Sparring in the Morning Light
Elaine Huxley was strangely proactive. (2)
When starting King's Crown as the hero, most settings were randomized, but a few remained fixed across all playthroughs. One of them was the timing of the hero's appearance. Since the current year in the Lu Empire was 571, the hero would emerge roughly seventeen years from now.
The hero could recruit companions through various events, and among them was Elaine, the Crown Princess. If the player skipped her recruitment event, she would die at the hands of Crown Prince Alec, just as in the original scenario. That was why most players prioritized recruiting her above all else.
Once she joined the party, Elaine served as the main tank and sub-dealer, holding the front line with her family's secret swordsmanship, which specialized in defense and counters. Her performance was so broken that whether or not you recruited her could completely change the difficulty of a hero playthrough. Before the Armageddon DLC, she was consistently ranked in the top five strongest characters in the entire setting whenever players debated the topic.
In other words, the Leon from before my possession had been acting like an idiot during their usual sparring sessions, holding back because he "couldn't bring himself to wound a woman's body." Honestly, even if Leon swung with everything he had, he probably couldn't leave so much as a scratch on Elaine. So there was no need to hold back.
Righteousness? Don't make me laugh. Refusing to go all out against a vastly superior opponent while making excuses was the height of arrogance and injustice.
I measured the distance between us and crept forward. Because of the nature of her swordsmanship, Elaine tended to hesitate when it came to initiating attacks. That meant I had to create an opening and strike first.
As we faced each other, the sun began to rise. The training hall, which had been dim, gradually brightened, and I noticed her eyes being drawn toward the light—whether on purpose or by accident, I couldn't tell.
"Hup!"
Seizing the moment, I kicked off hard with my right foot and lunged, bringing my wooden sword down toward her hand. Elaine chose to evade the descending blade aimed at her wrist. As she stepped back to escape the strike zone, I halted the downward swing midway and transitioned into a thrust aimed at her neck.
Elaine calmly raised her own wooden sword from its middle guard and deflected the thrust at an angle.
Thwack! Scraaape—
Our swords clashed with a sharp impact that echoed through the hall, then scraped against each other as they tangled. She was clearly trying to let my sword slide past her right shoulder. Elaine took another step back, attempting to pull our locked swords and disrupt my center of gravity. I refused to be pulled along and stepped back myself, creating distance. Our blades came apart.
"Hoo— Hiss—"
I regulated my breathing while measuring the gap between us. In this heightened state of tension, nothing else registered. My entire focus was locked on Elaine alone. The same was true for her. Her ruby-red eyes, glittering in the sunlight, reflected only me.
Wait—sunlight?
The light reminded me of a battle scene from a robot anime I'd enjoyed in my previous life. A minor pilot character had cleverly charged an enemy ace while keeping the sun at his back. It had been an impressive moment.
I gauged the direction of the light pouring through the windows of the training hall. For a brief instant, the morning sun cut through the darkness so brilliantly it almost seemed concentrated. The situation was strikingly similar to that anime scene.
So I deliberately circled her, forcing her to face the sunlight directly. Once she was positioned with the glare in her eyes, I struck again.
"Haap!"
This time I brought my sword down toward the crown of her head. Squinting against the light, Elaine met the blow head-on, blocking my wooden sword squarely.
Thwaaack!
Our swords formed an X as we locked blades and entered a brief contest of strength. In this state—often called a bind or sword wrestling—relying purely on brute force was dangerous. Your opponent could redirect your power and shatter your grip or split your skull in an instant. Victory here depended entirely on technique and timing.
As expected, the stalemate lasted only moments. Elaine released her left hand from the hilt while keeping her right hand on the sword, reaching to grab both of my hands. Sword wrestling—just as I'd anticipated.
I boldly released my grip on my own sword and seized her extending left hand instead. At the same time, I tried to sweep her supporting right leg—
But Elaine smiled faintly. In an instant, she shifted her weight from her right foot to her left, evading my sweep. The failed trip threw off my own balance. While my hands were caught in hers, she used the wooden sword still in her right hand to hook my supporting leg and trip me.
Thud!
I tried to resist falling while holding onto her left hand, but it was useless. She twisted my wrist with exquisite timing, using my own desperate grip against me. We rolled across the ground together, ending with Elaine straddling me.
"I win."
Elaine, now on top of me, held her wooden sword short and pressed it against my neck as she declared victory. Her long black hair, tied back in a single ponytail, spilled over my face and tickled my skin. Looking down at me with a triumphant expression, her face held a distinctly proud look.
"You've gotten stronger, Leon. The hesitation at the tip of your sword is gone."
I'd seen that expression before. When playing as the hero in King's Crown, after completing certain events, Elaine would look at the hero with exactly that face. She had said something similar back then too—praising the hero's growth.
The memory soured my mood instantly.
She's treating me like a child, isn't she?
"Yeah, I lost. So how about getting off me now?"
I spoke sullenly. Elaine blinked in confusion for a moment before realizing our current position. Her face flushed bright red as she scrambled off me in a hurry.
"Ah… I'm sorry."
Why was I acting like this? A wave of irritation surged through me, and I felt blood rushing to my face. It wasn't the same feeling as my heart racing from physical contact with her. This was more like accumulated stress.
Could it be…?
I mentally shouted, Status window!
Stress: +49
It didn't make sense. How could a single instance of physical contact raise my stress from 13 to 49? This wasn't some hardcore dungeon RPG… The sudden spike in stress, as if a critical hit had landed, left me flustered.
Even though she was engaged to the Crown Prince, this had been an accident during sword training. Yet the Righteousness Trait had judged it unjust and mercilessly struck me with the hammer called stress. If I sparred with Elaine like that one more time, my stress might exceed 100.
Instinctively sensing danger, I took a step back from her. Elaine's eyes widened slightly, and a wounded expression crossed her face.
"Did you get hurt somewhere? I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"
I wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault and comfort her, but the irritation from the stress made me afraid of what I might say if I opened my mouth. I took a deep breath, bought time by picking up the wooden sword I'd dropped during our sword wrestling, and only after steadying my emotions did I finally speak.
"I'm not hurt, so don't worry. I was just stubbornly trying to beat you once and ended up rolling on the ground in an ugly way…"
As I muttered self-deprecatingly, Elaine suddenly cut me off with a stern voice.
"The attacks you just used were excellent! They weren't forced at all, and they weren't ugly either. So… don't blame yourself like that. You weren't wrong."
There was conviction in her voice. Her eyes, staring straight at me, were filled with encouragement, urging me not to give up.
I chuckled despite myself.
If Elaine said so, then it must be true. That Leon guy… at least he hadn't lived his life in vain.
"Thanks, even if it was just empty words. Let's stop the sparring here. Can I train on my own for a while?"
"…Understood."
Elaine reluctantly agreed to my request. She watched me for a moment, then glanced at the sunlight now fully illuminating the training hall. As if remembering something, she asked,
"Come to think of it, Leon. You mentioned going on a pilgrimage to the holy land this time. When are you leaving?"
I had been walking toward the training dummy to raise my wooden sword when her question made me pause. That Leon guy had never once gone on the pilgrimage before.
With my back turned to Elaine, a complicated expression formed on my face. Because there was a very high chance that, without my possession, Leon would have been kidnapped by Yuri Magnus during that pilgrimage and offered as a sacrifice…