The Sacred Duel
As Kyle stood up from his seat and prepared to duel Glaymore, the First Princess Ludmila—who had been watching the scene—let out a dry laugh and stepped between the two of them.
“Planning to fight each other while completely ignoring me?”
At Princess Ludmila’s words, Kyle gazed at her. To be precise, his eyes were locked on the swordsman standing behind her. The man wore an outfit rarely seen in the empire—one that looked like it belonged to the Joseon Dynasty of Earth several hundred years ago. He was clearly the wandering swordsman from the East.
Kyle looked him up and down, then nodded as if it were no problem.
“I’ll fight both of you.”
“...Kyle Meyer, was it? As a cadet, you must not know the rules yet. Here, the winner fights consecutively.”
“That’s exactly why I said it.”
“......??”
Leaving the bewildered First Princess tilting her head behind him, Kyle turned back to Glaymore.
“That works for you, right?”
“So young, yet so incredibly arrogant.”
“I’m not arrogant beyond my ability.”
“Haha, we’ll see if that’s true. Your Highness. I will fight this cadet first. The winner will then face your representative. That should be fine, yes?”
“...Sure, I don’t mind.”
Either way, she already knew the First Prince and Third Prince had no intention of leaving her behind to hog the policy for themselves. If that was the case, what did it matter when she fought? If anything, going later would be more advantageous. The one who burned stamina first would be at a disadvantage.
With the princess’s permission, Glaymore ordered his subordinates to clear the scattered furniture around them. A small dueling arena was quickly formed with the imperial family and their escort knights as spectators.
“The rules are simple. First to admit defeat, or anyone can clearly see they’ve lost, is the loser.”
“Easy enough.”
“Also, injuring your opponent is allowed, but killing them counts as a loss. There are a few more penalties, but… there’s no need to go over them right now.”
Glaymore extended a prepared practice sword as he spoke. It was a blunted blade. To Aura Masters capable of using Aura Blades, the thing was practically meaningless. Kyle, finding it strange, spoke carefully.
“Is it okay to use Aura?”
“Of course. Use it freely.”
With those words, the knight commander instantly drew his Aura Blade. The surrounding knights gasped. No matter the educational purpose of facing a cadet, pulling out an Aura Blade right away? Wasn’t that a bit excessive?
But that thought disappeared in the next moment.
Kyle had drawn his Aura Blade in exactly the same way.
“That… is…”
“An Aura Blade?”
While the knights murmured in disbelief, Kyle grinned and closed the distance on the knight commander. Glaymore approached with a hardened expression, his face full of uncertainty about how to handle this young master.
Kyle kindly showed him the answer.
The swiftly thrust Aura Blade flew straight for Glaymore’s throat—the most efficient path, as expected from an Aura Master. But the commander had known he would attack there. After all, he was a master too.
He casually blocked the sword and immediately flowed into a counter following the mysteries of swordsmanship. The match should have ended right there.
“—Huh?”
A long Aura Blade surged from Kyle’s empty right hand, aiming for the knight commander’s neck. The commander, who had never even known Aura could be used this way, had no chance to react. Just because he drew an Aura Blade with his right hand didn’t mean the one in his left disappeared, did it?
Facing two Aura Blades was no different from facing two Aura Masters at once.
“...I have lost.”
“Thanks for the match.”
Kyle retrieved his Aura Blades, sheathed his sword, gave a light bow, and looked toward his next opponent—the wandering swordsman from the East. The man was already itching for a fight, continuously stroking his sword hilt.
Kyle crooked a finger at the Eastern swordsman right away.
As the swordsman walked past the princess and stepped forward, Glaymore, still standing in the arena, asked cautiously.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Pulling an Aura Blade from your bare hand…”
“It just worked when I tried it?”
The knight commander stared at him in utter disbelief. Kyle simply shrugged and turned his gaze to the swordsman.
The man, who had drawn an Eastern-style ringed sword in an instant, stepped forward and announced his name.
I am Myungwol of the Infinite Phantom World Style.
“I am Kyle Meyer of the Meyer Style.”
“Yes, Meyer. Draw them.”
Myungwol urged Kyle to summon two Aura Blades. But Kyle shook his head, saying there was no need.
“I don’t think I’ll need them against you.”
“...A provocation? Not bad.”
The next instant, a razor-sharp flash flew toward Kyle. It was a draw technique so fast that even though he had been watching, he nearly missed it. Kyle blocked the strike with the sword already in his hand and immediately thrust forward.
The essence of swordsmanship—defense and offense flowing as one. Any ordinary swordsman would have been skewered without being able to react, but everyone present was far from ordinary.
“Sheathe.”
The moment Myungwol spoke, the sword in his hand was sucked back into its scabbard as if by magic. Kyle stared blankly, wondering what the hell that was, before realizing it was some kind of magic tool.
Holding the magically sheathed hilt, Myungwol drew the blade once more. The draw technique, polished to its limit, wasn’t something that could be easily stopped. Kyle’s body floated upward and he retreated several steps. In that brief window, Myungwol’s sword had already returned to its hilt again.
“Isn’t that cheating?”
“You use it too. There was no rule against it.”
“Haha.”
So that’s how he wanted to play it. Kyle frowned slightly as he stared at Myungwol. The man’s limit was obvious. A master of iaijutsu. Without the draw technique, he was nothing special. Having trained only that one skill to reach the master level, his draw technique was overwhelmingly superior… but iaijutsu carried several clear weaknesses.
He can’t use it without sheathing the sword first. That alone is the biggest problem…
Myungwol had broken that limit with magic. By using a magic sword that could be sheathed even when it shouldn’t, he could unleash his draw technique in any situation. Honestly, it was practically a cheat. Like loading a gun with infinite ammo.
To fight someone using that kind of cheat, you had to cheat right back.
“You started it, you know?”
“—Come.”
He took the stance for his draw technique again. He seemed convinced Kyle would pull out two Aura Blades. Kyle had guided him to think exactly that—and now that the plan was working perfectly, he could barely keep the grin off his face.
Suppressing the corners of his twitching mouth, Kyle slowly raised his hand. It looked like not only Myungwol but everyone present had made the same mistake. Becoming a master at this age was already absurd, so they assumed there was no way he had gone further. But that was the thinking of ordinary people. The imagination of the common masses. Reality was different.
A genius wasn’t simply someone who moved faster than others. A genius did things no one else could even imagine.
Demon Light Annihilation Blast
“Hup—!?”
An Aura beam shot from his raised fingertips. A technique born from pushing the ability to discharge Aura outside the body to its absolute limit. Myungwol, who had been waiting for the two Aura Blades, instantly drew his sword against the incoming beam—but Kyle raised his other hand.
Heavenly Demon Death Beam
Before the sword could even return to its sheath, the second Aura beam pierced straight through Myungwol’s shoulder. Losing an arm in a sacred duel between swordsmen was a devastating blow.
Only then did Kyle draw the two Aura Blades Myungwol had wanted. He could feel the Eastern swordsman glaring at him with fierce eyes, shoulder still impaled.
“Scared?”
“...I have lost.”
Myungwol bit his lip hard as he admitted defeat. Kyle sheathed his sword with a bored expression and gave Bellion—who was staring at him in a daze—a big thumbs-up.
I did it, buddy.
Yet for some reason, Bellion’s face was slowly crumpling into a tearful mess. Kyle tilted his head, completely unable to understand why.