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13702Translator: Lizz
Proofreader: Xemul
It was a sunny afternoon with some thin clouds in the sky. In a corner of the training ground, Tinassha was having a mock fight with Suzt.
As a soldier, there was nothing to criticize about the speed or strength of his sword. However, from the point of view of someone with accumulative experiences in actual combat, he lacked some surprise elements. For that reason, Tinassha had read and handled all his attacks splendidly.
The witch met his sword while slightly adjusting her position. Having grown impatient, Suzt swung his sword down from overhead with all his strength.
But his attack wasn’t met with a sword. Tinassha stepped forward and bent one knee, dodging his sword while stepping into his space at the same time. Then, as graceful as a dancer but with a very precise speed, she went for his neck ―――― and stopped right before her sword hit.
“Alright, it ended.”
“Uhh… I lost again.”
“You need to predict your opponent’s moves better, or improve your speed and strength.”
“Yes…”
Suzt hung his head in disappointment. Leaving him alone, Tinassha sheathed her sword. It was not a borrowed item but her own sword, made thinner than usual. She normally used swords infused with magic in actual combats, but this one was just a plain sword used for practice.
She touched her hair, which had been put up, to check if it had fallen out of place. She actually wanted to cut it short, but everyone objected.
Someone put their hand on her head from behind. She turned around and looked up; her contractor was standing there.
“Oscar, what are you doing?”
“I also want to move my body from time to time. Will you be my opponent?”
“I decline, from the bottom of my heart.”
Feeling that it was just the right time, Tinassha let her hair down; her long back hair silkily went back to its original state. Just as Suzt silently bowed and left, Art, who had been heading for the training ground, noticed his Lord.
“First of all, since there’s the barrier, I can’t fight against you.”
“Is that so? Can’t you take it off for a short while?”
Oscar said as if it was just something trivial, and the witch shrugged.
“It takes a lot of time, so I don’t want to. But I did make a loophole in the beginning.”
“You were quite thorough.”
Tinassha opened her right hand and showed it to him. She focused her senses just a little; at the same time, a small cut appeared on her index finger. Oscar looked at the welling blood and frowned.
“What are you doing? You’re bleeding.”
“I’m taking it off.”
Tinassha floated up to Oscar’s height and creeped her bleeding finger behind his ears. She leaned in and whispered into his ear:
“Wherever my blood touches, the barrier will be weakened. It’ll still be able to repel strong magic forces, but… Think of it as a wicker basket. It’s dangerous, so please don’t tell anyone else.”
“I understand.”
He embraced her with one arm. Just then, Art appeared before his eyes and bowed.
“Your Highness, do you come for practice?”
“I haven’t lately. Will you keep me company?”
“Of course.”
With a nod, Oscar let go of the witch and took the sword Art handed him.
Tinassha had known it, but Oscar was comically strong.
At first, shehad watched with a bitter face; but halfway through, she could feel a dry laugh coming.
Normally, Art trained everyone by defeating them, but it was Oscar who took that role this time. As Art, a General and Meldina, an Officer had been easily defeated, the soldiers were looking at their future King with respect.
Tinassha, who normally wasn’t a match for Arts, looked on with folded arms.
“Is there anyone else?”
Oscar looked around while tapping the flat of his sword on his shoulder. But no one came forward.
Exchanging a look with a cheerful-looking Oscar, Tinassha had a bad hunch. She focused her power to leave the place, but her contractor was faster; he beckoned her over.
“Tinassha, come.”
“I refuse!”
“What’s with the immediate reply?”
“Because it won’t be anything good for me.”
“It’s trainining.”
But the witch stuck her tongue out and refused. Oscar looked at her in amusement, but he lowered his sword as something came to his mind.
“You can also use magic.”
“Do you want to be burned to a crisp?”
“That level of magic will probably be repelled though.”
Tinassha inclined her head and considered. Of course, the kind of powerful, directly offensive magic that could cause fatal injuries with just one strike would be repelled, even if the blow came from Tinassha herself. But even if those were excluded, there were still a lot of magic attacks that could easily incapacitate humans. Did he know how to fight a magician without a vanguard? Tinassha looked into his eyes, which were full of self-confidence. Suddenly, a strange emotion, mixed between hope and curiosity and resignation reared its head within her.
Up until now, no human had been able to kill any of the other witches, not to mention one specialized in battles like Tinassha. But the man in front of her now had the possibility to. He could kill her.
Tinassha made up her mind and looked at Oscar.
“Alright. But I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
“Please use Akasshia.”
Those words caused an uproar.
Akasshia, with its absolute magic resistance, was the natural enemy of all magicians. It had once struck down in just a single blow not a witch but an insane magician, who had become a menace with his magic. This match would be one with unpredictable outcome; everyone exchanged whispers about it.
But Oscar’s eyes simply lit up with interest.
“No problem, but don’t break my blade, will you?”
“It’ll be troublesome if I do… Instead, let me switch to my specialized weapon.”
“Got it.”
Oscar laughed happily and ordered Meldina, who was standing nearby, to bring him Akasshia.
Ten minutes later, both of them were ready. They faced each other in an area slightly larger than where regular matches usually took place.
Oscar was carrying Akasshia like he usually did. Meanwhile, Tinassha was dual-wielding; she carried a slender sword that was slightly shorter than average and a dagger. She had asked her familiar to bring them along just in case when she had left the tower. Oscar looked at her choice of weapons with surprise.
“You’re a dual wielder?”
“Originally. I usually keep my hands empty, but as I’m going against that sword, magic barrier is pointless.”
“Indeed.”
Both of the blades Tinassha were holding carried magic, but they wouldn’t have any effects against Akasshia. They simply were familiar in her hands. She tested the hilts in her hands; it had been a long time since she had held them.
Then she lightly called out to the man opposite her:
“I’m good.”
The soldiers, afraid of getting by-blow magic attacks, were keeping their distance. Still, everyone on the training ground held their breath and watched the unprecedented match attentively.
Tinassha took a breath and cleared her mind. She raised her head and looked directly into Oscar’s blue eyes.
“So, allow me to take up on your kind offer… Please give it your all.”
At the same time as her sentence ended, seven light spheres rose up around her. Oscar narrowed his eyes slightly.
“―――― Go.”
At Tinassha’s murmur, the light spheres came at Oscar with different speeds. He cut off the ones coming from the front and the left with Akasshia. The next one changed orbit right before he could catch it; the sphere took a round turn on the right and came up behind him. Oscar immediately leapt forward, taking down the two spheres coming from the left at the same time. Just then, the witch’s sword came from his right side, aiming directly for his neck; he took the attack and fended it off with Akasshia’s hilt.
“…Tch.”
Pain came from his left ankle when he was unaware. The light sphere at the back had belatedly struck him.
He bent down to dodge Tinassha’s dagger. She came in like dancing, but her attacks were fierce. Oscar warded off her sword with strength and gained some distance, then brought down the light spheres that were coming towards him. But he couldn’t dodge the last one; it hit him on the shoulder. Pain and numbness spread to his arm.
“Here’s the wind.”
The witch’s voice came before he could take a breather. The wind blades rushed at him from four directions, and Oscar leapt to the left, abusing his still-numb ankle further. He only parried the blades that might cause fatal injuries with Akasshia; the others slipped through and made a victim of his skin.
Faced with a series of attacks he had never experienced, Oscar felt a strange exaltation dominating his whole body.
He focused his senses even more; the air from where the magic attacks came felt different.
He felt like his vision was sharpened; he could see where the magic was gathering and what trajectory it would make when emerging, things he normally wasn’t able to perceive.
Using the wind blades as a decoy, and an invisible rope was coming from behind him; he quickly cut it with Akasshia. Seeing her own magic construction being shattered, Tinassha smiled.
―――― He had talent to begin with, and his intuition was good. He was getting better at both.
Tinassha slashed the sword in her right hand horizontally. A hot wind rose up, forming a whirlwind that headed towards Oscar. She rushed up behind it; when Oscar tore it to pieces with Akasshia, Tinhass leapt to his left and threw her dagger. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to react, but Oscar easily caught the hilt of the dagger. Seeing that, the witch was dumbfounded.
“Come back.”
At her command, the dagger returned to its owner from within Oscar’s hand.
“What was that?”
“That’s just how it is.”
Oscar closed the distance between them while still looking surprised about the dagger. She parried two strikes from Akasshia with her right hand sword. They were faster than Art’s attacks, and it took her full attention to deal with them; as a result, she couldn’t concentrate enough to use magic. She somehow managed to leapt back to gain some distance, but Oscar immediately stepped into her space. She parried Akasshia while feeling like clicking her tongue.
At that moment, the flat of Akasshia hit her elbow. The sensation was a chilly one ―――― it was like the magic inside her was touched with a blade, and the feeling was spreading to the outside.
Tinassha pushed aside the shock from the contact and thrust her dagger towards Oscar’s heart. But before the tip of it could touch his skin, Oscar pulled his sword back and warded off the dagger. Tinassha watched the blade of her dagger shattered like glass where Akasshia touched.
“Really?!”
She kicked at the ground, gathered her consciousness and moved beyond Akasshia’s reach.
Then, she raised both hands.
“L-let’s stop here…”
She looked at her left hand; her dagger had crumbled down and become unusable.
“Are you injured?”
“Not in particular.”
Tinassha answered shortly while treating the lacerations and burns all over Oscar’s body with magic. They were sitting under the shade of a tree; the other soldiers, whose excitement had not yet cooled down, were working out their enthusiasm by training.
“That’s good. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’ll get into trouble for saying something like that.”
Tinassha removed the hand he had placed on her head and smiled wryly. Once the treatment had completed, she sat down beside him. Oscar looked at the hilt of the dagger lying on the grass. Unfortunately, it was impossible to repair the blade. Unlike the sword, which only acted as a medium for magic, the dagger had had magic infused directly into its structure; that was why it had been destroyed by Akasshia. Oscar asked the witch, who was putting the hilt into her pocket.
“Were you going easy on me?”
“Not really. Complex magic needs chanting and more concentration. To be honest, I don’t want to engage in close combat with you again.”
The shock when Akasshia touched her skin came back to her mind. She had thought that it was simply a sword that could nullify magic effects; she hadn’t thought that it could disturb her magic and make it unusable just by a touch. Oscar probably didn’t know that – if he had, he would have used a different fighting style. Having the dagger broken was a vaguely disturbing result.
However, Tinassha didn’t plan to let Oscar know about the sword’s immense power.
The witch recalled what she had done earlier and extended a pale finger, wiping away the blood of her own that she had smeared behind his ear.
Oscar motionlessly watched at her movements. They were sitting side by side, but each was keeping their own thoughts. For a moment, her profile looked weary – was it because of the shade of the tree?
“I also don’t want to kill you.”
“That’s naive.”
There was no emotion in her dark eyes; all he could see was just a slight smile.
Oscar threaded his fingers into her silky black hair and combed through it. It felt like her solitude had blended into that jet black color, and was showing itself through that.
“Do you want to die?”
Tinassha inclined her head and, for a moment, looked hard at him with cool and clear eyes.
The intention was transparent in her gaze.
But it instantly disappeared with a blink of the eyes, and she smiled broadly.
“No. There are still a lot of things I want to do. …Breaking your curse, for example.”
“You just need to become my wife for that.”
“I refuse! I have to say, I prefer someone older than me.”
“He must have been dead then.”
Oscar got up and offered Tinassha his hand. She took it.
He looked at the witch, who was standing there alone with her dainty body, and idly thought about how he wanted to take her away from that world of hers.
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