Chapter 53

Chapter 53. A Test of Skill (1)

I softened the story as much as I could so that Mother would not be too alarmed, but even so, she closed her eyes and said,

“I only wanted you to live in peace....”

As expected, Mother’s instincts were frighteningly sharp. It seemed she had grasped a fair amount of the situation from what I had told her.

I, too, wanted to live a peaceful life, but to be honest, if not for my ability, I would already have died long ago.

Far from living peacefully, I had to struggle desperately just to stay alive.

“And now you are going to spar with Young Master Manuel? Will you really be all right?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine. Ah! Right. Come with me. I want you to see my skill too, Mother.”

Come to think of it, I had been far too inconsiderate toward her. If I ended up going away to study, I would be worried about the mother left behind, but Mother would naturally be worried beyond measure about me leaving as well.

It seemed I needed to change the purpose of this spar a little.

I would use this spar to put Mother at ease.

I took Mother with me and headed toward the forest behind the estate.

Quite a crowd had gathered at the family’s training ground, where I had spent all this time practicing.

The old steward, the Knight Commander, Simon, and even Duchess Brivia Gresia were there.

And in front of them all stood my second brother Manuel, flicking sparks from his fingers as he waited for me.

A rare occasion on which the family had all gathered.

Unfortunately, the Duke himself was nowhere to be seen.

While I was preparing for the spar, Manuel looked at me and spoke.

With his nose raised high, he said something that, sadly, was not very new.

“So I hear you fight rather well for your age? I’ll teach you that the way nobles fight is not like that.”

It was something I had heard many times before.

Of course, the battles of knights who used mana were also vastly different from the fights of ordinary people.

It was like medieval warfare transformed into armored warfare from a more modern age.

There was no long-range bombardment or machine guns, but when one considered the defensive and offensive power of knights who used mana, they were not all that different from armored vehicles from my previous life.

But even the battle of such knights was, compared to combat between nobles, not so very different from the fighting of ordinary people.

“Battles between nobles are said to be closer to fights between superpowers, determined by the size of the ability and its compatibility, right?”

Complete fantasy... no, more like the kind of battles one saw in science-fiction stories about psychics.

And the brother standing before me was showing exactly that sort of battle in the making.

He was not wearing proper armor at all, and sparks danced above his hand.

Then again, a knight or soldier clad in iron armor or holding a metal sword would collapse immediately under that kind of lightning attack.

It was not as though removing the armor made electricity stop conducting altogether.

Now that I thought about it, was that why my brother was not wearing proper armor?

I had considered taking off my own armor and using a wooden sword as well, but that did not feel like a proper response, so I had come fully prepared instead.

In truth, I also wanted to win without relying on compatibility.

Honestly, I had no idea what sort of thing he thought he was doing against a child, but then again, I was young too, so perhaps it did not matter.

So I put on armor fitted properly to my body and took up a practice steel sword.

I could not use the greatsword, nor the dagger I had brought back from the ruins. Even if I hid the abilities I could use with the greatsword or the dagger, anyone truly capable of examining a blade would ask endless questions about both swords.

I could bluff my way past others, but if people like the Duchess, the Knight Commander, or the Head Steward took notice of them, it would surely become a great nuisance.

“Hmph, so in the end you’re just imitating a knight. But of course you would, when you’ve never fought a proper noble before.”

Hm, as far as actual combat experience went, I had far more than he did. True, they had not all been proper nobles, but I had fought inherited abilities many times by now.

I could not help feeling puzzled by how confident Manuel looked.

Huh? Wait. Hadn’t anyone told the younger brother?

I glanced toward Simon. He may not have seen me in real battle, but he had watched me spar many times during the trip.

And Simon’s own skill was not bad at all.

But when I looked at Simon, his expression felt rather strange.

He was watching his younger brother, but his face looked somewhat cold.

Ah, wait. Was it because, though younger, Manuel was still a rival? Or was there some other reason?

No, this was not the time for thoughts like that. I shoved the stray thoughts aside. Right now, I needed to focus on the spar.

Gripping my sword, I walked toward Manuel and took in the people around me.

The Knight Commander and the Head Steward watched us with interested expressions.

Simon stood beside Duchess Brivia Gresia, whose face was stiff, wearing a strange expression of his own.

Beside the Duchess stood her head maid, while some distance away Mother and my personal maid Flora were watching me.

Mother looked worried, while Flora was doing her best to reassure her.

After looking around, I finally stood before Manuel.

Manuel’s face was full of mockery. But for some reason, his expression did not really enter my eyes.

Instead, perhaps because there was an audience this time, I felt a strange heat I had never noticed before.

Without thinking, I gripped the hilt of my sword tightly.

It was not a fight to the death, nor was I especially nervous. But as I felt everyone’s eyes on me, heat rose through my body.

A strangely pleasant heat. So this was the power of an audience.

Of course, there were things I still had to hide, but I felt as though I ought to fight properly all the same.

When Manuel and I had both taken our places, the Knight Commander, acting as referee, gave a few brief instructions and then immediately signaled the beginning.

The duel began.

Flash!

At the same instant, my vision turned white.

Kwarrrr!

Then came a sound like thunder.

I forcibly circulated mana into my eyes and barely managed to recover my sight.

My vision returned, but my eyelids were still twitching, and my whole body trembled from the electric shock.

Ptui!

I spat out the blood that had pooled in my mouth and glared at Manuel.

Hadn’t he been underestimating me? And now he was opening with an attack like that. If I had reacted badly, I might have been done for right there.

More than that, there had not even been a motion for the attack itself.

The sparks floating above his hand had not changed, and he had neither thrust out his hand nor snapped his fingers.

Lightning had simply struck toward me. No, it would have been more accurate to say that Manuel and I had simply been connected by a bolt of lightning.

To be honest, it was not the sort of attack one could dodge.

Yet Manuel, standing in front of me, was wearing a thoroughly twisted expression.

He had likely intended to land that attack at the very start and then smirk at me afterward, but the smile had crumpled halfway before it could properly form.

Which was only natural, because I had avoided his ambush.

Of course, I had not dodged by seeing the motion of his body. I had dodged by sensing the mana flowing through him.

To be honest, if I had not been able to sense mana, I would definitely have taken the hit full on.

The ground where I had originally stood, the space between Manuel and me, had been charred black, and sparks were still running over it.

More than that, even I, who had sensed the attack through mana and hurled myself as far as possible away from the point of impact, had not completely avoided it.

It was a far stronger attack than I had expected. If it had struck me directly, then in the worst case, I might really have lost.

I wrapped mana around my body and swept away the remaining electricity clinging to me. Just as I had expected, mana easily drove the lingering current from my body.

‘Mana really is almost a cure-all.’

Once the electricity was gone, the trembling body returned to normal.

So he really had been hiding a trump card.

No, more importantly, was it really right to use a trump card like that in a duel between brothers?

And as trump cards often were, it also seemed like a method that placed tremendous strain on the user.

Just as I had expected, Manuel’s face, glaring at me, had gone pale, and he was gasping as though he might stop breathing at any moment.

So it had indeed been too much for him.

‘Well, there’s no need to go easy on him.’

Thinking to end it right away, I immediately dashed forward.

Manuel’s face rushed closer and closer, and then I sensed something strange in it.

The face that had gone pale returned to normal in an instant, and the ragged breath settled just as quickly.

‘What?’

On top of that, I could feel the mana that had nearly been exhausted in Manuel’s body return in an instant.

It was a perfect opportunity, but judging from all my past experience, this was not the moment to press the attack.

“Tch!”

Clicking my tongue, I threw myself backward.

At the same time, Manuel tensed his whole body and shouted, and electric current surged up all over him.

“Kraaah!”

It seemed that unlike the last technique, this one could not be done without movement.

With a deathly pale face, he glared at me.

“That makes no sense! How did you dodge it again? You were definitely electrocuted!”

He shouted that toward me after I had retreated.

No, really, what was going through his head, shouting in the middle of a fight like that?

And there was something I wanted to ask him as well.

Just how was he restoring mana so quickly after having used enough to nearly empty himself dry?

Even now, though he was wreathed in lightning like that, it did not look as though he was running out of mana.

Pajijijik.

Of course, the face inside those sparks was gradually growing paler, but even so, it made no sense that someone his age had enough mana to sustain that kind of lightning.

I had never once heard that Manuel possessed any special ability for mana recovery.

And more than that, I had never heard of anyone besides me possessing more than one ability.

“Could it be... do you have some kind of relic that restores mana?”

“W-why would I have something like that?!”

At my words, Manuel cried out in a stumbling voice.

Huh? That had just been me muttering to myself.

Wait, so there really is such a thing?

And on top of that, with my ears strengthened by mana, I heard a small sigh.

I shifted my gaze slightly to the side. Brother Simon had one hand covering his face, while Duchess Brivia Gresia had frowned deeply.

So there really was such an item.

And my dear brother was secretly using it during our spar.

No, more than that, if he was going to use it in secret, shouldn’t he at least have managed not to get caught?

At this rate, there was no way this could remain a proper duel.

Judging by the Knight Commander clearing his throat, he seemed about ready to stop the spar right here.

But I could not allow that.

I looked at Manuel, who was still wreathed in electricity from head to toe.

Getting close to him, let alone swinging my sword at him, was difficult because of that current.

I did not know what sort of relic it was, but there was no way it could keep pouring out electricity forever like that.

And Manuel himself was visibly growing more exhausted by the moment.

Well, at this rate, it did look as though he would soon collapse on his own.

“Damn it! Die!”

Perhaps Manuel too had realized that things were going wrong, because he fired a portion of the electricity he was releasing straight at me.

Pajijijik! Pajijijik!

But unlike his first attack, there was no way I would let myself be hit by an attack I could plainly see coming.

As I lightly avoided the strikes, Manuel only grew tired faster.

If I dragged this out just a little longer, it seemed I would win without trouble.

But the Knight Commander would probably stop the duel before that happened, and I did not want it to end like this either.