Part 10 — Arrogance

“In Magyan, the strongest becomes king... That’s not incorrect. I believe you, as a man, understand that,” the Regent says to me.

“The king’s job, after all, is to protect their country. As such, they have to be able to defeat any evildoers who come into their lands, whether using soldiers or their own strength. Moreover, the one with the most authority can even take down berserkers. No doubt the king is quite popular.”

Just as importantly, it’s easy to understand. For example, deciding who is right can be difficult to determine. You can’t know their skill if you don’t have them actually try competing ideas. However, strength is easy to understand. This is even more the case when we’re talking about individual strength.

“Even when fighting, it’d be restricted to within the royal family. Once you become king, you have to continue training by fighting other Spirit Summoners. In that sense, it’s a good system.”

If you have an objection, you challenge the king. The king needs to maintain enough strength to put down the challenger. It’s quite ridiculous when you think about it, but it also makes a certain type of sense. At the very least, their subjects seem willing to accept it.

“The Domino Empire wasn’t much different. They placed an enormous amount of power in the hands of the emperor, which allowed them to move their giant country at the whim of an individual. In effect, they were the leviathan.”

“I’m a mere bodyguard. This is beyond my pay grade.”

“You’re an Immortal, and can give up on and discard things that are unnecessary to you. It really is impressive. I can’t hope to do the same.”

She respects me and she finds me deeply impressive. But she doesn’t look up to me and she doesn’t care to model herself on me. Her words conveyed that meaning.

“It’s because of that character that the people of House Sepaeda trust you. So long as they don’t betray you, you’ll meet their expectations.”

I suppose that’s true. The people of House Sepaeda seem to trust me quite a bit. That’s something worth celebrating.

“But not everyone can act the way you do. Great power brings arrogance, special privileges bring corruption, and those two things ruin people. In that sense, you’re a better person than anyone else.”

I don’t think that’s quite right. I know what the Regent is trying to say, but it’s a bit of a problem for her to put me on a pedestal that way.

“I know it’s not what you want, but your presence is reassuring to this country. Your power is needed to keep the kingdom from ending up like its neighbor.”

That’s a heavy burden. Frankly, it’s not something a mere swordsman should bear. It’s an excessive overestimation of my abilities.

“So long as you’re here, things won’t get so bad so to be unfixable. Which is why the kingdom can try so many different things. That, of course, goes for me, too.”

Ran and I are facing off again. It’s been two days since our last fight, and I’m not sure if it’s too soon or a bit late. The only thing that I can say for sure is that, right now, her hair is back to resembling rippling silver flames.

An excited Ran thus faces off against me in the arena, which means this will be a public exhibition.

“I’ve constantly had people tell me that I need to restrain myself. But all of those who’ve said that could do nothing against me. There wasn’t any weight to the words coming from the weak. And yet... Even you, the one who beat me, give me the same lecture!”

“That’s because it’s true. Allow me to prove it, not with words, but with action.”

There are a lot of spectators. A large number of students and teachers, and even some nobles, have filled the stands. At the same time, there’s no referee to judge this fight. The truth of the matter is, about the only one person worthy of judging a fight between us is my master.

“There’s no one to give the signal to begin, either. Regardless of what anyone else present thinks, my intention is to simply fight you.”

“Meaning... The fight’s already started, right?”

“Yes.”

Her movement in response to my words is impressively fast. Despite being in an agitated state, with rage driving her, she’s able to restrain herself. At least, so I’m telling myself, but the expression on her face as she charges at me could only be described as a battle-mad smile.

Quite simply, she’s fast. Running with almost ideal form for a sprint, she rapidly closes the distance between us. She’s moving faster than any normal human ever could, but it’s not so fast that I can’t see her, so she’s not moving so fast as to make her impossible to see. At most, she’s moving at a speed that you might miss if you were to blink.

Still, hitting her with a long-range attack would likely be extremely difficult, and I doubt she’d give someone enough time to gain a bead on her.

“Graaaaah!”

There’s no hesitation or reserve, only fierce joy, as she attacks. Our eyes meet. I catch her gaze as she catches mine. Meaning, she and I are sharing a similar perception of time.

“Yaaah!”

As though to make the point that she doesn’t care, she swings her right fist at me. In response, I watch her movement. As I’m watching, I catch the moment where she can’t change the course of her fist.

“Sloppy.”

I sweep her leg while dodging her attack. Since she and I are moving with the same perception of time scale, she understands what I was doing. She understands, but she can’t avoid it.

With her eyes widening in surprise, she rolls into her fall, at which point she then opens some distance from me. It’s the right call. To the ordinary observer, it must have looked like she lunged at me at high speed, tripped before she could hit me, and then dashed off to the other side.

I’m sure Tahlan is able to follow the full exchange, and those I’ve been teaching seem to be able to follow along, to a certain extent.

“...Impressive. You truly are this kingdom’s best.”

“Do you understand why I was able to avoid your attack?”

“I don’t... But I’ll keep trying until I do!”

Sure enough, she resumes her attack. I decide to focus on dodging until she’s satisfied. Either way, it’s probably not going to last long. From the audience’s point of view, no doubt they’re just happy to be able to see a legendary berserker fight.

And in truth, she’s absurdly fast. Given her looks, she’s well suited for putting on a show. Of course, putting on a good show isn’t necessarily going to lead to victory.

“No good, this isn’t going anywhere! I hate to say this, but looks like there’s no gaps in your defense.”

“Yes, and you should think that over a bit.”

She tries quite a few things. She tries attacking my legs, my torso, and my center of gravity, all while maintaining her top speed. While probably only a handful of people can see this from the stands, she’s doing her best to try out different options.

After I dodge all of those attempts, she now has to change her tactics.

“Two days ago, I lost to you. Then, afterwards, I lost to that woman, Sunae.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“That taught me that my strength, my speed...they have limits.”

Her abilities relate to her enhancement of her physical abilities along with her focus sharpening her reflexes. But of course, there are limits to both. It’s not like she can accelerate without limit or infinitely increase her strength. And in those areas, she simply doesn’t compare to a Spirit Summoner. No matter how talented she might be.

“And you can see my movements. Sunae could also see me, evidently, but you’re able to completely avoid my attacks.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Meaning that you can read me completely. You’ve got a complete grasp on my attacks.”

Her four companions from the hidden village swallow. Why? Because what Ran says is tantamount to her admitting that she can’t win. Her attacks can’t hit me. And, just like two days ago, I have a technique that can knock her out in an instant. As Ran herself understands, I can defeat her at any moment.

“And do you understand the reason now?”

“Of course. This is why, right?”

The tack she chooses to take is simple. She settles into a stance and, rather than running, she approaches slowly, shuffling her feet. That must be similar to one of the steps practiced by the martial arts that she learned, then defeated.

“Well?”

“Correct.”

She smiles with the knowledge I can no longer dodge her attacks, and that signals that she’s managed to cover one of her weaknesses. It’s a sign of growth from her as a fighter.

“And now you won’t be able to trip me.”

Up until now, her fighting style consisted of staying constantly in motion. By making use of her speed, which exceeded the reflexes of ordinary people, she vanished from her opponent’s line of sight. After which, she could then land a blow that could defeat an ordinary person. That had been her ideal tactic.

There were almost no humans that she couldn’t beat that way. And, in truth, she’d been winning up, until recently. The problem for her is an opponent who can properly grasp her movement. No matter how fast she’s able to move, it’s meaningless if her opponent can follow her. If anything, fighting while moving quickly left her vulnerable.

“It’s true that if you settle down and fight, it’s harder to sweep your feet out from under you. However... I imagine it will be difficult for you to take up a completely different style of fighting, no?”

“Do you doubt me? Then let me prove it to you using your body!”

Rather than running like the ideal track athlete, she settles her center of gravity in a regular stance and moves like a martial artist. She’s made the right choice. While the sprinting might offer a higher top speed, this is more appropriate once you know that your opponent can read when you start moving.

“Dodge this!”

The stance she chooses is somewhat close to a boxer’s stance, even though she’s not trying to measure my cadence. Because she’s trying to fight mostly with her fists, I suppose her stance naturally just takes on that form.

The punch she throws is fast and sharp. A blow thrown from long range, quickly closing the distance.

As I dodge it, she then switches to close range fighting, attempting a combination of follow-up blows. While I can move quickly for short bursts, when it comes to multiple attacks, I can’t keep up with her.

She’s certainly got the right idea. At least, it would be the right idea if this had been unarmed combat.

“There’s no need to dodge.”

She might be throwing multiple punches, but it doesn’t mean she’s grown more arms, and it’s not as though she’s going to attack with both arms at once.

I grab her arm as she throws the first punch in her attempted combination.

“Grr... Grr!”

She swings her arm wildly to break out of my hold and backs away. That, too, isn’t wrong. Since she knows of the Seeping Blood’s Bursting Venom Style, her caution is perfectly understandable.

That and that I fired a Ki Wave into her arm.

“Oh... So that’s what that is.”

She’s quick to recover, since it’s not like I rattled her head around. The Ki Wave isn’t lethal, and given her healing ability, her arm will heal quickly. In a blink of an eye, she’s fully recovered.

“Like the Bursting Venom Style, your style has a move where you only need to touch an opponent, doesn’t it?”

“That’s right. It’s called Ki Wave.”

“Two days ago, you used that move to jolt my head and knock me out.”

“That’s correct.”

She flashes a proud, predatory grin, as though to say she’s seen through my tricks.

“You must also have a way to move quickly. Combining those two things, you can always move to your opponent’s blind spot and catch them off guard. That’s your tactic.”

Sure, that’s technically true. I’ve used that combination to defeat opponents in the past. She’s one of them.

“As you say, if I restrain myself, if I wait for you to attack, it shouldn’t be a problem. You can move across a distance instantly, but it’s not like you can sustain that rapid movement. Otherwise, you would have gone along with my combo attacks.”

“As you say.”

“Still confident, huh? But, like you told me, I’ve learned how you fight just by waiting. You’re no match for me now!”

She really doesn’t think much of me, does she? She’s awfully excited just at the fact that she’s stopped running around. The truth is that her fighting style up to now was what had been unusual, and she’s now returned to a normal fighting style. It was one thing to go with running while fighting multiple opponents, but it’s not a style to adopt when fighting one on one.

“Not at all. I won’t lose yet. You make it sound easy, but to leave no openings isn’t such a simple thing to do.”

“Hrmph! You sound just as conceited as those geezers in the village!”

I hate to note this, but I’m much older than even the oldest person in that village. The only people older than me who aren’t other Immortals are probably the Eight Sacred Treasures.

“Funny that a butcher like you goes on like some holy man!”

The mood in the Coliseum immediately turns dark. It seems they’ve remembered that in terms of the number of people killed, and in sheer unnaturalness, I’m worse than she is.

“I won’t deny it. Those heads were the ones I lopped off.”

I think back to the recent incident. It’s not as though they had suffered, and the desecration of their bodies may have been just punishment for their crimes, but it’s also true that I’m in no place to give lectures after doing something on that scale.

“But, Ran, do you really get it?”

“Get what? I can tell you’re sounding less like some preacher. So, you’re showing your true colors!”

“You’re welcome to bray all you want, but you haven’t accomplished anything.”

I still have my wooden sword in my sash, and I haven’t yet attacked her. She hasn’t actually managed to land an attack on me.

“Do you really think you can beat me?”

“Of course. I’m overjoyed to fight someone as strong as you! And I’m certain now! If I can beat you, there’s no one in this world I can’t beat!”

I see. I suppose I should have killed her, after all.

I use my Flash Step to appear next to her. Then, placing my hand on her shoulder, I blast her away with a Ki Wave.

“Wha?!”

“There’s two things you’ve got wrong. First, even if you beat me, there’s still someone above you. My master, Suiboku. From his vantage point, I’m still a fledgling.”

Of course, she quickly recovers her footing. But, at the same time, she’s thoroughly surprised by my attack, and sweat beads on her brow.

“Second, you seem to think you’ve been fighting me. You haven’t managed to get me to fight you yet.”

Sansui Shirokuro is a ruthless butcher, far from a sainted Sword Apostle. Having seen the gibbetted heads, no doubt that’s what any witness would think. There’s nothing normal about a man who could kill that many people, in their minds, and that’s not that mistaken of an observation. At the very least, I won’t hesitate to kill if I think it necessary.

“Let me show you... The true freedom that only those who master themselves can manage.”

Those who can’t kill without rage, without hostile intent, without malice, without justification... I’ll show her what a true sword is like, one that’s beyond the limited horizons of warriors like those. Once achieved, true freedom takes everything else that restrains you and returns it to nothing.

“In you, you have the vision of a master and the athletic abilities of the young. No doubt you’re impossible to catch by someone restricted to moving through forms. But the same goes for me, and you can’t grasp my formless movements. As such...”

So long as the opponent is human, my blade can take them down. I’ll show this girl what it means to master both the blade and the Immortal Arts.

“Because you’re at a certain level of skill, you have to face the vast gulf between us, and thus fall.”

I was sent out by my master after picking up Lain. Since I’d been sheltered in the woods, I hadn’t known just what existed in the world. In that sense, I wasn’t much different from Ran, the girl standing in front of me. But my master knew about berserkers. And yet, in spite of that, he sent me out and told me that I’d still be the strongest.

“You’ve always let your inner violence run wild, and as a result, you’ve always dismissed the martial arts, thinking that practice was meaningless. That may have been true of the arts, the fists, and the blades that you’ve seen until now.”

The air inside the Coliseum grows heavy. The spectators tense and focus on the arena. All eyes are on Ran and I.

“You won’t taste defeat. What you’ll experience is a sense of powerlessness and despair.”