Heaven's Labyrinth (1)
The Holy Kingdom was situated just south of the Empire. Nestled along the warm coastal region, the so-called Holy Kingdom earned far more from trade than its pious name suggested. People who disliked it often cursed the nation as a bunch of money-obsessed fanatics. It was both an insult toward priests acting like merchants and a complaint about their obscenely high healing fees. I could sympathize with parts of it, but I had no desire to join in the badmouthing. Why? Because everyone needs to eat? Of course not. It was simply because I was about to start receiving free treatment from now on.
Originally, anyone who treated me well was automatically a good person in my book.
I imbued silver with the property of flowing, softening it. Then I mixed it with flowing gold, added rock powder to adjust the ratio, kneaded it into shape, and granted it the property of connection. And just like that, a pendant was born.
“...Your artistic sense is better than I expected.”
“Did it turn out properly?”
“...Yes.”
I held the very first magic tool I had ever created in my hands. One might say I simply melted gold and silver together, but that would be wrong. I hadn’t melted them—I had transmuted them through alchemy. The result was completely different. When metal is melted through magic like this, silver gathers moonlight beautifully while gold draws in sunlight. More precisely, it absorbs lunar mana and solar mana. And with this alchemically refined gold and silver, what exactly had I made?
It was simple. I lifted the pendant upward.
And then, light poured out.
Moonlight and sunlight burst forth from the pendant…!
Pendant of Sun and Moon
Emits gentle solar and lunar light. A prototype created through basic alchemy.
“......”
“......”
Muran and I fell silent at the same time. Mulan had always lived with her mouth shut, while I had a different reason for staying quiet. But Chris shattered that silence.
“Lady Ruina. How much did that thing cost to make, again?”
“Be quiet.”
The result of using a mountain of expensive gold and silver was a pendant that gently radiated sunlight and moonlight. The cost-performance ratio was absolutely terrible.
“...Alchemy is usually like that. Until you reach a certain level of skill, it’s hard to make money.”
“Just asking out of curiosity, but how skilled do you need to be to earn a meaningful amount?”
“...Usually, you need about ten years of training.”
Yeah, that was a bust. It looked like I should give up on the idea of making money through alchemical magic. Ten whole years of training? No thanks.
“Then since you and Lady Muran are around the same age, you must have only started earning recently?”
“...I started earning money after just half a year of learning alchemy.”
“Why?”
“...Because I became proficient in alchemical magic in half a year.”
“Why?”
This was heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking. This was the problem with alchemy magic. It discriminated against people. In comparison, look at our refinement magic. What a diligent, well-behaved child it was.
I drew my sword and overlaid it with refinement magic. A blue blade shimmered as the magic half-covered the longsword. I placed my palm against the blade and shouted in a loud voice.
“Sir Leon! Our Cheongya has grown another 1mm!”
“Congratulations.”
Cheongya grew bigger every single day. It grew every time I woke up. It was incredibly satisfying. At this rate, wouldn’t it undergo its first awakening soon? Keep it up, Cheongya.
“While we’re on the subject, how about giving me some swordsmanship training?”
“Understood.”
I stood facing Leon. As I gripped the sword with both hands and took my stance, Leon swung his blade lightly. I met his sword with mine, then subtly retreated. Leon’s blade slid along my own. I blocked it with the cross guard and shifted my footwork. By moving my center of gravity to the left, my sword naturally spun along his blade in a smooth arc. I aimed straight at Leon. He pulled his sword back to block, then immediately countered.
It was as if we had rehearsed it, as if the movements were predetermined. In truth, there wasn’t much difference. This was a kind of ‘correct answer’ engraved into my body.
At this moment, moving like this is good. At this moment, moving like this is good. At this moment, moving like this is good.
The accumulation of all those ‘good’ movements was what we called swordsmanship. In other words, a duel between swordsmen was ultimately a contest to see whose ‘correct answer’ was more right.
Leon’s sword moved flexibly around an axis above his head. Left, right, left, right, left. When the opponent held the initiative, I had to focus entirely on defense. I shifted my sword left and right, blocking Leon’s strikes. Then, the endless flow of attacks suddenly changed. Leon stepped back to create distance and thrust into the opening. I flipped my sword and blocked the thrust with the cross guard while simultaneously stabbing at him. Leon raised his blade to block, then suddenly spun it above his head.
Tap.
Leon’s scabbard touched my neck.
Leon spoke.
“Not bad.”
“You killed me cleanly, and that’s what you call ‘not bad’?”
“Your skill has improved quite a lot.”
Originally I couldn’t even keep up with Leon’s rhythm, but now I could last quite a while. I just couldn’t win. Leon retrieved his scabbard and continued.
“In the end, swordsmanship isn’t that complicated. It’s the method of protecting yourself while cutting down your opponent. That is swordsmanship. Once the conditions are set, executing it becomes easy, doesn’t it?”
“Why do all geniuses say such similar things? Is there some National Genius Association?”
“You also have talent for swordsmanship, Lady Ruina. You use everything I teach you in exactly the right situations.”
“The things you taught me, you mean.”
The foundation of my current swordsmanship was simple: using it exactly as I had memorized. The skeleton of swordsmanship was basically the feeling of if you don’t know, you get hit. And the swordsmanship instructor teaching me was a living warehouse who knew every sword style in the world. Naturally, he had hammered every basic technique into me. As a result, I had become capable of responding to a wide variety of situations.
“You still struggle with improvisation, Lady Ruina. But haven’t you solved that problem?”
“If I memorize the method of improvisation, is it still improvisation or just memorization?”
“That’s a rather ambiguous area.”
This was the thing. I was quite good at other kinds of improvisation, but when it came to moving my body, I was completely lost. I could predict the opponent’s movements, but I had no idea how to make my own body respond accordingly. Well, even so, I could still display decent swordsmanship, but the limit was clear. There were infinite variations of sword techniques, after all. It was impossible to memorize them all.
If I continued this way, I would have to memorize universally effective methods, but then I would gradually fall behind in tempo. The enemy chose the best move while I chose the second-best. There was nothing I could do about it.
“Let’s move on to the next.”
“Alright.”
I took my stance and steadied my breathing. The correct answers in swordsmanship were already decided. If the opponent swung their sword recklessly, I should block with the cross guard and lay my blade flat. That allowed me to defend and attack simultaneously. If the opponent delivered a powerful downward strike, I should retreat and cut at their neck. That allowed me to evade and attack at the same time.
Like this, my actions were predetermined based on the opponent’s behavior. So if I memorized all of it, would I achieve victory in every real battle? No, that wasn’t the case. Why? Because the conditions were different. The opponent’s height was different. Their strength was different. The weapon they held was different. My height was different. My strength was different. The weapon I held was different. The terrain I stood on was different. The ground I stepped on was different. My position was different.
Therefore, swordsmanship could be described as taking basic techniques as the skeleton and adding variables appropriate to the situation. There were truly countless variables. Even the taste of the air could act as one. That was why swordsmen pondered endlessly. How could they best utilize these variables? After constant contemplation, the answer finally emerged: polish a weapon that could become a massive variable in any situation. That was the conclusion the swordsmen of this world had reached. And it was through this process that swordsmanship schools were born.
I lightly raised my sword. Holding it with both hands at the center of my body was an extremely basic stance. It was also the starting point of the sword school I had learned.
Philon-style two-handed swordsmanship.
It was a defensive style created by a man named Philon, a wandering mercenary who eventually died. Although Philon himself hadn’t left behind many achievements, the Philon-style he created gained considerable popularity. It was very easy to learn, and its effectiveness far exceeded its difficulty. People were born with different talents. Those with excellent visual sense became painters. Those with brilliant minds became scholars. Those with superior taste became chefs. Even among mages, the elements they were born with differed. Depending on which element or sense one was born with, magic could vary wildly.
The same was true for swordsmen. The senses they were born with differed. The Philon-style had many points of contact with the fundamentals of swordsmanship. Its basic premise was dividing the human body into four sections and efficiently targeting those areas. So why was the Philon-style so beloved? Because it was a school created with principles that were easy for people to understand.
The Philon-style was fundamentally composed of the principle of speed. The way each person interpreted that principle differed, but Philon had interpreted speed in the following way: moving along the optimal path. In other words, the Philon-style was swordsmanship that defended against enemy attacks by following the optimal path. The sixteen optimal routes that Philon had devised were truly remarkable. For someone like me who loved memorization, it was the perfect style.
“Though that also means there’s less room for improvisation, so practitioners above a certain level tend to avoid it.”
“There is a sword style for beginners, just as there are for experts.”
I liked the Philon-style. I diligently trained in it until I was covered in sweat, then wiped myself down. Today’s workout was complete. After cooling down, I approached Chris. I was about to ask what was for dinner tonight when a scream reached my ears.
That subtly world-weary scream. It was a mage!