Chapter 10: The Talent for Swordsmanship

Two hours ago, following Princess Cielsa’s command, Wald came to the Royal Academy to find the person Her Highness had mentioned.

As the so-called “Sword Saint” of the Lion Empire, Wald also held an honorary professorship in the Knight Division at the Royal Academy.

But, due to his wife’s grave illness, he hadn’t the heart to handle even the Knight Order’s affairs, let alone come to the academy to teach, and had spent his days and nights haggard and worn.

Fortunately, Princess Cielsa had saved his beloved, and for that, he was willing to do anything for her.

Relying on the information provided by others, Wald soon found Vita. However, to be honest, Wald was disappointed when he met her in person.

She had never trained in swordsmanship—not even for a month.

Her palms were so tender one could pinch water from them, and there wasn’t the slightest ripple of aura about her. Aside from her particularly pretty face, Wald couldn’t see anything worth noting in Vita at all.

Was someone like this even worthy of the recognition of the Primeval Sword Spirit? Wald shook his head to himself.

Though he would still accept the girl as his disciple, it was no longer out of his own desire, but the command of Her Highness.

“Miss Vita, would you come with me to the training grounds? I’d like to witness your aptitude.”

Although he used polite language and changed “test” to the gentler “witness,” it still sobered Vita from her delighted shock—he was doubting her ability.

Contrary to what most might think, Vita wasn’t happy because she’d caught the Sword Saint’s attention.

She knew there was only one person in the world who knew her talent for swordsmanship—Senior El.

She didn’t know how Senior El managed it, but it must have been him who helped her connect with the Sword Saint.

She could sense his feelings for her. Wald’s doubt in her talent was, in effect, doubt in Senior El. That was the one thing she could not accept: making Senior El lose face because of her.

Vita agreed to Wald’s invitation, and the two headed to a training ground in the Knight Division. The unkempt, bearded middle-aged man tossed Vita a wooden sword.

Once she’d warmed up, the “witnessing” began.

The rules were simple: since Vita had never studied swordsmanship, Wald wouldn’t take the initiative to attack. He would only defend and intercept Vita’s strikes.

This match would be pure swordsmanship. Wald would not use aura, and would do his best to restrain his physical strength to Vita’s level.

“Well then, let’s begin.”

Wald held the wooden sword in one hand. His previous weariness vanished, replaced by the aura of a top-class powerhouse. His eyes were sharp and piercing.

Vita was not intimidated. She dashed forward, gripping the sword in both hands, and brought it down toward Wald in a chopping motion.

But to her surprise, the Sword Saint blocked it easily with one hand. Even though they were fighting under equal conditions, this proved that, in terms of swordsmanship, Vita was far behind.

“The key to swordsmanship is cutting, to treat your sword as an extension of your body—not just as something to smash at the enemy.”

Wald even had the leisure to explain, “Just now, your sword had a very obvious weakness—about a quarter of the way down from the tip.”

“You can also try attacking my weak points. Slowly, through practice, you’ll…”

Before he could finish, Vita launched a fierce horizontal slash, forcing Wald to block again. The force from her sword was quite strong—by his estimation, Vita’s hands should already be tingling from the impact.

Wald, however, was not as calm inside as he appeared on the surface.

He noticed that, though Vita’s swordsmanship was still immature, her chopping technique and angle of force were unexpectedly standard, like an Apprentice Knight who’d practiced for quite some time.

Her earnest attitude was even more praiseworthy. At that moment, Wald had already acknowledged this disciple—her talent, and the resolve in her strikes.

Over the next ten or so minutes, Vita improved at a startling pace. Her swordplay began to show structure and discipline.

She probed, experimented, and finally targeted the weakness Wald had intentionally left open.

The Sword Saint’s surprise never left him—her learning speed was monstrous. He hadn’t taught her attack techniques, yet Vita deduced and created them on her own.

Out of respect, Wald switched early on to a two-handed grip. He could feel Vita’s skill advancing at a breakneck pace.

“That’s enough, Miss Vita. Your stamina won’t last much longer. Your performance was outstanding—I’ve never seen a genius like you.”

She was already on par with the Knight Division’s Apprentice Knights. Wald thought, with only a dozen minutes of practice, just how many people would go mad if they knew about this?

He’d always considered himself a swordsmanship genius, but her talent was far beyond his own—he couldn’t imagine Vita’s future achievements.

If she was already at the Apprentice Knight level, then in a month, could she already be on her way to becoming a Golden-level Knight?

The Golden-level Knights were the elite of the Royal Knight Order, respected wherever they went.

If Cielsa knew his thoughts, she might say he still lacked imagination. In the Song of Starfeather, if one took the speedrun route, protagonist Vita could even defeat a master in a week.

Otherwise, how could she be the protagonist? If her growth rate matched that of the Sword Saint, then what was the point of her being the main character?

***

Afterward, Wald invited Vita to transfer from the Magic Division to the Knight Division. Clearly, her talent in magic was mediocre, while in swordsmanship, she was a once-in-a-generation prodigy.

But Vita said she needed to think about it; she wanted to confirm Senior El’s opinion and hoped to find a chance to chat with him.

She checked the schedule and found El’s classroom, but didn’t see him—only El’s friend, Karen.

So she asked Karen where El had gone.

Karen didn’t want to answer at first. He worried Vita would disturb El and Aurelia’s rare alone time.

But then, a mischievous thought struck him, so he told Vita that El was in the student council president’s office, discussing the incident with the broken monitoring crystal.

First, he didn’t believe Aurelia could hold back after not seeing El for so long. If something happened between the two, maybe the junior girl would give up and stop clinging to El.

Second, introducing a competitor in front of Aurelia might serve as a reminder—El was hardly lacking in admirers.

Third, wasn’t this all just great fun?

And so, things unfolded in this way.

Vita felt terribly aggrieved. She’d tried so hard to repay Senior El, but was left with a sense of helplessness—she realized she was redundant, that Senior El already had someone he loved.

She fought back her tears and ran back to her dorm. If she’d had long hair, no one would be able to see her expression; as it was, many people saw a cute girl running by, crying.

In the dormitory, only Meris had no classes. When she saw Vita running back in tears, she was shocked and hurried to ask what had happened.

Vita poured out the whole story, her sobs growing uncontrollable: “Mnh, Senior El, mnh, even though I, mnh, knew long ago, mnh, I’m not worthy, wu…”

“But… isn’t the rumor that Senior El and Aurelia broke up long ago? That there’s nothing between them, maybe there’s some misunderstanding.”

Vita’s eyes widened, signaling for Meris to go on.

“This is a big scoop. I heard it from a second-year senior, it seems Senior Aurelia was the one who…”

Suddenly, Vita felt things might not be so hopeless after all.