Chapter 7
The footsteps kicking off the ground felt unusually light.
Feeling the blood flow through my body for the first time in a long while, I lightly wrapped my hand around the sword’s hilt and let out a short breath.
Even the cold wind carrying a chill that brushed against my face was blown away by the heat of my body, and I focused my gaze.
‘...As expected.’
Just as I expected, I could see the young master of House Delphion fighting fiercely against the magical beasts.
Swish, swish.
Every time he swung his enormous greatsword, the magical beasts caught in its path were sliced apart one by one.
His movements were bold and exhilarating, utterly unsuited to his slender build.
I hadn’t been sure because I didn’t know the male character’s face and had only glanced at his family name in passing.
It seemed he was the man I knew.
‘To think I’d meet him here.’
Lucky me?
Letting the brief smile at the corner of my mouth fade, I slowly lowered my stance.
The number of magical beasts surrounding us was far greater than I had imagined.
But if I decided to deal with them alone, it wasn’t beyond my ability.
I would have to struggle quite a bit, though.
That method was rather inefficient.
Even so, I had no intention of fighting back-to-back with that idiot from House Delphion.
‘...Something light for now.’
Shall I start by establishing dominance?
Of course, magical beasts were not naturally prone to fear.
Though they moved according to instinct, they were madly and blindly driven by it, as though they had been neutered.
So naturally, establishing dominance was not aimed at the magical beasts.
Perhaps later, but for now, it was meant for that fellow rampaging around without the slightest idea of how frightening the world could be.
“Phew…”
As for the sword...
There had been an old man who said that simply swinging it hard was not everything.
And I had been that old man’s sole disciple.
I exhaled slowly and focused my mind. Rather than concentrating solely on cutting, I focused on drawing a long line.
They say that when swordsmanship reaches the pinnacle of mastery, it resembles art.
An artwork that only those deeply versed in the sword can easily recognize.
A work of art drawn with the sword as a brush.
That was swordsmanship.
With a sharp keening sound, aura burst forth.
The sword moved along the long line I had drawn in my mind.
‘...Tsk.’
I clicked my tongue inwardly as I looked at that long, long line.
It was not a perfect straight line. It was crooked, as though I had drawn it without using a ruler, but for now, I decided to be satisfied with that alone.
Blue aura swept across the battlefield.
Following the straight horizontal line I had drawn, it cleanly sliced through every enemy ahead of me.
Kwaaaang!!
The explosion rang out one beat after the aura had been fired.
Together with that explosion.
Every magical beast within a certain range disappeared.
And I did not stop there. I continued kicking off the ground.
“...Ghk!!”
As dust rose with the explosion, the young master of House Delphion frowned, and I seized him by the nape of his neck.
“That’s enough playing around.”
“Who...!!”
“No more.”
I stared into the eyes of the young master of House Delphion, who looked half flustered and half irritated, and warned him in a low voice.
“Don’t be a nuisance, brat.”
He frowned at my words.
But he did not struggle any further.
Having personally fought the magical beasts, he had probably experienced firsthand that facing them alone was nearly impossible.
With one hand, I held him by the nape of his neck, and with the other, I swung my sword.
With one arm restricted, it was nearly impossible to produce the same power as before, but I was still in no danger of being defeated by the magical beasts.
“Let’s go back.”
I thrust my sword broadly to block the magical beasts’ movements, then withdrew from the battlefield with him in tow.
‘What a pain.’
Still, I supposed it was fortunate that this pain in the neck was a useful one.
Dragging him along as I ran, I began wondering how I would rehabilitate this fellow.
Well.
There are many ways.
After all, since ancient times, a good beating had been a remedy for those who refused to listen.
@
“...”
The top of the northern wall was eerily quiet.
Overwhelmed by the performance of a single person, everyone could do nothing but fall silent.
“...That man.”
Asilie, whose eyes were already large, widened them even further and slowly opened her mouth.
“How old did you say Allen Debert is this year?”
“Eigh... eighteen.”
“The aura he just displayed...”
“At least an Expert. No, perhaps he’s already...”
Both Asilie and the adjutant standing beside her
were deeply versed in swordsmanship.
Therefore, although they could not be certain, they could guess what level Allen’s strike had reached.
“A Master at eighteen?”
Yes.
They had expected it to some extent.
House Debert was a family deeply versed in swordsmanship, and they had already heard that Allen had been born with exceptional talent even among them.
So they had already understood that he had reason to be confident in his swordsmanship.
But a Master? He had reached the realm of a Sword Master at the age of eighteen?
A Master wasn’t some household dog’s name. Could that really be possible?
Of course, eighteen was already the age of a fully grown adult. It would not be an exaggeration to say that a man of that age could lead a household of his own.
But that did not mean it was possible to become a Master at eighteen.
Considering that the swordsman known as the youngest Sword Saint had reached the realm of a Sword Master at twenty-five, this was logically impossible.
Even so, they could not disbelieve what they had seen with their own eyes.
If all they had seen was aura, they could have denied the fact outright.
With the help of an artifact or something else, it was possible to imitate aura, even if only to a similar degree.
But that sword path...
That straight, beautiful sword path, which could only be described as breathtaking, could never have emerged from some kind of external assistance alone.
It was, quite literally, the product of effort.
Recalling that sword path, which anyone who wielded a sword would inevitably be captivated by at first sight, Asilie let out a hollow laugh.
‘Seriously.’
What an absurd man.
Both the young master of House Delphion and Allen Debert had jumped alone into the magical beasts to reduce troop losses, but...
Debert possessed the skill to match the act. Delphion did not.
He had brought an entire year’s worth of supplies for the North in a single shipment.
And on top of that, he had reached the realm of a Sword Master.
Seeing Allen prove himself in a single day, Asilie could only let out another hollow laugh.
Allen returned to the wall with a calm expression, set the young master of House Delphion down, and began exchanging a few words with him.
Asilie looked at his profile and thought.
Why had he volunteered to come all the way to this remote frontier?
She had no idea what he was thinking.
But at least if that man was in the North...
he would not show the helplessness he had shown before.
@
“...Ha.”
The Imperial Palace.
In a dark chamber there, a young girl gazed at a crystal ball and let out a small hollow laugh.
“I’m right about what I’m thinking, aren’t I?”
“...The realm of a Sword Master. It’s difficult to believe.”
The Empire’s First Imperial Princess.
Partlan, the Empire’s Second Sword and the escort knight guarding Helena Phil Astria, nodded heavily at her question.
“He really is a Master, at that age.”
The crystal ball she was watching displayed the view seen by the knight who had been sent along with the supplies to the North.
And within that crystal ball, the single sword strike Allen had displayed in the North was being replayed over and over.
“At first, I thought he was just a strange man...”
When she first heard what he had said at the banquet.
No, even up until the moment she had faced him and spoken with him, Helena had not trusted him in the slightest.
“Then why did you send supplies to the North?”
“...Because the risk was low.”
Helena answered Partlan’s question calmly.
As she did so, she naturally recalled the conversation she had shared with him.
[Send supplies to the North. As much as Your Highness can manage.]
[The North’s current situation is desperate. You can bring the North to Your Highness’s side more cheaply than spending a great deal of money to win over nobles who support the Crown Prince... or claim neutrality.]
[Even if someone tries to make an issue of it, it would be difficult to criticize you for using your own funds to send supplies to the North, whose influence is weak.]
[Of course, the Crown Prince doesn’t care about such things right now, though.]
Of course, that alone was not enough.
It was true that the risk was low, but the return was also smaller.
The North’s influence was limited, and winning them over would not make Helena’s faction tremendously powerful.
But.
[If it were only the North, that would be true.]
He had said it with certainty.
[But aren’t there people in this Empire who fought alongside the North?]
There would be others who followed along to share in the benefits of supporting the North.
“Letters are coming from the families of honorably retired soldiers and from houses that distinguished themselves in the Great War.”
“Yes. I’ll look into them.”
The families of soldiers who had retired honorably, as well as the houses that had personally distinguished themselves in the Great War,
were revising their assessment of Helena, the princess.
Allen seemed to have had something else in mind besides that, but in the end, he did not say it.
But that was enough.
Enough to accelerate the growth that had ground to a halt, at least.
“...Really.”
What an interesting person.
Things were unfolding exactly as he had said.
The North had received support, and they would remember Helena’s name.
The same was true of the retired soldiers and the houses that had participated in the Great War.
Even though it was obvious that her older brother, the Crown Prince, knew all of this, he did not respond in any way.
The risk was small, but...
the return was enormous.
If things continued to unfold as he had said, she could expand her faction without the Crown Prince even realizing it.
Helena could only let out a hollow laugh at the fact that such an idea had come from a single person’s mind.
“What shall we do now?”
“Shall we watch a little longer? Both him and the North.”
“Understood.”
A person who possessed both martial power and strategic intelligence.
If she could draw him over to her side...
it was obvious that he would become a tremendous military asset.