The Duel (2)
In the world of The Saintess and the Hero, there are generally two ways to wield magic power: Circles and Cores.
Let’s start with Circles, which mages primarily use. The biggest downside of Circles is that they are incredibly, ridiculously, absurdly difficult to learn.
To form a Circle, you first have to draw natural mana of any attribute into your heart and shape it. That step alone already demands talent far beyond the ordinary.
But does it get easier once you’ve made one?
Nope. Not even close.
By nature, a Circle is a collection of attribute-based mana, and mana of different attributes naturally repels each other. When those two factors collide, you get an absolute nightmare of a difficulty curve.
The more Circles you add, the stronger the backlash from the existing ones becomes. The difficulty skyrockets exponentially, and controlling the mana grows that much harder too.
So why the hell would anyone bother with Circles despite all that?
Because once you actually manage to learn them, you grow ridiculously fast. On top of that, as the number of Circles increases, you gain access to multiple attributes, which gives you excellent versatility in all kinds of situations.
Then what’s the advantage of a Core?
Its entry barrier is practically nonexistent compared to Circles.
Unlike Circles, Cores don’t require you to accumulate mana of a specific attribute. You just cram whatever mana you can get into your heart and clump it together. That’s it. Simple structure.
Therefore, even completely ordinary people without any special talent could form a Core if they had enough effort and persistence.
You didn’t have to worry about attribute compatibility like with Circles, nor did you have to suffer through heart-exploding backlash every time you tried to add a new ring. You just mindlessly clump mana together, then clump some more. That was all.
But as with all things in life, power that’s easy to obtain always comes with a fatal price.
A Core is ultimately nothing more than a physical organ that stores mana.
Therefore, to use it properly, you had no choice but to pour an enormous amount of time and effort into getting used to handling it.
In the end, the most efficient way to train a Core was…
“Blood and sweat!”
Crasis shouted, eyes gleaming. For words coming from a legendary knight, it was an absurdly simple and brutish statement.
Yet not a single student dared to argue with that brutish declaration.
Because to those who aspired to become knights, it was simply common sense.
While mages gathered mana and studied magic formulas, knights simply had to swing their swords one more time than the day before.
That was exactly why Crasis had said, “Now kill each other.”
Because nothing beat real combat when it came to getting used to handling your Core.
“What are you all standing around for like idiots! Find someone around your level and start beating the crap out of each other!”
Crasis’s ferocious roar slammed across the training grounds.
After Professor Crasis’s thunderous command, the students who had been awkwardly glancing at each other soon paired up with opponents of similar skill and began their duels.
BOOM!CLANG—!
They called it a duel, but the students’ wooden swords flew at each other with the clear intent to kill. With every impact, flesh burst open and bright red blood sprayed into the air.
No matter how much he had said to fight like it was real combat, this seemed like it might actually get someone killed. Just as that thought crossed my mind—
Shwooooooo.
After a brief moment, the torn flesh and scattered blood reversed as if time itself was rewinding, returning to their original state.
It was the near-miraculous restoration magic that Lustil had shown during the entrance ceremony.
A fragment of that power was now spread across the entire training ground.
Of course, it wasn’t strong enough to bring back the dead like before, but it could easily handle most ordinary injuries.
At first, the students had hesitated to attack each other with genuine killing intent. But after exchanging a few blows, they quickly adapted and began striking without any reservation.
“Die!!” “Guhk!”
…Maybe they’d adapted a little too well.
Anyway.
Amid the burning enthusiasm of the students, what was Gladia doing?
‘…I’m bored.’
Absolutely nothing.
A strange scene had unfolded where no one approached her, as if an invisible barrier had been erected around her. It reminded me of Iolet during the entrance ceremony.
Did master and servant really resemble each other even in this regard?
Well, I could understand the other students’ perspective too.
Every student present on the training ground had witnessed Gladia slicing through the training dummies during Professor Elaheem’s class.
Since they had all taken a swing at those same dummies themselves, they knew exactly how absurd what she had done was.
So it was only natural that they avoided her.
No matter how much the training ground’s magic could heal injuries, no one wanted to deliberately pick a fight with someone they couldn’t possibly beat and get beaten up for it.
“Haa… If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve stopped 65 Points when he tried to run away.”
For the record, 65 Points had fled the moment Crasis finished speaking. He liked talented people, but he wasn’t a pervert who enjoyed getting beaten up.
Truly the keen senses befitting the Empire’s heir.
Once 65 Points ran off and the other students began slowly backing away, Gladia was quickly isolated.
It felt like being the kid left standing alone during pairing time in elementary school P.E. class. Still, there wasn’t much she could do about it.
She couldn’t exactly force people who didn’t want to duel her to fight.
‘I’m not the young lady, after all.’
If it had been Iolet, she definitely would’ve just started swinging at whoever was closest.
It was then.
“?”
A massive shadow fell over Gladia from behind.
The owner of that shadow was a woman.
Despite being female, she possessed a height and musculature that easily surpassed most men. Her chocolate-colored skin, which beautifully highlighted her physical vitality, was partially covered by beast pelts.
She was Sella, the twelfth daughter of the Great Chieftain who ruled over all the barbarian tribes of the vast northern plains of Cradle.
Sella approached the lone, idle Gladia and spoke.
“I challenge. You.”
Though her Imperial speech was clumsy, Gladia roughly understood what she meant and asked back.
“Me?”
“You. Strongest here. I fight. Strong opponent.”
It was exactly the kind of statement you’d expect from someone of Cradle’s bloodline—raised in a harsh environment where strength was revered.
To them, the strong were both worthy of respect and targets to challenge.
Sella had decided to take this opportunity to test herself against the towering wall known as Gladia.
After briefly pondering Sella’s determined expression, Gladia answered.
“Well, alright. I actually had something I wanted to test anyway. Let’s go.”
Sella stood facing Gladia, steadying her breathing.
She knew exactly how vast the gap between them was.
Life on the endless, barren plains of the northern continent was a daily struggle for survival.
Having grown up in that land of survival, Sella was more confident than anyone when it came to judging an opponent’s strength.
And in her eyes, that maid was…
‘That woman is a real monster.’
Sella still couldn’t forget the moment Gladia had sliced through the training dummy.
‘It was like looking at Father.’
The absolute ruler of the plains. The Great Chieftain of Cradle who had subdued countless tribes with nothing but raw power.
In a single swing of the blade, she had glimpsed the same overwhelming spirit that her father—the greatest symbol of untouchable might in her memories—possessed.
There was no shame in running from someone stronger. If she had encountered Gladia out on the plains, she would have fled immediately.
But after seeing the magic cast over the training ground, Sella changed her mind.
How many chances would she get to fight a warrior of that caliber without having to worry about getting hurt?
She was a daughter of the plains, raised rolling around with demonic beasts in the wild. The wild nature sleeping in her blood began to boil fiercely at the prospect of battling a strong opponent.
In contrast to the blazing Sella, Gladia’s presence was utterly calm.
She simply stood there in a natural stance, holding her cane in one hand.
Sella tilted her head at the sight.
“Not draw. Sword?”
“Ah, this?”
Gladia lightly shook the cane back and forth.
“I have something I want to experiment with. So don’t worry about it and….”
Letting her words trail off, Gladia slammed the tip of the cane she was holding hard into the floor of the training ground.
THUD—!
It was nothing more than striking the ground with a cane, yet a dull explosive sound rang out as an invisible wave swept violently over Sella’s body.
With her eyes firmly closed, Gladia whispered softly.
“Come.”
The moment those words left her lips, an overwhelming pressure crashed down on Sella.
It felt as if one of the great demonic beasts of the plains was standing right before her eyes!
Under that crushing pressure, Sella no longer hesitated. She charged straight toward Gladia.