Chapter 28
The use of force always had to be approached with caution.
Power, by its very nature, sought to privatize force. From power’s perspective, any strength it could not control was evil, and nothing more than a target to be eliminated by any means necessary.
That was because only then could order be maintained.
Order in the Empire originated with the Emperor, order in the Southern Kingdoms with the leader of each kingdom, and order in the Holy Kingdom with the Heavenly God Arus. What they had in common was that they all stood at the apex of their respective nations’ power.
Therefore, all ‘legitimate violence’ belonged exclusively to those in power. The same was true at the academy, which trained the talents who would carry the future of each nation. If anything, the academy could be called a miniature version of the struggles for power.
In most cases, violence was not permitted. Yet everyone knew that violence was being carried out covertly within the academy. The reason it did not become a problem was that such violence generally followed the rules laid down by those in power.
Nobles were allowed to inflict a certain degree of violence on commoners. If it happened in public, that was another matter, but otherwise, most commoners did not make an issue of it.
Students could remain at the academy for only four years at most. Once they entered the outside world, the gap between nobles and commoners would become stark again. They had no choice but to endure it.
In return, it was customary for nobles to cover up and move past most incidents that occurred at the academy. The more they did so, the harsher the punishment would be for anyone who crossed the line against them.
It was a strategy nobles used to secure their own superiority within the academy.
Thus, although the academy appeared to advocate equality on the surface, the more deeply one looked inside, the harder it became to deny the hierarchy imposed by power.
That was why Tean’s gang could not properly respond even when I struck the refined-looking man in the face or took hold of the sword still hanging at my waist in its scabbard.
Their reason simply could not comprehend the reality confronting them. That was understandable.
I was a noble too, but I was merely the second son of a rural viscount’s family.
Tean’s gang, on the other hand, consisted of the children of fairly high-ranking nobles, despite being from the Southern Kingdoms. The first man I had struck even appeared to be from the Empire.
They could never have imagined that I would launch the first attack without warning. That careless judgment gave me a powerful advantage.
I walked past Tean and struck the face of one of his gang who was awkwardly trying to get up.
With a splendid smack, one of the men went flying through the air. He would not have died from being hit with a scabbard, but his face had just been struck by metal. He should at least have lost consciousness.
That left six. My eyes sank coldly as they searched for the next victim.
That was when Tean’s gang finally came to their senses.
Two pearly white teeth flew into the air from the mouth of the man I had just struck. One of the gang let out a shriek at the sight.
“M-mad bastard! Wh… Kheuk, ugh?!”
Those were his last words. His pointing at me without even properly drawing his sword had caught my eye in particular.
The next movements were simple. Tean’s gang was clustered together, so my next target was standing within easy reach as well.
I twisted my planted foot and drove the sword hilt into the man’s solar plexus with a hard thunk. He let out a strangled sound, but before he could even finish that muffled groan, my scabbard slammed into his throat.
There was a solid thump as I struck the tightly bunched mass of muscle. A dull resonance, like compressed air bursting outward.
The focus vanished from the man’s eyes.
With a heavy crash, the large man collapsed. Five remained now—a number I could handle.
I exhaled deeply and looked around. One by one, I heard the sounds of them drawing their weapons. Apparently, the refined-looking man I had felled first had been the only mage.
The rest were drawing swords. In that case, things were simple.
Facing the gang as they hesitantly pointed their swords at me, I grinned and said,
“Come at me, you bastards. What, chicken?”
Apparently unable to endure my provocation any longer, one of the gang threw back his head and screamed, veins standing out in his neck.
“Kill him! He’s alone!”
Yet unmistakable fear and tension lingered in the eyes of the man shouting that.
Three of the eight had fallen in an instant. That was despite deliberately leaving Tean alone, even though he was their strongest fighter.
In truth, attacking Tean would probably only have gotten me into trouble. Unlike this bunch of mediocrities, Tean ranked among the top students in the Department of Swordsmanship.
No matter how much of a surprise attack I launched, he was not someone I could finish in a single blow. More importantly, he was unexpectedly cautious and enjoyed a certain amount of respect within the group.
A man like him should not be defeated through a trick. I had to beat him fairly and squarely if I wanted the gang to submit to me in the truest sense.
But no one here could understand my intentions. In their eyes, I was a terrifying opponent who had ignored the tempting prey that was Tean and dispatched three of them in an instant.
Tension and fear made the body rigid. And the more rigid it became, the clearer every sign became.
The sound of my steady breathing rumbled in my eardrums. Time gradually slowed. Its dull, heavy current seemed to press down on the pressure points in my skin.
Since my battle with the magical beasts, my sharpened senses had opened up a new dimension in the way I perceived the world. It was truly a sense of time in which one instant contended with another.
Imaginary trajectories were drawn before my eyes. Four men, excluding Tean, were charging at me all at once. The trajectories looked complicated and difficult to evade.
So I decided to choose the next-best option.
The sword path of the first man to charge was drawn before me. A textbook downward slash from the upper right to the lower left. I gritted my teeth and struck the blade at the instant that sword path became a solid line.
With a twang, the unexpected blow twisted the sword’s path. And the spot where it was deflected was precisely where another man was lunging in with his sword.
In the next instant, the two sword paths became entangled. The sword carrying the strength of both men slammed into the ground at the same time. Two swords remained.
Before I knew it, I had twisted my body into the space of another man who had raised his sword. His eyes, colored by bewilderment, flashed into view.
As though it were only natural, the tip of his sword slammed into my solar plexus. With a choking “Keurk,” the man’s body crumpled. That was when the last sword swung.
My body spun around and moved behind the man who had been struck in the solar plexus. As a result, the man, whose upper body had bent slightly forward, was placed directly in the path of the sword.
“Kraa!”
With a thud, the man whose back had been struck toppled over. The swordsman who had accidentally brought down his own comrade was visibly flustered. I was not about to let that moment pass.
With a leap, I closed in on the man standing there blankly. The man came to his senses only then and hurriedly raised his sword to strike downward, but my sword was faster.
With a clang, my sword struck the man’s scabbard. His stance collapsed under the sudden impact. I hurled myself at him and pinned him beneath me.
A textbook mount. But I had no intention of pummeling him with my fists. Before he could regain his senses, I slammed my scabbard into his face several times.
Thwack, thwack, thwack. Only three times. That alone made the man roll his eyes back as though he had fainted. But the price I had to pay to finish him was also high.
With a heavy thud, a powerful impact hammered into my back. I had not noticed it when I was doing the hitting, but being hit made me realize that the sound reverberating inside me was on an entirely different level from the sound outside.
My organs were crushed, and my breath caught in my throat. My muscles tensed on their own, making my movements stiff.
The two men whose sword paths had first become entangled had charged me. I twisted my body to minimize the impact, having anticipated it, but it still hurt.
I flung my pain-racked body to the ground and rolled. Two more sword strikes stabbed down into the spot where I had nearly fallen.
If I had not dodged in time, that spot would have been where I remained for the last time—at least in this battle.
After handling one fierce movement after another in succession, my breathing grew slightly ragged. Harsh breaths—huff, huff—rang beside my ears. Two enemies remained.
Tean still had not moved. But this was a situation in which it would not have been strange for him to join the fight at any moment. I had to dispose of those two as quickly as possible.
The two men glared at me with eyes filled with even greater caution. They seemed to have realized who would come off worse if they charged recklessly.
My sharpened senses were mainly useful for counterattacks. In addition, my greatest talents were footwork and riding. In those two areas, I could proudly claim to rank among the academy’s best.
It was common knowledge that footwork was important in close combat. Combined with my sharpened senses, it meant that no one of equal skill could stop me—that is, assuming they made the first move.
But I was the one in a hurry now. The two men were waiting desperately for Tean to join them. I could not allow that.
My sword shot out with a shriek through the air. I had thrown it. The spinning scabbard came flying at them at a terrifying speed.
Perhaps they had never expected me to throw my weapon, because both men’s eyes flew wide. So flustered were they that they slashed their swords downward at the same time.
Thanks to that, my sword, which had been flying toward them at a fierce speed, plunged straight into the ground. But that alone was enough.
Still crouched, I kicked off the ground. Before they could properly recover, I had already closed the distance to them. The two men looked slightly startled, but soon regained their composure.
They had realized I was unarmed. There was a limit to subduing trained swordsmen with one’s bare hands. The difference between being armed and unarmed mattered.
Their eyes showed relief, as though they had decided they could at least withstand one blow. But the moment my hand groped at my waist, astonishment returned to their eyes.
I had one more weapon left.
There was a hard thunk as an axe drove into wood. Just as the sound suggested, it was the sound of a hand axe striking someone’s nape.
The only difference was that the part striking the nape was not the sharpened edge. Held in reverse, the hand axe could not cut into flesh, but it was still an excellent weapon as a bludgeon.
Another man fell. The last remaining man swung his sword in desperation. I pulled the reverse-held axe outward, trapping the tip of his sword in the corner between the handle and the axe head.
With a scraping clack, the sensation of two hard objects locking together reverberated through my arm muscles. The force of his downward strike nearly made me lose my grip for an instant, but I gritted my teeth, gathered my strength, and knocked his sword away.
Then I drove my head into the chin of the last man, whose eyes still held a dazed look. My slightly bent body straightened, releasing powerful springlike force.
A heavy thud sent pain through my head. But it was nothing compared to the man who had taken the direct blow to the chin.
The man struck in the chin staggered, then collapsed. Seven men were now sprawled across the ground, groaning.
Of course, I was not unscathed either. The back muscles that had taken the blow continued to ache. It was only natural that the head I had rammed into his chin was still spinning as well.
Still reeling, I groped around until I found the sword I had thrown and picked it up. Then I planted my feet and stood upright again.
There was still one enemy left.
Tean Aitri. Copper-colored skin, golden hair, and a muscular body that was practically the symbol of a trained warrior.
With a deep scowl, he had watched the fight between me and his gang. His mouth slowly opened.
“……I thought you’d be a little smarter.”
“Then why’d you go picking a fight with someone who was minding his own business?”
With a sigh, he drew the greatsword strapped to his back. At this point, there was no avoiding a fight. He and I both knew it.
Even so, Tean clicked his tongue, looking thoroughly unwilling. His eyes sank deeply.
“Ian, your reflexes have improved a lot. And your footwork too… How did you improve so much in such a short time? Did that Yurdina brat give you some elixir?”
Hearing that, I glared at him while catching my ragged breath. A half-formed laugh escaped my lips.
“You sneaky bastard… They say every student in the Department of Swordsmanship knows everything about everyone, regardless of their grades.”
“You’re my competitor, aren’t you? Of course I would.”
“And yet you went after Seria’s mother?”
At my growling voice, Tean merely snorted. A cruel light briefly flashed in his eyes.
“I think you’re under a misconception…….”
And then, the next moment.
A blast of hot wind swept before me. Tean had kicked off the ground and charged. His massive body shot forward like a bullet.
It was a speed unbelievable even to the naked eye. It was as though everything except me had vanished from his field of vision. Otherwise, such a straight-line charge would have been impossible.
He was charging recklessly, without considering even the other variables. That was precisely what made it feel even more powerful.
My sharpened senses had already warned me that Tean was preparing a surprise attack. So my response was not late.
My sword blocked Tean’s sword path. But that was all.
With a boom like a shockwave, I felt my organs twist. A stifled groan escaped my mouth on its own. I felt as though I would rather vomit blood.
The muscles in Tean’s arm rippled. A footprint sank deeply into the ground beneath me.
“Kgh, ah……!”
“I gather information to learn my opponent’s weaknesses. Hm? You do the same, Ian.”
Once again, the greatsword came crashing down with a boom. The blow carried even more force than the previous one, and my body, blocking the sword, slid backward across the ground.
My arms were already trembling. And I had only blocked him twice.
I fixed Tean with a murderous glare, but he merely flashed me a broad grin.
“My mana capacity has increased, but it’s still below average. That’s why you can’t beat me.”
Tean Aitri, eldest son of Count Aitri, a prestigious family of the Southern Kingdoms.
As for his talents as a swordsman, one could name countless strengths: his innate brutality and cruelty, the caution with which he nevertheless observed a situation for a time, and the robust physique characteristic of House Aitri.
But if one had to choose only one among them, nine times out of ten, the answer would be the same.
Mana capacity.
His mana reserves were heaven-given, on a level utterly incomparable to mine.