For the Next Realm
A cold metal blade came crashing down toward his brow.
—Kang!
Two upward strikes, loosed like bolts of light, twisted the trajectory aside. The metal edge skimmed past the tip of his ear by the width of a sheet of paper.
Eight.
Counting silently, Leon thrust out his left palm. Mana flowed down his arm and condensed against his hand.
Paang!
Cheren's side kick slammed into his palm. Leon couldn't fully absorb the impact and staggered back several steps.
Nine.
Cheren's toes twisted. Seeing it, Leon reflexively tilted his body on a diagonal.
A straightforward horizontal slash came screaming in.
Kagagagak!
The blade Leon had angled just managed to deflect the cut.
Ten.
This was the critical moment. Leon's eyes flew wide.
In his spars with Cheren, he still couldn't get past ten exchanges.
His overall specs and pure physical power had clearly grown in a short span of time, but Cheren adjusted the difficulty to match. She had been going easy on him from the start, so it wasn't hard for her.
To Leon's senses, Cheren's sword moved at the same speed now as it had at the beginning.
Sssssk—
Cheren's shoulder turned.
His concentration, pushed to its absolute limit — Extreme Instant. The world Leon saw had nearly ground to a halt.
And still, Cheren was mercilessly, effortlessly fast.
Where? Shoulder? Chest? Waist? Wrist?
A corner of his mind burned and crackled. Blood and mana tore through his entire body in a frenzy. His five senses expanded; every fine hair stood on end.
The tip of Cheren's sword pointed down and to the right.
…Waist!
She unleashed a simple upward cut. But it was a strike refined to a degree that made the skin crawl.
Stance, breathing, timing, mana circulation… Every element had been weighed with exquisite precision.
Checkmate. He could neither dodge nor block it.
All nine preceding sword strikes had been stepping stones laid for this final blow. She had methodically driven Leon into a dead end.
Cheren's tenth exchange — this was a kind of wall.
A wall that Leon's current realm could never surmount.
A wall he had to shatter if he wanted the next realm.
Leon hungered for it.
If I can just get past this—!
His grip crushed down on the hilt until it seemed ready to shatter.
Jecheon Sword Style, First Form — Reshape.
Choha.
Kaaang…!
Crimson blood sprayed through the air.
Leon's body and sword were violently hurled backward.
"Master!"
"Leon!"
Everyone watching the spar bolted to their feet.
Thud-crash-crash—!
Leon tumbled and rolled for a long stretch before his body finally came to a stop. He planted an arm against the ground and pushed his torso upright.
"Cough…!"
A cough thick with blood spilled out. Aria's eyes went huge as she cast Blink.
"Leon, are you all right?"
Cheren seemed startled as well; her voice rose a fraction as she approached.
"Mm. Close, though."
Leon wiped the blood on his clothes and muttered it casually.
Hera crouched down beside him.
"Hmph. You pushed too hard."
"Did I."
He had overdone it, no question. He had wrenched his vital energy and body out of shape just to fire off that sword strike. And even then, he hadn't succeeded.
"Master…"
Aria called his name in a faintly scolding tone as she smeared potion over his hand.
In truth, he wasn't badly hurt. His grip had torn from clutching the sword too hard, and his insides were only lightly damaged.
Hera smiled brightly and added,
"Which is exactly why you did well, little brother. If you want to break through your limits, overreaching is part of the deal."
"True."
Leon nodded, then said,
"I'm gonna circulate my energy for a bit."
He rose and headed to a corner of the training ground to settle his internal injuries.
"Instructor, may I ask for a turn as well?"
"Me too."
"Very well. Both of you, step in together."
Celia and Esabel began taking their thrashing from Cheren.
Seated in meditation, Leon watched the spectacle for a moment, then closed his eyes.
"Hss…"
The air trembled under the weight of his drawn breath. He slowly released his energy and tended to his insides.
What's missing?
Leon pondered.
At present, he stood on the threshold of upper Expert.
Considering he had only reached mid Expert at the start of the semester, it was an extraordinarily fast rate of growth.
But Leon was not satisfied. He harbored the bandit's greed of wanting to grow stronger even faster from here.
It had been barely a year since he arrived in this world. And yet Leon had already fully adapted to a warrior's life, a warrior's way of thinking.
In the end, the conviction that what remained — and what you could trust — was the single sword in your hand had taken deep root in him.
Which was why he had to grow stronger. Far stronger than anyone else, so he could thrash whoever rubbed him the wrong way and kill whoever needed killing without breaking a sweat.
And also—
Too many bastards I need to put down.
In other words, too many enemies.
Leon had always been the type to make enemies wherever he went. It was not a trait conducive to longevity.
But even knowing that, he never fixed it. Suppressing his temper was nearly impossible, and more often than not he simply acted on impulse. It had gotten him into plenty of trouble in his previous life as well.
Still, Leon had no desire to die young, either.
So he held the thuggish notion that he wanted to live this way and still enjoy everything worth enjoying for a long, long time.
To make that happen, he ultimately had to grow stronger. Far stronger than he was now, so he could clear out anyone who opposed him, threatened him, or attacked him.
If he ran into that high-ranking demon he'd met in the Siruntel Demonic Realm — Talkan — again at his current skill level?
I couldn't say I'd win.
Even odds, or worse. And it would take a lot out of him either way.
Not good enough. At minimum, he needed to be able to carve up something on that level like a common mob.
And right now, the most obvious and fastest means of raising his martial prowess was still a leap in realm.
Leon's physical body itself had already reached the absolute peak of upper Expert. The energy he carried — his mana — was the same.
And yet his realm itself remained at mid-rank.
In short, the hardware was excellent, but the software was lagging. Relative to his energy and body, the level of his mind fell short. Heart, energy, and body were not in unity.
Enlightenment. Insight.
Those were what he needed.
Master was one thing, but lingering and struggling at upper Expert was already grating. Had he contracted with Bergopf for this?
Bergopf, who had granted him talent, had also shown him the path. Center yourself on the sword and advance.
Leon's center was the swift sword.
"…"
He thought.
For the next realm—
Perhaps the answer was to push past Flowing Instant and conquer the stage of Dancing Instant.
Hooo…
Leon finished his energy circulation.
That evening.
"Have a good evening, Master."
Standing before Leon, Aria tenderly smoothed his hair as she spoke. She looked for all the world like a young wife seeing her husband off.
"…"
Celia, who had been glaring at the scene with thoroughly sour eyes, cut in.
"Stop pawing at him already? We need to go."
Aria's brow twitched. She shot Celia a sidelong look and said,
"I'll be going, then."
"Yeah. See you later."
"Hmph."
Fwoomp.
In a flash, Aria threw herself into Leon's arms and hugged him tight.
"Hm?"
Paching—.
And in the brief instant Leon was slightly flustered, she cast Blink and vanished.
"What the."
Leon scratched his cheek. He let it slide without much thought and turned to Celia.
"Celia, let's hur—"
The moment he saw her expression, his shoulders gave a little jolt.
"…ry."
A look of genuine confusion bloomed across Leon's face.
When he glanced around with a silent what's her problem, her maids quietly averted their eyes.
Celia chewed her lip, then said,
"Haa. Let's go."
"Okay."
The two of them set out for District Two.
The reason for this unplanned outing was a dinner invitation that had arrived. There was no particular reason to refuse, and no decent excuse either, so they had accepted.
"Uncomfortable?"
Celia asked, watching Leon constantly fuss with his clothes.
"A little."
He was dressed up in fine formal wear. Even Leon couldn't show up to a place like this in his usual martial robes.
Celia said,
"Still, you look good dressed like that. You should try wearing clothes like this more often."
Leon snorted as if to say don't be ridiculous. He kept adjusting the positions of his sword, dagger, and other weapons, which sat at thoroughly awkward angles.
Reaching their destination took no time at all. It was close enough that they hadn't bothered with a carriage and simply walked.
"Wait, they booked this whole place?"
It was a grand two-story restaurant Leon had often passed by. Judging by the staff, escorts, and attendants stationed about, they seemed to have reserved the entire building.
Celia tilted her head.
"Isn't that only natural?"
Leon made a show of clicking his tongue.
"Tsk tsk. You grew up in a good house, so of course this seems natural to you."
"Huh? But you also—"
They traded idle banter as they followed the guide up to the second floor.
As they climbed the great spiral staircase, calm music and low voices drifted faintly down to them.
Stepping onto the final stair, Leon announced himself with gusto.
"I've arrived."
— …
A host of familiar faces all turned their eyes on him at once.