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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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The situation continued to flow according to Adele’s thoughts, but Lothos, who was watching it, still felt uncomfortable.
He wondered if this was right.
Although he had seen the sword energy last time, it wasn’t a level that Bunta could ignore.
Even though his head was stupid, wasn’t he the one closest to Adele in terms of skill?
Choosing Bunta of all people might have been a mistake.
Worried that he might be embarrassed for no reason, Lothos let out a small sigh.
Then he quietly approached Robert and cleared his throat.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Robert quietly looked at Lothos. He roughly knew what he was going to say.
He smiled slightly as he heard words like, “Are you sure you’ll be okay? Wouldn’t it be better to choose someone else?”
Although Lothos would normally find him quite uncomfortable, he would accommodate him since he judged Robert to be Adele’s lover.
He knew that Bunta had the best skills here.
Rather, that was why he had chosen him.
If he chose someone else, it would drag on due to various tricks, so it was convenient in many ways to demonstrate the skill difference by fighting a simple-minded person like Bunta.
His current self, with not much mana accumulated, couldn’t fight for very long.
So it was better to show it briefly and intensely if possible.
Tricks… If he used them, he could extend the time.
However, it was difficult to leave a good impression on them.
Fiercely like a wolf, sharply like the north wind—that was the strength that was easy for them to acknowledge.
His heart pounded slightly as he left the banquet hall and headed towards the empty yard.
Even though it was just the usual verification process, he always felt this emotion when this moment came.
“It will be fine.”
“Pardon?”
“At least, I won’t disappoint you. It means you can trust me and watch without worry.”
Saying that, Robert drew his sword.
A strange wind blew with his light and nimble sword.
Lothos shook his head and sighed at his expression that was still relaxed to the point of being nonchalant.
Didn’t he look just like the Grand Duchess when he saw that face?
Although they must have been born in different places and lived different lives,
Lothos, who had narrowed his eyes at the strange déjà vu, eventually raised both hands as if he had lost.
“Do as you please. I clearly stopped you. It’s not my fault if things get twisted later, right?”
“I understand. So, are we fighting here?”
“… Yes, Bunta will be here soon.”
Robert looked around at the yard surrounded by people in a circle.
The faces of those who had been enjoying the banquet until just now were filled with a strange delight.
Since the foreigner who had arrived today was engaged in a fight like this, from their perspective, it would be seen as an enjoyable spectacle.
If possible, they would hope for Bunta to crush the foreigner.
Robert, who had laughed slightly at the sudden thought, then quietly began to draw out the mana within his body.
A blue streak of light rose in the darkness.
The people’s eyes were filled with wonder for a moment, then they gasped again at the giant figure visible in the distance.
The giant axe, large enough to split a person in half with a single blow, was a symbol of terror in itself.
Lothos, who had swallowed dryly, checked Robert’s complexion.
He wondered if he might have gotten scared, but soon he just stepped back with a bitter smile.
“… Are you really a young master?”
To think he would be unfazed even after seeing that.
Who should be called the young master now?
Even as he stepped back and blended in with the people, Lothos’ gaze was still directed at Robert.
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The situation was very different from when he faced assassins.
At that time, he had fought while properly controlling himself so as not to wake up Arwen, but this time, it would be right to fully demonstrate his skills.
Of course, he planned to hide them to some extent depending on the situation.
Even if he hid them, he was confident he could overwhelm, so he slowly injected mana into the sword and looked around.
‘He still uses an axe.’
Dozens of people died with each swing of that axe.
I had directly watched that scene from the side, but that was why I was confident I could avoid that axe.
My physical condition… well, it wasn’t bad at this level.
At least it was much better than when I first regressed, wasn’t it?
Since I had been consistently exercising along with facing the assassins, my senses had returned a lot compared to before.
Still, it was far from being as good as when I swung the sword all day long back then.
Even throughout all my lives, it would be hard to find a time when my body was as good as it was then, so wasn’t it unavoidable?
Tuk tuk, I jumped into the air a few times and swung the sword.
Horizontally, vertically, when mana was imbued in the thrusting sword, a blue trajectory was drawn, and a small exclamation burst out.
This was a movement I wanted to show Bunta.
Be vigilant, don’t swing recklessly, but clash with all your might.
Imbuing mana into the sword was not something anyone could do, so I noticed Bunta’s gaze had become much more serious and stopped moving.
“I think we can start slowly.”
“Is that so? I guess I don’t need to lend you a sword this time.”
“This one is quite useful too, so it doesn’t matter.”
Adele, who had nodded, also checked Bunta’s condition.
He grabbed the axe, which was much taller than him, swung it a few times, and seeing that there was no problem, he began to return to his original position.
In the round yard, Adele, who was sitting in the highest position, opened her mouth in a crooked posture.
“The fight ends when one side declares surrender or drops their weapon. In any case, I hope no one gets hurt. Then there shouldn’t be any problem starting right away, right?”
No one answered, but Adele soon signaled the start of the fight.
Buuu-
I grasped the sword again at the sound of the trumpet blowing once more.
By the time the trumpet sound ended, the surroundings had become quiet, and only the sound of my own heartbeat could be heard.
Rustle, the sound of feet moving and brushing the ground.
The wind blew, and the feeling of it gently sweeping over my entire body was vividly felt.
Tak.
I could see Bunta kicking the ground, but it only seemed endlessly slow.
The awakening of the brain due to mana, the sensitive senses showed the path of how Bunta, as a human, would move.
There were things I could see even with my eyes closed.
The weeds trampled and twisted by the feet, and even just the sight of them being torn and scattered, couldn’t I read the ‘direction’?
As I lowered my head, a huge gust of wind swept by.
The axe swung by the 9-foot giant was close to destruction, so Bunta, who realized he had narrowly avoided it, snorted through his mouth.
“Hmph!”
Thud! When the axe hit the ground, small cracks appeared.
There was no need to put much effort into avoiding it.
Moderately, barely. This gap, as if it would touch but not quite, was something that couldn’t be faked.
While preserving my strength, at the same time, it was a way to make the impatient Bunta a little anxious.
Whenever the axe brushed past the surrounding air, my sword also tapped on Bunta’s armor.
I didn’t cut.
I could have cut if I imbued mana, but this was a spar in the first place.
Even if I took advantage of an opening and cut here, the others wouldn’t look favorably upon it.
And I didn’t have overflowing mana.
If I used mana and imbued it into the sword, it would be at the most certain moment.
When I could seize the upper hand and press the attack, it would be sufficient.
It was a little later when I, who had only been avoiding attacks, began to mix in sword strikes.
Partly because Bunta’s attacks were a bit simple, but also because I had now grasped the sense of swinging appropriately to match Bunta’s strength.
Clang, whenever the weapons collided with a roar, it was Bunta’s body that was pushed back.
One step, then another step.
As I advanced, I could see Bunta’s brow furrowing.
“Are you having a hard time?”
“Never!”
Kang-
Thrusting the sword towards Bunta’s arm, I then smiled slightly.
As time passed, it would be Bunta who would run out of strength.
He had concentrated on trying to hit an opponent who narrowly avoided him, so it would have required much more attention than recklessly swinging on the battlefield.
Buuung-
It doesn’t reach.
Even though I was wearing a cumbersome cloak, Bunta’s axe couldn’t even graze the hem of that clothing.
Whenever I moved my feet, Bunta’s body was pushed back.
As I thrust the sword towards his staggering body, Bunta, who had let out a small roar, greatly distanced himself from me.
Looking around, they seemed to have realized that the tide of this fight itself had been greatly distorted.
It was still quiet, but their faces no longer held the confidence to affirm Bunta’s victory.
Rather, they were looking at me, looking at the sword I was wielding.
I stared intently at Bunta, who was panting and exhaling breaths filled with anger.
“Phew!”
Exhaling the rough breathing once more, Bunta, who had shown a quite serious expression, corrected his stance.
With one hand stretched forward, the axe held behind him savagely sliced through the air.
It was a stance Bunta often used when fighting one-on-one.
The mana rising from his body rose like steam, and soon mixed with sweat, emitting a blue vapor.
“Ooh…!”
Like a living flame, it was a moment’s work for Bunta’s body, exuding a fierce energy once again, to approach.
Clang-!
Exclamations burst from people’s mouths at the completely different strength compared to earlier.
Sparks flew whenever the sword and axe clashed, and the ground where their feet moved was deeply gouged, creating pits.
The ground, which had always been neatly arranged, was now dug up and made messy, so it was quite dizzying to see the surrounding soil flying whenever the sword was swung.
Bunta’s body no longer fell back.
However, even that would be humiliating for him, so Bunta’s body, which had always only thought of charging, hesitated for the first time.
“Keuugh!”
Kik, the victory was decided in a moment.
With a moment’s hesitation, the body’s balance collapses, and an attack with a collapsed balance cannot contain its full strength.
A chuckle escaped me.
Following the ‘trajectory’ that had briefly passed my eyes, I moved my arm in that direction.
Swish, the armor cut from the chest was smoothly sliced off.
Since I had cut it to the extent that no wounds were created, no blood flowed, but Bunta seemed quite surprised by that attack and swung his axe widely to push me away.
The sound of panting breaths was all around.
… However, it was solely Bunta’s.
Bunta’s eyes, looking at me who hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, momentarily wavered.
The appearance of a warrior who had lost confidence was truly pitiful.
A primal instinct towards the unknown, which one was seeing for the first time, where the methods he had been using all this time didn’t work.
Bunta, who had gritted his teeth once more, grasped the axe again.
People started cheering for him again at the sight, but that was all.
Most of them, at least those who had some knowledge of combat, would have realized it.
The upper hand had already passed to me.
Thus, I gripped the sword.
Holding the sword that I had been fighting with both hands in one hand, I resonated the mana harbored in my heart.
As I took a step, a blue flash soon enveloped my body.
On the snowy field of pure white, a cluster of blue light began to rise.
It was a flash paler than moonlight and bluer than the color of water.
Originally, mana was such a pure thing. It was not mana to simply wrap around the sword.
Sword energy was just one of the ways to use mana, so why focus only on that?
The sword was a tool, just a means to aid the intention to cut, wasn’t it?
“Then, I shall go.”
At my murmur, Bunta corrected his stance.
However, the next attack was not of the nature that could be blocked.
The reason I had saved mana was for the sake of this single strike, so I took a step forward as it was.
There was a time when I was obsessed with the sword.
There was a time when I felt skeptical about everything I had pursued in life, abandoned everything, and lived only looking at the sword.
What I had realized just before dying to Miragen, only at the moment when my life dependent on the sword was ending did I finally realize what the sword meant.
If one wanted to cut, there was nothing one couldn’t cut.
Even if what was held in hand was just a branch, if one wanted to cut, one could even cut a mountain.
Let alone if it was a sword, what could one not cut?
Swish.
The sword that drew through the air left a trail of light.
Like a shooting star crossing the night sky, a brief silence fell upon the sword that drew a long and lonely trajectory.
The cheers of people who had been rooting for Bunta, and even the sound of applause for my performance, were all cut off and disappeared.
Only the single line drawn by the sword remained.
Only the result of cleanly slicing off the armor without a single wound, shattering the axe, remained.
Silence flowed.
In the stillness where no one could even exhale a breath, the one who finally opened her mouth was Adele.
Slightly flushed and with a quite satisfied voice, she cut through the crowd.
“It’s over.”
Bunta, who had dropped his weapon, and me, still holding the sword.
Even though the blue flash had been withdrawn, the result that remained unchanged caused the suppressed cheers to burst out.
I lifted my head, which had become stiff from using mana, and looked at the sky.
The stars had not changed.
The fact that it was me standing there on that day I remembered had not changed either.
When Bunta collapsed with a thud, I exhaled with a faint smile.
My eyes were filled with nothing but the pitch-black night sky, no different from that day, so I could smile, even if only slightly, at the rising sense of satisfaction.
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Emotional dmg +1000