At last.
[You have learned Olivier-style Swordsmanship!]
[Olivier-style Swordsmanship is absorbed into Logres Swordsmanship!]
A possibility I could finally see only after getting beaten countless times.
I could see it.
Her patterns.
The path of her sword, visible because I had devoured her narrative.
I could see where and how she would swing.
Bam bam bam!
That was a lie, actually.
Even after perfectly copying Olivier-style Swordsmanship, it was not as though I had gained the power to counter her.
Her sword path was not laid bare before my eyes.
The only thing I could see was—
[Insight of One Who Has Seen the End activates.]
[Predicting a thousand possibilities.]
Possibilities. Nothing more.
[Identified possibilities: 1]
Was she really a monster or what?
Even though I had copied every story contained within her swordsmanship.
Out of a thousand possibilities, there was only one sword path that could reach her.
Insight Eye did not copy skills alone.
Because it copied the very narrative through which a skill was used, it could imitate its owner’s proficiency and understanding as well.
In other words, I was not merely copying Olivier-style Swordsmanship. I was copying the Olivier-style Swordsmanship Angelica wielded.
As long as it was Olivier-style Swordsmanship, I too could wield it as she did.
And knowing her understanding and proficiency meant I could predict how she was capable of swinging her sword.
So I copied everything—her swordsmanship, her understanding, her proficiency.
Yet even if I knew how she would swing—
Even so, the possibility given to me was only one.
Among a thousand predictions, there was only one possibility in which I could reach her.
Still.
Zero and one were different.
In a sense, by copying her narrative, I had moved from zero to one.
Even if I still could not see a chance of winning.
Did that not mean there was at least a path by which I could reach her?
Predicting the sword path I had copied from her.
Toward that one possibility among a thousand.
Clack!
I blocked her sword once.
And I reached her.
It was no more than a graze.
But my sword had unquestionably touched her body.
Seeing that blank face of hers flustered was satisfying in its own way.
"I’ve gotten somewhat used to what I’m seeing, after all."
Her sword came at me again.
I unfolded Insight of One Who Has Seen the End once more.
I racked my brains, using the swordsmanship I had copied from her to predict her route of attack.
And—
[Identified possibilities: 1]
I followed that possibility and blocked her sword.
This time, too, her sword failed to reach me.
Once again, an emotion surfaced in her eyes.
Confusion.
"How?"
How, she asked.
The result of combining one cheat with another.
But even after all that bullshit, all I could manage was barely blocking one attack, let alone counterattacking.
Still, the first time I had reached her.
That meant there was no reason I could not reach her the second time, too.
Then I would keep reaching for her until I broke through.
I could reach her.
If my opponent were simply a swordsman who used Olivier-style Swordsmanship, perhaps not.
But if it was Angelica using Olivier-style Swordsmanship, I could reach her.
I tightened my grip on my sword.
Then… one exchange.
Two exchanges.
Three exchanges.
I traded blows with her wooden sword.
I had only changed from being beaten one-sidedly to barely managing a few exchanges with her.
But that was still something.
I did not care about that.
What mattered was that I was trading blows with the sword aura that had defeated a Sword Master.
After being hit so much, bruises had begun appearing all over my body.
But thanks to the regenerative power that was one of Dragon Strength’s abilities, bruises like these were no problem.
After we had traded around thirty exchanges.
A change began to appear on her formerly expressionless face.
The corners of her lips lifted, faintly but unmistakably.
【Angelica de Olivier】
◈ Level: 40
◈ The target is in a state of immersion.
She was enjoying this spar.
Lucky her.
I was over here tryharding with everything I had, determined to win.
But.
Had I entered the zone too?
Or did Insight Eye perhaps have some ability to synchronize emotions?
I was the same.
The more exchanges I traded with her.
The more I found myself enjoying this spar with her.
Maybe I was secretly a battle maniac too.
After fifty exchanges.
Once my sword had touched her body around ten times.
She widened the distance between us.
"It’s been a long time since I felt like this."
"It’s my first time."
For the first time.
She had been the one to pull away first.
"You know how I will swing."
As she spoke, she lightly swung her sword and settled back into her stance.
"You could not have prepared this just for today. Don’t tell me you copied all of me?"
My hand was showing already.
I too resumed my stance.
"To catch a monster, I needed to become that monster too."
"…A monster."
"That’s why I copied you."
To counter swordsmanship that seemed impossible to reach.
I copied the person who wielded that unreachable swordsmanship.
If my opponent were merely a swordsman who used Olivier-style Swordsmanship, I would lose.
But.
"If it’s you, I can reach you."
I could reach her because the swordsman using Olivier-style Swordsmanship was not just anyone, but Angelica.
Because I had copied everything about her, I knew everything about her.
Even if it still seemed beyond reach, I had more than enough reason to believe I could reach her.
Perhaps that was why.
"…I see. Even so."
Her stance was changing.
"I’m not alone, then."
A pattern I had never encountered before.
That was not Olivier-style Swordsmanship.
I swallowed dryly.
At this point, other than Olivier-style Swordsmanship, Angelica had two secret techniques of her family that she could use.
She could not use sword aura in a spar, so excluding that, there was probably only one possibility.
One of the secret techniques Angelica could use.
A fighting style completely opposed to Olivier-style Swordsmanship, which read moves and constructed the board.
The sword of a storm, which had begun with an anchor and become swordsmanship—a sword that could only be unleashed by someone who had gone mad.
[Mad Orlando.]
I was fucking screwed.
Could I use my ultimate move here?
Damn it.
The possibilities that had shown themselves a thousand times vanished before my eyes.
I could no longer use Insight of One Who Has Seen the End.
Perhaps because I had used the skill too much, my mana was depleted.
Which meant.
Here, I had to go alone.
To reach the star within that mad storm.
This was insane.
I changed my stance.
I abandoned the thought of facing that secret technique head-on and used the strongest thing I could employ right now.
And something that could cut swiftly.
The quick sword form of Logres Swordsmanship.
I did not know whether I would remain in one piece after taking that head-on.
I used Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method to focus every last bit of my mana into my feet.
If I could take that technique into my eyes.
That would mean I could use that secret technique too.
Let’s think positively.
#
I was certain.
Ian could definitely use Olivier-style Swordsmanship.
Logres Swordsmanship was mixed into it as well.
But most of the swordsmanship he used to trade blows with me was Olivier-style Swordsmanship.
And.
Even his sword path was the same.
Even if the swordsmanship itself was identical, the judgment, proficiency, and understanding of the person wielding it were bound to differ.
But the Olivier-style Swordsmanship Ian used had the exact same sword path as mine.
It felt as though I were fighting my reflection in a mirror.
To copy all of me in that brief battle.
Not merely Olivier-style Swordsmanship, but even my habits, my understanding—everything.
After fifty exchanges, his sword had reached my body around ten times.
Far more sword strikes had landed on Ian’s body, to an incomparable degree…
Still.
It had been a long time.
Or perhaps it was my first time.
Meeting an equal who could match me this well.
A rival.
He was the first person to reach this far.
‘There will surely be someone. Someone born in the same era as you, standing on the same horizon as you… someone who can understand you.’
Someone.
Who could understand me.
"You could not have prepared this just for today. Don’t tell me you copied all of me?"
But perhaps that had been my misunderstanding.
"To catch a monster…"
Ian did not see me as an equal.
A monster.
For some reason, hearing that word made my heart ache.
I thought you would understand me.
So you did not see me as a rival. You thought of me that way too.
Was Father wrong after all?
That was what I thought.
"I needed to become that monster too."
Until I heard the words that followed.
"That’s why I copied you."
To reach the monster, he would become a monster.
To stand on the same horizon, he would copy the monster.
Rather than thinking of me as a monster and building a wall between us.
He would struggle to reach me, even if it meant becoming the same kind of monster.
Really.
Since coming to the academy, just as Father said, I had experienced so many strange things for the first time—especially today.
Had there ever been anyone else who reached this far into my world?
Holding my sword, meeting his gaze.
Would you do that?
Rather than building a wall to face a monster, like the people who had looked at me before.
I did not have the courage to receive an answer, so I cast the words I wanted to say into my heart.
Would you become a monster like me?
"If it’s you, I can reach you."
I see.
That was an answer.
Even if it was not an answer to my question.
At least.
"I’m not alone, then."
I would no longer be lonely.
I readjusted my stance.
Considering the wooden sword in my hand and Ian’s condition, this was probably the last exchange.
That was why I brought out the strongest ultimate technique I knew.
Not the swordsmanship inherited from my father, who was colder than anyone.
But the secret technique inherited from my mother, who was hotter than anyone.
I was curious.
How far could Ian fight?
How close could you come to me?
Please, will you reach me?
Holding that small wish in my heart, I unfolded my sword domain.
The secret art and combat method of the captain of the Frank Knights, the pinnacle of the Karl Kingdom, unfurled from my hand.
[Mad Orlando.]
It went beyond the weapon held in one’s hand, drawing out every possibility of the weapons nearby, the environment, and even other people’s swordsmanship to their greatest form.
A swordsmanship my prudent father could not use.
A dance of storm and madness that only the insane could perform.
I poured all of its principle into this one sword.
Like the anchor wielded by my ancestor, I gave myself over to madness and slashed passionately at Ian’s body.
Despite being struck by a wooden sword, more and more wounds appeared on Ian’s body.
But Ian did not attack.
As if he were aiming for something, he did not counter easily.
As though…
Then, something cut into the midst of that passionate dance of madness.
A swift sword strike coming in diagonally.
‘How did I manage to draw with your mother?’
The quick sword form of Logres Swordsmanship.
‘How could I possibly block every one of that crazy woman’s secret techniques? I merely waited for an opening.’
That desperate, all-or-nothing killing strike collided with one of the frenzied swords being swung in the dance of madness.
!!!!!
Unable to withstand the force, the two wooden swords broke with a crack.
‘There is only one weapon being swung, isn’t there?’
From the very beginning.
So this was what he had been aiming for.
Both weapons had been destroyed, and so the spar could no longer continue.
Cutting through the waves of madness.
Ian’s sword had unquestionably reached me.
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