The Reborn Swordmaster
Chapter 35
The separate training ground behind the facility, prepared specifically for the special detachment, was noisy.
Thud! Thump!
Heavy impacts rang out one after another.
At the center of the commotion were six fighters.
One of them was Aries.
The other five were candidates for the special detachment, gathered from the various training centers.
"Hmm..."
Haral, who was watching them, tilted his head.
"Did that guy always fight like that? I don't remember him moving this way."
His question was directed at Aries.
Once known as the Rose Fighter, Aries had been famous for showing off graceful, elegant movements.
But after training with Riyan, he fought in a completely different way.
Whoosh!
A spear thrust toward him.
Aries threw himself forward without hesitation.
He rolled once to avoid the attack, rose to his feet while slashing across another fighter's waist, then immediately kept moving and escaped to a safer position.
The entire sequence happened so quickly it was difficult to follow with the eyes.
A net was thrown after him.
Aries narrowly slipped past that as well.
Apparently thrilled by the danger of walking such a thin line, he burst into loud laughter.
"Hahaha! Too slow!"
"Damn you, Aries! You little rat!"
His glossy golden curls and handsome appearance were nowhere to be seen.
His face was covered in cuts of various sizes, and his clothes were so soaked with sweat and dust that calling them rags wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
But his laughter was bright and refreshing.
Haral seemed to feel the same way.
An impressed sound escaped him.
"Oh... Looks like all that training with you actually helped. He seems like a completely different person."
"If the change is positive, there's nothing wrong with that."
"Five against one, huh. Was this your idea?"
"Since our mission is to break into the enemy ship, I wanted them prepared for fighting multiple opponents at once."
Haral rubbed his rough chin.
Impressive.
He had assumed Riyan would handle the special detachment's training properly and hadn't bothered checking on it much.
In truth, he'd already been exhausted from supervising the mock naval battle training for the regular fighters.
But judging by what he was seeing now, the results were considerable.
First, the five fighters attacking Aries.
They weren't simply pretending to be random enemies.
The combination of weapons they carried and their positions had clearly been coordinated in advance.
One used a spear to maintain distance.
Another threw a net.
The remaining fighters were ready to rush in the moment their target was immobilized.
Aries was only surviving because his skill far exceeded that of an ordinary fighter.
If someone average had been placed in his position, they would've been wrapped in the net and beaten senseless long ago.
"Hey, Riyan."
Haral called him again.
"I get that Aries is good. He obviously has skill. But you said you split the special detachment into two teams, right? Anyone can see that you should be in Team One, the group that captures the commander's flag. So why did you deliberately move yourself to Team Two?"
The mission Riyan had assigned the special detachment was clear.
While the main force held the battle line with their shield wall, ten elite fighters would break through the enemy formation and capture the commander's flag.
Those ten fighters had been divided into two teams of five.
Team One would directly seize the commander's flag.
Team Two would protect Team One and secure an escape route.
Riyan had assigned Aries to Team One while placing himself in charge of Team Two.
That was what Haral couldn't understand.
Even setting aside their difference in skill, Team One was obviously the position that would receive more attention and praise.
And for a fighter, popularity translated directly into sponsorship.
That made Riyan's decision even harder to understand.
But Riyan's answer was simple.
"Protecting something is usually harder than destroying it. And we're not fighting only once, are we? You said the Trident alliance will have four ships. We need to preserve our strength as much as possible."
"...That's true."
It was a reasonable answer.
But knowing it was reasonable and willingly choosing the less glamorous role were two different things.
Does he really have no greed at all?
Riyan's cold practicality went beyond simply calling him mature for his age.
Haral could only click his tongue.
Dong!
Just then, the bell signaling the end of the day's training rang out.
Haral clapped loudly and raised his voice.
"All right! Everyone, listen up! That's the end of official training. Tomorrow, you'll return to your respective training centers. We'll meet again at the Imperial Arena four days from now."
At Haral's announcement, the fighters dropped to the ground where they stood and let out long sighs.
The past month of training had been exhausting for all of them.
Haral smiled at their reaction and pointed his thumb toward the building behind him.
"You've all worked yourselves to the bone, so tonight Director Berka is generously providing meat and alcohol! Wash yourselves properly and gather in the dining hall!"
Meat and alcohol.
The moment Haral mentioned what they wanted most, the exhausted fighters' faces brightened.
"Woooo!"
Cheers erupted throughout the training ground.
Riyan passed through the commotion and approached Aries, who was catching his breath a short distance away.
"Aries."
"Ah. You're here."
Aries roughly wiped the sweat from his face.
For some reason, he looked dissatisfied.
Riyan tilted his head.
"Is something wrong? You don't look pleased."
"It's not exactly a problem. I suppose I'm just... disappointed."
Riyan smiled silently.
What unexpected familiarity.
He remembered feeling exactly the same way whenever Eldred trained him in his previous life.
No matter how much training Eldred gave him, Riyan had always been dissatisfied because it never felt like enough.
Because of those memories, he understood Aries's feelings better than anyone.
Riyan nodded with satisfaction.
"Really? Then stay behind for a while."
"What? Why all of a sudden? What about the meat and alcohol?"
"..."
This bastard.
The moment Aries's face changed from eager to annoyed, Riyan clenched his teeth.
"I need to check you personally, if no one else."
"Oh, that? Can't we just do it later...?"
Aries smacked his lips while looking toward the other fighters already disappearing into the distance.
Then—
Whoosh!
Riyan picked up a wooden spear one of the fighters had left behind and swung it.
"Whoa! What are you doing all of a sudden? That's dangerous!"
Aries dropped down to avoid the spear and complained.
Riyan tilted his head.
"I've made up my mind."
"About what?"
"You want meat and alcohol? Then you'll have to get past me."
"What kind of logic is that all of a sudden...?"
"I'm not even asking you to defeat me. Touch me anywhere, even with a single strand of hair, and I'll count it as your victory."
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Riyan began spinning the wooden spear.
It rotated fiercely in every direction before suddenly shooting forward like a streak of light.
Shiiiing!
At the same moment, Aries's expression changed.
"...Fine."
He lowered his body, deflected the wooden spear with his sword, and kicked off the ground.
The movement had clearly been prepared in advance.
Only then did Riyan realize that Aries's earlier attitude had been a kind of provocation.
"Hup!"
Rush in.
Slash.
Take the rear.
The chained attack Aries had spent so long refining flowed together like water.
He slipped low beneath Riyan's spear, closed the distance in a single burst, and swung his sword.
Riyan twisted his body aside to avoid the blade.
The moment he used that motion to launch a spinning kick, Aries was already moving toward his blind spot.
The flow was flawless.
Aries swept his sword low from the blind spot.
One of Riyan's legs was already off the ground.
At a glance, it seemed he had no way to avoid it.
"Here I come!"
Aries shouted confidently.
Against an ordinary fighter, nine out of ten would have taken the blow across the leg and collapsed in an ugly heap.
Instead, Riyan planted the wooden spear vertically into the ground.
Using its rebound, he launched himself into the air.
"What?"
Aries's sword cut through empty space.
The instant he realized he'd missed, he threw himself forward and rolled.
Boom!
Riyan flipped through the air and descended like a meteor onto the spot Aries had just vacated.
