2
—And so the test began.
The location was a white space on the second floor of the tower.
The examiner was the red-haired man with a sharklike smile standing calmly in the back of the room.
An unbelievable amount of pressure was coming from the man who identified himself as only Stick Swinger.
There was also the way he had appeared. He had made Shaula, who was at least technically keeper of the tower, faint the moment she saw him. He was quite clearly not just an average person.
And so—
“Allow me to go all out from the start!”
Leaning forward, Julius advanced with those words.
From his hand flew the sword that had been sticking out of the floor in front of the stairs. Spinning vertically, it traced an arc toward the man and landed sticking out of the ground right at his feet, just where Julius had aimed.
The man could easily reach his hand out to take it, as that was what Julius intended.
“Throwin’ me a sword? You got a death wish?”
“Unfortunately, attacking an unarmed opponent would be shameful for a knight!”
“Kah! Don’t make me laugh. I ain’t unarmed. Look closer.”
The man grinned, baring his fangs as Julius closed the distance. Then he casually lifted his leg and violently kicked the sword aside. The sword of selection went flying with a loud crash.
“—Gh! Don’t regret those words!”
After his opponent completely ignored his desire for a fair fight, Julius’s face tensed as he drew his knight’s sword.
The slender sword flashed in a straight line, becoming an iron hammer to judge the man so unchivalrous as to dishonor a serious duel.
The lightning charge…
“Spare me the cute howls, dumbass. You’ve got a pretty face. Careful you don’t get me excited about making you cry.”
“Wh—gh!”
There was a thunderclap as the thrust aimed straight at his torso stopped.
Of course, Julius had not stayed his hand. He always exerted himself. So it wasn’t him who stopped the thrust, but the shark smirking at him.
“That can’t be.”
“Better learn to believe your eyes. Start there. That’s step one.”
Stick Swinger was grinning ferociously as he scratched his chest disinterestedly with his right hand. But his left hand had stopped Julius’s sword with terrifying precision.
And…
“…Wooden sticks?”
“No, chopsticks. They’re chopsticks. Just right for a little appetizer. That’s why I always carry a set on me.”
…he was holding two slender wooden sticks covered in black lacquer.
Those are definitely chopsticks. I only found out they exist in this world, too, when we were in Pristella, but he’s the first one I’ve seen able to really use them perfectly.
—No, no matter how perfectly you use them, stopping a sword with them isn’t something a human could do.
“Don’t make me laugh. Ain’t nothing better than chopsticks. You can swing them around best with the best angle and the best speed and the best feel. There ain’t nothing I can’t cut with chopsticks.”
“Gh…”
It was an unbelievable sight, but Stick Swinger looked almost like he might yawn. Everyone was at a loss for words, but Julius couldn’t let it end like that. Putting more strength into his arms, he tried to free his sword from the chopsticks’ grip, but he couldn’t move.
“Don’t force it, don’t force it… Smile. People are prettier when they smile. Not that it matters for a guy, though.”
Suddenly, he loosened the grip on the sword, and for a brief moment, Julius was staggered by the strength he had put into pulling his sword. But using that one moment, his opponent’s body spun, bringing his long leg right into Julius’s thin waist, which sent him flying.
“Julius!”
Subaru didn’t know who had shouted. Julius’s body went flying like a leaf fluttering in the breeze. And what awaited his body flying through the air was…
“Kah!”
Stick Swinger leaped into the air, catching up to Julius like he’d been shot from a gun. Getting above Julius with what seemed like impossible agility, Stick Swinger swung the two chopsticks down with the force of a storm.
Sensing the danger of the oncoming attack, Julius moved to deflect it with his sword on instinct. However, the man’s chopsticks evaded the sword as if laughing at the idea that they could be parried, stabbing Julius, stabbing him, stabbing him, stabbing him—
“Jiwaldo!!!”
In a split second, a hot ray was unleashed straight at the two of them hanging in midair.
It carved away at the world in a simple and frighteningly straightforward way, just like light itself. In other words, it roasted everything in its path. It was a blade of heat that burned and severed everything.
It was direct, and it might seem easy to avoid, but it raced at light speed, chasing right after its prey.
Even Stick Swinger wouldn’t be able to anticipate a beam attack from someone outside the ring—
“—My sword can even cut light.”
Before they even could hear what sounded like mere bravado, the chopstick attack he unleashed tore straight through the heat ray.
Everyone’s eyes widened at the unimaginable, unbelievable scene. But the man just grinned tauntingly, as if it was only natural—and he still kept pummeling Julius all the while.
“—Gh! Jiwaldooo!!!!”
Her bloodshot eyes were totally focused as she cast again—
Spreading her hands wide, casting the heat ray spell again was Anastasia, a deadly determination coloring her beautiful face. Her fingers were spread, and from their tips, ten separate rays fired, all right at Stick Swinger.
—And Stick Swinger picked an astonishing way to avoid getting hit.
“Kah!”
He cut the light rays closing in on him with his chopsticks again, then immediately shot through the air and descended sharply, striking Julius precisely in the solar plexus with the tip of the chopstick and pinning him to the floor while dragging his whole body across the ground.
“Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka! Better aim carefully. You couldn’t stop a fly. You’re not gonna get pretty boy back like that. Ka-ka-ka-ka!”
“Jiwaldo! Jiwaldo! Jiwaldooo!”
Anastasia unleashed an unending stream of rays as the man sprinted and cackled. But even if the magic was powerful, it did not mean anything if it couldn’t land a hit.
The man’s combat prowess and Anastasia’s—or rather, Echidna’s—lack of experience were plain to see. She was trying to save Julius, but despite her wishes, she was swinging and missing. She didn’t even manage to land a glancing blow.
And finally, the end came—
“—Aah. Ngh…”
“Wha—?”
Stick Swinger seemed to have been enjoying himself dodging the rays, and he raised an eyebrow when the hail of follow-up attacks dried up. Anastasia had collapsed where she was standing. Seeing blood running from her nostrils, Subaru remembered. Echidna had said that using her trump card meant heavily straining Anastasia’s body.
“Lady Anastasia!”
Seeing his liege collapse, the knight who had been stuck on the defensive leaped into action.
Having been dragged across the ground and hammered with a storm of chopstick strikes all over his body, Julius twisted around, undoing his royal guard mantle to deliberately cause a change in the friction. In the momentary opening that created, he escaped his opponent’s merciless attacks.
From there, in a position that was almost lying on the ground, Julius spun his long legs, kicking at the back of his opponent’s head. The man dodged it with nothing more than craning his neck slightly to the side, but he leaped far away from Julius’s break-dance-style movement.
“That was more my style. Gimme more of that good stuff.”
“I do not have time for your blather! Out of the way!”
It was an overwhelming difference in strength. Even fully knowing that, Julius still roared, charging toward the man. Despite such an intense barrage of attacks, he had not let go of his knight’s sword, and it lashed out like a snake.
Even driven by righteous fury and a sense of duty, it was a beautiful and elegant attack. It was possibly the most advanced attack he had learned as a knight.
Subaru could not begin to guess how many weeks and months of hard work, sweat, and blood it had taken to learn.
And yet…
“What’s this? Don’t make me laugh. Get serious. Are you really trying? If this was you really trying… Talk about a serious letdown.”
The thrust was stopped, the slash was deflected, the series of attacks were all swatted aside, and the finisher was finished.
All the swordsmanship that Julius had built up, all that he had trained as a knight—they were all beautifully, terrifyingly, cruelly twisted about by the man who called himself Stick Swinger and his two chopsticks.
With just those two sticks, he trampled all over half of the life Julius had lived.
“That ain’t it, kid. What are you doin’ fightin’ by yourself? That ain’t your style. That’s why you’re boring.”
“I…!”
“If you wanna go to your woman, then have at it. Go cry in her lap, goddamned useless, ugly swordsman.”
For just a second, an emotion appeared on Julius’s face. Rage, hurt, despair, regret? Whatever it was, though, it wasn’t something someone looking in from the outside could know.
“ ”
Julius’s sword flashed, tracing a silver path it had repeated tens of thousands of times before.
And yet, in a way that was clear for anyone watching to see, it was an attack filled with doubt.
The next instant, the flowing chopstick easily cut his steel sword in half—with a light snapping sound, Julius’s knight’s sword broke in two.
Julius’s yellow eyes watched in shock as the end of his sword went flying.
What broke just now wasn’t only his sword.
“Go to sleep.”
With that venomous blast, a horrifying iron fist hit Julius directly in the side of the head. It was the most simple, fundamental sort of violence in the world that was nothing but the body—a weapon that had existed since the time before humans knew how to use tools.
“ ”
The merciless attack hit Julius’s face hard enough to dash his handsome visage. The overwhelming force severed his consciousness in an instant, and he went flying like a ragdoll, rolling and sliding terribly across the ground—landing right next to Anastasia.
The pair were both unconscious, which almost seemed like a strange bit of consideration from the ferocious wild beast of a man.
“Now then, next is…”
Cracking his neck like he had finished his warm-up, the man looked at Subaru.
It might have literally been nothing more than a warm-up for him. In the time it took Julius to rush in, get pummeled in a one-sided fight, then have Anastasia intervene before both of them ended up unconscious…only maybe a minute or two had passed. It had been so fast that Subaru didn’t see a single chance to help. He had only been able to stand there like a post.
And not just him, either, Emilia and the others beside him, too…
“Icebrand Arts: Icicle Line.”
…or not.
A pale light danced in the white space, practically driving that point home.
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