Capítulo 20: The Sword and You (2)
Soliette Arkne blinked, leaning against the balcony railing. She had just witnessed something intriguing, but she had involuntarily stepped back, fearing eye contact.
"Choosing who is also important."
The words as if someone was addressing her at that time.
"…Hmm?"
Soliette turned around.
It was Elise. She approached, fluttering the report she held in one hand.
"It's efficient to choose someone with the potential to yield good results, so your analytical skills can shine, and write the report about them."
"Ah… Thank you."
Soliette bowed her head slightly.
Elise asked dryly.
"Is your body okay now?"
"…"
Soliette did not answer.
Elise asked again.
"It must be boring. This kind of class, for you."
"Not really."
The conversation is cut short. piece by piece, it's not easy to continue.
Because of this, Elise sometimes has doubts.
Did we ever really get along in the past?
—Wow. Gerkhen is really good at that. He could sell that raw footage.
—Is that improvisation?
—He's a genius. I'm so jealous.
Suddenly, a commotion arose somewhere. Naturally, it was from Gerkhen's balcony. Out of 35, 30 were clinging to Gerkhen. Even Kain and Asher.
"Do you know?"
Then Soliette asked. Elise turned to look at her.
"About Gerkhen?"
"Yes."
"I do know of him, although not very well."
"Then, what about over there?"
Soliette pointed somewhere else. Elise glanced over and frowned deeply.
It was Shion Ascal.
"Do you know?"
"…I know."
Elise added with a small smile.
"He's a psycho. And a dropout."
Then Soliette nodded calmly.
"I see. He just performed a sword dance."
"Sword dance?"
Elise asked, furrowing her brows.
A sword dance refers to 'the act of unfolding swordsmanship beautifully and smoothly, without pause or hesitation.'
It's a level that can only be demonstrated when one has a decent mastery of a specific swordsmanship.
"Yes. That person."
"…"
Elise pondered for a moment.
Is it a joke? Or a prank?
Soliette is such a humorless person that it's possible. No, the Arkne family itself is notorious for being humorless, a well-known as a boring lineage.
"…Hehe."
Elise forced a laugh. Soliette looked at her with a 'why are you laughing?' expression. Elise's eyes narrowed.
"What kind of reaction are you looking for?"
"Reaction? It's true. It was a real sword dance, but it was ordinary."
Ordinary.
Even the adjective 'ordinary' would be a compliment for Shion Ascal's pathetic life.
"Take a look."
Soliette said as she pulled out a gum from her pocket.
"Video recording. A student ID would do."
There's a video room in one corner of the balcony. If you want to watch a specific senior's swordsmanship video, you just tag your student ID and borrow it.
Elise pursed her lips.
"I know. But your name will be left if you watch it."
"I'll lend you my student ID."
Soliette said, while chewing gum.
Elise's eyes sank deeply.
"Ah. I apologize. I'm trying to quit smoking."
"…Fine."
Elise, who had lowered her head, smiled faintly again.
It was understandable. She, who had been in a major accident, must still have deep scars in her body and mind.
"I'm going to the smoking room."
Soliette slapped something onto Elise's chest.
It was a student ID.
"I don't need it."
Without a word in reply, Soliette left, her hand buried in her pocket. Elize gazed down at the balcony.
There was Shion, with his yellow buzzcut.
"Sword dance…"
It was nonsense, but because it was Soliette's words, she couldn't completely disregard it.
Elise looked back at the video recording room behind her.
Again, she looked at Soliette's student ID in her hand.
"…Tsk."
She clicked her tongue and moved towards the video recording room.
There was no particular reason. She was just curious. Not about Shion Ascal, but about the truth of Soliette's words.
* * *
— You have 5 minutes left. Please work hard until the shift change in 5 minutes.
5 minutes before the shift, in the personal training room.
I replayed the video of the swordsmanship I had just 'reproduced' on the tablet on the desk.
"…Not great."
A sigh slipped out.
Of course, the movements were clean as if refined, but there was no inspiration in my father's swordsmanship. As always, Ascal's swordsmanship was utterly ordinary, and so was my father's talent.
Even the 'wooden sword' I hold now is ambiguous.
The Ascal sword is a long sword with a length of 1.5m, but it's not enough to take advantage of the range. It's only a little longer than an average longsword with just 1.5m, and it's definitely shorter than a spear.
Simply put, it's a colorless, odorless long sword with no special advantages or disadvantages.
A sword that resembles my father.
Before the regression, I even abandoned this swordsmanship. During my time in the underworld, I didn't have the luxury to choose, I just swung whatever I had.
To put it bluntly— Ascal's swordsmanship is just a piece of trash that naturally fades and disappears.
If it was great in the first place, he wouldn't have been a low-ranking knight.
"So what."
Despite that, I won't abandon this sword. I won't sell it off like before.
Ascal style.
It's a clumsy swordsmanship called 'style', but I will consider this insufficient and pitiful thing as my root.
A tree without roots cannot grow.
"Let's just change the basics a bit."
However, I don't intend to accept the family's basics as they are. To avoid repeating my father's future, to avoid becoming a person like my father.
I love and adore my father too much, but I can't respect him.
—30 minutes have passed. We will now change shifts.
It was time for the shift change.
I came out of the training room and went up to the balcony, and the students on the balcony went into the training room to change shifts.
Standing on the balcony with a report and pen instead of a sword.
There are many people to watch.
First of all, Elise. She becomes the president of the university and the magic tower in 10 years, but she is also very talented in swordsmanship.
There's no need to mention Kain and Asher, who originally aimed to be knights.
—Ah. She's starting.
—Just standing there?
—Shush. Just watch.
But there was a particular spot where people were especially bustling.
I headed there too.
"..."
As expected, it was Soliette Arkne.
She stood still, clutching her sword.
After a while, she swung her sword with a whoosh— a line of magic rippled like a wave. From there, Soliette began to display her swordsmanship.
It was a simple formula made up of 7-8 strokes, woven like a net, but even that was enough to elicit admiration.
"—Wow!"
The cheering gallery. There was already a movement as if to draw waiting tickets for the video recording room.
However, I somehow fell into deep contemplation.
"...She's definitely different."
The Soliette of now and the Soliette of the future are very different.
I'm not talking about skill or development.
The Soliette here is reluctantly following Arkne's swordsmanship. Just like fulfilling a 'curriculum' set by her family.
I have a rough idea of Arkne's vision swordsmanship. I've faced it directly.
To explain it in brief, Arkne is largely a 'linked sword'.
The First Sword Form, the foundation, is the Eight-Sword. The Second Sword Form is the Qi Fire Sword and so on... A total of eleven Sword Forms complete Arkne's Vision Swordsmanship.
For reference, Sword Forms are somewhere between sword techniques and initial formulas. They are too much like sword techniques to be initial formulas, but they are not complete on their own.
Arkne's vision swordsmanship unfolds these sword formulas in succession, and ultimately concludes as one.
Hence, it's a linked sword.
When the eleven sword formulas connect into a single line, the entire swordsmanship spreads like a flame. By the time it reaches that point, the sword no longer appears as a sword but truly rushes in as a flame, ironically, Soliette's disposition is the exact opposite.
She is a 'severing sword'. She doesn't adhere to a specific form of swordsmanship, instead, she makes judgments based on her intuition at the moment.
This severing sword is common yet rare.
It's both a shell and a pearl.
An inadequate severing sword is a street thug's knife fight, but a complete severing sword is a gesture of a sage.
A severing sword at its peak severs all connections.
It destroys swordsmanship and cuts the chain of causality.
However, the realm of 'completion of the severing sword' is nearly impossible, and those who can wield it to a reasonable extent can be counted on one hand across the continent.
Soliette, in the not too distant future, completed such a difficult severing sword. At least, she reached the threshold of the Heavenly Realm.
I still remember the memory of her from that time.
"...Wait. Memory?"
But, the word 'memory' somehow feels off.
I alternately looked at the sword at my waist and the report in my hand.
I have no intention of spoiling her future severing sword.
Rather, I hope that she in this life does not realize the severing sword.
Her severing sword was a disaster born from her despair. It would push her into an abyss and inevitably make her unhappy.
"The severing sword..."
In that case, I strangely resonate with it. I'm intrigued. I'm tempted. Greed wells up.
Could I possibly incorporate a part of that severing sword into Ascal's swordsmanship?
Could I add a little bit of the Soliette from my 'memory'?
The Arkne family itself is a curse, a sword that was despised, but I can willingly accept that curse.
— Whoa, did you just see that?
— Crazy, absolutely crazy.
Amidst the resounding exclamations, I quietly turned around.
Leaning against the railing with the report in my hand, I fell into a bit of deep thought...
* * *
After the swordsmanship class ended, Elise's private residence.
A luxury apartment in Edsila, 'Praesidium'.
"Miss~ What would you like for a snack~"
"I'm watching my weight."
"Ay~ Where do you have any weight to lose~"
"It's too late when you start to gain."
Elise answered the maid and looked at her laptop.
[Shion Ascal]
A video was playing on the laptop. It was a video of Shion Ascal—according to Soliette—performing a 'sword dance', borrowed from the record room under Soliette's name.
Having already seen it once, she rewound it to watch it again, and again, and again. Elise analyzed it while twirling her pen.
"I see."
She thought she understood to some extent why Soliette had shown interest.
First of all, it was a sword dance.
According to the dictionary definition of 'the act of elegantly unfolding any swordsmanship without fault'.
However, it was not good swordsmanship. It was a textbook that even a lower knight would scoff at.
Yet, Shion had mastered this swordsmanship.
Not just to a simple extent.
Perhaps, he had reached its 'end'.
"Really..."
How much effort did it take to master this level of swordsmanship to such a degree of precision and smoothness? How much effort was poured into a bottomless barrel?
It was pitiful beyond contempt.
Elise closed her laptop. She twisted the corners of her mouth as if to smile.
"How can he be so foolish."
She thought she understood a little why he was so enthusiastic.
You've put in so much effort.
To master such a trivial swordsmanship to this extent, how much effort did you put in?
"It's a matter of birth."
The direction was wrong. The vector setting was incorrect.
Shion Ascal has no talent.
If he truly had talent, he would have shown a spark of brilliance at least once, even while using such low-level swordsmanship.
However, Shion Ascal merely unfolds his swordsmanship. Mindlessly.
It seemed as if he had converted his remaining time into effort, but what a waste.
Effort without talent is 'wrong'.
"Knight of Libra... Can you really do it like this?"
Elise, who muttered as if mocking, soon erased the existence of Shion from her mind.
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