Ch.77Knight’s Haven (4)

Kain vividly remembered the appearance of the Black Knight.

He recalled how the knight deflected the swords of two Holy Grail Knights with twisted wrists. Despite responding slowly to incoming attacks, the knight almost always managed to block them.

When faced with powerful attacks, the knight would transform into a shadow and retreat. After defending, the knight almost always counterattacked. Though the knight didn’t attack much, each strike was heavy and impactful.

In front of Lily, Kain demonstrated each stance as he remembered them. For some parts, he received help.

“Slowly, try attacking with a slicing motion? Yes, like that. Then he caught the sword right at the crossguard and pushed it away. Then he swept along the inside of my arm and swung his sword as if slapping my cheek.”

“So you mean he blocked in this stance?”

Lily assumed a truly perfect stance. If she were covered in black cloth, she could easily be mistaken for the Knight of the Scabbard.

“That’s right. Perfect. Amazing. Despite my clumsy explanation, you’re following along quite well…”

“Not at all. Your explanation was sufficient.”

Seemingly pleased, Lily slightly pulled her arms together. She put down her sword momentarily, loosened her hair, then tied it tightly again with a string. Lily subtly pushed out her chest, but Kain was looking toward the reed field lost in completely different thoughts, so it had little effect.

“Ahem. Ahem. This definitely seems different from when we encountered him at the monastery. Back then, he was borrowing the body of an apprentice knight. But this time…”

“This time it would be his own body. He descended from that flying ghost ship, or rather, monster ship. I don’t know where he got such a terrible thing from. Do you have any insights?”

“I’m a bit confused.” Lily even slightly bit her lower lip, genuinely perplexed.

“Is it difficult to understand?”

“Well. What did you do in situations like this? When clues point in completely opposite directions. I mean… ah, how should I put this…”

Lily fumbled with her words, even slightly rolling her foot as if frustrated by her inability to express herself.

“You mean when the overall situation and your intuition point in opposite directions? For example, logically it’s clearly right, but your intuition and feelings strongly suggest left…”

Lily’s face brightened. She even clapped her hands softly.

“Yes! Exactly. How did you know?”

“Experience, that’s all. It happens more often than you’d think. You’ll experience it even more working for the Security Bureau. Have you heard this saying? ‘Everyone carries a criminal in their sleeve.'”

“Um… I haven’t heard that before.”

Kain smiled and handed Lily her training sword.

“I heard it during refresher training. It means everyone has their own prejudices and biases. Some are embedded in your mind without you knowing, and they pop out when triggered by certain stimuli. The important thing is, you neither need to suppress them nor blindly trust them.”

“That’s difficult. So what should I do?”

“The retired old men from the Royal Guard Bureau say to consider it as one opinion. Intuition might be fact, it might be truth, but it could also be a misunderstanding.

But it’s certain that I had that thought. So I need to examine ‘why’ I had that thought, what the basis was.

Whether that intuition came from my unfounded prejudice, or from experience and training accumulated over time. So tell me. If you’ve noticed something, there must be a reason.”

Lily seemed a bit more comfortable, though still embarrassed.

“Alright. First… let me talk about the swordsmanship.

While all swordsmanship has similarities, there are slight differences in preferred weapons, battle philosophies, and doctrines, which affect how situations are handled.

The East primarily uses one-handed thrusting swords and staffs, the Empire uses one or two-handed swords, and the North and West use long, curved blades.

Of course, these are general tendencies that vary by region, teacher, and knightly order, with significant differences between them.

But this swordsmanship doesn’t fit any of them.”

Kain was slightly disappointed at the dead end, but found parts of it reasonable. If someone was connected to the Demon King, used shadow magic, and wielded a scabbard, it wouldn’t be strange for them to have something unique.

But Lily wasn’t finished.

“Yet it’s also a swordsmanship that can be seen anywhere. No, to be precise, it’s not even a technique.”

“What do you mean?”

“All the stances you showed are common mistakes made by trainees.”

Kain was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t properly respond to Lily’s words. Lily quickly bowed her head slightly and tried to reassure him.

“Ah. It does sound strange…”

“No, no. Go on. Why do you think that?”

“First, this stance.” Lily recreated the defensive stance with the twisted wrist. “You said he deflected the first attack and blocked the second by twisting his wrist, right?”

“That’s right.”

Still bewildered, Kain listened attentively to Lily’s explanation.

No sword technique in the world teaches twisting the wrist in a defensive stance, she explained. It prevents properly transferring force to the sword.

Rather, the wrist is emphasized in offensive moves, not defensive ones. One should protect their own wrist while targeting the opponent’s.

“If your opponent can’t hold a sword due to a wrist injury, you can easily secure both your safety and victory. And while people are generally conscious of their torso, they’re less aware of their wrists and arms.”

Kain understood.

“Right. That’s why wandering knights who fight duels for money often wear prosthetic arms.”

“Exactly. And with this stance… excuse me, but could you show me the defensive stance with the twisted wrist again?”

Kain assumed the stance. Lily gently placed her sword against his and pressed slightly. Despite applying little force, Kain’s wrist stung and his sword was pushed back.

“So it’s a stance that can’t block properly.”

“Yes, that’s certain. The wrist would have twisted more during the deflection, and if he ‘blocked’ afterward, it would have caused significant strain.”

“Could he have had strong wrist strength?”

“If that were the case, he wouldn’t have needed to deflect. He would have pressed down instead.”

It was a reasonable point. So in terms of sword technique, the knight was extremely clumsy and unskilled, not even following the most basic principles.

“Okay. I understand that part. Now for the next question: the sword movements were definitely slow, but when he needed to block, he blocked precisely. How do you explain that?”

Lily nodded at Kain’s question.

“Would you strike at me with your sword? Slowly.”

Since it wasn’t a duel, Kain could do that without concern. He swung his sword so slowly it would barely press against skin. Lily blocked it without difficulty.

“Now a bit faster.”

Like a standard-bearer waving a flag, Kain swung his sword broadly. Faster than before but still visible to the eye. Lily blocked this attack easily too, at the same point as before.

“What’s the point of this?”

“Now strike quickly. With all your strength.”

“This isn’t a duel. What if you get hurt?”

Lily smiled brightly at Kain’s concern.

“Do you sincerely believe you could hurt me?”

“Getting cocky again?”

“Then punish me. I’m asking because I have confidence. And I can’t explain it to you any other way.”

“Prepare yourself. Here I come.”

Kain gripped the training sword with both hands. He raised it high above his head, taking the stance of a hawk preparing to snatch its prey. Of course, he didn’t forget to nod once before attacking.

He swung with all his might. A direct hit would cause serious injury. But Lily’s movement was so slow that Kain momentarily considered slowing down.

Yet, the sword was blocked.

At exactly the same point as before. Concerned for Kain’s wrist, Lily didn’t immediately knock his sword away. After receiving the blow, she stepped back slightly, then gradually applied force to push it away, reducing the impact.

“…How did you do that? You were definitely slow.”

“Simple misdirection. Do you remember the central doctrine of Imperial swordsmanship?”

It was a somewhat abrupt question. Kain answered promptly.

“We’re taught to break momentum. Counter a slash with a faster, stronger slash. Counter a thrust with a more precise, sharper thrust. Aggressively.”

“To do that, you must be able to gauge your opponent’s strength and speed. That’s why trainees and apprentice knights are first trained to receive attacks from senior knights. Of course, in the knightly orders, this has been passed down as a bad practice…”

Lily shook her head vigorously as if trying to shake off bad memories.

“Anyway. The Knight of the Scabbard probably raised his sword slowly until the midpoint. Then at the crucial moment, he raised it sharply like this.”

Lily raised her sword. It rose slowly to about chest level, but then shot up to the tip of her nose in an instant. Seeing the angle and position of her arm, Kain understood immediately.

“Misdirection. Deliberately making the speed appear slow, then suddenly raising it at the last moment…”

“Exactly. For example, if a normal swordsman swings his sword three times taking 3 seconds each, the Knight of the Scabbard would take 5 seconds for the first swing, 3 seconds for the second, and just 1 second for the third. So one can’t help but fall for the deception.”

“What kind of technique is that?”

“It’s not a technique,” Lily asserted.

“It means being dragged by the sword. It’s similar to what swordsmen with large two-handed swords show. At first, even one swing is burdensome, but as they continue swinging, centrifugal force and rhythm develop, gradually increasing speed. It wasn’t a large sword, but do you remember Arianne’s swordsmanship with her similarly long two-handed sword?”

Kain couldn’t forget. Her sword dance was truly bizarre. The sword was graceful and never stopped for a moment. It continuously sliced through the air, maintaining consistency, and she didn’t even seem out of breath.

“I remember. But the Knight of the Scabbard doesn’t use a large two-handed sword. It’s just an Imperial sword.”

“Which means he’s also unskilled in handling the sword. In terms of overall skill level, it would be fair to consider him as transitioning from a page to a squire. But… I’m not sure if this makes sense.

If he really were only at that level, he couldn’t have defeated so many knights. You, Kain, would have easily exploited his weaknesses. There must be additional variables that I don’t understand.”

Lily’s words were shocking.

So the Knight of the Scabbard doesn’t even have the skill of an apprentice knight?