Ending a Promotion Exam in a single strike was not a good idea. People could differ in discernment, but when that happened, someone would invariably object that the result had come from carelessness or luck.
The Commander and the higher-ranking knights had the eyes to understand and move on, but it would not convince the ordinary members. From the opponent's perspective in particular, the pride they had built over the years prevented them from accepting defeat.
That was why Ron had demonstrated a redirection at the beginning and then continued the exchange. In truth, although Britten was considered promising among the Lower-Grade Knights, he still fell short compared to Tailon.
Ron had disposed of Tailon, the self-proclaimed genius of House Leonard, in a single strike. His exchange with Britten was merely a formality observed out of courtesy as an Apprentice Knight taking the Promotion Exam. Since Britten had not been humiliated, he ought to be grateful.
GNASH—!
Britten, however, ground his teeth at the unexpected turn of events.
He had intended to suppress Ron so completely that no one could question it, thereby proving that Ron was unqualified to serve as the young lady's Personal Knight.
Even if it proved nothing, he disliked being locked in an extended exchange with a brat who was only now about to shed his Apprentice status.
‘Fine, so you do have some skill!’
Britten opened the Dawn Art to its fullest and raised his aura. Aura was perfected through the combination of talent, effort, and time. If Ron was only on the verge of leaving his Apprentice status behind, he should have been no match for Britten in either aura or raw strength.
‘I'll finish you!’
The pressure emanating from Britten changed abruptly as his pride smarted.
Huh?
The knights judged that the duel had become dangerous. They prepared to intervene at the slightest sign of crisis.
But contrary to their expectations.
Just as at the beginning, the exam departed from what they had anticipated.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG, SLASH—!
SPURT—!
After five exchanges, the path of the swords twisted, and blood sprayed.
DRIP, DRIP!
A sword mark appeared on Britten's right thigh, and blood ran down it.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG—!
The exchange continued.
Britten was startled by the unexpected wound, but he had no time to panic before he had to meet Ron's sword again. Ron's blade had become faster and sharper than before, leaving Britten no room to concern himself with the injury.
Just as Britten had changed his pressure, Ron changed his response. He increased the speed of his sword and twisted its path, drawing out the disparity between them. At first, it did not seem significant, but as the trajectory gradually shifted, the number of wounds increased.
SLASH—! DRIP, DRIP!
The sword marks created by those subtle twists were not deep.
Nevertheless, the blade carried aura.
The Dawn Knight Order's training uniforms were made from tough leather layered with thick cloth and offered better protection than ordinary clothing, but they could not stop a sword imbued with aura.
SLASH—! SLASH—!
As Ron continued the exchange, he gradually increased the number of sword marks.
Britten's uniform became stained with bright-red blood.
‘...This bastard!’
Britten's response grew fiercer in his anger.
The wounds were not deep, so the blood loss did not immediately slow his movements. Instead, the more blood flowed, the more he became steeped in madness and unleashed an explosive pressure.
WHOOOOSH—!
An aura of one prepared to defy death.
SLASH—! DRIP, DRIP!
An ordinary Apprentice Knight would have faltered or retreated.
Ron paid it no mind and carved another cut into Britten's body.
‘If getting angry were enough to win, defeat wouldn't exist in this world.’
Anger could become a powerful force, but uncontrolled swordsmanship merely created more openings.
Ron did not leave those openings unexploited.
CLANG-CLANG, SLASH—!
Britten became drenched in blood, and the number of exchanges between each wound steadily decreased. At first, it had taken five exchanges for an injury to appear. Now, another wound was added every two exchanges.
‘...This can't be....... Gasp!’
Even rage could not free him from the reality before him.
Then Britten met Ron's gaze and felt chills rise across his skin. Ron was so calm that it was impossible to believe he was controlling the Promotion Exam and driving Britten back.
SLASH—! SLASH—!
In contrast to the serenity in Ron's eyes, his sword was unmistakably carving Britten's body apart. The wounds might not have been deep, but even a drizzle eventually soaked one's clothes.
SQUELCH, SQUELCH!
The center of the training ground became stained with blood and turned sticky. Every step produced a wet squelch.
‘Isn't that getting dangerous?’
‘The wounds aren't deep, but he's losing too much blood.’
‘His movements are gradually slowing too.’
‘At this rate, he might die regardless of who wins.’
Ron was impressive as he drove Britten back, but there was something chilling about him as well. Knights lived with the sight of blood, but Britten's body was completely covered in it.
Yet there was no hesitation in Ron's sword. Far from faltering, he exploited every opening to carve up Britten's flesh.
‘...He was a terrifying bastard!’
‘They said he lopped off every assassin's head!’
‘A vicious beast like that has been lying low in the Apprentice Knight Corps all this time!’
‘Shouldn't we keep him in a cage?’
‘This is too much. Even if Britten won't surrender, Ron should show some restraint!’
Realizing there was no answer in a frontal clash, Britten decided to retreat with footwork. Being forced back by an Apprentice Knight wounded his pride, but he had no other choice.
‘You're not going anywhere.’
Ron did not allow even that.
As Britten tried to retreat, Ron closed the distance further and piled more wounds upon him. A knight's aura-trained body usually prevented blood from flowing even from scars, but when struck at close range, the aura dispersed and allowed bleeding to begin.
SPURRRRT—!
Like water bursting from a broken reservoir, blood sprayed like a fountain.
SHIVER, TREMBLE!
Ron's unwavering sword and relentless ruthlessness sent chills through them. At the same time, they could not help clicking their tongues. He showed no openings. If Britten refused to surrender, it seemed he would bleed to death right there.
‘Damn it, this can't be happening!’
It was a reality Britten did not want to acknowledge. He could not be beaten one-sidedly without accomplishing anything against someone who had only just risen from the Apprentice ranks.
‘I'll use my secret technique!’
Britten had created a secret technique by interpreting the Dawn Sword's Seventh Form, Qi-Light Cannon, in his own way. It explosively increased his aura for an instant, doubling the force of his sword.
Naturally, it was not refined enough to truly deserve the name of a secret technique. The maneuver would have been entirely possible had he brought Qi-Light Cannon to its ultimate level. As it stood, it was merely a shortcut used to increase the power he currently possessed.
Ahem.
The Commander did not approve.
The Dawn Sword might have been a foundational sword art, but if brought to its absolute peak, it was more than sufficient to establish a school of its own. A shortcut might appear stronger for the moment, but it could never overcome the orthodox path.
Even so, few knights would realistically accept such criticism. Commander Crimson himself possessed a separate secret technique.
He merely hoped they would attempt such things only after bringing the Dawn Sword to a certain level. If one clung to shortcuts without first laying the foundation, a wall would inevitably appear one day.
SLASH—!
Ron's sword cut diagonally across Britten's chest. His previous strikes had only sliced the skin, but had this one gone slightly deeper, it would have split the ribs and etched a sword wound into his heart.
Fortunately, Britten knocked the blade aside just before that happened.
CLANG—!
Sensing mortal danger, Britten instinctively struck away the sword, but Ron did not leave the fracture in their spacing unexploited. He followed through and carved an identical wound across Britten's chest, forming an X.
‘You think I'll let you use your little trick?’
This might have been a Promotion Exam rather than a duel to the death or a real battle, so Ron could have allowed him the opportunity.
But Ron had no intention of giving him that chance.
He planned to defeat Britten smoothly and overwhelmingly, just as things stood.
SLASH—! SLASH—!
From chest to leg, arm, shoulder, waist, and foot, Ron cut him without regard for location.
Except for Britten's face, there was hardly a single intact place on his body that was not bleeding.
Ghhhh!
One would have expected him to give up by now, but Britten continued moving even as he groaned.
His blood-drenched appearance made it seem unsurprising if he died at any moment, but in truth, he had suffered no injury that could be called a fatal blow. He had simply lost too much blood and did not have much time left.
Britten's tendency to seek a reversal even in crisis was not bad.
Perhaps it came from his pride as an elite.
The tenacity to refuse surrender was a virtue a knight ought to possess, but reality was not romantic.
SLASH—! GHUK!
Ron was tearing Britten's romanticism to shreds. Far from showing an opening, his sword paths became increasingly suffocating. As time passed, they tightened around Britten's throat without leaving the slightest gap.
Like prey becoming more entangled in a net the harder it struggled.
Britten was practically being tortured as he bled.
‘I have to win overwhelmingly, or people will keep talking.’
Ron had not merely displayed his skill. He had thoroughly engraved upon them what would happen if they provoked him.
Britten's condition was precarious.
The amount of blood in the human body was finite, and once the limit was exceeded, even recovery became difficult. If Britten still had a long future ahead of him, surrendering now would be the wise choice.
‘If you wish to stake your life on your pride, I'll honor that choice.’
Ron did not care if Britten died.
Britten had made his own choice, and the responsibility belonged to the Commander. If Britten did not surrender and the Commander did not intervene, Britten's life would end here.
SLASH—! SHNK—!
Ron's sword cut deeper and deeper. It was obvious that he was still exercising restraint, yet every successive wound overturned their expectations again.
“AAARGH!”
Ron paid no attention to Britten's scream. The mercilessness conveyed through his sword left the training ground so silent that not even breathing could be heard.
Only Britten's ragged breathing and groans echoed across it.
“Stop.”
Commander Crimson could no longer remain a mere observer. He had allowed the Promotion Exam to become somewhat rough because he intended to test what kind of man Ron was. If he let it continue, however, Britten might be crippled beyond recovery or killed.
‘He is frighteningly cold-blooded.’
Even if Britten was merely his opponent for the Promotion Exam, he was still a fellow member of the Dawn Knight Order. Once Ron had gained such an overwhelming advantage, one might have expected him to hesitate at least once.
Ron remained unwavering until the very end.
As if to prove it, even after the Commander halted the duel, Ron did not lower his sword. He kept his eyes forward and watched Britten's response, expressing his determination not to allow even the slightest opening.
‘He isn't dead yet.’
Britten had not declared surrender because of his pride. That meant there was no guarantee he would not exploit the exact moment the Commander intervened.
‘If I let my guard down and get struck, I'm the only one who loses.’
Even if it was a cowardly surprise attack, reality allowed the result to vindicate the process.
Ron had experienced such things countless times in his previous lives.
In other words, the moment after victory was the most dangerous.
“DIE!”
Sure enough, his expectations were not betrayed. Britten unleashed the last of the rage he had been holding back.
Ron's sword had gone cold.
As though he had been waiting for this exact moment, he aimed for Britten's neck.
CLANG—! CRASH-CRASH-CRASH—!
Ron did not swing his sword.
While everyone else floundered in shock, Commander Crimson had already appeared in front of Ron. He struck away Britten's sword, which had launched a surprise attack at Ron, with tremendous force.
Britten was sent flying to the edge of the training ground. He slammed into the barrier and rolled across the floor.
SWISH.
Commander Crimson turned not toward Britten, but toward Ron.
“Were you trying to kill him?”
“Of course not. It was a defensive instinct.”
“It looked as though you were aiming for his neck.”
“I never imagined he would attack after the exam had ended.”
“You were remarkably well prepared for someone who did not expect it.”
“I reminded myself of a knight's principles.”
A knight had to obey his lord's command in any situation and never release the thread of vigilance. Those were the principles a knight had to uphold.
It was an exemplary answer for a knight, yet the members felt a cold chill.
Ron claimed he had followed the principles, but if the Commander had not stepped in just now, Britten's head would have fallen. Since it had been a surprise attack launched after the exam ended, Ron would even have possessed justification.
‘He never lowered his sword.’
‘Did he know Britten would attack?’
‘What if he was waiting for it so he could finish him off?’
‘Fuck, he's terrifying!’
‘What the hell is wrong with that bastard?!’
Everyone recoiled at the sight of Ron. There was something alien about how calm he remained even after suffering a surprise attack.
Britten might have done something worthy of death, but using lethal force was another matter entirely. Ron was the sort of man who would swing his sword without hesitation the instant even a colleague became an enemy.
Beyond the fact that his skill was extraordinary for an Apprentice Knight, his cold and ruthless resolve left a deep impression on everyone.
‘There was a reason the young lady chose him as her Personal Knight.’
‘I never imagined someone like that was in our knight order.’
‘If he has been hiding his skill all this time, he must have a devious side too.’
‘It would be better if he remained occupied as a Personal Knight.’
Becoming a Personal Knight did not mean leaving the Dawn Knight Order, but protecting the young lady took priority, so Ron no longer needed to participate in training. Moreover, his swordsmanship was anything but ordinary.
Britten's swordsmanship was comparable to that of an Intermediate Knight. Yet far from being a match for Ron, he had been driven back one-sidedly and overwhelmingly defeated. None of them could defeat Britten so completely either.
They felt uncomfortable at the prospect of training alongside Ron now that he had risen from Apprentice Knight to Full Knight. Experience mattered, but for knights, swordsmanship was the means by which status was proven. Rather than welcoming an adorable junior, it was as though they were receiving a terrifying senior in the sword.
“Congratulations on your promotion.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
“His Excellency the Count will soon formally recognize your promotion and bestow a surname upon you.”
“I will always strive not to bring disgrace upon the Dawn Knight Order.”
After ordering that Britten be taken to the infirmary, Commander Crimson turned away. He still had work to handle that day.
‘He is excessively perfect.’
Commander Crimson was over fifty years old. Although reaching Expert had slowed his physical aging, he had watched over the order's members for many years as its Commander.
Of the countless members who had passed through his hands, Ron was unquestionably the first of his kind. Even members with exceptional achievements had possessed obvious flaws during their days as Apprentice Knights.
The reason he had assigned Britten, whose ability had reached Intermediate level, as Ron's opponent in the promotion assessment was to see how Ron would respond.
Yet Ron had won.
And it did not end with the simple fact of victory. Ron had not allowed an opening until the very end, and once he gained justification, he acted decisively. It was a degree of coldness impossible to believe from someone who had only just shed his Apprentice status.
The fact that Ron appeared too perfect naturally gave rise to doubts. However, the man who had raised Ron since childhood was Radon.
Radon had now become an elderly knight responsible for teaching the Apprentice Knights, but in his youth, he had been an instructor who had taught even Crimson. Whatever else might be said, no one in House Leonard surpassed his eye for character.
There was no possibility that Ron harbored another agenda or had falsified his identity.
‘You raised a monster.’
It seemed he would have to watch Ron a little longer.