Beletria Lien Archesium (9)
Beletria Lien Archesium (9)
'... Help me.'
Despite the silent scream inside, I slowly reached my hand toward the handle of the wooden sword that had rolled onto the floor.
I didn't forget to force a good-natured smile, even while the corners of my mouth were trembling.
If it were up to me, I would have made up some excuse to decline the sparring match, but I couldn't.
Because Beletria was showing such a bright smile—one that, if you didn't know any better, would make her look like a girl who purely loved swordsmanship—that it looked like she was having way too much fun.
No, putting everything else aside, a man who has had a crush on such a woman for eight long years is going to refuse her request?
That would literally create a massive contradiction.
Therefore, I bit back tears, grabbed the wooden sword, and stepped forward.
At the same time, another problem popped into my head.
'Come to think of it, I've never formally learned swordsmanship... what do I do?'
It was the same as when I learned magic, at best.
My entire knowledge of swordsmanship was just watching my brothers formally learn the sword from the Royal Knight Commander, peeking breathlessly from behind the window of a dusty archive.
There was no way shallow theories just watched with my eyes would work against the strongest martial power on the continent.
But what could I do? Even so, I only had one option.
As I thought that, I took an awkward stance and stood opposite Beletria.
The knights surrounding the Training Ground burst into cheers as if they had been waiting for it.
"Waaaaah!!"
"To be able to witness Her Majesty's swordsmanship twice! The guys in the other divisions are going to be so jealous!!"
"Prince Idelon Halden Rehentra, good luck!!"
The knights were even banging on their shields, responding as if they were truly enjoying a festival.
"Stop."
However, that hot enthusiasm instantly died down at Beletria's single word.
Beletria, who had been wearing an incredibly excited smile just a moment ago, hardened her expression the instant she saw my awkward grip and stance.
She swapped the real sword she was holding for a wooden one and strode toward me.
Then, she leaned her upper body slightly.
"It's a bit strange. My fiancé."
Her voice was a bit lower than usual.
"Your stance is excessively clumsy. As if you learned the sword by force just by watching it with your eyes."
"......."
I was a bit flustered, but I asked back, looking into her red eyes as calmly as possible.
"... H-how did you know?"
I didn't deny it.
Since she was already sending a look of certainty, there was no need to do anything that would make her dislike me.
"The angle of your bent knees and the width of your stance are far too narrow to be a knight's footwork. Your center of gravity is also floating too high."
Her gaze turned to my grip.
As expected, her observational skills were incredible.
"Above all, from what I have observed so far, my fiancé, you are a perfect right-hander who unconditionally uses your right hand when holding a teacup, signing documents, and even when eating. Looking at the state of how you're holding the wooden sword now, isn't your left hand above your right?"
"Ah......."
I was speechless.
A right-hander holds the sword with the right hand on top.
It was such common sense, but I was so nervous that I forgot the obvious and made a mistake that a skilled swordsman would never make.
No, before that, just a few tea times and one document task.
To think she had perfectly grasped my every move and trivial habit to the point of giving me goosebumps in such a short time.
Isn't this no different from a predator counting even the breaths of its prey?
I awkwardly wiped the beads of sweat forming on my forehead and blankly nodded slightly.
And seeing me obediently affirm, Beletria lifted her head and slowly stepped back a few paces.
At the same time, she showed a smile slightly different from before.
"In that case, today we shall not spar, but rather share the sword in the spirit of teaching."
"What does that mean...?"
'From now on, move as I teach you.'
Beletria's voice echoed in my head just as I was about to cautiously ask back, not understanding what she meant.
... Is this?
Telepathy, a technique that transmits thoughts directly into the opponent's head by extremely refining Aura?
'Place your right hand on top, and lightly wrap your left hand around the end of the hilt. Spread your feet half a span wider than shoulder-width, and press your breath down below your Dantian.'
Taat-!
With those words, Beletria's figure vanished from before my eyes in an instant.
Then, with a dull tearing sound, her sword, carrying a heavy weight, struck down onto my wooden sword, which I had adjusted my stance to hold.
Even though I reflexively raised my sword to block it, my palms tingled as if the flesh were tearing.
"Ugh!!"
'Hold on. And twist your waist while letting my sword slide off.'
Her swordsmanship, called the strongest on the continent, the Snow Flower Imperial Sword's techniques began to unfold before my eyes—no, against my own body.
At the same time, I felt the sensation of my arm and leg muscles slowly freezing.
It was just a tiny amount of magic power leaking out while swinging the sword, not even Aura, yet it had this much influence.
The swordsmanship also had no wasted movement, to the point where the expression "slowly freezing" suited it better than the sensation of "cutting."
Even so, I couldn't waste the opportunity to be taught by the strongest swordsman, so I opened my eyes as wide as possible and pushed my vision to the limit.
Although my body was already more than half stiffened and wouldn't move as I intended.
My eyes and brain were absorbing the logic of the sword she was showing me like a sponge.
And one fact I was able to discover.
The Snow Flower Imperial Sword, as the name suggests, meant that every time Beletria swung her sword, petal-shaped Aura continued to spread in all directions.
Of course, all I could do was block her fiercely rushing sword.
Kagagak-! Kang!
'Your pupils are shaking too much. Look at the shoulder muscles, not the tip of my sword.'
"Ugh!!"
'Put strength into your lower body. Don't step back, but rather dig in half a step forward.'
Following Beletria's telepathy, I twisted my body and extended the wooden sword.
My breath was reaching my throat, and my thigh muscles were screaming, but I couldn't stop.
Because I felt that as time passed, my messy sword path was starting to take on a fairly sharp form.
'... It's fun.'
I genuinely thought so.
Even though I felt the sensation of freezing coldly beyond my arms, down to every joint of my fingers.
Even though my legs were completely stiff and it felt like I couldn't move anymore.
I was rather led around as if dancing within the trajectory Beletria intended.
Beletria, without a single drop of sweat on her forehead, relentlessly tapped at my limits with an elegant posture.
'This is the last one. Strike up with the wooden sword with all your might.'
Simultaneously with the telepathy, her wooden sword fell vertically.
I bit my lip hard and squeezed out the remaining grip strength, enough to cut off circulation, and struck the wooden sword diagonally upward.
Tta-ang—!!
The moment the two wooden swords crossed and collided in mid-air, I couldn't hold on any longer, my legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the sandy floor with a thud.
"Huk... Heok...!"
Pain as if my lungs were tearing.
My fingers were shaking so violently that they were uncontrollable, and the wooden sword had long since been thrown to the floor.
Covered in dirt and dust, my appearance with my head bowed low was nothing short of miserable.
As I barely caught my breath and lifted my heavy head to look straight ahead, Beletria, with the backlight behind her, was staring down at me.
Somehow, she seemed to have an expression that suggested she was in a good mood because she had discovered a quite interesting raw gemstone.
"Idelon, you give me another kind of pleasure."
"I will take that... as a compliment."
Afterward, I sat kneeling in that spot for nearly 10 minutes before I could barely regain my energy.
I was moving somewhere, following behind Beletria at her word that she had something urgent to show me.
But, as we went on, should I say I felt a sense of genuine regret for having followed her?
'Isn't this... a prison?'
As I walked, glancing around, an unpleasant smell pierced my nose.
A foul, fishy stench of long-stagnant blood and rusted iron mixed together, one that felt like it would shorten your lifespan just by smelling it.
Not just the smell, but thick iron chains lined up along the walls, and wooden racks with dried, dark red stains.
Even the pointed, skewer-shaped instruments of unknown use—it was the very landscape of a dungeon where the worst heinous criminals were thrown in and tortured, for anyone to see.
My footsteps faltered without me realizing it, and I swallowed dry saliva down my esophagus.
And Beletria, who didn't miss that subtle sound of my throat moving, slowed her pace and glanced back at me.
"No need to be scared. I didn't bring you here with the intention of treating you like a hostage and doing something to you now."
"I, I see. I apologize."
"No need to apologize, I just want to show my precious fiancé a little more of my true self... You can look forward to it."
"Understood."
We headed inside again, stepping on the damp stone floor in silence.
As we reached the end of the corridor, even the faint light of the magic lamps cut off completely.
It was a space where pitch-black darkness, where you couldn't see an inch ahead, was gaping its maw.
Beletria flicked her finger lightly toward the air.
As soon as the friction sound of 'Ttak' rang out, orange flames rose simultaneously on the candlesticks hanging from the ceiling.
Covering my eyes slightly from the sudden light, I gasped as I saw the figure revealed in front of me.
A man hanging dangling in mid-air, his limbs tightly bound by thick iron chains hanging from the ceiling.
Not a single point of muscle remained, only yellowed skin barely clinging to his skeleton.
It was a sight close to a shriveled mummy, with only his breath barely clinging to him.
"Is it after a month this time."
Beletria muttered something incomprehensible and rummaged through her bosom.
And soon, what came out in her snow-white hand was a sharply honed silver dagger.
She lightly swept her fingertip along the blade of the dagger and opened her mouth in a dry tone.
"This man is the one who deceived the previous Emperor and Empress for years and rose to the position of Minister of Military Affairs of the Empire, and..."
Her red eyes were fixed on the crown of the man hanging in mid-air.
"He is the sinner who recognized my talent before anyone else and tried to murder me, and the one who caused the Empress... no, my mother, to sacrifice herself to protect me."
"......."
I opened my mouth without realizing it at the heavy, completely unexpected past history.
The enemy who caused the Emperor's mother to die.
The former Minister of Military Affairs.
My brain wasn't functioning properly in front of that massive amount of information.
'Why is she suddenly telling me that?'
While having that question, I didn't know how to offer words of comfort.
Or whether I should express fear at having heard the dark secrets of the Imperial family; I couldn't get a handle on it.
I was just fidgeting with my fingers like a fool.
Beletria, who had been quietly staring at me as I stiffened, tilted her head slightly as if she understood my bewilderment.
Soon, she looked at the prisoner again and threw out an out-of-the-blue question.
"Are you quite good at watching cruel things?"
A question that popped out before I could even finish grasping the situation.
I nodded as if possessed, without knowing why.
Having confirmed my answer, Beletria gripped the dagger again as if she had been waiting.
And.
Seogeok.
With a clean cutting sound as if something was being sliced off.
Three fingers were cleanly sliced off from the tip of the man's right palm.