True Education (1)
For a restaurant, Darkhan's Afternoon ran on a peculiar system.
You paid first, and they prepared food according to the sum. Naturally, the floors differed by the amount spent as well.
"We shall treat you to the very finest!"
The moment I handed over a million gold, every waiter on the first floor bowed their heads. We were then escorted to a window seat on the fourth floor.
The largest table in the place. A setting for twelve, occupied by only three of us.
"Thank you sincerely for choosing Darkhan's Afternoon. Is there any type of food you cannot eat?"
Hudson shook his head at the neatly suited waiter's question.
"None."
"Then please begin with our special juice made from Leviathan's Snot. It is the pride of our establishment, a beverage reserved exclusively for our most distinguished guests."
"……?"
Leviathan's what?
A Leviathan was a dragon-type monster. Which meant this was juice made from a dragon's snot.
A moment later, the waiter poured a white liquid into a tall glass and set it before us.
……What was this viscous sludge.
A visual so foul that even someone who could eat anything would refuse it. Had they seriously brought this out for us to drink?
While I was still wrestling with the decision, a commotion broke out at the neighboring table.
"Hold on. You never gave us that seat. Are you joking?"
"Young Lady Dercian. That table is reserved for guests who have spent five hundred thousand gold or more——"
"Shut up. A commoner, talking back to me?"
"I-I'm so sorry."
"Move us to the same seats. Now."
"Th-that would go against the restaurant's principles——"
Crack!
The waiter's head snapped halfway around. Clutching his cheek, he stared blankly as the girl unleashed a torrent of abuse.
"You piece of trash. Are you that desperate to die? Do I look like I'm doing this because I don't have money?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Enough. Give us that table."
"That would be difficult——"
"Alt. One more word out of him and cut him down."
"Yes."
Shing.
The swordsman standing beside her leveled his blade. The waiter's face went paper-white.
It was pure farce, yet my eyes were drawn to it all the same.
Dercian?
Isabella's family name. Dercian.
……That spoiled little girl was a young lady of the Dercian house? The same house that co-hosted the Special Auction alongside Darkhan? That would explain why no one around them dared make a sound.
More than that——
A bronze fox mask.
The swordsman standing beside the Dercian young lady wore a bronze-colored fox mask. The same design as the silver fox mask worn by the two-star Transcendent I had encountered in the Abyss Labyrinth.
But what set the bronze fox mask apart from the silver one was the level floating above the swordsman's head.
Not a number. Not a star. A spade.
That bizarre notation had seized my attention from the moment they entered the restaurant.
He's a Transcendent, no question.
He had transcended, that much was certain—but it didn't seem like he had done so by consuming a Star. And yet the only method of human transcendence I knew was devouring a Star.
Unless he had raised his level through some other means entirely, something that left humanity behind. Like a Saintess treated as more than human, or Maxim, who had reached Level 10.5 through a Demon Heart.
Had the Empire discovered a path to transcendence other than consuming Stars?
"……."
Hudson's brow furrowed. Valte's expression was no better. That kind of behavior at a place where people were eating was simply intolerable. Hudson, after all, was British nobility. Looking the other way at such ill-bred conduct would not come easily to him.
He was holding back only because of me—afraid of causing me trouble.
At first I thought it was an act.
The farce was so absurd that I initially assumed it was a performance staged to size us up. But our visit to this restaurant, and our ascent to the fourth floor, had both been entirely spontaneous. Stationing a Dercian young lady here in advance made no sense.
In other words, that Dercian girl was genuinely unhinged.
Do as you like.
I nodded toward Hudson, who was looking at me. Go ahead. Whether he endured it or not was his choice. The one who had received the invitation was him, not me.
"I'll give you three seconds. Answer properly."
"……!"
In that instant, the Dercian young lady began her countdown.
"Three."
As she counted, the waiter's face went past white into blue. He truly believed she would kill him.
"Two."
"W-wait——!"
"One. Alt, cut him down."
Just as the bronze-masked swordsman called Alt was about to swing——
"Would you kindly shut up, you spoiled little brat."
Hudson's voice rang out.
At the same time, the Dercian young lady's expression froze solid.
"……Was that directed at me?"
"Did your parents never teach you to keep quiet while people are eating? Ah—I suppose you don't have any."
"Wh-what?"
"Manners maketh man. Do try to become a person."
"Alt……! Kill that bastard!"
The Dercian young lady shrieked.
Wait—was Hudson copying my way of speaking?
Whoosh!
Clang!
He casually knocked aside the blade flying toward him.
Not bad.
My hand stung. So that spade really was the mark of a Transcendent.
I had never faced a Transcendent head-on in a proper fight before. And if that bronze fox mask was a genuine Transcendent, he was on an entirely different level from Maxim at 10.5. Not someone you could face without preparation.
Before climbing the Mountain of the Cultivator, I would have leaned on every alternative I had—the Throne of Light and the rest. But——
I can handle this.
As I was now, I could face even a Transcendent on pure terms. Not by staking value in a wager the way I had against Greed, not by shattering a mystery the way I had against the Desert Queen—but with nothing but my own martial power.
I was confident I had grown and achieved enough for that. And I was curious myself how far the effort I had piled up could reach.
This worked out perfectly. The Dercian family and a Spade-marked Transcendent. A golden opportunity to settle every question at once.
"……You must have a death wish."
I rose slowly from my seat, Skull Crusher in hand.
"……You must have a death wish."
I rose slowly from my seat with Skull Crusher in hand.
In the next breath, the bronze fox-masked swordsman was already thrusting his blade at my face.
Shhhk!
A sword aimed precisely at my throat.
KRAAAANG—!!
I kicked out in that instant, and the bronze fox-masked swordsman smashed straight through the wall and flew. A paper-thin margin. Had I not anticipated it, my head would have left my shoulders then and there.
Anyone experiencing a Transcendent's speed for the first time would have died without ever knowing how.
But I had expected it. No one alive had more experience fighting Transcendents than I did. From the moment they entered the restaurant, I had been watching the bronze fox mask's every movement.
"……!"
I left the surrounding stares of shock behind me. I kicked off the floor, vaulted through the shattered wall, and as I soared through the air I gripped Skull Crusher in both hands. Threads of sword energy wound around the blade.
Sword Gang has manifested. Damage amplified by 50%.
Skull Crusher — Sword Gang damage increased by 30%.
A combined eighty percent damage increase!
Skull Crusher boosted Sword Qi damage according to Sword Mastery level, and the result was nearly double the destructive force in my hands.
Every muscle in my body swelled as I drove the bronze fox-masked swordsman into the ground with everything I had.
KRAAAANG—!
The floor caved in. Dust billowed thick into the air. The sensation at my fingertips told the story—through the haze, I could see the bronze fox-masked swordsman reduced to pulp.
The mask shattered, revealing a man's face wrinkled like a monster's.
Whoosh!
A presence at my back. I snatched the incoming blade barehanded. Flesh tore free in an instant; I paid it no mind. I yanked the sword toward me, and my off-balance opponent staggered. In that opening I closed the distance and drove my forehead into his face.
Crack!
The bronze fox mask split, and the face beneath was revealed. The exact same face as the one I had just pulverized with my sword.
There was another identical one.
Not just one, then.
Figures in bronze fox masks began to swarm from every direction. Eleven of them.
And every last one of them was a Spade-marked Transcendent.
But the two faces I had just confirmed left no room for doubt.
Clones. A power gained through transcendence.
The special authority unique to Transcendents. The bronze fox mask's power appeared to be this cloning technique.
But if it was a true authority, then these were clones that were not clones. Every single one of them was a true body. All twelve true bodies had to be destroyed before he could finally be killed.
One down. Eleven remaining.
An endlessly irritating power. Then again, if a Transcendent had gone down in a single blow, that would have been dull in its own way.
Moreover, he showed no reaction even after witnessing Sword Gang. When one of his clones died, not a flicker of emotion crossed his face. Like a doll.
I'll smash every last one of them.
Even after every clone was destroyed—would he still keep that composure?
I genuinely wanted to know.
"Alt! Kill him! Kill him already! What are you doing?!"
The Dercian young lady shrieked down from inside the building. The bodyguard she called Alt was a warrior who had never known defeat—a monster with twelve lives, a berserker who did not fear death. No one had ever claimed all twelve of those lives.
But his opponent was a monster as well. Just like Alt, he disregarded every blow he took and charged in like a mad bull.
"……What am I looking at right now?"
"That's not Sword Qi…… isn't that Sword Gang?"
"Sword Gang? Someone who can wield Sword Gang?"
Everyone gathered in this restaurant was at minimum the ruler of a city. The knights who followed them likewise stood with their mouths hanging open at the spectacle.
Sword Gang!
Sword Qi merely layered energy over a blade to raise its destructive force. But Sword Gang was the supreme realm in which that energy was given form and structure. Even a simple comparison put its destructive power on an entirely different plane from Sword Qi.
Then other voices reached the Dercian young lady's ears.
"What is that enormous sword?"
"Skull Crusher. A weapon exclusive to the Giant race. Equipment only the supreme warriors of the Giants are said to be able to wield."
"Then is that man a Giant?"
"Most likely……"
"He's rather small for a Giant, isn't he?"
"Occasionally, some among the Giants possess the ability to shrink their bodies. A supreme warrior would certainly have that power."
A supreme warrior of the Giant race? What kind of nonsense was that?
Why would a Giant be here?
The Giants were a mythic race. Monsters that overwhelmed humanity, of which only a vanishing few remained in this world. They were also the strongest race on the surface, self-appointed guardians of the Goddess. Their might was said to rival the Dragonkin—and by some accounts, to surpass ordinary dragons entirely.
A supreme warrior among such Giants would need no further comment on his power.
It might have been a misjudgment, but the knights were certain. That Sword Gang was the proof—the mark every knight who had reached the heights aspired to.
"A supreme Giant warrior who wields Sword Gang……"
"And he's using a being like that as a mere bodyguard?"
"Wasn't that Hydragon carriage outside his as well?"
"……Just who is he?"
Every gaze turned toward Hudson. Who on earth could employ a supreme warrior of the Giant race as a simple escort?
His demeanor made it even more outrageous. He sat at ease, sipping the special beverage, paying the chaos not the slightest attention.
Does he simply assume victory is guaranteed?
Remarkable composure.
Against the Dercian family's berserker, no less……
Of course, contrary to all their assumptions, Hudson was sitting on pins and needles. He barely held down the urge to retch, cold sweat beading on his brow.
Who in their right mind would pay money to drink this?
The viscous Leviathan's Snot. It tasted exactly as it looked. Hudson had sampled countless British delicacies in his time, but this flavor was truly, unspeakably foul.
But he could not afford to lose his composure. The dignity he projected to those around him was, in turn, the dignity of his lord—Randolph.