The First Letter (5)

  The two, a man and a woman, stood with their swords, paying no heed to the whispers and chatter in the background. Professor Derek accepted the sudden request for a duel with a wide grin on his face.

  It was on the condition of not using a true sword, but that alone was enough to clearly show the difference in skill. A good craftsman never blames his tools.

  Of course, it was not without interference. It was because a beautiful girl with dark hair neatly tied behind her back broke in.

  She immediately slapped Ian on the back with her palm. A look of irritation was visible to anyone who saw her face, as she hurled curses..

  “Hey hey hey! Fuck, are you crazy?! That, Lady Yurdina? I think Ian oppa is out of his mind….”

  “Celine, fear not. I’ll be fine.”

  “No, what the hell is wrong with you!?”

  The black-haired girl screamed like that, but the man’s expression didn’t change at all. Seria was a little envious of that.

  It must have been a blessing to have someone who truly cares about you. It would have been nice if he accepted the advice coming from such a precious friend.

  Unfortunately, Ian seemed unwilling to accept the advice of his close friend. So now he and Seria are alone, facing each other with a sword in hand.

  I was confident. Seria gave up everything except the sword. That’s how she managed to achieve all of her results.

  The degree of diligence differed from someone who trained in a drunken state. It was natural. For her, the sword was like a matter of survival.

  So Seria didn’t doubt her victory. However, there was one thing that bothered her.

  That strange sword she saw this morning.

 
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  Recalling the memories of that time, Seria’s grip on the wooden hilt naturally tightened. Tension flashed in her calm eyes.

  Was it really a mistake? At that time, Seria was overwhelmed by his sword for a while. No matter how much Ian looked like a pathetic senior who drank alcohol, this place was the ‘Leaf Academy.’

  Everyone had at least one ace in the hole. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to survive in the academy.

  Seria’s sapphire-like eyes were lit with a cautious spark. Her gaze scanned Ian’s every nook and cranny.

  He had a composed attitude. A comfortable posture without even having pulled out his sword from its scabbard. He almost seemed like he would yawn in boredom.

  Grinding her teeth, Seria had to calm her rage once more.

  After all, it was a battle between two swordsmen, two knights. There was such a thing as the minimum etiquette one should show to their opponent. Although she had said some rude words unintentionally, she didn’t remember showing an attitude of ignoring others in a duel.

  Her eyes turned cold. She gripped the hilt and took a stance as if she was about to charge at him.

  If your opponent has an ace in the hole, the best move is only one.

  Destroying the opponent before he can use it. 

  Fortunately, Seria had an incredible leg strength that, enhanced with magic, was capable of overwhelming the opponent with her explosive speed as soon as the duel started..

  Her long experience of fighting with beasts gave her such an answer. Her muscles tightened.

  Professor Derek glanced at Ian, who had not even unsheathed his sword yet, and then heaved a deep sigh. It was a look that already showed the result.

  He seemed to think that Ian was bluffing, wanting to save his face as a senior. However, he was not kind enough to give advice to students who couldn’t distinguish between courage and arrogance.

  Everything is learned through the body. Following that belief, he immediately announced the start of Duel.

  “Well then, let’s start!”

 
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  And the next moment, heavy reverberation echoed through the training hall,

  The space was compressed, along with a cracking noise. As the landscape flowed just like a torrent, the surrounding was reduced into vibrant trajectories.

  The bang that follows when breaking through the sound barrier.

  It was the moment when her tightened muscles flung Seria’s body like an arrow. Seria was already in front of Ian’s face in an instant. The slash of the blunt wooden sword was on the verge of being locked on the man’s neck.

  Even if the blade wasn’t sharp, if you were to allow a blow on a vital point, it could lead to serious injury. So Seria was thinking of turning the sword to his stomach at the last moment.

  Until an unpleasant click of the tongue, an unpleasant squeaking noise, passed her ear.

  It was a lightning bolt. The man’s wooden sword instantly slashed and diverted Seria’s sword.

  Her center of gravity swayed as she faltered.

Grab- 

  Her body was pulled forward.

  The man was holding her sword’s blade in his palm without a moment of hesitation.

  It was possible that his palm would be torn. But he was controlling the flow of power in such a way that it didn’t happen. Soon afterwards, he flung her away. 

  After being flung away, the figure of the girl rolled to the ground. She saw what had happened, but couldn’t understand it at all

Seria looked up at the sky with her back to the floor, blinking her eyes.

 He shouldn’t have any hope of winning.

  In terms of strength and magical power, she was ahead. She even took the initiative. But somehow, it was she who was rolling on the floor.

  At the sight of something that was not bound to common sense, murmurs and laughter echoed in the surrounding.

  Those who were surprised, those who were amused, and those who were laughing at her.

  Everyone seemed to think that this resulted from her carelessness. And soon, Seria began to believe that too.

  It shouldn’t be like this. Why is my sword being defeated so easily?

  She devoted her whole life to the path of swords. She never touched wine. Even though she was a genius, she never stopped working harder.

  Only then would she be able to defeat the shadow that had cast over her for her entire life. ‘Yurdina’s Brightest Sun’, the Golden Lion, the guardian of the North, her enemy and her step-sister.

  “Do you want to continue?”

  An indifferent voice struck Seria’s ears like thunder. Hearing that, Seria came to her senses and immediately got up while grinding her teeth.

  She staggered a bit, probably due to the impact caused by rolling on the ground, but she was still fine. Because she hasn’t let go of her sword yet.

 The deep blue eyes turned to Ian once again. She walked back to the position opposite to him before she knew it.

  “……Yes, please.”

  That resolute voice let out of her grinding teeth. It seemed clear to anyone that Seria was going to take it seriously from now on.

 
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  But Ian just nodded his head as if he didn’t care.

  It was the attitude of being in absolute control. Seria couldn’t stand it any longer.

  Another leap. It was enough to narrow the distance. However, Seria was not foolish enough to repeat her previous failed strategy.

  At first, she drew her sword too straightforwardly, having put too much emphasis on speed. Her opponent was not straightforward, rather he was akin to a sly fox. A dangerous opponent who knew how to use his enemy’s strength against themselves and could grip her sword with his bare hand.

  So she had to be cautious. Her leap stopped a little further away from the man. And the slash that followed.

  She hid the sword until the last moment. Perhaps because he couldn’t figure out the trajectory in advance, the man responded with an upward swing

  It was the right response at the right time. It would have worked if the man’s opponent wasn’t Seria Yurdina.

  Bang, a shock wave akin to an explosion resounded. The sword attack, strengthened with high-density magic, had a terrifying power even without being adorned with aura.

  The man’s wooden sword was diverted towards the sky, and naturally he was wide open. It was proof of Seria’s superiority in the amount of magical power.

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t make him let go of his sword out of his hand, but her opponent was now defenseless. Seria sensed her incoming victory.

  Yes, of course, this is how things should be. She devoted her whole life to the way of the sword. That earnest effort earned her the title of a genius. All of that couldn’t possibly be denied so easily now.

  However, when Seria struck down the wooden sword again, naturally linking her motions like water flowing.

Schwing-

 Her sword slashed through the air.

  “Smack,” the man’s wooden sword smashed into her abdomen. Several gasps leaked out of Seria’s mouth, accompanied by intense pain.

  She was struck by a sudden blow at her vital point and rolled over and over again on the floor. It was a blow strengthened with magical power. In terms of power, she was superior, but her opponent was also a third-year student of the academy.

  He had at least the power to strike away the lean body of a girl like a bouncy ball. A groan escaped from Seria’s mouth, who allowed such a blow.

  She gasped and tried to catch her breath.

  She didn’t even know how much pain she was going through. It hurt so much that she cried. She couldn’t breathe properly, and a sharp pain passed through each of her nerves in the spinal cord.

  A tingling pain surged over her body. She realized that she had inadvertently let go of her wooden sword. She could never allow that.

  In the midst of that excruciating pain, Seria staggered and grabbed her wooden sword again. The murmurs tickled her ears again.

  If the buzzing of the past was a response to her losing face, the murmurs now were mixed with awkwardness.

  An unexpected result that no one expected.

  It was inevitable that they would be surprised. They were slowly noticing that something strange was going on.

  It didn’t matter. It was Seria who lived her whole life without paying heed to other people’s gaze.

  Just now, her mind was doing her best to replay the previous events.

  How the hell did he do it?

 
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  It made no sense. His posture faltered. However, he struck her sword with only a few slashes, as if it was supposed to be natural, and he hacked her abdomen with his sword, avoiding the direction Seria’s sword was directed to.

  She didn’t know. And it’s human instinct to fear the unknown. In addition to the intense pain she experienced for a long time, Seria’s eyes turned towards Ian with a slight sense of fear.

  Without a word, he walked back to the area opposite of Seria. And standing there, he looked down at Seria again.

  Eyes inquiring what I wanted to do. Seria clenched her teeth, and staggered up.

  She was panting. Still, Seria again raised her sword.

  “…… Again, please.”

  However, no matter how many times she fought, the results didn’t change.

  Seria was sure she was about to win again and again, but it was always her who went rolling on the floor the next moment. It would have been better if it only ended with her rolling on the floor.

  She was hit in the temple with the side of the sword, kicked in the abdomen, and her arms and legs were stabbed dozens of times, so she certainly didn’t feel good.

  After several duels, blood gushed out of Seria’s mouth. Her gums bursted from the accumulated impacts.

  And after a few more bouts, Seria vomited pale yellow gastric fluid.

  When the last duel was over, Seria couldn’t even get up. Her whole body was full of wounds.

  She was fractured in multiple places. The excruciating pain dulled the sensations in her limbs. Her vision turned blurry, and she couldn’t even breathe properly. She didn’t even know she had a lung injury.

  It was after several duels had already been repeated that the noise subsided.

  They were overwhelmed by the ruthless violence, the countless brutalities inflicted on that  fragile girl’s body, not even able to properly rebel against her aggressor.

  Broken, torn, and bleeding. Nonetheless, Ian mechanically swung his wooden sword.

  Each time, a scream echoed, flesh and blood were splattered. Seria’s body, who had collapsed after allowing that final blow, was convulsing.

  Even Professor Derek, who was in charge of restraining such situations, had a pale face and couldn’t easily open his mouth. A case where a human wields such vicious violence against someone of his own species was a rare sight that even a legendary monster hunter and adventurer like himself had rarely seen.

  Only Ian was calm. He strolled towards Seria, who was now drenched in blood and couldn’t even speak properly. That alone made Seria’s instinct scream.

  Run away, I have to run away. 

  Seria’s body, subjected to such brutality, couldn’t even pose the slightest amount of resistance, was trembling regardless of her will.

  Seeing Seria like that, Ian spoke softly.

  “Get up, Seria Yurdina.”

  Hearing those words, Seria’s body stiffened.

  Is it still not enough? I did my best. Still, this is an opponent I can’t win against.

  Her body was screaming constantly. Please stop. That man is an unparalleled monster. If I keep going like this, I’ll die.

  Seria’s trembling eyes turned to Ian. He was as impassive as he was at the beginning.

   “It’s a pain that you will have to go through countless times in the future. Are you going to break down like this every time then?”

  She didn’t even dare to meet the man’s gaze and avoided her eyes. Her eyes trembled sadly along with her body. Even tears rolled down her eyes.

  She was scared to get up. There was a limit to determination. If you get up anyway, you’ll just have to fall again. No matter how arrogant and proud of a swordsman she was, after all she was just a young girl who had recently turned 20.

  In the end, it was Professor Derek who spoke. He was watching the duel in a daze, and immediately rushed to scream.

  “Stop! The duel is over! Seria is already seriously injured. The duel is now over!”

  Professor Derek started trudging towards Ian and Seria. His intervention was late, but it didn’t pose that much of a problem, thanks to the presence of high-ranking priests in the academy who could heal any serious injury in a week.

  If left to the Saintess, who was still in her third year, Seria’s wounds were at a level that could be healed within a few days. However, psychological scars are a separate issue altogether.

  As Professor Derek approached, Ian, who had been staring at him for a moment, turned his gaze back to Seria.

  He asked again.

  “So, what are you going to do?”

  Hearing those words, Seria almost cried. What am I going to do? Of course.

  Of course, I want to give up.

  Frightened, my trembling body didn’t listen. The muscles groaned. A body that barely moves with magical power. Even the bones weren’t left unharmed.

  Many times, I couldn’t control my body and fell over.

  Even when my body was in good shape, I wasn’t able to win. There was no way I could win now. Even though she knew it all, Seria got up using the wooden sword as a staff.

  The arm holding the wooden sword trembled. Even now, whenever she met the man’s gaze, her blood would freeze. Still, she couldn’t give up.

  Because the sword was her life. If she let it go like this and give up.

  There would be one more shadow that she wouldn’t be able to remove from her life. she couldn’t stand it.

  Seria took a deep breath and raised up her sword, her body tilting and almost faltering, but she still didn’t let go of her sword.

  At that display of sheer will, Professor Derek, who was walking to mediate the duel, stopped moving. Anyone would have

  If anyone had seen Seria’s blue eyes that were burning cold right now, anyone would.

  “Again, uh… Again, please.”

  Even with Seria’s determination, only the man was neither surprised nor full of admiration. He only nodded his head a couple of times, as if he already knew.

  “…… Indeed. If it’s Seria Yurdina, that’s how it should be.”

  And his sword, again without mercy, struck Seria’s body.

  Her body flew through the sky and rolled to the floor. It had already happened several times during the duel. However, the difference in this blow was that the accumulation of hits reached the breaking point.

  Her blurred consciousness seemed to be about to extinguish itself like a flickering candle. Seria breathed in through her narrowed field of vision and fumbled with her hand, trying to grab the hilt of the sword somehow.

  But the sword was too far away, and sleep was too close to her.

  However, before she fainted, she heard the man’s voice.

  “Since you only dealt with magical beasts, your movements are too straightforward.”

  What does it mean?

  Her consciousness was engulfed in darkness.

  This was the end of the ‘Breaking Yurdina’s Sword Incident’ that shook the academy for the past week.

****

  After hearing everything Celine had to say, I had no choice but to remain silent.

  The gist of the story was that I had avoided all the Seria’s sword slashes and even  counterattacked to the extent she was turned into a living corpse. She said something truly astounding. 

  She even threw up and told her to get up again after she collapsed?

  “…… Are you kidding me?”

  “I wish I was joking too. At that time, Ian oppa was like a ruffian.”

  I jumped on the spot at Celine’s somber reply. It was such a violent reaction that I forgot that everyone was watching me.

  “No, it’s not like a ruffian, it’s just utter trash itself! Who would trash a kid who collapsed and can’t move huh!?”

  “Yeah, so guys like Thean are trying to get involved with you.”

  Celine looked at me with pity with her arms crossed. It was a look of compassion, as if watching a cat dying on the street with its gut spilled.

  She quietly shook her head.

  “Are you fine now? Anyway, it’s a crime that Ian oppa committed, so pay for it cleanly. Now that I think about it, how many of your lives will be needed to pay off that crime?”

  “No, but I wasn’t in me at that time?!”

  I defended myself like that with a frustrated heart, but Celine and I knew that the excuse would never work. Of course, it wouldn’t work even more for Seria.

  The situation was more serious than expected. At this rate, even if I were to be killed by Seria, I would have nothing to say.

  I moaned, wondering if there was anything useful in what I had just heard.

  Then, all of a sudden, the last thing that crossed my mind was the words I uttered.

  “…… Hey, what did I say?”

  “What?”

  Celine, who had put her hands together and prayed for my well-being, tilted her head at my sudden question. However, in an emergency, I put my hands on Celine’s shoulder and pulled her towards me, then raised her chin with my hand.

  It was to show my strong will. Then, startled, Celine’s face turned red as she avoided my gaze while fidgeting.

  “Wh-Why are you doing this all of a sudden…….”

   “In the end. What did I say to Seria who collapsed?”

  “That?”

  Celine asked back, whether it was because she was troubled by my question or because of my coercion, and immediately agonized over it. After pondering for a moment, she found the answer I was looking for among those unbelievable memories.

  “Hey, what was it? You said, ‘Since you only dealt with magical beasts, your movements are too straightforward’…….”

  “Yes, that’s it!”

  With admiration, I finally let go of the hand that was holding Celine’s shoulder. Celine blushed and hesitatingly stared at me with slightly dissatisfied eyes as I pushed her away.

  She asked with a smirk, as if it was ridiculous.

  “You know what that means?”

  “……No, How could I?”

  As if she knew my answer beforehand, Celine shook her head. But contrary to what she thought, I was telling the truth.

  “But I have to find out, somehow……,”

  Otherwise, I’m destined to die.

  It was almost certain that she would apply for the duel once more during today’s lecture. It was an opportunity to overcome her trauma and piece together her shattered pride due to the devastating defeat she suffered back then.

  So I didn’t have time now. I had to prepare for the duel with her.

  In order to take responsibility for something that he didn’t remember, he desperately racked his brains.

  Until morning, I thought it was a normal day, but how the hell did this happen?

  I sighed inwardly, but I couldn’t help it.

  Seria’s sapphire-like eyes were still giving me a piercing glare.