Chapter 22: The Swordmaster’s Trial

Seongbaek’s mansion lay beyond the Intezeron walls.

I had assumed it meant near the slums outside the walls and was startled, but it turned out one had to cross the nearby plains and delve deep into the forest.

“Isn’t it normal for an officer-mage to live in a mansion on First Street?”

Sir Dande answered.

“They say a wide training ground was necessary, so there was no choice.”

“I don’t know what they plan to do if they encounter thieves or beasts in such a place.”

The deep forest was dark as night even in daylight.

The memory of being ambushed by thieves while heading to sign a treaty with the imperial family came to mind, so I kept watch out the window.

But Sir Liam smiled faintly at my words.

“I told you, didn’t I? He’s someone who earned an honorary officer position with swordsmanship alone. There are neither beasts nor thieves around here.”

Sir Dande added.

“Moreover, nobles preparing for the officer-mage exam frequent this path. What thief would want to linger nearby?”

I nodded and continued.

“Have you been here before? You seem to know it well.”

Sir Dande shook his head.

“I always wanted to come but couldn’t, so I looked into this and that out of greed.”

Sir Liam raised one finger and went on.

“We’re not people he would meet. We’re tagging along with Young Master to steal some teachings.”

“W-what are you saying?”

Sir Dande added a word.

“It’s the truth. Please forgive this thieving knight.”

“Wait. ‘This’ thieving knight? You’re a thieving knight too right now! Why are you talking like you’re not tagging along?”

Sir Liam demanded of Sir Dande.

I stifled a giggle.

Up ahead, a high brick wall came into view.

When we alighted from the carriage, the one following us stopped as well.

From that carriage stepped the two young nobles.

As if balancing each other out, one was lanky, the other stout.

They looked around with sour faces and brushed off their clothes tap-tap.

“I don’t know why Seongbaek lives in such a backwater.”

“I feel like bugs will come out. I absolutely hate it.”

“Let’s learn quickly and leave. It’s regrettable I couldn’t learn the sword from your father.”

“Yes. Father is so heartless. How could he send us to such a remote mountain valley.”

The plump young noble sighed.

At that moment, a knight who had spotted us approached.

“Go up to your rooms, unpack, change clothes, and come to the training ground.”

A knight who appeared to be Seongbaek’s disciple guided us.

Once inside the walls, I roughly understood the layout.

Atop the hill stood the mansion where Seongbaek actually resided, and below it lay a wide training ground.

Beside the training ground stood several three- or four-story dormitories.

They were lodgings for those staying while learning swordsmanship.

“I’ll be down soon.”

Dande and Liam were on the second floor; I and the two young nobles were on the fourth.

“I really don’t know why we have to learn swordsmanship.”

The skinny noble complained the whole way up.

Should I kick him?

He wouldn’t die from rolling down the stairs with that bloodline.

I forcibly ignored the inner voice.

“Well. Swordsmanship is what blue-bloods who can’t use magic learn instead of magic.”

The stout noble chimed in.

It was after Sir Liam and Sir Dande had disappeared on the second floor.

“You two.”

I turned and looked down at them.

“I’m not sure whether to praise you for not badmouthing swordsmanship in front of my teachers, or scold you for waiting until they left to start complaining.”

“If possible, praise would be nice.”

The skinny noble grinned.

I forcibly ignored the urge to crush that face with my heel.

“Why is a clear-blood young master fussing over two mere knights?”

The stout one stepped forward as if restraining the skinny one.

“Then do you think I’m a mage?”

When I brushed off his so-called mediation, his face soured.

“See you at the training ground.”

I hope there’s sparring time.

I shook them off and headed to my room.

***

At the very bottom layer of the training ground carved into the slope like wide steps, about thirty young nobles gathered.

I stood in the rearmost row, and the two knights who followed me slyly stuck behind me to avoid the nobles’ gazes.

Instead of the ornate clothes they had worn all their lives, the nobles wore shabby, easy-to-move-in attire.

At the waists of those who had only ever held silver knives hung blunted iron swords.

“Elder Seongbaek is coming out.”

The knight who seemed his disciple shouted loudly.

From between dense foliage with broad leaves, an old man walked out.

His shoulders were broad, his forearms thick—one could tell at a glance he was a man of physical labor.

Yet unlike that sturdy body, his eyes were lifeless and sunken.

His hair was lusterless white, lacking the vitality unique to blue blood.

A timely breeze blew the old man’s hair and beard.

I felt a transience like falling petals.

“T-that’s the greatest swordsman of Intezeruto?”

I couldn’t hide my surprise.

Wrinkled forehead, sagging skin, dull hair—everything felt awkward.

The blue bloods of the main family didn’t age that severely even with years.

Having rarely left the castle, I had never seen a red-blood elder.

But what shocked me more than that was his gaze.

Clouded blue eyes.

Like Ribelia once was, no vitality could be felt.

I wasn’t the only one bewildered; Sir Dande and Sir Liam exchanged glances.

“Is that really Elder Seongbaek?”

“His body clearly shows he’s trained in the sword.”

The young nobles wore expressions as if they’d seen a ghost.

At this moment, I understood them.

Having lived enjoying the vitality and long youth of blue blood to the fullest, they might be seeing someone with such an aura for the first time.

“Why do you wish to learn the sword?”

It took a few seconds to realize he was speaking to me.

“Y-yes?”

Seongbaek, standing on the platform, looked at me in the back row.

The gazes of the surrounding young nobles focused on me again.

“Young Master is of pureblood birth, isn’t he? You could live in luxury just doing administrative work, seeding, or bloodletting. Why take up the sword?”

Hearing it, more than half nodded in agreement.

The young nobles looked at me with questioning eyes.

“Well. He would have lived better if he’d stayed quiet.”

“Is it the shock of being deposed from succession?”

“I heard there was something with Lady Temeratia.”

I debated whether to speak honestly or gloss over it.

Sir Dande and Sir Liam looked at me too.

“It’s not yet time to reveal Young Master’s ambition. Just brush it off suitably.”

Sir Dande whispered.

“Proclaim Young Master’s spirit to the world. The grand dream of becoming a knight-noble everyone acknowledges!”

Sir Liam whispered.

I closed my eyes tight, opened them, and looked at Seongbaek.

“I wish to stand on the battlefield and reclaim dignity.”

“You wish to stand on the battlefield without being a mage?”

“Is it only mages who stand on the battlefield?”

Seongbaek looked at Sir Dande and Sir Liam standing beside me.

He regarded me with bitter eyes.

“I understand well what you mean.”

He gestured and called his disciples.

“Prepare it.”

The knights brought wooden pillars thicker than a man’s torso and placed one in front of each young noble.

The young nobles stirred.

“What are we supposed to do with these?”

“Surely he doesn’t mean just keep hitting them?”

Sir Dande and Sir Liam’s faces turned yellow.

“I hoped never to do this again.”

“Damn wooden pillars.”

Seongbaek recited as if chanting.

“Carve down the wooden pillar completely with that iron sword. It’s a process to accustom the body to the sword, so give your best even if it’s hard and frustrating.”

I let out a hollow laugh and gripped the sword.

The blood flowing from my palm back then was vivid in my mind.

“This makes no sense!”

The young noble in front of me protested.

“How can this tiny piece of iron carve down this massive wooden pillar?”

“Didn’t you misspeak?”

“Even if you’re an elder, you can’t commit such tyranny.”

So much talk.

I raised the iron sword and stared at the wooden pillar.

It was well-dried and hard, with small cracks.

Back then it was a wooden sword.

“Hut!”

I shouted and struck down on the wooden pillar.

CRACK!

The sword and wood collided, producing a sound like thunder in a clear sky.

The pillar thicker than a man’s torso split vertically.

The young nobles jumped in shock.

“Who said to use magic?”

One of Seongbaek’s disciple knights looked at me.

“No one used magic. No—I’d love to use that magic, please.”

I answered calmly.

The young noble who had first protested to Seongbaek wore a dazed expression.

He alternated between the split wood and my iron sword.

“Let me borrow this.”

He snatched my iron sword and struck his own wood.

“Ack! Eek!”

Without knowing the knack, no proper result would come no matter how he swung.

He only managed to cut a few small wood chips.

Seongbaek looked at me with strange eyes and said.

“Young Master, split the rest too. What are you all doing? Hurry and strike the wood.”

The young nobles’ wails began to echo in the training ground.

Sir Dande and Sir Liam gripped their iron swords.

“I was planning to slack off moderately, but no choice.”

“Sir Anplus showed such prowess; we can’t whine.”

Sir Dande shouted “Taah!” and swung his sword.

A chunk of wood as thick as firewood fell off.

Sir Liam closed and opened his eyes, using a true cut.

The wooden pillar crumpled like a struck pillow, dropping a large piece.

“Have those guys been eating bread and just beating wooden pillars?”

One young noble muttered.

Under the blazing sun, the nobles swung iron swords.

“Agh! My arm!”

“Why is it so heavy.”

“I’m dying of breathlessness!”

Those screams didn’t sound like someone else’s.

Just a few months ago, I had never held anything heavier than a silver knife.

So I could understand the deathly complaints.

“Why do I have to do this vulgar thing!”

But hearing vulgar curses I couldn’t bear was different.

“I’m going crazy! What’s the point of this!”

He was a man with bright blue hair grown to his waist.

Like me as a child, living and dying for style, he didn’t tie it even as it whipped into his eyes while swinging.

“Damn it!”

His downward strike embedded deep into the wood.

He struggled to pull it out, lost balance to the recoil, and sat on the ground.

Small laughter erupted around him, and his face turned bright red.

“T-this little!”

Blue light flashed from his hand, and golden current sparked.

BOOM!

The current sharply tore the air, and the wooden pillar split with a crack.

“What are you doing!”

Seongbaek, who had been sitting quietly in a chair on the platform, shot to his feet.

“Shut up! You don’t even teach techniques and just waste time. Isn’t it because you have no skill that you teach nothing?”

“Young Lord Trichitas is right.”

“I don’t know why we’ve only been doing this from the start.”

“He didn’t even teach grip! My hands are blistered!”

Most paid them no attention, and five or six glared.

But another five or six joined him and raised their voices.

The stout and skinny ones were among them.

“Put out the fire immediately and continue practice.”

Seongbaek said, but he didn’t bat an eye.

“Do it yourself.”

“……!”

“Or what? Even your vaunted swordsmanship can’t handle lightning magic?”

He arrogantly rolled his eyes and turned to me.

“Young Master. I heard you cut Lady Helia’s flames. Can you cut lightning too, Anplus—”

I first checked Seongbaek’s reaction.

If I stepped in here, it would tarnish his honor.

Please do something?

You’re a master swordsman who earned officer-mage rank with the sword alone.

Despite my desperate gaze, Seongbaek stood rooted to the platform.

Silence fell over the training ground.

“Are you scared?”

Trichitas smirked and said to me.

I inwardly repeated that leaving my real sword in the room was the right choice.

At that moment, Seongbaek’s eyes sharpened like a hawk’s.

An intense aura as if he could cut anytime, anywhere.

Just looking gave goosebumps all over.

The swordsman’s knuckled hand slid to his waist.

But soon he clicked his tongue softly and let his arm hang limp.

Why?

While I was distracted by that, nearby young nobles were debating my and the guy’s strength.

“Young Lord Anplus didn’t just defeat Lady Helia but also Young Lord Habinan.”

“Still, he’s ultimately a knight, right? He can’t cut lightning with a sword.”

“He cut flames last time. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“That guy is also from a thick-blood branch family. Not an easy opponent.”

“Rumor has it his sister disguised herself as a maid and operated near Lady Ribelia?”

“Then let’s verify. Who’s bluffing.”

I gripped the practice iron sword tightly.

Lightning magic was all but a knight’s natural enemy.

This was no time to worry only about Seongbaek’s honor.

For me now, the only solution was to finish Trichitas before he could cast magic.