"The clan head enters."
The murmuring crowd split to either side and opened a path.
It was like the Red Sea parting.
The commotion died and the people fell silent.
This was the standing held by the master of the Blante clan.
'Interesting.'
It was intriguing.
In his competing days the lead had always been Ryu Tae-sin.
Cheers or curses, the one who took every eye onto himself was unmistakably Ryu Tae-sin, and that was not greatly different now.
The enormous crowd here had gathered because of the incident Ethan had caused.
And the being who silenced even those people in a single moment was the clan head.
Vincent Blante.
'Swallow it?'
It did not look easy, but neither did it look impossible.
The clan was going to fall anyway.
Time it well, and push his own standing and pretext into the interlocking circumstances, and the possibilities were more than ample.
'Premature for now, though.'
He did not yet feel any great merit in this clan.
That did not mean the Blante clan was unnecessary to him.
The things Ethan had to obtain lay outside, but to move freely later he needed the clan's power.
For the original's protagonist the chaos of Blante's collapse had been a help in moving about, but Ethan needed the Blante clan alive in order to travel without restriction.
And so Ethan had no intention of letting Blante fall as pointlessly as it had in the original.
Because Blante would make a solid backing for him.
He meant to delay the clan's fall as long as he could, and take what he wanted.
'Once I've got everything, the clan stops mattering.'
Ethan wiped the stray thoughts away.
'Focus, now.'
His confidence was ample, but he could not afford conceit.
Ethan was clearly at a disadvantage.
However thoughtless a greenhorn Karon was, he was a mana user.
Through sparring with Nade, Ethan had felt in his own body how large the difference was between handling mana and not handling it.
However great his capacity for manufacturing variables, one mistake and it was over.
"Heh. Heh. Finally getting a little tense, are you?"
"Bullshit."
Ethan met the provocation with composure, and Karon's face twisted again.
'Taking it easy ends here.'
Once the match began, it would be that one rolling on the floor.
He had managed to shed the swollen fat somehow, but that was not going to beat him.
Karon was a mana user.
Ethan had not yet trained in mana.
In a word, he was an ordinary person.
'An ordinary person cannot beat a mana user.' This was established doctrine, an unbroken formula.
Those of knight rank who had already awakened mana privately called the victory for Karon.
That was the general thought, and an entirely natural one.
Karon was deliberating.
'Win like this and...... there isn't much in it for me.'
The majority had already called the victory for him.
Because he was a mana user who knew how to use a sword, and Ethan an ordinary person who had never properly swung one.
'A one-sided victory is appealing, but......'
It was not enough.
He wanted to give the clan's wastrel pig of a bastard even a little more desperate humiliation.
"Hey."
Karon called to him. Ethan was still looking at him with that indifferent expression.
'Right to the end, honestly......'
He was goaded until his insides twisted.
Karon walked slowly over to Ethan. Then he whispered close by Ethan's ear, too low for anyone else to catch.
"This match. I won't use mana."
"......Oho."
"I thought about it, and mana is a waste on vermin like you. All these people gathered, and it wouldn't do if the result weren't satisfying, would it? I'll grind you under my heel without using any."
"You won't regret it?"
Ethan asked with a meaningful smile, and Karon grinned and answered.
"Why would I regret it? You're the one who'll be crawling on the floor begging me to spare you."
"Haha. I'll remember that."
Cute.
Provocation that low-grade stirred nothing in him.
Set against the trash talk Western fighters spat out in his competing days, it was baby stuff.
'A stupid one.'
However weak an opponent looked, in a place like this you always had to give your best. And here he was taking it easy.
'Impudent, too. I'll have to knock some sense into him.'
***
"At last you will be freed from Master Ethan."
Ardman came over to Nade and spoke.
Nade gave no particular reaction and only wore a meaningful smile.
"I am not quite sure what you are talking about."
"There is no need to hide it. If Young Master Ethan loses at this opportunity, his standing will narrow further still. Then you, Mr Nade, will no longer have to suffer at Master Ethan's side."
"Heh heh. You speak as though you already knew the result."
Ardman blinked at Nade's words.
"......Surely you do not think Young Master Ethan will win?"
"Who can say. But a result is never known in advance."
"Hah."
Ardman gave a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.
He had known Nade looked after Ethan, but he had not imagined it went this far.
'A stupider old man than I thought.'
The man held no small standing within the clan, so he had meant to keep close to him, but if this was how he came out, there was nothing for it.
'Once the match is over, the tide belongs to Master Karon anyway.'
And that his own position would rise along with it was as plain as fire.
An aged old butler would drift away from the tide.
'I look forward to the result.'
Ardman thought of a rose-colored future and looked at Ethan and Karon.
***
The distance between Karon and Ethan opened.
A knight performing the role of referee ran the match.
"We shall now begin the sparring match. The match ends if either of you calls defeat, or if continuation is judged impossible."
Karon glared at Ethan murderously.
'Can't let this end gently.'
He meant to beat him to a pulp before he could even call defeat.
By position Ethan was Karon's elder brother, but Karon had never once thought of Ethan as his brother.
He had always taken him for the clan's disgrace, a wastrel beneath himself.
'Does it make any sense for a son of a sword clan to fear the sword?'
Karon's contempt for Ethan had grown steadily worse.
And in the middle of it, he had been humiliated by a surprise blow.
The man had insulted a legitimate challenge to a duel, and shamed him in front of a great many people.
So Karon had no intention of being satisfied with a mere victory.
'I'll have him weeping and wailing and begging.'
Ethan looked at Karon's face and snorted a laugh.
'Every thought on display.'
There had been men like that in his competing days.
The sort who cannot hide what they feel.
It is a bad habit.
A professional must always keep a poker face.
Excitement clouds what is in front of you and dulls your technique.
In the professional world a moment's lapse swings the result.
"Match, begin!"
At the knight's call, Karon launched straight in.
Karon's long-trained movement was nimble.
'Horizontal cut.'
Ethan watched Karon's movement calmly.
He checked the direction of the hands and the stride, and read the move Karon would throw.
Just as Ethan predicted, Karon's wooden sword swung for his flank.
'Can't let the distance open.'
Ethan was the taller of the two, but Ethan was not accustomed to the sword.
Settling it at range put him at a disadvantage.
And since Ethan had never meant to settle it with the sword to begin with, he raised his own and blocked Karon's attack.
WHAM!
A heavy sound of collision spread out.
'He blocked that?'
Karon's eyes widened.
He had put a fair amount of force into it. He had moderated it so as not to kill, but it was not at a level an ordinary person blocks.
Yet Ethan had blocked the blow without difficulty.
His body had been driven back considerably, but he had unmistakably defended it.
'The key is speed and a quick finish.'
He moved before Karon could gather himself.
He did not retrieve his sword. There was no time for that.
WHACK!
Ethan's right foot drove precisely into Karon's solar plexus.
"Hurgh!"
A groan burst from Karon's mouth and he was driven back for an instant.
"What's this?"
Bewildered voices broke out from the watching crowd.
Because the movement Ethan had performed was not swordsmanship but something unfamiliar.
'This cowardly......!'
The shock had not been that great, but the kick driven properly into his solar plexus left Karon no little flustered.
He drew back to reset his posture.
'Fast, all right.'
Ethan felt a small admiration inwardly.
He had meant to finish it if the chance showed, but as befitted a body that had awakened mana, the distance opened in an instant.
'Well, it's not as if there's no method.'
Ethan planted his lead foot hard.
His hips torqued and his right hand drew back.
'Surely not?'
Karon's eyes went wide as lantern bowls.
Swish—!
Ethan threw the wooden sword.
Hurled with force behind it, the sword split the air and flew for Karon's face.
"Stupid fool!"
Karon swung the sword in his hand.
He had been no little rattled by the kick a moment ago, but he had not taken a shock great enough to lose control of his body.
He could answer an attack as rootless as that easily enough.
Tak!
Karon set his stance on the ground and batted the sword aside.
Ethan's sword, which had flown in so fiercely, tumbled uselessly across the floor.
'I've won......!'
Thanks to Ethan's stupidity, he could guarantee himself an easy victory.
There was no way a knight without a sword could properly continue a sparring match.
But......
Shff—
The instant the sword left his field of view, Ethan was closing.
Ethan's body kicked off the ground and leapt.
Karon could not hide his bewilderment and covered his face with the sword, but Ethan's knee came in precisely, aimed at Karon's blind angle.
SMACK—!
The flying knee he had drilled beforehand landed precisely on Karon's face.
"Hurgh!"
A groan burst from his mouth once more.
Karon staggered backward.
It was a flying knee landed properly. That he had not blacked out was remarkable.
'Good stock, no question.'
A sturdy body worthy of a great sword clan. That much was certain.
Ethan caught the hand of the staggering, unsteadied Karon.
"Good work. Off you go."
Whip.
Ethan burrowed into Karon's chest in an instant.
Karon's arm came over Ethan's shoulder, and then his center of gravity tipped.
His body weight was already under Ethan's control.
Karon's body floated up and then plunged headlong into the ground.
WHAM!
There was no mercy in it.
Karon, who had never learned a proper breakfall, had no way to answer a shoulder throw that had gone in perfectly.
"......Hurgh!"
"Oh. What's this? Still conscious?"
Once again it was a shoulder throw that had gone in properly. Even having taken the whole impact with no breakfall at all, Karon did not lose consciousness.
"RAAAGH!"
Karon drew mana up. Reason had been gone a long while. His head was full of nothing but rage.
"I'll kill you!"
"Bastard, all bluster. A bastard who can't even keep his own word."
Karon was on his feet in an instant. Then he drove into Ethan's body.
'He's strong once he uses mana.'
Strength at this level was the kind that took at least a heavier division to produce.
Not the sort of power Karon, who had not yet shed his childishness, should be putting out.
'Not that it matters.'
Karon had driven into Ethan's chest headlong, with no technique at all.
There was no way there was no method. However great the strength, if a man was this defenseless it was useless.
Ethan wrapped up the back of Karon's neck and lay down with him on the floor.
'Wrap the hips, and turn the body.'
CRUSH!
In an instant a tremendous pressure clamped in on Karon's neck.
"H-hurgh!"
A groan jumped out of Karon's mouth.
'What on earth is this......!'
In a situation he had never met before, Karon could not gather himself and thrashed.
He had dropped the sword in his hand long since.
He was straining to hold on to his receding consciousness, but there was nothing he could do.
'Because this doesn't come off easily.'
With some mastery of ground technique it might be another matter, but thrashing with no knowledge at all was not going to get him out of this.
He had already taken damage. However much he was a mana user with superior specs on top of it, he could not endure a compressed carotid for long.
'One, two, three.'
No sooner had he counted than Karon's body went limp.
'Done.'
Having judged that Karon had lost consciousness, Ethan released the choke.
"Wh-what is this......"
Watching it, Ardman muttered as though he could not believe it.
"Th-this match is void. Rootless fist-swinging like that, in a swordsmanship match......"
Nade tilted his head at Ardman's words.
"Strange. Since when was this a swordsmanship match?"
"......?"
"I do not believe I have ever heard a clause requiring that they fight with wooden swords."
"......"
At Nade's words, Ardman shut his mouth.
There was certainly no such clause in the match.
And if he meant to pick at that, then a match between Karon, a mana user, and Ethan, who had not awakened mana at all, should never have been arranged in the first place.
From the silent spectators, shock and admiration swirled up.
Blante reveres strength. Naturally the knights called Blante's swords were no different.
Ethan's combat art, and the movement he had shown over the course of the match, stood at a marvelous level, and it had shown them a new road.
"Wh-what was that......?"
"Those movements...... I have never seen any of them......?"
"Master Ethan had talent like that?"
With Ardman silenced and the other attendants doing nothing but marveling, Morun strode roughly over to Ethan.
"Y-you cowardly bastard!"
Morun went straight for Ethan's collar, and Ethan set his stance to answer it.
In that instant, a voice like thunder rang through the training ground.
"Enough!"
It was Vincent's voice.
At his roar came the illusion, for a moment, that the training ground itself had shaken.
"Morun. What is this disgraceful display?"
Under Vincent's cold stare, Morun, who had been advancing on Ethan in his excitement, bowed his head low.
"I-I am sorry."
"Tsk."
Making no effort to hide his displeasure, Vincent clicked his tongue once.
Then he swept his eyes over the assembly.
"The match is over. This result is Ethan's victory, and there is nothing more to be said about it."
"But...... Ethan used a cowardly move......"
Morun lifted his head a little to signal that he would not accept it, but Vincent crushed it without mercy.
"Had this been a real fight, Karon would be dead. Do you intend to spit excuses like that on a battlefield as well?"
At the anger in Vincent's voice, Morun could spit out nothing more and bowed his head low.
'I like this.'
In truth, Ethan's conditioning had reached its limit.
He had felt the gap in specs against a mana user keenly, so he had given everything he had for a swift finish.
And if someone like Morun picked a fight at a moment like this, he had no confidence he could answer it properly.
He had predicted from the start that Vincent would mediate, but the man had played the mediator more decisively than expected.
"Time for the reward, then."
Ethan let a smile settle on his face and looked at Vincent.