13. Iris El Devhardt – 09
The moment my words are spoken, only silence flows in the area for a moment.
However, that’s for a while.
“…under.”
Hearing my courageous assertion, Iris put on a dazed expression for a moment, and then.
“Ahahaha, hahahaha!”
He was laughing like crazy, as if he had heard a genuinely funny joke.
“Hey, it’s a proposal that’s hard for a sane person to see, Cain! But it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun too. And at the same time, it’s an alluring offer that you just can’t refuse. Because whether I win or lose the duel, I have nothing to lose!”
Even with Iris in front of me, who is smiling brightly as if she is having fun looking at me, my expression does not change at all. Because I said it from the bottom of my heart.
“no. I don’t think so, Iris. If I win a duel with you, you must be mine alone. Then, as you assured me just now, you will not be able to monopolize me alone.”
At my words, Iris only smiled.
“It’s just a difference of perspective. Did you say Cain? I am deeply in love with you at this moment. It is the most ideal situation for me to have you completely mine, but being yours after suffering defeat due to an undeniable difference in ability is not that bad. As I revealed to you one day, my ideal type is a man who is stronger than me.”
Iris narrowed her eyes and gazed at my face.
“But isn’t the saying that I belong to you only when you won the duel?”
In an instant, a sharp force like a blade emanated from Iris’s body. At that momentum, I awkwardly staggered backwards.
“Kain, you’re not foolishly delusional to think that just because you learned ‘Flowing Star’ just like me and reached the same master level, the odds of winning are the same, right?”
“…..”
“I am the one who taught you swordsmanship, and the only one who watched you grow in real time. You are like a teacher who taught you everything from how to breathe, how to exhale straight, how to move your feet, how to hold a sword, and how to swing a sword. You can’t deny that in the swordsmanship you’re currently using, traces of a woman called me remain intact, right?”
“Children can never stand up to their parents. Not to mention the disciple who failed to surpass the master. Why is it that you are the only one who does not know that what you are doing now is like throwing yourself into a gamble where there is no chance of winning at all?”
She’s not saying that to mock me. It’s just a list of simple facts. I was understanding that fact before anyone else in the world.
At the present time, Iris is the best swordsman in the Empire, and at the same time, an absolute strong person who can be counted among the top five in terms of military strength.
…In the first place, I knew very well that the act of fighting her was, to me, an act of foolishness equivalent to committing suicide.
But what does that mean? The odds of winning aren’t that important when it comes to fighting. The truly important thing is what form my heart is taking when facing swords with the other person. only that one
“I’m sorry, but no matter how much the other person sees you, I have no intention of looking at you. No, on the contrary, since you are the other person, I can’t look at you all the more. If you really want to continue the duel at that time, I have no choice but to deal with you from the bottom of my heart.”
“…That is, rather, something to say on this side. Iris.”
Saying that, I accepted the sword Arya was holding in her hand. It was the sword she brought from Iris’s room before coming here, in case something happened.
“A duel should be as fair as possible, right? is not it?”
It was a golden sword wrapped in blue decorations. A thousand years ago, right before returning to the sky, the goddess processed fragments left on earth and made them into swords, and handed her one of the eight great treasures of the continent, the Gwicheon Sword (歸天劍). .
After accepting her sword from me, she looked at me silently for a while, and then a small smile filled her lips.
“…Cain, you’re a lot more insane than I thought. To reduce the already slim odds even further with your own hands.”
With a clear sound, Iris drew the sword from the scabbard. At the same time, the flesh leaking out of her body multiplied. she was sincere
“great. It seems like you want a fair duel with no regrets, but I’ll be happy to match you as you wish. Let’s see the end of the duel that we couldn’t finish in our last life here.”
With those words, the white aura from Iris’s sword started to burn like flames.
Against him, I also raise my sword and begin to focus the blue aura. Even with that alone, my sword gained sharpness and hardness that could cut through steel, but compared to Iris’s aura, which was like a fluttering flame, my aura was still far short. If each other’s auras collided, my aura would be shattered mercilessly.
“…..”
Swallow your saliva through your throat.
She’ll never know, but I’ve been envisioning this moment for a very long time.
The fact that he accepted that bastard, Lucian, as a knight in the Estel family, the fact that he dared to go all the way to the Duke of Dekaraznan to improve his swordsmanship, and the unsuitable way of polishing his swordsmanship while sweating in the gymnasium were all—
All for this moment.
…the odds of winning are slim. However, it is not non-existent. Realizing the possibility of a thread like going through the tip of a needle with my bare body into reality is my domain.
It is at this very moment that my true value is tested.
Here and now, I want to surpass my mentor.
****
Caan-!
Sword and sword cross. The black overlapping and bouncing of each other is repeated innumerably. Suddenly, only the sound of heavy steel colliding filled the space. At the end of the flames around her and me, it seems like it will burn everything around.
“…Ugh!”
A painful voice escaped from my throat. The swordsman Iris wielded, he could not admit. No, I couldn’t understand her sword. The sword thrown from her was slowly but surely destroying me.
Why? They use the same swordsmanship and slash at the same speed.
No, if it’s only based on physical strength, this side will have the upper hand.
…Even so, there is something between her and me that can’t be filled.
“AA AA AA-!”
He cheers up to shake off the fear creeping up from his back. I tried pouring the swordsmanship I had been desperately honing into her.
Tadadadadang-!
Iris deflected all of my attacks without moving even a single step from where she was standing. No, even that wasn’t enough, her sword turned over and she even rushed towards me.
From her point of view, it may be nothing more than light containment, but from my point of view, every single blow is a lethal blow. With all my might, I return the sword and try to defend against her blow!
Caan-!
The next moment, with the sound of steel crashing reverberating all over the place, I slipped backwards for ten meters as a reward for blocking her one sword.
For a very short time, I try to catch my breath in the gap between the two of us.
“…Ha, ha, ha, ha…”
It’s already been dozens of times since we’ve shared sums with each other, and this one’s breath has already split, but in contrast, her breath isn’t disturbed at all. The other side, let alone the ‘Sword of the Sky’, even though they don’t even use mediocre skills.
That would be normal too. In a fight that he knew he would win from the beginning, there was no way there would be tension. In the first place, there is a difference of about two levels between her and I as swordsmen. From her point of view, this would be mere play.
“It’s quite a thing. While I couldn’t see it, my swordsmanship improved quite a lot. I also got rid of a lot of bad habits. However, it seems that the point of not being able to fully put power on the tip of the sword is still the same. I would have advised you. As a swordsman, you have to put all of yourself into your own sword. Have you forgotten that a sword without faith is nothing more than a mere sword strike?”
It was as if a teacher was giving an admonition to a disciple. But she was well qualified to say that to me. Because she actually has the skills to do so.
However, even though I knew it well in my head, I couldn’t help but feel a fever when I heard those words openly in my face.
“…damn-!”
Use ‘Flowing Star’ to focus the vortex of power on the tip of the sword. What he’s aiming for is her heart. The thrust of the whole body, which is fired while eliminating all kinds of unnecessary “flow” including the resistance of the atmosphere, is like the flash of a wagon!
However-
“It’s no use.”
The blow of my whole body was easily blocked by her sword, like a lie.
“I must have taught you. A flowing star is never magic. The flowing star is a technique based on the principle of artificially controlling the flow of power generated around the caster using the sword as a channel. Conversely, it means that the ‘Flowing Star’ used by the other party can be interfered with from my side. The flow derived from the flowing stars you use can also be said to be a kind of power. Of course, this is a story under the assumption that the skill level of the flowing stars is higher than that of the other party.”
Along with those words that seemed to be teaching me, Iris stuck her foot into my stomach as it was.
“Cuck!”
Iris kicked me out of the way, and I was thrown out of the spot and rolled unsightly on the floor. Although winning or losing could be easily decided now, she showed no signs of trying to put an end to it. No, that must have been an attitude stemming from the arrogance of being able to decide win or loss as much as he wanted—
“That’s it. Isn’t your head a little cold now? you can’t beat me As I said before, I am a teacher who informed you of everything that makes up the present you, and I am like a parent. You know your mannerisms, your swordsmanship, and your way of thinking much better than yourself.”
“…..”
“So stop giving up. Being mine wouldn’t be all bad for you. If it were mine, I wouldn’t have to bow my head to anyone in the world. Because you are the one who will become the one and only companion of the owner of the empire.”
To her suggestion, I answered like this, trying to swallow the lump of blood that was about to come down my throat.
“Don’t refuse. I would have made it clear.”
Breathe as evenly as possible, and shout out the words clearly.
“I will never be yours alone. So you, please surrender and become my woman.”
Upon my answer, Iris’s gaze became twice as fierce as before. The aura of the sword she was holding started to burn more fiercely than before.
“…Yes, you’re trying to drink punishment. Then there is nothing you can do I have no choice but to engrave that fact by force.”
A flow begins to focus on the sword she is holding. An artificial regulation of flow that would normally never occur. At the end of the air flow that converged to one point, it condensed into one place, forming a huge vacuum blade, and turning it into a storm that forcibly pulverized everything within its range.
Iris, who possesses the proficiency of a flowing star that cannot even be compared to the likes of me, is a skill that can be displayed. Its name is-
“The blade of the sky.”
The sword soaring towards the sky strikes at me. With a whispering voice, at the very moment when absolute death is about to fall upon me-
“…!”
correct posture I’ve been waiting for this moment all along. This very moment when she uses ‘Flowing Star’.
The most basic is the secret swordsmanship of the Duke of Estelle, the bright god. It is a swordsmanship that has no strength other than being faithful to the basics and being straightforward, but because of that, Myungsin was able to put a lot of things into it. I captured Tournigen’s ‘Twilight Moon’ and Decaraznan’s ‘The Fading Sun’ in Myungsin.
The “Dark Moon”, which aims for speed and straightness, and the “Winning Sun”, which aims for difference and irregularity, are truly opposite swordsmanship. The recoil that unleashes those two sword techniques at once is coordinated with the ‘Flowing Star’.
The art of performing as many as four swordsmanships at the same time in a single upward slash. but it can’t fail That’s because I’ve been working tirelessly for the one sword I wield at this moment!
At the end of the sun, moon and stars dwelling in God, it fuses with my blue aura to embody the image of absolute destruction in this world. Longing for one day’s teacher, and wanting to reach the sky with her, the blow is poured down on none other than his own teacher.
“Extreme Heaven.”
A blow aimed at reaching the heavens and a blow aimed at severing the sky falling to the ground cross each other.
dismissal-
“…God, this.”
Whose surprise was that?
With the sound of glass breaking, the ‘Sky Blade’ wielded by Iris shattered into pieces.