Chapter 12: The Successor of the Sword Saint (2)
The Empire’s swordsmanship had its roots in two schools.
Twenty-six stances optimized for Illusion Swordsmanship, and forty-four offensive maneuvers.
Seventy blade techniques in total had been practiced for eight years.
She had trained to exhaustion in sparring even before coming to Karbenna.
Changing one’s attack to match the opponent’s trajectory was the foundation of Illusion Swordsmanship.
Only by mastering that perfectly could one finally reach the Illusion Swordsmanship basic technique, the Reverse-Heaven Sword.
The first attack moved the trajectory from the left flank up to the shoulder an upward thrust.
The second attack was an upward slash that hooked down across the right ribcage.
If it had been practice, one of them would have been a feint.
This ti, both were real attacks.
The opponent was Instructor Carter. Of course he had no intention of going easy.
He had told her to treat it like real combat, so he had lunged as if he ant to kill.
If the sword he held had not been a wooden practice blade but a live blade, the place would have been soaked in blood.
Crack!
With the clash of blade against blade, shadows tangled in confusion.
A delayed jolt traveled from her fingertips up to both shoulders.
At that instant Francia sensed sothing wrong.
‘…what on earth just happened?’
At this point the tip of the opponent’s sword should surely have touched skin.
But she felt no contact at all.
‘Could he have completely evaded it?’
No. That couldn’t be it.
If that were the case, why would he have used a wooden sword?
A tangle of thoughts only amplified the question.
The dust raised by the charge and collision cleared, and the two stances gradually revealed themselves.
Only then did Francia understand the reason for her bewildernt.
The wooden sword she had been gripping tightly had already slipped free from her hand.
Her head turned upward instinctively.
The wooden sword that had been knocked away was spinning in the air.
“…how.”
She recalled, one by one, every sensation she had felt until a mont before.
The sand and dust brushing both cheeks, a bead of sweat trickling down her spine.
The coarse feeling of callused palms, the brutal impact she’d felt from the clash.
Among all of those, there had been not a single sensation of the blade ‘touching skin’.
“Could it be…”
Francia’s gaze returned to Eugene Carter.
She swept over his posture quickly, and only then noticed the impossible skill he had perford.
“…….”
Seeing her unable to close her mouth, I offered a short remark.
“No need for an explanation, right?”
“How on earth… did you do that?”
I couldn’t say that it was a sight I’d seen tiredly many tis on the ga screen, so I made a plausible excuse.
“When you live every day on a battlefield where life and death hang in the balance, your nerves develop hypersensitivity. In my case, it was my eyes.”
That wasn’t entirely idle talk.
In his pri, Eugene Carter would certainly have read both attack trajectories she had launched.
Even now, with all my physical abilities lagging behind, I had at least been able to clearly identify the thrust’s trajectory.
But obviously, simply seeing wouldn’t stop anything.
A miracle that allowed to take two defensive actions at once was impossible for .
So I had chosen a desperate asure.
I defended the slash the defense that had the highest chance of stopping it and dodged the thrust.
That had been my plan, but…
“Even if I knew, the trajectory was too deep to fully dodge.”
The sword I’d been holding had been used up guarding against the earlier upward slash.
I had failed to predict the trajectory and so could not completely avoid it.
Then the remaining choice was…
Francia, who had naturally reached the conclusion, murmured softly.
“…counterstrike.”
“Correct.”
I nodded toward her left shoulder.
“I bounced it off the angle of the shoulder blade.”
“…….”
“I had no knowledge of Illusion Swordsmanship; for , that was the best option.”
Hearing the truth, Francia wore an expression that was impossible to believe.
It made sense, if soone had not watched her for a very long ti, they would not have been able to make that judgnt.
It was, in every sense, my own tactic.
As she brushed dust from her body with an expression of indifference, she picked up the wooden sword that had fallen to the ground and asked cautiously.
“I have one question, Instructor.”
“You an whether I would have used the sa strategy if it had been a live blade?”
“…Yes.”
I leaned casually against one of the wooden posts standing about and answered.
“When people spar, they usually only think about how to evade or block.”
“That’s… true.”
I didn’t an to say that was wrong.
Avoiding injury was generally better in any situation.
Sparring was, after all, for real combat.
In actual combat, a single lapse could lead to death.
“But sotis you needed the resolve to give up a bone and take the opponent’s life.”
Especially against a mana beast.
“If it was just a tossed shoulder, it could be treated sohow as long as you didn’t miss the timing.”
Even if not ideal, trading a shoulder for a life was not necessarily a bad deal.
I set the sword I’d been holding into a wooden bucket and continued.
“Stance, attack, defense, blade forms, sword paths, elentary techniques, secret techniques. All of those were ultimately just processes.”
At least that was how the fully blood Francia I had seen had been.
Sotis rigid, sotis flexible.
Sotis wielding a greatsword as big as her body, sotis a dagger the length of a finger.
Sotis she’d sacrificed an arm to fight; sotis she’d delivered a secret technique the instant after a clash.
“Theory and systems exist for the sake of real combat. They aren’t rules that must always be followed.”
Although those words had existed only as text on a screen, I could see them clearly in my mind the things she had said.
Recalling them one by one, I tied them off decisively.
Along with the single line Francia Brida needed most at that mont.
“Walking the right path didn’t an you had to follow it to the letter, Candidate No. 12.”
“…….”
“Don’t forget that.”
“…I will rember it, Instructor.”
At the sa ti.
Rubia Magnus was lost in a book at K Hall again today.
So of Karbenna’s buildings were far better known by nicknas.
The main building felt more familiar than Building A, the campus cafeteria more so than Building I.
And here.
K Hall was mostly called the Mage Studies Hall.
All sorts of magic tos and artifacts, various laboratories and herbalism classrooms were gathered here.
Because it was so close to the forest, it was ideal for related practical work.
Not all magic towers were like this, but most were built near forests or mountains, so for soone from the magic tower like her, nothing was as familiar as the Mage Studies Hall.
“…Alright.”
Maybe she would stop reading for today.
She put in a bookmark and glanced at the large grandfather clock attached to one side of the library.
“Ten twenty-two….”
It was still a little early to sleep.
‘Should I pick the next book to read?’
Rubia stood up at once and began to stride through the library.
As she took books one by one and skimd them briefly, the last conversation she’d had with Eugene the previous day drifted into her ears.
“Um… about what the Academic Office said back then, Eugene.”
“Yes?”
“They said Dellowell Academy uses this book as a textbook, is that true?”
“Of course not.”
“Ah.”
“I’m not so omniscient that I’d know what textbooks Dellowell used.”
“Right. But then won’t you be in trouble later, Eugene?”
“Why would I be?”
“You lied, and you ntioned Dellowell too. I worry you might get into unwanted trouble because of ….”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“…….”
“At least, if it’s the Karbenna I know, they wouldn’t make such a stupid judgnt.”
“Really?”
“It’s like spitting on one’s own face. The teacher who brought the seditious book was still a Karbenna person in the end, and they couldn’t even stop the book from being brought in.”
“…That’s true.”
“Well, I have one corner of trust too. Please take care of things then.”
She never did say what that was.
Even so, it took her more than twenty minutes to finish selecting her books.
With a satisfied expression, Rubia headed out of the library.
The attendant was nodding off at the small desk by the entrance.
She snorted softly at the sight and picked up the docunt lying idly beside him.
It was the library entry log.
She checked the ti once more and was about to write her leaving ti when—
…creak!
From far away, near the artifact storeroom, ca the sound of a door opening.
Today’s special training had ended at precisely 10:45 p.m.
“I’m fine, Instructor Carter.”
“I said I’m not fine.”
All cadets had to return to the dorms by 11:00 p.m. That was Karbenna’s rule.
I had been more exhausted than expected because Francia had clung to , insisting she was fine and that punishnt points were nothing.
Anyway, with that the opening day’s schedule was over.
Wearily, I staggered toward G Hall, the dormitory.
Having kept my body’s ability raised all day with “Iron Body,” my mana was running low.
‘I can’t believe I was almost out of mana just maintaining a single D-rank ability.’
This wouldn’t do. I had to increase my mana recovery significantly before the Imperial Liaison Conference.
While considering several options, I’d arrived at the G Hall lobby without noticing.
But sothing was odd.
“…what’s this?”
Even at this late hour, many teachers had gathered in the lobby.
There looked to be at least twenty of them.
Among a few familiar faces and many unfamiliar ones, one face struck as painfully familiar.
Rubia Magnus.
“It’s not too late; we’ll catch them. This isn’t the first ti.”
“We don’t have proof, do we? Proof.”
“No, one of the Stone-Eye artifacts is missing.”
“Even if it were genuine, it’s a replica. The inventory wasn’t even checked properly.”
“There were 244 in the K Hall artifact storeroom. Now there’s one fewer!”
I had only heard from afar, but I could grasp the situation quickly.
I mustered whatever strength I had left and strode over.
Cutting between Rubia and the teachers whose voices were growing louder, I said a single thing.
“Bring it up at the formal faculty eting tomorrow, Professor Rubia.”
“Eugene?!”
“Tonight is too late.”
“B-but….”
“Now, everyone, disperse.”
“…….”
Everyone looked bewildered when I suggested they disperse, since they’d naturally expected to take Rubia’s side.
No one refused the suggestion.
One by one, the teachers who had been in the lobby returned to their rooms.
Rubia tried for a mont to dissuade them, but when she realized it was useless, her spirit sagged completely.
She glowered at with a sulky face.
“…Am I making a fuss for no reason?”
“You’re not. It’s just that…”
I patted her shoulder and smiled.
“If the stolen item belonged to a cadet, there’s no need to worry too much.”
That was actually a handy handicap.
Unless they used such a dirty trick, it would be impossible to even stand against the current Francia.
Let them thrash about as they pleased, I thought, you green Halenber.
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