This thought crossed her mind, but she quickly dismissed it.
The gentle expression on Astraea’s face shifted slightly as well.
She knew Kaguya’s strength better than anyone else.
Even in a pure contest of swordsmanship, her skill was something a level 3 adventurer had refined through countless battles, making it anything but ordinary.
Yet Mizuki, a young man who was not even an adventurer, had deflected it.
Her gaze settled on Mizuki, her eyes carrying a hint of genuine curiosity.
As the one engaged in the bout, Kaguya was far more shaken than anyone watching.
The clear impact of the wooden swords colliding still echoed through the muscles of her wrist.
She immediately took a step back to create distance, her brow furrowing tightly as she glared at Mizuki.
What just happened?
How could he possibly block that?
Even though she had not drawn upon her falna abilities for that strike, its speed and precision had been entirely uncompromised.
Yet he had not even assumed a proper stance.
It was as if his body had simply swung the blade on pure instinct.
No, that was impossible.
Was it luck?
A coincidence?
Kaguya grew frustrated.
She had intended to settle this quickly and put an end to the ridiculous farce.
For the first time, a grim seriousness settled over her features.
What was going on with this guy?
“Lord Mizuki! Incredible! Lord Mizuki!”
Behind Mizuki, Haruhime jumped with excitement, her fox ears standing straight up in delight.
Tsubame Gaeshi proficiency is increasing.
Mizuki had no time to pay attention to anyone else as the system notifications rang in his mind.
Excellent.
He had already tested it before, finding that his proficiency would rise even if an attack was parried.
The same applied to Tsubame Gaeshi.
Even if he swung purely on ingrained swordsmanship instincts, it still counted toward his progress.
It would be fantastic if this system had an automated farming function.
Then it could grind proficiency on its own while I just draw rewards every day.
As his thoughts drifted for a second, a faint grin tugged at the corner of Mizuki’s mouth.
Acting as the referee, Lyra immediately noticed his strange behavior.
“Hey, look at his face!”
“His reaction is bizarre, he looks completely dazed. I bet he does not even know what he just did!”
Celty pushed up her glasses with a serious look, offering her own logical theory.
“Speaking from a probability standpoint, even random actions can occasionally produce an optimal outcome.”
“It was just dumb luck!” Asta mumbled and nodded in agreement.
“Exactly. How could an ordinary person block Kaguya’s strike on purpose?” Iska crossed her arms, curling her lip.
“Look at that, one strike just turned into lucky boy!” Neze chimed in with a laugh, tossing out a new nickname.
The courtyard, which had gone dead silent a moment ago, instantly erupted back into noise.
The focus of the conversation had shifted entirely from shock to writing it off as pure luck.
Listening to the chatter among her familia members, Kaguya’s expression darkened further.
The others might believe that, but as the one holding the sword, she could not lie to her own senses.
That defense could never be explained away by chance.
It was an uncanny grasp of timing, an execution of refined swordsmanship that stripped away all excess movement.
She tightened her grip on the wooden sword, her gaze turning cold and sharp.
No matter who you are, or what trick you used, I will not give you another opening in this match.
“Mizuki, your luck ends here.”
Seeing Kaguya grip her wooden sword with renewed intent, Haruhime could not hold back any longer.
She dashed out from behind Mizuki, spreading her arms wide to shield him, and shouted toward Kaguya with all the courage she could muster.
“Did you not say it would take only one strike? You already failed, so how can you keep going?”
Kaguya’s eyes narrowed, sending a sharp glare at Haruhime.
The overwhelming aura of a level 3 adventurer made Haruhime tremble, but she did not back down.
Instead, she planted her feet and stared right back.
“That is enough, Haruhime,” Mizuki said softly, gently pulling her behind him while rolling his shoulders to loosen up.
“Do not bicker with your future mistress.”
“That was just a warm up to get a feel for things. Now the match can truly begin.”
Hearing the word mistress again, Kaguya’s face flushed red.
“What utter nonsense are you spouting?!”
Alise burst into laughter from the sidelines, winking at Kaguya.
“Well now, Kaguya, you did say one strike earlier. Maybe you should just admit defeat and go along with it!”
A faint trace of a smile appeared on Ryu’s lips, and she added quietly, “Kaguya, you were indeed the one who set the terms of the match.”
Kaguya whipped her head around, glaring at her companions.
“Whose side are you all on anyway?!”
“We of the Astraea Familia will always stand on the side of justice!”
Lyra puffed out her chest with righteous conviction, turning around to rally the others.
“Am I right?”
“Yeah!” More than a dozen voices replied in unison, their shouts echoing through the yard.
“Alright, settle down, everyone,” Mizuki called out, waving a hand toward the crowd.
“Stop teasing Kaguya, we would not want her getting distracted.”
“Because I am going on the offensive now.”
Staying on the defensive always left one passive.
Taking the initiative was the true way to control the fight.
Under everyone’s stunned gazes, Mizuki moved.
He was no longer standing like a training post waiting to absorb blows.
Stepping forward with intent, the wooden sword in his hands traced a clean, lethal arc straight toward Kaguya.
Kaguya’s eyes widened.
He is taking the initiative to attack?
Without a second to spare for questions, she abandoned all thoughts of cautious parrying, lunging forward to meet his blade head on.
Wood met wood in a flurry of sharp cracks, ringing out through the courtyard like sudden hail.
This was no longer a one-sided beatdown, but a fierce, back-and-forth clash of arms.
“Wait, what is with this guy? He is fighting like a completely different person!” Alise stared, disbelief plain across her face.
“His footwork, his blade path, every single motion is flawless!”
Asta Knox stopped chewing her snack, completely stunned.
“He… he was playing dumb earlier! He tricked all of us!”
While the spectators were merely enjoying the spectacle, Kaguya felt a growing sense of dread with every passing second.
Flawless?
It went far beyond flawless.
With every exchange, every parry and counter, she felt an unsettling, alien sensation.
Mizuki’s swordsmanship followed no conventional doctrine, yet it was utterly airtight.
One moment he would deliver a savage, straightforward cleave, and the next he would flow into an awkward, twisting diagonal sweep.
She tried to anticipate his patterns, to pick out habits and openings in his forms but every prediction fell apart before she could capitalize on it.
He was like matching every strike she threw while revealing none of his own core style.
Even after more than a dozen exchanges, she still could not grasp his true rhythm.
How could this be?
She was Gojouno Kaguya, a prodigy who had dedicated over a decade of her life to the way of the blade.
How could she be entirely unable to read a normal human?
Their swords collided once more, and both of them used the rebound to push back, resetting the distance between them by a few feet.
“Still having trouble figuring me out?” Mizuki asked casually.
“I suggest you stop wasting your energy trying to read my form.”
“It will not work.”
Mizuki knew it well.
Through his masteries, no matter how many times he used the same technique against the same foe, its effectiveness would never degrade.
In other words, no matter how long they fought, his opponent would never truly adapt to his attacks.
“I admit, I misjudged you,” Kaguya said, her voice dropping to a frigid tone as she spoke with measured clarity.
“I did not expect you to actually be an expert with a blade.”
“Even so, did you really think that would be enough to defeat me?”
The moment the words left her mouth, Kaguya’s entire presence shifted.
She instantly drove her speed and physical output to a whole new tier, pushing right up to the theoretical limit of what a human body could produce.
This was already walking the line of fairness.
Though she had restrained herself to an adventurer’s baseline and used no skills, that supposed peak of human ability was still backed by a body tempered through falna.
The raw power and velocity she unleashed now far exceeded what Mizuki’s physical frame could naturally output.
Kaguya’s pressure surged outward.
That force quickly went beyond the power of any ordinary mortal.
Haruhime had no understanding of martial limits and simply kept cheering Mizuki on from the side.
“Lord Mizuki, you can do it! Lord Mizuki, show her what you have got!”
The seasoned fighters of the Astraea Familia, however, saw through it immediately.
“Kaguya…” Asta’s jaw hung open, completely forgetting the snack in her hands.
“Is that… does that not count as cheating? That kind of force is way beyond a normal human, right? Should we stop them?”
“Does it really count as breaking the rules?” Alise tapped her chin, her eyes locked firmly on the sparring match.
“Kaguya is not using any falna skills. She is just pushing her baseline physical output to the peak of what a falnaless person could achieve.”
She offered a rather loose defense of her teammate.
“Besides, Kaguya was already a master of the sword before she ever became an adventurer. Her natural conditioning has always been higher than average.”
Ryu cast a cool, sideways glance at Alise and spoke in a flat tone.
“Captain, that excuse is rather flimsy, do you not think?”
“But, the captain has a point,” Celty added, adjusting her glasses as she broke her silence.