Book 1 Chapter 974

974.

The week after the exams ended was peaceful.

Some professors even allowed them to study on their own.

Third-year Knight Department practical class.

Professor Ain was busy grading exams and with departmental matters, so it was self-study today.

The third-year Knight Department students spent their time freely in the training grounds.

Some were resting, while others were gathered, playing a light ball game.

"Lady Iliana is coming through!"

Iliana, with a ball tucked under her arm, shouted cheerfully and charged towards the goal.

"Block her!"

The students defended against Iliana.

What the third-year students were playing was Baster, a popular sport in Lumern.

Of course, the game was being played with pure physical ability, without using any special powers.

By the third year, the games proceeded at considerable speed even with pure physical ability alone.

Durran blocked Iliana's path.

Iliana grinned and quickly passed the ball.

"Nice!"

"Go!"

The students watching also divided into teams and cheered enthusiastically.

Overall, it was a relaxed atmosphere.

However, in the sparring arena behind the training grounds, some were engaged in serious practice bouts.

It was Leo and Celia.

Celia, who was the first to move, faced Leo, both holding practice swords.

Faaat-!

Celia, pushing off the ground, closed the distance to Leo in an instant.

As Celia's sword rushed forward at tremendous speed, Leo swung his sword.

Chaeeeeng-!

Celia's rapier missed its trajectory.

Of course, that wasn't the end.

The dagger in Celia's left hand, opposite the rapier, was immediately swung towards Leo's neck.

Leo dodged the attack by stepping back lightly.

Celia, lowering her stance, began to swing her sword at tremendous speed.

She controlled Leo's movements with sharp thrusts using her rapier.

Then, she followed up with a dagger attack against the frozen Leo.

Seeing this, Leo muttered to himself.

'She's changed her attack style a bit.'

Celia's main weapon was the rapier.

And to compensate for the rapier's weaknesses, she had learned dagger techniques as a secondary weapon.

However, Celia's primary attack weapon now was the dagger.

The rapier was purely for feints.

Whirrrrr-!

The dagger spun dazzlingly in Celia's hand.

Tak-!

Celia, holding the dagger in reverse grip, aimed for Leo's neck as if to hook him.

As Leo dodged, the rapier then aimed for his eyebrows.

The attack pattern had changed.

'Is the rapier the primary weapon this time?'

Leo remembered Celia's swordsmanship as something that dazzled the opponent's eyes.

It had transformed into a swordsmanship with overwhelming destructive power by adding Zerdiger's aura to her unique flashy techniques.

But the swordsmanship now, while seeming flashy, was monotonous.

Yet, each individual strike was deadly.

A swordsmanship that pursued efficiency.

Kaang-!

Leo parried Celia's attack and lunged forward.

"Kugh!"

Celia gritted her teeth and swung her dagger to check Leo, who was closing the distance.

However, Leo's sword, having switched to offense, began to unleash indiscriminate slashes.

Kagagagagagagag-!

Sparks flew from all around Celia.

She parried Leo's attacks with her rapier and dagger.

But each time, she felt a heavy force that made her body sway, and her grip on the weapons felt like it would tear.

Celia gritted her teeth and followed the trajectory of Leo's sword with her eyes.

To stably defend against Leo's attacks, she would have to discard the dagger and hold the rapier with both hands.

But if she did that, she wouldn't be able to keep up with Leo's speed.

'I have to hold out as long as possible!'

Celia gritted her lips and endured Leo's onslaught.

The pattern of their serious sparring matches with Leo was always the same.

Celia would take the initiative to attack first.

Then she would lose the timing of her attacks and would eventually be worn out by Leo's endless onslaught, and the match would end with Celia tiring out first.

This pattern had continued for hundreds, thousands of times since she first met Leo.

The only change was that Celia could now hold out for a longer time against his attacks.

Kagagag-!

Leo's attacks continued relentlessly.

Each strike was close to a finishing blow.

How much longer could she hold out?

'No, will the attack even end?'

Celia didn't know.

How should she break through this situation?

Was enduring the only answer?

Kakakakakakag-!

Sparks flew chaotically before her eyes.

Leo's attacks grew faster and faster.

Like a storm.

She was caught in the whirlwind of Leo's attacks.

'This is the end.'

The countless sparring experiences she had had before told her so.

But Celia gritted her teeth and didn't give up.

The outcome was predetermined.

Even so, she didn't break or give up.

Just like the unchanging results of their sparring matches since they were first-years.

Celia's feelings hadn't changed either.

She had been chasing the back of her cousin in front of her, consistently.

Will blazed in Celia's red eyes.

At that moment.

Kagagak, Kaak! Kaang-! Kaakang-!

"……?"

Leo's attack speed began to gradually slow down.

'Huh?'

Celia felt a sense of bewilderment.

Was Leo's attack over?

But it had slowed down too much to think so.

At that moment, Celia realized that her own movements had also slowed down.

'It's not that I'm slow. My perception speed has increased.'

Sometimes during battles, an opponent's movements would appear unusually large, or their thoughts would seem crystal clear.

But that was always more of a 'feeling.'

It was unprecedented for the opponent's movements to be so clearly visible that Celia could perceive them.

Confused by this new phenomenon, Celia soon figured out the cause.

'Hyper-perception.'

A skill learned from Arion.

Among Arion's many sensory skills, Celia's vision had been awakened.

But even so, it was a skill to predict the opponent's movements; it had never been like this, where her vision perceived things in slow motion.

'Whatever it takes!'

Celia looked at the movements of Leo's sword, which were clearly visible to her.

Because they appeared slow, the movements of the sword Leo swung were clearly visible.

And things that were normally invisible became visible.

She couldn't help but be amazed.

She glimpsed the extraordinarily high level of skill and mastery contained within Leo's sword.

Kagak-!

Celia parried Leo's sword.

At that moment, Celia's vision caught a flicker in Leo's eyes.

She broke Leo's attack flow with a single strike.

Celia's unexpected move.

And the momentum of the attack shifted to Celia.

It was the first time.

In sword fighting, she had broken Leo's attack and counterattacked.

Swish-!

Celia's dagger aimed for Leo.

Whak-!

Despite the unexpected attack, Leo dodged Celia's attack.

And at that moment, before Celia could react, Leo's unarmed hand grasped her neck.

"Kuhuk?!"

Celia let out a sharp gasp.

Leo, whose body reacted instinctively, quickly released his hand.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Cough- cough- If this were real combat, my neck would have been broken? You're really ruthless."

"And you're laughing?"

Leo looked bewildered at Celia, who was laughing even as she coughed.

Celia, seeing Leo's expression, smiled brightly.

"Of course, I'm laughing! I managed to counterattack you!"

If it were a sparring match using aura as well, Celia wouldn't be completely at a disadvantage.

Of course, the overwhelming difference in combat power remained unchanged, but the situation was different from a pure swordsmanship duel.

For a knight, swordsmanship was like a vessel.

No matter how powerful the aura, there was a limit if the swordsmanship to contain it was insufficient.

Celia had learned this fact through Leo.

And for the past three years, she had to acknowledge the unbridgeable gap.

But now, she had taken a step closer to Leo.

She was restraining herself from jumping for joy.

"Were you using hyper-perception to see through my movements just now?"

"Oh? As expected, Leo. You noticed? Everything that appeared in my eyes suddenly seemed to slow down."

"That's amazing."

As Leo expressed his admiration, Celia tilted her chin up and swept her hair back.

Her expression was calm, but she seemed unable to suppress the corners of her mouth from rising.

Seeing that, Leo chuckled and ruffled Celia's hair.

"Ow! What are you doing! Do you think I'm a child?"

"Ah. Sorry. You looked so cute when you were happy."

"As I've told you many times! I'm older than you! Don't treat me like a child!"

Celia, with her strong pride, bristled.

"Yes. Yes."

Leo nodded and sheathed his sword.

Celia also put away her rapier and dagger.

After returning their weapons to their cases on one side of the sparring arena, they headed towards where their classmates were.

Even then, Celia looked down at her trembling hands with a flushed face.

"Oh, by the way."

Leo took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Celia.

"Huh? A letter?"

"It's for you."

"Then why do you have it?"

"It's fastest to send it to the student council president. Congratulations."

"Why?"

"My niece was born."

"What?! Brother Rhys's child was born?"

"Yes, yesterday."

Celia's face lit up as she took the letter and opened it.

The letter contained the news of the birth yesterday, along with a small photograph.

It was a picture of Rhys and Torua, with their newborn twins between them.

"Wow! Wow!"

"They're girls, identical twins."

"They're so cute!"

Celia was at a loss for words as she looked at her two nephews, who had black hair, proof of the Zerdiger bloodline.

"Because of the noble council meeting period, you have to go to Zerdiger anyway. I've arranged for you to go a little earlier due to family matters."

"Your work is neat."

Celia smiled sweetly.

The noble council meeting also affected Lumern.

There were cases where students had to return home due to family affairs.

In Celia's case, as the noble council meeting was hosted by Rodren, she had the obligation to attend as a direct descendant of Zerdiger, and thus had to return home during the meeting.

"Come to think of it, I heard from Abad."

Celia scrunched up her face.

"There's a rumor that an agenda related to you, Leo, will be brought up at the noble council meeting?"

"The rumors have already spread."

Leo chuckled.

Seeing Leo like that, Celia crossed her arms.

"What on earth is going on?"

"Recently, the number of external migrants to the Arhi Kingdom has been increasing."

A new nascent kingdom.

Normally, it wouldn't be a country that would stand out much.

However, thanks to Leo being the founding king of Arhi, migrants from all over the world were flocking there.

The problem was the sheer scale of it.

The world seemed peaceful, but Tartarus was rampant everywhere.

The appearance of monsters and demons had drastically increased.

As a result, some countries were shaken.

There were countless countries in the world.

There were powerful nations with strong foundations like Rodren and Shahn, but also many small border kingdoms like Leo's hometown, the Delian Kingdom.

And not all of them had heroes, or individuals comparable to heroes.

A hero is said to be someone who transforms and leads the world.

But people can only handle those in front of them.

Countries with strong foundations were not shaken, even with the increase in monsters and demons.

They had the power to protect their citizens.

However, the chaos in countries accustomed to peace was far greater than imagined.

Externally, due to Tartarus.

Internally, there was an increasing trend of countries imposing more taxes on their citizens under the guise of preventing such Tartarus.

As a result, people began to leave in search of a safe place.

Among them, the Arhi Kingdom was the one that left the strongest impression on people's minds.

'This phenomenon didn't exist 5,000 years ago.'

Unlike 5,000 years ago, the world is now closely interconnected.

News travels fast, and if there's enough leeway, with warp gates, traveling from one end of the world to the other isn't that difficult.

That's why migrants were flocking to the Arhi Kingdom, which could be considered a remote border region in the western part of the world.

No monsters or demons appeared in Arhi.

Furthermore, it was perceived as a land of new opportunities.

Normally, choosing to migrate, abandoning one's existing foundation, wouldn't be easy, but if the world is in chaos, the story is different.

However, there were those who viewed this trend with suspicion.

They were the owners of the lands where the migrants used to live.

Even if one can migrate to another country, it's difficult without a certain level of economic power.

The emigration of citizens with such economic power to foreign countries means a loss of national strength.

"That's strange. Restricting legitimate migration is a violation of international law."

"Usually, those in power dislike losing things."

"Ignore it. It's a good thing for you, isn't it?"

"I can't ignore it. A large number of migrants isn't a good sign."

While not refugees, a large number of migrants itself indicates that the world is in chaos.

"So? Are you going to accept the demands of the forces protesting to you?"

"I didn't say I would accept them."

Leo said calmly.

"Ultimately, it's a problem that arises from not doing things properly."

"That's right."

"Then, we must make them do things properly."

Leo smiled faintly.

Seeing that smile, Celia thought.

'He means if they mess with him, he'll retaliate.'

Celia sighed softly.

'This noble council meeting is going to be lively.'