The Female Knight
The Female Knight
The incoming sword was sharp, like a black skewer.
She had merely thrust her sword, yet it shot forward like a flying arrow.
To think it could move so fast from such a short distance. Even the armor of a knightly order would have had trouble stopping it.
But anything flying in a straight line along such an obvious trajectory was easy enough to block.
I raised my greatsword to guard myself and, just in case, cast 'Mana Materialization' on its blade.
An invisible shield unfolded in front of me.
Clang!
The sword that had flown straight at me was deflected.
I stared at the deflected sword in surprise.
It wasn't my greatsword that had blocked it.
The invisible shield, which had expanded to either side of the blade, had stopped the incoming sword.
But I had definitely blocked its path with my greatsword.
That sword had clearly changed direction mid-flight.
And I saw proof of that once again.
The deflected sword was sucked back into the knight's hand.
It was like the flying sword, the Telekinetic Sword Control, one might see in wuxia novels.
But none of the mana cultivation techniques I knew could produce such a technique.
Instead, I knew of a similar ability.
"Could it be... a psychokinesis ability user?"
But she was too fast to be called a mere psychokinesis ability user.
The female knight rushed forward with her sword as if she were flying.
This time, she swung the sword in her hand, and I barely managed to block it.
Thud.
A tremendous force came through the sword. She was stronger than most knights.
'Is she a multi-ability user?'
It seemed the others were just as surprised as I was.
"She's a physical ability user who uses psychokinesis?"
"Is such a thing even possible?"
"No way! That's impossible!"
Surprised voices echoed all around me.
I wasn't being pushed back, but I maintained my defense.
Since I didn't know what my opponent was capable of yet, I couldn't afford to attack hastily.
Fortunately, I didn't sense any serious danger.
Perhaps because I had died so many times, I could somewhat tell how dangerous a situation was even without relying on my raw intuition.
Fortunately, this wasn't life-threatening.
Clash, clash!
As we continued to clash swords, a sense of incongruity washed over me.
Clang! Clang!
Though her strength was formidable and her speed was impressive, her swordsmanship felt slightly rigid.
It was as if someone else were holding and swinging the sword for her.
As I tilted my head at the strange sensation, I heard my opponent grit her teeth.
It seemed I had blocked her attacks too easily.
Once again, the knight's movements changed.
Swish.
The sword plunging down from above defied inertia and veered sideways.
My greatsword, already moving to block it, cut through empty air, while the knight's sword thrust toward my waist.
It was a complete surprise attack; I couldn't block it with my greatsword.
I had no choice but to grasp a dagger with my empty hand.
'Summon.'
Clang!
The dagger in my other hand stopped the thrusting sword.
The knight whose attack I'd deflected stared at the dagger in my hand, startled.
She clearly hadn't expected me to block it.
Then again, if I couldn't summon swords, I might not have been able to block it either.
At the sight of the dagger in my hand, the crowd murmured.
"When did he draw that?"
"Did you see him draw it?"
"No, he must have hidden it inside his armor. Is it magic? He's got plenty of tricks."
It wasn't hidden inside my armor, and I wasn't using magic.
I had simply summoned the dagger with my ability.
The ability to summon one's own weapon. It was an ability that had manifested when I obtained the Hero's Training Sword.
I couldn't help admiring the guard knight.
After all, she had forced me to use an ability I'd been keeping hidden.
And my opponent wasn't even a multi-ability user.
"Impressive. I never imagined psychokinesis could be used in such a way."
At my words, the knight, who was about to attack again, flinched. Twitch.
She probably hadn't expected me to figure it out so quickly.
"Moving your body with psychokinesis and reinforcing your weapon... that couldn't have been easy."
The incongruity I'd felt while clashing swords became clear with that final thrust that defied inertia.
The knight before me was moving her own body and sword with psychokinesis.
By adding psychokinesis to her own strength, she was exerting more power than a physical ability user.
The heaviness of her sword came from psychokinesis, as did her ability to move it while defying inertia.
She wasn't a physical ability user. She was merely an awakened individual whose physical condition was slightly better than an ordinary person's.
She couldn't have fought me like this with psychokinesis alone, of course.
Her swordsmanship was excellent, and her combat skills weren't bad either.
Anyone could tell from her swordsmanship how hard she had trained.
To fight better than a knight without even being a physical-type awakened was a great achievement, something to be proud of.
On top of that, she could launch surprise attacks with psychokinesis, making her a far more outstanding knight and ability user than most.
But skills built on shortcuts were bound to have weaknesses.
"How much longer can you keep fighting?"
Even with psychokinesis assisting her, an unenhanced body couldn't keep moving like one infused with mana.
Though we hadn't fought for long, her body must already have been wearing down.
That was why she had shot her sword at me with psychokinesis from the very beginning, and why she had revealed her trump card so soon after we started clashing swords.
When I said that, the knight stopped her attack and stared blankly at me.
"How did you... know that..."
She seemed curious about how I had figured out her weakness.
"As we clashed swords..."
"Was my life's work... really a skill that could be exposed so easily..."
Her voice sank heavily.
It seemed my words had shocked her far more than I expected.
Then again, having her weaknesses laid bare on the very stage of her grand debut was bound to be disappointing.
But as her opponent in a fight, it was hard to be so considerate.
Besides, while I didn't know how the Second Prince saw things, I held a deep grudge against him.
The memory of the Prince's subordinates trying to kill the Princess and me in the dungeon was still vivid.
The knight, who had lowered her head as she spoke, raised it again.
The eyes beneath her helmet flashed once more.
They were the eyes of someone who had made a decision.
The knight gripped her sword with both hands and raised it in front of her.
It seemed my words had touched a raw nerve deep inside her.
She stared at me with coldly gleaming eyes.
"No, wait, st—"
Sensing that the atmosphere had turned strange, the Second Prince shouted in haste.
But before the Second Prince could finish, the knight shot toward me.
Whoosh!
It wasn't a figure of speech.
As if propelling her own body with psychokinesis, she flew toward me like a bullet without taking a single step.
She held her sword upright in front of her as she flew.
Even in flight, the sword vibrated violently. It was obvious at a glance that she was about to unleash some terrifying technique.
Startled, I raised my greatsword in front of me as well. But before our weapons could even clash, the knight's sword shattered.
Clang!
A sound dozens of times louder than breaking glass echoed through the training ground.
The shattered sword became dozens, then hundreds, of fragments.
Those fragments shot toward me along with the knight.
Like shotgun pellets, hundreds of fragments flew at me.
I unleashed my Invisible Sword Aura to block as many as I could, but I couldn't create a barrier that completely severed space like Katrin could.
On top of that, I had taken off the ring that created a mana barrier for the duel.
The problem was that the fragments weren't all flying just at me.
Behind me were the Princess and the Grand Archduchess's party.
Some of those fragments were bound to fly past me.
What on earth was she thinking?
I had absolutely no idea how she planned to handle the aftermath if the Princess or the Grand Archduchess got hurt.
In any case, I couldn't let them get hurt.
I swung my greatsword toward the flying fragments.
Whoom.
This was the first time I was using this method in real combat, and it was a technique even more difficult than the one the Hero had used.
Recalling the scene of Carlos using it, I moved my mana.
'Pull!'
I imbued the mana flowing through my greatsword with a pulling force—a gravitational attraction.
It was a modification of mana, like the one Hero Carlos had used to stick my sword to his own.
Though I hadn't seen them all, I had observed most of Carlos's mana cultivation techniques.
From the royal family's swordsmanship and the Duke of Ceuta's sword to the Knight Commander's sword, the Pisen Marquisate's sword, and even Gracia—our family's sword.
I hadn't yet gathered those mana cultivation techniques together to establish a single, all-encompassing mana cultivation technique.
But now that I had verified all those mana cultivation techniques, I could use the Hero Carlos's sword beyond mere imitation.
Whoom.
I felt the flying fragments being pulled in.
I focused my mind and concentrated my mana.
The Second Prince's guard knight, Ines.
She had been born the youngest daughter of a knightly family.
Since childhood, watching her father, a knight, and her brothers, who were being raised to become knights, she had dreamed of becoming a knight herself.
It might have been the dream of an immature young girl, but she had been entirely sincere.
But the ability the girl obtained on her Awakening Day was the ability of her mother's family.
Psychokinesis.
Everyone rejoiced, calling it a great ability, but the girl couldn't bring herself to be happy.
Because she wanted to be a knight.
Psychokinesis was more than enough to make her the mistress of a prestigious family, but she didn't want that kind of future.
She simply wanted to be a knight.
Unable to give up, she pleaded with her family.
Fortunately, her parents were very considerate and allowed her to take knight lessons.
They did so, of course, out of the complacent belief that she would give up once she underwent the grueling knight training.
Nevertheless, she didn't give up.
She endured the harsh training to the very end, making up for her lack of physical aptitude with psychokinesis.
She grew stronger and stronger.
Psychokinesis granted her strength, and from a certain point on, she was even able to win sparring matches against her brothers.
But the stronger she became, the more isolated she grew.
Because no one wanted her to become a knight.
Yet she didn't give up. As she continued training alone, the Second Prince eventually heard rumors about her.
Finding her circumstances amusing, the Second Prince appointed her as his guard knight.
Perhaps because of the Second Prince's womanizing tendencies, he was quite pleased to have Ines as his escort.
He had also promised to reveal her to the world once she had built up proper skills.
Although it was often difficult to witness the Second Prince's unsavory behavior up close, she had remained faithful to her duties, waiting for the day she could stand tall as a true knight.
And today, she had finally stepped out into the world, but before she could even take her first step, she was plunged into hell.
She had been utterly defeated by a knight younger than herself.
Above all, her opponent had discerned all her secrets and weaknesses after clashing swords with her only a few times.
It was the moment her entire life, built through pain, was completely invalidated.
"How much longer can you keep fighting?"
The moment she heard those words, she realized she could never truly be a knight.
Her stamina and physical condition were far too poor for her to be a knight.
Serving as an escort knight was one thing, but if she had to fight in earnest, she clearly wouldn't last long even in that role.
She could no longer think straight.
This was the end; she wanted to show the knight before her everything she had.
And so, she shattered her sword, rolled on the ground from the impact, and finally came to her senses.
Only then did she realize what she had done.
She raised her head with a terrified expression.
And she couldn't help but look utterly bewildered.
Everyone was safe.
She had unleashed her final secret technique, meant to devastate an entire area, yet everyone was perfectly fine.
Every single fragment she had shot forward lay fallen in front of the knight she had fought.
Fragments were even clinging to the knight's greatsword.
'Surely, he didn't block them all with just that sword?'
She kept staring at the greatsword.
As Ines stared blankly at the sword, a priest stepped forward and made an announcement.
"The knight who will bear the sword and offer prayers at the ritual has been chosen: Sir Alex, Princess Aisha's guard knight!"
Defying everyone's expectations, Alex was to participate in the ritual, the highest of holy rites.