Chapter 080
“......Perhaps?”
A possibility suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Well, a thief isn’t going around shouting that he’s the one who stole sothing. I should have figured it out when you started talking about public opinion and all that.”
“I’m telling you, there’s no use crying over spilled water now. More importantly, what’s Sir Lorenz going to do?”
“How would I know? He didn’t even show up at the Knight Order headquarters today. I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing, but I heard he skipped training too.”
“What’s he going to do anyway? He’s probably sowhere fondling so woman’s chest while knocking back drinks.”
“Surely not? Even if it’s only a temporary post, he’s still the Guard Knight.”
By then, Arthas had already spread his legs shoulder-width apart and gripped the sword with both hands as he took his stance. His gaze deepened, and his movents ca to a halt.
It felt as though ti itself had stopped.
A stance as heavy as steel and as solid as stone.
I decided that now was the mont and moved to follow his form. Just then, Arthas’s sharp eyes swept over .
“When you move, hold your breath and keep your posture from collapsing as much as possible.”
“That’s demanding.”
“The very idea of trying to learn it easily is the mindset of a thief. Swordsmanship is the crystallized essence of Martial Learning passed down over thousands of years. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t treat that history lightly.”
“That’s a long speech. Show the next move.”
THWACK!
“Aagh!”
Arthas smacked on the head with the Wooden Sword. It was made of very hard wood, so it hurt terribly. If I hadn’t let my guard down, I could have dodged it easily enough.
When I rubbed the spot, a lump had already started to rise.
“Your attitude as a student is rotten! If you asked to be taught, shouldn’t you show a little more humility? Do you think I’m doing this because I have nothing better to do? Why, you little—”
SWISH!
He went for my head again, but this ti I dodged it easily. It was a very sharp strike, but he really should not underestimate my kinetic vision and reaction speed.
I took a step back and secured a safe distance.
“It’s not like you asked to teach you for nothing, is it? If I gave you a chance, then you ought to pay the proper price. They say people are different when they go into the privy and when they co out. Tsk.”
“What chance? The trip to the Royal Capital hasn’t even been confird yet, has it? Nothing has co down from the higher-ups. If the whole thing falls through, whose fault will that be?”
“Just wait a little, will you? Are you really that impatient? How long has it even been since I told you about it, and you’re already pressing ?”
“This whole ‘just wait’ line of yours sounds exactly like a swindler’s. I’m starting to think I ought to arrest you.”
I let out a sigh.
Still, if I put myself in Arthas’s place, I could understand how he felt. It was not easy teaching sothing to an ill-mannered bastard like .
So I decided to placate him a little.
“If the Royal Capital trip gets canceled, I’ll pay you properly in so other way, so teach swordsmanship first. It looks like I’ll be facing Sir Lorenz soon. Let’s settle this neatly with money. How much do you want?”
“Na it.”
“Will 5 Gold do?”
“Hmm.”
After steadying his breath once, Arthas moved naturally into the next motion. When I just stood there, he urged on with a look that plainly asked what I was waiting for.
If you like it, then say so, you bastard.
Maybe I should have offered less?
In any case, the motion Arthas showed was a very simple one. He stepped forward with his right foot and swung the sword. I engraved every last detail of his movent into my mind.
At last, Arthas swung.
SWIIISH!
Even that simple movent carried trendous force. The motion was precise enough to draw admiration from .
“This is the most basic of basics. You can imitate it without trouble, right, Your Excellency, our special-grade butler?”
He was subtly pricking at my pride. We really did understand each other in that way. He knew exactly how to make take this seriously.
I copied the movent exactly.
WHOOSH!
The motion was similar, but the sound of my Wooden Sword cutting through the air was noticeably different. Unlike Arthas’s, mine felt much thinner and lighter.
I didn’t like it.
Was this what people ant by the difference in aura that ca from sheer experience?
Arthas gave his Wooden Sword an infuriating little flick and explained.
“There’s no soul in your sword. If you don’t keep your mind clear and clean, you can’t draw out its true power.”
“Keep it brief and to the point. What do you an, there’s no soul in it?”
Arthas answered while tapping his temple with a finger.
“It ans your head is full of stray thoughts. I don’t know what you’re thinking about so much, but your posture is one problem, and your blade path is another. It isn’t steady. It’s wavering all over the place.”
“Stray thoughts? I’m not thinking about anything.”
I could not understand it. When I swung the sword, I had only been thinking of Arthas’s movent and trying to copy it exactly.
So what did he an by saying I was full of stray thoughts?
I swung the Wooden Sword again while maintaining the posture Arthas had taken. Once again, the power behind it was unsatisfactory.
A part of wanted to drench it in Mana and swing it that way instead.
“See? There you go again, thinking about sothing else. I can tell just from your eyes. Your head is murky right now, like it’s covered in fog.”
“This is frustrating.”
It did not look as though he was just saying it to ss with .
For the ti being, I simply kept repeating the movent and swinging the Wooden Sword. There were tis when it produced a fairly convincing sound, but most of the ti it felt clumsy and unsatisfying.
Getting the movent right once out of ten ant nothing. What mattered was getting it right ten tis out of ten.
Eventually, once I had swung it more than a hundred tis, my movent gradually slowed and beca less accurate.
The reason was very simple.
I was tired.
The more tired I beca, the more naturally my heart tried to pour out Mana, almost like a reflex.
“You’re tired already.”
“Of course I am. Even if it’s only a Wooden Sword, who wouldn’t get tired after swinging it this many tis?”
“Hah. Do you really think there’s no one who wouldn’t?”
After tossing out that one line, Arthas began swinging his sword furiously.
SWISH! SWIIISH! SWISH SWISH SWISH!
At tis slow, at tis precise, and at tis faster than an arrow.
Even though his sword moved irregularly, his posture did not collapse in the slightest from the stance he had first taken.
I could not help but be astonished.
My mouth fell open.
He was an Aura User too. But he was still a very low-level Aura User. So even when he used Aura, it did not make the sword shine or anything like that.
And yet, I had heard that the reason he could beco the ace of the Knight Order was because of his talent.
Now that I saw it with my own eyes, I thought I understood what that talent was.
Imnse effort.
How many tis had he swung the sword to attain that stance? I could not even begin to guess. His palms were probably covered in calluses.
SWISH!
Then, after only a brief span of ti, Arthas stopped his sword.
“That was exactly one hundred swings. Well? You found soone who doesn’t get tired.”
“......You’re relentless.”
“I admit you’ve got a good head, but being smart doesn’t help swordsmanship at all. If anything, it only makes you play clever little tricks and drift farther away from the essence of the sword.”
Then tell what clever little tricks I was supposedly playing.
“Did you use Aura?”
“If I had to use Aura for sothing this basic, that would be embarrassing in its own right. I didn’t use anything like that. That was purely my own strength.”
He stroked the Wooden Sword and ran his eyes over the blade with a reflective gaze. Then he continued explaining.
“I first learned this movent when I was four. Even now, fifteen years later, I still practice it. Exactly three thousand tis a day.”
“Insane...... three thousand tis?”
“Yeah. At first, I swung it five thousand tis a day. Now I’m used to it, so I cut the number down a little. Anyway, that takes about an hour. After that, I start real sword training.”
“So you’re saying there’s no answer except investing ti? That won’t work. I’ve got a duel coming up soon, and I want to show so kind of progress no matter what.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way.”
Grinning, Arthas paused for a mont, then his eyes lit up as he looked at .
“Geniuses know how to swing a sword the mont they take one in hand. If ti is short, then all you have to do is beco a genius.”
“Don’t you think that’s irresponsibly vague?”
“Not really.”
Arthas shrugged.
But he was right.
If ti was short, then all I had to do was beco a genius at swordsmanship.
Fortunately, one thing was on my side: ever since I had been reincarnated, my physical abilities had risen dramatically.
In my previous life, I had been a stereotypical engineering obsessive who spent all his ti handling machines and electronic components. And yet, the fact that I could wield a sword this well could not be explained unless I had been granted talent during the process of reincarnation.
If that was true, then it was not an impossible idea from the outset.
What exactly had Arthas ant earlier, when he said my mind looked clouded? If I could solve that problem, it felt as though I might be able to take a step forward.
“......Perhaps?”
A possibility suddenly flashed through my mind.
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