The Empire's Strongest Female Warrior - Part 2
The match began like that.
“Both sides, prepare!”
My opponent looked ordinary. The weapon he was holding was….
“Begin!”
“Wait a moment!”
“…What the hell.”
The opponent, who had been striking a serious pose, spoke as if his enthusiasm had completely cooled. It seemed my interruption had shattered whatever focus he’d been building. He stared at me with an expression that screamed disbelief.
“Are you seriously trying to surrender?”
“Would I do that?”
I pointed at his sword.
“In the match I watched earlier, you were using that same sword. Where is it from?”
“Ugh, what kind of weirdo are you? It’s standard issue gear.”
“Standard issue?”
“Yeah.”
It looked pretty decent for something standard…
Anyway, since our weapons appeared identical, the test was still possible.
“But why are you suddenly asking about that?”
“Never mind. Do you want to attack first?”
“…What the hell is this guy doing?”
My casual attitude seemed to have completely killed whatever fighting spirit he had left. Still, a match was a match, so he raised his sword.
“Fine. You’re going to fight with that greatsword, right?”
“That was the plan.”
Thud.
I set the greatsword down.
“There’s something I want to try.”
I assumed a bare-fisted fighting stance.
“I don’t know what kind of bullshit this is, but I’m not complaining.”
He was willing to fight me with his bare hands, without even wearing gauntlets. He looked genuinely pleased, as if he thought this was an easy win.
“Here I come!”
He gripped his sword and charged.
Just like the Emperor did—
Thud.
“W-what?”
In an instant, I closed the distance faster than his charge. The rhythm of his swinging sword broke apart. If I drove my fist into him now, it would be over. Winning like that would be fine, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do.
Crunch!
I grabbed the blade of his sword. Exactly the way the Empress had shown me yesterday. I gripped it in the exact same manner. Now all I had to do was snap it with raw strength.
Crack…!
And then the sword… Huh?
“W-why isn’t this breaking?”
“What are you even saying?!”
Whoops. My opponent was moving again. Of course I had no intention of losing because I’d let my guard down. I simply hurled the sword away while still gripping the blade.
“You crazy bastard—”
As I threw it, I pulled back the hand I’d kept behind me. Before he could even react, I drove my fist straight into his head at blinding speed.
Boom!
He flew backward and collapsed face-first onto the ground.
“What a fucking lunatic…”
He wore a look of utter defeat, then couldn’t hold on any longer and passed out, sprawled on the floor.
“Th-the winner is Cassius!”
Even as the cheers rang out, I couldn’t feel any real joy. What surprised me more was how sturdy the sword had been.
“…Even I couldn’t break it?”
I had imitated the way the Empress had snapped that sword. The posture and motion clearly hadn’t involved any special technique.
She really broke it with pure strength?
When I pictured the sword exploding rather than simply bending, the gap between us felt even more enormous.
“Wow… this is actually ridiculous.”
It meant that woman was stronger than me. And not by a small margin, either.
Afterward, I changed out of the tournament uniform and back into my regular clothes.
First, the blacksmith.
I might be a newcomer from the countryside, but I was still from a noble house.
“Oh my, welcome, my lord!”
The blacksmith seemed to know I was nobility and immediately adopted a slightly deferential attitude.
Clink.
I tossed him a gold coin.
“Payment for the information.”
“So, are there any of the standard weapons currently being supplied for the competition?”
“Yes, here they are.”
He immediately brought one out from the storeroom. The design was crude. It seemed word had already spread through the markets.
Standard issue weapons usually aren’t this durable…
Clang.
“This doesn’t feel like the quality of standard weapons I know.”
“The star of this event is… Her Majesty the Empress, after all.”
Ah, the star.
“The organizers anticipated that many powerful contenders would appear this time, so they significantly upgraded the quality of the weapons.”
“That explains why they’re so tough.”
Now the absurd strength made sense. If the weapons shattered under the force of powerful warriors, it would ruin the tournament. So they had raised the weapons’ durability to match the level of the competitors.
And that Empress broke one of these…
Not in a relaxed moment like this, but in the heat of battle, in a split second. I didn’t know exactly how much power she possessed, but one thing was certain: it was terrifying.
Does the imperial bloodline flow through the women as well…?
The treatment of women in this world was truly ironic. Unlike the typical male-supremacist society where women were subjected to violence, noblewomen were trained into absolute sexual submission toward their husbands. They weren’t shared with other men, but I remembered that noble wives were so thoroughly conditioned that their pussies would get wet at the mere sight of their husbands’ faces.
On the other hand, that’s why family lineages stay so neatly organized…
My old etiquette lessons were a bit fuzzy. Anyway, that was beside the point. Time to test the sword again.
….
“Did it at least dent a little?”
“Ohhh, incredible. Most people can’t even scratch this properly.”
“How much strength would it take to actually destroy it?”
“From what I hear, if two renowned swordsmen deliberately clash with full power, one of the blades will break.”
The level of force from two master swordsmen colliding at full strength.
“This is seriously fucked up.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. Here’s your money.”
I generously tossed him extra coins. I had all the information I needed.
“Young master, we’ve received a reply from your instructor’s family.”
“What did they say?”
“They said they welcome you, for now.”
“For now?”
I’d find out once I got there.
“More importantly, she’s a woman. Will she really be of any help?”
“That woman is different.”
Fundamentally, I had been born with strong natural talent, and combining that with the training knowledge from my previous life had made me quite powerful.
“When I was young, she was stronger than me. She taught me how to fight against someone who had more raw power than I did.”
“Wow, that’s impressive. She was stronger than you, young master?”
“I wonder if she still is.”
“It might not be the case anymore.”
It was true that quite a lot of time had passed. Still, her knowledge would remain the same, so she should still be useful.
How to win against someone stronger than yourself.
That fell squarely in the realm of technique.
“Still, I think the instructor has a bigger build than you.”
“…Ah, that’s true.”
The instructor’s family carried the blood of giants. And the instructor herself had partially manifested that giant blood. That didn’t mean she was ugly. On the contrary, by appearance alone she was exceptionally beautiful. But her size was enormous. She was probably just under two meters tall.
“Let’s head there, then.”
“Yes. Both a horse and a carriage have been prepared.”
“We’ll take the carriage. I don’t want to waste any strength before facing my instructor.”
Valteron Estate.
It was a prestigious military family whose name was well-known throughout the military academy. It was also a well-known fact that giant blood ran through their veins. Occasionally, that blood would manifest.
“Well now, if it isn’t the young master of the Valerius family. Welcome.”
The family head greeted me immediately. While my own house wasn’t on their level, I was still the son of a somewhat well-known provincial noble family. Above all, I was an elite who had received special training here.
“So the graduate who has come for intensive retraining after so long… Well, let’s sit and talk.”
“Yes.”
I paused. The chair felt strangely large. It was covered in white cloth and had no backrest, giving it a rather distinctive look. Where…
The sensation of sitting on it was also odd. The chair felt unusually hard.
“Let’s start with some simple conversation… Are you aware of this upcoming tournament?”
“How could I not be? Because of it, even the graduates have been contacting our side again.”
“Haha…”
That included me as well, it seemed.
“Don’t misunderstand. We welcome it.”
“It would be good if someone who received our training became the Empress’s husband.”
“I see.”
“Yes. After all, the moment a husband is chosen, the Empress ultimately becomes nothing more than a female.”
Clatter.
A naked maid brought in the tea.
Women in the household are kept naked by default.
It was a sight that never failed to please the eyes, but I still couldn’t get used to this noble custom.
“But it’s annoying when people who clearly can’t even win the thing keep bothering us.”
“Am I considered qualified?”
“Of course.”
He then rose from his seat. He whispered so the others couldn’t hear.
“You have sufficient potential. If you make the effort, you could easily become one of the top contenders for the championship.”
“I’m not at that level yet.”
“Anyway, let’s get to the main topic. Which instructor or master do you want?”
I thought he might chat about recent events first, but he went straight to business. Since he had brought it up, there was no need to hesitate.
“I’m not sure if it’s still possible, but… Carna.”
“Ah, Carna…”
The family head frowned slightly.
“I was told in advance that it would be possible. Is that not the case?”
“Ah, it is possible. It’s just that she’s a headache for us.”
It was possible?
“It’s been so long that I assumed she would have been married off somewhere by now.”
“I wish that were the case. Then I wouldn’t have to explain anything.”
“What? What do you mean?”
No explanation needed?
“Remove the cloth from that chair.”
I did as he said and lifted the fabric—
Ugh…♡♡♡
There was a pure white female on her knees, prostrated in the exact posture of a human chair.
“C-Carna…?”
It was indeed Carna, the woman who had been my instructor in childhood. At first she had been so terrifying with her expressionless face and red eyes that I nearly wet myself…
Guh…♡ Haa…♡♡♡
But now she was literally being used as a piece of furniture, prostrated on the floor. Between the tight gag in her mouth, heavy, heated breaths leaked out. Even so, the sight of her struggling to exhale those lewd, lust-filled breaths was unmistakable.
……♡
Even then, that intimidating impression of hers remained exactly the same.