10. What Happened One Night - 11
The night air of the Dekaraznan Ducal House was deeply unsettled. Alarm wards clamored from every direction—irrefutable proof that an unidentified intruder had breached the mansion's barrier and launched an incursion.
The ducal knights could scarcely believe it. In a thousand years, intruders bold enough to infiltrate House Dekaraznan, renowned as one of the Empire's Four Great Ducal Houses, were exceedingly rare. Those capable of setting foot here, where countless mages constantly maintained the barrier, were rarer still.
Tonight, Dekaraznan's proud myth of inviolability had been shattered. Not only had a masked intruder dared trespass with unworthy feet, but in one arm he carried a limp woman, handling her with insolent ease as though she were spoils of war.
"...Lady Sernad!"
The knights who recognized the woman seized by the intruder cried out in alarm. The unknown villain had, for unfathomable reasons, committed the heinous act of kidnapping a powerless, delicate young lady. Worse, Sarah Sernad was currently one of House Dekaraznan's honored guests. If they stood idly by and allowed her to be taken, the honor of the Dekaraznan Ducal House would be trampled into the dirt.
"Strike!"
The knights lunged at the kidnapper, who was attempting to depart at his leisure with Sarah Sernad. Their coordinated assault targeted his blind spots from every angle—a flawless pincer maneuver that seemed to leave no avenue of escape.
But they had underestimated him. The intruder's skill was astonishing. In a split second, he drew his sword one-handed and tangled it with the blade of a knight striking from his left, coiling around it like a serpent.
Shiiing—
"...!"
The knight faltered for an instant, realizing the intruder's sword had adhered to his own as if magnetized. Kain did not miss that opening, landing a whip-like kick squarely on the knight's temple.
BOOM—!
As the knight lost consciousness and went flying, the intruder kicked off the air, flipping his body twice mid-flight. A heartbeat later, the blades the remaining knights thrust into the space he had just occupied slashed through empty air in vain. The four knights' sure-kill coordinated attack had come to nothing.
"This cannot be!"
That was not the end. The intruder spun once more in the air, then planted his legs firmly as if kicking off solid ground. In the next instant, his sword, drawn back taut, exploded toward the knights like a beam of light.
KABOOOOM—!
A dazzling trajectory of light, burning away the sinister darkness, blazed across the air. A fierce gale accompanied the azure radiance, and a shockwave powerful enough to sweep them off their feet slammed into the knights.
"Guaaagh!"
Unable to withstand the destructive force carried in the intruder's blade, the knights were hurled back. Three seconds had passed since the attackers were neutralized. In that span, brief enough to be called an instant, all four knights who had charged him were incapacitated. No one present could suppress a groan.
"...So he has reached the Master Realm."
There could be no doubt. The brilliant light that had just emanated from the intruder's sword was unmistakably Aura—the power of the supreme realm attainable only by those who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts. Only now did the knights realize the intruder before them was a warrior who had attained a truly awe-inspiring level.
The intruder felt no need to correct the knights' misconception that the energy he wielded was Aura. Whatever its true nature, what he was employing was indeed very similar to Aura.
"Do not falter! Whatever his realm, that man has directly defied the name of Dekaraznan! Remember that the honor of this house rests upon your backs!"
As the knights, cowed by the intruder's formidable martial prowess, began to retreat, a fierce voice as sharp as a scolding whip rang out from behind them. The intruder raised his eyes to see the daughter of House Dekaraznan, Noel von Dekaraznan, standing fully armed behind the knights, glaring at him with eyes that seemed to smolder with fury.
'...The Duke's daughter, is it?'
The intruder—Kain—looked at the evidently furious noblewoman and let out a low sigh. He had wanted to escape the Dekaraznan mansion quickly precisely because something like this might happen, but the knights had reacted faster than expected. More crucially, he had never imagined someone of the Duke's daughter's rank would appear here in person.
"...Ka... Kain..."
In his arms, Sarah, who had been feigning unconsciousness, narrowed her eyes slightly and shrank against him, looking up with obvious unease. Wordlessly, Kain pulled her closer, then began to surge toward the enemy.
Swhoosh—
"Insolent! Do not retreat!"
With that cry, the Duke's daughter drew the sword at her hip and advanced toward the intruder, leading the charge herself. Emboldened, the knights' morale recovered, and they raised their blades in unison, following behind her.
"Hmph."
Kain's face did not so much as twitch. He merely exhaled at the growing inconvenience.
— Aria, provide support.
Sending that transmission to Aria, Kain eyed the chaotic web of weapons converging on him and extended his sword straight forward.
Crackle—!
In the next instant, the Aura gathered on Kain's blade expanded violently, then began to blaze like living flames. He took a step forward and slashed horizontally through space; the weapons rushing at him were cleanly severed.
'Three on the left, five on the right. Two from behind.'
He had no need to turn his head and confirm. The battlefield currents read through the Flowing Star granted him information far more precise than any physical sense.
Kain's form flickered. Pivoting clockwise on his right foot, he swung his sword, and the Aura he released swept across the battlefield like a tempest. Though no one present knew it, this was a technique Kain had improvised by adapting the Reverse Moon of the Gloaming Moon to his own style.
Clink—
"Urk!"
Faced with a technique that fully merited the description "perfect offense and defense," the surrounding knights dared not dismiss its power and faltered.
He did not miss the opening. Condensing the flow within him, he released it in an instant behind his back. A raging vortex swirled fiercely, and his body shot forward like a cannonball. By the time the knights regained their senses, he stood directly before them.
"...!"
Kain spun the sword a half-turn in his hand and struck the jaws of the knights around him hard with the pommel. He did not aim with lethal intent. Controlling the flow, he delivered just enough force to knock them unconscious. He bore no grudge against the knights of the Dekaraznan Ducal House. There was no need to kill them.
Thud.
One by one, the knights crumpled to the ground around him. To an uninformed observer, it would have seemed an eerie spectacle—as if the knights had simply fainted and collapsed of their own accord the moment he passed by.
Witnessing the intruder's astonishing martial prowess, the remaining knights could only feel admiration for their foe's skill. Though an enemy, he was worthy of respect. He was not even at full capacity, forced to fight with one arm effectively sealed while holding the abducted woman in his other hand—and yet he displayed such prodigious ability.
'This should be enough.'
Kain's objective had never been to cross swords with these people. By now, the hounds circling Sarah would have realized that an unknown figure had abducted her. The real challenge would begin after successfully escaping the Dekaraznan Ducal House. There was no reason to waste excessive energy here.
He let out a quiet sigh, subtly shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, and began surveying his surroundings, preparing to flee.
Then it happened.
"All of you, stand back from him!"
Shwaaaaak—!
With a massive tearing sound, something sinuous like lightning bolts shot toward Kain. The speed was so extreme that he registered the attack a step late and urgently swung his sword at the black lightning bearing down on him.
KABOOOOM—!
A thunderous crash shook the surroundings. When he raised his head to identify the black lightning, he saw it was a type of whip-sword, grotesquely elongated. What set it apart from an ordinary whip-sword, however, was its construction with mechanical components and the serrated blades lining its entire length—a terrifying weapon that seemed capable of reducing a person to a bloody mess with a single graze.
'So this is the famous Black Dragon Whip of the Dekaraznan Ducal House.'
Now that he thought about it, he had heard the rumors. The Dekaraznan Ducal House possessed one of the Eight Great Treasures of the Continent, the Black Dragon Whip—a peerless sword that, by its mere presence, allowed its wielder to contend on equal footing with a Master or an Archmage.
He had dismissed those rumors as mere exaggeration and scoffed. He now realized they had not been exaggerated in the slightest. The whip, for all that it was merely a weapon, boasted such incredible durability that it could clash head-on with Aura without sustaining a single scratch. Moreover, the immense latent power within the Black Dragon Whip still left his hand tingling.
'I was under the impression the Duke's daughter had not reached the Master Realm.'
Simply by switching weapons, she had gained the power to collide head-on with him while he was displaying martial might approaching that of a Master. The weapon was truly astonishing enough to justify its title as one of the Eight Great Treasures of the Continent.
In any case, now that she wielded the Black Dragon Whip, he could not underestimate the Duke's daughter. Kain had no choice but to assume a stance with a more serious look in his eyes.
"Now you finally look this way. I've heard it said until my ears bled that warriors who have awakened Aura are insufferably arrogant, but you seem a particularly outstanding specimen. I suppose in your eyes, I didn't even merit consideration—just a worm beneath your notice?"
Even as the Duke's daughter scoffed and glared at him, Kain's mind was racing. A direct confrontation with her here was the one scenario he absolutely had to avoid. He had come solely to rescue Sarah, not to test his martial skill against this woman.
"...Are you ignoring me?"
Perhaps believing the villain was slighting her, the Duke's daughter's eyebrow twitched. In the next instant, with a dreadful roar, a black tidal wave bore down on Kain.
BOOM—!
"Kh!"
The Duke's daughter's Black Dragon Whip was so powerful and swift that even the Flowing Star could only barely deflect its trajectory at the last moment. But the whip, as if it were a living creature, writhed and twisted, lunging at Kain once more.
Charrrrrak—!
The Black Dragon Whip unfurled fully. A crimson energy began to thrum along its segments, and with a fierce vortex, it coiled around Kain and Sarah like a serpent poised to strike. If that attack landed, Kain would end up resembling a tomato crushed underfoot.
'Has this woman lost her mind?'
Even setting himself aside, she had launched this wide-area attack knowing full well Sarah was in his arms. Kain was steeling himself, realizing he would have to reveal one of his hidden cards to escape this moment, when—
—the Duke's daughter sensed it. From the sky behind the intruder, a terrifying surge of Magic Power was erupting.
'Snipe!'
KABOOOOM—!
The flash of pure white light that tore through the void and descended upon the Duke's daughter, and her reflexive retrieval of the Black Dragon Whip to shift into a defensive stance, happened almost simultaneously.
Ruuuuumble—
The power of the flash that struck the Duke's daughter was so intense that, despite wrapping the Black Dragon Whip around herself and absorbing most of the impact, she was still hurled back over ten meters. The ground within a radius of several meters was ripped up and overturned.
"...Ngh!"
Her hands were numb. When she turned her head, the intruder who had been before her eyes and Sarah Sernad had vanished completely. They must have used the commotion from the attack to make their escape.
"...My lady! Are you all right?"
"I am fine. More importantly, the intruder—"
She had been about to order immediate pursuit when she closed her mouth. Setting aside the villain who had abducted Sarah Sernad, the magic from the mage who had just sniped at her had contained clear, unmistakable killing intent.
'No, it wasn't killing intent. It was definitely...'
Perhaps it was her imagination, but the magic from moments ago held more than mere killing intent.
It felt as if it had been laced with a strange, personal malice directed at Noel herself. As if the caster wished she would simply die—an unidentifiable malevolence aimed squarely at Noel.
At that blatant malice, Noel unconsciously shuddered. She found herself wondering when she could have possibly earned such enmity from anyone.