Book 3: Chapter 200: Knows a Little |
The early-summer morning sun wasn’t so scorching; shining on the girl’s sleek long hair, it was like golden-red silk.
Lucia stopped her drills, wiped the glittering sweat from her brow, glanced nervously toward the cabin door, and hesitated. 「R-really? Are we good to go? Maybe we should train a few more days?」
「Haven’t you felt invincible for ages now? Why get scared when it’s actually time?」
「W-who’s scared!」 Lucia stiffened her neck, then looked away and muttered, guilty, 「It’s just… I only get one shot, so I should be careful.」
「Your odds are already decent. The rest can’t be covered by sword skill alone—you’ll need your opponent to play along. More practice won’t help much,」 Yvette said calmly.
「I—I—give me one more day! Let me find my rhythm.」
「…Alright.」
Picking up a wooden sword, Yvette accompanied Lucia through another day plus a morning of training. Only in the afternoon of the second day did they finally head together to the Sterling smithy.
The yard was empty—Eamon wasn’t home. Lucia explained that the Kingdom of Jisul was building a dam on the Silverthread River and paying handsomely. Even retired adventurers like Eamon Sterling, who’d already socked away a fair bit, had been drawn over to work on it.
The kingdom sits upstream of the Silverthread, and the Silverthread is the Eagle Roost Kingdom’s mother river. Build a dam here and you can choke the Eagle Roost’s water lifeline.
The wait dragged on. In the meantime, Lucia tugged Yvette into the yard for a final round of practice.
Near sunset, Eamon finally returned. Judging by his relaxed smile, dam work paid very well indeed.
Entering the yard, he noticed Yvette sitting inside. After a slight start, he smiled at once. 「Good evening, Miss Yvette.」
After five years on and off, he was completely at ease with the silver-haired witch. He didn’t even ask why she was in his house—obviously Lucia had invited her.
After the greetings, Lucia stepped from the shadows with a wooden sword in hand and said solemnly, 「Dad, I challenge you!
6
「Challenge me?」 Eamon raised an eyebrow, then, seeing his daughter’s tense face, chuckled. 「Finally couldn’t hold it in?」
Ever since he refused her request two years ago to take the Academy of Truth entrance exam, he had been waiting for her to challenge him on her own. Though Lucia hadn’t brought it up again, from Eamon’s observations he knew she’d never let go of the idea. The resolve and expectation in her eyes never faded.
With one year left before the Academy’s upper admission age of sixteen, his girl finally couldn’t wait. He was surprised but not shocked—only curious what tricks she’d use against her old man.
Not that it would matter, he thought. After all, the family magnum opus, Red Lotus Battle Technique, was his own creation; the various techniques—
And their corresponding usage tips were taught by him. Unless Lucia got outside help, how could she beat her teacher? Not to mention he completely outclassed her in mana and mana pressure.
Thinking of “outside help,” Eamon couldn’t help flicking a glance at Yvette.
The witch was at the table, cupping a steaming tea and blowing at it in little puffs—like some harmless small creature.
Remembering the mysteries surrounding her, Eamon figured she’d lend Lucia a hand—he just didn’t know whether it would be magic or some alchemical booster.
Either way, it wouldn’t change the outcome.
A few minutes later, the three reached a small clearing outside the village. Sunlight speared through layered leaves into the woods like sharp blades, adding a tense edge to this father-daughter duel.
「Relax, Lucia. Why so stiff? If today doesn’t work, we can do it tomorrow. Where’s that usual headlong blaze of yours?」 Seeing his daughter’s sword hand shaking, Eamon only looked more at ease, soothing her cheerfully—as if humoring a child at play.
「C-c-can it with the chatter. Just watch, Dad!」 Lucia put on a fierce face that didn’t quite hide her nerves.
Eamon sighed and spread his hands. 「Alright.」
He raised his sword; a defensive battle technique cloaked his body, radiating heat. He counted to three and, as he finished, his daughter shouted and lunged—blade straight ahead. The momentum was there, but it was a bit too straightforward.
Eamon took the strike calmly, then began to parry and block with cool precision—only to feel something off. Today’s Lucia seemed worse than in practice: stiffer, less inspired.
He thought little of it—probably the pressure of having Yvette watch from the side.
After a short spell of steady parries, he decided it was time to wrap things up. Lucia had actually regressed today. He’d boil down the key points and drill them into her tonight.
But as he began his counterattack, the pressure on the field flipped utterly.
Lucia’s sword lost its stiffness and grew far more nimble than usual; at the same time, her Red Lotus technique suddenly surged, as if going all-in—pouring all her mana into it. Her offense spiked severalfold, to the point of actually threatening Eamon!
「You—!」 The reversal blindsided him. He hurried to pour in more mana, yet his counterattacks still couldn’t seize the momentum—if anything, he was being pressed even harder!
Next, in the instant he was caught with an opening, blazing flames filled his vision!
It was one of the Red Lotus technique’s most powerful offense forms: “Hellfire Red Lotus Slash.” Flowery name, simple effect—a cleaving strike steeped in dense fire element.
Under normal circumstances, even at full burn, Lucia couldn’t threaten him with it. But just now he’d fallen behind and been caught with a flaw—no time to recover his guard. Unleashing this long-prepped strike straight at his unguarded chest absolutely could be lethal!
「Boom!」
A violent elemental blast became a wave of searing heat rolling between them—then Yvette quietly damped it with water magic, to prevent a forest fire.
As the smoke and dust thinned, Eamon stood unharmed, sheathed in a milky-white glow. Lucia, on the other hand, looked a bit bedraggled—her never-tanned face smudged ash-gray by the flames, the wooden sword in her hand snapped, her expression one of pure shock.
「Didn’t expect Mr. Eamon to be hiding such an advanced defensive magic,」 Yvette observed, glancing his way.
She’d never read the Sterling family’s Red Lotus manual, but from her talks with Lucia and the flavor of that defense, she could tell it wasn’t part of Red Lotus at all—it was Eamon’s never-shown trump card.
And it even used Holy Light components. Could there be some connection to the church? After all, so-called “divine arts” typically held by the churches were the ones that included Holy Light magic—the kind often used to counter the undead.
「D-did I lose?」 Lucia asked blankly.
In the plan, once she used Hellfire Red Lotus Slash, she should’ve sealed the win—then focus on pulling her power back so she didn’t seriously injure Dad.
She hadn’t expected Eamon to have a high-level defensive magic he’d never shown anyone, one that blocked her killing blow!
Add to that his desperate full-force counter colliding with her slash, and the resulting burst was massive. In the end, Eamon was unscathed; Lucia’s wooden sword, despite magical protection, still couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered, burned out. By that result, Eamon should be the victor.
「Mr. Sterling, do you think you won?」 Yvette looked at Eamon and saw a complex expression on his face.
After a long silence, he didn’t answer. He turned to his daughter instead and gently asked, 「Lucia, when did your swordsmanship reach this level?」
In those final moments when Lucia unleashed her finisher, he really had been caught off guard. What stunned him more was that, at his level of swordsmanship, he’d still lost exchange after exchange in those sequences—driven into the inferior position.
It was a collapse on pure sword-skill grounds.
Like an esports mirror match where your gear is far better, yet your opponent’s mechanics keep putting you on the brink—one step from defeat. How is that different from losing, really?
Seeing her father’s expression, Lucia hesitated, shot a look at Yvette, and only when Yvette gave a slight nod did she say, 「These last two years—Yvette taught me.」
「Miss Yvette… you know swordsmanship?」 He’d had his suspicions, but hearing it aloud still left Eamon dumbstruck.
A witch who knows swordsmanship!
What kind of witch knows swordsmanship like this?
Could this witch’s true identity actually be a magic swordsman?
But even if she were, she was so young, and without any elven or half-elven traits—she shouldn’t be that old. Where did such high-level sword skill come from?
「Just a smattering,」 Yvette said modestly.
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