No doubt about it.
This achievement challenge wasn’t exactly impossible, but it would take Noah a fair amount of time and effort to complete—especially since it required formal duels.
High difficulty meant high rewards.
The final prize was definitely worth looking forward to.
The only problem was…
Did the system really have to be this malicious toward Nina?
If he hit her confidence too hard and her affection dropped, that would be a disaster.
‘Ahem.
System, I’m just asking here…
don’t you have achievements like Sword God’s Cry?
Sword God’s Wail?
Something along those lines?’
Jino next door was still a fresh little crop waiting to be harvested.
He, Noah Emiya, had always treated everyone equally.
Off the field, Jino watched his cousin surrender without hesitation.
He didn’t know exactly why she had done it, but considering Noah had even defeated Silas, Nina’s chances against him—even in his supposedly weakened state—weren’t particularly high.
At least surrendering meant she wouldn’t get hurt.
Last time, his cousin had needed quite a while to recover.
Once Jino sorted through the situation, that was honestly what he thought.
He just didn’t know why, but when he’d looked at Noah a moment ago, a chill had inexplicably run down his spine.
The small interlude of Nina surrendering quickly passed, and the general sparring session continued as normal.
Nina didn’t simply sit around after forfeiting, either.
She went to the Sword Saint officiating the matches and asked him to arrange another opponent for her.
She also wanted to see how much she’d improved after several days of sparring with Noah.
As expected, Nina easily defeated an opponent she’d previously considered troublesome, leaving the other disciple visibly shocked by how much she’d changed.
When the matches finally reached the Sword Saint level, Noah’s interest truly picked up.
He watched every duel carefully, studying every detail.
Their opening stances, the angle of their swings, how they generated force, the width of their steps—Noah observed everything with Mind’s Eye at full concentration, refusing to let even the smallest detail escape if it could become nourishment for his own growth.
Stones from other mountains could polish jade.
Other people’s success couldn’t always be copied, but their mistakes?
Those absolutely needed to be remembered.
Noah watched each duel with the pure and noble intention of learning from everyone else’s failures.
Every bad example went straight into his mental notebook so he could avoid making the same mistakes himself.
The succession of excellent matches gave him plenty of inspiration and also familiarized him with the habits and styles of several Sword Saints.
The files on this batch of premium wholesale wool suppliers had to be complete, exhaustive, meticulous, comprehensive, detailed, thorough, and painfully specific!
Sooner or later, he was going to fight these people too.
Every last detail belonged in the little notebook in his heart.
After the sparring session ended, Sword Emperor Timothy stepped forward to summarize the day’s performances.
He especially praised several disciples who had done well, and Noah was naturally among them.
Being praised felt good.
Noah was no exception.
[System Notice: You have obtained the title: Holy Land Prodigy.]
[Holy Land Prodigy]
[Effect: Human Legend correction +0.5%.]
[Requirement: More than two-thirds of the Holy Land’s core members must recognize your talent and acknowledge you as a prodigy.]
[Current Human Legend: 2.5%.]
[Human Legend Bonus: Damage against humans +2.5%.]
An unexpected bonus!
Noah hadn’t expected another reward after everything was already over.
As for the tiny increase in damage correction, he honestly couldn’t feel much difference in everyday life.
Still, something was better than nothing.
At last, with Sword God Gal’s announcement, the general sparring session officially came to an end.
…
Afterward, every disciple in the Holy Land of Swords returned to the familiar cycle of training, eating, sleeping, and resting.
Noah returned to his own daily routine as well.
Morning: train with the old bastard.
Mostly get beaten.
Afternoon: train with Nina.
Mostly beat someone else.
Technically, Noah and Nina’s agreement to spar had only lasted until the general sparring session.
Once it ended, the arrangement should have expired.
But on the very next day, Nina still arrived at Noah’s residence at their usual time.
Naturally, Noah wasn’t enough of a blockhead to tell her to go home.
And so his life settled into an absurdly lopsided morning-and-afternoon routine.
Life really did possess an S/M duality.
You were either the S or the M.
At night, Noah trained alone.
Besides abilities like Battle Aura Coating: Hardening and Battle Aura Coating: Emission, which refined his control over battle aura, he also practiced the newly acquired Night Owl: Soundless Slash.
To be fair, it really was a sword technique suited for nighttime training.
If someone entered Noah’s room after dark, they would find him practicing in a pitch-black open space, yet hear almost no whistle of a blade cutting through air and almost no sound from his movements.
It was hard to deny that this swordsmanship was absurdly well suited to adventurers working as assassins or killers—taking lives without sound or warning.
Noah encountered no serious bottleneck while practicing it.
Several of his core talents had excellent compatibility with the technique.
He thought this repetitive life of sword training would continue for quite some time.
Until one morning, two weeks later.
Once again, Sword God Gal sent Noah flying. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Noah hit the ground and immediately scrambled back to his feet.
By now, he’d gotten used to the old bastard’s attacks with A-rank strength and A-rank speed.
Dodging them was basically impossible.
But as his battle aura training improved and his use of Mind’s Eye became increasingly natural, he had learned how to prepare his defenses in advance with Battle Aura Flow whenever Gal lowered himself to something resembling a merciful level.
With the impact reduced, Noah could at least choose a comparatively comfortable way to hit the ground.
This time, Noah had already recovered his stance and was bracing himself for Gal’s next sneak attack when the Sword God unexpectedly put away his training sword.
“Noah. Come here.”
Gal crooked a finger at his disciple.
“Master, aren’t we ending a little early today?”
Noah found that strange.
The old man hadn’t finished loosening all his bones yet.
“Yeah. I’ve got a mission for you.”
Gal returned beneath the eaves of the courtyard and sat cross-legged on the wooden floor where the snow couldn’t reach.
One large hand rested casually on his knee.
“Marcus sent me some information recently. A group of bandits attacked and looted merchants traveling along one of the main roads leading to the Holy Land. There were no survivors. The traces weren’t discovered until later travelers passed through.”
Gal didn’t waste words.
He relayed the information in the simplest possible terms.
“Your mission is to kill them. Doesn’t matter whether they’re adventurers who decided to become bandits on a whim or criminals who were bandits from the start.”
As Sword God, Gal had responsibilities beyond teaching the Holy Land’s disciples.
This particular request had originally been registered with the Adventurers’ Guild as well.
Marcus happened to mention it, and Gal decided it made for a good opportunity.
In the Sword God’s eyes, a swordsman who had never killed a person—one whose blade had never tasted blood—couldn’t truly be considered qualified.
A swordsman’s first kill was one of the most important baptisms of their life.
And now Gal stared directly into Noah’s eyes.
“All right.”
Noah met his gaze and quietly nodded.
He reminded himself that this was another world—a feudal society comparable to the Middle Ages, and in plenty of ways far worse.
Human life could be frighteningly cheap.
Those bandits had taken the merchants’ lives, and now Noah would take theirs.
At least he had a justifiable reason.
He had already prepared himself to some extent.
Sooner or later, this was unavoidable.
“Oh, right.” Gal seemed to remember something and lazily added, “Besides the Sword Saint leading the group, Nina, Jino, and Silas will be going with you.”
Noah looked up.
Putting all those people in one party…
What exactly was the old bastard planning?