Ch. 24

New Novel - Read Here

Jane Snowtier.

Better aware than anyone of the Snowtier family's reputation, she had always put in bone-crushing effort to live up to the family's expectations.

Better conditions than others, effort that would never fall behind anyone.

An exceptional body, born from the purest, most direct bloodline in the family.

There wasn't a single reason for her not to grow stronger, and precisely because of that, her growth could only be described as truly unrivaled.

'Jane, once you go to the academy, don't get hung up on trivial things.'

Before she left for the academy, the family head and her father, Duke Snowtier, had said exactly this to her.

'Overwhelming first place... for five years, the only thing you need to focus on, so as not to bring shame to the family name, is exactly this, and nothing else.'

His demand might have felt like a burden to someone else, but for her, it was, in a way, simply a given.

In fact, based on the results of the entrance exam, Jane had proudly claimed the top spot in the Knight Department.

'This sword's name is Call of Yearning... it's a treasure passed down through the generations of our family, so treat it with care.'

Jane's father had bestowed the family sword upon her as she prepared to leave for the academy.

What this meant for Jane carried tremendous weight.

If she held onto the top position in the Knight Department for five whole years, it meant she'd be recognized as the family's heir.

Since she'd never even considered maintaining first place to be a particularly difficult task to begin with, she'd calmly accepted the sword and headed off to the academy.

But as the sparring matches against the Magic Department progressed, she began sensing something was off.

The Crown Prince, who up until now had only ever seemed to laugh and chatter idly among people, possessed a courage that let him throw his own body into direct confrontation with an enemy without any hesitation.

He'd even easily blocked a spell against that man named Neb, one she herself had thought should probably be dodged.

Even so, these two had only registered as, at best, a mild sense of threat.

But then, that man had appeared.

A man who effortlessly dispelled every single spell rushing toward him and, in a single instant, obliterated even the high level earth attribute spell, Monstrous Rock Shark: Aden.

Watching his final thrust, she'd felt her tightly clenched fist grow damp with sweat.

Perhaps, if enough time passed and she grew stronger, she might one day be able to block it, but there was no way she, as she currently stood, could ever hope to block Aden's blade.

That alone had been shocking enough, but the woman who appeared afterward had been nothing short of jaw dropping.

If Aden's sword had been "an attack that couldn't be blocked," her fist had been "an attack that meant death if it landed."

It wasn't simply that she'd been overwhelmed by the sheer aura radiating from that massive frame.

The shockwave produced by that single strike carried more than enough force to make anyone feel the presence of death itself.

Her belief that no one among the first-years was stronger than her had, in that instant, developed a crack.

And amid all this, the words that spilled from the mouth of the very opponent chosen to face her had been more than enough to snap her composure entirely.

'You... you only became top rank because of your family, didn't you?'

With her belief shattered, confusion inevitably descended upon her.

To hide these feelings from him, she began radiating pressure directly at Benjamin.

But even under her presence, he calmly requested a real-blade sparring match as if it were nothing at all, and the crowd around them gradually began voicing their agreement toward the idea of a real-blade match.

'Why do you want a real-blade sparring match?'

Even granting that he was someone who'd used a sword before enrolling at the academy, he was now a person who'd set the sword aside to learn magic instead.

If he'd truly had talent with a sword, there would have been no need for him to enter the Magic Department at all.

She wondered what reason someone like that could possibly have for wanting a real-blade match against her.

'I figured that if we did a wooden sword match and you lost to me, you'd end up whining about how it wasn't a fair fight because of the swords, so I thought I'd skip that.'

'Actually, I want to ask you the same thing. What's your reason for hesitating on a real-blade match?'

He'd turned the question right back on her, and his calm, composed voice left her speechless.

Was I really hesitating about the match?

I never hesitated at all, so why did it feel that way to him?

Just as she found herself questioning this, he spoke again, needling her further.

'Don't lie. You're clearly hesitating. Because you're scared you'll lose to me.'

By now, the confusion inside her had swelled to a size that had already grown far beyond any point of return.

'You're chickening out because you're scared you'll lose to me.'

Did everyone gathered here feel the exact same way?

Doing her best to suppress her wildly pounding heart, she finally spoke.

"Fine, bring a real blade. I'll take you on seriously."

With those words, she turned and headed back toward the Knight Department to retrieve her sword.

……

But wait, permission for the real-blade match hasn't actually come through yet.

As I stared blankly at Marey, Anna, too, glanced anxiously at Marey, trying to gauge her mood.

"Ah, this is a tricky situation... Lady Marey, what should we do?"

"Since even the student directly involved seems full of enthusiasm, why don't we just allow it?"

"Given the state Jane's in, it seems like there could be an accident at any moment."

"I'm sure it'll be adjusted just enough to avoid any real accidents. Ho ho ho."

Professor Marey said that last part while looking directly at me.

It was a look that seemed to carry the meaning "make sure you keep things under control yourself so nothing bad happens."

She must have already heard from Gary about my clash with the Tower Master, so was she assuming I could easily overpower Jane?

That had really only been thanks to the Doping Potion’s power, though.

And judging from her swordplay just now, Jane's Body score, while similar to mine, was clearly a bit higher.

I'd tried to dodge with a little more margin, but my reaction had come just barely, ever so slightly, too late.

"Ugh... alright, Benjamin, go bring a sword too! Ah, do you even have one?"

"Yes. I happen to have a sword I received as a gift."

Answering Anna's question with a smile, I walked over to my carefully folded coat.

Then, from the long, narrow box set beside the coat, I pulled out the sword the Tower Master had given me.

[Greedy Leech]

By nature, this was a cursed sword that drained mana from its own wielder to strengthen itself.

Compared to the head-splitting shock I'd taken from knocking away the Tower Master's spells with Fire Fist, blocking with the Leech had left my palm merely stinging, tolerable enough, since so much of the impact had clearly been absorbed and redirected into the sword's own strengthening.

Of course, that also meant it continuously drained the surrounding mana that much more aggressively as well, but regardless, since it was a cursed sword, even if it couldn't feed on residual mana, it should have no trouble blocking a mana infused sword.

"You..."

The moment I brought the sword out, Marey looked at it with surprise, and seemed about to say something before swallowing her words instead.

Having personally lived through the war seventy-some years ago, had she recognized this sword?

But her surprise lasted only a moment before Marey simply looked at me, as if she thought things were turning out to be quite interesting.

Sneaky old bat... I have no idea what she's thinking.

"Now then, since both students appear ready, I'll go over one important matter before we begin the match!"

Jane, having retrieved her sword faster than expected, drew it from its sheath in one swift motion, eyes burning with intensity.

Holding the strikingly white sword, which somehow seemed unusually long, she gave it a few practice swings through the air, as if testing whether it would cut properly.

If my memory served correctly, that sword had to be the cursed sword she'd used on the battlefield, Call of Yearning.

"Since this is a real-blade match, if Professor Marey or I sense that either of your lives is genuinely in danger, we will stop the match at any moment. Once a stop is called, all attacks must cease immediately. Understood?"

"Yes."

I answered with a bright smile, while Jane merely gave a small nod.

Judging by that ice-cold glare fixed on me, she seemed pretty angry, but she definitely heard what the professor just said, right?

"Then we resume the match, starting now!"

The moment the briefly paused match resumed, letters appeared before my eyes.

[Sword that Cuts the Eyes]

Before I knew it, her sword, now brimming with surging mana, was already swinging right up to my face.

I'd assumed her Body score was only slightly higher than my current one, but it seemed she hadn't been fighting at full power earlier.

At this level, she had to be at least seventy... no, at least around seventy-five.

Clang!

But my Talent let me read every single one of her movements, and with this much of a gap in body score, blocking wasn't particularly difficult.

Even though her attack had landed cleanly on my sword, when I blocked Jane's blade with ease, she froze for a moment before immediately unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks.

[Sword that Cuts the Throat]

[Sword that Cuts the Left Arm]

[Sword that Cuts the Chest]

An unbroken chain of consecutive strikes.

But just like with the first attack, all that could be heard was the clash of steel against steel, never the sound of flesh being torn.

I glanced down at my numb wrist for a moment and smiled.

To think I could actually block a mana-infused sword.

How long had I longed for a moment exactly like this?

It felt as if all those years I'd spent desperately dodging, unable to do anything else for lack of mana, were finally being repaid all at once.

"...You're smiling?"

I was smiling for an entirely different reason, but to her, with every single one of her attacks being blocked, it must have registered completely differently, judging by the grinding sound of teeth I heard.

"No, that's..."

Just as I tried to explain, I bent down to dodge the letters appearing on her sword, met her next attack head on, and stepped back a few paces.

As you've probably noticed by now, every single one of her attacks had been a slash.

There were people who, seeing this, claimed the Snowtier family's swordsmanship was a half-baked style, too heavily biased toward slashing alone.

But actually clashing swords directly with her, rather than simply dodging, made it clear.

She had clearly undergone intensely rigorous training designed to minimize any deviation in her sword's trajectory the instant a forward strike was blocked.

I suspected this because, having always fought a style that relentlessly hunted for openings in an enemy's defense, I habitually checked for the opening that appeared the moment a sword was blocked, and hers was strangely, unusually difficult to force my way into.

To put it simply, it meant she'd practiced forcibly suppressing the rebound recoil of striking a sword against a wall.

Since that recoil itself carried considerable pain, it must have been an extremely grueling form of training.

"How dare you."

Jane muttered, her voice carrying a faint tremor.

Continuing to mutter in a voice that sent chills down my spine, Jane glared at me with a look bordering on madness and screamed.

"How dare you... how dare you...!"

"What? What did I even do?"

"How dare you mock me? A nameless, pedigree-less commoner like you?"

They say you can't even spit at someone smiling at you, yet here she was, angry anyway.

I shot back at Jane's words with an expression of pure disbelief.

"Suddenly going on about pedigree? Don't you have, what, more than ten siblings? Then your family's got a pretty mixed-up pedigree of its own, doesn't it?"

"Shut up, I'll kill you!"

Having completely lost her composure, Jane muttered continuously, pouring something into her sword.

The Snowtier family's swordsmanship, Spatial Severance.

First Form: Rend.

Her sword began racing toward me rapidly, tracing out a thin, white line.