The Knight's Training Sword (2)
The Knight's Training Sword (2)
The experience of dying with my nerves shattered was far more painful than I had anticipated.
It was a relief that the pain didn't last long; otherwise, I might have regretted ever picking up the sword.
Actually, even now, as I rode in the carriage back to the Kingdom, I still regretted it a little.
To think that Founding King Carlos himself would appear there.
'What on earth was the reason? They definitely said Founding King Carlos had set up the training ground's parameters. If so, his own appearance must have been something he configured himself.'
I could barely wrap my head around the fact that maxing out the synchronization meant dying inside would kill me in the real world, but I chalked it up to his desire for a realistic duel.
But to have Carlos Hero as my opponent? How the hell was I supposed to beat that?
Could the Commander of the Royal Knights have won?
Or perhaps one of the Empire's renowned knights. Even the Duke of Gracia—my father—seemed like he could win.
Now that I thought about it, everyone who stood a chance was among the strongest powerhouses on the continent.
'I suppose a Hero should be at least that strong, but...'
The problem was that this very Hero was the opponent I had to fight.
It wasn't a long fight, but having faced him, I could clearly see what I lacked.
I lacked everything.
First of all, there was at least a twenty-centimeter difference in height, and his arms and legs were longer by just as much.
Since we were in different weight classes, our strength and reach were on entirely different levels.
Besides, he was the Hero who served as the source of the abilities I possessed.
He possessed every single ability I had.
'Physical Optimization', 'Mana Circuit Construction Method', 'Mana Resonance', and even other abilities I didn't know about.
The Hero didn't just have a single ability, such as the Mana Circuit Construction Method or what was known as a Mana Cultivation Technique.
He freely utilized the royal family's Mana Cultivation Technique, as well as the one belonging to the Gracia Duke's estate.
I had no idea how many he actually had.
Since I died before I could experience them all, there was no way for me to know.
Even such an incredible Hero didn't possess the ability I had obtained from Katrin, nor did he have the power to regress to the past upon death.
Fortunately, his application of these abilities wasn't necessarily superior to mine. Looking at them individually, there were aspects that I utilized better.
But because I was completely outclassed in basic swordsmanship, those advantages didn't help much.
'I haven't been learning proper swordsmanship all this time.'
It wasn't for nothing that Joachim picked fights over my swordsmanship and that of the other kingdom knights.
The Kingdom swordsmanship we knew and were learning wasn't the real deal.
Although there was a separate royal swordsmanship and each noble family had its own style, I had still believed it was a proper swordsmanship passed down from the Founding King, Knight Carlos.
But after fighting Carlos in person, I realized that wasn't the case.
Though parts of his swordsmanship seemed unrefined because he was still young, it was completely different from any swordsmanship I had ever learned or seen.
His swordsmanship was perfectly integrated with his abilities.
Physical Optimization forged his body to execute the swordsmanship, and his Mana Cultivation Technique was optimized specifically to unleash those sword techniques.
On top of that, Mana Resonance let him read his opponent and guide the path of his blade.
Every one of his abilities supported his swordsmanship, while his swordsmanship let him push all of them to their absolute limits.
Such an opponent was incredibly difficult to defeat.
Even though we were the same age, fighting him made me feel like nothing more than a downgraded, budget version of Carlos Hero.
I fought back desperately, but in the end, I had no choice but to lose.
Unfortunately, I couldn't actually learn swordsmanship from the Hero.
The Carlos Hero I faced wasn't a real person.
He was a kind of artificial intelligence, manifested through the power of the artifact, that replicated only his abilities and skills.
No matter how I looked at it, there was zero chance of me defeating him through sheer skill.
If this life proceeded exactly like the last, there was about a month and a half left before the Grand Archduchess would head to the Royal Warehouse.
It was utterly absurd to think my swordsmanship could reach his level in that short span of time.
Since I didn't even know how to activate my abilities yet, matching his power was out of the question.
No matter how I looked at it, there seemed to be no way forward, but...
'The problem is, I don't have the slightest desire to give up either.'
It wasn't like I had just croaked and died; I had died fighting a man who was a Hero.
Besides, when I had the chance to fight him again, it was far too difficult to just turn a blind eye.
'Just once, let's fight just one more time.'
In the end, like a gambling addict, I kept repeating 'just once more' to myself.
Though I worried about the pain and the repeating loops of time, the mere thought of being able to clash with the Hero kept me moving.
But I had no intention of just fighting and losing again.
Besides, it seemed highly likely that there would be some kind of reward if I won.
If so, I had to win. And if winning through normal means was too difficult, I had to resort to other methods.
Ultimately, I decided to use cheap tricks and loopholes.
Fortunately, that training ground perfectly reflected the performance of the artifacts I was carrying when I took hold of the sword.
The unbreakable greatsword remained unbreakable inside, and the dagger that projected sword aura unleashed a fierce aura even in that space.
Although the dagger's ego wasn't replicated, the fact that I could still use the artifact's abilities made a loophole seem entirely feasible.
Since they didn't search me inside the Royal Warehouse anyway, I planned to bring everything with me.
But even this wasn't enough. I came up with a few more methods.
Before that, I decided to spend this life as much like the previous one as possible, except when putting a few of my plans into action.
If things went awry and I lost the chance to fight him again, all my hard work would go to waste.
After returning to the Kingdom, I resumed training, and when the Grand Archduchess summoned me, I repaired her dagger just as I had before.
Since I already knew it would be difficult to fix, I didn't take out the orb.
After repairing the dagger, time passed, and I eventually went to the academy, where I once again saw the Grand Archduchess and the two students from the Empire.
Unlike before, the boastful Joachim actually seemed somewhat cute to me now.
I became famous again because I was well-acquainted with the Grand Archduchess, and my reputation grew even further as rumors about what had happened in the Duchy spread.
Once again, the students who had marked me singled me out, and I ended up escorting them around the garden.
And once again, I completely trashed the garden.
While I was at it, I broke Joachim's sword too.
On the weekend, I stopped by Katrin's house and listened to the Ego Dagger's chatter.
As I spent my days in exactly the same manner, I received another summons from the Grand Archduchess.
It was for the exact same reason as in my previous life.
The Second Prince had offered to let her tour the Royal Warehouse, and in return, she wanted me to escort her inside the royal palace.
Perhaps because I had behaved as similarly as possible, nothing changed this time either.
Once again, I strongly urged the Grand Archduchess to go.
But I didn't stop at simply urging her this time. Afterward, I demanded an escort fee from the Grand Archduchess.
"Is there a fee for supporting the Inherited Ability Faculty?"
At my words, the Grand Archduchess's eyes widened.
"Because this isn't ordinary support. Besides, it will help you too, Your Grace."
Since the trip to the Royal Warehouse hadn't fallen through, I now had to come up with a few ways to secure a victory.
And one of those methods had to be obtained from the Grand Archduchess.
To achieve that, I was more than willing to put on a shameless front.
"As my escort fee, would you repair this crossbow for me?"
I pulled a crossbow—no, a hand-ballista—out of my pocket.
It was obviously broken at a glance.
This hand-ballista was paired with the black arrow in my pocket.
The black arrow in my pocket was the very one the assassin had shot at me on my way back from the auction house, and the broken hand-ballista was the weapon that had fired it.
I intended to bring back to life the arrow that would surely have killed me if not for my barrier.
"Since you won't be able to do any repairs even if you go to the Royal Warehouse, I will assist you with your training. I also know someone at the artifact auction house, so I can help you find damaged artifacts."
Before I died, I had seen the Grand Archduchess reaching for the broken artifacts in the Royal Warehouse.
I thought it would be better to have her repair an artifact beforehand rather than waiting until we were in the Royal Warehouse. And if it benefited me in the process, all the better.
The Grand Archduchess looked at me with a peculiar gaze.
"That's not a bad deal for me, either. It doesn't seem like it'll be as difficult as the dagger. I'll fix it quickly, so take it with you when you leave."
As expected, repairing the hand-ballista wasn't difficult. Though she looked a bit tired, the Grand Archduchess seemed fine.
Thus, I secured one weapon to face the Hero, and next I began preparing my final weapon.
"I want to clash with you once more."
Just as in my previous life, Joachim, who had lost our duel, requested a rematch.
Back then, I had constantly avoided him, but this time, I didn't.
"Fine. Let's do it right now."
At my response, Joachim wore a bewildered expression. He clearly hadn't expected me to agree so easily.
From that day on, I continued to duel Joachim.
Even if I started learning the Kingdom's swordsmanship from the Commander of the Royal Knights now, I wouldn't be able to surpass the swordsmanship of the Hero residing within the sword.
No, even if I learned swordsmanship from anyone else in the Kingdom, those fragmented techniques could never catch up to the Hero's.
In that case, I had no choice but to use a different approach.
I had to find the weaknesses of the Kingdom's sword by wielding a blade that didn't belong to the Kingdom. If that failed, I at least had to figure out a way to counter it.
To achieve this, I kept dueling Joachim.
Although the man named Vid had superior skills, I had already killed him, so Joachim was the only one left.
Still, since Joachim and Vid's swordsmanship styles were similar, he wasn't a bad choice for building up my skills.
I continued my duels with Joachim while mimicking the Hero's sword that I had seen in my mental world as closely as possible.
Because it was an unfamiliar style, our matches didn't end as quickly as before, and Joachim, growing excited, kept lunging at me.
Thanks to that, I managed to grasp the Hero's sword and the Empire's sword to some extent. Of course, I had only scratched the surface.
As I made my final preparations, the long-awaited day drew near.
Once again, I headed to the royal palace alongside the Grand Archduchess.
In front of the palace, I heard the Second Prince prattling on, and at the underground palace checkpoint, I once again encountered the noble who had sneered at me for being an illegitimate son.
I kept a low profile all day.
I had to, because if I made even the slightest misstep, I might be kicked out without getting a chance to touch the sword.
Fortunately, no one else picked a fight, and the Grand Archduchess and I safely entered the Royal Warehouse.
Once again, they didn't conduct a physical search, and unlike last time, the artifacts I had stuffed into my pockets were now tucked against my chest, ready to be pulled out.
The Grand Archduchess and the warehouse keeper were just as engrossed in discussing the artifacts as before, and I quietly approached the sealed sword.
Unlike last time, I carefully stepped over the iron chains and placed my hand on the sword once more.