Ch.16Sparring – 3

By the time one rises to the position of Royal Knight, one is expected to have mastered all conventional swordsmanship.

That’s why their training method focused less on theory-based practice and more on spending entire days crossing swords with each other to hone their practical combat sense.

More precisely, that was true for most of them.

Very occasionally, someone within the Royal Knights would succeed in developing their own unique swordsmanship.

Usually, such techniques would bear the creator’s name, and depending on their significance, they would either be secretly passed down within the knighthood or spread externally to become a source of income for swordsman and knight guilds.

In the early days of the knighthood’s founding, there were quite a few such individuals, but as time passed and these unique techniques spread within the order, the development of completely new swordsmanship became rare.

Now, anything considered “new” was merely a mixture of existing techniques.

In that sense, Alesia could be considered a truly exceptional woman. She was the creator of her own distinctive style—the Alesia style—characterized by dozens or hundreds of flowing, continuous strikes.

‘From left to right, then left to right again, and finally from top to bottom.’

The wooden sword narrowly grazed Serena’s nose. Alesia didn’t pause or slow down; instead, she took another step forward, spinning her body to immediately follow up with the next attack.

The exact same trajectory was drawn in the air once more.

This time, the attack was blocked rather than dodged. With a sharp crack and a tingling impact in her palm, Alesia immediately raised her arm while keeping the wooden swords pressed together.

The two wooden swords scraped against each other, sending mana scattering in all directions. Serena slightly tilted her head to evade the sword tip rising toward her chin.

As soon as her wooden sword was freed from the binding, Alesia feinted a downward strike by bringing her hands close to her chest.

The downward motion was a fake. If Serena raised her sword to block it, her chest would be completely exposed and vulnerable to a thrust.

And if she didn’t block? Then Alesia would simply follow through with the downward strike. The initiative in this binary choice belonged to Alesia.

Serena flinched, hesitating as she was about to block the downward strike. She reacted to the feint? Alesia inwardly scoffed. No matter how she looked at it, the First Knight Captain Elizabeth before her was a monster.

Even after falling for the feint and with an attack incoming, Serena’s defensive posture was established faster than Alesia’s attack could land.

Just as Alesia had predicted, Serena was already deflecting the wooden sword thrusting toward her chest with a diagonal parry from upper right to lower left.

Alesia’s center of gravity wavered for a moment, forcing her to step back.

“No way, how can you defend faster than me even after falling for the feint? Is that even possible?”

“I didn’t fall for it. I almost did, that’s all.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“There’s a clear difference between falling for something and almost falling for it.”

“You flinched! That means you fell for it! Just admit it cleanly instead of refusing to concede even a single point!”

“I was preparing for the possibility.”

Seriously, really. Alesia grumbled internally.

In truth, she knew Serena hadn’t completely fallen for it. She had merely flinched in preparation for a downward strike, not fully committed to blocking in that direction.

What Alesia was doing now was a kind of prideful sulking.

Still, this might be a chance, Alesia thought briefly. Whether Serena’s claim about not putting emotion into the duel request was true or not, she was indeed using only a similar amount of mana as Alesia.

In other words, this duel was essentially a test of fundamental skill.

Perhaps this was her last chance to land a solid hit on that woman. Alesia’s eyes briefly gleamed.

Serena’s body enhancement skills had always been a level above Alesia’s. But now things were different. They had exactly the same amount of mana and the same level of physical enhancement.

“Knight Captain Elizabeth, you said your duel request wasn’t motivated by any personal feelings toward me, right?”

“I’ve said so multiple times already.”

“Then may I add one rule?”

I can’t miss this golden opportunity. Alesia was mentally calculating her odds.

She and Serena had accumulated quite a bit of bad blood between them. Now that she had a chance to score a hit, she needed to maximize her probability of success.

“I’ll hear it before deciding.”

“It’s nothing major. Just asking you to keep your word. If you enhance your body beyond the level of enhancement I’m using, you’ll be considered the loser. What do you think?”

“…”

Seeing Serena bring her left hand to her mouth in contemplation, Alesia also began to think.

‘Was my request too one-sided? No, she said she’d match my level, so she should accept this much. If she refuses, I can argue that her promise to match me was a lie. I could also say I can’t trust when she might change her mind and attack with emotion.’

Somehow, considering how persistently Serena had requested this duel out of nowhere, Alesia felt she had the upper hand. She was certain of it.

“Alright.”

“Huh?”

Surprised by the unexpectedly quick acceptance, Alesia let out a dumbfounded sound. She quickly cleared her throat.

“…You agreed faster than I expected. I thought you’d think about it longer or refuse.”

“If you say you can’t trust me, Alesia, then I should give you reason to. Do as you wish.”

“Huh…”

Another bewildered sound escaped Alesia’s lips.

She doubted whether this was truly the same Serena Elizabeth, the First Knight Captain who had spent the last eight years doing whatever she pleased, ignoring others’ words, and showing insolence even to His Majesty the King.

What was so special about this duel?

“This time, you come at me.”

“Uh, what? Wait, wait a moment!”

As Serena charged forward, kicking off the ground, Alesia hurriedly assumed her stance.

She tracked the trajectory of the wooden sword, confirmed its direction, realized it was aimed at her left shoulder, and raised her sword with force—the two wooden swords collided.

Alesia’s brow furrowed slightly at the stinging sensation in her palm.

The Alesia style was designed for offense. Even its nickname, “Flowing Water,” came from its dozens of continuous strikes.

This meant she had to rely entirely on other techniques for defense. In other words, it was a style that was only powerful when attacking unilaterally.

So now, having allowed Serena to attack first, the situation was very unfavorable.

Alesia pushed forward with force in her arms, deflecting Serena’s wooden sword. It was surprisingly easy.

She had expected an immediate follow-up attack after deflecting the sword, but surprisingly, there was a slight gap between attacks.

Perhaps it was because of the added rule that using physical enhancement beyond a certain level would result in defeat. The expression on Serena’s face clearly showed she was conscious of the amount of mana she was using.

Whatever the reason, this was undeniably an opportunity. There’s a big difference between “I’ll match your mana level” and “I have to match your mana level.” It was enough that Serena was conscious of this fact during the fight.

Alesia swung her wooden sword vertically twice to create some distance. Then she struck down once more at Serena, who was trying to close in again.

Serena easily dodged that as well, but since Alesia hadn’t expected the attack to land anyway, she immediately bent her knees slightly and twisted her ankle.

The handle of the wooden sword gripped in both hands was positioned in front of her right thigh, with its tip extending to the right. It was a stance preparing for attack.

In this position, the initiative of attack would pass to Alesia. Both of them knew this well.

Then the next move was obvious.

Serena, who would normally rush at Alesia in one breath, hesitated momentarily. She was anxious about possibly using more mana than Alesia.

And that brief hesitation was enough. Alesia moved. Unlike Serena, she had nothing to hold back. She just needed to do what she always did.

She swung her wooden sword strongly from the lower right toward the upper left. Serena blocked the attack as if it were expected. The wooden swords scraped past each other with a dull sound.

Without stopping, Alesia swung horizontally from the upper left to the upper right. This time, Serena ducked to avoid it.

Alesia quickly spun her body, following the momentum of her rightward swing. During the spin, she lowered the position of her wooden sword, and as she faced forward again, she struck upward from the lower left to the upper right.

Just before it could slash across the chest, an obstacle appeared in its path. With a thunk, the wooden sword grazed the obstacle instead of the chest.

From the upper right to the upper left. The wooden sword was swung horizontally once more. Due to the slightly increased distance, it didn’t connect.

Then I’ll close the distance. Alesia took two more steps forward. She feinted as if to strike downward again. Serena flinched in response, watching Alesia’s movements carefully.

Alesia, with the handle positioned in front of her left thigh, created a trajectory diagonally upward to the right with all her might.

Adjusting the force behind each strike in the flowing sequence of attacks was another characteristic of the Alesia style.

If the opponent blocked weakly, she would break through with force; if they blocked strongly, she would glide past to waste their stamina. As long as the sequence of attacks continued, the initiative remained firmly with Alesia.

Serena’s posture was still awkward. This was because she had just blocked an attack in front of her chest and then reacted to Alesia’s feint.

To block the diagonal attack coming in again, she would need to twist her wrist, and that would provide enough time to decide the match with the next attack.

Alesia’s aim was to decisively twist that awkwardly positioned wrist and make Serena drop her sword.

With a dull sound, the wooden swords rang loudly. Her arm was thrown back in the direction it had swung. Her palm throbbed painfully from absorbing the recoil.

Alesia’s expression twisted slightly. This wasn’t going as planned. The force with which Serena parried was far greater than she had anticipated.

She couldn’t understand how Serena could exert such force with her wrist half-twisted.

If Alesia had been in Serena’s position and had to receive a sword swung with full force in that stance, she would undoubtedly have dropped her wooden sword. A compromised posture was fatal above all else.

By comparison, Serena, who had met the sword head-on, showed not the slightest change in her expression.

Yes, that expression.

Alesia—no, the entire Royal Knights—had never once seen Serena breathing heavily or showing any sign of strain.

Even in fights where both sides seemed to be giving their all and were just one step short of victory, Serena remained calm while her opponents were left gasping.

And that wasn’t all. She never sweated even in the height of summer and remained perfectly fine during physical training that exhausted even the most capable knight captains.

The visible gap certainly didn’t seem that large. There had been several moments where both sides had gone to the brink of defeat and back, and moments where the outcome could have gone either way with the slightest mistake.

But the winner was always Serena.

‘…How to close that one step, that’s the real issue.’

For the past eight years, no one in the Royal Knights had been able to defeat Serena.

Even after training rigorously to the point where one could say they had grown significantly, that gap remained just one step.

Was it even possible for someone to maintain exactly one step of difference from everyone in the Royal Knights?

What brought Alesia back from her reverie was the sound of Serena taking a deep breath.

At the sound of the inhale and footsteps rushing toward her, Alesia snapped back to attention. Thinking about other things during a duel? That was practically suicidal.

Normally, she wouldn’t have heard that deep breath. It was only detectable because her bodily functions were enhanced by the mana surrounding her.

Even though Serena had said she would match Alesia’s level, Alesia was still a captain of the Royal Knights. She was on a completely different level from ordinary people.

Here she comes. Alesia looked straight ahead. She had missed the opportunity to continue her attack sequence because she had been lost in thought.

It seemed like earlier, too, she had allowed Serena to attack because she was surprised by how easily Serena had accepted her proposal.

The first time is a mistake, but the second time is a lack of skill. Alesia mentally berated herself.

Her response was too late. Serena’s wooden sword was swung precisely at Alesia’s neck. If she failed to block it, the force would undoubtedly shatter her neck bones.

Perhaps that’s why Serena had deliberately signaled her attack by taking a deep breath. How absurd, Alesia thought self-deprecatingly as she raised her wooden sword to block the attack.

—CRACK!

And she lost her grip on the sword.

“Huh?”

“…!”

Alesia stared with round eyes at her wooden sword as it flew away from her hand. The first thought that came to mind was: Why did I drop it?

Even Serena, who had just knocked Alesia’s wooden sword away, seemed surprised, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Whatever the case, she had lost. Just as Alesia was about to gracefully acknowledge her defeat, an overwhelmingly dense mana leaked from Serena’s body before instantly disappearing.

The process happened so quickly that Alesia wondered if she had imagined it.

But the attack that followed confirmed it wasn’t her imagination. Serena’s body accelerated explosively.

In the brief moment it took Alesia to blink, she felt an intense pain in her head. So there was emotion behind it after all. That was Alesia’s last thought before losing consciousness.

“Well, shit.”

Blood was streaming down the right side of my face. I felt something foreign deeply embedded in my eye.

I felt my face with my hand. My fingers came away covered in bright red liquid, and I could feel a wooden handle protruding from my face.

How did it come to this? Shuddering at the foreign sensation covering half my face, I recalled what had just happened.

It wasn’t much. Serena hadn’t taken a single hit, so I just told her to end it if that’s what she wanted.

Somehow her sword-wielding stance seemed to have a bit too much force in it, and now I’m in this state.

The wooden sword that Alesia had dropped flew directly toward me, and before I could move to avoid it, it lodged in my right eye.

Seeing this, Serena was shocked, then immediately knocked Alesia unconscious and approached me.

“My lord!”

“Wait a moment, let me pull this out first…”

I covered my face with my palm to prevent my eyeball from coming out when I removed the wooden sword, and wedged the sword between my index and middle fingers.

I gripped the wooden sword with my left hand and applied force, causing blood to gush out with a strange sound.

I applied more force and completely removed the wooden sword. I could feel blood streaming from the now-empty eye socket. The wooden sword was also covered in blood.

Fortunately, it wasn’t embedded too deeply. It would have been worse if it had pierced through to the back of my head.

I focused energy on my eye, and regeneration immediately began. The blood on the wooden sword returned to my body, and my shattered eyeball recovered, restoring my vision. I blinked. The foreign sensation was gone.

“That’s better now. What is it, Serena?”

“…Excuse me.”

“Hm?”

Serena carefully grabbed my shoulders and pushed me backward. Naturally, I ended up lying on the ground, with Serena leaning over me, propping herself up on my shoulders.

“My lord.”

“I’m listening.”

“Do you remember the proposal you made to me?”

“That you could inflict wounds on me equal to those I inflicted on you? Of course I remember.”

“Then, I shall fulfill it.”

“Fulfill? What—”

Before I could finish speaking, Serena thrust her finger into my eye. With a crunch, my lens shattered and my eyeball was crushed.

Warm blood splattered on my face. Serena was crushing my right eye with the intensity of someone determined to destroy half my face. Her expression was utterly serious.

No matter how accustomed I was to enduring pain, honestly speaking, having my eyeball crushed by a finger was not a particularly pleasant feeling.

My arms, lying limply on the ground, involuntarily twitched. My toes wiggled back and forth beyond my control.

As my body regenerated and pushed her finger out, she thrust it back in to crush it again, and as it healed again, she crushed it again. After repeating this meaningless act about five times, she finally seemed satisfied and moved off me, kneeling on one knee beside me.

“It is done. I will accept any punishment for the sin of disrespecting my lord’s body.”

“No, that’s… not necessary. Just tell me why you suddenly did this.”

I can more or less guess the reason. Still, it’s most accurate to hear it directly from her.

“I could not tolerate the fact that there was a wound on my lord’s body caused by another woman. So I covered it with a wound inflicted by me.”

I knew it. Her answer was not much different from my guess.