Chapter 24. Ugly to Look At
Kael, who had been bickering with Balmung for quite some time, rose from his seat.
He had sensed someone approaching.
With the rustle of bushes parting, a familiar face emerged.
“...I couldn’t just let this go anymore, so I came looking for you... What exactly are you doing out here?”
Luke frowned and stared straight at Kael.
The clearing was covered with sword marks, and the sight of it was astonishing.
I thought he was just loafing around all day... He’s been training here alone every night?
There were far more sword marks than he’d expected. They were cut deep, too. The ground was bare, stripped of every blade of grass by countless footprints.
“What, you followed me?”
“I’ve been wondering where you kept going every night. So this is where you’ve been training all this time?”
“Well...”
Kael scratched his cheek. It wasn’t as though he was hiding anything, but for some reason it felt strangely embarrassing.
“Honestly, I thought you were out visiting the red-light district.”
“...What do you take me for?”
“I’m thinking of you as you are.”
“...”
Wow. He really had no rebuttal for that.
“If you’ve got the time, teach me a thing or two.”
Fighting spirit flared in Luke’s eyes.
He had been waiting for a chance like this for a long time. A chance to see Kael’s sword again with his own eyes.
“Sorry, but I’m a little tired today. So...”
Kael was about to refuse. If they fought here, his real skill would be exposed for sure.
The only reason he had been able to subdue Luke in a single blow was Balmung’s help. Objectively speaking, Kael’s own ability was still below Luke’s.
But just as he was about to turn Luke down, Kael changed his mind.
“How about this? Not swords. Fists.”
That thought had simply come to him.
It had been a while. Maybe he should loosen up his body a little.
“...Fists?”
“If you don’t like it, forget it.”
“...Fine. But if I win, then next time I want you to use your sword.”
“You really are a weird kid... Fine. If you win, I’ll do that. But I’ve got one condition, too.”
“A condition...?”
“I’ll tell you what it is after I win.”
“...You sound pretty sure I’m going to lose.”
“Of course.”
“...You’ll regret that.”
And so, the bare-handed fight began without warning.
Kael and Luke set aside the swords they had been carrying.
Luke took up his stance. The mood was subtly different from when he held a sword.
“...This is a secret, but I’m actually quite confident in hand-to-hand combat.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“...”
Luke frowned and kicked off the ground.
He really is fast.
Since the day they first met, a lot of time had passed. Long in one sense, short in another.
But in that time, many things had changed.
When Kael had first met Luke, he hadn’t been able to read his movements at all.
But now things were different.
It wasn’t to the point of seeming slow, but Luke’s motions were clearly visible to him now.
Kael saw Luke circle rapidly behind him.
He had felt it before, but...
“You really do love getting behind people, huh?”
Kael snorted and spun his body around.
Pop!
He landed a clean backspin blow, and Luke quickly widened the distance, but Kael had no intention of letting him off so easily.
He followed with a rapid flurry of punches.
It was a combination he had drilled countless times back in his fighting days.
Of course, the power was not even remotely comparable.
Kael’s physical ability now far surpassed what it had been when he was a fighter.
Pow-pap-pap-pap!
Luke’s pupils darted wildly as the punches came at him like flowing water.
By the thinnest margin, Luke barely managed to evade Kael’s attacks.
What is he, a cat?
Kael smirked. Luke’s reflexes were practically beastlike.
An evasion skill bordering on the miraculous.
He saw, and he reacted instantly.
Even boxing athletes famous for their reflexes actually avoid attacks through repeated training and prediction.
They read posture, gaze, foot placement, and the movement of the shoulders and torso to anticipate the opponent’s attack.
But Luke was different. He really did seem to just see it and dodge it.
Kael aimed exactly at that weakness.
Wham!
Pretending to swing a punch, he swept Luke’s shin with a kick.
A calf kick.
No matter how sharp your eyes or how quick your reflexes were, attacks from places you couldn’t see were hard to predict.
Luke’s face twisted. He had only taken one hit, but it had landed flush, so the pain would have been more than he could imagine.
Kael’s mouth curled at one corner.
From that moment on, the flow of the fight shifted entirely to Kael’s side.
When the distance opened up, he toyed with Luke through kicks; when it closed, he battered him with clinches, knee strikes, and elbows.
Luke was holding up fairly well for someone facing a real fighter for the first time, but...
“Huff... huff...”
His body was starting to give out.
It was obvious in the way he was gasping for air. His mouth hung open, and his shoulders heaved.
Looking at Luke like that, Kael thought, This is... bad.
For some reason, this was starting to get genuinely fun.
It was one of his ugly habits. Something deep in his gut began to swell and blossom, a mean little sadism rising to the surface.
“...Where the hell did you learn that fighting style?”
“Hey, that’s not sporting. Why would you ask a man to reveal his trade secret?”
“...”
Seeing Kael’s relaxed attitude, Luke silently ground his teeth.
As if making a decision, his gaze turned cold.
Tap!
This time he charged straight in, reaching for Kael’s waist.
Kael understood his intent immediately.
He had judged that he had no chance in a striking exchange and intended to drag Kael into a messy, grinding clinch fight no matter what.
But if there was one thing Luke had mistaken...
Slip.
“You did good.”
“Huh...?”
Kael was also skilled at ground fighting.
Like a snake coiling around its prey, he slipped his upper body away and took Luke’s back, then immediately began choking him.
Squeeze!
Luke’s struggle did not last long. Before long, his body went limp.
“Ah, that’s refreshing.”
Kael wiped the sweat from his forehead and wore a thoroughly satisfied expression.
He sweated every day through endurance training and sword practice, but this was a little different.
It felt like he had finally gotten in a proper sparring match after a long time.
Kael looked down at his sacrificial lamb with a pleased expression.
“I’d actually appreciate it if you came looking for trouble more often.”
...What a disgusting bastard...
Balmung’s disgusted voice drifted into his ear, but Kael ignored it lightly.
* * *
He dreamed.
He couldn’t remember it well, but it had probably been a nightmare.
Someone had said that dreams were recollections rearranged.
Then nightmares were only natural.
Most of the things he had lived through were nightmares to begin with.
Frrt.
Luke’s eyelids fluttered.
“Oh, you’re finally awake?”
A familiar voice reached him. It was Kael. Luke, opening his eyes, frowned. It took him a moment to make sense of the situation.
He was being supported by Kael as they descended the mountain.
“...Where are we?”
“What, did you hit your head or something?”
Luke frowned and put weight on his legs.
The moment he did, a sharp pain shot through him.
It wasn’t just in his legs.
His whole body throbbed as if he had been beaten with a club all night.
...Ah.
The pain in his body dragged the memory back out.
He had challenged Kael with bravado and been utterly smashed. He had been beaten to a pulp, all over.
“What kind of idiot falls asleep on the ground? Keep that up and your face’ll get twisted.”
“...”
Luke stared at Kael with a dumbfounded look. Was that really something a man could say after beating him half to death?
It was ridiculous, but he didn’t feel like arguing. Only a dry laugh escaped him.
“...Haha...”
“...What, did you lose your mind?”
“Yes, apparently I did.”
Kael gave him a strange look.
Regaining his senses, Luke began heading down the mountain without Kael’s support.
Starting from his knees and spreading through his waist, his ribs... there wasn’t a single intact spot on his entire body.
“No, really, do you have to beat your subordinate up this badly just because you’re the captain?”
“Yeah. Felt like it.”
That shameless answer was beyond all reason, and Luke lost the words he had been about to say.
As he limped onward, Luke suddenly let out a sigh.
“...When I’m with you... I feel like I’m turning into an idiot.”
The countless memories that had plagued him.
The worries with no answers.
But when he was with Kael, all of it somehow seemed trivial.
He was a strange man.
Too casual, too young, and yet too strong to be a guard captain.
That attitude, where he didn’t give a damn about anyone else’s opinion...
Watching him, Luke thought, in a way, that he was envious.
Wham!
Then Kael smacked the back of his head from behind.
Luke, struck suddenly on the skull, looked utterly baffled.
“W-what was that for?”
“Because watching you mope around like some pathetic fool after trying to stage a mutiny every five minutes was disgusting.”
“...?”
That bastard...!
Luke, who had been about to snap back in disbelief, ended up saying nothing after all.
It felt like he had just received a very strange kind of comfort.
* * *
“Captain~ do we really have to go all the way out to some backwater dump like that?”
The small girl, Linvel, grumbled in protest.
They had just arrived at the capital, only to set out once again on a long journey to Nox, so it was understandable that she was unhappy.
“Endure it a little longer, Linvel. You know how the captain is, don’t you?”
Bram, the gentlest of the Red Storm Knights, soothed her.
Captain Varen was a very stubborn man, and once he made a decision, he never backed down from it.
Since Varen had decided to head for Nox, nothing anyone said would change that.
Everyone in the unit knew it.
“Tch... I know that too. I was just saying.”
The long journey was dull and exhausting. You might get used to it, but enjoying it was another matter.
The sleeping arrangements were uncomfortable, meals were reduced to dried rations, and above all, there was no proper chance to wash.
“Captain! But why Nox all of a sudden? Is there some special reason?”
Varen, who had been riding silently ahead, grinned.
“Reason? Of course there’s a reason. I heard a rumor that there’s a very ‘interesting guy’ there.”
“An interesting guy?”
Linvel blinked at the meaningless reply.
As for the request from Adelia, it had long since vanished from Varen’s mind.
The one who had killed the Sin of Wrath, Harkan.
That man was in Nox.
That one fact alone gave him more than enough reason to go there.