem.
Yulie was not the monster Zeit, who stood nearly 2 meters and 10 centimeters tall and weighed 150 kilograms. Therefore, rather than using the forms she learned from Zeit in their orthodox manner, it was right to actively alter them.
“Zeit’s swordsmanship is not yours.”
“……That mouth. Shut it.”
Yulie muttered seriously. I breathed in deeply and let my sword hang. At that, Yulie’s brow twisted.
My body was empty, and my sword looked as though it would touch the ground.
This stance was clearly full of openings.
Even so, Yulie did not rush in easily. Because she suspected it was a provocation, a trap, or perhaps a performance.
“Then again, you have no faith in yourself, either. Can a knight like that create a sword of her own?”
At that moment, Yulie gripped her sword.
———1 second.
My drooping sword touched the ground and drew an arc.
Yulie’s gaze moved along the tip of the blade as well.
She bit her lip. Those eyes, faintly tinged with anger, seemed to say to me, “You are careless—”
Soon, strength gathered in the soles of her small feet. The leg power digging into the ground announced the knight’s charge.
——2 seconds.
Kwaaaa—!
The air ruptured, and her body and sword fired like a bullet.
The focus of the charge was only me. Its speed was tremendously swift, and if I tried to raise my sword to block, I would be too late.
—In order to control an enemy charging like a rhinoceros.
I moved my body, not my sword.
I twisted the sole of my foot sideways and slid ever so slightly, moving just a little. The sword I had let hang also naturally changed position.
A loose motion, as if combing hair.
With that, I brushed past Yulie’s swinging sword by a hair’s breadth, and the tip of my blade, drooping like a broom, was “inserted” into Yulie’s sword path.
Tung—
Sword and sword bounced off each other, and Yulie’s body lost its form.
But the knight did not panic. Rather, she twisted her body and drew her sword up.
Thud—!
I used that force of hers against her. I raised my sword to block the slash, and with the reaction, escaped Yulie’s range.
In this situation where distance naturally opened between us, my arms were longer than hers.
In other words, only I could attack her.
Of course, even if one’s reach was longer, the method of dealing with it was simple.
Naturally, one simply had to raise one’s sword and block.
—3 seconds.
My sword headed toward Yulie, and Yulie predicted its trajectory and defended.
However, Yulie did not know.
That there was a strike executed “before” the sword.
“Ugh!”
I struck her shin with the ball of my foot.
Yulie’s eyes widened in pain. In that instant, her orthodox posture collapsed, and the following kick slammed into her side.
Crackkkkk—
The sound of bones being crushed.
At this point, the battle was over.
No, it should have been over.
“……Keuk!”
Yulie was nearly on her knees, but even in that instant, she still forced her sword in, trying to reverse the situation.
Whiiiiiik—!
From below to above, Yulie’s sword rose, stirring the wind pressure.
An all-or-nothing slash.
There was a captivating tenacity in that sword.
And so, I decided to receive it with all my strength as well.
Kwaaaa——!
From above to below, a sword driven down from an overwhelming height.
Brute strength executed with the body of 「Iron Man」.
……And so, our swords met.
Baaang————!
The straight lines of descent and ascent tangled together, a gale raged, and a flash burned, illuminating the darkness of the training ground.
The conclusion of that collision was the sharp sound of particles shattering.
A broadsword smashed like shards of glass.
The one that had crumbled was the knight’s sword.
Shaaaaaaa…….
The remnants of steel that had scattered into the air for an instant slowly settled like snow.
“…….”
Yulie blankly stared at the fluttering fragments. The sharp particles touched her body and left scratches.
Drip, drip, drip.
Drops of blood sank into the dirt ground.
Blood was flowing from her palm. It was the price of never letting go of her sword until the end.
No matter how much one overwhelmed the opponent with muscular strength, it was normally impossible to destroy a weapon. To break the same steel with steel, one needed several dozen times the force.
Even so, the reason Yulie’s sword had shattered was because, while Yulie’s sword and mine looked identical on the surface, their inner substance was completely different.
———「 Broadsword 」———
…….
[ Midas’s Hand : Level 3 ]
————————
It was not a simple difference in strength; the trait acting upon my sword had shattered Yulie’s.
Without saying anything, I looked around.
A stage where the eyes of soldiers and nobles were concentrated. A point at which the victor and loser had been completely distinguished.
As a martial artist, could there be any situation more humiliating than this?
“A sword without mana is dull.”
Murmuring quietly, I drove my sword into the ground.
The loser sitting collapsed said nothing.
At some point, the bonfire had died down, and the world was dyed in complete darkness. The air that had seemed stagnant flowed heavily and sank.
In the knight’s hand, the broken sword still remained.
* * *
Wiiiiiiiiing——!
Yukline’s territory, the Rohalak Wall. A massive siren wailed madly, and the soldiers, fully armed, climbed atop the wall.
“Report the situation!”
Yeriel, who had arrived on horseback, spoke. The person in charge of Rohalak answered in a loud voice.
“A swarm of demonic beasts is surging toward us. Their number is at least several hundred thousand. In addition, Red Garnet’s terrorism is occurring inside as well.”
“Red Garnet?”
“Yes. It seems they have come to save their kin in Rohalak.”
Yeriel ground her teeth.
“Those crazy bastards. We go easy on them, and……. Fine. For now, prepare for battle!”
“Yes!”
Kwaaaang——!
From atop the wall, cannonballs fired all at once. Dozens of pitch-black iron spheres embroidered the sky as they plunged down.
Kwagwagwagwaga——!
“Lady Yeriel! We have a serious problem!”
Just as Yeriel was about to use some magic of her own, Yukline’s butler came running in a fluster.
“What now? What is it?”
To Yeriel, who asked back like that, the butler answered without even catching his breath.
“They say Reccordak has been isolated!”
“……What?”
“Red Garnet’s guerrilla unit has cut off the road between Reccordak and the city streets, and because of that, right now—”
Thud—! Thud——!
Exploding shells, fragments of monster flesh flying apart. Beneath the smoke that covered the moon and stars, Yeriel clenched her teeth.
“Those dogshit Red Garnet bastards…….”
“We have available troops, so I will send reinforcements!”
“……Yes.”
The moment Yeriel nodded silently.
She discovered a woman standing in the middle of the battlefield holding a sketchbook. The woman was silently looking at her.
“……Who are you?”
The woman moved her hands without a word. It seemed to be sign language, but Yeriel could not understand it.
“What? I never learned that crap.”
Then the woman wrote a sentence in the sketchbook.
[I came to kidnap you.]
“……No. You crazy bitch—”
At that moment, Yeriel’s world went dark.