Chapter 127 – Count Schönheim’s Estate (2)

The 30-year-old knight acting as the referee shouted.

“Begin the duel!”

Knight William. The moment the command to start the duel was given, the demeanor of the knight, who appeared to be around my age—or even younger—changed completely.

Just moments ago, he had seemed kind, even innocent. But now, he was a completely different person.

Refined mana and aura flowed from his entire body.

This mana was fundamentally different from the rough mana of free knights who had grown through real combat.

It was also vastly different from my own mana, which had become more stable after training with a swordsman.

‘Is this the true mana of a knight trained by a swordsman?’

Come to think of it, the mana of the young knight who had accompanied me to the other world as part of the advance team was similar to the knight standing before me now.

Mana cultivated through high-level swordsmanship and the mana circuits of a noble family, trained from a young age.

That young knight had also died in a minefield, but his mana itself had been impressive.

However, the knight who died in the minefield was one who had grown solely through training. He had been weak in actual combat.

As I pondered this and began to draw up my mana, the knight in front of me sighed and looked behind me.

At the same time, he moved.

Pat!

In a single step, the distance between us closed, and his voice reached me from right in front.

“I’ll take the first move!”

Unfortunately, unlike the knight who had died, the knight before me was skilled in combat.

He didn’t speak and then move; he moved first and then announced his attack.

It was impossible to tell which came first, but it didn’t matter.

Because his sword was already in front of me before his words even finished.

Swoosh!

Only then did the sound of the sword moving reach me.

It wasn’t faster than sound, but reacting to the sound was impossible.

An attack so fast that it was hard to follow with both eyes and ears.

An ordinary knight would have been finished here.

Fortunately, I possessed another sense that allowed me to perceive my opponent’s movements.

My heightened senses, activated reflexively, detected the knight’s body rushing toward me.

The sword filled with mana aimed at me was visible through mana detection.

I sidestepped and swung my sword.

Clang!

With the sound of collision, the sword was deflected.

‘Ugh.’

Perhaps because I blocked hastily, my sword was also deflected in the opposite direction.

I used the recoil from the deflected sword to continue moving backward.

The young knight didn’t stop.

He pulled back his deflected sword and chased after me as I retreated.

His reflexes were incredible.

The knight immediately closed the gap and continued to swing his sword.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

I swung my sword frantically as well.

My posture was broken, making an immediate counterattack impossible. Moreover, I was too busy blocking his sword, which was hard to follow with my eyes, to even think of countering.

Using sword aura, which required gathering mana into the sword, was out of the question.

As I swung my sword like a madman, the confidence I had built up recently began to shrink.

I thought I might not be at the level of a swordsman, but at least I could be on par with a knight captain of an ordinary knight order. Yet here I was, being pushed back by a knight around my age—or even younger.

The fact that I had been forced to defend first, and that this was a duel rather than real combat, offered no comfort.

It seemed that the skills I had honed through real combat couldn’t match those of properly trained knights.

‘Was this not about teaching the successor a lesson, but about making a fool out of me?’

Clicking my tongue inwardly, I continued to swing my sword. Then, Knight William suddenly stepped back.

His abrupt movement left me unable to pursue him.

When I looked at him in surprise, I saw an expression I hadn’t expected.

“Huff. Huff. Huff. You’re truly amazing. This is the first time since the Count that someone has blocked this attack.”

Knight William’s face was flushed as he panted heavily.

He looked at me with admiration and shook his head.

It seemed that the attack, which was too fast to follow with the eyes, could only be sustained for a short time.

It wasn’t just the knight I had fought who was surprised.

The knights who had formed a circle around us were also looking at me in astonishment.

It seemed they had all expected me to fail to block that attack.

I looked at Knight William, who was catching his breath while gripping his sword.

During the brief pause in the duel, the referee knight tried to call it off.

“It’s difficult to continue the duel, so let’s call it a draw……”

“Now it’s my turn, right?”

I interrupted before he could finish.

Since things hadn’t gone as they expected, they seemed ready to nullify the duel, but I couldn’t let that happen.

I had been too busy defending to even properly fight.

It seemed the knight in front of me felt the same way. William took a deep breath and bowed his head to me.

“Thank you for waiting.”

“Then……”

I pretended to respond while launching myself forward.

Unfortunately, William wasn’t fooled.

He blocked my full-force swing.

Clang!

He continued to parry my follow-up attacks.

Unlike me, who had relied on reflexes and heightened senses to block his sword, he deflected my strikes with fluid swordsmanship.

He redirected my downward slash and pushed my forced upward swing outward.

Again, his movements were like flowing water. That was the swordsmanship of a swordsman—no, a high noble—that I lacked.

Moreover, his movements were much more refined, making my efforts several times more strenuous and mana-consuming.

But I had more experience than I lacked in swordsmanship.

I thrust my sword into unexpected places, moved my feet to disrupt the flat terrain, and kicked up dust.

When my sword was deflected, I let go of it, threw a punch, caught the sword in mid-air with my other hand, and thrust again.

My opponent blocked all my attacks with his fluid swordsmanship, but like me earlier, he couldn’t counterattack.

Realizing that my opponent couldn’t counterattack, my movements became freer.

The mana that had been focused on my sword began to circulate within my body.

The mana, which had always moved along my mana circuits, began to move on its own.

It raced through nerves and blood vessels I didn’t know existed, as if drawing a new mana circuit within my body.

The rough mana gradually changed. My stiff movements also became smoother.

I could see William’s face contorting more and more.

Little by little, William’s sword couldn’t keep up with my movements.

Lines were drawn on his armor, and William began to retreat.

The world seemed to fade away, and my mind sank deeper into my body.

‘No, not now.’

I felt as though I was about to enter a trance like before, but I forcibly pulled myself back.

If I lost myself during the duel, an accident could happen.

And right now, I needed to remember the path the mana was taking.

The mana was now moving within my sword as it did within my body.

As if the sword had its own mana circuit. Perhaps because it was a training sword, there was still some discomfort, but it didn’t matter.

Because I thought I understood how Count Schönheim had unleashed his sword aura so freely.

Sword aura wasn’t something you shot outward.

You just had to circulate it outside the sword, just as it moved within the sword.

It was impossible with this sword, and my mana control wasn’t sufficient to do it immediately, but even now, I thought I could mimic it.

The sword glowed, and mana began to emanate from it.

Mana that others couldn’t see gradually grew from the tip of the sword.

I swung the sword with all my might.

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, I was flung backward.

The recoil was tremendous.

The sword in my hand shattered, and I was thrown back more than 10 meters.

Startled, I looked ahead and saw an elderly man in formal attire standing in front of Knight William, holding a sword.

He clicked his tongue as he looked at me, who had been thrown back.

“Using sword aura in a duel? Were you trying to kill my successor?”

I recognized the person who spoke.

“My lord!”

Seeing him, all the surrounding knights knelt on one knee.

The old man who had blocked my path was the master of this estate, the swordsman Count Schönheim.

He had been watching from the second-floor window of the mansion just moments ago. When had he rushed over to block my path?

As expected of a swordsman.

Even though it was during a duel, I hadn’t noticed him until he stood in front of me.

Whether he had moved too fast for me to notice, or he had some way to deceive my senses.

Either way, it was astonishing.

“Truly impressive. It hasn’t been long since we parted, and yet you’ve grown even more.”

The Count, who had been looking at me with admiration, checked his sword and frowned.

His sword had a chip in one spot.

It was a flaw that had appeared when he blocked my sword aura.

Ignoring the Count’s praise, I apologized to Knight William.

“I’m sorry. I went too far with my attack during the duel.”

Even though it was the swordsman who had caused all this and created this situation, I was the one who had to apologize now.

After all, as the Count said, I had almost unleashed sword aura during a duel.

I had tried so hard to keep my focus, but it seemed I had been overwhelmed by the mana.

“No, no. I was the one who requested the duel, and though it was on my master’s orders, I was the one who rushed in first. I’m more at fault.”

As expected.

Knight William didn’t seem like the type of knight who would make such a sneaky first move.

Earlier, he had sighed while looking at the mansion, and it seemed he had received the Count’s orders at that time.

The Count, who had been clicking his tongue while stroking his sword, flicked his ear at his prospective son-in-law’s words.

“Thanks to that, we were able to confirm it, weren’t we? I told you, didn’t I? If it’s a skilled knight or a sturdy monster, that technique will be blocked.”

At the Count’s words, William sighed.

“It was a technique I couldn’t use for long anyway. It was too dangerous to use in a duel.”

The Count snorted at William’s words.

“It was blocked just fine, so what’s the problem?”

I realized I had misunderstood.

Listening to the Count, it seemed that, as I had initially thought, he had set up the duel between William and me to teach his successor.

But then, when the Count spoke to me, I understood the truth.

“A bit disappointing. This isn’t a bad result, but……. Still, it would have been better if you had lost.

If you had lost, I could have used that as an excuse to train you, or if you had been injured, I could have kept you here longer.”

The Count’s scheme was neither of the two.

No, he didn’t care either way.

It didn’t matter to him whether I won or Knight William won.

Either way, he had nothing to lose.

I could only click my tongue at the swordsman’s cunning.

His scheming was more frightening than his sword.

The Count had the kneeling knights rise.

Then he spoke to them.

“You’ve all seen what a knight who’s been through real combat is like, haven’t you? Knights like this aren’t common, but everyone should stay sharp.”

“Yes, sir!”

After hearing the knights’ response, he turned to the older knight who had been the referee.

“And, Head Knight Harvey, you’ll have extra evening training. I put you in charge of managing the knight order, but you’ve become too political. We need people like that, but don’t forget you’re a knight.”

It seemed the Count wasn’t pleased with the knight who had tried to stop the duel midway.

“I’ll be more careful.”

At the Count’s words, Knight Harvey bowed his head with a stiff expression.

After finishing his lecture, he turned to me, who was standing there dumbfounded.

“Ah, I’ve kept my guest standing. Let’s go inside.”

After not treating me as a guest until now, what was he talking about?

When I looked at him skeptically, the Count chuckled and said to me.

“Sorry. This habit of stirring up trouble when things are going well doesn’t go away with age. As an apology, I’ll introduce you to a good blacksmith. You’ll like him.”

At the Count’s words, all the frustration I had built up disappeared.

A blacksmith introduced by the empire’s swordsman.

This wasn’t something money could buy.