Tailon looked flustered, as though he had expected Ron to wait for him like the other knights of House Leonard.
“......Wait. A knight must always fight fair and square!”
As Ron began to draw his sword, Tailon hurriedly stopped him. He sensed that there was nothing ordinary about the motion Ron used to draw it.
Moreover, throughout the journey here, he had been unable to shake the thought, ‘What the hell is with this bastard?’
Not long after leaving House Leonard's estate, Ron had picked up speed and vanished from sight.
Even after Tailon accelerated while following his trail, he could not catch him. The more he used his aura to accelerate, the wider the gap became.
He tried to hide it, but keeping up had consumed a considerable amount of both his stamina and aura.
Before chasing after him, Tailon had assumed Ron was not far beyond the level of an Apprentice Knight. Even if Ron possessed some hidden technique, Tailon had believed he could handle him easily.
But as it turned out.
Ron was fast, and his stamina was no joke either. Stamina and speed were not everything for a knight, but they were undeniably fundamental.
“I'll make you regret giving me time to recover!”
“Then I’ll start right away so I won’t regret it.”
When Ron began to draw his sword again, Tailon hurriedly stopped him.
“You bastard, you're a knight, yet you're going back on your word?”
“Has the Second Young Master not already changed his word three times?”
“You're an Apprentice Knight, and I'm of House Leonard's direct bloodline!”
I've heard this somewhere before.
You're the student, and I'm the teacher.
“So status matters more than skill after all.”
“Shut up! If I say it does, then it does!”
There's no escaping people who throw their status around.
Irritation surged through Tailon.
Ron had a talent for twisting even the same words into something bizarre. There was no benefit in trading words at length with a bastard like him.
Normally, Tailon would have driven his fist into Ron's mouth before anything else.
He decided to catch his breath, recover his stamina, and then teach Ron a lesson.
“I thought I'd finally get to rest after finishing my day's work, but life really is one exhausting ordeal after another. I saved the young lady and House Leonard from danger, yet I'm still treated with suspicion. Tsk! Still, His Excellency the Count acknowledged me. Perhaps someone defied His Excellency's wishes... Hmm, could this be some sort of conspiracy with Viscount Rehalt....”
“Shut up! How dare you try to slander me?”
Tailon had intended not to answer. He meant to focus solely on catching his breath and recovering his stamina as quickly as possible, but the cunning ploy bored through his ears and threw his mind into disarray.
“I never said I meant the Second Young Master. They say the one who raises his voice is usually the culprit. Did I perhaps strike a nerve?”
“Who says I'm feeling guilty?! If that rat bastard Rehalt were standing before me, I'd take his head with a single stroke!”
“I was only talking to myself, but that was quite a violent statement.”
“You seem to be trying to unsettle me with your cheap sophistry, but that pathetic trick won't work on me!”
“I will report what happened today to the Count.”
He'll decide whether it was sophistry or not.
“You call yourself a knight, and you're going to tattle on me?!”
“Did you not say you were not defying the Count's wishes?”
“......That's true.”
“Then there should be no problem with my reporting it, correct?”
“No!”
Just imagine if word got out that he had sought Ron out and escalated matters on the very day the Count gave his permission.
It would be easy to interpret it as the Second Young Master rebelling against the Count. Even if that had not been his intent, the condition of the sickly, frail First Young Master was more than enough to arouse suspicion.
The Count had approved Ron's appointment as Adelia's Personal Knight, while the Second Young Master appeared to be trying to stab the newly appointed Ron in the back.
Even someone as thoughtless as Tailon understood that much would become a problem.
“My empty pockets would need something in them before I could keep my mouth shut.”
“You dare demand money from me?”
“I, being woefully inadequate, had the audacity to become the young lady's Personal Knight and caused the Second Young Master such concern. It seems His Excellency the Count made an erroneous decision. Even now, I shall candidly confess my feelings to my colleagues.”
Ron did not shy away from sacrifice when pursuing a goal. He even sold out colleagues he was not close to.
That did not mean he intended to sacrifice himself.
“......Wait. How much do you want?”
At first glance, it sounded like a candid confession from an Apprentice Knight who knew his place, but in reality, it was unmistakable blackmail.
Even Tailon, unreasonable as he was, felt cold sweat run down his spine for a moment. The more he dealt with that sinister mouth, the more keenly he realized it was anything but ordinary.
“I trust in the Second Young Master's magnanimity. For reference, the young lady offered me 200 gold.”
“......What?!”
“Even 10 gold would be fine with me.”
“......You....(GRIND!)”
Tailon ground his teeth at Ron's implication that the sentiment mattered more than the money. All the more so because he had actually intended to settle it with 10 gold. Now, if only to preserve his dignity as the Second Young Master, he had to pay at least 200 gold, perhaps more.
“How about 220 gold?”
“250 gold.”
“I said 220 gold!”
“Ah, I misheard you. I never imagined you would raise it by a mere 20 gold over the young lady's amount.”
“......(GNASH!)”
A knight's hearing was keen. There was no way Ron had misheard him when Tailon was standing right in front of him.
Yet the more vehemently Tailon denied it, the more ashamed he felt. When it came down to it, Ron had merely assumed that Tailon's generosity was considerable. If Tailon complained that Ron had named too large an amount, it would amount to confessing that his generosity was small.
Sigh.
The more Tailon caught his breath and composed himself, the more he had to admit that Ron had completely ensnared him.
At the same time, the situation was absurd.
This bastard was only an Apprentice Knight who had just become Ria's Personal Knight. Had Tailon ever imagined he would be toyed with like this by someone who was not even a Full Knight?
‘That damned bastard! Huh? Right, no one heard any of this anyway!’
For now, Tailon decided to teach Ron some manners first.
Tailon circulated his family's secret Heavenly Pole Art and charged his imposing presence with aura.
The Heavenly Pole Art was a higher-order cultivation method than the Dawn Art. At equal levels, the Heavenly Pole Art was bound to overpower the Dawn Art through sheer pressure. House Leonard had not handed the Dawn Art over to the Dawn Knight Order without restrictions.
“May we begin?”
“Come.”
Ron executed a step.
The step itself was Flash, the basic movement art of the Dawn Knight Order, but it was imbued with the insights Ron had gained when he had once been revered as the Taiji Sword God.
Just as a master calligrapher was not choosy about his brush.
Against a novice, anything a master did was a consummate technique.
The Wudang Sect's consummate art, Steps of the Profound Heaven, drew out Flash's hidden true essence.
SHING—!
Even by the time Ron had drawn and resheathed his sword, Tailon had not managed to react.
CLICK, THUD—!
CRASH—!
Struck in the back of the neck with the sheathed sword, Tailon staggered a few steps before losing consciousness and collapsing.
Ron knew how competitive Tailon was.
He knew Tailon had the utterly tiresome disposition of never being able to admit defeat with his own mouth.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK—!
The Huantiao, Zhibian, and Baohuang points.
Ron struck the acupoints in the buttocks that could induce pain. A moderate impact could benefit one's health, but Ron was no healer.
Ghh... Ghk!
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK—!
To prevent him from shouting loudly, Ron jabbed Tailon's Tiantu, Lianquan, and Fengfu points.
His scream was cut off instantly, and as though he had been struck from within, Tailon could do nothing but retch.
BLEGH, COUGH!
Tailon spent a long while gasping as though he were choking, tears streaming freely from his eyes! Then he glared at Ron and shouted.
“You bastard, I don't know what trick you used, but it won't work again!”
“Then, here I come again.”
Ron scoffed inwardly.
He doesn't even know what trick I used, so where does that confidence that it won't work again come from? I'd understand if he at least had some idea what I did.
He deserves to be called brainless.
Ron executed Flash once more.
Flash had a strongly linear nature, so once an opponent grew accustomed to it, there was room for a counterattack.
They said Flash footwork at its absolute peak was literally as fast as light, but how many knights had ever reached such a realm?
There was not a single knight in the Dawn Knight Order who had mastered Flash to the tenth stage. That had been true throughout its history, and because it had too many openings for actual combat, advanced knights replaced it with other footwork.
Ron infused Flash with deep darkness.
He carved the shadow of the Profound Heaven into it.
By crossing light and shadow, he added a visual feint. It induced confusion and optical illusions within Flash, creating phantoms. The Wudang Sect's movement arts also had a strongly Daoist nature, so they incorporated arcane techniques.
If seen through, it would provide an opening for a counterattack, but Profound Heaven Flash was not so simple as to permit that easily.
Naturally, Ron did not need to use Profound Heaven Flash at full power. He exploited the footwork's ability to cause optical illusions and disorientation, drawing Tailon's gaze in multiple directions.
It appeared head-on, but in reality, it was skewed.
Because of the difference in distance, Tailon's sword cut through the afterimage Ron had created.
Before he could even recover his sword after cutting through the illusion.
THUD—!
CRASH—!
To someone encountering Profound Heaven Flash for the first time, it was like a demon's curse. That was why the Blade Shadow who had attacked Adelia had fallen so helplessly.
Vision, distance, optical illusion.
Once he activated the Profound Heaven Eye with Profound Heaven True Qi, the deception became complete. In truth, even after being struck, the victim had no choice but to remain ignorant of what had hit them.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK—!
As always, Ron woke Tailon.
Ghh...... Ghk!
He kept the screaming suppressed.
Even on the outskirts of the city, a lung-rending scream was bound to reach other people's ears. It would be troublesome if word spread everywhere that he bullied the weak.
Of course, Ron could bully the weak better than anyone.
As the stronger man, he showed magnanimity.
“Yes, yes. It won't work this time.”
“Of course... Ghhk!”
The frightening thing about the brainless was their tenacity in refusing to give up. Even a solid beating would not make them back down. Ron had learned that firsthand over two previous lives. That was why he thoroughly excluded unnecessary persuasion.
Ron repeatedly knocked Tailon unconscious and woke him until he was thoroughly persuaded.
THUD, CRASH—!
Sure enough, Tailon's tenacity exceeded expectations.
At times like this, there was no helping it.
WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK—!
He beat Tailon relentlessly with the scabbard, taking care not to knock him out with a single blow.
Apparently, dried pollock soup was in season today.
“Neck.”
“This time... Ghhk!”
“Leg.”
“Damn it.... That wasn't it!”
“Deception is the foundation of swordsmanship.”
It's a fake, you bastard.
Haven't you ever played a game?
“This time... Gasp!”
“Chest.”
Ghhk!
As deception and honesty alternated, Tailon fell into an endless sequence of mistimed reactions. Whenever he thought it was here, it was not; whenever he thought it was there, it was here.
The Heavenly Pole Sword technique, which he had performed countless times, felt more awkward than ever. His movements flailed chaotically, like a novice wielding a sword for the first time.
WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK-WHACK—!
By contrast, Ron's scabbard strikes were precise.
No matter how much Tailon was beaten, no wounds appeared on the surface. Nor did he suffer any lasting internal damage.
He would merely acquire an illness of the heart.
A kind of fire sickness, perhaps.
Fortunately, Ron was also something of an expert at treating mental illness. In a previous life, he had cured fellows suffering from particularly nasty mental disorders.
Those with anger-management disorders, in particular, considered him a cure-all. Later, all of them became very good at controlling their anger.
People sometimes raised the question of whether the mad bastards were only pretending to be sane in front of him.
“The Second Young Master's tenacity truly deserves respect. In recognition of your spirit, I will do my best from now on.”
“......That wasn't your best?”
Ron never lost his smile.
He did not enjoy this sort of thing, but he liked tenacious fellows who could take a beating.
SMACK, THUD, THUD-THUD—!
Ron pummeled him without pause.
The defiance in Tailon's eyes gradually faded.
When that flame began to dim, Ron encouraged him.
“You can do more, Second Young Master. You must not give up like this.”
“......Do what, exactly?”
Why did I come here?
Who am I?
Tailon was in the middle of an identity crisis. And the bastard smiling brightly in front of him?
He had to be a demon.
That demon was even cheering him on and telling him not to give up.
“Stay strong, Second Young Master. You can do it. You must overcome this.”
“......Stop.... I lost... Ghhk!”
“I will assume I misheard what you just said. The Second Young Master I know is a true man among men who knows no surrender.”
“......Ghhk!”
Tailon learned it firsthand.
Except before his father, he had always been free to live however he pleased. No one dared touch him, and he had talent. But now he realized there were certain kinds of people one should never provoke.
‘......I'd rather pass out... Aaargh.’
“Passing out does not suit you, Second Young Master. Hurry and swing your sword.”
Ron's encouragement continued.
To Tailon, however, it sounded only like a demon's whisper.
“Only fifteen minutes have passed. Our night is still long.”
“......Aaaaargh!”
You bastard, how long do you intend to keep beating me?!
Tailon despaired at the fact that only fifteen minutes had passed. Normally, the moment he lay down in bed, he opened his eyes the next day. For the first time, Ron taught him that a night could be long.
Ghhk, COUGH, COUGH!
He could not even scream as he pleased. Every time he tried, his throat took a beating until it could endure no more. Whenever he tried to swallow his screams, he retched and had to vomit what he had eaten.
“Your ability to take a beating is excellent, Second Young Master. As expected of a direct blood descendant of House Leonard.”
Stop praising me, you bastard!