Time for Revenge
“I’ll put you down in the name of Valteria!”
Leonia drew her sword and advanced.
“Damn it!”
Martin backed away, swallowing his curse.
“No, no, no.”
“Y-you won’t get away!”
He looked back, only to find his retreat blocked.
Viera had emerged from the Arena VIP Room.
And Brika, the war hero, had somehow appeared as well, standing in his way.
“Huh?”
Martin glanced around frantically.
Selene was nowhere to be seen.
Did she go to Cassian?!
Martin immediately cast a teleportation spell to warn Cassian.
“What are you doing? Trying to send a warning to your ally?”
But—
“W-what?”
For some reason, the teleportation spell failed to take hold.
“Ah!”
“Why that face? You mean that thing called a constraint or whatever? Didn’t you put it on me?”
“Tch… so you knew about my ability?”
“Professor Selene told me.”
“......”
Bad.
Cassian’s magic was definitely spread across the entire arena.
And yet these people were standing here, unharmed?
It had to be Selene’s doing.
That woman… she broke my constraint and moved anyway. What the hell is she?
This was dangerous.
If that woman reached Cassian, it would be disastrous.
“You…”
Martin drew his sword.
“You haven’t forgotten our constraint, have you?”
“No.”
The constraint itself only stated that if Leonia won, his allies would be spared.
But in order to keep Martin from using magic in this situation, Leonia had to take part in the duel alone.
“Y-you understand, don’t you? A duel is…”
“Yeah. A one-on-one sword duel between you and me.”
“Heh…”
If this sort of thing happened in some slum, the other side would probably rush in all at once.
But nobles treated a duel as a proper, honorable contest.
That was why, with Leonia here, the meaning of this constraint duel had to be a true one-on-one match.
“Fine.”
And if Martin defeated Leonia, he’d surely find a chance to escape.
Viera couldn’t approach while bound by the constraint, and if he finished the duel by bringing Leonia down, he could use his Absolute Constraint magic again.
Then Viera and Brika wouldn’t be able to pursue him.
“Then let’s end this quickly!”
Martin leveled his curved sword at Leonia.
“There’s no magic here, no tricks! Come at me!”
He took his stance with complete confidence.
“Wait. Leonia. Look at me for a second.”
At that moment, Brika broke the flow and stepped up to Leonia.
“What?”
“Ah, I’ve got a bit of advice for our fighter before the match. I am her master, after all.”
“No, what kind of nonsense is th—”
But Leonia, pure-hearted as ever, accepted Brika’s approach.
And the moment her attention shifted, Martin’s fighting spirit faltered.
These bastards… they’re stalling!
Noble logic, this idea of a “proper duel,” had created the opening.
For commoners, a sword duel was just a brawl, but to nobles it was a kind of athletic ritual, so there was no helping it.
“Three minutes! No more than three minutes! I won’t tolerate anything longer than that!”
Martin frantically added a time limit to save himself.
“Fine.”
Brika chuckled and strolled lazily over to Leonia.
Then he leaned close and whispered in her ear.
“You see it?”
“Yes.”
“I thought it was just a curved sword, but seeing it in person gives me a much clearer picture.”
“I think I understand it, more or less.”
“Good. Then you know this, right?”
Brika glanced at Martin’s curved sword and said, “That thing isn’t for slashing. It’s for thrusting.”
“Yes. That must have been the trap.”
“No. A trap like that? Anyone who’d died to it probably figured it out. At the very least, after a few bouts against that sword, anyone should understand that a curved sword is dangerous when it comes in with a thrust.”
“Then…”
“Did Selene say anything else?”
Leonia recalled the moment just now, when Martin had been handed over to her.
“Habit.”
“Habit?”
She remembered the advice Selene had given her.
“You. Was there still some habit you hadn’t gotten rid of?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“She said one would form. If I were to face that sword…”
“Ah…”
Brika let out a breath, as if he had finally understood something.
“I see.”
“What is it?”
“No, you’ll understand the moment you experience it yourself.”
He gave Leonia a shove between the shoulder blades.
“Keep your distance at first. And start by figuring out what that word ‘habit’ means.”
“Understood.”
“Ha… just when did that Selene bastard catch on to this?”
With Brika’s words behind her, Leonia raised her sword.
“Is the break over?”
“Yes.”
Tension hung between the two of them.
But the one who had no time was Martin.
Whether he ran to help Cassian or ran away, if he didn’t move quickly, he would lose the moment.
“Here I come!”
With that, Martin lunged at her confidently.
This is your ability! The Empire’s sword!
Clang.
Martin drove his blade forward and pressed the attack.
And if I add just a little technique here!
Whoosh.
At last, he twisted the sword’s edge backward, turning it outward as he thrust.
Clang.
And then—
“Ngh?!”
Leonia did exactly as Brika had instructed, widening the distance as much as possible and blocking the curved sword’s thrust.
“......”
“Tch! Didn’t take her out in one hit?”
Martin ground his teeth at the sight of Leonia dodging his attack by widening the distance.
So that’s it…
Leonia stared at the blade with a profound look in her eyes, as though she had realized something.
“Here I come!”
Martin charged again.
“……”
This time as well, Leonia baited the enemy into thrusting.
Whoosh!
And at last, she understood that her guess had been correct.
So that’s what this curved sword is for.
Clang!
She had seen curved blades before.
But she had never seen one bent so extremely, like a crescent moon.
At a glance, a curved sword seemed to have a shorter reach than a straight blade of the same length.
That made it look inferior for thrusting.
But a curved sword bent to a certain degree gained its true value precisely in the moment of a thrust.
An attack that would have been blocked if it were a straight sword was different here.
When the blade came in with its curve angled toward the opponent and drove forward, even if it struck the enemy’s sword and was pushed sideways off course,
the curved blade would coil around that line like a snake.
Simply by driving the sword forward, the tip would be drawn toward the defender’s opening.
That meant the only way to block it was to guard far more widely than one would against a straight blade.
“Hup!”
Slash.
Leonia had to swing her defense open far wider to knock the curved sword aside.
“Ugh?!”
Seeing her block the thrust twice, Martin looked briefly rattled.
She figured it out.
Brika watched Leonia with satisfaction.
Tch. She survived by widening the distance.
But he thought it had only been luck.
In all the times he had used that technique to kill more than ten people, not one had adapted to it.
“That’s it, Leonia. Now remember what Selene told you!”
“Understood.”
Brika reminded her once more of Selene’s advice.
Habit… yes.
Every soldier Martin had killed had been a veteran.
And yet they had lost precisely because they were veterans.
Seeing Martin fight in person made it clear.
He uses tactics as slippery as his face looks.
The method for countering a curved sword’s thrust was simple.
Just defend more broadly than you would against a straight sword’s thrust, and that was that.
But most swordsmen—
No, the more skilled a swordsman was, the less likely they were to do it.
Even if they realized there was a trap in the opponent’s thrust, their bodies had already adapted to dealing with straight swords.
The ability that had once let them handle straight blades perfectly became nothing more than a bad habit in the face of Martin’s curved sword.
A bad habit they couldn’t rid themselves of, even when they knew better—a habit that threatened their own lives.
Clang.
“Ugh?!”
But Leonia was different.
“Tch! Why?”
“Why, you ask? Isn’t it obvious? You just deal with a curved sword’s thrust like this.”
She had erased more than ten habits in just a few days.
For her, getting rid of one unnecessary habit in order to fight a curved sword was nothing.
If it had been me, I’d have needed to get stabbed a few times before I won against him…
Clang.
Whoosh.
“Ghh?!”
Now that she knew the answer, there was no way Leonia would lose to Martin.
“Damn it all!”
After several failed attacks and narrowly dodging her counterattacks, Martin let out a wild scream.
“I am the Empire’s sword!”
Now that he understood the trap hidden in the curved blade, all it was was a weapon with a strange shape.
“Die!”
Clang.
“Ghk?!”
A weapon with shorter reach than a straight sword of the same length.
“Heh.”
“Grrrgh!”
Martin, his left arm slashed open, growled in fury.
Leonia looked down at him with a slightly smug expression.
“Now that the curved sword’s supposed trap is gone, you can’t do anything at all.”
“I… I should have the same level of skill as you!”
“The same level?”
Whoosh.
Slash.
“Urk?!”
Leonia’s sword drove him back and cut into his thigh.
“Sorry, but when I take a thrusting stance, I don’t let my left foot drag.”
“What?”
Slash.
“Gah?!”
“And when I swing, I don’t raise my left elbow.”
“Damn it!”
“And—”
Slash!
“Aaaargh!”
“I don’t close my eyes when I block a sword anymore!”
Leonia’s blade blinded Martin’s left eye, and he began flailing wildly, swinging his sword in all directions.
But to Leonia, that display was no threat at all.
“Leonia! Now do you understand how absurd your swordsmanship used to be?”
Brika shouted gruffly at the sight of her.
“Yes. I can see just how absurdly I used to swing a sword.”
“Graaah! Die! I’ll kill you!”
Leonia settled into her final stance.
“Not anymore.”
Slash.
With one swift strike, she severed Martin’s head from his neck.