Chapter 30: 30

According to Plan

 

In the city of Ishka, the method of settling things with a duel is not all that unusual.

A duel with fists and swords is what rowdy adventurers would wish for as well. It’s something that happens a lot.

However, it’s not something that’s done while left unchecked.

For a duel to be officially recognized, there has to be a witness.

 

They choose the place for the duel, they make the preparations for it, and they vouch for the result.

To bitch about the result would be the same thing as insulting the witness.

By that nature, the witness needs to have a suitable social status and sense of duty. On the other hand, if there isn’t a witness for the duel, it will count as a private battle and both parties involved will be judged under the city’s laws.

 

I had expected this, but the witness for the duel between me and Larz will be the guild master, Elgart.

 

The location is in the guild’s training area. There were no other spectators or onlookers. Only me, Larz, Elgart, the other members of 『Falcon Sword』, Ciel, and the female receptionist with braided hair stood in this spacious area.

I was expecting a crowd of adventurers and guild staff cheering him on, so this was honestly a surprise.

 

Well, this was originally a grudge match between us after all. It’d be troubling if something strange was yelled out in the middle of our duel and it gets heard by the other adventurers.

 

However, without a crowd, there’s a risk of them not accepting the result when Larz loses. It wouldn’t be weird for the guild master who shelved Miroslav’s crimes last time to shelve away Larz’s defeat this time.

 

When I was thinking about that, the door of the training area opened, then a middle-aged man rushed in quickly as he tried to catch his breath.

 

「….*haa*, *haa*…. Oh, my apologies for being late! Something came up when I was on my way out so it took me some time to get here」

 

His silk clothes and plump physique really gave off the typical image of a merchant. 

This person who was dispatched from the 『Union』surveyed the surroundings with his slitty eyes, confirming the faces of the people gathered here.

 

「I thought it was unusual for Master Elgart to be calling for me, but it looks like there’s something quite interesting going on here」

 

「The details are written in this letter. Since we’re short on time, Mr Fedor, we’ll be beginning immediately, is that fine with you?」

 

「Yes, sure, sure, I’m fine with that. Will a new slave be born today, or will a slave be set free? No matter which case it’ll be, It would still be a slave merchant’s wish」

 

Although this Fedor person’s somewhat aloof manner of speech and behavior was kind of fishy, as long as he was sent here from the 『Union』, it doesn’t matter if he is incompetent or irresponsible. Him being a witness is plenty enough.

 

Rather, if they sent him here to not acknowledge the result, I will have to go pick a fight with them.

 

But that would not be very appealing.

 

The 『Union』 refers to the union of slave merchants.

 

Like the Adventurers’ guild and the Temple of the god of law sect, they are a huge, well-established organization across the border. Everything related to slave trading has to do with the 『Union』.

The influence of the union that deals with more than thousands of slaves at times has reached even the small countries and rural regions, they are not people you want to mess with unless you have a death wish.

 

Well yeah, sometimes you’d get involved with them even when you’re really not trying to…It wasn’t just the unfortunate people like Ciel, but even for someone like me who is walking a thorny path, I can’t say for sure that I won’t need their help with something in the future either.

Ah whatever. What happens in the future is in the future. Let’s focus on what’s in front of me right now.

 

Larz was equipped with a one-handed sword, a shield, and steel armor. They were probably all enchanted with magic. That’s most likely the power of having the merchant company backing him up. In short, he was completely decked out.

 

Me on the other hand, with the exception of the black sword by my waist, I’m wearing the leather armor that I always wore. Only the part covering my chest is actually armored. I really didn’t have much defense power.

 

It’s my complete loss if we’re just looking at our gear. If anything, the difference was laughable.

 

Of course, no one here was laughing. Since this is a duel where sometimes people can lose their lives in, it’s natural for people to give it their all.

 

Larz glared at me in all seriousness.

 

「Now then… Both sides, square off!」

 

He readied his sword and shield in response to Elgart’s voice.

 

I readied my sword. I’m not going to use kei or my soul equipment in this duel.

 

Besides testing my power, this is also a defensive measure to not let the guild and the union gauge my real strength.

 

The question is whether or not Larz will allow it–

 

「Haaaaa!!」

 

He rushed up and slashed diagonally down at my shoulder.

 

If I just stood there quietly, my left shoulder would probably have gotten cut off.

 

Of course, I’m not so nice to give him that first strike for free. I leaped back slightly and evaded the slash. Then, I went for a counter attack while his stance crumbled.

 

However, as expected of a sixth-tier adventurer, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Larz cleverly moved his shield and covered the small opening that he had after his attack.

 

 

Next, I’ll attack this spot…The moment I thought that, his second attack came flying at me.

 

It was even faster than the first strike.

 

You would not think that he was wearing heavy armor from seeing those movements. Apparently, his first attack was just him warming up.

 

Realizing that I couldn’t dodge it this time, I used the back of my sword to parry the hit.

 

The tremor transferred to me as his attack collided with my sword. Heavy. I was able to withstand it by standing firmly with the power of my legs.

It’s obvious, but Larz is a different person than he was from five years ago.

 

「What’s wrong, Sora?! You won’t beat me if this is all you got!」

 

Third hit, fourth hit, fifth hit…he yelled out and taunted me as he continued to unleash his attacks.

 

I curled my lip as I responded,

 

「Thanks for your advice」

 

As I said that, I dashed to the side and dodged his thrusts. He immediately followed up with a shield bash, but I evaded it as well. This adventurer who seems to be okay with using any moves he could think of then tries to trip me, but I dodged that too with a dash backwards into the air.

 

While I was in the air, I watched him carefully.

 

The four important basics of the phantom blade style, “zan (Slash) kei, sou (Movement), kan(View)” 

“Kan” is basically to observe.

 

A general of the empire once said that “You’ll win the fight one hundred percent of the time if you know where you and your enemy both stand”. That quote didn’t just refer to the state of war.

 

Without using kei or my soul equipment, the other side was stronger as I thought. Moreover, the amount of accumulated experience he has built up as an adventurer far exceeds mine.

I was trying to find the key to overthrow this difference between us in his movements.

 

 

If I look at myself from the side, I probably look like a dangerous guy watching Larz’s each and every movement like snake-like eyes right now.

 

Is the way I’m looking at him bugging him? Or is it because he was getting irritated from his attacks not landing? His swings were getting wider and wider.

 

It hasn’t reached the point where they could be called careless attacks that left him open, but his accuracy has dropped lower than ever before.

 

 

We haven’t even exchanged thirty blows yet. It’d be too early for him to get impatient, I thought…No, if I look at it from his point of view, he’s having a struggle versus a level one. Of course he would start being bothered by that thought.

 

It would generally be an embarrassment if a sixth-tier adventurer couldn’t take care of a tenth-tier adventurer who got expelled in an instant. There’s no doubt he’s worrying about how his comrades and the guild master are looking at him right now.

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Besides, he should have been quite egged on by Miroslav. Something like “Please show me what a real adventurer, a real warrior is capable of”

 

And now he’s in this predicament. It was inevitable that he became irritated.

 

…Yeah, now that I know this, it would only be right for me to use that against him. Larz has been weak in this area since long ago. His weak mentality seemed to be deeply rooted in him because of his simple villager background.

 

「What’s wrong, Larz? You won’t be able to beat me by just swinging your sword around, you know?」

 

「Shut up, stop dodging!」

 

「Unfortunately, my sword is not a weapon that’s meant for clashing heads on. This is how I fight. But still, it’s sad that a sixth-tier adventurer is having problems catching me」

 

「…Shit」

 

「Your movements are getting more and more careless—」

 

As I said that, I struck at his chest when he slightly lowered his shield.

 

I took that opening and dealt damage to his body.

 

「Ugghh?!」

 

「Hey, your shield is down again」

 

I continued to strike at the exact same spot where his armor cracked.

 

With a face in pain, he swung his shield at me to distance me before returning a slash with his one-handed sword.

 

However, that attack was a large swing with a lot of force. It was not the same as earlier where I could deal with it by using my legs, but dodging it was nothing at all.

 

After that, we traded blows fifty times from that point on before we distanced ourselves and stared at each other.

 

Larz was out of breath, his face was wry, and the blood that was dripping from the crack of his armor was tainting the ground.

 

…Yeah. I feel bad for saying this but he’s weak.

 

It’s true that he’s stronger than me head-on. He would be able to take me down if he could get close to me and lock swords with me. However, he does not know the ropes of making use of his advantages in a battle. Honestly, the Ayaka or Raguna from five years ago would still be much stronger than him.

I also know the reason for that. Larz’s sword style is for fighting monsters and not for man to man combat.

 

Of course, he has fought with humans as well. Bandits, necromancers, evil cultists, there is no shortage of human enemies for an adventurer.

 

However, if you look at it as a whole, most of what he fought were monsters. He did not learn how to fight with a sword to use it to fight with people in the first place.

 

In that respect, although there was a blank period for me, I am still much better than him at fighting people since I’ve been learning the phantom blade style since a young age. Everyone who was around me was stronger than me, after all. The experience I had fighting strong people can be called nothing but abundant.

 

With that said, there’s no need for me to let this fight drag on when I’m sure of this.

Actually, it’s possible that this is his trap to have me drop my guard before going all in…Yeah, if that’s the case, then in respect of his good acting I will show him my ki arts.

 

I stepped forward with that thought in mind.

 

「Larz!」

 

Iria probably felt something that can’t be overlooked at this moment; she instinctively called out to him to get his attention.

 

Larz readied his sword in response as I dashed through the air and clashed with his sword.

 

And then,

 

*plink*

 

With the sound of metal clashing, his one-handed sword went flying in the air.

 

Before long, it pierced into the ground a little away from us.

 

When I saw Larz in shock as I put my blade at his neck, the guild master called out in a calm voice.

 

「That’s enough! Winner, Sora!」

 

When I saw the look on his face at that moment, I suddenly thought-

 

Surely, that’s how I looked when I lost to the dragon tooth warrior during my trial.

 

◆◆◆

 

「W-wait, wait! One more round, let’s fight one more round!」

 

After all that, that was the first thing Larz said to me.

 

Without thanking Iria who is currently using healing magic on him, he glared at me with bloodshot eyes. 

Seeing him like that, I just shrugged my shoulders lightly at him.

 

「Does that mean you’re disregarding my victory even though we have a witness? The one who declared my victory was the guild master though」

 

「N-no! That was my loss. That’s fine with me. I’m admitting it, so let’s fight again, Sora! That’s right, this should not have been a best of one in the first place! I’ll win this time!」

 

「Hm. That’s fine with me but who will you give me next?」

 

「What?」

 

「I won the match just now. In other words, Lunamaria is mine. You’ll have to prepare someone else to be my slave if you want to fight again. Like I said before, I don’t need Miroslav so there would be only Iria left」

 

Hearing that, Larz looked at Iria instinctively.

Iria who was healing Larz’s wounds made a serious expression when she caught his eyes.

 

「Iria!」

 

「You can’t, Larz. Your wounds have closed up, but you haven’t recovered from the loss of blood. You can’t fight in such condition」

 

「It-it’s fine, I know how to fight him now. I’ll win this time!」

 

When he shouted out like that, Iria slapped him across his face.

 

*Pak*, the dry sound of skin slapping echoed.

 

「Stop it! Are you going to run from the results forever? You lost! If you don’t admit that first, how can you think about getting a rematch?!」

 

「…Iri…..a….」

 

With her scolding, he dropped to his knees as if he finally accepted reality.

 

While I was watching those two, I laughed in my mind.

 

Iria’s attitude is harsh yet kind. It was the most correct way to respond that I can think of.

 

However, for someone who is feeling devastated from the bottom of their heart, sometimes correctness could be hard to swallow.

At that time…if there’s someone who would only tell him the things he’d want to hear, then the man will fall for that someone. Childhood friends they may be, but that relationship is not going to be forever.

 

–I did not see Miroslav. But there’s no need for me to look.

–Everything was going according to plan.

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