Volume 3 Chapter 14 The Cost Of Repairing The Magic Sword
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Whoa! Wait! No violence!”
”You’re seriously training to be a killer, aren’t you?! What the hell are you talking about!”
The atmosphere had become tense in an instant.
In a situation like this, the surrounding disciples should step in, but no one dared to intervene, perhaps out of fear of Gao.
Kian hesitated between calling Eleonora and seeing what would happen next, when suddenly, a familiar large man slowly made his way forward from the crowd.
Homolka, who had been watching the situation with interest, widened his eyes.
”Lord Renaud!?”
”—Mind if I cut in for a sec?”
The imposing man with a black, bushy beard──Knight Renaud, who could become a dragon──walked to Liam’s side, next to his colleague.
Liam’s colleague seemed terrified of Renaud, even though he had come to help.
Gao, on the other hand, seemed to have lost his momentum upon seeing the suddenly arrived, rough-looking Knight.
”H-huh? Who the hell are you!?”
”H-hey, idiot!”
”It’s fine, Plum.”
Renaud said those words to the young man, who was sprawling on the floor with a blue face.
He wasn’t wearing the armor of the Knights of the Sun, but rather a rough, casual outfit.
Though made of high-quality fabric, the lack of any embroidery or insignia meant that to someone who didn’t know Renaud, he would simply appear as a strange old man.
Renaud pulled Plum, Liam’s colleague, to his feet, then signaled to his companion to bring over a new wooden sword.
”Hey, tiger cub. Spar with me for a bit. I’ve been watching from the sidelines, and honestly, the basics in your group are a mess.”
”Huh? And why the hell should I do that? Get lost, old man!”
”Then sit quietly and watch. Is there anyone else willing to take his place and be my partner?”
Renaud’s black eyes swept across the crowd──and as if deliberately, they landed on Kian.
(Me?)
But this was a chance he couldn’t miss.
He had planned to ask Renaud to repair the broken Windsong Blade, so he needed to make a good impression on this man, whose opinion of him was currently at an all-time low.
Kian bowed to Homolka and stepped forward from the crowd.
”Kukuku, well, Lord Kian?”
”…It’s been a while, Lord Renaud.”
”Huh? …Wait a minute. ‘Lord’ you say? So, you’re Knights?”
”He’s definitely a Knight. This Azraelian here is a recent Knight. Not much fame yet. I wonder if he can truly be called a Knight.”
Renaud grinned and grabbed the young tiger Beastmen boy’s head, ruffling his hair roughly.
”GYAH, Stop it! …!? W-wait, so strong!? H-hey, stop, sto-op! What are you doing!?”
”Boy, you watch too. It’s not good if the instructor can’t explain things properly. My opponent will be ‘Crescent Moon Knight’ Kian of Izerland, kukuku.”
”────”
Kian received a wooden sword from one of his disciples who was watching.
He was ready for Renaud to suddenly attack, but surprisingly, he didn’t draw his sword and just strode over.
”Listen, everyone. What’s important when learning swordsmanship is understanding the purpose for which it was created, before worrying about forms and techniques. For example, regarding the Franz Kingdom Knight swordsmanship, the long sword technique you are learning, it was created for the purpose of quickly killing high-powered magicians and the Knights protecting them in the enemy army. Therefore, there is no shield use. Slash and kill the magician. First, think only about that. But, when fighting the enemy Knights guarding the magician, you need to break them quickly. What you are doing is fighting with that in mind.”
Renaud aligned the blade of his wooden sword with Kian’s.
”A knight-to-knight battle using physical enhancement abilities is decided in an instant. That is to say, attack and defense are almost simultaneous. In the case of Franz Kingdom’s knight swordsmanship, there’s a slight difference; we aim for ‘the back of the front.’ A counterattack. While parrying the opponent’s sword with our own, we deal a fatal blow to the enemy’s unprotected body. If it’s too shallow, it will quickly recover, so we must aim for a deep strike. For that, the crucial technique is how to ‘deflect the enemy’s attack’ in an instant.”
”――――.”
Silence filled the air.
Kian couldn’t help but be a bit surprised as Renaud, who he had always thought of as nothing more than a brute, kept talking to the guards, giving a lecture on swordsmanship.
His impression of Renaud was starting to change.
”You’re not defending properly. It hasn’t sunk into your bodies. Tiger Boy has it down, but the rest of you are completely hopeless. ──Plum, what would you do if I came at you with a sword?”
”Uh… I’d run away.”
”Fool! No, what would you do if I came at you with a diagonal slash? How would you parry it with your sword?”
”Um… like this?”
Plum reached toward Kian’s hands and, with a sharp motion, smacked Renaud’s wooden sword away with a loud crack.
He deflected the downward strike by batting it back upward—the kind of sword movement that pushed the opponent’s blade back in the opposite direction.
A strong jolt ran through the hilt Kian was gripping.
”No. That’s dangerous.”
”Huh?”
”Do you know why it’s dangerous? Listen up, everyone. What Plum just did is a common mistake, often made by amateurs acting on instinct. He parried the incoming strike by knocking it straight back in the opposite direction.”
”It’s not about parrying. You need to be more efficient and guide it to the side!”
”There’s truth in what the tiger one says, but there’s a more direct reason. ──Of course, you understand, don’t you, Lord Kian?”
Renaud shot a perfectly timed malicious glance.
His intention to make a laughingstock of Kian if he couldn’t answer was clear.
Fortunately, it was a basic question, and he answered normally.
”Because the enemy’s sword might slide off mine and deeply cut into my shoulder.”
”──. Wow, it’s easier to understand.”
Kian released Renaud, who wore an obviously disappointed expression, and raised his wooden sword high.
”Normally, when someone swings their sword outward like they’re spreading their arms, the tip of the sword faces away from them. And the hilt──where your hand is──is relatively closer to your body.”
He spread his sword arm to the side.
The wooden sword formed a straight diagonal line from its tip to the hilt.
This posture was the exact position after deflecting an enemy’s sword.
In other words, the enemy’s sword still retained its momentum and was sliding along the blade of the deflected sword.
You’d understand if you tried it.
In this state, the enemy’s sword would slide towards the hilt, potentially causing serious injuries to your arm or shoulder.
”Therefore, when defending, always point the sword’s tip towards the center of your body──inward──and move the hilt away from the center of your body. Usually, maintain an angle that is the opposite of how an amateur would deflect a sword──redirecting it. By maintaining this angle, the enemy’s blade won’t have enough force to cut through your side.”
Kian intercepted Renaud’s wooden sword, which was swung down diagonally, by pressing down on it from above, guiding it towards the center of his body.
The enemy’s blade would fall diagonally downwards, and in this state, by twisting his wrist, Kian could turn the blade of his own sword, tracing a trajectory that would instantly slash Renaud’s throat.
This was the basic, yet profound, movement of Franz Kingdom Knight’s swordsmanship, the long sword style, which combined offense and defense.
Azrael’s Dance Swordsmanship didn’t involve blocking at all, but in the case of Franz Kingdom Knight’s swordsmanship, the guidebooks described this method of receiving an enemy’s strike and immediately counterattacking as a fundamental principle.
Renaud nodded and looked around at Plum and the other young men acting as disciples.
”Too many of you aren’t doing this correctly. Always deflect while drawing the blade towards the center of your body. Pushing it outwards requires strength and damages your weapon. Moreover, as Lord Kian explained, there’s a chance of serious injury, so it’s absolutely something you shouldn’t do. You should spend today mastering only this method of defense. Forget about the forms for now and just get this movement ingrained in your bodies. Understood?”
”Thank you for lending me your wooden sword.”
”You’re welcome. ──You were here, Lord Kian?”
Kian exchanged a casual smile with one of Liam’s former colleagues, who was gazing at him with longing.
Meanwhile, the other disciples completely ignored the tiger boy playing the master role──Gao──and began to pair up, swinging their swords.
Renaud crossed his arms and started supervising from the sidelines.
Kian couldn’t just leave Renaud and return to the crowd, so he stood beside him, taking a ‘rest’ posture.
”What brings you to Izerland, Kian?”
Without taking his eyes off the sparring disciples, Renaud asked, his tone almost a growl.
”I’ve come to deliver a letter to Her Excellency Maribel and… I have a favor to ask of you, Sir Renaud.”
”A favor for me?”
”Yes, it’s about the Windsong Blade you gave me before.”
”Now that you mention it, you did shoot that thing off in the windbreak outside the arena, didn’t you? I trust you compensated Her Excellency for that?”
”……”
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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