The First Letter (68)

The two girls charged forward. Their opponent was a gigantic wolf-like magical beast standing a full three meters at the shoulder. Its pitch-black fur bristled as it stared at its prey with vividly blue eyes.

A growl rasped up from the wolf’s throat. Seria was the first to charge.

Bright-blue aura traced several arcs in an instant: from the lower left to the upper right, from the lower right to the upper left, and then from top to bottom.

The bright-blue aura cut through the air in an instant, making it impossible to tell which attacks were feints and which were real. That swordsmanship, unfolding like a mirage, was the foundation of House Yurdina’s techniques.

It was the Golden Lion Sword (金獅劍) I had heard about only through rumors.

The name came from the fact that it drew multiple trajectories at once, like a lion’s claws. It was a sword technique rarely used unless absolutely necessary, precisely because it gave an opponent as little information as possible for distinguishing real attacks from feints.

And the fact that Seria had brought out her family’s secret sword technique showed just how desperate the situation had become.

It was a technique she had been reluctant to use even when facing the threat of death. It was not something one used without hesitation in the very first exchange. Even so, she was using the Golden Lion Sword now.

She had concluded that there might not be another chance. Her opponent was a monster that moved as though it disregarded even the laws of physics, and they had just learned that Senior Elsie’s lightning magic—their only hope—was useless.

The word ‘defeat’ inevitably rose to the surface of my unconscious. As though to embody that resolve, Seria was gritting her teeth. That was when the monster opened its mouth...