Chapter 151: Blind Date (3)

“…What did you just say?”

“It’s fine if you want to ask again, but my answer won’t change. I said it’s okay to come at me with the intent to kill.”

Elaine tilted her head, asking me several times as if she couldn’t understand my response.

I could see why she was confused. Life is precious to everyone, be they king or beggar. It’s the one thing that can’t be replaced.

Who wouldn’t be puzzled when told it’s okay to throw away such a precious thing for a mere matchmaking duel?

“Are you really serious…?”

“Yeah.”

“Why… Aren’t you afraid of dying?”

“I am scared… But I’d rather die than have someone hold back against me. Besides, isn’t this better for you too?”

The purpose of this fight was to find a suitable partner for the future Sword Saint – in other words, to find Elaine’s future husband.

This wasn’t just a simple fight, but a search for a lifelong partner. It wouldn’t do to have an opponent you had to go easy on for fear of accidentally killing them.

She needed to find someone she could clash with at full strength. If there were casualties in the process, so be it.

“Even if I die in this fight, it’ll just mean I was weak. There’s no need for you to feel guilty. So just do whatever you want.”

“……”

Elaine stared at me intently for a while, then suddenly broke into a chilling smile.

As a genuine expression born from Elaine’s emotions, not from an external shock, appeared on her face, it felt as if the mask she’d been wearing all this time had shattered.

That smile contained not just joy, but also killing intent. Yet despite the killing intent, I didn’t sense any hostility directed at me.

There was a kind of purity in that killing intent, which sought to kill without hatred.

“You know, I’ve been holding back all this time…”

“Holding back what?”

“…Fighting seriously.”

Elaine realized how fragile and weak humans were when she was about 8 years old.

During a sparring match with a family knight, a casual strike from her killed her opponent. That’s when Elaine understood she was different from others.

The Sword Saint’s clan, which had sought strong bloodlines for generations and received special education from a young age, could be said to be a different species from ordinary people.

Though she enjoyed fighting, Elaine didn’t like killing. So she had always fought with self-imposed restrictions to avoid killing her opponents.

“It was good when I fought with Father…”

A few times a month, when fighting her father, the Sword Saint, Elaine was freed from these restrictions.

Her father, an unshakeable fortress who wouldn’t fall no matter how hard she fought, was the only one who gave Elaine true freedom.

Of course, Elaine also felt free when facing enemies that needed to be killed, like bandits or magic beasts, but that freedom didn’t last long.

It’s no exaggeration to say that, apart from Lobo or the possessed, there was hardly anyone who could stand against her for more than a minute, given that the possessed had already dealt with most of the threats that should have existed in this world.

“…It wasn’t a serious fight, but fighting you was fun.”

As Elaine raised her sword high, the swords that had flown far away began to liquefy and gather around her sword.

“It’s not just that you’re strong… Your fighting style is so different from mine, it makes my heart race. Is this feeling… what Rain called love?”

“No!! That’s not love!!”

“Jessica… We’re having a serious conversation here, so please be quiet for a moment.”

Ignoring Jessica, who kept shouting that it wasn’t love, Elaine continued.

“I think I’d be okay having your child. No, I want to. So… for that reason too, I’m going to fight seriously.”

As if to prove her words weren’t a lie, Elaine’s energy manipulation surged to a level incomparable to before, creating heat haze around her body.

“Jessica!! Run away!! Quickly!!”

Seeing my rare display of alarm, Jessica and the other swordsmen grasped the situation and started running all at once.

The sword spirit, also recognizing the gravity of the situation, gathered as many of the swords stuck in the ground as possible and retreated far away from us.

‘That sword… It won’t be easy to break.’

Elaine’s sword, which had melted earlier, had transformed into a massive blade easily twice her height. It had become a sword-spear hybrid with a wide blade and a spear-like long hilt.

While its size wasn’t much different from the great sword she’d shown earlier, the power emanating from it was incomparable.

“Ah… I didn’t want to show this in a place like this.”

“Did you have somewhere specific in mind?”

“Yeah… I wanted to show it somewhere quieter where I could go all out.”

“You mean you wanted to show it in a more intimate setting.”

“…Maybe. Well, here I come.”

As Elaine gripped the spear shaft with both hands and prepared to swing her sword-spear, my survival instinct reacted faster than my thoughts, making me duck low.

The moment I lowered my body, Elaine’s sword-spear swung forward, destroying everything in its path.

Boom!! Hearing the sound of collapsing earth behind me, I turned to see the mountain that had been visible on the horizon crumbling.

Both in power and range, it far surpassed any sword strike I’d ever seen.

Is this the true strength of the future Sword Saint?

Cold sweat ran down my back at the overwhelming power that could tear my body to shreds with just a graze, but I couldn’t help smiling at the thought that I might be able to defeat this.

“You’re smiling… Are you happy too?”

“Yeah, but it’s a bit dangerous to swing something like that around here. Shall we change locations for a bit?”

Saying that, I instantly dove into Elaine’s embrace and drew Jinta upwards.

Either because I approached too quickly or because she couldn’t rapid-fire such powerful attacks, Elaine couldn’t counter and had to block with her spear shaft.

“Oh…”

Jinta’s power sent Elaine soaring high into the sky, and I leapt up after her.

This way, unless she deliberately aimed her attacks at the ground, there’d be no risk of harming Jessica or the other swordsmen.

“Now it’s just the two of us, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m glad.”

As Elaine said this, she swung her sword-spear. The clouds in the path of her blade were torn apart as if hit by a storm.

If that attack hit me, my body would be shredded just like those clouds.

Due to the weapon’s large size, her attacks were somewhat predictable, but their power and range made it difficult to approach carelessly.

Although it might have looked like she was firing off attacks randomly, these strikes were steadily draining my stamina and gradually cornering me.

The open sky offered plenty of room to dodge, but the attacks’ wide range meant that evading consumed more stamina and energy manipulation than I’d expected.

‘I can’t count on her stamina running out first…’

Elaine isn’t stupid.

Out of the many strategies available, if she chose one that whittled down stamina, it must have been after considering both our energy levels and deciding she had the advantage.

Moreover, I’d already used up a considerable amount of stamina avoiding Elaine’s attacks.

While her attacks consumed an enormous amount of energy manipulation and stamina, considering my remaining stamina, I’d likely run out first.

‘I should hide for now…’

This was the open sky without any obstacles, but that didn’t mean there was nowhere to hide.

I drew Jinta to ascend even higher, then concealed myself within thick clouds.

Hidden in the clouds in this darkness, I couldn’t be found by sight. The sound of my movement was also masked by the howling wind, so the only way to find me would be to sense my energy manipulation.

But no matter how good her detection ability, it would be difficult to pinpoint my exact location if I suppressed my energy manipulation as much as possible.

Proof of this was that even now, Elaine’s attacks were coming close but stopping just short of reaching me.

‘I need to bait Elaine’s attacks and drain her energy even a little…’

As I was thinking this while moving through the clouds, Elaine’s attacks suddenly stopped. I peeked out of the clouds to see her concentrating energy manipulation into her sword-spear.

‘Is she planning to blow away this entire area?’

That was my initial thought, but the energy manipulation focused on her sword-spear was concentrating at the tip, not spreading out. It looked like she was planning to pour all of it onto a single target rather than spread it wide.

‘…She’s waiting for me.’

Anyone with even a bit of sense would normally dodge rather than try to block such an attack, but Elaine was trusting me and waiting.

Happy at that trust, even though I knew it was foolish, I emerged from the clouds and charged towards Elaine.

“…I believed you’d come.”

Elaine’s spear tip pointed at me, and my Jinta flashed for an instant before returning to its scabbard.

Even with the Baldo technique, it’s impossible to negate such an attack with a single draw.

I repeatedly drew and sheathed Jinta, building up friction again and again, accumulating it all for a single strike.

And then, just as the tip of Elaine’s spear was about to reach me, I released all the friction I’d gathered like an eruption. The glowing Jinta clashed with Elaine’s spear tip, and…

Along with a terrifying torrent of energy manipulation, half of which was my own, the sky split apart.

—