Arrest (1)
Arrest (1)
A few days had passed since the banquet.
The marquisate's empty training ground.
Knight Commander Sergio and I were in the middle of our second sparring match.
Clang!
Sparks flew as our swords clashed.
It was not a clash of blades imbued with special abilities, but a simple collision of raw steel.
A duel of pure swordsmanship: he did not use his divine sword's ability to pierce mana, and I did not use 'Mana Materialization' either.
Knight Commander Sergio, who was sparring with me, wore a troubled expression, as if something weighed heavily on his mind.
Even so, I was extremely satisfied with this sparring session.
Although it wasn't as fierce as our first fight, it was a valuable opportunity to get a proper glimpse of genuine swordsmanship.
After our first duel, I had spent my time following the Grand Archduchess and my teammates as they inspected the artifacts.
There were no relics used by the heroes, and the Great War had made the artifacts' origins impossible to identify. Still, I had nothing else to do but tag along with my team.
Besides, now that the rumors had spread so widely, it was difficult to move around on my own under everyone's watchful eyes.
The knights' gazes made it hard to train by myself, and even taking a walk alone was uncomfortable under the eyes of the servants and retainers.
On top of that, even the Marquis's daughters were hovering at the edge of my field of vision.
In the end, I had no choice but to tag along on the tedious artifact tour.
As time passed and our departure date drew near—tomorrow, in fact—a message came from the knight commander.
He said he could spare a day and suggested we spar.
Though surprised by the sudden offer, I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this.
I accepted immediately, and now we were exchanging blows in earnest.
Clang! Clang!
The marquisate's swordsmanship unfolded before me, technique after technique.
As I faced his blade, I once again etched his swordsmanship into my mind.
Since swordsmanship could be observed with the eyes and experienced with the hands, it wasn't difficult to analyze and memorize.
But I had no choice but to infer the mana cultivation technique through my senses.
Yet perhaps because they shared the same root, it wasn't difficult to get a feel for it.
Multiple mana cultivation techniques branching from a single origin.
The Gracia Dukedom's mana cultivation technique, which I had learned since childhood until it eventually became an innate ability; the Honorary Duke of Ceuta's mana cultivation technique, which I was currently mastering.
And finally, the Pisen Marquisate's mana cultivation technique, which I was secretly studying right now.
They were clearly different, yet shared unmistakable similarities.
This was precisely why I had been able to mimic the hero's mana transformation using a different mana cultivation technique.
As I sparred with Knight Commander Sergio, a persistent tickling sensation lingered in my chest.
A sensation that something might be overriding or unifying all these mana cultivation techniques. A tickling feeling that told me if I pushed just a little further, I might uncover it.
But there was no telling how far that "little further" really was.
All I could do was move forward one step at a time.
As I swung my sword and calmed my pounding heart, the knight commander's voice reached me.
"The 'Pisen Mana Cultivation Technique,' the Pisen Marquisate's primary inherited ability, is a mana cultivation technique that uses mana to increase the sword's destructive power."
It seemed he had finished agonizing over whatever had been on his mind.
The knight commander relaxed his expression and spoke.
Like an instructor during a training session, he explained his family's mana cultivation technique as we dueled.
I had already gotten a rough grasp of it just by watching, but I was deeply grateful that he was taking the time to explain it as well.
I wasn't particularly fond of the mana cultivation technique's name, though. Even the mana cultivation technique was named after the house.
It was no different from calling it Wudang Swordsmanship or Namgung Swordsmanship in the martial arts novels from my past life.
Mmm. Thinking of it that way, I suppose it wasn't particularly strange, but...
Though I had no idea why he was suddenly being so kind, I happily continued the duel.
As we continued swinging our swords for a long while, a commotion echoed from a distance.
The sound came from beyond the training ground, in the direction of the marquisate manor.
I lowered my sword and listened closely to the noise drawing nearer.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with. Let us continue sparring."
The knight commander urged us to resume sparring, but fortunately, my hearing was far better than an ordinary person's.
"...The Royal Knights suddenly... taking away an academy student makes no..."
"The Crown Prince's orders..."
"He is an exchange student from the Empire..."
The broken snippets drifting through the trees were certainly not something I could ignore.
"No. This seems to concern my team members."
I sheathed my sword and tried to leave the training ground.
Click.
But the knight commander stepped forward and blocked my way.
"If you go over there, you'll only make matters more complicated. This is an operation being carried out by the Royal Knights under the Crown Prince's orders. They are merely carrying out their official duties, so wait here until it's settled before you leave."
Was this why he had suddenly suggested a sparring match?
Besides, I had no idea why the Crown Prince and the Royal Knights had suddenly come into the picture.
I could tell it had something to do with Joachim, but from the faint, fragmented sounds, I couldn't tell exactly what was happening.
Even so, the fact that he was blocking me made it clear that whatever the reason, it couldn't be legitimate.
"If this were ordinary official business, there'd be no reason to stop me."
At my words, the knight commander's face darkened once more.
"That is... the Marquis's direct order to keep you restrained so you won't get caught up in this. I cannot disobey that order."
Judging by the knight commander's expression, it didn't seem that he was doing this to harm me.
But it was clearly weighing on his conscience.
If so, there was only one thing I could do.
"I must go."
"Then I must stop you. Just so you know, I wasn't using my divine sword's full capabilities back then. You won't be able to block it with whatever artifact you possess."
But I hadn't gone all out against him back then, either.
Instead of the longsword at my waist, I reached inside my chest coat and pulled out the greatsword.
"So you possess more than one or two artifacts."
Now was not the time to answer him.
I gripped the greatsword and charged at him.
Boom!
The fight was decided in just a few exchanges.
Had we fought properly, he was an opponent I would have had to duel for a long time.
But I didn't have time for a prolonged fight.
I brought every artifact I had to bear to bring him down as quickly as possible.
I used the necklace to amplify my mana, transformed the greatsword into a shield, and extended the dagger to strike the knight commander.
I also revealed all the skills I had been hiding: the mana transformation I had gained while fighting the hero, the Mana Materialization I had learned from the dagger, and the swordsmanship I was learning from the Duke of Ceuta.
Flustered by my sudden change in power and technique, the knight commander stumbled and dropped his divine sword.
Had he risked his life to stop me, he could have dragged the battle out much longer, but he didn't want to go that far, either.
He stared in utter bewilderment at the Divine Sword rolling across the ground.
There was no time to comfort the knight commander, nor to thank him for genuinely holding back.
I rushed past the stunned knight commander and sprinted toward the Marquis's manor.
As I passed through the trees that had muffled the sounds and approached the manor, the voices finally became clear.
"Will you not stand down this instant!"
The Princess's angry voice rang out, and,
"We will proceed with forced execution. Stand back!"
A voice I had heard somewhere before rejected the Princess's demand.
"We will go with him. We demand a fair trial."
Next came the Grand Archduchess's protesting voice.
It seemed both the Princess and the Grand Archduchess were furious.
Just what on earth was going on here?
As I sprinted down the path leading to the manor, servants and soldiers stared at me in shock.
Fortunately, no one stood in my way.
Presumably, they had assumed the knight commander alone would be more than enough to hold me back.
With every passing moment, my questions only multiplied.
Even with the Royal Knights involved, it made no sense that Marquis Pisen had tried to keep me confined.
That meant he had been informed in advance.
The Marquis knew the Royal Knights were coming, yet had deliberately kept us in the dark.
Something had gone horribly wrong, but I knew far too little.
Rounding the side of the manor and stepping onto the front grounds, I saw the Royal Knights clad in full plate armor.
There weren't just one or two.
More than twenty of them—at least two full squads of ten knights—were present.
The Royal Knights and my team members were locked in a standoff in the courtyard before the manor.
The knights stood lined up in front, seemingly trying to intimidate my teammates.
Still, since the knights weren't mounted on horseback, it seemed they were showing basic courtesy.
But judging by the murderous tension in the air, that courtesy was likely extended to the marquisate, not our group.
I hurried toward the people facing off against one another.
I could see my teammates' expressions.
Joachim looked flustered and troubled; the Princess and the Grand Archduchess looked furious; Balea was subtly stepping back; and Mirisa wore a terrified expression.
Visible relief washed over their faces when they saw me approaching from afar.
In contrast, my expression darkened.
Because I recognized every single one of those Royal Knights.
If they had been the knights who accompanied us to the Duchy, I would have been glad. But the knights standing before my teammates were ones I had seen somewhere else.
I had seen those knights in a time loop no one else remembered—a timeline that had vanished when I died.
The Royal Knights standing before my teammates were all knights I had encountered in the sealed grounds dungeon when I entered it alongside the Princess.
Though they had fought fiercely against monsters in that underground dungeon, there was something else I remembered first.
It was the memory of wandering through the underground labyrinth.
The reason the Princess and I had gotten lost in that subterranean maze was that our party had betrayed us.
True, the ones who had staged the betrayal were the noble officers, not the knights standing before me. But the fact that they had acted alongside those noble officers was reason enough to be suspicious.
I had no intel and no idea why things had turned out this way, but if I had suspicions, I had to act.
I shouted as I charged forward.
"Keep them back! Don't let them get close!"
But my voice didn't reach my group.
The distance was too great, and just as I bellowed, the knight at the head of their ranks shouted at the same time.
"We cannot delay any longer. Proceed with forced execution!"
Some of the knights rushed toward my teammates.
Some charged ahead to arrest Joachim, while others moved to prevent the rest of the team from intervening.
The Princess and the Grand Archduchess looked furious, but they didn't seem inclined to offer physical resistance.
But I gathered my mana to its peak and surged forward.
Among the charging knights, some were gathering their mana to full power.
They were the ones moving to intercept the Princess and the Grand Archduchess.
As I ran, I plunged my hand inside my chest coat.
At the same time, I envisioned the crossbow resting inside my pocket space.
My hand closed around the crossbow.
I pulled it out at once and took aim.
I saw the knights in front of the Princess and the Grand Archduchess raising their swords.
The front courtyard had erupted into utter chaos, so no one noticed that the two knights were preparing to swing their blades.
Even the Princess and the Grand Archduchess, entirely focused on Joachim, failed to realize the knights were swinging their swords toward them.
Targets: two.
There was no time to deal with both.
I gritted my teeth.
There was no time to hesitate.
I made my decision and fired the crossbow.
Whoosh!
A black bolt flew from the crossbow and shot forward.
An arrow swift as light.
The black bolt did not fail me this time, either.
Thud!
The arrow struck its target, and a sword swung down.
Blood spurted into the air.