Chapter 18: The Sword That Cleaved the Cliff

Harvest and tax collection were nearly finished, and the cold wind was beginning to blow.

“I’m still not improving.”

My swordsmanship against magic was growing slowly.

I already knew why.

If nothing comes in, there’s nothing to draw out.

There is nothing in the world that is completely new.

In the end, even my swordsmanship shares movements with existing techniques at a basic level.

The problem was that the blue-blooded imperial knights’ swordplay was composed mostly of simple single-stroke techniques.

Because the basic mechanisms were similar, there were limits to how much I could adapt or improve them.

“There’s nothing we can do. We’re a branch meant to face mages, not soldiers; we can’t wage a prolonged war against mages who have strong recovery and firepower.”

Sir Dande sighed as he spoke.

“I did manage to bring every fencing manual from the main keep.”

Sir Liam brought several extremely old, worn books.

They looked as if the covers might crumble at a touch.

“I can’t understand why they were kept in such a state.”

“These are mostly books written a very long time ago. They were written before the Grand Mage doctrines were completed. I brought them, but I doubt you’ll find much useful to reference, Young Master.”

I turned the pages carefully.

The yellowed paper crumbled softly as I touched it.

“Give me the best intact one you can find.”

Sir Liam fished a volume with the least-damaged cover out of the pile.

The author’s name bore the signature Seongbaek; it sounded familiar.

Sir Dande went back to the wall to train his grip, and Sir Liam resumed polishing his blade.

I must finish mastering a fencing style as soon as possible.

A restlessness in my chest swelled like a puff of cloud as I opened the book.

Then a maid called me.

“Anplus, Young Master.”

“What is it?”

My reflex answer came curt and blunt.

The maid flinched and bowed her head.

Seeing her terrified face made me uncomfortable.

I squeezed my eyes shut, opened them, and apologized.

“I’m sorry. Things aren’t going well, my head aches. What’s the matter?”

“The head of the house requests your presence. Please go to his study.”

“All right. Understood.”

After washing, I went up to the house head’s study.

I knocked, and after a moment a servant opened the door.

A cold wind came through the open window, and a faint antiseptic scent hung in the room.

“You’ve come.”

Father was tying his long hair loosely down his back.

On the ebony desk, which had been lined with greaseproof paper, sat a gigantic skull.

He was coating that skull with a clear, viscous liquid using large and small brushes.

“I’ll clear it away in a moment.”

“Leave it be. It’s fascinating. How did you obtain such a giant’s bone?”

Half polite curiosity, half genuine wonder—the skull was one of the largest oddities in this room full of curiosities.

How huge must the creature have been in life?

Father handed a brush to a servant.

The pale, ambitious flash that usually glinted in his slate-grey eyes softened into an unusually bright smile.

“Strictly speaking, it’s not even a ‘giant.’”

“Excuse me?”

“Before our house came here, this land belonged to that species.”

“Do you mean they weren’t human?”

“That is ogre bone. Buried under waterlogged marsh mud where air couldn’t reach it, it didn’t rot. I had thought they were extinct six thousand years ago—I’m delighted we acquired it.”

“How did such a monster become extinct?”

I asked, though I had already guessed the answer.

“Their brute strength couldn’t overcome the power of magic. The meeting of blue blood and the ogre race—by the time the last ogre died, it didn’t take a hundred years.”

A fitting end for those who opposed blue blood.

“Indeed. Those who rose against the nobles met their end. Kingdoms, races, houses—none who opposed us were left on the surface.”

My father’s gentle smile hardened back into ambition and a chill.

So this is a mission.

“Just say the word.”

“Do you remember what Ribelia reported last time?”

I blinked and brought the memory to mind.

She said someone among the tax collectors might be embezzling taxes.

“You killed the messenger I sent.”

Madness.

Had he wanted him dead? Had he thought everything was wrong?

I was certain I had failed.

“A noble from a nearby town is currently in our main keep. Go with him to the site and bring back the tax collector’s corpse.”

“I obey.”

“This is an opportunity to make a name for yourself. Please do not disappoint me.”

“Do not worry.”

I hesitated as I turned.

“Do you know a noble or swordsman named Seongbaek?”

Father paused for a moment, then answered with a look that said, of course he knew.

“Of course. I thought you might want to meet him. I’ll arrange it when you return.”

“Thank you. But who is Seongbaek?”

Father raised an eyebrow in mild incredulity.

“Isn’t he the fencer who has been the instructor for officer-mage candidates for nearly a hundred years?”

***

At the main gate, a two-horse carriage waited and a red-headed noble stood by.

I thought his face looked familiar; he resembled Helia, the flame mage I fought that night.

“Anplus, Young Master?”

The red-haired noble frowned.

“Are you of the Helicion family?”

“Yes. I’m Samete, Helia’s older brother.”

He ground his teeth as he spoke.

“You don’t look particularly pleased to see me.”

I confronted him bluntly; awkwardness was worse than frankness.

Samete, unaccustomed to rhetorical flourishes, blinked.

“Still, since we’ve been tasked together, let’s cooperate. I’ll do my best; I expect the same of you.”

In my past life, I’d nearly reached forty years old.

In blue-blooded society I’m young, but I should at least act more mature than this prince.

“All right. Understood.”

Samete spun and left, replying in that tone.

Cooperate, he said.

“Since you can’t use frost magic, carry some supplies. Bring the hardtack and salt from over there.”

Four large crates stacked some distance away were being loaded by servants.

They were heavy when stacked together.

When I returned, Samete had packed a frozen water skin into the carriage hold.

He approached me with an expression that clearly showed he didn’t like me and handed me a crate.

“Ack!”

He dropped it and collapsed.

With a crack, a large box split open.

“What are you doing?”

“How did you carry four of these heavy crates here?”

“Can’t you see how large they are? Even empty the boxes are heavy. They’re packed with dried meat and biscuits, so of course they’re heavy.”

“So how did you carry four?”

Samete carefully lifted a box and asked.

I stacked the crates neatly in the hold and answered.

“You climbed the Intezeron wall; you should be able to handle this.”

“Do you mean the Intezeron wall?”

Samete stared into the distance as if he couldn’t believe it—the 50-meter-high wall that loomed with overwhelming majesty.

“Are there other walls? Obviously that wall.”

He climbed into the carriage with a dazed expression.

“I never thought a person could do something like that.”

I climbed in after him.

“Neither did I. Until I tried it. Only after doing it did I realize it was possible.”

Talking with him sorted my thoughts and eased my impatience.

I had found a clue to cut through magic by learning how to take hits more lightly.

After all, I have a long life ahead—probably hundreds of years.

First, finish this mission safely and keep trying patiently.

“What kind of village is it?”

“Huh?”

When the carriage left Intezeron, I asked Samete about the place where we’d carry out the mission.

“It’s about the mission. Answer properly.”

He hesitated, then spoke.

“It’s a village governed by a branch of our Helicion family.”

By my standards it was the branch of a branch of a branch.

“The last census recorded just over five thousand people, and it was growing fast; now it’s probably six to seven thousand.”

By medieval Earth standards that population should have been raised to a city long ago, but in a wealthy empire it was still merely a village.

“A few years ago the village collectively agreed to cease farming and became a ranch. They breed a lot of ‘uma’ and pay taxes in horses.”

“We might have to fight mounted men. That’s new.”

After several other details, I asked the most important question.

“Why didn’t the Helicion family suppress them on their own?”

Samete fell silent.

“As blood thins in the branch lines, naturally the main house is stronger than its branch. Why couldn’t they handle it themselves?”

He glanced between my sword and my past deeds, then leaned close to the carriage door, eyes full of suspicion.

“You really don’t know?”

“What do you mean?”

“You can’t possibly not know.”

“It’s embarrassing to say out loud, but, as your sister said, I’m a broken mage. I lost the three years when I should have had the most learning. I know nothing about the atmosphere between the main and branch houses, house management, or military matters.”

Samete released a sigh of relief.

Still looking half-doubtful, he spoke again.

“Argantius suspects we conspired with that village to embezzle taxes. He says a village couldn’t possibly do that.”

“So that’s why Helia was kept in the capital and sent down? Or rather, why she came up at all.”

The word ‘hostage’ flashed through my mind.

Samete nodded.

“When I first saw you, I thought you’d been sent to kill me. You’re a knight…right?”

His gaze dropped to my blade and moved away.

“I have orders to go with you and bring back the tax collector’s corpse.”

“The tax collector’s corpse?”

Samete was aghast.

“No—the tax collector’s corpse, I said.”

I calmed his startled reaction.

He took a breath and said, “I’m relieved that you didn’t come to stab me in the back in the night.”

“A wise thought.”

“But the idea of us two alone suppressing a whole village is daunting.”

Samete looked as if he’d been struck dumb.

“Don’t worry so much. It’s probably just pale-blooded, right?”

“There are several knights. The blue-bloods are skilled with magic. I myself am not particularly lethal by nature.”

Frost mages excel more at supporting logistics from the rear than at front-line slaughter.

“I’ll do whatever I can.”

Samete eyed me skeptically.

“You beat Prince Habinan and Helia, but I honestly don’t trust you yet.”

“You don’t trust me even after seeing me defeat Prince Habinan and Helia?”

“You don’t have any execution or command experience, as far as I know.”

“True.”

“Fighting an organized group is different from fighting a single strong man. No matter how excellent you are, Young Master, you’ll be turned into a porcupine the moment a crossbow bolt hits you.”

He speaks a lot when war is mentioned—typical of a military branch noble.

“Is there anywhere you can get reinforcements?”

“No. If I gathered a suppression force, I’d be immediately accused of staging a rebellion.”

“Do you have the confidence to sweep the village single-handedly?”

“No.”

I contorted my face and shouted, “Then think of something productive!”

***

It took exactly twenty nights to reach the rebel village Henestion.

A few hours before dawn, Samete and I stood on a steep hill that overlooked the basin.

They were pasturing uma in the plain. The wide valley was the front gate, and the narrow valley the back route.

“Is that the path?”

“Yes.”

“A broad stream runs by the front gate. Good place for you, a frost mage, to be useful.”

“It would be nice to have something to use.”

“We must block the back valley. We’re not after fugitives; we need corpses.”

Samete groaned.

“We lack both manpower and time. We can’t block it. It would be better for you and me to go in from the front and rear.”

“You can’t split two soldiers.”

“Then what do you intend?”

I led Samete toward the back-valley path.

Cracks ran through the narrow cliff in places.

Tree roots that had burst through the ground reached out like gnarled fingers.

On this harsh terrain, massive trees had grown up between the ravines.

This tree trunk is thinner than those.

“Stand back a little. It’s dangerous.”

I warned Samete and scrambled up the ravine edge.

I stood before the thickest tree at the rim.

In the past few months I had built whatever strength I could.

My shoulders, back, and forearms had widened and thickened.

Now there was no movement I couldn’t perform from lack of strength.

That had taken three days and nights.

I inhaled and raised my wavy-patterned sword.

“Ha!”

Drawing on the method I had shown Sir Liam—twisting my ankles and hips to add speed to the blade—my muscles, hardened many times over, twisted and then released.

The sword, swung with a force like a severing rope, slashed diagonally through the base of the great tree.

As the tree toppled, it struck trees on the opposite cliff.

With a crack, the whole cliff trembled.

The roots holding the trees on the far cliff tore loose and the soil and rocks split and tumbled down.

Samete looked up at me with a hollow laugh.

“Not enough.”

I said that and peered down at the ravine.

The roots and interlaced rocks had not yet fully given way.

If the tax collector ducked, he could crawl down below.

How should I cut it?

After a moment’s thought, I raised my sword and leaped down the cliff.

“Are you crazy?!”

Samete shouted.

I fell and aimed at the gaps where the roots clung to the rocks.

A stationary target.

Let’s give it a stylish cut.

***

I switched my grip and held the sword reversed, pushing my chest into the empty air as I brought the blade down with weight.

With a shing—the wave-patterned blade bit into the densely packed rock.

“oht!”

I forced another yell as I twisted my forearm.

Once more the entire cliff shook and the soil and rocks the roots had clung to poured down.

CRAAASH!

The thunderous roar and vibration were like a great earth-mage’s spell.

The dawn’s stillness was shattered and mountain birds that had taken flight fled.

A colossal dust cloud filled the ravine.

When the dust finally settled completely, the narrow back route was entirely blocked.

Leaving behind a heap of smashed rock and splintered trunks, Anplus walked out.

Samete stared at him, dumbfounded.

How could a person… with a sword, slice a cliff like that?

He deserved praise as if he’d performed a miracle.

But Anplus answered with a face full of regret.

Next time, try to break only the cliff and avoid harming innocent trees. Hurry—everyone will have woken by now.