“Want me to throw you something to absorb?”

The blond man drew his sword.

Its blade was narrower than mine.

And strangely beautiful.

A faint light almost seemed to breathe from the steel.

Without answering, I stared fixedly at his sword.

“Answer him.”

At that, the man seated in the stands gave a rough command.

The one who spoke had a sturdy build and wore a dark green cloak.

A black eyepatch covered one eye, and the arm folded across his chest was wrapped thickly in hardened armor.

According to the violet-eyed man’s earlier words, that person was the Knight Commander.

Then the violet-eyed man must rank even higher than the Knight Commander?

As that thought crossed my mind, the eyepatched man frowned.

“Brat. Don’t you know the imperial tongue?”

I answered calmly.

“I don’t need it.”

The blond man lifted one brow and whistled.

“So you’re confident, is that it?”

Instead of replying, I drew my sword.

The man who had stepped into the arena stared hard at my blade.

Just as I had inspected his, he seemed to be measuring the width and length of mine with his eyes.

He stopped in a loose, swaggering stance.

“That’s a good sword.”

I smiled faintly.

“Thank you.”

“You come first.”

The man tilted his chin and grinned.

“Kid.”

Worked for me.

I sharply reset the direction of my sword.

His center of gravity was on his right foot.

If I dug into his left flank, I might be able to land a hit.

Of course, things would never go that easily.

But thinking pessimistically would change nothing.

Even if I lost here, nothing they did to me could possibly be as terrible as what happened back in the village....

I kicked off the ground.

“Not even using sword force?”

There was laughter in his voice as he asked.

“Can’t use it, or won’t use it?”

CLANG!

Clang, clang!

Chaaang!

He cleanly redirected every one of my attacks.

The instant our swords met, the man stepped backward and lowered the tip of his blade, nullifying the strike.

A fluid response, graceful as a fish swimming through a valley stream.

The moment my sword tip dropped toward the ground, he closed the distance.

‘Don’t stagger. Prepare for the next attack.’

The moment I raised my lowered blade, Gale’s teaching surfaced.

‘The moment your sword tip isn’t pointed at the enemy is the best possible time for them to attack.’

CLANG!

“Oh?”

When I knocked away the sword thrusting toward my side and widened the gap, he raised a brow.

A flicker of surprise entered those violet eyes.

“So there’s a reason you refused absorption.”

That wasn’t it.

I just didn’t want to.

That was what I thought, but I said nothing, only fixed his movements in my eyes.

This time his weight shifted to the left foot.

I moved without overthinking.

Clang-clang, CLANG, krrrk!

Krrrk....

Our crossed blades began a contest of strength.

I’m losing in raw power.

No matter how hard I force it, it’s useless.

Strength wasn’t everything.

‘I was cutting down men your size when I was only as big as you.’

Gale’s voice surfaced again.

‘If you picked up a sword, don’t whine about lacking size or strength.’

Chaaang!

This time, I barely managed to redirect his blade.

In the process, the skin of my arm was sliced in a straight line.

Blood sprayed, but I didn’t care.

Even as I retreated, I never took my eyes off him.

Power and agility usually didn’t come together.

I had learned that once bulk increased, speed and flexibility inevitably fell.

I watched the arm of the man closing in as if asking where I thought I was running.

The moment he swung his sword, I lowered my body and drove inside his reach.

CLANG!

“Good speed!”

I got in fast.

But he accurately blocked even the thrust I drove in from inside his guard.

“With this much skill, you could probably force out sword force, even if crudely!”

His center of gravity shifted in blinding succession.

Right.

Left.

Center.

Left again.

I registered every transfer point and moved my arm without a single pause.

But as if mocking all my effort, he blocked every place I thrust into with perfect accuracy.

Every stab sent flying away.

I redirected the blade flowing into empty air and aimed for him again, but it never once reached its target.

He blocked my attacks with the flat of his sword, the edge, even the tip.

Every moment looked like an opening.

Every opening was an illusion.

As I swung without pause, for the first time I began to doubt my own judgment—the judgment that had always let me track an opponent’s center of gravity and weaknesses.

No, not doubt.

It really is lacking.

Far from seizing control of the flow of battle, I couldn’t even tell how the battle itself was flowing.

The difference in skill was overwhelming.

The moment I realized that, a surge of anger rose so violently it surprised even me.

What?

I never got this angry when sparring Gale.

So why is it spiraling out of control now?

The moment my brow furrowed, sword force came flying.

BOOOOM!

“Ghk....”

A heavy pain smashed through my abdomen.

I had been blasted backward by sword force.

A roar—or maybe screams—erupted from the stands.

But my ears rang so badly I couldn’t tell what anyone was saying.

My body locked from the impact.

I forced my eyes open, trying to grasp the situation.

Get up as fast as possible.

I haven’t been caught yet.

If I rise now, I can still escape.

Listen for sound....

Preparing to move as the stiffness slowly melted from my body, I sharpened my hearing.

Don’t miss his footsteps.

So I could rise the instant he let his guard down, strike, and widen the distance.

Hadn’t I learned from experience how to sense my surroundings even with my face buried in the dirt?

The man walked over slowly and stopped by my head.

I heard the light sound of him setting the tip of his sword against the arena floor.

“You’ve got talent, but your swordsmanship is too crude.”

The trembling air came to a halt.

Then his voice dropped.

“And ugly.”

...Huh?

Still gripping my sword, pretending not to notice the pain fading, my body twitched.

What is?

“No. Rather than ugly, maybe I should say it lacks manners.”

He muttered as if talking to himself.

“Either way, it’s a sword style with obvious limits. If you cling to it, someday you’ll hit a wall.”

Without moving or answering, I stared at the arena floor.

“You definitely didn’t learn it from a proper knight.”

The nobleman continued.

“A mercenary background? Or did you pay some wandering sellsword?”

I kept thinking of Gale.

A day when he had drunk himself full of cider.

Without meeting my eyes, he had grumbled like a confession.

I worked myself half to death trying to tear apart everything I hated, and in the end I still ran into a limit.

I still don’t know if it was right to teach that same swordsmanship to you.

You have talent. If you learned proper swordsmanship, you’d absolutely become a Swordmaster.

If you learned the sword art passed down through one of those lofty knight houses, you’d reach that realm without fail.

But this is the only kind of swordsmanship I know.

I’m sorry.

That was the first apology Gale had ever given me.

The truth is, what I taught you doesn’t even have a system.

It can’t even produce beautifully curving sword arcs....

“A sword style focused only on killing the flesh of the enemy in front of you.”

The man’s words smothered Gale’s voice.

“Pathetic.”

I sprang from the ground.

As fast as when I had been surrounded by the black mage’s monsters.

With the same fury as when I had charged at those beasts with the sole determination to kill even one before they dragged me back.

As when I had chased the enemies who burned the temple, my vision turned white with rage.

I thrust my sword with killing intent.

CLANG!

“That’s it!”

the blond knight shouted.

“You should’ve come at me like this from the start!”

His violet irises narrowed and his pupils widened.

Zaan’s eyes were close now.

For some reason, he looked exhilarated.

The knight gripped his sword again.

He straightened his stance and faced me.

The atmosphere changed in an instant.

Though there was no wind, his platinum hair seemed to scatter.

Though he wasn’t even properly pointing the sword at me, the tip still felt like it was aimed at my throat.

A strange madness settled into eyes that had looked arrogant, but sane.

He looked at me the same way the twisted people in that village had.

“Charge the way that sword style deserves!”

he shouted.

“It’s not an unfamiliar blade to you!”

A blade that knew killing intent.

The Knight Commander rose from the stands and seemed to shout something.

Someone else might have screamed too.

But once again, I heard none of it.

Not because of the pain this time.

I only looked at the enemy.

Hatred honed by violence.

Gale had always said this was what I lacked.

And every time, he would lament that I was ill-suited by nature to be a swordsman.

I never understood those words.

But I had heard his warning often enough for it to form calluses in my ears.

Do not leave the temple.

Live protecting the priests and the flock, fighting only monsters that could never ooze killing intent as stubbornly as people....

I had tried to obey him.

But the temple burned.

And the flock and priests I was meant to protect vanished in the flames.

And on that day, I learned hatred and killing intent.

The day those things forced their way into the temple.

For the first time, Gale took into his hands the holy sword he had never dared wield himself.

He never gave me a chance to fight.

I struggled, but people locked me inside so I couldn’t come out.

While I fought to escape, Gale cut down countless enemies.

Then he lost his life.

He died without even being able to close his eyes, yet he never released the holy sword from his hand until the very end.

As if he had known I would make it out alive.

As I pulled the sword from my master’s hand, I resolved that I would cut down the sacred tree.

“Absorb it.”

BOOOOOM!

Amid the explosion of sword force, I heard his low voice.

“Come at me with everything.”

No.

My master’s swordsmanship was not pathetic, and I had no need for absorption like those twisted things claimed.

KRRRRK!

I plunged through the multiple branching waves of sword force crashing toward me like a tide.

Because all my focus was on piercing the enemy, I felt no pain.

Inside the fine, rain-like fractures of sword force, a tiny opening formed.

Slash!

I thrust for his throat.

Instead of flesh splitting, hair was cut.

“Excellent.”

A dangerous, satisfied voice rang out.

“Now it’s my turn.”

When I lifted my gaze, violet eyes were looking down at me.

His wide-open eyes were fixed on my throat.

A chill ran through my body.

Wow.

I’m dead.

The thought came instinctively.

It’s over—

CLAAANG!

A dagger flew in, struck the flat of my blade, and spun away.

The blond man and I turned our heads at the same time.

Then we looked toward the Knight Commander, now standing in the audience.

The others seated in a line beside him were surely nobles too, but right now the only one my eyes could see was the sturdy man with the eyepatch.

The Knight Commander barked with a furrowed brow.

“That’s enough.”

Strangely, he seemed angry not at me, but at my opponent.

“Come back, Sir Kysis.”

Kysis?

This is Kysis?

I turned in shock to find the man glaring at the Knight Commander with blazing eyes.

Kysis muttered,

“Don’t interrupt when I’m having such a good time, Sir Destre.”

His voice was evenly coated in rage.

“The test isn’t over.”

“It is.”

“If you interrupt again, then you’ll be my opponent.”

Kysis was so furious that even without emotional transference, it felt as if the emotion itself was seeping into my skin.

The violet-eyed knight snarled.

“We continue the test.”

***

“We didn’t get to continue, though.”

After saying that, I stuffed a huge bite of salmon into my mouth and chewed.

Still delicious as always.

As I happily savored the food, Ricardo and Yun shot me looks of disbelief.

Meanwhile, Ami and Sophia, who had practically leaned their whole bodies toward me to listen, finally straightened their backs.

Ami gulped down the chocolate she had been chewing.

“So that’s how you passed?!”

“Yes.”

“That’s amazing! This Kysis guy must’ve been insanely strong!”

“He was a Swordmaster.”

“Gasp. So basically present-day Hilde.”

That’s true.

At Ami’s words, I gave a bitter smile.

That really is what it became.

“But someone stopped it?”

I turned my head at Sophia’s question.

As I drank some water, I searched through my memory.

“Yes. Someone even higher up came and stopped it, but I don’t remember who exactly it was. The only thing left in my memory is Kysis being furiously enraged.”

“Could it have been His Majesty the Emperor?!”

“If it were, he’d remember~.”

Ricardo answered.

“There’s no way he’d forget his first audience with the Emperor....”

Smiling, I nodded.

Then I lightly finished the rest of the story.

How Rei, being a noble, had taken the test somewhere else.

How I had unintentionally become famous by cutting Kysis’s hair.

And that I first met the Emperor when I was formally knighted.

By the time I finished that much, everyone had already finished lunch.

I stood and reached for the plates to clear them.

“At least take your medicine....”

Ricardo smacked my hand away.

The others also pushed me backward.

“Go rest and tell us the rest later!”

“Huh? I’m perfectly fine.”

“You should rest while you still can. Soon the train’s entering an unsafe section.”

“Once the train stops, we’ll have to get off and ride that thing deeper in.”

Carl chimed in agreement, and Sophia swiftly grabbed even my plate before standing.

I stared at them in disbelief, but not one of them met my eyes.

They didn’t even pretend to listen.

Everyone rose in a rush and started cleaning up.

The only one who stayed still was Yun, arms folded.

No one even considered saying a word to him.

After every attempt to help failed, I blankly watched the others moving around, then turned back to Yun, who was still seated.

My mentor looked up at me in silence.

“Do you remember the subway?”

The moment our eyes met, he spoke.

I blinked, then answered.

“Huh? Yes.”

“On your first mission, I warned you not to crawl inside. This time, you’re going to crawl inside.”

“Yes. I know.”

“I’m telling you in advance—according to Jack Black’s /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ report, no monsters can be sensed inside.”

I understood Yun’s meaning immediately.

That only meant one of two things.

Either we were unbelievably lucky, and it was peaceful.

Or something so dangerous that monsters themselves couldn’t approach it had coiled up inside—

something from another world, something that couldn’t be controlled at all.