[System Notice: Your fully accumulated killing aura spread like invading fire, causing your opponent to shrink before you and intimidating the entire hall.]
[Skill Level +1: Killing Intent.]
[Killing Intent: Nascent has evolved into Killing Intent: Ember.]
[System Notice: Your killing-intent-free swordsmanship concealed its edge, your mind still as a clear mirror, defeating an opponent without warning.]
[Acquired: Night Owl: Soundless Slash.]
[System Notice: Your combat decision anticipated the enemy. Battle aura surged like thunder and you overwhelmed your opponent in a single exchange.]
[Acquired derived technique: Battle Aura Coating: Emission.]
…
“Even Silas…”
“How? Silas is the strongest swordsman below Sword Saint among us.”
“I didn’t understand that at all. Did you? Why did Silas get hit first?”
“Noah said he used battle aura to increase speed…?”
The Space of the Present had been nearly silent while the duel unfolded.
Now conversation returned all at once.
‘I was completely read and outplayed…’
Silas slowly pushed himself upright.
Noah’s attack hadn’t been especially heavy, but a deep ache still filled his abdomen and made him wince whenever the muscles stretched.
The injury to his pride was worse.
Fortunately, this challenge had used wooden swords.
Being knocked outside the designated area was the worst possible consequence.
Had they fought with sharpened blades, Silas would probably be lying there with his abdomen cut open and his intestines spilling out.
Compared with the Longsword of Light, which carried enough force to cut an opponent in half through the spine, Noah’s strike was nowhere near as destructive.
In a real fight, however, it would have been more than enough to kill.
Silas had once lived as a wandering swordsman.
He understood that clearly.
This was his complete defeat.
He had attacked first.
And still lost.
At some point, had he become arrogant too?
Maybe he still had a lot of growing to do.
Silas walked back toward Noah with one hand pressed against his abdomen.
Despite the pain, he bowed.
“I lost. Your swordsmanship truly surpasses mine.”
Now Noah was the surprised one.
He hadn’t expected such a straightforward admission.
No wonder everyone said Silas’s character was worth its weight in gold.
If gossip came from this guy, people apparently believed it without question.
“Then I’ll take back what I said too. That was a satisfying fight. I won by luck more than anything.”
Compliments cost nothing.
Noah had already received the system rewards, so there was no reason to keep acting arrogant.
“It was not luck,” Silas replied, shaking his head.
“I genuinely fell short.”
“All right, all right. Either way, you’re a good opponent. If there’s another opportunity later, I’d be happy to exchange swordsmanship with you again.”
Noah had realized something.
Silas wasn’t merely overflowing with justice.
He was also painfully straightforward once he decided something was true.
Best to end the conversation before they held up the entire event.
The referee was already giving them a strange look.
“Yes. I would welcome another match at any time.”
Silas didn’t seem particularly ashamed about losing to a child ten years younger.
He cared far more about understanding why he lost.
Noah had withdrawn his insult and even proposed another exchange.
In Silas’s mind, that proved Noah possessed a pure heart devoted solely to swordsmanship.
No wonder he’d reached such a high level at such a young age.
The misunderstanding was complete.
Then both of them looked toward Gal and Timothy.
“That was indeed impressive,” Timothy said.
“Master, Noah’s progress is astonishingly fast. Your instruction must have contributed greatly.”
Timothy had already hidden his earlier shock by the time Noah and Silas finished speaking.
He knew Silas’s strength extremely well.
Timothy had been the one teaching him, after all.
Yet Noah had surprised him again.
Timothy already believed Noah’s swordsmanship talent was exceptional.
Now it seemed his combat sense might be even more frightening.
And at such a young age, Noah’s command of battle aura was already unusually refined—something especially important for learning the Longsword of Light.
Timothy genuinely couldn’t understand what Gal had been teaching him.
Had the old man been hiding special methods all these years?
There was a faint trace of that accusation in Timothy’s words.
“…Mm. Noah’s talent is good, but it also comes from hard training.”
Gal answered with complete calm, as though nothing unusual had happened.
He was a veteran master of keeping a straight face.
What kind of person hadn’t he seen?
What kind of genius hadn’t he taught?
Even if a mountain collapsed in front of him, he could keep his expression perfectly under control.
Well…
He genuinely had never seen one exactly like Noah.
The brat’s improvement was like diarrhea.
Once it started, there was no stopping it.
Gal turned toward Silas.
“You’ve still got room to grow. Keep polishing yourself.”
“Yes, Sword God.”
Seeing that Silas didn’t appear crushed by the defeat, Gal nodded in satisfaction.
Silas saluted and left the floor.
Only Noah remained standing there.
Noah and Gal stared at one another.
Gal’s eyes: ‘Why are you still there?’
Noah’s eyes: ‘I’m waiting for the next challenger.’
Gal: ‘You just beat Silas.
Who among the Advanced swordsmen is going to challenge you now?’
Noah understood the silent conversation and blinked.
Right.
Unless one of those Sword Saints shamelessly stepped down to bully him, there probably wasn’t anyone left.
Noah nodded, saluted his cheap master, and finally returned to the audience.
Nobody stopped him this time.
The officiating Sword Saint returned to the center with visible relief.
At last.
They could conduct the normal general sparring session.
No more overtime.
The event finally proceeded according to rank: Intermediate matches first, then Advanced, then Sword Saints.
“Intermediate swordsman Selenia versus Intermediate swordsman Violi…”
“Intermediate swordsman Jino versus Intermediate swordsman Harry…”
The referee called names again and again.
Pairs determined by lottery stepped onto the floor and tested the results of their recent training.
Some won.
Some lost.
Some left glowing with excitement.
Others returned with lowered heads.
Noah watched a few early Intermediate matches and quickly lost interest.
They offered him no new insight and no technique worth studying.
‘Mm.
About what you’d expect.’
These were lower-ranked fighters, so the quality of the duels was naturally limited.
He paid special attention to Jino’s match.
Other than that, Noah gradually withdrew his attention inward and began sorting through his new system rewards.
So this time the rewards had been cumulative.
Good thing he hadn’t stopped experimenting.
‘Damn System.
You almost swallowed my loot.’
To everyone else, Noah closing his eyes looked like simple fatigue from multiple consecutive duels.
They assumed he was resting.
What Noah didn’t know was that the opponent assigned to him by lottery was, by pure coincidence, the person he’d spent the most time with recently.
Nina.