Chapter 38

Chapter : 38

As I got out of bed, I checked the clock.

Four in the morning.

A dark, pre-dawn hour before sunrise.

I headed toward the parade ground, feeling the softened dawn breeze that came with spring’s passing. Navier was waiting for me there.

“You came...”

Sleepy, Navier rubbed at her eyes with her fists and bobbed where she stood.

There had been no real need to drag her out before dawn to train and build stamina. Exercising in the early morning was not inherently more efficient.

But both Navier and I were short on time. We were busy in all sorts of ways, and dawn was the only time we could meet regularly.

“Let’s run first.”

Today was the first day of our early-morning training together.

I ran lightly beside her to match her pace, but before Navier had even managed two full laps of the parade ground, she was already gasping for breath and pouring sweat as though it were water.

“Huff! Huff!”

It really felt as though she might die at this rate, so I slowed to a walk.

“My... my stomach hurts.”

“I see.”

“I think... I’m going to die. Ahh.”

“I see.”

“Huff. Do I really have to run like this? Isn’t there some kind of medicine? Something that makes you strong, or something?”

“That would be cheating.”

In the modern world, it would have been possible to obtain or make things like steroids or growth hormone. That would have opened a much easier road.

If Navier absolutely had to win the fencing tournament, I might have resorted to something like that.

But that was not the point.

All she needed was to leave the impression on the Crown Prince that she was doing her utmost. That much could be achieved through effort.

“Can’t we stop here for today? I promise I’ll really work hard starting tomorrow.”

Navier let out a pitiful groan.

I knew she was not merely whining.

When someone first began exercising, the muscle pain could be severe, and in many ways, it really was better to take things lightly.

But we did not have time. The fencing tournament was only about two months away.

Within those two months, she had to raise her skill to the point where she could properly fight a match. Time was short, so I pushed her hard.

Whenever it seemed as though she might actually die, I eased the pace. And if that still was not enough, I made her finish the planned distance even if she had to do it walking.

Once we finished the run, we sampled a little strength training, then entered the fencing hall.

Yesterday, after crossing foils directly with Navier, I had judged her skill to be miserable, but the situation was better than I expected.

Once I checked only the fundamentals in the hall, it was clear that although it had been long ago, she had in fact learned once before.

After testing basics such as two advances, two retreats, tapping the floor, and a jumping advance, I set up a separate target and scored her on repeating advance, thrust, and retreat ten times.

Her stamina was poor, and her movements were slow, but the act of striking the target itself was precise. Looking at the angle of her foil tip, her elbow, and her feet, it was clear that her form, at least, had been properly taught.

The reason her skill had looked so lacking in yesterday’s practice bout was simply that she lacked real match experience.

To make up for that, I called Navier onto the piste. We took our stances on the en garde line. There was no referee to call “Allez,” so I signaled the start myself.

I fought while deliberately restraining my physical ability to match Navier’s level.

I moved sluggishly and thrust slowly. I even paused for a moment before reacting to obvious incoming attacks, timing my response to suit Navier. And yet, despite all that, I still took points far too easily.

Navier seemed so disheartened by losing so helplessly even while I was holding back that her shoulders drooped.

“I suppose I really have no talent.”

“Yes, that does seem to be the case.”

But that was not what concerned me.

“You’re too focused on not losing points. Fine, when you don’t have right of way, that’s one thing. But even when you do have right of way, you can’t afford to be passive.”

“I was doing my best to score.”

“No, that won’t do.”

“Why not?”

“Because it looks bad.”

Navier tilted her head.

“What?”

During the bout, Navier had spent a great deal of time with her feet near the warning line.

In foil, the valid target area was only the upper torso and the head. Aiming for the extremities was pointless, so a style that only sought openings like that was inefficient.

And above all, it did not suit our purpose.

She was not entering the tournament for the sake of friendship, nor merely to enjoy the satisfaction of having worked up a sweat.

This was for the position of Empress.

“Fight aggressively. Fight in a way that lets everyone see how desperate you are to win. And when you score, make your reactions bigger. Much bigger.”

“Hmm... wouldn’t that damage my image?”

I remembered exactly how sensitive Navier was to other people’s eyes, and how much care she had taken over them.

She had built her tower with painstaking effort. A tower that could collapse from even a light blow. To threaten it directly—of course she would hesitate.

“You need to distinguish between what you have to protect and what you have to give up. Everything you’ve done up until now has been for the sake of becoming Empress, hasn’t it?”

Navier hesitated once, then answered.

“Yes. All right. Let’s do it. I’ll do it that way.”

---

There was such a thing as Sword Aura. It was a technique that used mana skillfully to coat the blade, and once one could do it, the sword became terrifyingly sharp. Used well, it could even cut iron. Swordsmen who reached that level were called Sword Experts.

Officially, there were only two people who had reached the next stage beyond Sword Expert, that of Sword Master.

My current swordsmanship teacher, Katarina, and Commander Haok, who led the White Knight Order in the capital.

Then how many Sword Experts were there?

Not many.

Even within Sword Expert, the level was divided into lower, middle, and upper ranks. Merely reaching the lower rank was enough to join any knight order.

The upper rank was the level of a commander in a prestigious knight order.

If one could use Sword Aura, one was a Sword Expert.

“Hoo...”

As I learned magic from Ian and then studied on my own, my understanding of mana increased.

Unless they were a truly high-level knight, I doubted many could honestly claim to understand mana better than I did.

That was why this was possible.

Just as when I cast magic, just as when I shaped a Mana Bullet, I released mana outside my body. I exerted force on the shimmering mana, wavering like heat haze, and restricted its movement.

Then I brought it to the sword and pressed it against it. A film of mana adhered tightly to the blade.

“Hup...”

I swung the sword toward an iron plate.

SKRIIIIICH!

The sword split the plate with the sensation of sawing through wood.

“Haa...”

The concentration it required was several times greater than when firing a Mana Bullet, and droplets of sweat fell from my hair one by one.

I decided to call what I had just used false Sword Aura.

The true Sword Aura used by knights was not mana released from the body, but mana released through the sword itself.

Because of that, it adhered to the blade more closely and was sharper. It was worth far more than the false Sword Aura I had drawn out.

“But still, doesn’t this count for something...?”

I looked down at the iron plate I had just split.

Its surface was rough, but it had still been cut cleanly into two pieces. Whatever else one might say, wasn’t cutting it all that mattered?

Of course, that was only my own opinion, and I wanted to know how a real master would judge it, so I went to find Katarina. The moment I said I had something to show her, she frowned.

“What now? What did you buy this time?”

“It’s not that. There’s a technique I’ve learned. Please take a look.”

Just as I had practiced while alone, I drew out mana and wrapped it around the blade.

Then I took the iron plate I had cut in half earlier from my pocket, tossed it into the air, and thrust my sword through it.

CLAAANG!

The sword pierced through the iron plate.

“What do you think?”

Katarina pushed up her lower lip with her thumb and chewed it between her teeth. She flicked her brows a few times in silence, then scratched the back of her head.

“That’s incredible.”

“I’m not asking for praise. I want to know whether it’s usable. I’m worried that if I clash with someone using real Sword Aura, this might break. Could I use it in a real fight?”

“How long does it take you to make that?”

“If I stand still and concentrate, about five seconds.”

“No opponent is going to wait five seconds for you, so no, you can’t use it. It’s probably better than nothing, but don’t rely on it too much.”

Then Katarina began tapping my upper arm with her fist.

She was not hitting me to hurt me, so I wondered what on earth she was doing.

“More importantly, let’s go brag about this somewhere. Quickly.”

“Brag about what?”

“That the disciple of Katarina the Sword Saint has become the youngest Sword Expert in nearly a hundred years.”

“What? But this isn’t proper Sword Aura.”

“That isn’t the important part. Looking at the way you’re going, at most it’ll take three years, at least one, before you can produce real Sword Aura anyway. I’m just going to brag in advance.”

“And what do we gain from that?”

“Reputation.”

To knights in this world, reputation was quite valuable. The places where knights could find employment were obvious and limited, and entry was not decided by skill alone.

Reputation and public standing carried almost as much weight as ability.

No matter how skilled a knight might be, if he was unknown or had a bad name, he could not enter a prestigious knight order.

That, however, was not really my concern.

I was already the lord of a large territory, so worrying about employment was both unnecessary and ridiculous.

“If it’s just that, then fine.”

Wham! Wham!

Strength went into Katarina’s fist as she thumped my upper arm. In a voice two tones higher than usual, she shouted,

“Do you have any idea how much I’ve done for you, and you’re telling me I can’t even brag about this one thing?”

“Master, you’ve already made your name as the Sword Saint, haven’t you?”

“That and this are different. Do you know how much that old man from the White Lion Knights loves to boast about how much effort he puts into raising disciples? I need to let the world know that I produced a brilliant disciple before he did.”

“But this still isn’t really true...”

“Hey. Do you even know how much what I taught you is worth? Did I take money from you to teach you? Did I ever demand gifts or anything else? And besides, this isn’t even a complete lie. You can use Sword Aura, can’t you?”

Katarina was absurdly stubborn. Once she made up her mind about something, she would never be satisfied until she had done it.

And, as she said, the instruction she had given me truly was precious. Seeing how desperately she wanted this, it seemed best to let her have her way just this once.

“All right. Do as you please.”

Only then did the fist beating at my upper arm stop. Katarina broke into a broad grin and nodded vigorously.

“That’s more like it! Ah, then I’m off to brag about this. Keep practicing that false Sword Aura of yours. You probably won’t have any use for it in real combat, but it seems similar in feeling to producing real Sword Aura, so if you keep at it, you’ll be able to use the real thing too.”

When Katarina said she was going to boast about the fact that I could use Sword Aura, I assumed she meant she would mention it casually to a few acquaintances.

I expected her to brag a few times that her disciple could now use Sword Aura, and leave it at that.

That was idiotic of me.

I only learned what atrocity Katarina had committed a few days later, when I happened to see a newspaper article.

“A New Star Is Born!”

“Raphael Isaac, disciple of Katarina the Sword Saint and lord of House Isaac, has reached the rank of Sword Expert at the youngest age seen in nearly a hundred years. According to Lady Katarina, Raphael took first place upon entering the Academy, though he still had some shortcomings at the time. However, through diligent effort and by following the training imparted by Lady Katarina, he has now risen to the level of Sword Expert...”

My face burned as though it were about to burst.