“It’s starting to show?”
The emotion in the prince’s voice clearly showed his amusement.
Well, it would be absurd to say that someone bleeding all over could still win.
But it wasn’t a lie.
I had almost given up when my initial plan collapsed. Yet the more I was cornered, the more I couldn’t understand.
And, seeing that last stab, my doubt turned into certainty.
It wasn’t impossible to win.
“Being a knight requires perseverance. I can admit that much. But more than that, you need to know your limits. Thinking that persistence alone can overturn everything… that’s arrogance, Ike.”
“You can decide for yourself whether it’s arrogance or not.”
“…Okay.”
I slowly shifted into a suspended stance.
The prince lowered his center of gravity, ready to strike at any moment.
And of course, the one who moved first was the crown prince.
Our swords collided, forming a cross.
The prince tried to pierce my defense, but when he saw my sword still unmoving, he clicked his tongue.
“That sword. I was planning to break it earlier, but it’s sturdy.”
“It’s a sword I earned through a lot of hard work.”
Hildegrim.
A general term for weapons that never break.
Hildegrim isn’t made with magic.
It’s a technique only achievable by a blacksmith who has reached the pinnacle of their craft—using the best materials and pouring their entire soul into the forging.
Even if you gathered all the Hildegrims in the empire, there would be no more than ten.
Hildegrim was worth hundreds of platinum coins.
Both ‘Neia’ and ‘Diana,’ which Marinen made for us, were Hildegrims.
She said she couldn’t accept payment, claiming it was her way of repaying us.
Eventually, we compromised—she would call on us for a favor if she ever needed help.
Anyway, Hildegrim—Neia’s performance was absolutely reliable.
If I’d been using an ordinary sword, it would’ve already broken, and I’d have had no choice but to surrender.
“However, no matter how good the sword is, it’s meaningless if the user is weak.”
The prince quickly widened the distance and swung his sword four times.
If he couldn’t break through directly, he’d gradually chip away at me.
Perhaps that was his strategy.
But—
“…Huh?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s starting to show.”
As I parried all his attacks, the prince’s voice wavered with astonishment.
“What is that…?!”
He gritted his teeth and launched another flurry of strikes.
A silver blade raged like a storm, but I remained calm and blocked nearly all of them.
“How…?”
“Well? It works because I make it work.”
The prince was strong—
I could fully admit that the claim of him being the greatest genius in the empire’s history was no exaggeration.
He defeated all his enemies head-on with overwhelming strength and absurd skill.
He always attacked from the front.
But that was his flaw.
He only knew direct combat, and there’s a limit to what you can do in a head-to-head match.
It’s not as if I had some awakening.
I had simply memorized all his moves.
No matter how much faster his base movements were, if I acted one beat earlier, I could stop them.
It’s like a boss monster in a game—overwhelmingly powerful, but with a recognizable pattern.
“Can you really see it?”
“There’s no reason to lie.”
But I didn’t have much time.
Soon, the prince would figure out how I was blocking his attacks and adjust accordingly.
In other words, the only opening I had was now—While he was thrown off by my unexpected movements.
“Ha!”
I closed the distance and swung my sword horizontally.
It was so slow—deliberately sluggish from fatigue—that the prince chuckled and sidestepped it easily.
But I didn’t stop.
As I raised my arm, he moved to block—
Right then, I stepped forward and swept my leg at the floor.
His balance faltered.
“Kuh?!”
As expected, the prince, so used to brute force exchanges, reacted slower to a flanking move.
A future crown prince might’ve scoffed at such a clumsy tactic.
But not him. Not now.
If I hadn’t gone to Vulcanus, I would’ve fought head-on and lost—even with this chance.
Back then, when I sparred with Marinen, I used a mass-produced sword that broke easily.
Speed had been my only option.
But I couldn’t overpower her head-on.
Marinen wasn’t someone you could bring down with a cheap sword.
Instead, I dug into her defense and exploited the smallest openings. It was thanks to her that I learned how to find weaknesses in a seemingly invincible opponent.
That sparring session had helped me more than I’d expected.
Thinking of that, I pressed the prince again.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
My breath came in short gasps.
I was still bleeding heavily, and the intense movement was blurring my mind.
If I hadn’t forced my magic power to circulate through my body, I would’ve collapsed by now.
“…I think I have a rough idea of what happened.”
The prince hadn’t fallen yet.
Though I’d landed a deep cut on his right side, it wasn’t fatal.
I wanted to ask—what kind of monster survives that, if there truly is a god in this world?
“Thanks, Ike. Thanks to you, I understand where I fall short.”
Still, his breathing was shaky.
Could I exploit that opening?
No. The gaps were already gone.
He’d figured out how I was defending myself.
“I’ll admit it. What I said earlier was wrong. You’re not weak.”
The prince lowered his stance and pulled his sword back.
It was the same stabbing posture I’d used earlier.
“So let’s finish this.”
I noticed that too.
If your opponent memorized your attacks and blocked them all, then your only choice was a single, powerful, unblockable strike.
And in my current condition, I wasn’t even sure I could dodge it.
“Whew…”
I took a deep breath and dropped into my suspended stance.
Like it or not, I could feel it—
This next exchange would end the match.