Chapter 8
Chapter 8
What Gleams at the Tip of the Sword Is Light
Kang!
The sharp clash of steel pierced the ears.
Along with it came the awful grinding sound of metal scraping against metal.
I slipped a hand into the pouch hanging at my waist.
It was the subspace pouch Amelia had given me.
I still didn’t understand why she had given me something like this, but I took it anyway.
I had asked her if it was really okay to give me something this valuable.
Her answer had been simple.
“It’s repayment.”
Repayment, she said.
When I asked what exactly she was repaying me for—
“For finding me?”
Anyway, she was a suspiciously hard-to-read woman.
I reached into the pouch and chose my next weapon.
A dagger.
If I abandoned the sword while our blades were locked, my opponent’s balance would break for a moment.
And in that opening, a dagger would deal the most damage.
The moment I tried to drive the dagger into Beryl’s abdomen, Beryl raised his divine power and strengthened his defense.
Kang!
The tip of the dagger struck as if it had hit solid armor.
Crack—
But it failed to break through.
Beryl looked at me and smiled.
As if asking, “What’s your next move?”
Damn it.
If you were just going to block it like that, at least don’t make it look so easy.
Regret lasted only a moment.
I immediately thought of my next move.
Kang! Kang!
I pulled out the gauntlets.
A magic tool Amelia had given me along with the pouch.
Its convenience was excellent.
The moment I took it out, it equipped itself.
“Hand-to-hand combat?”
Extremely close-range combat.
If the dagger wouldn’t work, fists were the only option.
Honestly, I wanted to fight while keeping some distance too.
But unfortunately, this body, while growing faster than others my age, was still lacking compared to fully grown adults.
Reach, strength, aura—
In every measurable way, I was behind.
That was why I mainly relied on close combat.
It created variables.
Beryl deliberately threw punches with easy-to-read trajectories.
Whoosh!
Even so, the power and speed were absurd.
The kind of punch that made you see stars the moment it landed.
The wind split under the force of a human fist.
Literally.
Shaaak!
The punch came at me.
If that hits, won’t I die?
I dodged the punch and shifted my body back slightly, creating just enough space to breathe.
“Go a little easier on me.”
“Then it wouldn’t be training, would it?”
Training is supposed to go easy on people.
The words reached the tip of my tongue, but they wouldn’t work on this insane holy knight.
That was something I had learned over two months of training.
There was only one option.
Get serious again.
The more Beryl trained with his student, the more amazed he became.
Flexibility.
Strength and endurance far beyond what someone his age should possess.
And even more absurd—
No matter how badly he got hurt, by the next day he recovered at an unbelievable speed.
Beryl had found it strange enough to quietly ask the little Saint he served.
“Saint, have you been healing Luka?”
The answer he got was a light shake of her head.
If she healed him, then it wouldn’t count as training.
That was her reasoning.
Which meant his recovery was entirely his own.
A pure miracle of life itself.
To ask whether he felt inferior—
Beryl would hesitate, wrestling with his pride for a moment before shaking his head.
Not now, at least.
Kang! Kang!
Gauntlets and divine-powered fists collided.
Metal scraped against metal.
Beryl smiled proudly at the sight.
Only two weeks.
And he had grown this much already?
Even if Beryl had been holding back, the growth was astonishing.
Wait.
Just wait.
He wanted to try attacking seriously.
Just a little.
Could Luka dodge it?
Could he respond?
That overwhelming curiosity tickled at Beryl’s mind.
Vwoooong—
Divine power gathered into a single point, causing the air around it to tremble.
Luka sensed something strange and instinctively stepped back.
“...Have you gone insane?”
“You tempted me first.”
“Damn it, I’m really not interested in seducing men.”
“Really? Then how did you seduce the Saint?”
“I didn’t.”
Of course, Beryl was only mixing in a little seriousness.
Not enough to kill.
If Luka failed to dodge—
Well, he’d probably be in pain for a few days.
“You need to dodge.”
He had to dodge.
This was practically the straightforward answer to an attack mixed with true intent.
At Beryl’s words, Luka looked troubled for a moment.
Then he pulled out a sword.
“Hah, hahahaha!”
Beryl burst into loud laughter.
He understood what Luka was trying to do.
“Ah. If you were a holy knight trainee, I could have made you the greatest holy knight.”
“I’ll take that as praise.”
But to Luka, it sounded more like—
“I could’ve beaten you up even harder.”
Which was terrifying.
Whoooosh!
The air was pushed aside by the heavy force of Beryl’s attack.
The pressure wrapped around his fist like armor.
Like a gauntlet made of compressed wind.
Bang!
The moment he fully extended his punch, the wind became a bullet and shot toward Luka.
It was an attack Beryl often used for pressure.
But against Luka as he was now—
It was more than enough to cause serious damage.
And like most pressure techniques—
Blocking it was difficult.
Dodging it was even harder.
Wind, after all, was formless.
Invisible.
Beryl had expected Luka to watch the movement of his fist and dodge.
But Luka didn’t.
Instead, he put away the gauntlets, drew his sword, and took his stance.
He intended to receive the attack.
And within that resolve was a desperate conviction.
If I can’t handle even this, then I can’t handle anything.
Beryl didn’t know where that desperation came from.
But he approved of it.
Some said that being too rigid would only make you break in the end.
Beryl’s philosophy was different.
If a sword couldn’t endure even his training, then it was a sword meant to break anyway.
Better it break now.
Teaching flexibility wasn’t Beryl’s job.
His job was to forge a stronger blade.
...Though with Luka, he had raised the intensity a little.
No.
A lot.
But that was Luka’s fault for tempting him.
Not Beryl’s.
Probably.
Blocking it was impossible.
The gap between them was simply too large.
In that brief instant—
As the wind was about to strike Luka—
Luka raised his sword.
Even Luka didn’t know why.
He simply felt certain.
Certain that he could do it.
Time stopped.
No—
It only felt that way.
The wind was fast.
He was slow.
That was reality.
That obvious reality became chains around Luka.
And yet—
Something kept pushing him forward.
Swing the sword.
Ha.
Haha.
Luka laughed.
If this hits, it’ll hurt like hell.
Maybe not enough to shatter every bone—
But definitely enough to crack them.
Well.
Amelia’s here, so it should be fine.
Luka opened his eyes.
Wind had no shape.
Cut it.
“Hm?”
A surprised sound escaped Beryl.
Light gathered at the tip of Luka’s sword.
For a moment, Beryl thought—
Aura?
But it wasn’t.
It was different.
Neither divine power nor aura.
Something else entirely.
Ability.
It was an ability.
A power completely separate from mana.
Abilities came in all forms.
Controlling fire.
Endless regeneration.
Countless different powers.
They were simply grouped together under one name.
And every ability was different.
Looking at the light gathered at the sword’s edge—
Beryl saw starlight.
The sword descended slowly.
At the same speed as the wind.
Slowly.
Fast—
Yet slow.
Fast enough to make it feel slow.
The sword and Beryl’s attack collided.
Light and wind met.
Slice—
The wind split apart.
The force that had seemed ready to explode scattered into nothing.
Shhhhhh—
Beryl stared.
Luka staggered, unable to understand what he had just done.
His entire body had gone limp.
Neither of them spoke.
Silence settled over the area.
Only the occasional sound of wind brushing through the grass could be heard.
“...Amazing.”
After a long moment, Beryl finally found the words.
He praised Luka, supported his exhausted body, and returned with him to the estate.
“Luka! You said you were resting today?”
Beryl had given me the day off.
Apparently, I used my ability yesterday.
I had no idea what exactly I did, but that was what he said.
He said using it unconsciously drained me even more.
The problem was that abilities were different from aura.
And every ability was unique.
There wasn’t really anyone who could teach me.
At best, the academy had enough information to help me learn how to control it.
“Then let’s take a walk in the forest.”
Evelyn loved the forest in the Gryphir territory more than anywhere else.
She said it gave her a strange sense of peace.
To me, a forest was just a forest.
But maybe, since she was from the capital, walking through one still felt new to her.
“Sure.”
I hadn’t really spent time with Evelyn lately.
And I had time to rest.
Might as well spend it with her.
Though when it came to playing with Evelyn—
It was usually sword sparring.
“Let’s just walk through the forest today.”
“Sounds good to me. Ah, should we invite the Saint—”
Suddenly—
I felt all the blood and cells in my body turn cold.
What?
“...No, better not. The Saint must be busy.”
“Yeah.”
The cold sensation disappeared.
...What the hell was that?
“Hm? You tied your hair.”
“Oh? Ehehe... Is it obvious? The weather’s getting hotter lately, and my hair’s gotten long, so I just tied it up lightly. How is it? Does it suit me?”
Seriously.
When someone’s naturally handsome, any hairstyle works.
Damn it.
What is this unfairly handsome face?
“It suits you!”
I gave her a thumbs-up and praised her.
Evelyn looked embarrassed and kept touching the exposed part of her neck where her hair was tied back.
The forest near Gryphir territory was about a thirty-minute walk.
I asked if we should just take a carriage.
But—
“Let’s walk.”
And that was that.
“This forest is nice. I don’t know why, but... it feels good.”
Evelyn looked at me as she said that.
Maybe because it had been a while since I came here too—
I felt strangely calm.
The sounds of birds in the forest too—
Birds?
Why was it silent?
No sounds at all.
And this peace—
No.
Something was wrong.
The hairs on my back stood up.
My body sensed danger before my mind could understand it.
So I did the first thing that came to mind.
“Evelyn! Get down!”
I pushed Evelyn down.
Stab—
Something sharp pierced into my body.
And in the corner of my vision, I caught Evelyn’s shocked expression.
“Lukaaa!!!”
Evelyn’s scream tore through the forest, drowning out even the sound of the wind.