Divine Sword Tracking (2)
Divine Sword Tracking (2)
Standing in the center of the training ground with his sword pointed at me, the Knight Commander looked remarkably like the Marquis. Even now, seeing him again, I was struck by the resemblance.
Unlike the Marquis, though, he radiated the fierce aura of an enraged knight.
It was fascinating how faces so similar could give off such completely different impressions.
Even as I stared at his angry face, I found it incredibly intriguing.
No, wait. Now wasn't the time for thoughts like that.
His whole demeanor was completely different from the last time I'd seen him.
Back then, we had certainly spoken with mutual courtesy.
There was clearly some sort of misunderstanding.
I had never once looked down on the swordsmanship of the Marquisate.
It was baffling, but one look at Gael beside the Knight Commander made it clear what had happened.
Gael's bruised face had gone pale.
He'd turned so white that even his blue bruises seemed to fade. I could tell at once who had spread those rumors.
I could have explained the truth and cleared up the misunderstanding, but I decided to put that off for a moment.
"Using a Divine Sword to teach you the swordsmanship of the Marquisate would be unfair, so I shall use a standard longsword as well."
Since he put it that way, I couldn't very well refuse.
This was a great opportunity.
"In that case, while we spar, would it be all right if my team members took a brief look at the Divine Sword? We won't take it anywhere else; we'll examine it right here."
At my polite request, the Knight Commander stared at me for a moment.
Then he nodded.
"I suppose that much is fine. Since my elder brother gave his permission, there is no issue with you examining it. But be careful when channeling mana into it."
I immediately signaled Lesty, the 'Divine Sword Tracker,' with my eyes.
As expected, he understood at once.
He hurried over to the Knight Commander and received the Divine Sword.
When I'd suggested we go together to see the Divine Sword of the Pisen Marquisate, the Auction House Owner had made a single request.
He hadn't merely wanted to look at the sword from a distance; he wanted time to touch it directly.
It seemed that direct contact was far more effective for him when appraising and understanding the Divine Sword with his ability.
On top of that, he'd asked me to stretch out the examination time as much as possible.
It was common sense that the longer he examined it, the more he would learn.
Though I'd grumbled about how much he wanted, I had no other choice, so I intended to accommodate him as much as I could.
And fortunately, that opportunity had presented itself right now.
Seeing the 'Divine Sword Tracker' and the Grand Archduchess head to a corner of the training ground to eagerly examine the sword, I drew my own weapon as well.
It wasn't the greatsword in my pocket or the dagger at my waist, but a plain iron sword.
Since my opponent wasn't using an artifact, there was no reason for me to use one either.
Besides, my opponent wasn't stronger than me. I could easily face him with an ordinary weapon.
Perhaps because he had set his sword aside first, the Knight Commander didn't explain anything about the Divine Sword as he had before.
He merely kept tilting his head in confusion as he looked at me.
[The sword I saw just now is definitely not a Divine Sword, but somehow... it feels similar to a Divine Sword...]
But there was someone—no, a sword—that was saying the exact same thing.
[It is definitely related to a real Divine Sword. I swear it on my very body.]
Even the oath was the same, but since I'd heard it once before, I casually brushed it off.
Now wasn't the time to listen to the dagger. I had to spar with the Knight Commander.
Though we'd fought twice before, this spar came with one condition: I couldn't end it too quickly.
Despite that condition, it was still just a spar, so I was at ease.
I'd been exhausted from using my brain so much lately.
How long had it been since I'd been able to swing a sword so comfortably?
I dashed toward the angry Knight Commander.
As the spar began, the Knight Commander was astonished by my swordsmanship, just as before.
And it wasn't just the Knight Commander. The other onlookers were shocked as well.
My team members, and even the Marquis's son, Gael.
To drag things out, I had no choice but to display a level of skill that matched his.
With that kind of skill on display, anyone watching was bound to be shocked.
Fortunately, there was no one else in the training ground this time, so I could swing my sword freely.
And so, I spent the time diligently clashing blades, just as before.
One hour, two hours... As time passed, the Knight Commander grew increasingly thrilled.
He looked as if he'd entered a near-trance.
Having been unable to fight anyone of comparable skill for a long time, it was only natural that he'd be excited to finally meet someone who felt like an equal.
Unfortunately, I couldn't lose myself in the fight like the Knight Commander did.
This was already my third time fighting him.
Our first fight had been a spar like this, but I'd thrown myself into it completely. Our second fight, on the other hand, had been practically a real battle.
Having witnessed the swordsmanship of the original Carlos Hero, I was now quite familiar with the swordsmanship of the Marquisate.
Under these circumstances, with this being a spar in which I had to deliberately drag things out, it was hard to truly focus.
Perhaps because of that, the duel seemed even more closely matched.
As time ticked by, I scanned the surroundings with my mana and felt Lesty take his hands off the sword.
I subtly glanced toward Lesty out of the corner of my eye.
As if he'd been waiting for me to look, our eyes met.
The Divine Sword Tracker nodded.
His investigation was complete.
Clang!
"Ugh."
The problem was that, in the brief moment I looked away, the Knight Commander thrust his sword in toward me.
I was immediately driven backward.
As expected, he wasn't an opponent I could afford to look away from.
The Knight Commander looked angry.
Was it because I'd interrupted his pleasant immersion?
"To look away during a spar like this... Is a duel with me truly of so little value to you?"
No, it was indeed because I'd looked away mid-fight.
Perhaps due to his anger, the Knight Commander's strikes grew rougher.
Having lost the initiative, I struggled to break out of the defensive flow.
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I circulated my mana.
The tip of my sword began to shimmer.
It was a foul trick, but I had no choice if I wanted to end the spar quickly.
Shhk.
My shimmering blade swept across the Knight Commander's sword.
A loud clash should have rung out, but my sword silently sliced through his blade.
Thunk.
The severed blade clattered onto the ground.
The Knight Commander stared at his broken sword in utter disbelief.
"It seems your sword was quite worn out. Let's spar again next time with the Divine Sword."
"That cannot be. It should have been no different from any other sword... Besides, there is no way I could have mistaken the sound of a blade being severed."
As expected, it wasn't easy to brush things off with a knight of his caliber.
But I couldn't exactly tell him that I'd sliced through it with the Invisible Sword Aura I'd learned from Katrin's Dagger.
Just as I was agonizing over what excuse to make—
Whoom.
I felt a massive surge of mana erupt from one side of the training ground.
Startled, I whipped my head around and saw a brilliantly glowing sword.
It was the 'Divine Sword' I'd handed over to the Grand Archduchess and Lesty to examine during our spar.
The glowing Divine Sword was now in the Grand Archduchess's hands.
Holding the Divine Sword, the Grand Archduchess was looking at me with a deeply troubled expression.
I immediately realized what had happened.
The Grand Archduchess had definitely caused an accident.
The excuse I'd been preparing for the Knight Commander vanished from my mind.
I immediately dashed toward the Grand Archduchess.
But the Knight Commander moved even faster than I did.
When he realized his sword was glowing, he cut through the air and lunged toward it.
He moved so fast that it made our recent spar look as if he'd been holding back his true strength.
He snatched the sword straight out of the Grand Archduchess's hands.
It was an incredibly rude thing to do, but under the circumstances, no one could blame him.
Fortunately, the light gradually subsided, and after a moment, the sword returned to its original state.
"Is there any problem with the sword?"
Just in case, I stood beside the Grand Archduchess and asked the Knight Commander.
After examining the sword for a long while, the Knight Commander let out a sigh.
"No, it is fine. There is no issue. The feel of it seems to have changed slightly, but not in a bad way—in fact, it feels much better."
I breathed a sigh of relief at his words.
I knew there was no way it would turn out badly, but it would also be a problem if it became too good.
"You didn't do anything to it, did you?"
I turned and asked the Grand Archduchess.
As I spoke, I shot her a meaningful look. It would be a disaster if she let something slip.
Catching my signal, the Grand Archduchess shook her head.
"No. I was merely examining it."
Fortunately, the Grand Archduchess's acting was flawless.
I then turned to Lesty, who had hurried over in surprise, and asked,
"By any chance, do artifacts ever change during an appraisal?"
At my question, he shook his head.
"Almost never. Though some say that since appraising an artifact involves channeling mana into it, the artifact can become more active than before, but..."
Despite his skeptical tone, I quickly seized on his words.
"So you're saying it's possible."
After hastily fabricating a plausible excuse, I placed my hand over my heart and apologized to the Knight Commander.
"I am terribly sorry. I never imagined something like this would happen."
"We are sorry."
As I apologized, the Grand Archduchess and the other team members bowed their heads to him as well.
Seeing everyone apologize, the Knight Commander waved his hand.
"No, it is quite all right. I was merely startled for a moment. There is nothing wrong with the sword, so let us just act as if this never happened."
Fortunately, the Knight Commander accepted our apology.
Since he'd proposed letting bygones be bygones, he wouldn't bring this matter up again in the future.
Instead, the Knight Commander looked at me and voiced his confusion.
"More than that, no matter how much I think about it, I simply cannot understand."
Was he still dwelling on how I'd severed his sword?
I began to worry about what excuse to make, but fortunately, that wasn't what he was asking about.
"There is no way someone who has mastered swordsmanship of this level would disparage the swordsmanship of the Pisen Marquisate... Especially when you are clearly not ignorant of our style."
"Hiccup,"
I let out a silent sigh of relief, while someone else began to hiccup.
Everyone turned to look at the person who had started hiccuping.
The Marquis's son, Gael, was hiccuping uncontrollably, his bruised face now pale as a sheet.
"Hic, no, I was just startled for a moment... hic."
Gael desperately tried to make an excuse through his hiccups, but the Knight Commander only stared at him with utter disappointment.
"So you still haven't cured that habit of hiccuping whenever your lies are exposed."
He let out a deep sigh, then turned to me and placed his hand over his heart.
"I have shown you an embarrassing display. The apology should come from my side. I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding."
The Knight Commander apologized to me in a formal, respectful tone.
At his formal apology, I replied in kind.
"It was a fair and excellent duel. Since I had the privilege of sparring with such an outstanding knight, let us consider the misunderstanding completely resolved."
When I said that, the Knight Commander smiled brightly and lowered his hand.
"What a splendid knight! Right now, I must beat some sense into this rascal and make a proper man out of him, but I shall seek you out afterward. Since I've met such a fine knight, we must share a drink."
If all it took was a drink, I was more than happy to oblige.
In this world, there was no age limit on drinking.
Since I wasn't one to drink to excess, I usually only had a little with my meals, but it seemed I'd be drinking quite a bit today.
With that, the Knight Commander began training his nephew once more, and we made our way out of the training ground.
As I walked side by side with the Grand Archduchess, I discreetly cast a soundproofing barrier around us.
Then I asked her,
"You fixed the Divine Sword, didn't you?"
At my question, the Grand Archduchess realized I'd erected a soundproofing barrier.
"Yes..."
It was just as I'd suspected.
"Why on earth did you meddle with it right now?"
At my inquiry, she replied in a pleading tone,
"I didn't know this would happen. It was only slightly broken in one spot, so I just quietly fixed it..."
Hiding one's abilities and keeping secrets was of paramount importance...
Whether they were enemies or allies, their lax sense of security never failed to make me sigh.
Though she usually carried herself like an adult, seeing her like this proved that the Grand Archduchess was still just a mid-teenage girl at heart.
"So, what exactly did you fix?"
"I really only fixed it a tiny bit. I merely cleared up a blockage in the flow of mana, so it's exactly as the Knight Commander said—it will just feel slightly better to use."
Looking at the 'Divine Sword Tracker' following behind us, I could tell that, unlike the Grand Archduchess, he seemed to have uncovered even more about the Divine Sword.
Indeed, when it came to appraising artifacts, he was definitely superior.
But even he didn't seem capable of performing a perfect artifact appraisal.
The moment the light erupted from the Divine Sword, I had witnessed something else within it.
It seemed no one else had noticed it.
Not the Knight Commander, who was the owner of the Divine Sword, nor the Divine Sword Tracker, nor the Grand Archduchess.
None of them had seen what I saw.
And understandably so; even I wouldn't have been able to see it if not for my mana perception, 'Mana Resonance.'
With my senses, which could perceive and feel mana, I detected a single thread of mana escaping from the sword.
That thin Mana Thread stretched up into the sky, extending far into the distance.
Even after the light faded from the sword, that Mana Thread remained.
It was still visible to my eyes even now.
A thread cutting across the sky.
That thread led straight to the center of the smoke-filled city.
And there was one other person looking up at the exact same spot I was.
The Princess was gazing up at the sky, tilting her head curiously.