07 — Three Years in the Making

07 — Three Years in the Making

Long story short, it was a shutout.

Lionel and Catherine sparred before anyone else, with blunted weapons. Lionel equipped himself with a shield and greatsword similar in size to his own, opting for a patient, defense-oriented fighting style. Catherine wielded the Knights’ standard sword and shield.

Not to spoil the whole thing, but Lionel won.

Catherine chose speed as her weapon, chipping away at Lionel’s turtle-like defense with quick hit-and-run tactics. Had I been her opponent, I would have likely overextended myself and that would have been it for me. But Lionel was smarter and more perceptive. None of her blows seemed to land firmly enough.

At first, Catherine had the momentum, but just as she was pressing her advantage, Lionel saw his chance and bashed her with his shield. Using the opening it created, he swiped at her with the flat of his blade and the match was decided.

I was worried the captain’s defeat would make things tense, but it only stirred the knights into an enthusiastic fervor. Lionel had certainly made a splash, in more of a positive way than I’d expected.

I jogged over and cast Middle Heal on them.

“You okay?” I asked Catherine.

“The pain’s gone now,” she said.

“Lionel?”

“I took no serious blows myself,” he replied. His taciturn mood struck me. He was probably thinking the exact same thing I was.

“Catherine, what exactly did you get out of this?” I asked.

After a while, she replied, “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

“I, uh... I guess?”

“General,” she said to Lionel, “I won’t ask you to fight every last one of us, but can I ask you to give each of the regiment captains a match?”

“If Mister Luciel wishes it,” Lionel replied.

“Sounds like he trusts you,” Catherine said to me.

Whether she was reading between the lines of Lionel’s behavior or genuinely ignorant of what he was feeling, there wasn’t a way out at this point.

“We trust each other,” I corrected her. “And the same goes for the rest of my team. We’re all comrades, companions, maybe even family to an extent. Or at least I’d like to think so.” My words came out naturally. Even I was a little surprised at just how much I had come to rely on my companions.

“I’ve got to say. I’m a little jealous of that.”

A reverential silence for Lionel’s strength fell, but personally, considering the capabilities of his opponents, I couldn’t say I hadn’t expected this outcome. Lionel’s only match in combat was Brod, and Brod was a lot stronger, leagues faster, than Catherine. True, the captain of the guard didn’t get to spar one-on-one very often, but even if she did, she would have needed strength in numbers or a thoroughly studied plan of attack to beat Lionel.

Catherine was a strong opponent, make no mistake. She may not have had any aces up her sleeve, any particular strengths or weaknesses that she played to, but that itself was her strength. Her grasp of the fundamentals was deeper than anyone else’s, and she was exceptionally well rounded, which was the silver bullet to my high-risk-high-reward style of fighting. Still, it was probably what had kept her from cracking Lionel’s defense and snatching a victory in her prior bout.

Man, fighting was complicated business.

Ketty wasn’t a hard hitter either. She prioritized speed and harassment in combat, while Kefin excelled in ambushing, getting in the enemy’s head, and making them let their guard down before going in for the kill. Meanwhile, I was over here getting carried by nothing but my weapon, my ability to constantly and perpetually heal myself, and barrier magic. Thinking positively, that surely meant I had nowhere to go but up, right?

After Lionel and Catherine’s match, we hammered out who would fight against who moving forward. Lionel took charge of the captains, Ketty took the vice-captains, and Kefin sparred with the rank and file. Catherine and I observed.

“What was the point of that fight with Lionel?” I asked. “I get how you lost, but I still don’t understand what it was for.”

“It’s good you know where I went wrong, at least,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t see any way I could’ve won.”

“His style had yours beat. But why bother fighting a battle you know you can’t win? Personally, I would’ve avoided it entirely to live another day.”

“Sometimes that isn’t an option,” a voice said behind me.

I whipped around and saw Lumina. Catherine left a moment later, saying she wanted to get a closer look at Lionel’s matches.

“Orders are orders,” Lumina continued. “We don’t always get to choose the battlefield we stand on. That’s why the Knights fight together, as a whole greater than the sum of its parts.” I hummed in thought. “Or they used to, rather. The Knights as they stand now don’t have the strength to tip the scales of any battle. The sum of its parts is not great enough, so the parts need to be improved.”

That was what this training exercise was about. I almost pointed out to Lumina that she was surely the exception but held my tongue. I was starting to see a clearer picture of the strain that might have been causing Catherine’s lack of energy.

“Yeah,” I said vaguely. “I guess it does take a certain level of prowess, physical or strategic, to create an army that’s more than just fodder.”

“It does,” Lumina agreed. “And Luciel, please don’t take offense to what Lady Catherine said to you earlier.”

“I don’t recall her saying anything that would have insulted me.”

“About your charisma, how people are drawn to your abilities,” she said. “Lady Catherine is just worried about the Church.”

The pope wasn’t much of a public face. It was an S-rank’s job to be the glue that holds things together, even if it made me look like the spokesperson for the Loyalists in the process.

“No offense taken. Really,” I assured her. “Chances are she’s right. If the demons do attack, I’ll probably have to be there on the battlefield, saving lives with my magic. But she’s panicking. I can tell.”

“When Lady Catherine returned to her position, there was no doubt about her qualifications. There still isn’t. She’s a talented fighter and a skilled leader. But you became an S-rank at the same time she became a captain again, and she’s seen the incredible feats you’ve accomplished. She looks at herself, but she doesn’t see the same. She doesn’t see the heroes and legends following behind her, so she concludes that she lacks charisma. She has no holy magic, so she...she is struggling with her thoughts right now.”

“Really?”

After the ovation she had received upon her reinstatement? I thought she was greatly respected by her peers, but to think that I had been the cause of her insecurities...

I couldn’t help feeling bad for her, but at the same time, I didn’t personally enjoy living a life at the whim of some nebulous “destiny.” Any popularity I had gained was pure coincidence. I simply happened to be kind of good at holy magic, and I happened to have found myself with the means to kill a dragon. That was all very convenient for the Church, but as far as I was concerned, I hadn’t consented to any of it.

The thought of suddenly losing my powers hit me again. It was a terrifying idea, but all I could do was take life day by day.

“I want to be clear that I’m not faulting you by any means. More than anything, I wish I could lessen your burden,” Lumina said as I gazed at her seriously. “I just want you to know that I’m doing what I can to one day shoulder the weight with you. As is Lady Catherine, I’m sure.”

I had no idea Lumina had been thinking so much about me.

“I know what it’s like to feel insecure,” I admitted. My voice inadvertently became a pitiful murmur. “I just want to live my life and help people on the way. This stuff with Illumasia, the demons—I’m not looking to join a war.”

“Of course you aren’t,” she replied. “And yet, you’ve done great things. You achieved S-rank at eighteen. You slew a dragon and joined Yenice’s council at twenty. I respect and admire you, Luciel. I do.”

“You don’t have to flatter me.” I laughed.

“I’m doing no such thing. We spoke of you quite passionately just last night, in fact. You’re an S-rank healer, the owner of a business, and you’ve really become quite strong and handsome. It’s like a fairy...”—Lumina’s face burned red—“tale...”

I couldn’t contain my laughter.

“Luciel,” she stammered, “c-can we maybe...”

“So that’s what the Valkyries get up to on their own.”

Well, I had certainly never expected to see myself peak with the Valkyries so soon. Or to such an extent. But they treated me no differently from the day we first met, so it seemed I would need to make myself comfortable in the little brother zone for a while longer. I knew the way the girls looked at me was like a sister watching a child grow into a man, and I couldn’t even argue because that was exactly what I was. Literally. The emotions swirling inside me were of an exceedingly complicated nature, but I let myself feel happy that Lumina had started to respect me.

“Not going to spar with Lionel?” I asked her.

“It’s been a while, so I asked Lady Catherine if you and I could have our long-awaited rematch,” she replied.

“You know I’ll be using magic, right?”

“By all means. I intend to come at you like a hammer to a rock-turtle’s shell.”

“Please don’t forget that I’m human.”

We continued to watch the three matches progressing on the field.

“How much difference is there between a captain and a vice-captain?” I asked.

“That depends on the regiment,” Lumina replied. “Still, I didn’t expect them to lose so one-sidedly.”

There really were no words to describe the bouts we witnessed. My team’s opponents did their utmost to attempt to land a single blow in the space of a minute, and the instant the minute was up, they were put down and given feedback. Lionel did that with each of the Valkyries except for Lumina and he was done in less than fifteen minutes.

“I’m sensing a light depression in the air,” I said. “You sure we should continue?”

“Things will change when we take the field. I imagine we’ll cause a bit of a scene when everyone sees us.”

“No point in wasting time, then. When we’re done, we should train with the other Valkyries like we used to.”

“I would like that.”

Lumina and I found a place in the center of the field, and the knights cleared out for us.

“Those are your weapons?” Lumina asked skeptically.

I was equipped with a sword in one hand and a spear in the other, just like yesterday. I smiled, remembering how she had reprimanded me for this very style in the past. “I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve.”

“If you say so.”

She didn’t look convinced that it would matter, and I couldn’t wait to prove her wrong. She was about to see how much I had grown. Our first fight in three years was at hand.

My heart pounded in my chest. Lionel and the others had already paused their matches to look our way as Lumina and I awaited Catherine’s signal.

“Begin!”

I free cast Attack Barrier the instant Catherine’s voice rang out, pumped magic through my body with Physical Enhancement, and sprang towards Lumina. Her eyes widened, but she had charged moments before me and was preparing to strike. I hurled my spear at her.

Lumina grunted as she sidestepped the spear, breaking her stance for a precious second. I took advantage of it and swung at her as I summoned a shield to my free hand, but she deflected it with her own. The Illusion Sword could have cut it in two—if I were aiming to tear her in half, that is.

“You were trying to throw me off before the match even began,” Lumina observed. “I will admit you surprised me.”

“You’ve gotta do what you have to when you’re weak. I can’t go losing on the first blow in front of my team.”

“Bold talk for someone within sword range.”

Lumina dropped low and charged in. I swung my sword at her, and she rolled away from it with shock in her eyes.

“You read me,” she murmured. “How in the world were you training to be able to do that?”

“Well, Ketty’s faster, and Kefin can move without showing a single motion and disappear at will, so you’ll need more than speed to take me down.”

Part of it was that she reminded me of how Catherine fought, although Lumina might have been even stronger.

I was smiling and waving my sword smugly when I heard a voice mutter something.

“Accel Boost.”

“Accel what?”

A second later, I felt the hard ground against my back and saw the clouds drifting above me. Fast enough to remind me of Ketty’s speed, Lumina had summarily handed my butt to me on a silver platter.

“I just showed you the full extent of my power,” Lumina commented. “You’re not the only one who’s been improving.”

I stood up and approached her. “I could’ve sworn I heard you say something. ‘Accel Boost?’ What kind of magic is that? I didn’t even hear a chant. When did you learn how to free cast?”

Lumina flinched. “Please pretend you didn’t hear that. I’ll explain another time.”

I had learned something from that match. Catherine was indeed the captain of the guard, but Lumina was undoubtedly the strongest of the knights. My team regarded her with far more interest than they had Catherine. I could already hear them asking me to spend the next few days sparring with her. And just as well, really, because I had to settle the score at some point.

With the knights finally on the scoreboard after my defeat at Lumina’s hands, morale was restored and our training continued well into the afternoon.