“But if I wasn’t wrong back then…”
Melin’s eyes shone brightly.
“Maybe he’ll show us something unexpected again.”
With that expectation, she watched the duel unfold.
What happened next was beyond her wildest expectations, utterly unbelievable.
Thud!
A loud noise reverberated.
“What?”
Melin’s eyes widened.
She wasn’t the only one; every knight in the training grounds had the same reaction.
It was inevitable.
Someone was down.
Rather than Christian, it was Canin.
Struck directly in the face with a wooden sword, bleeding from a single blow.
Christian smirked as he looked around the Black Marsh Knights.
“Is there no one else in the Black Marsh Knights to challenge me?”
The arena fell silent.
The knights were flustered.
“What just happened?”
“How did Canin fall?”
Everyone was baffled by the scene that had just unfolded.
***
As soon as the duel began, Canin aggressively pushed Christian .
“Although just a squire, Canin is a 1-star knight. That scoundrel couldn’t possibly stand a chance against him.”
“How long will he last?”
“10 seconds?”
“5 seconds?”
Just as everyone was predicting his defeat, the outcome was decided in an instant.
Christian’s wooden sword broke through Canin’s attack and smashed right into his philtrum.
(From google: The philtrum is the midline groove in the upper lip that runs from the top of the lip to the nose.)
And the result was as follows.
“What on earth?”
“Did Canin let his guard down?”
But this was the second time.
Could this really be chalked up to mere carelessness a second time?
As everyone was in disarray, an arrogant voice filled the training grounds.
“Is there no one else to step forward? It seems there were many here who had grievances against me.”
Christian lifting the corner of his mouth to smirk.
“Anyone, come forward. I’d like to see for myself the great skill of the Black Marsh Knights. It’s hard to believe they’re as impressive as the rumors suggest.”
“!!”
The knights’ faces turned red.
They looked at each other and then pointed to one person.
A formal member of the knights, a “2-star” knight stepped forward.
“My name is Thorne.”
“Well, no need to bother telling me your name.”
“…You’ll regret insulting the Black Marsh Knights.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Christian flicked his sword tip.
“Come at me.”
Provoked by his disrespectful words, Thorne, the challenger, flushed with anger.
Clang!
Wooden swords collided.
Zap! Chris’s wrist tingled.
“Just as I planned.”
Christian smirked to himself internally.
He had deliberately provoked the Black Marsh Knights, expecting a 2-star knight to step forward.
“I figured they wouldn’t send someone of a higher level to deal with a scoundrel like me.”
The one who had stepped forward was the perfect opponent for him in many ways.
At present, he could just manage to contend with a 2-star knight.
“Although I lack in the quantity of magic, I can handle this much.”
Crash! Thwack! Squeak!
The wooden swords exchanged blows.
As time passed, the training hall grew quieter.
Everyone started to sense something was off.
“What are you doing?!”
“Finish it quickly!!”
From the outside, it looked like Thorne, the 2-star knight, was overwhelmingly pressing the attack.
But he couldn’t seem to finish it.
In fact, far from finishing it.
“What’s going on? I can’t break through!”
His clunky counterattacks kept breaking the flow of his assaults.
Trying to overpower with brute force either missed or didn’t go as planned.
“It wasn’t just the previous two, they weren’t just off guard.”
Thorne swallowed his doubts.
It was incomprehensible.
Clearly, Christian was supposed to be weaker.
But it felt like he was the one being pushed back.
More precisely, it seemed like his opponent was relaxed while he was struggling desperately.
“This makes no sense.”
Meanwhile, there was another person besides the challenger Thorne who was shocked.
It was Vice Captain Melin.
“…This makes no sense.”
Vice Captain Melin couldn’t hide her astonishment.
“I wasn’t wrong back then.”
The movements Christian was showing now….
Each one was chillingly skillful.
No, it was the exact opposite.
He wasn’t exceptional. That was the issue.
It wouldn’t have been surprising if he had overwhelmed his opponent with refined swordsmanship.
However, Christian was dominating with inferior moves, managing the impossible.
“…Insane, how can he do that?”
It was incomprehensible.
Only someone with an exceptionally innate sense of combat could possibly achieve this.
But could even a genius really do this?
It was hard to believe, yet it was unfolding right before her eyes.
The arena fell deathly quiet.
Everyone stared at Christian with wide eyes.
Meanwhile, Christian thought to himself.
“Should I finish this now? I think I’ve seen enough.”
He had caused a scene today for two reasons.
First, to gain recognition among the knights.
In a society where knights value strength above all, being recognized for his power was important.
Defeating a true 2-star knight would significantly change how others viewed him.
“And there’s another, more important reason.”
Christian’s eyes deepened.
He saw the knight swinging a wooden sword at him.
Christian saw more.
First, the grip of the wrist holding the sword.
The angle of the grip.
How the muscles in the arm were tensed.
How the foot stepped forward.
Thus, how the magic flowed and enhanced his power.
He had seen how the basic sword technique of the Black Marsh Knights, the “Mud Sword Technique,” was actually used.
“So, it was something like this.”
While running laps, he had occasionally observed the training sessions of the Black Marsh Knights.
He had a rough idea of the movements, but watching from a distance had its limitations.
That’s why he had created this opportunity.
“This should be enough.”
With that thought, he swung his wooden sword.
Flash!
Magic coursed through his body.
It was only a weak, just-achieved 1-star level of magic.
But that didn’t matter.
What’s important isn’t “how much” but “how.”
Even the same magic can make a world of difference depending on how it’s used.
Unlike his opponent Thorne, who wielded strong magic but couldn’t even touch his robe, Christian’s sword easily penetrated Thorne’s defenses.
Thud!
Christian’s sword struck Thorne’s temple, and Thorne, hit on a vital spot, rolled his eyes back and fainted.
“……”
A maddening silence pressed down on the knights.
They couldn’t accept what had just happened.
It was too shocking, and their minds momentarily refused to comprehend it.
But that was only momentary.
Astonishment spread through the training hall.
“Insane… That scoundrel lord was that strong?”
“He’s not strong. His magical achievement and sword techniques are terrible.”
“That’s what makes it even more incredible. Damn. How is such a thing possible? His magic is barely at the 1-star level.”
“Wasn’t he untrained in magic? When did he reach 1-star?”
It wasn’t just admiration.
An incomprehensible astonishment and shock swept through the knights.
Suddenly, the same word came to everyone’s mind.
“…Genius?”
They all swallowed hard.
If not a genius, such a feat was absolutely impossible.
And not just any genius.
“Just how talented must one be to do such a thing?”
They were elite knights.
It wasn’t their first time seeing someone called a genius.
Many there were considered to have exceptional talents.
But they had never seen a talent capable of doing something like this.
“That scoundrel had been hiding such talent.”
The knights’ perceptions began to change.
Their way of thinking was simple.
A strict hierarchy of strength!
They bow to the strong and scorn the weak.
Christian had been despised not just for his foolish actions but it was all because he was weak.
A pathetic fool on account of his weakness.
If he had been strong, a little indulgence might have been broadly tolerated.
Of course, crossing the line would still be strictly sanctioned, but the knights of the Magic Empire are generally lenient towards the strong.
“Good. Just the reaction I expected.”
Christian internally celebrated.
He had engineered today’s event to elicit such a reaction.
Still, outwardly, he did not show any pleasure, maintaining a deliberately cold demeanor.
He believed that would make him more appealing to the knights.
His intention hit the mark, and the knights admired him once more.
“He doesn’t seem smug at all. Does he take it as a matter of course?”
“He seems much more like a knight than before.”
Originally, Christian’s inherited face looked bad-tempered.
Now, having transformed, he had the dignified air of a noble prince, and his frosty expression seemed supremely arrogant.
And arrogance in a strong person was a virtue the knights cheered.
The knights regarded honest arrogance as a virtue over false modesty.
“I’ll have to keep an eye on him.”
As the knights’ view of Christian was changing, he did something unimaginable once again.
“This wasn’t just for ending it at this level.”
“I am disappointed. It seems I had too high expectations for the Black Marsh Knights.”
“!!”
His insult to the knights heated their faces once more.
Respecting a strong opponent was one thing, but being insulted as a part of their own knight order naturally enraged them.
Just as the knights were about to react heatedly, Christian made an even more outrageous statement.
“What does the Vice Captain think about my statement?”
“!!”
Christian twisted his lips in an annoying manner.
“It seems that the lack of skill in the knight order might also be the Vice Captain’s responsibility.”
Everyone gasped.
That madman was provoking Vice Captain Melin!
“Insane.”
“Changed? More like even crazier.”
“Shouldn’t we stop him?”
Vice Captain Melin let out a scoff.
“Young master, while I understand rejoicing over an unexpected victory, isn’t it a bit presumptuous to climb so high above your level?”
“Well, we shall see about that.”
Christian flicked his wooden sword.
“Please demonstrate the skill of the Black Marsh Knights, Vice Captain.”
“!!”
He was challenging Melin to a duel.
Her face turned icy.
“Fool, if I go all out, you’d be dead within a second.”
She dropped the formal speech.
***
Here is the Glossary/ Characters/ Settings of this novel!
If you have any suggestion for better names or words, feel free to share your suggestions! All the names and words chosen are all due to my own judgement, so some wording may not be to your taste.
