Chapter 91: - Arden, the Renowned Household of Swordsmanship (3)

༺ Arden, the Renowned Household of Swordsmanship (3) ༻

– Alalalalalalalala—-!!

The horsemen raced across the grassland while whistling out loud.

– Kuwaaahkk...!

Chasing behind them were packs of wolves. Stimulated by the noisy sound of whistles, the groups of black beasts pounced through the grass at their prey.

“32 enemies in total: 300 meters away. Will reach us in 20 seconds.”

Another group – our group was watching them from afar. It was when the horsemen looked like they were almost going to get caught by the wolves.

“Can you use it again?”

“Yes. Do we start?” I asked.

“Go.”

Immediately, I kicked off the ground and jumped off the hill. The horsemen were starting to merge with the pack of wolves and it looked impossible to shoot arrows without the fear of friendly fire.

– Kwang!

In spite of that, I unhesitatingly tossed my spear, which started piercing through the wind with a shriek.

The spear looked like it would penetrate through someone but that was when it suddenly twisted and changed its direction mid-air.

– Pababak...!

Despite being already out of my control, the thrown weapon went against the law of physics following an eccentric trajectory. Due to the Restriction, it became a ‘never-landing spear’.

It was only possible because I was Korin Lork, with a contract forged with the world that ‘I do not perceive spirits’. My silver spear landed right in the middle of the group without hurting any of the horsemen or the demonic beasts.

That immediately activated the effect of the Orb of the Grim Reaper x Festival-use Faulty Manastone.

– Pakk!

Mana erupted around the spear. It reached out by 100 meters in all directions and struck all the demonic beasts in the radius.

– Woof?

– Plop!

The monsters, that had been kicking off the ground at full force without any plans to stop, all plopped down at the same time.

– Woof?

– Kuwaahh...!

Half of the entire group fell in the blink of an eye. Despite being beasts, they were puzzled at the turn of events and confusedly looked at their fallen comrades.

“Unsheathe.”

Dozens of swordsmen unsheathed their swords at once. The sharp sound of blades scraping out of their scabbards had a terrifyingly uniform sound that gathered the eyes of the demonic beasts.

❰Marching Swords of Arden: Vigorous Tiger❱

The first person to charge out was Lunia Arden. Her sword, which was raised up high, sliced through the head of one of the beowulf that were in the mix, in a flash.

– Kuhk!

The beowulf collapsed with a single cry which marked the start of the battle.

“Charge...!”

“Follow the captain...!”

A huge number of swordsmen dashed towards the faltered demonic beasts. Their difference in spirit was already a tell-tale sign of who would come out on top.

.........

......

...

“Report.”

“Yes captain! We have defeated five Grade 2s, thirteen Grade 3s...! And twenty Grade 4s! For a grand total of 38 demonic beasts!”

“Report our casualties first.”

“Ah, sorry captain! We have four lightly injured, and no one with severe injuries...! There are no fatalities!”

“Good. For those injured, let them return on their own horses if they can, and if not, let them ride with the reserve troops.”

“Yes... Understood, captain!”

It was quite sudden, but the reason I had come out to kill demonic beasts with Lunia was because a fair few of them had broken through the borders.

Lunia had to scramble out because of that so I came with her. Yuel and Alicia were busy, so I at least wanted to do something instead of doing nothing as the guest.

“Let us return.”

After everything was over, we rode our horses to head back to the main headquarters.

“Good work. We have greatly reduced our casualties thanks to you.”

“All I did was throw my spear though. I didn’t do much.”

“No, there are fewer injuries thanks to you. That matters a lot.”

“I won’t turn it down if you want to put me up on the pedestal.”

Lunia gave a rare smile after hearing my reply.

“A wide-range attack that immediately neutralizes lower grade demonic beasts, huh... when did you learn that?”

“Through good luck back when I went to Nazrea.”

“Hmm... Nazrea. I believe that was where the 2nd group event of the festival took place.”

“Oh? How did you know?”

Did she watch it through a broadcasting stone or something? Or maybe...

“More importantly, Korin. Do you have time tomorrow?”

“I don’t have anything in particular but...”

“I see. Then make sure you keep it free.”

“???”

Wondering what this was about, I tilted my head as Lunia continued with a faint smile on her lips.

“We will go on a date.”

On the 4th day after arriving at the Ardens, I had a date scheduled with Lunia.

****

Lunia was commonly acknowledged as the maiden of steel.

She started carrying a sword ever since her childhood, began hunting demonic beasts at the young age of 15 and at the age of 20, she became renowned as the greatest young swordsman of the east.

That was the life of the Sword Master, whose life started and continued with nothing but the sword.

A great crisis struck her, who had been following the way of the sword for her entire life, because of the sudden uncertainty of the next successor.

『What is all this, mother?』

『They are the famous swordsmen of the east as well as sons of renowned families.』

Political marriage.

It was a way to recover the stability of her wavering status. If they were a normal household, it might not have been a bad choice, because interconnections with other families weren’t things that could be easily ignored when considering the future of the family.

However, in the Ardens, the one who decided the next family head was Garrand Arden the Sword Emperor.

Would that fiend crazy for the sword even care about the balance of the east or interconnections?

Lunia thought it was meaningless. Her idea was that swordsmen had to prove themselves through the sword.

However, she couldn’t ignore the opinions of her mother, Sophia.

Many of her supporters were from Sophia’s family and her subordinates, and besides, trying to force her to marry wasn’t anything new.

‘Korin Lork.’

In order to avoid the consistent arranged marriage meetings and pressure for marriage, she unconsciously blurted out the name of the Academy freshman.

Objectively speaking, he was a good man.

He looked fairly good on the outside, and his aspiration to improve himself in martial arts was so immense that it even stimulated herself.

During the interim exam, he was only barely in the realm of the Domain but how far in would he be now? At the very least, it would be enough to compel her grandfather to ignore every opposition.

And most importantly...

『Ah...』

Lunia recalled her younger sister from a different mother who unconsciously hid herself after seeing her talk with Korin. How big of an emotion did she have for him? It was at least certain that she had a favorable impression of him.

‘Everything that belongs to my younger sister is mine. I have the right and authority to take it.’

“Uht...!”

Alicia barely managed to block the incoming attacks. She had the Eyes of the Boundary that allowed her to see through the gaps of the world, so perceiving the path of the sword itself wasn’t a problem. However, her body and her muscles couldn’t react in time and in the end, she couldn’t stop Lunia’s sword from scraping past the tip of her nose.

“...”

In that instant, Alicia read through Lunia’s pace of breath. Next, her eyes picked up the path Lunia would take to continue her sword to the next stage.

Therefore, Alicia raised her sword to pierce through and stop the combination of attacks.

Instant Slash, Advancing Fang, Soaring Heavens, Lightning.

Putting a stop to her opponent’s set of attacks, Alicia continued forth with her own combination of attacks. Lunia reacted and in response to the torrent of Alicia’s attacks...

“...?!”

She dodged by a hair’s breadth without even protecting herself with the sword. Alicia felt stifled seeing her sword traveling 1 mm away from Lunia’s eyes even though she was the one attacking her.

“You must always be in control of your breath.”

– Pakk!

Lunia then gave a sweeping kick to Alicia’s belly. Somehow, Alicia managed to keep her back straight, thanks to which she avoided having her chin disjointed by the next upward slash.

“Haak...”

With a deep breath out, Alicia jumped back. Lunia’s ability to read the flow of the battle was as terrifying as always.

It’s not like she had a special set of eyes like Alicia. That was a miraculous level of insight which she developed through endless hard work and training. Those were the eyes of a master that could read through everything objectively even in a life and death battle.

That allowed her to dodge the opponent’s attacks using the minimum amount of movement, which in turn allowed her to attack at the fastest possible speed.

This was why she was called the Sword Master.

This was why she was at the top of knights.

Even Korin Lork, who had fought against her hundreds of times, couldn’t best Lunia Arden in terms of skill mastery.

“You have gotten better than before. Looks like you have not been lazy with practice.”

“...Yes.”

“I assume your change of mind is thanks to my fiancé.”

Fiancé.

For some reason, that noun irked her a little.

“Do you know what he and I have in common?”

“...What is it?”

After saying that herself, Alicia was surprised by just how curt she had been with her reply.

“We do not waste any power. Our philosophy when it comes to skill is the same.”

Lunia said while pointing the tip of the sword at Alicia. The single-edged wooden sword still had a pointy tip that was as sharp as a real sword.

“You do not need any magnificent techniques against humans. Everything is within the distance of an inch. The goal is to simply close that inch and kill your opponent.”

She vanished.

Using the fastest straight-line footwork technique of Arden, Lunia carried out the fastest stab.

– Pak...!

“Hahk...!”

Alicia gasped for breath after barely stopping the attack. She was close to death... In fact, even though she saw it with the Eyes of the Boundary, she still would have died there if not for Lunia slowing down before the sword came into contact with her neck.

“Next will be a stab. Dodge it.”

Immediately, the wooden sword rapidly came piercing at her. Those stabs rather than swings reminded Alicia of Korin’s terrifying stabs.

The sword wasn’t as fast as the spear but they were still horribly fast. After being tired of the consecutive stabs, Alicia tried to retaliate but...

❰Falling Fist❱

Her attacks were easily mitigated. Just like how it was natural for raindrops to travel down the roof without hitting the walls of the building, her attacks could not reach Lunia.

‘I will be pushed back at this rate...! I need to use the Domain...!?’

That was when Lunia disappeared in the blink of an eye. By the time Alicia noticed it, Lunia was already standing further away with a black luster emanating out of her dantian.

She was releasing her inner qi through the Aura Core. After boiling to its maximum threshold, the aura flowed out and melted into the darkness.

“Ah...”

Alicia couldn’t help but lament at the sight of black light that somehow lit up the dark night skies of the wintery midnight.

Condensed forms of swords with a ridiculous amount of condensed aura were floating around Lunia. There were a whole 20 of them.

Each and every one of those appeared like lightning bolts of ink that would fall with a tempest. The combination of those attacks would be enough to blow away an arena of this size.

No matter how fast Alicia was to run, and even if she was to take a step forward in the Domain, she figured that she wouldn’t be able to dodge the lightning bolts of swords to reach Lunia. In fact, she probably wouldn’t even be able to last against the shockwaves created by the swords landing on the ground.

“I, I admit defeat.”

Alicia dropped her sword and admitted defeat.

She thought she had closed the gap a little bit.

After defeating her at the Sword Challenge, she thought she had become a proper swordsman that at least had something to be proud of.

However, she realized just how arrogant she had been. The victory back then was just a result of sheer fluke, and there still existed an unclosable gap between herself and Lunia Arden.

An unfathomable sense of defeat and frustration pressed down on her.

“Try harder. Otherwise, you would look at nothing but our backs for the rest of your life.”

For some reason, her last words felt sharper than any of her previous attacks.

****

After about a week or so,

I was in a cafe in the town of Taklakan.

“Here.”

At a corner of the cafe, a beautiful lady with a gray bob cut and a tall, thin body, was waiting for me while taking a sip of her coffee.

“Wasn’t expecting you to come here in person,” I said.

“It is very important after all. I don’t have any connections in the east so I had to do it myself.”

Renya Claire. The mid-grade executive of the intelligence guild gave a sensual smile while sipping her coffee.

“How’s everything going with work?”

“Faring smoothly thanks to you. There are some guys that run away without paying their money back, which is a bit of a bother.”

“Ohh, you’re even lending money now?”

“A must when running a gambling house.”

“What if they just give up and say they have no money?”

Renya smiled viciously like a leopardess while returning a cold-hearted reply.

“Squeeze a dried squid and you’ll still get some water.”

“...Oh damn.”

The world of gamblers was very scary indeed.

“Don’t be too cruel though.”

“Can’t be helped if that’s your policy, boss, but can I ask why?”

“Everything will come back to bite you if you do something wrong. Make sure you don’t cross the line.”

“...I knew you were a needlessly nice person, boss, but seriously...”

“Well, that’s mainly for you to decide anyway. What about the thing I asked you about?”

“Here.”

Renya gave a set of papers as the report. The thing I asked about before didn’t require too much of a detail so I checked the information on the spot.

...Damn it.

I knew it. So it is here during this time frame, huh. It seemed that the Sword Emperor, that old bastard, wasn’t lying.

“I don’t know how you knew about things happening in the far east when you were in Merkarva the whole time, boss, but... be careful. According to our agents, this guy... is no normal monster.”

“Hah~. Yeah.”

Of course I knew it. According to the original scenario, it wasn’t an enemy I was supposed to fight just yet but considering just how unlucky I was, there was more than enough likelihood of me having to go against that guy.

Estimated Rating: Semi-Unique Grade Demonic Beast, 『Sword Fiend』.

The last disciple of the Sword Emperor, Garrand Arden.

It was the named monster that would later appear as one of the King’s subordinates.