The Sword Duel
A sword duel.
As the name implied, it was a spar fought with blades—but it came with two conditions.
The first: both participants had to have earned the qualifications of a swordsman. The second: each had to stake a condition of their choosing upon victory.
Raon had decided a sword duel was the cleanest way out of this mess, and he had forced the word into the open by any means he could.
"This is a land of swordsmen, so you want this decided by a swordsman's methods?"
Glenn nodded, letting that crushing presence of his settle.
"I did say that, didn't I. You're not wrong."
"M-my lord! I beg the same of you!"
Raden clapped his hands as if the chance had been handed to him on a platter and stepped forward.
"I still have a debt to settle with that bastard. Please permit a sword duel!"
"Hmph."
The situation had come out of nowhere, but Balder seemed to decide a duel was the better path. He stepped back and shut his mouth.
"Raon Zieghart. The fact that you proposed the duel first means you're confident, I take it?"
"Yes, my lord."
Raon nodded, packing the gesture with certainty.
"Raden Zieghart."
Glenn's gaze shifted.
"Yes!"
"According to the reports I received, you were overwhelmed by Raon from start to finish. If you fight him again, do you believe you can win?"
"O-of course. I only let my guard down because I didn't expect a sword to come flying at me. If we fight again, I'll crush him completely!"
Raden nodded so hard it looked like a woodpecker hammering a tree.
"This should make for a bit of entertainment."
Rarely, the corner of Glenn's mouth lifted.
"Raden. What is it you want?"
"I will shatter Raon Zieghart's aura core and sever his mana circuits."
"His mana circuits and his aura core."
"Yes. Both of them!"
"I permit it."
Even at a condition that brutal, Glenn's expression did not change.
"Thank you!"
Raden's face lit up as if someone had switched on a magic lamp.
"Raon Zieghart."
"Yes."
"And if you win the duel, what do you want?"
"That Raden Zieghart and his butler kneel before my mother and the maids and apologize, that they provide material compensation—and that nothing connected to Jinmu Hall ever approaches the Annex again."
"An apology and a ban on approach. I permit that as well."
"Father! The apology is Raden's affair, but the approach ban involves Jinmu Hall. That exceeds what a duel has the authority to—"
"Balder."
Glenn's crimson eyes turned on him. Balder dropped his gaze to the floor as if he had looked straight into the sun.
"I-I'm sorry."
Balder stepped back and bowed his head deeply.
A storm of presence still rolled off Glenn as he looked from Raon to Raden in turn.
"Both of your conditions have been permitted. One week from now, the sword duel will be held at the Great Training Ground."
"Yes."
"Thank you!"
Raon and Raden bowed at the same time.
"We're finished here. Go."
"Yes."
Raon had said everything he needed to say. He left the Audience Chamber without another word.
"A sword duel, of all things. So he's taking our side after all."
Balder stepped forward, grinning.
"No matter how gifted the boy is, no matter that he's Sylvia's child—he's still cadet branch. I'll make the difference between the direct line and the cadet branch perfectly clear. Raden. You're confident?"
"Of course. I reached Expert Mid-Class through this last mission. A brat who only just hit Expert Low-Class is someone I can beat with one hand."
Father and son narrowed their eyes the same sly way and smiled.
"Why don't we just kill the bastard in the duel? That way those insolent cadet-branch dogs won't dare crawl up again."
"No. Everyone will be watching, so that's a bad idea. Better to turn him into a cripple and crush their hope. Mother and son both, aura cores and mana circuits severed, reduced to wrecks… just thinking about it is entertaining, isn't it?"
Balder chuckled as if the only thing he felt toward Raon and Sylvia—his own sister and nephew, in private—was malice.
"You're right, of course."
Raden smirked and nodded. The two of them were already talking as if they had won the duel and Raon were sitting in the palm of their hand.
"You two, leave as well."
"Yes."
"We'll see you in a week."
Raden and Balder filled their mouths with smiles and walked out of the Audience Chamber.
"My lord."
Only after everyone else had gone did Roen step in front of Glenn.
"Young Master Raon is Expert Low-Class. Young Master Raden has already settled into Expert Mid-Class. Their realms are clearly apart—isn't that dangerous?"
Roen had always been fond of Raon, and it showed in the way his voice dropped.
"A swordsman's battle is not decided by realm, or by the sword arts he has learned. Who the person is—that is the most important factor."
"I know that, but…"
"Of course the gap in their realms is real. But the look in Raon's eyes was calm. It wasn't the arrogance or overconfidence of a boy facing an enemy he'd already beaten. It was confidence. Having seen eyes like that, how could I not trust him?"
Glenn smiled then, softly, nothing like the man from a moment ago. The warmth in his gaze was the warmth of a grandfather watching his grandson show off.
And besides…
Unlike Raden, when Raon had named his conditions he had thought of his family, not himself. There had been no protection for his own person, no compensation for himself. The more Glenn looked at the boy, the more the child grew on him.
"Roen."
"Yes."
"By any excuse you can find, cut next month's Jinmu Hall budget in half. Recall all their missions as well."
"There will be pushback."
"I don't care. Tell them to come to me if they have complaints."
"Mm. Understood."
Roen bowed, then lifted his head and looked at Glenn. Rarely, the Family Head's eyes held anger.
Well. They did touch the finger that still aches.
To Glenn, Sylvia and Raon were the sore fingers—the ones whose pain he felt as his own. Even if they were different fingers, this was not something he could forgive.
He seems to be returning to how he used to be.
Roen covered his face and smiled. Glenn looked like a grandfather taking revenge on the one who had struck his grandson, and a laugh rose on its own.
When Raon returned to the Annex, Sylvia and the maids were all waiting outside.
"Why are you all out here?"
"H-how did it go?"
Sylvia's hands, clasped in front of her chest, were trembling. Bold enough when it came to her own affairs—but when it came to her son's, she was a knot of nerves.
"We agreed to hold a sword duel in a week."
"A-a sword duel?"
"A sword duel?!"
Sylvia and Helen seized his shoulders and arms and shook him.
"I'll be dueling Raden Zieghart."
"What? What did you say?"
"No—how on earth did it turn into a sword duel…"
Their eyes swayed like sailboats slammed by a wave. The maids couldn't close their mouths. A gasp ran through them.
"I thought it through from every angle. A sword duel is the best way."
Raon met Sylvia's gaze.
"There's no better option than this."
The enemy was the direct line. They were cadet branch. To bring Raden to his knees—and to keep the Annex from taking any further damage—the only path was to fight a sword duel and earn Glenn's recognition.
"But Raon. What you saw wasn't all of Raden."
Sylvia came close and took his hand. The tremor in her fingers climbed all the way to his wrist.
"Brother Balder's weapon is the flexible sword. Raden will have learned flexible swordsmanship too. The moment he shows his true skill, he'll be a completely different person from yesterday!"
"Th-that's right, young master. The swords of Jinmu Hall are famous for their endless variations. You mustn't think of this simply. He'll be stronger than the Green Phantom you defeated!"
"He won't let his guard down this time, and your injuries haven't even healed! This won't do. I have to go to Father. If I ask him even now—"
"Mom."
Raon caught Sylvia by the shoulder as she let go of his hand and started to run for the Main House.
"It's okay. Trust me."
He smiled, faintly. Sylvia, who had been a heartbeat from bolting, turned back.
"The Family Head taught me something, you see."
"F-Father did?"
"Yeah. If I use that, I can win."
"I…"
"So the no-training clause I promised you is off."
He finished speaking and walked into the Annex. Sylvia only stood there, dazed, and could not stop him.
"My lady. N-no matter that he learned it from the Family Head, shouldn't you stop the young master?"
Helen stood beside Sylvia and swallowed dryly.
"I was going to. But when I looked into Raon's eyes, I felt a strange kind of relief."
"Mm. Truthfully, so did I…"
Helen nodded, admitting she had felt the same thing.
"Still, we can't just sit still. Let's find something we can do for Raon, even if it's small."
"Yes."
The maids bowed as one. At the very back, Judiel looked from Sylvia to the Annex Raon had entered, and her eyes gleamed.
Raon changed into training clothes in his room and headed for the Annex's open yard. The maids glanced at him as they passed. He paid them no mind.
What matters right now is the duel.
Word of the sword duel would spread fast. He had already drawn every eye in the house—so the more eyes he drew, the harder it would be for Jinmu Hall to try anything else. And for that, winning the duel would not be enough. He had to win it overwhelmingly.
"A flexible sword, huh…"
A flexible sword, put simply, was a blade that bent. The range ran from swords with a little extra spring all the way to blades that whipped and coiled as freely as a lash. There were many kinds.
The swordsmen of Jinmu Hall were the ones who took those yielding blades and wove them together with flashy swordsmanship. The higher a swordsman's skill, the more violently the flexible sword would curve. Stand before a true master of the art and you could watch them build what looked like a wall of steel.
Raden's flexible sword will have a vicious amount of spring to it.
He was the son of Jinmu Hall's lord, a man famous for the flexible sword. Raden's technique would be in a different class from ordinary flexible swordsmanship.
The thought of losing, however, did not so much as cross Raon's mind.
He had learned the Taehwa Footwork from Glenn himself. And in his previous life, he had assassinated an outstanding flexible-sword user.
Whether Raden used a flexible sword, whether he was Expert Mid-Class—none of it meant a thing.
Raon unwrapped the bandages Sylvia had forced around him and drew his sword.
He traced the Flexible Sword Art as he stepped the Garam Footwork. Movement blooming as smoothly as a single unbroken line. It was already complete, in all but name.
As he unfolded the last form of the Flexible Sword Art, Raon took a step that did not belong to the Garam Footwork. He drove his left foot forward instead of his right and kicked off the earth.
His body faded like a wisp of dust—then erupted three paces ahead like a bolt of lightning.
Even watching from the front, it looked as if he had vanished from before your eyes and reappeared.
He brought the sword down without breaking the motion. A slash that seemed to split the empty air on a diagonal—sword-qi that looked as if it would cut down anything that stood in front of it.
"Hah…"
Raon let out a breath and stopped the blade.
This is the Taehwa Footwork.
It was not a simple set of steps. It was a special footwork that could be woven into the middle of any other, creating in that instant the single most fitting movement.
The thought of fighting the enemy who had insulted Sylvia and Helen was driven into his mind like a nail, and the quality of the training seemed to rise with it. If he used this time to the fullest, he would come out of it stronger. That much was certain.
"Alright."
Raon raised his sword again and stamped his foot. He did not stop until the risen sun had melted into the dark.
The next day, Raon's routine did not change.
He was in the yard from dawn, swinging his sword, and swinging it again. Anyone watching might have asked why he kept repeating the same thing. Raon knew it was the right thing to do.
This repetition is what keeps you alive.
In a fight where your life is on the line, what saves you is not a newly learned sword art, and it is not expensive armor. The only thing that will save you is martial learning trained until it is as familiar as breathing.
Raon did not even take rest. He moved his feet and swung his sword. He wove the Taehwa Footwork into the Garam Footwork at intervals, raising his achievement in the Taehwa Footwork as well.
When lunchtime came, Judiel approached the yard with a tray covered in a white cloth.
"Young master. I've brought your lunch."
"Lunch?"
Raon stopped training and turned.
"Yes. I brought sandwiches, so you can eat simply."
He was hungry, so he sheathed his sword and sat at the table where Judiel had set the tray down.
"You've been moving until just now, so please eat slowly, so you don't get indigestion."
"Thanks."
"Yes."
Judiel bowed and returned to the Annex.
Raon wiped his hands with a damp cloth and lifted the white cloth covering the tray.
"Hm?"
Beside the plate of neatly cut sandwiches sat a thin book he had never seen before.
What's this?
He frowned slightly and picked it up. There was no title. The cover was smooth, as if it had been made that very day.
"Hah."
He opened it, looked at the contents, and let out a short, incredulous laugh. Inside were the names of the sword arts and footwork Raden Zieghart had learned, along with their characteristics—organized and arranged so perfectly they were a pleasure to read.
This book…
It clearly held remarkable information, but no matter how he looked at it, it was not something that had existed before.
She made this from scratch.
Judiel had taken what she knew of Raden and Jinmu Hall and produced this book in a single day. That much was obvious. To make something like this while still doing a maid's work—she was no ordinary woman. Leaving a talent like that as a mere spy would be a waste.
"Hmm."
Raon watched Judiel's back as she walked toward the Annex, and a faint smile touched his mouth.
"Not just more useful than I thought. She's useful beyond what I imagined."