Chapter 138: Rite of Passage [9]

Siegfried looked down at the pool of blood on the ground and sighed.

"I knew there was something off about you, Yves. And now that I've watched you defeat Big Brother Josh, my gut feeling was right."

Siegfried had been hundreds of meters away when the explosion happened.

The moment he heard it, he immediately ran toward its direction.

And when he arrived and saw Josh kneeling in his own pool of blood, a dark spear impaled through his stomach, with his younger brother standing over him, something inside Siegfried had gone cold.

Ever since Yves had arrived at the estate with all that confidence, Siegfried had been suspicious of him.

Anyone else might have dismissed it as arrogance.

But only a fool would think that way.

Yves had definitely had something to back up his confidence.

And now he had proven it by defeating their older brother.

"So you were watching?" Yves asked, maintaining the same aloof expression he had worn since childhood.

Siegfried had barely ever seen Yves smile.

Ever since he was born, Yves had been an expressionless child.

The thought of seeing him genuinely smile still felt strange.

"No. When I arrived, the battle was already over," Siegfried said, shaking his head.

"I see."

Yves tilted his head.

"And then you decided to attack me the moment I turned my back."

"Yeah."

Siegfried yawned.

"There are no rules prohibiting sneak attacks."

Siegfried would be lying if he said he wasn't somewhat skeptical about fighting Yves.

After all, he knew nothing about his powers.

Fighting an opponent whose abilities you knew nothing about was dangerous.

But there was no time to sit down and conduct an investigation into Yves' abilities.

He'd simply have to figure them out while fighting him.

Plus, I'm really lazy.

I just want this to end so I can go to sleep.

Siegfried raised his katana and pointed it toward Yves.

He didn't wait.

His body shot forward.

Yves took a stance as well.

Then he dashed forward.

The two brothers met in the middle.

CLANG!

The impact produced a shockwave that lifted grains of sand from the ground and sent them scattering through the air.

The already-destroyed forest trembled once again.

...

Our blades collided, producing a shockwave that lifted grains of sand from the ground and sent them scattering through the air.

Siegfried pulled his katana back and immediately stabbed toward my leg.

I stepped backward, avoiding the thrust, then raised my knee and drove it toward his stomach.

Siegfried blocked it with his hand.

His katana immediately followed.

Like a snake, the blade whipped toward my neck.

I didn't panic.

I pulled my knee back and raised my sword.

CLANG!

I knocked his blade away.

Then I shifted my footing and kicked toward his face.

Siegfried raised his hand and blocked the first kick.

I kicked again.

TWACK!

He blocked that one too.

All of it happened within seconds.

Siegfried pushed my leg away.

Instead of resisting, I used the force of his push to spin around.

I performed a corkscrew flip and slammed my left leg into his chest.

BOOM!

Siegfried was sent flying several meters backward.

He performed a backflip in midair before landing smoothly on the ground.

"Interesting."

He casually patted his chest.

That was Siegfried Noctis Laurent.

My second-oldest brother.

The man our family called the Lazy Swordsman.

The nickname wasn't an exaggeration.

Siegfried was incredibly talented with a katana, but he was also one of the laziest people I'd ever created.

Training?

He hated it.

Running?

Too much effort.

Getting out of bed?

Apparently an impossible task.

If he had the choice between training for ten hours and sleeping for ten hours, he'd choose sleep without hesitation.

And yet, despite his laziness, he had never truly fallen behind the other Laurent children.

In fact, he had a rather ridiculous reason for that.

His Main Story.

Siegfried's Story allowed him to grow stronger through sleep.

The more he slept and lazed around, the more his abilities naturally developed.

It was almost as if the world itself rewarded him for being a lazy bastard.

He could fall behind everyone else, take a long nap, wake up, and suddenly find that his skills had increased enough to catch up.

It sounded absurd.

And it was.

But it worked.

Of course, there were limits.

He couldn't simply sleep for a hundred years and wake up as a Divine.

His growth had thresholds, and there were things that still required actual effort.

Still, his Main Story made his laziness far less detrimental than it should have been.

And there was another reason why Siegfried was dangerous.

His swordsmanship.

Even without training as much as the others, his body seemed to remember every movement naturally.

His reactions were sharp.

His instincts were frightening.

And when he actually decided to fight...

He was a completely different person.

Siegfried's figure suddenly blurred.

He disappeared.

My senses immediately picked him up.

He materialized on my left.

My blade was already swinging toward him.

CLANG!

Our swords collided.

Neither of us was pushed back.

Mana surged violently through our limbs.

We both burst sideways, our blades swinging toward one another at incredible speeds.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A horizontal slash came from my left.

I ducked beneath it and immediately countered with a diagonal slash aimed at both his chest and throat.

Siegfried twisted his wrist and redirected my blade.

Then, using a two-step movement, he closed the distance between us in an instant.

His katana slashed toward my shoulder.

I moved to the side.

But I wasn't fast enough.

The blade bit into the side of my shoulder, drawing blood.

Pain shot through me.

I tightened my grip on my katana.

This bastard was fast.

Very fast.

But I wasn't going to let him dictate the pace of the fight.

I recalled everything Ezio had taught me and moved.

My hand blurred forward once.

But five wide arcs appeared in the air.

Five slashes.

All aimed at Siegfried.

To an ordinary person's eyes, it looked like I had swung my sword only once.

In reality, I had swung it five times.

I had simply moved too quickly for the eye to follow.

Siegfried didn't panic.

That carefree expression remained on his face.

His speed suddenly increased.

His katana moved.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

He blocked and parried all five attacks.

My eyes narrowed.

He's keeping up.

As soon as he deflected the final slash, my katana came from his left.

The blade threatened to cut him in half at the waist.

Mana wrapped around Siegfried's body.

He suddenly darted to the side.

My blade sliced through nothing but air.

Mana coiled around my legs.

Like a compressed spring, I launched myself toward him.

My katana aimed directly at his neck.

Siegfried's blade was already there.

CLANG!

He blocked my attack.

Our bodies blurred as we accelerated again.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A slash came from above.

I stepped to the side and immediately returned the attack.

Siegfried blocked it as if he had already expected it.

Then, like a whip, his arm shot forward.

His katana slashed horizontally toward my face.

My head snapped backward.

The blade cut through the air where my head had been only a moment ago.

I could see just how close it had come to splitting my skull.

I used the momentum to perform a backflip.

While flipping, I kicked toward his chin.

Siegfried didn't expect it.

My boot connected directly beneath his chin.

BAM!

He was sent flying upward.

I completed the flip and landed on my feet, using one hand against the ground to stabilize myself.

Siegfried was still airborne, disoriented from the kick.

He was about to land.

I moved.

The ground cracked beneath my feet from the force of my acceleration.

My body blurred forward.

In an instant, I was beside Siegfried.

He was falling upside down.

My katana swept toward his neck.

Siegfried's crimson eyes, which had rolled back moments ago, suddenly snapped into focus.

"Give me some space, youngest."

Then I felt it.

A strange pressure.

It wasn't like mana.

It wasn't like sword aura.

Something else was gathering around Siegfried's body.

His Authority.

Vibration.

Silver energy suddenly exploded from his body.

The moment it touched me, I felt something shift inside my organs.

My stomach twisted.

My blood surged toward my throat.

Then the force slammed into my entire body.

BOOM!

I was launched backward like a bullet.

Dozens of meters passed beneath me before I crashed into the ground.

CRASH!

"Cough! Cough!"

Blood spilled from my mouth.

White-hot pain spread throughout my entire body.

I immediately scanned myself with mana.

And...

Shit.

My organs were a mess.

I pushed myself onto my knees and looked toward Siegfried.

He stood far away, one hand resting lazily against his katana.

There was a small streak of blood near the corner of his mouth.

Despite everything, he still looked bored.

"Tell me, youngest."

Siegfried yawned.

"How does it feel to have your insides twisted by vibration?"

It felt fucking terrible.

That was Siegfried's Authority.

He could manipulate vibration.