(AN:Continued from last time…)[1]
‘I’m not giving him the initiative this time, I’ll take the first move!’
Cornelia swung the sword wrapped in flames.
Wynn’s stance was broken.
The magic 《Binding Chains》 had taken effect. [3]
Holding his sword with only his right hand, Wynn deflected the stab while kicking the ground to gain distance.
Wynn felt the force of the impacts each time Cornelia attacked..
Even though they were using longswords of similar sizes, Cornelia’s sword strikes were as heavy as if she were using a greatsword.
The flames around the blade were also a problem.
Since those flames didn’t affect the caster, Cornelia didn’t feel the heat.
Certain of her advantage, Cornelia continued her assault.
As if he were dancing, Wynn dodged and parried all of the blows.
With his movements restricted, and at the same time, affected by the heat, Wynn concentrated on defending without being able to consider a counterattack.
He thought that they would continue to exchange blows like this.[4]
However, Cornelia’s offensive stopped for a moment.
Cornelia’s face distorted in a strained expression, she lifted her head to take a deep breath.
With a low stance as if he were crawling, he rushed forward and thrust the tip of the sword at her neck.
At seeing this, Cornelia’s body became weak, and Wynn slowly withdrew the sword.
“It is my complete and utter defeat…”
“Your flame enchantment magic was new to me. It was a valuable experience for me.”
Wynn extended his right hand, and Cornelia accepted the handshake.
“To think you only beat me with sword skills. On the second match, were you waiting for me to run out of stamina?”
“I am confident in my endurance. However, I had no breathing room. My movements were restricted by magic. I had seen adventurers use it before, but after the first blow destroyed my stance, if the next attack were a little bit stronger, I would have lost.”
Cornelia let out a slight smile.
“I can’t believe that you’re a cadet like me. I would be surprised if you were an instructor. Wouldn’t you be stronger than a regular knight if you used magic?”
However —
“No, well, I…”
Wynn’s face suddenly darkened, and Cornelia realized she touched a sensitive topic.
“I cannot use magic. I have no talent for it.”
“Talent…”
“That’s why, I have to train so that I won’t be defeated by anybody while only using the sword. No matter how much I practice, I can’t use magic. Moreover, people can never surpass their limits. However –” [5]
Wynn gripped the sword on his waist.
“Since many people win without having to practice, I could win against those dependent on magic”[6]
His previous expression vanished, and the light of determination shone in his eyes.
At his words, Cornelia was amazed.
After those solemn words, Wynn gave a gentle smile.
“However, I’ve already failed the selection test three times. It seems that we should return to our places.”[7]
He saw that the other students had began to return to their original places.
She had heard the story of his failing three times, but…
Cornelia watched Wynn’s retreating figure.
Before sparring with him, she didn’t believe any of the rumors of him being a failure.
‘I see… That is the rumored Master of the Brave, Wynn Byrd.’
The Knight School Instructor Aldo looked at Wynn and Cornelia, who were among the students that had regrouped.
Originally, he didn’t look over everybody evenly, only heeding the few rumored students.
It was strange to not be worried.
At Aldo’s signal, the mock battles started.
Wynn’s partner, Cornelia was no exception.
Wynn, however, did not move.
However, those movements were much more polished than the other students, even the battle-tested Aldo thought it looked good.
Wynn stood motionlessly with the sword held calmly in his right hand.
He waited for Cornelia to finish strengthening herself with magic.
Wynn was not in Aldo’s class last year.
According to the instructor’s report, he wasn’t able to use magic since didn’t have enough magic power.
Being unable to put magic into the practice sword, or use the lowest level magic, his practical magic grades were rock-bottom. [9]
In reality, at the moment Cornelia finished strengthening herself with magic, Wynn’s body contained no traces of magic.
However —
Despite Cornelia beginning to set up her sword earlier, Wynn closed the distance and attacked first.
While they were locking swords, Wynn took the opportunity to disrupt her stance, then closed the distance again with a slash.
He aimed at Cornelia’s sword with a slash, and her sword went flying out of her hands.
Cornelia’s surprise was plainly visible.
She was probably unable to see Wynn’s blade.
The speed of his blade was overwhelming.[12]
‘It was good that I saw it.’ (Aldo)
If he paid attention to any of the other students, he would have missed it.
The level of the match was so much higher than the other students’ matches, and was over in a matter of moments.
‘Did those people realize that?’ [13]
Cornelia’s body was once again enveloped in light.
Unlike the previous time, however, her sword became wrapped in flames.
‘That was Enhancement System magic ‘Enchant’!’
Aldo widened his eyes.
It was unpopular in the Knight School, so he had few opportunities to see it.
But Cornelia did use that magic.
‘It seems that Wynn was affected by some kind of magic.’
Among the adventurers, who mainly fought monsters, few used this fighting style.[14]
Against especially strong monsters, one would use weakening magic, but even that job would fall to the Imperial Court Magicians, so the Knights wouldn’t use it.
Cornelia, like Wynn, had a fighting style that deviated from the standard knight’s fighting style.
When Wynn tried to repel Cornelia’s sword, his stance was destroyed.
At this, Cornelia stabbed at him, which he warded off skillfully.
After that, Cornelia unleashed successive attacks, but at the moment she tired out, Wynn held his sword to Cornelia’s throat, claiming victory.
At a glance, it seemed like Cornelia had the upper hand, Wynn’s patient endurance eventually won out.
However, what impressed Aldo was not Wynn’s victory, but his swordsmanship and agility — Even more monstrous though, was that it was the Brave’s swordsmanship.
Those movements which seemed like a sword dance, reminded him of the time he had met the Brave.
Three years ago, while Aldo was stationed at a frontier Knight Order, he was on his way to subjugate a group of man-eating ogres.
There, he was able to see the form of Leticia the Brave.
At a certain village near the border…
There, scores of ogres attacked.
Aldo’s knight order, upon receiving an urgent report, mobilized, but the scout platoon was unable to count the amount of ogres.
Aldo’s scout party’s captain decided to stay in the village as a decoy in order to buy time for the villagers to escape.
Ogres were, by nature, far stronger than humans, such that two or three knights would be needed against one of them.
Even if the knights stayed behind, the escaping villagers would be lucky to survive.
Nevertheless, in that remote village, there was only the hope of reinforcements arriving.
With their resolve to die, the knights persuaded the villagers to abandon the village, and while they prepared to fortify themselves, Leticia the Brave appeared.
Hearing of the impending Ogre attack, she had stopped by alone to help.
Telling the knights and the villagers the she would protect them all, she promptly stood outside the village, waiting for the ogres to attack.
At first, the knights were opposed to her fighting alone.
The proud knights absolutely couldn’t just watch the girl fight.
The scout platoon’s captain approached Leticia.
However —
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I fight alone. Don’t you have people you must protect? “[16]
She faced the crowd.
The men who could fight had already died battling against the ogres, or were cooperating with the knights to fortify the village against the ogre’s invasion.
However, Leticia smiled those who were about to argue.
“Don’t worry. At the very least, I can buy time for everybody to escape.”
With those words, Leticia exited the hastily fortified village.
‘Thinking about it now. that smile clearly — clearly that smile showed that something had broken.’[17]
When the sun set, the forest came alive as ogres approached, one after another.
At the front, was an especially large ogre.
It was most likely the boss of the horde.
Leticia walked towards that ogre.
At that time, the young girl around ten years old, whose height was similar to her sword, approached the three meter tall ogre.
Aldo, the knights, and the villagers were all behind her, watching her receding figure.
‘Why didn’t we detain her more strongly at the time?’
‘Though she rejected our offer to fight with her, I can’t just stand and watch,’ was what everybody thought.
With those bulging muscles, and crude bludgeon as a weapon, humans would become mincemeat.
That atrocious weapon swung down towards Leticia — The unaffected Leticia continued to advance.
‘Ha?’
On the verge of screaming, they closed their eyes, expecting a tragedy, but they couldn’t believe what they saw. [18]
After a moment — The ogres’ arms, legs and neck fell of from their bodies, with blood spurting out.
Nobody could understand what had happened.
Meanwhile, Leticia continued to walk towards the horde’s center.
Despite that, the corpses ogres that stood before her were scattered over the ground.
It was a sight that utterly lacked common sense.
Among the scattered corpses of the ogres, Leticia’s blurry figure was seen.
For no apparent reason, everybody shuddered.
Even though the knights were far away from her, they saw her massacring the ogres at an imperceptibly fast speed.
The knights were drenched in a cold sweat while watching this.
At the little girl spreading slaughter, the ogres tried to crush her to death by rushing her with overwhelming numbers.
However —
The blade slipped through the approaching ogres’ club wielding arms, sending their arms flying, then returned to send heads flying.
She used the ogres who tried to attack from behind as a foothold to launch into the air, kicking off of their heads. After kicking off of the ogre’s head, she attacked the ogre.
She was unstoppable. She didn’t stop.
The little girl danced a Danse Macabre. [19]
Covered in blood, Leticia expressionlessly mowed down the ogres.
Then, among the ogre horde, she approached the one thought to be the horde boss, the one with the large physique.
Slipping between its legs, she kicked the ground and burst forward.
Thus, she defeated the Ogre Leader.
The place became quiet.
Only, with a gaze unfitting of the battlefield, Leticia looked down at the ogre on the ground.
At that gaze, the ogres who only knew battle felt fear, and the disarranged ogres fled away from Leticia, away from the village.
Leticia the Brave had driven away a horde of ogres.
The village was saved.
However, among the knights and villagers, none were able to move or let out cheers of celebration.
The girl before them, they feared Leticia the Brave.
She had just massacred the ogres as if they were insects.
Since the villagers and knights felt fear, she glanced at the village for a moment, then turned away without looking back, leaving them there.
Until her companions arrived, she took not one step, then left when they arrived.[20]
Even now, Aldo remembered it distinctly.
Compared to the lovely Danse Macabre, the impression of her smile was fleeting.
Even she smiled like an ordinary human.
Meanwhile, he still felt a prick of anxiety.
Perhaps, to her, that fight may have been one of many battles.
She who had slipped through that ghastly battlefield, was now harmoniously walking in the Knight School.
Although Wynn’s magic grades were poor, his abilities were certainly not on the level of a cadet.
A noble who held great influence over the knight orders.
If, by chance, the noble’s unjust intentions became known —
Most likely, many injustices have been performed up until now.
Using his influence, he would obstruct people that he didn’t like from becoming a knight. This surely affected people other than Wynn in the past.
Up until now, such things went well.
However, this time, the target was that Wynn Byrd.
He was the rumored Master of the Brave.
With her unbelievable strength, she would oppose the Empire.
She was the Empire’s most important noble.
‘It probably wouldn’t go that far, but…’
Even Aldo, who became a teacher when he returned from the frontier, he was dumbfounded by the amount of injustices that were overlooked.
Nevertheless, the test results were practically determined by bribery.
From now on though, the status quo might change.
This is because the person who Leticia the Brave revered as her master was Wynn Byrd.
‘He became my student.’
This intrigued Aldo.
Translator notes
I think that it is essentially an Authors note, since it doesn’t fit… さすがにその剣をまともに受け止める気はないのか、ウィンは長剣で弾いた――が、逆にウィンの剣のほうが大きく弾かれてしまった。 《縛鎖》 subject is unclear, maybe they both thought so… Character flaw:defeatism? Kick reason to the curb! not completely sure… 「でも、三度も連続で試験に落ちちゃってるけどね。そろそろ終わりみたいだし、教官の元へ行こうか」 creep… 訓練用騎士剣に魔力を通したり、もしくは最低レベルの魔法に関しては使用できるとあったものの魔法実技の成績は地を這うものであった。 Gesaltzerfall at this phrase… 一瞬で間合いを詰める アルドであっても、自己強化の魔法を使用していなければ、同じように剣を弾き飛ばされて終わるのではないだろうか。 そう思わせるほどの、圧倒的な剣速だった。 当人たちもそう思ったのだろう。 こういった戦い方は、主に少数で魔物を相手にする冒険者達がよく取る戦闘方法だ。 コーネリアが先手を取る。 An idiom? ?「気持ちは嬉しいのだけど、私は一人で戦える。それに、あなたたちには守らなければならない人達がいるでしょう？」 今にして思えば、その笑顔は透明で――どこか壊れてしまいそうな笑顔だったように思う。 structure Dance of death. (Google: Dance where Death leads the dead to their graves. Think Schera Zade.) やがて、彼女の仲間と思わしき迎えが来るまで、彼女は一歩も動くことはなく、村に立ち寄ることもなく去っていった。