Chapter 30
“Next is cutting.”
Professor Plienta raised his sword, showing the sharp edges on both sides.
“A sword’s basic form has edges on both sides. Of course, sometimes one edge is dulled to protect the wielder where it makes contact with their body. In such cases, rather than ‘thrust and cut,’ ‘tear’ might be a more accurate expression. That’s because a sword itself is a lethal weapon based on cutting. What you’re holding should be like that too.”
He looked down at the swords the students were holding.
“Of course, thrusting can also deliver an excellent blow to an opponent. However, unless you can precisely target the heart or a major artery, thrusting isn’t very helpful in life-or-death combat. And of course, novices like you can’t do that. Be careful not to get your neck slit while trying to stab someone’s heart.”
Professor Plienta glared at the newly erected wooden dummy.
“This is what cutting means.”
Professor Plienta swung his sword, targeting the dummy’s neck, both arms, and both legs. The waist wasn’t in the sword’s trajectory. The wooden dummy’s limbs faithfully separated according to the sword’s direction and tumbled to the ground. Various pieces rolled around on the floor. The students’ mouths fell open as they witnessed the demonstration from a professor they had merely thought of as a boring and strict commoner.
“Even if I had given you real swords, you inexperienced students would find it difficult to split the wooden dummy or separate parts from the torso. It would be excellent if you could just make a scratch, so train hard. Of course, the final assessment will be to detach an arm from the wooden dummy with five swings of the sword. So don’t slack off and work hard, all of you.”
Unlike other professors who spent most of the class time talking, Professor Plienta stepped back after his demonstration and began observing the students. The students, grouped with their friends, each chose a wooden dummy.
The Academy was a place overflowing with money, enough to provide each student with a real sword. However, they didn’t seem to have prepared wooden dummies to match the number of students. The number of dummies was significantly less than the number of students. More precisely, rather than a financial issue, they probably prepared fewer due to limited space. Students in small groups stood in front of the lined-up wooden dummies.
“Oh, so we need to either stab the dummy’s head or chest to knock it down, or cut off its arms or legs?”
A beggar who had been on the verge of death suddenly sprang up, wielding a rapier excitedly. He looked as if he had been chased away by Cerberus right before meeting Hades, yet had miraculously revived. Every time Aaron’s extremely narrow and sharp sword cut through the air, it made a whooshing sound.
“You’ll get hurt, Aaron. Not me, you. Stop it.”
Blair, holding a sword, skillfully interfered with Aaron’s sword path by thrusting his blade to match Aaron’s swinging trajectory.
Professor Plienta’s eyes sparkled with interest as he observed this.
CLANG!
A loud metallic sound rang out. The reverberation made their hands vibrate. Aaron dropped the rapier he was holding. In truth, Blair hadn’t initially intended to make Aaron drop his sword. He had just wanted to slightly disrupt the trajectory of the wildly swinging sword. So he hadn’t struck it particularly hard.
But because his opponent was the excessively frail Aaron, the sword couldn’t remain in its owner’s grasp and fell to the ground with a clatter. In fact, Aaron quite enjoyed physical activities. To be precise, he liked them quite a lot. The problem was that the size of his heart and his physical talent weren’t proportional. Aaron liked swinging swords, shooting arrows, and riding horses. But he had terribly poor motor skills. It seemed his passion and talent were inversely proportional.
To Blair Monetery, who was blessed by the god of battle with passion and talent in perfect proportion, Aaron’s lack of skill was incomprehensible by any common sense standard. Even a monkey would have more talent than Aaron Taklamakan. In fact, Blair had made such jokes several times in the past. As far as he knew, House Taklamakan had produced knights not infrequently, so he couldn’t understand how someone like Aaron had come to be.
Aaron always carried bruises on his body – bluish, red, yellow, or purple – from constantly bumping into desks and chairs while walking alone. Having just one bruise would have been fortunate. His thighs, shins, and knees were always colorfully decorated. The multi-colored marks on his otherwise pale skin from not going outside were not a pleasant sight. Somehow, Aaron also often fell over while walking alone. Standing side by side, Blair recalled a conversation from the past.
Aaron had been following closely behind Blair when he suddenly tripped and fell. And it happened in the Imperial Palace corridor, no less. In that spotlessly clean place with thick carpets rolled out.
When Blair had asked, ‘How on earth did you fall?’ what had Aaron replied?
‘I tripped on dust,’ he had said.
The variations were truly diverse: I tripped on dust, I tripped on the carpet, I tripped on sand. The cat tripped me! Pointing at his left foot, saying, “It stepped on my foot!” After hearing the excuse about tripping on sand, Blair resolved to stop asking. And when with Aaron, he decided not to walk too quickly. If Blair walked at his normal pace, Aaron would always trip on something and stagger.
Having fallen so often, Aaron would frequently grumble to himself:
‘Blair, why do humans walk on two legs?’
Blair elegantly ignored Aaron’s nonsense. But Aaron, undeterred by Blair’s disregard, continued to chatter noisily.
‘Think about it. Animals walk on four legs, right? If you walk on four legs, you don’t fall. Even if you twist one foot, you don’t fall. Maybe it’s even more stable when going down slopes? I think walking on two legs is defying gravity. It’s also hard on the spine.’
Blair had replied contemptuously to this rambling:
‘You’re the only one who falls just because you walk on two legs. Everyone else walks around just fine.’
‘Wow, that’s mean! You’re cruel, Blair Gladius!’
Blair recalled the past conversation and gave a slight, genuinely pleasant smile. The clear, nice weather today and the fact that he was taking a swordsmanship class both felt good. His mood brightened. After picking up Aaron’s sword and returning it, Blair stood in front of him and assumed the basic swordsmanship stance.
Slightly bending his knees, straightening his back. Gaze forward, arms forming a straight line with the sword. It was the best posture for using rebound to leap at an opponent.
“Come at me.”
An excited Blair directly challenged Aaron. This was something that would never happen with his usual calm and mature personality. Kyle was startled, opening his blue eyes wide as he looked at Blair. Blair firmly gripped the handle and pointed the tip of his sword at Aaron. The sword tip gleamed as it reflected the sunlight.
“What?”
“If you want to swing a sword, come at me. I’ll play along.”
Blair grinned as he pointed his sword.
“Ugh, what are you talking about?”
Aaron looked at Blair with an expression that seemed to ask if he had eaten something bad. It was understandable. They were merely taking an Introduction to Swordsmanship class. It was impossible for people to point swords at each other. Like an amateur shaman taking a life, if inexperienced people messed around, they could get seriously injured, which is why professors didn’t recommend dueling between students.
And the Blair that Aaron knew was the son of a merchant family. Of course, Blair must have learned basic swordsmanship for self-defense since childhood. But Blair wasn’t raised to follow the path of a knight from the beginning. So his swordsmanship couldn’t be exceptional. Blair and himself would be about equal in skill. Two people who knew nothing about swordsmanship would only end up injuring themselves if they sparred.
“Don’t want to? Then I can’t help it.”
Pretending to be sulky, Blair slightly wrinkled his expression for show and stood in front of the wooden dummy. He had no interest in pushing someone who clearly didn’t want to participate. Besides, Aaron wasn’t a match for him in the first place.
Blair held the sword straight and took a deep breath. After inhaling, Blair swung the sword with short, powerful strokes. He began cutting the wooden dummy exactly as Professor Plienta had just done.
First, he cut the neck, then both arms. Before the arms fell to the ground, he drew a round arc from left to right, cutting off the legs. It was exactly the same sequence as the professor had done.
The wooden dummy’s limbs fell to the ground, the cut surfaces identical to those made by the professor. After sheathing his sword, Blair stared at the now useless wooden dummy. His right arm still rang with the impact transmitted when the sword hit the wooden pieces. Blair switched the sword to his left hand and clenched and unclenched his right hand. His hand still throbbed.
He was definitely in a child’s body. In the past, he could have cut a hundred such wooden dummies without disturbing his breathing. Anyway, considering that his strength and endurance were significantly less than in the past, it wasn’t bad. The swordsmanship he had acquired through years of practical experience seemed to still remain in his body.
“What the hell, are you insane?”
Aaron, who had been watching, shrieked.
“You have that kind of swordsmanship skill and you asked me to duel with you? This, this is completely crazy, isn’t it?”
Aaron stood with his mouth agape, grumbling. Kyle’s eyes, standing quietly next to Aaron, sparkled. His hands somehow felt itchy.
“Um, Blair. With me…!”
Just as Kyle took a step forward to speak to Blair, a long shadow fell over the three of them. It was Professor Plienta. After carefully examining the cut surfaces of the wooden dummy, the professor turned to look at Blair.
[To be continued…]
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
