How to Make the Hostile Lady of Lichtenburg Submit?
Schlus Heinkel pondered the question. How could he make the Lady of Lichtenburg, who had turned openly hostile, submit? The answer was simple. Use her beloved daughter, Erika. But how exactly? Several possibilities came to mind. The first was to make Erika fall for him. Rejected. No matter how he looked at it, that was out of the question. It was the most clichéd romance fantasy trope imaginable—the one where you try to charm someone and end up charmed yourself. Besides, Schlus wasn't particularly handsome, so he discarded the idea.
That left only one option...
"Your movements are too big!"
"Guh?!"
While he was lost in thought, Trie's sword tip shot forward like lightning and struck him squarely in the solar plexus. Schlus dropped his sword and doubled over, coughing violently for a long while. Even though the blade was blunted, the impact had nearly knocked the wind out of him completely.
"Hah. Getting cocky now? Thinking about other things during a spar?"
"Cough... How did you know I was distracted?"
"It was obvious. You weren't focused at all. Keep that up and you might get seriously hurt, you know?"
"Understood. I'll concentrate from now on."
Schlus picked up his sword and stood again. His chest still throbbed, but he could move well enough.
"Come to think of it, midterms are in two weeks."
"...So they are."
Damn. Already? Once midterms ended, he'd have to start teaching Trie magic right away... He still hadn't finished reading the textbooks. Just keeping up with regular classes was hard enough—how was he supposed to manage then? The worry was overwhelming.
"This time, I'm lifting all restrictions."
"All of them? Really?"
"Yeah... Is there a problem?"
"No. None."
Lifting restrictions. Trie meant he could use his internal circuits. But her words had a loophole, and Schlus had to suppress the smirk tugging at his lips. The basic restrictions on sword duels included a ban on magic as well. That restriction would also be lifted.
Selection and Concentration. Mana Adaptation for one second.
The moment his Mana Adaptation stat reached 100, he fully activated his internal circuits. The mana energy generated in the process converted into mana for one second and accumulated throughout his body. With that mana, he could go all out for about a minute.
"Then... begin!"
Even at Trie's signal, Schlus simply raised his sword and stood still. Trie also remained motionless, watching his blade and ready to spring forward.
"Still just watching? Then I'll go first..."
Selection and Concentration. Mana for one second.
In an instant, Trie's stance crumbled and her expression twisted. It was the effect of a gravity spell pressing down on her entire body. The spell, fueled by a full 100,000 mana, was crushing her with roughly a ton of force. Even after pouring in that much mana, the output was limited because most of it had gone into concealing the spell formula.
It was his trump card. While barely managing to stay on her feet, Trie lifted her head and glared at him. She looked seriously pissed.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"You said all restrictions were lifted."
"Hah... So this is how you want to play it?"
Yes. It was underhanded and petty, but he had to win at least once. Getting beaten every single day was getting old.
"You think I can't use magic?!"
At that moment, unfamiliar spell formulas began deploying from all directions. Mana emission magic. It carried the force to crush him completely. Though Trie was terrible at magic, her mana reserves were enormous, so the output was terrifying.
That's only if she can actually cast it.
Schlus immediately interfered with the formulas, dismantling their cores as quickly as possible. All ten or so spells shattered before they could activate. The entire exchange took less than half a second.
"What?!"
Trie's eyes widened in shock. She tried deploying more spells, but each one dissolved before it could take shape. With his calculation stat at 48, dismantling Trie's crude magic was trivial. The only downside was the splitting headache that followed.
By now, Trie must have burned through a fair amount of mana. Time to close in.
"You think you can win like this?"
"Obviously."
She could barely even stand. The bluff was pathetic. Schlus dashed straight to Trie's position and brought his sword down. Forced to defend, Trie raised her blade to block.
"Kuh!"
"Oh."
Even with the gravity spell and Schlus putting his full strength into the strike, Trie trembled but held firm. What kind of monstrous strength was this...? To think he'd been facing this creature without magic all this time. It was absurd.
"Grrrgh!"
"No, seriously, what the hell."
With a roar, Trie began pushing him back by sheer force. When Schlus stepped back to reset and attack again, Trie launched a counterattack. Her speed was half what it normally was, so he ignored it and tried to circle to her flank—
Whoosh...!
"Huh."
Her blade came flying at his head at unbelievable speed. She had used the downward force of the gravity spell to accelerate her swing. It was too fast for him to activate Selection and Concentration. His arm, trained through countless spars, moved on its own and barely deflected the blow. Seizing the opening, he slipped inside her guard—
"Got you."
"......"
His sword rested against Trie's neck.
"Hnnngh..."
Trie raised both hands. It was a gesture of surrender, so Schlus immediately dispelled the magic. Her tension released, and her body went limp. Startled, Schlus dropped his sword and caught her.
"Your strength gave out?"
"Idiot."
"What did you just—"
"I won, you fool."
"You son of a—"
He'd let his guard down. Just as he moved to push her away, a dull impact struck his abdomen.
Thud!
"Kuh!"
The blunted sword tip drove into his stomach. Once again, Schlus clutched his gut and collapsed, shaking for a long time. Come to think of it, she hadn't actually said the word "surrender"... She was even more underhanded than him. He never saw it coming.
"You should've incapacitated me so I couldn't get up."
"I considered it, but... I couldn't bring myself to leave a mark on a lady's body."
"Y-You absolute idiot! There's no such thing as a lady during a spar! Hah! Unbelievable!"
Trie laughed in disbelief and fanned her face with her hand. He knew it was stupid. Right up until the moment he closed in, he'd planned to drive his sword into her solar plexus with everything he had... But the instant he saw her chest, some psychological resistance had stopped him. What kind of man could stab there? Apparently, his desire to beat Trie senseless wasn't as strong as he'd thought. Maybe if he got hit a few more times, he'd stop hesitating.
"That's enough for today!"
"Isn't it a bit early to stop?"
"You're the student here, and you're already pulling dirty tricks like that! Go reflect on your actions!"
"......"
With that, Trie gathered the training swords and hurried out of the underground training hall. She must have been really angry.
"Even like this, I still can't win a single match..."
Lying flat on his back, Schlus let out a hollow laugh. He really couldn't win. The wall that was Trie was simply too high.
***
"Lady Trie."
"Yes?"
"Before you leave, you're welcome to use the bath."
"Ah..."
Caught by Schlus's attendant, Trie finally noticed that her entire body was drenched in sweat. It was the first time she'd gotten this soaked while teaching him swordsmanship.
"No, thank you. I'll just go."
"Very well. Please take care on your way."
Leaving the bowing attendant behind, Trie stepped out of the mansion. Looking back, it was no ordinary residence. It was far larger than her own home in the capital—comparable in scale to the main Schulzenburg estate in Edengart. She'd heard it was the director's residence. How had Schlus ended up living in a place like this...? She'd meant to ask but forgot. She considered going back to inquire, but decided to leave it for another time and kept walking.
After passing through the main gate and confirming no one was around, Trie clenched her fists and trembled with rage.
Schlus had been learning the sword for less than a month—he couldn't even be called a swordsman. Which meant she, a mage, had lost to him in close combat at a distance of less than ten meters. In knight-versus-mage battles, anything under fifty meters was considered an overwhelming advantage for the knight. This was nothing short of humiliating.
She could defeat most senior knights, so why... She hadn't anticipated him using magic, but that wasn't the real issue. A skilled swordsman would normally close the distance and cut down their opponent before a spell could be cast. She should have reacted before his gravity spell activated. But the formula had been cleverly concealed, preventing her from noticing in time.
The basic principle of spell concealment was emitting a mana wave of the exact opposite phase to cancel out the spell's signature. That required performing two calculations simultaneously. Normally, spell concealment needed at least two people—one to cast and one to conceal. But Schlus had done both calculations alone.
Failing to notice the incoming magic was also a factor, but it was just an excuse. The fact remained that she'd been unable to do anything against a mage in close range, not even prevent the spell from being cast.
"But seriously... What even was that...?"
What shocked her even more came afterward. Though Trie had gained fame through her swordsmanship, the time she'd spent honing her magic wasn't short either. Even if people said she lacked talent, reaching the Imperial Academy still put her among the better nobles. Yet her opponent was the master mage Schlus Heinkel. She'd never expected to win with magic, so she hadn't bothered with anything fancy. Instead, she'd gone for the fastest option—simply blasting raw mana.
...Or tried to. Every single one of her spells was intercepted before the formulas could even fully deploy. Trying to cast from two directions at once yielded the same result. From the caster's perspective, the calculation load merely doubled, but from the dismantler's side, it increased exponentially... The sheer gap left Trie stunned.
I never imagined winning with magic in the first place.
She'd felt a twinge of despair at the insurmountable wall, but it was fine. Even if she couldn't win with magic, she could still beat him with the sword. With the minor handicap of the gravity spell, she should have been able to overwhelm a junior knight with ease. At least, that's what she'd thought—until their swords actually clashed.
His movements no longer had any wasted motion. Every action had purpose, executed with speed and decisiveness. When his blade pressed against her neck, Trie had no choice but to admit it. Schlus had already reached the level of a senior knight...
From complete beginner to senior knight in just one month. At this rate, it wouldn't be strange if he surpassed her in a few years. It was an astonishing growth speed.
"So I finally lost a match..."
Trie smiled bitterly. She knew that winning through that last underhanded trick didn't really count as a victory. When all means—including magic—were allowed, she'd confirmed she was overwhelmingly inferior to Schlus in combat ability.
Would he teach her combat magic tips after midterms? Her heart pounded at the thought.
"By the way... 'a lady,' huh..."
Recalling Schlus's words, Trie stopped in her tracks. No one had ever called her a lady while she held a sword. Everyone saw her only as a knight. There was no lady there. She'd assumed Schlus thought the same. After all, she'd beaten him mercilessly during training. No matter how much of a student he was, getting hit like that should have built up some resentment. That's why she'd thought he'd finally land a solid hit this time...
—I couldn't bring myself to leave a mark on a lady's body.
It was a reaction she hadn't expected at all.
"Who would be happy about that? Seriously... How ridiculous..."
Seeing his opponent as a woman during a duel should have annoyed her. More than that, it should have irritated her. Yet strangely, Trie's face flushed red, and the corners of her mouth twitched upward.