Kalios twirled his wooden sword as he checked his physical condition.
He was a little tired, but he had enough stamina for one spar.
He turned his head and looked at the squire.
The squire's high stance showed that his fundamentals were well-grounded.
Watching the squire glare at him with his sword held steady, Kalios let a smile settle on his lips.
He didn't know what the squire had heard from Lanius, but the squire looked very serious.
He was brimming with determination never to let his guard down.
‘Not bad.’
Kalios nodded as he looked at the squire.
It was quite a decent stance.
There wasn't a shred of carelessness to be found in him.
Watching that, Kalios lowered his wooden sword.
With its tip pointing toward the ground, his stance was riddled with openings compared to the squire's.
Was that why?
The squire's eyes wavered as he looked at Kalios.
Compared to the stances of the knights he had seen while living as a squire, Kalios's stance even struck him as pathetic.
“...Are you ready?”
Like the squire, Lanius was frowning at his stance.
When Kalios nodded, Lanius sighed as if he found it absurd.
“Hah.”
Kalios could tell what he was thinking.
He probably thought Kalios was treating the spar as a joke.
Kalios knew what Lanius was thinking, but he didn't clear up the misunderstanding.
After all, once the spar began, Lanius wouldn't be able to curse at him for being careless.
“You may begin when this wooden sword sticks into the ground.”
Kalios nodded at Lanius's words.
He saw Lanius say something to the squire but paid it no mind at all.
What he had said was obvious.
He must have told him to beat Kalios no matter what.
There was no need to pay attention to every little action like that.
Watching the squire grip the hilt tightly, Kalios slowly let out a breath.
At that same moment, Lanius's wooden sword, which had soared high into the sky, fell to the ground.
WHOOSH.
At the same time, the squire closed in quickly and swung his wooden sword.
Swung straight down from the high stance, the wooden sword made a rather dangerous sound as it went for Kalios's head.
Kalios's expression didn't change as he watched the slow but heavy, threatening attack.
The squire's wooden sword brushed past his upper body, which he had pulled back a step.
WHOOSH, WHOOSH!
The squire swung his wooden sword again and again.
Perhaps he hadn't just been sitting idle under Lanius, for the squire's combination was quite fierce.
An ordinary person wouldn't have been able to dodge and would have taken the hits.
However, Kalios was no ordinary person.
His eyes swiftly tracked the squire's wooden sword, and the squire's sword failed to reach his body.
“Raaaaah!”
The squire let out a strange shriek and charged at Kalios.
His frustration had finally robbed him of his composure.
The squire attacked with every means he knew, and not a single one of those attacks touched Kalios's body.
That was getting the squire worked up.
On the outside, Kalios looked like a wreck through and through.
His body was so frail that it seemed impossible for him to dodge the squire's sword at all.
The squire had been confident he would win without difficulty, so being blocked at every turn, contrary to his expectations, was driving him mad with frustration.
“Why?! Why won't it hit?!”
The squire's sword, as he lunged in screaming, could hardly be called swordsmanship anymore.
Just a sword swung wildly.
Even proper swordsmanship would have struggled to reach Kalios, so a sword swung blindly by someone who had lost his reason had no chance of working on him.
‘Should I wrap this up?’
Seeing the squire's breathing grow ragged, Kalios twisted his waist.
The wooden sword grazed past his waist.
The squire's body lost its balance in an instant, and Kalios kicked out his legs.
WHACK—!
Kalios's wooden sword swung at the back of the head of the squire, who was toppling over off balance.
It struck the back of his head precisely, and a rather chilling sound rang out.
“Urk!”
With that single blow, the squire's body went limp.
He'd been knocked out by the hit to his head.
Perhaps because the wooden sword had an iron core, he had hit fairly hard even though he'd swung without putting much force into it.
“Phew...”
Leaving the collapsed, convulsing squire behind him, Kalios looked down at his hands.
The skin of his palms, which had lost their grip on the wooden sword, was torn and bleeding.
‘I need to build up my strength fast.’
One swing of a wooden sword, and the strength had drained from his hands.
Even making a fist wasn't easy.
He had won by striking the squire's head, but his expression wasn't satisfied.
At the end, he had dropped the wooden sword.
For a swordsman, dropping one's sword was a deeply humiliating thing.
Something that should never happen.
He needed to build up his strength as soon as possible, even if only a day sooner.
‘Still, I found out my dynamic vision is good, so should I count that as some progress?’
Kalios had discovered that his body also had good dynamic vision.
Good dynamic vision was a great thing for a swordsman.
As long as he trained properly, a fine swordsman could be born.
He also felt a little wronged.
If the body's previous owner had trained even a little, it wouldn't have been this hard.
“Did the Young Master just win?”
“Even if it was just a squire, still. How could he win?”
“Must've been a fluke. Look, he dropped his sword. That was definitely a fluke.”
When had they gotten here?
Knights who had come to the training grounds had gathered around and were whispering among themselves.
Looking around at them, he spotted Lanius staring at him blankly.
Lanius looked as if he couldn't believe his squire had lost.
Watching him, Kalios walked over.
“Lanius.”
“...”
“Your master is calling. What are you doing instead of running over like a dog?”
At Kalios's words, Lanius let out a groan.
Since he hadn't imagined his squire could lose, he wouldn't have expected to become a dog either.
Looking at the dazed Lanius, Kalios didn't call him again and turned away.
“Let's head back.”
“Yes. I will escort you.”
Deon nodded at Kalios's words.
With Deon in tow, Kalios walked away.
Having walked until he was out of sight of the training grounds, he grabbed Deon and stopped him.
“Young Master?”
As Deon looked back at him and tilted his head, Kalios smiled and spoke.
“Head straight to my room.”
With those words, he collapsed.
He had somehow managed to hold out until he left the training grounds, but by the time the spar ended, Kalios had already been at his limit.
It was only his pride that had kept him from collapsing right then.
Wouldn't it be embarrassing as hell to collapse after finally winning?
Kalios collapsed as if leaning against Deon.
Deon stared at him blankly.
***
“It seems he was at his limit.”
The Knight Commander made an odd expression as he looked at Kalios in Deon's arms.
‘I didn't know he had this side to him.’
He crossed his arms, thinking about what Kalios had shown in the spar.
It was a spar and a victory the usual Kalios never could have shown.
The knights thought Kalios had won the spar by luck, but as Knight Commander, he thought differently.
From the moment the squire tripped over Kalios's foot to the moment the wooden sword came down on his head, he could easily tell that every action had been intended by Kalios.
If he couldn't even notice that, he would not deserve to hold the position of Knight Commander.
‘Interesting.’
The reason he could think so, and be certain of it, was nothing special.
It was the look in Kalios's eyes as he watched for an opening throughout the spar, and the way he warded off the squire's attacks with minimal movement.
As a High-Grade Knight, his eye for reading a spar was different from that of the other knights.
The knights who couldn't properly read the spar were Low-Grade.
At the very least, Deon, a Mid-Grade Knight, must have seen and felt the same things he had.
“Deon.”
“Yes.”
“What are you standing there for, instead of taking the Young Master to his room?”
The Knight Commander smiled as he looked at Kalios.
The spar between Kalios and the squire had given him much to think about.
He had learned that Kalios was not simply a hopeless case.
Kalios, who had done no training whatsoever, had beaten a squire.
The squires of the Leon Ducal House were stronger than ordinary people.
They had learned things by watching at the knights' sides, and because they had to assist the knights, their stamina and strength were superior.
In contrast, Kalios was a wreck through and through.
He had beaten a squire with a body no different from a wreck's.
It had not been mere luck.
“So he is a lion's child after all?”
The Knight Commander had seen talent in Kalios.
A lion's child.
The blood of a lion flowed in Kalios too—it was just that they had learned of it too late.
The Knight Commander walked off.
There was someone he wanted to share this good news with.
***
The office of the head of the Leon Ducal House.
Seated behind his desk, Luhaman wore a very grave expression.
He was looking at a letter that had come for him.
Tap, tap.
Drumming his fingers on the desk, he let out a sigh.
Reading the letter's contents, he felt stifled.
Knock, knock.
“It is Raham, my liege.”
At the Knight Commander's voice, which followed the knock, he slowly turned his head.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Raham entered with a peculiar smile on his lips.
Upon entering the office, Raham studied Luhaman's complexion and tilted his head.
Luhaman's expression was far too dark.
“Is something troubling you?”
“It is nothing. More importantly, what brings you here?”
After studying Luhaman's expression, Raham soon smiled and spoke.
He was looking forward to Luhaman's reaction to the news about Kalios.
“I have good news.”
“Good news?”
“Yes. News concerning the Young Master.”
The moment Kalios came up, Luhaman's expression stiffened.
To Luhaman, Kalios was a sore finger—the child who pained him most.
“It seems the Young Master has a talent for swordsmanship.”
“Talent, you say?”
“Yes. Just now, the Young Master sparred with a squire.”
Raham explained what had happened during the spar, leaving out the part about Lanius.
Hearing that Kalios had beaten a squire in a spar, Luhaman's expression grew complicated.
He seemed to find it hard to believe, yet at the same time, joy and relief could be felt from him.
“If you say so, then it must be certain.”
“Yes. You may trust me. The Young Master has talent.”
“Is that so…? So that child had talent too.”
Luhaman clasped his hands together and fell into thought for a moment.
He knew Raham was not one to lie to him, but it was still hard to believe, and so his worries deepened.
Of all times to hear news like this.
“Thank you for letting me know.”
“I merely did what I had to.”
“Then you may go.”
“I hope my news can help with your concerns, my liege.”
“It has helped plenty.”
Raham gave a quick bow and left the office.
After Raham left, Luhaman slowly lowered his gaze to the letter.
The letter bore the seal of the Cartel Academy, the kingdom's finest educational institution.