Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Valheim Direct Lineage Test
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Green Pine Pavilion's training grounds.
There, Krash stood alone, quietly closing his eyes.
Ever since returning from Danphelion, he had significantly increased his training time, and now he was focusing inward on himself.
With the total amount of his aura having grown, he needed to become even more adept at handling it.
'Expert Upper Level... that's only now on par with Belokin.'
In the Valheim Family, that was right around the middle tier.
Krash wanted to reach at least the entry level of Master before enrolling in the academy.
To achieve that, aura training was essential.
"Young Master Krash."
But that focus had to be broken off soon enough.
Aliod had appeared in the training grounds.
And Krash knew full well why he had interrupted his training to come here.
"Has the Chief Steward arrived?"
"Yes, she has."
The Chief Steward had come to administer Krash's re-examination.
The Chief Steward's test.
For the Valheim direct lineage, it was essentially a trial that determined their future standing.
And Krash had good reason to take this test properly.
"Bring her here."
"Yes, I'll escort her."
Aliod bowed his head and departed.
In the meantime, Krash finished checking his aura and turned his gaze, spotting two figures at the training grounds' entrance.
White hair and a wrinkled face.
She was clearly an elderly woman well advanced in years, yet the aura emanating from her deep blue eyes burned with an intensity utterly divorced from her age.
And the color of those eyes was identical to Krash's.
Which made perfect sense.
She was none other than Krash's little grandmother.
Kesselin Valheim.
"It's been a while, Krash."
Kesselin greeted him with a gentle smile.
However, Krash knew that gentleness was a facade.
Behind that smile, she was appraising his worth from start to finish.
"You've heard the details from Aliod, I assume."
"Yes, you're here for the re-examination."
"Good that you know."
With those words, she tapped her cane and approached Krash.
"I've heard about your recent exploits. You took down that slaughterhound causing trouble in the Empire."
"Just luck."
"Luck is skill in its own right. You know that better than anyone."
She spoke the plain truth.
Krash himself had been born half a step short of that one stroke of luck.
Her personality hadn't changed—she still had a knack for zeroing in on people's sore spots.
"No need for lengthy talk."
She held her cane at a slant and stared straight at Krash.
Before those eyes, even Valheim direct lineage members instinctively shrank back.
But Krash met her gaze head-on.
"If you can't stand on the same level as Charlotte, abandon any claim to the family head position."
Krash blinked at her words.
Then, slowly, a laugh began to seep out of him.
Seeing that laugh, Kesselin wondered if he'd lost his mind.
"What's so grand about the Valheim family head seat that you'd have me renounce it?"
But at his response, Kesselin's eyebrow twitched.
"Positions come naturally once you grow strong enough."
Just like how Arthur, not of imperial blood, had absurdly been elevated to emperor.
In the end, in this world, power was position.
"Isn't it a bit early to be discussing that?"
Krash wore a relaxed smile.
Seeing it, Kesselin realized something.
'The reports weren't lies, after all.'
Krash had changed.
Completely different from the boy she'd seen a year ago.
She didn't know what had brought about the change.
One thing was certain: it might upend the hierarchy among the Valheim direct lineage.
"Shall we begin the test?"
It was an arrogant response, as if he were ready at any moment.
Kesselin let out a snort before spinning her cane.
"Just one step."
At that instant, a sword slowly slid out from her cane.
"Make me take just one step back."
Krash's expression turned peculiar at her words.
"......Is that really all right with you?"
"Scared now, are we?"
Kesselin taunted him.
She was a Master-level powerhouse.
Though age had made it hard for her to confront World Erosion directly anymore, that didn't mean her skill had vanished.
In her eyes, Krash was merely at Expert Upper Level.
Reason enough to be afraid.
'She shouldn't be giving me time to prepare.'
But regrettably, Krash's inner thoughts were the polar opposite.
His reaction wasn't born of fear.
Because a single strike was precisely his specialty.
Krash lightly touched the back of his neck.
"I'll take that as final."
His opponent was Kesselin, after all.
She'd block it without issue.
Though he doubted it would end with just one step.
Krash drew his sword to his waist.
Then he slowly pulled his rear foot back and extended his front foot.
A stance gripping the hilt with the sword still sheathed.
Kesselin's eyes flickered with puzzlement.
'Iaijutsu?'
Iaijutsu was a technique trained to draw the sword swiftly at any moment.
There was no need to use it here.
'Planning some kind of feint?'
Interest sparked in Kesselin's eyes.
She had once encountered a master of iaijutsu in the past.
'Though that old man went to his grave long ago.'
His iaijutsu remained vividly etched in her mind.
Because the scar on the left side of her neck had been left by him.
'Let's see if it's worth watching.'
She spun her cane-sword and waited for Krash's attack.
Yet for some reason, Krash didn't draw his blade, standing motionless in that stance.
Before long, he even closed his eyes, taking long, deep breaths.
Puzzlement entered Kesselin's gaze.
What exactly was he planning?
It was then.
Boom!
Kesselin's eyes snapped toward Krash's sword.
The sword stood firm in its scabbard.
She had felt the aura's vibration emanating from it.
Boom!
Inside Krash's scabbard, a massive surge of aura churned like a storm.
Pounding wildly against the interior, swelling in size, it sent even a chill down Kesselin's spine.
The problem was that she had seen this aura flow before.
"Huh?"
A deflated sound escaped her lips.
It was slower, certainly.
He had completed the process in an instant before drawing.
But aside from the slowness, the method was identical.
'The Sword Demon's Iaijutsu?'
The technique of the man who had scarred her left neck.
The Sword Demon's iaijutsu.
Kesselin's eyes wavered unconsciously.
She hadn't expected Krash to use the Sword Demon's iaijutsu.
'Where the hell did he learn that?'
While she reacted with shock, Krash didn't stop there.
His mind drew forth extreme focus, soon sketching a mental lake.
The Sword Demon's iaijutsu unleashed explosive destructive power in the moment of drawing.
And this process wasn't so different from Sword-Mind Unison.
Iaijutsu, too, required the sword to be oneself and oneself to be the sword.
Thus, Krash layered in one secret art from within the Sword Demon's iaijutsu.
The swordsmanship with the greatest destructive power he possessed.
One Sword
Drip!
The moment a falling droplet echoed clearly in Krash's mind.
With a surging dragon's roar, One Sword's aura raged inside his scabbard.
Kesselin's eyes widened belatedly as she realized it.
The surrounding air began flowing toward Krash like a reverse current.
Clack!
At that instant, Krash's teeth ground together.
Heavy.
One Sword fused with iaijutsu.
The moment they combined, Krash felt the sword's weight on an entirely different level—heavy beyond compare.
The blade was so burdensome he could barely draw it.
A flash of red crossed Krash's eyes.
As faint steam leaked from between his gritted teeth.
Every muscle and nerve ending in Krash's body absorbed the Cataclysm Erosion, erupting with explosive momentum.
In that instant, even Kesselin swallowed hard at the unleashed presence.
And then.
His sword drew like lightning.
Shatterrrrrrrrrrr!
Black Flame's storm, starting from the aura-devouring drawn blade, tore through the air, baring its fangs at Kesselin.
Before this strike, far stronger than against Charlotte thanks to the Nine Bends Dragon Flower Furnace.
Aura rose from Kesselin's entire body.
A Master-level aura embodied the practitioner's accumulated imagery.
Perhaps because of that, Kesselin before Krash's One Sword felt vastly larger than before.
Her eyes, gripping her sword, shone sharply.
It wasn't a sight to show a mere boy of fourteen.
But this attack couldn't be blocked casually.
"I don't know where you picked up such fortune."
With a drawn breath, an illusion of flower petals scattering arose between Kesselin's blade.
Those blue petals enveloped her sword in an instant, reaching out toward Krash's incoming blade.
A faint smile tugged at Kesselin's lips as her sword clashed with Krash's attack.
"But I can tell you're dead set on becoming a dragon."
KABOOOOOM!
With those words, a massive explosion roared violently.
Smoke billowed, blinding sight and hearing in an instant.
Through it, Krash barely stood, gasping for breath.
Finally, as the smoke slowly cleared.
Kesselin stood, pushed back far from her original position.
Her sword, having taken Krash's attack head-on, was trembling.
She hadn't fully absorbed the impact.
Crack!
Cracks began spiderwebbing across her blade.
Clang!
And with that, her blade snapped, rolling across the ground.
Kesselin reached out and lifted the broken fragment.
'An old sword, and I was caught off guard so my reaction was slow... but to shatter like this.'
A hollow laugh escaped her.
His aura was still far from Master level.
But this one strike could safely be called Master grade.
"The test."
Kesselin glanced at where she had stood.
Over ten steps away, at minimum.
The result was obvious.
"Passed."
Since she became Chief Steward, had any direct lineage member under adulthood ever forced her back this far in the test?
Not even Charlotte had managed more than seven steps.
Krash had pushed her back three steps further.
Kesselin turned to look at him.
That strike had clearly required his full power.
Frankly, it bordered on self-destruction.
But a result was a result.
"Rest easy."
"Wait... a moment."
As Kesselin turned to leave for her report, the heaving Krash called out to her with effort.
"I want to... join the Valheim Azure Sea Knight Order... supporting the Red Mage Tower."
As Chief Steward, she could directly relay the message to the overseer of Valheim's knight orders.
"......The Azure Sea Knight Order, specifically?"
The Azure Sea Knights were merely mid-tier among Valheim's orders.
If he aimed to build prestige in a top order for future family head support, it made sense—but the Azure Sea Order puzzled even Kesselin.
"Yes, specifically."
Since he insisted, she had no choice but to nod.
Part of the Chief Steward's role was aiding direct lineage growth.
"Understood. I'll pass it along."
"Tha...nk you."
With that, Krash collapsed spread-eagled on the ground.
Standing on his own two legs had been his limit.
'Good grief.'
Thinking the youngest of this generation's direct lineage was one peculiar fellow, Kesselin left Green Pine Pavilion.