Chapter 9. I Threw a Stone at the Duke's Family (1)
The training ground was noisy.
Knights and soldiers of the Ashuhalt Duke's family clung to the walls and took their places to watch the sparring match.
Obvious doubt and ridicule lingered in their eyes.
"They called him the Mercenary King, but he's just a greenhorn without a single grain of mana."
"That thing is the Mercenary King? Wasn't the Mercenary King supposed to be an Expert-level powerhouse?"
"Idiot, they say it's a nickname stuck because he did a lot of requests."
Such criticisms rode the air and pierced my eardrums.
'Retards, acting high and mighty when they can't handle Aura either.'
But I didn't care.
What I had faced on the battlefield for 10 years were crises far more dangerous than these gazes.
The extreme poison of slave traders, assassins of the black market, the rusty greatsword of a serial killer.
I could be confident that I, who lived facing such things, was stronger than guys who lived trapped inside a birdcage like this.
However, there are exceptions.
Like that silver-haired man glaring at me from behind that pillar.
"Where are you looking?"
In front of me stood Arisa Ashuhalt, her long silver hair tied back tightly, holding a wooden sword.
Eyes of pure 'curiosity,' devoid of negative emotions like jealousy, envy, suspicion, or contempt, were directed solely at me.
I slightly raised the corners of my mouth.
'A lady quite to my liking.'
The air was rippling minutely around her body.
Just as I heard from Kailey in Lorraine's room a little while ago.
A stage where she cannot yet materialize Aura, but instinctively senses the flow of mana and begins to wrap it around her body.
In other words, the 'Novice' stage.
'Then there's no reason for me to lose.'
I touched 'Ahisha's Eye' at my waist, then soon took my hand off.
There was no need to use a trump card limited to three uses against such a greenhorn.
What I need is the flow of Aura penetrating the inside, not just merely feeling it.
"Here I come, Danel!!"
"Come."
Dash—!
Arisa kicked off the ground and rushed at me.
I concentrated and captured her figure.
Instantly, the world changed and split into tens of thousands of frames.
'Good movement. Almost no bad habits.'
But that also means she is too honest.
The muscle on Arisa's right instep contracts.
The center of gravity tilts to the left by half a fist.
Her gaze is directed at my flank, but the target her body tells is aiming for my shoulder.
'Trying to use a trick in her own way, huh.'
In a fleeting moment, I slightly lowered my shoulder and leisurely dodged her thrust.
A paper-thin difference.
Whoosh—
The sound of the wooden sword cutting the air brushed past my ear.
"Uh!?"
Arisa's bewildered voice.
Instead of answering, I lowered my body while lowering my shoulder and dug into her guard.
Movements must be connected.
That way, gaps can be minimized.
"Keuk—!"
Arisa retrieved her wooden sword and reflexively aimed for the back of my head as I rushed in.
Swish—!
But as if I had eyes on the back of my head, I ducked and dodged her wooden sword.
"What!?"
A golden opportunity.
But it's a shame to end it like this.
'Hmm… Shall I play with her a bit more?'
Whirl—
Thud—!
My wooden sword rotated once and stuck into the ground.
But just with that, Arisa was surprised and instinctively retreated, taking a defensive stance.
"What was that just now? Are you going easy on me?"
"I thought you would get hurt badly if I attacked just now."
I tapped my chin while saying that.
If my chin got hit by a wooden sword and broke, I'd have to recuperate for a few days.
At my indifferent answer, the surrounding knights began to buzz.
"Did you see that? He dodged Lady Arisa's thrust that lightly?"
"His reaction speed makes no sense? Is that possible without Aura?"
Arisa blushed as if her pride was hurt and rushed again.
"Damn it!! If you go easy from now on, you're dead!!"
"Will you be alright?"
"Shut up!! If you go easy, I will definitely kill you!!"
Right, she has to say this much for me to make a move.
Even for me, it's difficult to make a move on a Duke's daughter within the Duke's residence.
Swish—!
Whoosh—
Clash—!
Her swordsmanship was flashy.
It was precise and fast enough not to waste the modifier 'genius.'
But the opponent was bad.
It's me.
"Hah, hah! H-How… can this be? How…?"
"Shall we stop?"
When I spoke with a voice not even out of breath, Arisa rushed again.
"Don't be ridiculous!!"
Thwack—!
Even though she looked angry, her thrust had no superfluity.
But I could tell she was going to thrust just by looking at her footing position.
My subsequent movements were minimized.
Without unnecessary motions, movements calculating only the minimum interval and maximum efficiency.
I dodged Arisa's thrust by just turning my body without moving my feet.
And,
Smack—!
My wooden sword lightly hit Arisa's wrist.
"Keuk—!"
Clatter—
The sound of the wooden sword falling to the ground echoed in the silence.
There was no noise around anymore.
In her eyes, astonishment, anger, and an unknown sense of elation dwelt simultaneously.
A little before the sparring began.
A man standing in the shadow behind a pillar on one side of the training ground was watching the start of the spar.
The third son of the Ashuhalt Duke's family, Vince Ashuhalt.
'Just because I didn't lend her soldiers, she dragged a mercenary nobody into the main house? This stupid girl….'
Still, Vince was one of the few siblings who looked after Lorraine.
Because Vince, who had a lot of affection, ultimately couldn't act cold-heartedly and tried to help Lorraine.
'That guy…? Did he just look at me?'
However, as the spar began, Vince's eyes started to widen.
To his eyes, an Expert-level knight, this duel right now was bizarre beyond measure.
'Ha? That is not swordsmanship.'
Vince frowned.
'There is no set form or trajectory. Only a god-like sense that reads the opponent's movement first and reacts. Has that mercenary never learned proper swordsmanship?'
There were movements that occasionally looked like techniques, but they were too crude to call swordsmanship.
Right, they were techniques perfectly fitting the name mercenary.
Vince's evaluation was accurate.
Danel has never learned swordsmanship.
He just stole the movements of the strong to survive and forcibly transplanted them into his body.
Arisa, who dropped her wooden sword, gritted her teeth and glared at Danel.
'She's extremely pissed off, that Arisa.'
"Pick up your wooden sword, Lady. You're not going to end it like this, right?"
"Of course not!!"
'Kuk kuk, speaking politely but even provoking? Funny guy.'
And the duel continued.
When the duel reached its climax, Arisa leaped high to deliver a final blow.
"You won't be able to dodge this!!"
'Hoh, she's properly bringing out the family swordsmanship.'
A middle slash disguised as a vertical slash striking down from the air.
Because it utilizes downward force and rotational force to increase power, if one prepared thinking it was a vertical slash, it was a blow difficult to defend the middle.
Kwaaang—!!
However, even such a blow from Arisa returned to nothing.
Defense prepared for impact by holding the wooden sword in reverse grip and adhering it exactly to the arm.
Meaning he knew this attack was powerful and defended.
"H-How!?"
Vince's brow narrowed.
'It should be an attack he's seeing for the first time… surprising.'
His defense was safe to call the best defense.
"Since the Lady showed a move, I will show one too."
And Danel's one arm went up.
Vince's eyes opened wide in surprise.
'T-That is!!?'
Zap—!
It was a simple vertical slash.
But in that trajectory, it was the very vertical slash that Leorel, who turned Danel's comrades into lumps of meat 10 years ago, showed as a return gift saying he 'saw something interesting.'
There was no Aura, but that trajectory alone was perfectly reproduced.
Crash—!
The moment the wooden sword clashed with the wooden sword, Arisa's body bounced back like a sheet of paper.
She rolled on the floor and barely regained her stance, but the wooden sword in her hand was already split in half.
"...!!!"
Silence hovered over the training ground.
Vince Ashuhalt's eyes were dyed with astonishment.
'What was that? That vertical slash just now?'
It was a fragment of obsession that could not come out without tenacity carved out by repeating tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, or terrible hatred for an enemy.
Vince, who had no way of knowing that, could only admire.
'Amazing…. Does it mean he's not called the Mercenary King for nothing?'
Vince imagined blocking the blow just now.
And smiled a bitter smile.
'Ha? If he doesn't use Aura… I can't guarantee even I could block that attack perfectly.'
Vince twisted his lips and smiled.
'I saw something good. Lorraine picked up a more interesting toy than I thought.'
Vince stared at Danel once more with interest, then quietly disappeared into the shadows.
"No way! I couldn't land a single hit! It's a trick, right? Are you actually a mage or something!?"
Arisa hit the floor repeatedly and shouted.
I caught my breath and put down the broken wooden sword.
My whole body tingled.
Trying to draw that trajectory with only muscle power without Aura seemed to have strained my body.
I chuckled and reached out a hand to Arisa.
"Are you alright, Lady?"
"Let go! Do it again! There's something, definitely!"
"It's the same even if we do it again. Because the Lady has four bad habits."
Arisa's eyes widened.
"What? Habits? M-Me?"
Microscopic habits impossible to notice unless it was me.
Arisa would have never heard of them.
Nevertheless, Arisa was indeed a truly great genius.
It was my first time seeing a human with so few habits.
"Yes. Shall I recite them one by one right here? There are quite a few listening ears."
Looking around, the knights were pricking up their ears and watching us.
Arisa also knew well what ripples would occur in the family if the weaknesses of the one praised as a genius were revealed.
Arisa's face turned like a carrot, and she grabbed me by the collar.
"You…! Eat dinner with me today!"
"I am honored by the invitation, but as Lady Lorraine's guard, I need Lady Lorraine's permission."
"I'll talk to Sister, so shut up and follow me!"
Arisa huffed and left the training ground.
Kailey approached my side and asked as if astounded.
"Are… you sane? From the first day…? Touching another Lady…?"
At Kailey's reaction, I chuckled.
"I didn't touch her. I created an opportunity."
I watched Arisa's receding back with shining eyes.
If the genius youngest daughter who receives the family's expectations in one body comes to follow me?
The family's gaze that ignored Lorraine will naturally focus on me, her person, and Lorraine who hired me.
This was the first stone I threw to shake the Duke's family.