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The horsemen raced across the grassland while whistling out loud.

– Kuwaaahkk…!

Chasing behind them were packs of wolves. Stimulated by the noisy sound of whistles, the groups of black beasts pounced through the grass at their prey.

“32 enemies in total: 300 meters away. Will reach us in 20 seconds.”

Another group – our group was watching them from afar. It was when the horsemen looked like they were almost going to get caught by the wolves.

“Can you use it again?”

“Yes. Do we start?” I asked.

“Go.”

Immediately, I kicked off the ground and jumped off the hill. The horsemen were starting to merge with the pack of wolves and it looked impossible to shoot arrows without the fear of friendly fire.

– Kwang!

In spite of that, I unhesitatingly tossed my spear, which started piercing through the wind with a shriek.

The spear looked like it would penetrate through someone but that was when it suddenly twisted and changed its direction mid-air.

– Pababak…!

Despite being already out of my control, the thrown weapon went against the law of physics following an eccentric trajectory. Due to the Restriction, it became a ‘never-landing spear’.

It was only possible because I was Korin Lork, with a contract forged with the world that ‘I do not perceive spirits’. My silver spear landed right in the middle of the group without hurting any of the horsemen or the demonic beasts.

That immediately activated the effect of the Orb of the Grim Reaper x Festival-use Faulty Manastone.

– Pakk!

Mana erupted around the spear. It reached out by 100 meters in all directions and struck all the demonic beasts in the radius.

– Woof?

– Plop!

The monsters, that had been kicking off the ground at full force without any plans to stop, all plopped down at the same time.

– Woof?

– Kuwaahh…!

Half of the entire group fell in the blink of an eye. Despite being beasts, they were puzzled at the turn of events and confusedly looked at their fallen comrades.

“Unsheathe.”

Dozens of swordsmen unsheathed their swords at once. The sharp sound of blades scraping out of their scabbards had a terrifyingly uniform sound that gathered the eyes of the demonic beasts.

❰Marching Swords of Arden: Vigorous Tiger❱

The first person to charge out was Lunia Arden. Her sword, which was raised up high, sliced through the head of one of the beowulf that were in the mix, in a flash.

– Kuhk!

The beowulf collapsed with a single cry which marked the start of the battle.

“Charge…!”

“Follow the captain…!”

A huge number of swordsmen dashed towards the faltered demonic beasts. Their difference in spirit was already a tell-tale sign of who would come out on top.

………

……

…

“Report.”

“Yes captain! We have defeated five Grade 2s, thirteen Grade 3s…! And twenty Grade 4s! For a grand total of 38 demonic beasts!”

“Report our casualties first.”

“Ah, sorry captain! We have four lightly injured, and no one with severe injuries…! There are no fatalities!”

“Good. For those injured, let them return on their own horses if they can, and if not, let them ride with the reserve troops.”

“Yes… Understood, captain!”

It was quite sudden, but the reason I had come out to kill demonic beasts with Lunia was because a fair few of them had broken through the borders.

Lunia had to scramble out because of that so I came with her. Yuel and Alicia were busy, so I at least wanted to do something instead of doing nothing as the guest.

“Let us return.”

After everything was over, we rode our horses to head back to the main headquarters.

“Good work. We have greatly reduced our casualties thanks to you.”

“All I did was throw my spear though. I didn’t do much.”

“No, there are fewer injuries thanks to you. That matters a lot.”

“I won’t turn it down if you want to put me up on the pedestal.”

Lunia gave a rare smile after hearing my reply.

“A wide-range attack that immediately neutralizes lower grade demonic beasts, huh… when did you learn that?”

“Through good luck back when I went to Nazrea.”

“Hmm… Nazrea. I believe that was where the 2nd group event of the festival took place.”

“Oh? How did you know?”

Did she watch it through a broadcasting stone or something? Or maybe…

“More importantly, Korin. Do you have time tomorrow?”

“I don’t have anything in particular but…”

“I see. Then make sure you keep it free.”

“???”

Wondering what this was about, I tilted my head as Lunia continued with a faint smile on her lips.

“We will go on a date.”

On the 4th day after arriving at the Ardens, I had a date scheduled with Lunia.

****

Lunia was commonly acknowledged as the maiden of steel.

She started carrying a sword ever since her childhood, began hunting demonic beasts at the young age of 15 and at the age of 20, she became renowned as the greatest young swordsman of the east.

That was the life of the Sword Master, whose life started and continued with nothing but the sword.

A great crisis struck her, who had been following the way of the sword for her entire life, because of the sudden uncertainty of the next successor.

『What is all this, mother?』

『They are the famous swordsmen of the east as well as sons of renowned families.』

Political marriage.

It was a way to recover the stability of her wavering status. If they were a normal household, it might not have been a bad choice, because interconnections with other families weren’t things that could be easily ignored when considering the future of the family.

However, in the Ardens, the one who decided the next family head was Garrand Arden the Sword Emperor.

Would that fiend crazy for the sword even care about the balance of the east or interconnections?

Lunia thought it was meaningless. Her idea was that swordsmen had to prove themselves through the sword.

However, she couldn’t ignore the opinions of her mother, Sophia.

Many of her supporters were from Sophia’s family and her subordinates, and besides, trying to force her to marry wasn’t anything new.

‘Korin Lork.’

In order to avoid the consistent arranged marriage meetings and pressure for marriage, she unconsciously blurted out the name of the Academy freshman.

Objectively speaking, he was a good man.

He looked fairly good on the outside, and his aspiration to improve himself in martial arts was so immense that it even stimulated herself.

During the interim exam, he was only barely in the realm of the Domain but how far in would he be now? At the very least, it would be enough to compel her grandfather to ignore every opposition.

And most importantly…

『Ah…』

Lunia recalled her younger sister from a different mother who unconsciously hid herself after seeing her talk with Korin. How big of an emotion did she have for him? It was at least certain that she had a favorable impression of him.

‘Everything that belongs to my younger sister is mine. I have the right and authority to take it.’

It was such a horrid way of thinking that every younger sister in existence would harden their fists upon hearing it, but the contemporary female hero did not care.

“Captain.”

“Jennie, is it?”

That was the elite swordsman of the 1st Sword Squad. Jennie was a knight at the level of an instructor but she grew together with Lunia like sisters, and thus, she volunteered to take the role of her maidservant.

“Are you going out on a secret love affair with Korin Lork?”

“A secret love affair does not sound very pleasant. I am simply proposing marriage.”

“Well… maybe that wasn’t the best way to put it.”

“Do you not like him?”

The reason Lunia lost at the Sword Challenge was because of the ridiculous strategy of Korin Lork.

Newly Founded Alicia Dojo.

Fruit Knife-style Instructor Hua Ran,

Glaive-style Instructor Korin Lork,

Gandalf-style Instructor Marie Dunareff,

Flying Sword-style One-day Instructor Dorron Warsky—-

Head Instructor of the Newborn Alicia Dojo, Alicia Arden.

It was based on that nonsensical excuse that they defeated the Five Swords, and it was only thanks to his cleverness that Alicia was able to win the Sword Challenge.

“He is objectively an excellent man, if we take away the fact that he stood on the side of Miss Alicia. At least he is better off than the males proposed by Lady Sophia.”

“What an ungenerous evaluation. Each and every one of them are famous leaders of their region and renowned swordsmen.”

“They are nothing in comparison if we consider the future possibility of Korin. He is less than 20 years old and yet he still overpowered Lena and is also a natural genius that entered the Domain. There is nothing he lacks to become your spouse, Miss Lunia.”

“Hoh…”

As expected of Jennie, her eyes for men were very good.

“But captain. Don’t tell me you’re going to leave wearing that, are you?”

“…What is the issue?”

Lunia was wearing the same tuxedo and a coat as always. Considering her lack of casual clothes, this was her one-and-only default clothing.

“Haah… What kind of lady in the world would go on a date wearing a suit? It’s even worse than wearing a formal dress for a date.”

“Is that… so?”

“Captain, this… is just not right.”

“…Is it that bad?”

“Yes, captain. Do you trust me?”

“…”

Lunia scanned Jennie’s clothing from top to bottom. Even though she was wearing the same martial uniform as everyone else, she supplemented it with leather boots, a wide-brimmed hat and a coat to add vibrance to her clothing. Lunia had often heard her being referred to as the Fancy Jennie of the 1st Sword Squad.

She couldn’t deny the fact that she was more skilled than her at least when it came to fashion.

“We can’t get new clothes but… Right. You still have the traditional clothing that was tailored for your coming-of-age ceremony, yes?”

“It has been 7 years since I wore it.”

“That’s fine. Add a few small decorations and it will be as good as brand new.”

1 hour before the date, Lunia was suddenly forced into decorating herself.

****

For the last few days, Alicia had been extremely busy.

Because of the unexpected appointment as the captain of the 5th Sword Squad and to get trained as a squad captain, she had to meet various administrators and other people. It was something that was supposed to be done after her coming-of-age ceremony, and yet it was forced onto her by Garrand.

Originally, Alicia wouldn’t have been that motivated to become the next captain, but there was a reason why she had to be overly zealous.

“Why is it right in front of the place Mr. Korin needs to go to…?”

Each sword squad of Arden was a military force that represented the Ardens, but at the same time, they were the protectors of the eastern front. The 5th Sword Squad that Alicia had to lead was in charge of the forest beyond the borders, where Yuel said was the hiding place of Findias, the secret land of druids.

In other words, completing her work with the 5th Sword Squad and stabilizing the forest past the borders was the same as making way to Findias.

“Haa…”

Along with her succession work, Alicia was also busy because of the constant guests coming to her house. That was proof of the increasing instability of her older sister and the solidification of her own position but that didn’t make her very happy.

Although her older sister was a target of fear, at the same time, she was her ideal image of a swordsman and her idol.

Since Alicia wasn’t even interested in taking over the large swordsmanship household of Arden, that was a burden that she was willing to throw away at any moment.

“I wonder what Mr. Korin is doing…”

She wanted to introduce him to the famous places of the east after coming here. It was a shame that she couldn’t because of all the sudden things that she had to do.

‘Mhmm… But I’m almost done with all the urgent matters! So I should invite Mr. Korin out and go around the town tomorrow!’

It was a bit late for dinner. Heading to the kitchen, Alicia wanted to grab a few boiled corn but stopped after seeing Lunia walk towards her from the other side of the corridor.

“Hmm, Alicia huh. Are you done with your work?”

“S, Sister…”

Alicia couldn’t continue her words. It wasn’t because of fear and instead, it was because she was dumbfounded by her appearance.

Rather than her usual suit, she was wearing the fancy traditional clothes that she wore during her coming-of-age ceremony. That was the same clothing that she complained about for limiting her movement and speed.

That dress which had a jet-black color throughout with ornaments of golden lines was the same one Lunia wore 7 years ago during the ceremony, which had stolen Alicia’s eyes.

Because that was when Lunia was being commonly viewed as the future successor of the family, Sophia had invested white gold coins and left it at the hands of a master artisan to create that masterpiece.

Why was she wearing that now, Alicia wondered. Suddenly, she remembered that this was the one and only luxurious clothing Lunia had.

It meant she had been at a very important place where she had to wear a dress this luxurious…

“Are you… coming back after seeing Mr. Korin?”

“Mhmm? Right. I just came back after enjoying the visit downtown with him.”

What Alicia didn’t know was that this was Lunia’s plan to stop the political marriage proposals. Although her status in the household was getting better over time, she was still practically by herself in the family. There was no one around her who would share sensitive news about Lunia to her.

“H, hope you had a very fun time.”

“I did.”

Seeing the fidgety Alicia, Lunia gave a visibly wide smile before raising an offer.

“Let’s have a spar. Wait for me to change my clothes.”

Alicia couldn’t turn her down.

****

In the Arden family, there was a training area that could only be used by the direct descendants of the Ardens. The barren arena that couldn’t be accessed by anyone except for a few maids had two rare visitors.

“There is no one around us. Attack as you wish.”

“…Sister.”

Unlike before, they weren’t using real swords. The sword in Alicia’s hand was a single wooden sword, reinforced by embedding steel inside the blade.

“Singular Sword of Arden, Head Disciple, Lunia Arden.”

“Singular Sword of Arden, Grade 1 Swordsman, Alicia Arden.”

Moonlight shone upon the dark grounds of the arena. A wooden sword suddenly scraped across the pebbles as they responded with a cloud of dirt.

‘Huh?’

It was a trick to create a cloud of dust that Alicia was very familiar with. Ignoring the dust, she focused her eyes and saw Lunia holding onto the handle of her sword in a low posture.

Was she trying to pounce at her or do an upward slash? They were 15 meters away though.

From behind the layer of dust, Lunia’s wooden sword struck the nearby pebbles and made them fly towards her.

‘I have to focus on her!’

They were far away, and it was just a weak ranged attack to test things out. Focusing on the flying pebbles would make her unable to retaliate against Lunia’s Flash Step!

– Kwack!

Lunia dashed forward after the pebbles crashed into Alicia. However, Alicia was prepared for the attack and reacted in time with a block.

– Kang! Kagang!

Just like the battle Alicia had seen in the past, two wooden swords collided against one another ever so fiercely.

“Surely you still remember this. You better react in time.”

Next, Lunia took half a step back, raised her sword into an upward stance and slashed down.

Furious Tiger, Golden Pheasant, Horizontal Slash, Pure Light.

The sword flowed like water in a mesmerizing path, connecting from upper-level to middle-level to lower-level stanced attacks, and went back up like a piece of artwork.

“Uht…!”

Alicia barely managed to block the incoming attacks. She had the Eyes of the Boundary that allowed her to see through the gaps of the world, so perceiving the path of the sword itself wasn’t a problem. However, her body and her muscles couldn’t react in time and in the end, she couldn’t stop Lunia’s sword from scraping past the tip of her nose.

“…”

In that instant, Alicia read through Lunia’s pace of breath. Next, her eyes picked up the path Lunia would take to continue her sword to the next stage.

Therefore, Alicia raised her sword to pierce through and stop the combination of attacks.

Instant Slash, Advancing Fang, Soaring Heavens, Lightning.

Putting a stop to her opponent’s set of attacks, Alicia continued forth with her own combination of attacks. Lunia reacted and in response to the torrent of Alicia’s attacks…

“…?!”

She dodged by a hair’s breadth without even protecting herself with the sword. Alicia felt stifled seeing her sword traveling 1 mm away from Lunia’s eyes even though she was the one attacking her.

“You must always be in control of your breath.”

– Pakk!

Lunia then gave a sweeping kick to Alicia’s belly. Somehow, Alicia managed to keep her back straight, thanks to which she avoided having her chin disjointed by the next upward slash.

“Haak…”

With a deep breath out, Alicia jumped back. Lunia’s ability to read the flow of the battle was as terrifying as always.

It’s not like she had a special set of eyes like Alicia. That was a miraculous level of insight which she developed through endless hard work and training. Those were the eyes of a master that could read through everything objectively even in a life and death battle.

That allowed her to dodge the opponent’s attacks using the minimum amount of movement, which in turn allowed her to attack at the fastest possible speed.

This was why she was called the Sword Master.

This was why she was at the top of knights.

Even Korin Lork, who had fought against her hundreds of times, couldn’t best Lunia Arden in terms of skill mastery.

“You have gotten better than before. Looks like you have not been lazy with practice.”

“…Yes.”

“I assume your change of mind is thanks to my fiancé.”

Fiancé.

For some reason, that noun irked her a little.

“Do you know what he and I have in common?”

“…What is it?”

After saying that herself, Alicia was surprised by just how curt she had been with her reply.

“We do not waste any power. Our philosophy when it comes to skill is the same.”

Lunia said while pointing the tip of the sword at Alicia. The single-edged wooden sword still had a pointy tip that was as sharp as a real sword.

“You do not need any magnificent techniques against humans. Everything is within the distance of an inch. The goal is to simply close that inch and kill your opponent.”

She vanished.

Using the fastest straight-line footwork technique of Arden, Lunia carried out the fastest stab.

– Pak…!

“Hahk…!”

Alicia gasped for breath after barely stopping the attack. She was close to death… In fact, even though she saw it with the Eyes of the Boundary, she still would have died there if not for Lunia slowing down before the sword came into contact with her neck.

“Next will be a stab. Dodge it.”

Immediately, the wooden sword rapidly came piercing at her. Those stabs rather than swings reminded Alicia of Korin’s terrifying stabs.

The sword wasn’t as fast as the spear but they were still horribly fast. After being tired of the consecutive stabs, Alicia tried to retaliate but…

❰Falling Fist❱

Her attacks were easily mitigated. Just like how it was natural for raindrops to travel down the roof without hitting the walls of the building, her attacks could not reach Lunia.

‘I will be pushed back at this rate…! I need to use the Domain…!?’

That was when Lunia disappeared in the blink of an eye. By the time Alicia noticed it, Lunia was already standing further away with a black luster emanating out of her dantian.

She was releasing her inner qi through the Aura Core. After boiling to its maximum threshold, the aura flowed out and melted into the darkness.

“Ah…”

Alicia couldn’t help but lament at the sight of black light that somehow lit up the dark night skies of the wintery midnight.

Condensed forms of swords with a ridiculous amount of condensed aura were floating around Lunia. There were a whole 20 of them.

Each and every one of those appeared like lightning bolts of ink that would fall with a tempest. The combination of those attacks would be enough to blow away an arena of this size.

No matter how fast Alicia was to run, and even if she was to take a step forward in the Domain, she figured that she wouldn’t be able to dodge the lightning bolts of swords to reach Lunia. In fact, she probably wouldn’t even be able to last against the shockwaves created by the swords landing on the ground.

“I, I admit defeat.”

Alicia dropped her sword and admitted defeat.

She thought she had closed the gap a little bit.

After defeating her at the Sword Challenge, she thought she had become a proper swordsman that at least had something to be proud of.

However, she realized just how arrogant she had been. The victory back then was just a result of sheer fluke, and there still existed an unclosable gap between herself and Lunia Arden.

An unfathomable sense of defeat and frustration pressed down on her.

“Try harder. Otherwise, you would look at nothing but our backs for the rest of your life.”

For some reason, her last words felt sharper than any of her previous attacks.

****

After about a week or so,

I was in a cafe in the town of Taklakan.

“Here.”

At a corner of the cafe, a beautiful lady with a gray bob cut and a tall, thin body, was waiting for me while taking a sip of her coffee.

“Wasn’t expecting you to come here in person,” I said.

“It is very important after all. I don’t have any connections in the east so I had to do it myself.”

Renya Claire. The mid-grade executive of the intelligence guild gave a sensual smile while sipping her coffee.

“How’s everything going with work?”

“Faring smoothly thanks to you. There are some guys that run away without paying their money back, which is a bit of a bother.”

“Ohh, you’re even lending money now?”

“A must when running a gambling house.”

“What if they just give up and say they have no money?”

Renya smiled viciously like a leopardess while returning a cold-hearted reply.

“Squeeze a dried squid and you’ll still get some water.”

“…Oh damn.”

The world of gamblers was very scary indeed.

“Don’t be too cruel though.”

“Can’t be helped if that’s your policy, boss, but can I ask why?”

“Everything will come back to bite you if you do something wrong. Make sure you don’t cross the line.”

“…I knew you were a needlessly nice person, boss, but seriously…”

“Well, that’s mainly for you to decide anyway. What about the thing I asked you about?”

“Here.”

Renya gave a set of papers as the report. The thing I asked about before didn’t require too much of a detail so I checked the information on the spot.

…Damn it.

I knew it. So it is here during this time frame, huh. It seemed that the Sword Emperor, that old bastard, wasn’t lying.

“I don’t know how you knew about things happening in the far east when you were in Merkarva the whole time, boss, but… be careful. According to our agents, this guy… is no normal monster.”

“Hah~. Yeah.”

Of course I knew it. According to the original scenario, it wasn’t an enemy I was supposed to fight just yet but considering just how unlucky I was, there was more than enough likelihood of me having to go against that guy.

Estimated Rating: Semi-Unique Grade Demonic Beast, 『Sword Fiend』.

The last disciple of the Sword Emperor, Garrand Arden.

It was the named monster that would later appear as one of the King’s subordinates.