Chapter 101
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Exam Period (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Five Forms and the Three Sword Forms flowed together seamlessly.
That was because the components of the Three Sword Forms were the Five Forms.
It meant that breaking down the Three Sword Forms revealed they were composed of the Five Forms piece by piece.
Thus, the Five Forms served as the foundation for the Three Sword Forms.
This was the 'system' discussed in Swordsmanship Studies.
"Sword forms must connect naturally in accordance with the system."
Soliet spoke as she gripped her wooden sword. I picked up mine as well.
"It's similar to linking the circuits in a mana arts formula. For example, among the Five Forms, 'Triangle Slash' and 'Quick Sword' harmonize well with each other. Because they share similar properties as consecutive strikes."
Her tone was like that of a lecturer.
"However, 'Triangle Slash' and 'Coiling Draw' from the Five Forms do not harmonize."
"Why not?"
"'Coiling Draw' completes three strokes as a single unified strike, while 'Triangle Slash' unleashes three strokes in rapid succession as a combo."
In simple terms, Coiling Draw linked three strokes into a Z-shape, giving the strong impression of merging them into one fluid motion.
Conversely, Triangle Slash was unmistakably a form that attacked with three consecutive strokes, as the name itself suggested.
Their properties were completely different.
"That's why theory is necessary. To find sword forms that flow together without clashing, like water."
"Got it. I'll give it a try."
"...Please do."
"Okay."
I swung my sword right away.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Soliet blocked with her sword face up, but her soles scraped against the ground. She slid back three paces in an instant, her eyes widening.
"...What was that just now?"
She asked blankly. I replied with a touch of confidence.
"How was it? I mixed Coiling Draw into Triangle Slash."
"..."
Soliet fell silent.
Triangle Slash involved stepping repeatedly while unleashing three strokes.
Coiling Draw delivered three strokes as one in a single step.
Forms with fundamentally incompatible properties, hard to chain together.
"...A total of nine slashes."
Soliet muttered, fiddling with her wooden sword. I responded.
"Nine that are just like three."
I had executed Coiling Draw's motion while stepping in Triangle Slash's pattern.
"Though it does hurt a bit."
I set my wooden sword down. My joints and ligaments were fine, but my dantian ached considerably.
This was the application of Notebook: editing and modifying through action.
Why? Breaking down Triangle Slash into steps:
1. Take a step.
2. Swing one stroke.
3. Take a step.
4. Swing one stroke.
5. Take a step.
6. Swing one stroke.
Like that, right?
But here, I edited it like tweaking a file in Notebook, or coding:
1. Take a step.
2. Draw the '-' stroke.
3. Draw the '/' stroke.
4. Draw the '-' stroke.
5. Take a step.
Inserting the Z-shaped Coiling Draw form like this, then saving it in Notebook.
"How was it?"
I'd expressed the process as intuitively as possible, but anyway, it worked. The cost was a hefty amount of mana and 5 units of capacity.
"..."
Soliet stared at me with a stiff expression. After a long gaze, she said curtly.
"You're extraordinary."
Surprisingly formal.
"Not calling me a genius this time?"
I felt a bit disappointed.
Truth be told, I hadn't received much praise in my life. I might have shown off a little excessively just to hear some...
What was wrong with a thirty-year-old getting praise from a nineteen-year-old? Especially when that nineteen-year-old was a future swordsmanship genius.
The genius offered me advice.
"No matter how talented you are, it's useless if you die young."
"...What kind of talk is that?"
Was she disparaging herself?
Soliet continued with a gravely serious face.
"You just said it 'hurts.' That form you used overburdens critical parts of the body like joints and ligaments too much."
Even for superhumans, joints like knees and shoulders, or ligaments, don't regenerate or recover. That's a fundamental limit of the human species.
They can only be buffered with mana and Mana Body.
"Ah. But my joints are fine."
"No, they're not."
Soliet rejected my claim that I was okay.
"No, really, I'm fine."
I quoted something Theia Esil had once said about my body.
[Your frame isn't overly bulky yet incredibly sturdy, with joints that are remarkably flexible and supple.
Your arms are the perfect length for handling any weapon, your ankles and knees robust enough for devastating charges.
Your wrists and shoulders have exceptional elasticity, bearing no strain even in sudden spins, and your thick, taut ligaments give your grip the strength of a crocodile's jaws.
So, no matter how or in what way you move, your body itself never takes the strain.]
Of course, I hadn't grown into that yet.
Back then, I was 196 cm and 110 kg, right?
A bit heavy, but not brutish. Actually, quite lean.
"There's something called 'Variant Swordplay.' Unlike other sword arts, it bends and twists existing forms into irregular variations."
Variant Swordplay. Soliet shook her head as she said it.
"Variant Swordplay strains the body. But the sword you just showed strains it even more than that. So it's best to avoid it. That's why we mix forms according to the system in the first place."
Well, maybe for others.
It might be a method only I can use.
"I'll stick to my own way."
"..."
Soliet pouted her lips. I twirled my wooden sword and asked.
"Wanna spar?"
"Better not push it today."
She tossed her wooden sword onto the grass.
"Why?"
She sat on a stone bench and replied.
"The College Board evaluation exam is usually individual matches, but right before it, they've done large-scale team events for the past ten years straight. Probably the same this year."
Seemed like there was a pattern in the question trends.
"Oh yeah? Guess I should rest then."
I set my wooden sword down too. Soliet shot me a sidelong glance and plucked at the grass.
"Sion Askal. Your abilities are, of course, special. There aren't many who can utilize forms to that extent, even sacrificing their own body. You just bent them without regard for the system."
No system.
A familiar phrase.
I'd heard something like that before.
—Absolute Sword has no system.
It was Soliet back then too.
"But that method is wrong. Keep going like that, and your body will break first."
I let out a hollow chuckle.
Who was telling whom about breaking?
"Don't you break."
"I'm sturdy."
"Mentally, I mean. Mentally."
I poked my temple with my finger.
Soliet mumbled her lips with a dissatisfied look but said nothing more, slinking into her sleeping bag.
"Head home already. How long you gonna stay here?"
"Get lost."
She was sulking.
...Late at night.
Elise sat in the visiting room, glaring at someone beyond the glass.
He smiled faintly back at her, but to Elise, it was utterly repulsive. She didn't even want to open her mouth, lest speaking to him taint her too.
"...Congratulations."
After mumbling at her lips for a while, she finally spat out the sarcasm. Elise glanced at the restraints binding his arms and legs.
"You somehow got back to your place."
—Thanks. This is way better than prison.
But he didn't even take her sarcasm as such. His intellect was already sub-beast level.
—Does it have to be just the little sister?
At his words, Elise gritted her teeth again.
Little sister.
The word "little sister" kept triggering her fuse.
Yael.
Why did this scum have to be her blood kin?
—I heard the play went well.
He said with a slight smile.
"You can hear outside news, huh."
—Internet works.
"You're thriving."
Elise was dumbfounded. A bit worried too.
Releasing a psycho killer and letting him on the internet? What was Father thinking?
"You can't... post comments or anything, right."
—I can.
"What?"
—But I just write bullshit. They censor it all. Hospital pretends not to, but when I try posting comments or articles? There's this tiny loading delay.
Yael smiled.
—They peek during that. Sneaky trick. Just locking someone away isn't efficient. Crack the space open a bit and monitor what they do—way more effective. Father's unnecessarily meticulous, isn't he?
Elise glared silently at Yael. He mouthed quietly.
[They're watching right now too]
She involuntarily scanned the surroundings. Secret visiting room in Petra Mental Ward. One surveillance camera.
—Oh right. That friend of yours was in the play too?
"..."
Elise's gaze slid back to Yael at an angle.
—I looked up the play footage. Bard. Pretty cool. Topic of the town these days. So? Changed your mind yet?
"Shut that mouth..."
She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes.
"...Haaaa."
She cooled her boiling gut with a sigh.
"Can you shut that mouth?"
—What's wrong with it? Thinking about your little brother's love life—
"Before I rip it off!"
Bam! Elise slammed the visiting room table and shouted.
She threw back words someone had once said to her.
"Shut the fuck up."
Perhaps an unexpected curse; Yael's eyes went wide.
—Uh...
He subtly backed away.
Elise crossed her arms. It eased her a bit.
"...You can never come out. From there. So if you want to keep your life. If you want to keep surfing the internet."
She pointed at Yael's mouth.
"Watch your mouth. Father’s the only reason you're alive."
Meaning, if she became family head, she'd euthanize him for sure.
—...Got it.
Yael nodded with a small smile. Elise stood up immediately.
—But really, what about that friend?
Another irritating attempt to hold her back.
Elise shot him a glare and twisted her lips.
"Why call him a friend? When did you even see him?"
Then Yael mouthed again.
[He's really my friend.]
As if to snap, You don't have friends—
Elise froze cold.
Yael's expression was more serious than ever.
—Take care.
By then, Yael had stood first. He left the visiting room, and Elise followed belatedly, pondering.
"..."
Could Yael have said something to Sion Askal from isolation?
Or just a feint?
But why use Sion Askal as a feint?
She nearly bit her nails but snapped to attention. She called someone right away.
"...Luren?"
The middle-aged knight among Petra retainers she trusted most as her own.
"There's this Arvilla Nursery in northern Armand."
The suspected money laundering front used by Sion Askal.
"I'll drop by there this weekend. Cancel my schedule for it."
Just in case, she planned to poke around there first.