54. Emperor (5)
54. Emperor (5)
Yuma stood next to Bel.
Balmung's voice echoed in his head.
-Your posture is perfect. There is not a single flaw to be found. Unlike the Master, you are someone with truly exceptional martial talent.
This bastard.
He's telling me something I knew perfectly well even without him pointing it out.
-Are you thinking of passing on the sword manual we created together yesterday? Lord Decan's sword was a straightforward, honest Supreme Sword with no irregularity, so at least it was lacking in numbers.
Passing on, my ass.
In the first place, he'd never even learned this sword art.
I'm just teaching it to you.
Balmung. This guy talks too much.
Peok-peok-
Yuma tapped Balmung's scabbard at his waist twice with his index and middle fingers.
It was a signal to shut up if he didn't want to get shoved back into the subspace pouch.
-Yes, I will speak only what is necessary for guiding Lady Bel's swordsmanship. Master. I will obey your orders. Please... allow me to continue seeing this beautiful outside world.
Since they had already arranged this signal beforehand, Balmung clamped his mouth shut after those final words.
Seureuk─
Yuma took out Decan's sword manual from the subspace pouch and held it out to Bel.
If you suddenly handed a sword manual to someone else, it would normally take them over four days just to decipher and understand its sentences.
But the Bel before his eyes was different.
Innate Trait: Genius, Body-Sword Unity, Heavenly Martial Body
He believed in the caliber of Bel's talent.
"Read it."
He also believed in the effort she had put in.
***
Bel took the sword manual containing Decan's swordsmanship that Yuma offered with her right hand.
"...Is this your sword art, my lord?"
Yuma nodded at Bel's words.
"It is one of the sword arts I know."
Yuma continued.
"Read it and try executing it once."
Yuma's blue eyes met Bel's pinkish eyes.
"You should be able to do it. Grasping the principles of a sword art in a short amount of time."
Bel's eyes shook intensely.
Just what.
'How long have you even watched me to be that confident...?'
Bel stared straight into Yuma's unwavering blue eyes.
Those dim blue eyes, whose depth she couldn't even dare to guess what they were looking at.
'Even if I am a being with talent worthy of being written in the Book of Revelation.'
I would only have a power that doesn't even reach your toes.
Even if I devoted my whole life to training in swordsmanship, there's no way I'd become as strong as you.
'Why can you be so sure?'
Bel sat down on the stepped seating in the training ground. Yuma sat beside her.
Salak...
Bel slowly turned the pages of the sword manual one by one.
The ink on the paper was completely dry, but the color was overly vivid. Unlike the clan sword manual she had seen at the White Night Castle.
Bel's fine lips slowly parted.
"...When did you write this sword manual? It seems recent."
"You're right. It was recent."
At Yuma's answer, Bel turned her head to the right.
"Why did you write it, suddenly? A sword manual."
Bel couldn't speak systematically. Her word order was bound to get all tangled up. Because her mind right now was just like a tangled thread.
Yuma answered in a low voice.
"There is no particular reason. I wrote it because it would be helpful to you."
Bel felt her hand naturally clenching with strength.
But she couldn't keep that strength applied. Because this sword manual was quite thin.
Her lord. It was a precious sword manual that Yuma had written for her.
-Not much time left, huh.
That one line.
That one line kept floating around in her head.
Probably.
He must have been preparing because he never knew when the flame of his life would go out.
After killing the God Inkrinu, his condition must have worsened, and now he was in a situation where he couldn't delay it any longer, so he was trying to pass it on quickly.
Bel untangled the thread that was badly twisted in her mind.
She had to get a grip. Because Yuma was now trying to pass on his swordsmanship to her.
'I have to listen well to what Yuma says.'
That Yuma was still standing on the battlefield.
Upon the battlefield called life.
In front of someone who thought of the next generation with such composure while fighting against an illness, what weak thoughts was she having?
Bel decided to be a good child.
Only in front of Yuma. A good child who listened extremely well.
Seureuk-
Bel began to read the sword manual.
Quickly and meticulously.
She finished reading the swordsmanship <Cherten Style> of Balmung's 2nd sword master, Decan Pel Cherten.
The swordsmanship wasn't irregular, so it was easy to understand.
A heavy Supreme Sword.
A Killing Sword optimized solely for killing the enemy in a single strike.
The detailed inclusion of the exceptional art of the Breaking Sword, which crushes the opponent's Sword Aura, was very impressive.
"It's a swordsmanship specialized not only for one-on-one, but also for one-versus-many. It's definitely a completely different grain from the White Night Style built up to slaughter giants... It will definitely help against the Demon Realm Army."
Bel's eyes shone.
It was a clear advantage of the swordsmanship, recognizable precisely because she was a being with talent.
Bel got up from the steps and grabbed the sword again.
And she began to execute the <Cherten Style> that she had just absorbed from the printed words into her mind.
First, without raising her Sword Aura.
She moved her body in the postures described in the Cherten Style that Yuma gave her.
The movement of the feet, the footwork.
The posture of the arms and legs while holding the sword, the sword momentum.
Kwak!
Bel's body moved.
Cherten Style─Iron.
The sword's trajectory fell honestly to the floor.
What was important in the 1st form of the Cherten Style, Iron, was not the sword path itself, but the legs and feet.
Step the right foot forward straight.
Pull the left foot straight back.
Right now, she was only rehearsing the forms of the sword art, so Bel wasn't operating her qi, but originally, the 1st form of the Cherten Style, <Iron>, was a sword technique used by enveloping the entire body with qi.
The sword manual described it that way.
The reason the Cherten Style was honest was because it could smash everything to pieces with a sword containing no tricks whatsoever.
Watching Bel's movements, Yuma slowly opened his mouth.
"With that swordsmanship, there was once a man who was called the God of War."
God of War. Decan was called that in ancient times.
Yuma continued.
"So, you can do it too. No, you'll probably do it even better."
Yuma approached Bel and slowly placed his hand on her shoulder.
"When you swing the sword down, do it with the feeling of narrowing your shoulders a bit more."
Bel's shoulder trembled at Yuma's touch.
It was because of Yuma's warmth felt through his fingertips.
Sswae-aek!
Bel, whose posture was corrected by Yuma, demonstrated the movement of <Iron> once more.
"...Like this?"
Bel turned her head to look at Yuma.
Yuma nodded.
"Yes, good job. Perfect."
At Yuma's praise, Bel raised the corners of her lips.
And once more, she executed Iron.
'Good.'
All of Yuma's advice was right.
Without a single millimeter of error.
Three years ago.
At 17 years old.
Since receiving the clan's secret arts from her father, Luke, the patriarch of the White Night Clan, Bel had never learned anything from anyone else. For her, that was her first and last swordsmanship lesson.
Because she never needed to. On the contrary, she'd always ended up finding flaws in the sword paths of the clan's senior swordsmen who were supposed to teach her.
Bel only now seemed to understand the joy of learning that Haven talked about.
'It's fun. So much fun.'
Yuma's touch reached her body. Warmth rooted itself from the source of that touch. And the teachings spread throughout her entire body.
All those teachings were correct.
"Good job."
After the sense of accomplishment of having executed a perfect sword path, the murmured praise was incredibly sweet.
It was a sweetness that bloomed from the tips of her toes.
Yuma's right hand covered Bel's right hand. Yuma caressed Bel's right wrist.
"In the 2nd form, Breaking Sword, the movement of the wrist is what's important."
"...Okay."
Was it that she only just now really understood the joy of learning─
"Because you have to crush the opponent's Sword Aura. And you must not stop there, you have to take the opponent's neck. That's how it leads directly into the 3rd form, Lightning Flash."
Bel knew that thought was wrong.
She already knew that she was happy right now because the person teaching her was Yuma.
Bel's whole body was drenched in sweat. Sweat droplets trickled down her collarbone.
"Ha, I'm all sweaty─."
Bel said that about her own state, and lay down on the floor.
"You worked hard."
Yuma wiped the beads of sweat forming on Bel's face with a towel.
"I'm going to teach you a few more sword arts from now on."
Bel slowly opened her mouth.
"A few... more?"
Yuma's words sounded incredibly sweet.
"Why, is it tough?"
"No, because I like it."
Bel smiled bashfully.
"I really, really like it. Learning."
Yuma's words sounded incredibly sweet and, at the same time, incredibly bitter.
Bel swallowed the sobbing that was rising behind her laughter.
"Let's go now, Bel."
Yuma patted Bel's shoulder lightly.
"You skipped breakfast and worked up this much energy, so you have to make sure you eat lunch."
"Okay...!"
Bel nodded her head firmly.
"But I'll just go over it alone for a bit and then come. I want to calmly organize things in my mind on my own. The mental image."
Yuma respected Bel's words.
"Alright, make sure you come as soon as possible."
"Okay, my lord."
Yuma grabbed his coat and headed outside the training ground.
Yuma's dignified back as he walked away was reflected in Bel's pink eyes.
"Haah."
Bel, left alone in the training ground, let out a deep sigh.
And she bit her lip hard.
Tears began to well up in her eyes.
If she hadn't stayed behind alone, she would have burst into tears right next to Yuma.
"Who's worrying about whose health here...."
Bel wiped her tears with a handkerchief.
***
Yuma went up to the 1st Princess Palace.
The central hall on the first floor. He saw Brigitte sitting on the highest seat at the very end.
Seeing Yuma, Brigitte raised her right hand sharply.
"You've come, Yuma. Bel is still nowhere to be seen. It's about time for the midday meal."
"She will be up shortly."
"Is that so?"
They were heading toward the dining hall when the first floor suddenly became noisy. Yuma watched as an attendant who had rushed over to the Head Attendant Roian said something.
And then immediately, Roian hurriedly approached Brigitte.
"Your Highness."
"What is it?"
Roian caught his breath, then opened his mouth again.
"Just now, word came that His Majesty, the Retired Emperor Agares, has regained consciousness."