“Still too young.
Too naive.”
The Sword God rubbed the stubble on his chin and offered that as his entire evaluation of Jino fainting from fear.
“Indeed.
He is.”
Timothy, seated beside Gal, nodded in agreement as though nothing remotely strange had happened.
From their perspective, it had only been a little killing intent.
Surprising, perhaps, but Jino didn’t even have a scratch.
Just children fooling around.
At most, Noah seemed to have excellent potential for the North God Style.
The North God Style was famous for using any means necessary, with free-form tactics and constantly changing methods.
Marcus, seated on Gal’s other side, looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t decide what.
He was surprised by his son’s swordsmanship, but also somewhat embarrassed that Noah had traumatized the son of an old friend in such a ridiculous fashion.
‘Noah, you little…’
As for Nina, who had just watched her cousin get frightened unconscious, the girl with dark-blue hair tied in a ponytail was visibly furious.
Noah had shouted to distract Jino, hidden his true strength, and then used the Longsword of Silence on an Intermediate swordsman.
How was that any different from attacking someone while they weren’t ready?
He clearly possessed real ability, yet still resorted to something so underhanded.
Despicable!
Worse, Jino was the second son of the Britts branch family, an offshoot of the Farion family that headed the Sword God Style.
In a sense, he had represented the central lineage of the school in that duel.
For Noah to toy with him like that was, in Nina’s eyes, an insult to the Sword God Style itself.
Nina wasn’t alone.
Most disciples were impressed that such a young boy could use the Longsword of Silence, but they still looked down on how he’d won.
If you had real strength, then fight openly and win with your sword!
Only the handful of experienced Sword Saints who had actually traveled outside, the two Sword Emperors, and the Sword God himself saw nothing wrong with it.
In the center of the hall, Noah ignored the surrounding noise.
He was still staring at the system notification in surprise.
[Killing Intent: Nascent] was unlike anything the system had rewarded him before.
Until now, all he’d received were Shared Talents.
Even more importantly, the Fate Power Rating the system had nagged him about for eight years had finally increased.
He’d been stuck at two points from birth until today.
Noah had assumed he needed to meet Rudeus and other main characters before it could rise.
Yet it had increased simply because he’d fought Jino and won.
Was the key factor the person he interacted with?
Or the action he performed?
He didn’t know yet.
There wasn’t time to investigate the new reward either.
After several seconds of shock, Noah suddenly realized he had a far more urgent problem.
In his mind’s eye, countless glittering, star-ranked talents sprouted wings and began flying away from him.
‘No!
Come back!’
Noah mentally reached after them like the tragic hero of a soap opera.
Meanwhile, Jino’s backside hit the floor.
The pain jolted him out of his brief faint.
In reality, he’d only blacked out for a moment.
‘I lost…?’
Jino slowly recovered and realized just how casually the duel had ended.
He hadn’t taught Noah a lesson as planned.
He had been defeated without even scratching him.
Neither of them had suffered an injury.
Could this even be called a duel?
Jino, who had been praised as a swordsmanship prodigy by many people, couldn’t stop himself from sinking into self-doubt.
He noticed Noah still standing there in a daze after winning.
‘Was he so shocked by how weak I was that he’s still processing it?’
That thought hurt more than the fall.
Then Noah put away his wooden sword and walked over.
“Sorry about that.
I took advantage of the situation.
It wasn’t exactly an honorable win.”
Noah extended a hand to pull him up.
Jino was surprised.
He didn’t understand the exact phrase Noah used, but the apology sounded sincere.
And “taking advantage” obviously referred to the opening shout.
“Uh…
no.
Even if you hadn’t done that, I couldn’t have beaten you.
I still can’t use the Longsword of Silence.”
Jino shook his head.
The gloomy feeling inside him quickly faded.
Thinking calmly, Noah hadn’t mocked him after winning.
Instead, he’d actually apologized.
Maybe this guy was…
a decent person?
After all, strong people and winners naturally had the right to boast in the Holy Land of Swords.
Plenty did.
In fact, most people here considered it perfectly normal.
The sacred tradition of the Holy Land of Swords:
Humiliate the weak as brutally as possible!
Jino took Noah’s hand and stood.
Seeing that Jino didn’t seem particularly hostile and hadn’t slapped his hand away, Noah nearly sighed with relief.
‘Good, good.
Kids are easy to appease.
Good boy.
My shiny golden talents aren’t flying away anymore…’
Outside the dueling area, several disciples who hadn’t known Noah before reconsidered their impression of him.
Victorious, but not humiliating his opponent.
That counted for something.
“All right, all right.
Next is Nina.” Gal waved a hand.
“Kid, seizing the initiative is fine, but let me—and everyone else—see your actual swordsmanship too.”
The moment her father said that, Nina shot to her feet and strode into the center.
Jino returned to Timothy’s side.
As the two passed each other, Nina murmured only one sentence.
“I’ll win.”
She wanted to restore the honor of the Sword God Style after Noah had treated it lightly.
She wanted to make him pay for humiliating her cousin, who had followed her around since childhood.
At minimum, she’d hit him hard enough that he couldn’t hold a sword for three days.
She would use the Sword God Style techniques she’d repeated tens of thousands of times and beat this person until he was thoroughly convinced.
Nina was certain she would win.
Afterward, she’d make him swallow every disrespectful word he’d said about the Sword God.
Noah returned to one side of the center while Nina received a wooden sword and took her position opposite him.
“Nina Farion.”
“Noah Emiya.”
Their salutes were crisp and direct.
“Begin!”
At the Sword Saint’s signal, both adopted their stances.
Nina held her wooden sword high, a pure Sword God Style attacking posture.
Noah gripped his weapon with both hands and held it horizontally before him, clearly favoring defense.
Nina stared straight at him without wasting time on threats.
A swordsman’s dignity was earned through the sword.
She settled into the offensive stance she had practiced day after day.
The familiar feedback of muscles engaging filled her with confidence.
The Longsword of Silence varied from person to person, but fundamentally it was a sword technique built around overwhelming speed and decisive offense.
Seize the initiative.
Catch the opponent off guard.
Strike once and finish the fight.
Nina could use the Longsword of Silence too.
Techniques depended on the swordsman wielding them.
She had already prepared herself for Noah to shout or use some other distracting trick.
He couldn’t surprise her that way again.
She also had the advantage in age.
At this stage, girls often developed earlier than boys, and Nina was confident her strength and speed surpassed both Noah’s and Jino’s.
So there would be no accident.
One strike.
One victory.
With that conviction, Nina brought her sword down with tremendous force.
The spectators could clearly see that both speed and power were a full level above what Noah had just demonstrated.
Everyone could practically see the result already.
Then—
Noah dodged.