Northern Grand Duke, Richard Pierce (3)
Northern Grand Duke, Richard Pierce (3)
The air shrieked as I lunged forward, tearing through it.
The Lunar, which I had been holding like a staff, had now fully become a sword.
It was a sudden strike, aiming to catch my opponent off guard.
But.
—Tzzzzt!
Richard simply brought his sword down, calm as could be, and blocked.
As simple as brushing away dust.
Clang!
Deflected by Richard's block, my sword slammed helplessly into the floor.
A fragment of the Lunar, shattered under Richard's force, grazed the edge of my cheek.
A trickle.
Hot blood welled from the open wound.
Richard's eyes gleamed fiercely as he watched.
"A blood scent with a remarkably deep flavor."
I lifted a hand and wiped my cheek.
Just ordinary blood, thick with the iron tang of metal.
'What's so great about this that you're so obsessed?'
I'd almost been tempted to taste it, but instead flicked my hand and shook it off.
The transparent frost on the floor stained red.
"Eat the other humans. There are plenty of corpses here."
"Even combined, they could never match your worth."
A flicker of madness flashed across Richard's otherwise cold face.
'...In fantasy, Northern Grand Dukes are usually arrogant, obsessive lunatics.'
Only now did that classic genre cliché surface in my mind.
Had I really just recklessly agreed to submit completely if I couldn't kill the bastard in seven moves?
That was before I'd seen those gleaming, desire-filled eyes.
Oddly, an image of myself chained up in some lightless place, my blood being drained, drifted through my mind.
"Tch."
I shook my head sharply.
The condition didn't matter anyway.
Seven moves—no. I had six left, and with them I would dig into Richard's most fatal weakness.
I looked down at the sword stuck in the ground.
Right beside it, Sharon Pierce lay fallen, her pupils unfocused.
Unlike the other corpses with frost on their wounds, hers was a clean puncture.
"......"
Without a word, I reshaped the Lunar embedded next to her and pulled it out.
"You have quite an interesting way of fighting."
"I didn't expect you to block that."
"Pretending to be a mage, lulling your opponent into carelessness, then delivering a strike. Recognizing and exploiting your strengths—that is also skill."
"Thank you for the high praise."
Richard and I put distance between ourselves.
Yergina, who had been watching, furrowed her brow.
'Richard's toying with him.'
It might look like praise, but it wasn't.
In a one-on-one fight, teaching your opponent is the ultimate contempt.
It means you see through everything about them.
And Richard had indeed done exactly that.
After just one exchange, he had grasped everything about Ian—from his abilities to his combat style.
The gap was that overwhelming.
But the gap wasn't because Ian was weak.
It was because Richard Pierce was strong.
'Overwhelmingly so.'
What had shaken Yergina was that Ian had lunged at Richard the moment he emerged from the spatial rift.
His dantian was clearly wrecked to the point of near-total collapse.
She had believed there was some chance of victory, but it was hopeless.
Even Yergina—a Northern powerhouse who had reached the 5-Star rank—found Richard Pierce far beyond reach.
In fact, given how many humans he had devoured, it was strange that he wasn't even more unreachable.
That was why Yergina kept watching Ian anxiously, her heart in her throat.
'You must have noticed the gap too.'
Ian was a clever child.
He would know Richard's strength.
At the very least, he must have felt it vividly from that last blow.
Ian's strike was so fast that even Yergina would have barely blocked it, but Richard had simply swatted it aside like a fly.
'What on earth are you aiming for, Ian?'
Yergina swallowed dryly.
The fact that Ian had provoked Richard, using himself as the wager to secure seven attacks, clearly meant he had something in mind.
And it wouldn't be another simple surprise attack like before.
Six moves remained.
All she could do was watch, hoping Ian had a way to bring that monster down.
◆
For warriors, the first exchange is always a probe.
They cross weapons to gauge one another's strength, and in extreme cases, they can sense who will win and lose.
Richard had sensed victory.
No—he had always been strong, so it was more like he'd merely confirmed the obvious.
However.
'It's beginning to boil.'
His heart, which had always seemed frozen, began to beat.
Richard had kept his composure even after falling into a worthless trap and having his dantian destroyed.
But right now, his heartbeat was steadily accelerating.
The reason?
The reason was obvious.
The only thing different from before was one boy.
Ian Blackangus. It was him.
Ian's strike just now had been truly astonishing.
A staff or a sword?
Richard had judged Ian a mage, but the moment Ian transformed his staff into a sword in an instant, doubt had crept in.
And after that, it had been even more incredible.
Without any footwork or notable mana manipulation, Ian had stepped into the air and lunged straight at him.
A knight is supposed to respond by focusing on the opponent's feet; some even fight by watching only the feet.
If Richard hadn't long since transcended such a level, he might have been in danger.
'If.'
How long had it been since he had entertained such a hypothetical in his mind?
'I should be restoring my dantian first, yet I can't take my eyes off you.'
What lay before his eyes was talent.
A lump of raw talent.
A talent so deep and dazzling that he could understand why the Blood Witch was so obsessed.
'But at the same time.'
He wanted to swallow it whole.
The blood scent wafting from the cut on his cheek was incomparably rich.
He wanted to absorb all of it, savoring that uniquely human, raw, fleshy aroma.
Originally, he had intended to do the same with his own children who carried his noble blood, but now they had slipped from his interest.
Look at that being of another dimension.
He would savor the flavor and devour it slowly.
The family storehouse was unharmed, so it was a fitting occasion to bring out a well-aged wine.
A gleam of desire began to settle in Richard's eyes.
The mask he had kept so infinitely cold was melting away.
But he held back, just once.
For now.
He was merely humoring the little one's game.
It was a kind of searing. Waiting for the feast to ripen a little longer wasn't difficult.
Richard put his mask back on.
That was what Richard felt during the first exchange with Ian.
And so he asked.
"Very well. What did you feel from that first move?"
I silently raised the corners of my mouth.
'There's absolutely no way I'm telling you I've found the clue to conquering the final boss.'
I had known Richard would block it.
The first move was a planned strike.
I had wanted to see Richard's response.
And the result.
I had confirmed a low-probability success—just a tiny fragment of it.
At the same time, that middle-aged man's eyes had definitely turned rather dangerous... but anyway.
For me, that was enough for the first move.
I had confirmed the possibility of success.
Richard Pierce was overwhelmingly strong?
So what?
He was the final boss of a scenario; that was only natural.
All I had to do was target his weaknesses.
First, the biggest puzzle.
Why was that Northern Grand Duke so utterly calm despite his shattered dantian?
And with that first move, I had confirmed the reason.
The remaining moves would be devoted to exploiting it.
Or rather, it was less exploitation and more persuasion.
I had just one wish.
'Realize it as late as possible.'
I only hoped that the damned final boss would catch on to what I was doing as late as possible.
Swish.
I shaped the Lunar into a sword once more.
It was somewhat smaller than before, but I didn't care.
The swordsmanship I had learned was like a winter tree shedding all its leaves before beginning; I had started by discarding everything.
I straightened my stance.
"......"
Ignoring Richard's cold silence, I focused on my posture and my mind.
It was time to recall the swordsmanship taught by my master.
Her movements.
Her values.
With all her teachings, I brought the sword down.
Scrape.
Richard blocked it effortlessly, without a flicker of expression.
This sword wasn't even a strike to begin with.
It was far too textbook—a simple downward slash.
"......"
But Richard's reaction was different from before.
His brow furrowed in an instant.
"A clumsy heart-sword."
"Yes."
"Thus, it's a sword that does not seek to cut me."
A quick-witted middle-aged man.
In a flash, murderous intent seeped from him.
"You're not ignoring me, I trust."
"No."
"Then what are you trying to cut?"
"......"
At my silence, Richard's gaze dropped.
His cold eyes swept briefly over Sharon Pierce, lying crumpled on the ground, then rose again.
"You noticed?"
"Yes."
"......"
Richard fell silent.
The bloodlust pouring from him confirmed his fury.
Well, that was understandable.
Because Richard now realized that I had noticed his greatest weakness.
'Why is this so complicated?'
Anyway.
Richard's weakness was this.
With his dantian destroyed, he was currently drawing on Sharon's dantian.
I didn't know the method. I could only guess it was connected to the technique that had once allowed him to swallow the snowy plains and use them as his own dantian.
This was exactly why I had been confident in front of Richard.
The difficulty was shrinking.
Not a fight against Richard, but a fight against Sharon Pierce.
If I destroyed Sharon's dantian, Richard would be finished too.
Which meant the chilling madness blazing in Richard's eyes was not for nothing.
And in that situation, I spoke boldly.
"Please keep your promise to take seven attacks."
"You are, as always, an amusing one."
"Someone like you, Lord Richard, wouldn't be unable to protect that girl Sharon, would you?"
"True. So it is. However."
Richard's eyes burned with a fierce red light.
"My conditions have also changed. After the remaining five attacks, I will swallow you whole. I will barely keep you alive, so it does not violate your condition of wanting to be kept alive somehow."
Damn it.
'I knew it.'
So he really meant to eat me.
Sure enough, a lot of Northern Grand Dukes are complete lunatics.
I swallowed dryly.
"Furthermore. From now on."
Richard's murderous intent crystallized into frost, freezing the surroundings in an instant.
"After your attacks, I will counterattack as well."
"Isn't that going too far?"
Instead of answering, Richard's finger twitched once.
That was all, but a deep, penetrating chill shot down my spine.
I threw myself sideways immediately.