chapter 20
Episode 20 – Genius VS Genius
What is Genius?
If you look closely at the meaning of the word, it means a talent from heaven.
A person called a genius shows overwhelming talent that goes beyond the arc as if he knows no limits unlike ordinary people.
In addition, Anna Lyudmila Semiterne, one of the teaching assistants in the Department of Martial Arts at the Royal Academy and a member of the Royal Family Knights, was one of those people called a genius.
Her family, the Semiterne family, was originally famous for its commerce rather than swordsmanship.
The Suleidn Merchant, which can be said to be one of the five most important corps in the Bregern Empire, belonged to the Semilterne family.
Her father, Marquis Antorio Halard Semiltern, was a top lord of the Suleiden Merchants and was a man who lacked nothing.
He had the status of nobility and the title of marquis, as well as a beautiful wife and children who wouldn’t hurt to put them in his eyes.
However, there was one regret left for him, and that was about the powerlessness of oneself.
The Semitern family was a family that produced many competent talents in commerce and administration rather than historically outstanding military leaders.
However, he had dreamed of becoming a knight since he was young, so he practiced the sword, but he gave up his dream after realizing that he had no talent.
Instead, he decided that if one of his children had a talent for swords, he would provide support so that he could use his talent as much as possible.
Thanks to him, Anna and Ruel learned that she had a talent for her swordsmanship, and he brought her best teacher to teach her and Ruelle her swordsmanship.
Through her swordsmanship lessons, it is revealed that Anna has a tremendous talent called a so-called genius, and when it is known that Ruel also has a superior swordsmanship talent than an ordinary person, the Marquis of Selmillion was delighted and promised generous support to the two. Did.
Is it because of that? Anna accomplished the feat of becoming a Sword Expert at a young age.
It is said that when her own daughter rose to the rank of Sword Expert and joined the Imperial Knights, the Marquis of Semiltern shed tears of joy.
Anyway, Anna, who has reached the level of Sword Expert, which is like her dream for ordinary people, worked hard every day to improve her swordsmanship as a member of her Imperial Knights.
However, no matter how much she practiced swordsmanship, she couldn’t see a way to reach the level of intermediate sword expert.
If an aura user was at the level of maximizing their physical ability by raising their aura, then a sword expert was at the level of being able to create a sword aura by wrapping aura around their sword.
However, even with the same sword expert, there was a slight difference.
Anna’s skills are lower than Sword Expert, and her sword aura shows a bit of a rough side.
Because I was inexperienced in handling auras, a neat aura blade was not made.
The sword aura she created was weaker than the aura of an intermediate level sword expert who had some form.
When you reach the advanced level of Sword Expert, then your aura takes on the shape of a perfect sword, and when you become a Sword Expert Master, the blade made of your aura becomes sharper.
The sword master is a further step from there, and when you reach this level, you can create an aura blade, a type of sword made up of the aura itself.
In the history of this world, there have been five people who have officially reached the level of sword master.
800 Years ago, the two founding emperors of the Bregern Empire and the El Pario Empire were the ones who reached the level of sword masters.
In addition, it is said that 500 years ago, a rural youth named ‘Loen’, who was selected as a hero through an oracle, rose to the level of a sword master.
300 Years ago, when an ancient monster emerged from the abyss, a sword master named ‘Tarun’ appeared and defeated the ancient monster and disappeared.
He threw out the words, ‘Sword Master is not the end of the sword’s path’ before disappearing.
And now, Count Dittorio Harun Meidern, head of the family of Count Meidern of the Bregern Empire, was the sword master of this era.
Including Alberto, who had yet to make an official announcement, there were as many as two sword masters in the Bregern Empire.
That’s why, she was now facing Dalian with great anticipation.
Because the person she has to deal with right now is the Sword Master.
A level that could only be seen in history, and which one could not even think of reaching.
A rare genius who had reached the level of a sword master at the age of fifteen stood in front of her.
Anna looked at Alberto and carefully aimed her sword.
Alberto looked at himself and took a jockeying expression that seemed to have many gaps, without erasing the smile on his lips, despite the sparring.
The way he held the sword firmly with both hands and leaned it to the left, as if he were saying, ‘Wherever you come in, I can knock you down lightly’.
‘I can’t see any gaps. After all, a sword master.’
Anna couldn’t find any gaps in Alberto’s posture.
He’s doing something he absolutely shouldn’t do against his right-handed swordsman, but he can’t see the slightest gap.
‘I go in first. Whether it is or not, I will attack first!’
Anna threw her odds in her own way, one way or another that would be blocked anyway.
Finally, she grabbed her sword and ran towards Alberto with her torso slightly bent.
–
‘Hmm, since it’s sparring, should I be gentle?’
Slightly agitated by Lord Semiterne’s sudden request for sparring, I accepted the sparring request.
‘Did it get involved?’
Looking at the subtly happy face of Sir Semilterne, I thought that he must have been involved in a strategy.
Well, now that it’s like this, I felt like I should definitely show my skills in Lord Semiterne’s sparring.
In the conversation with the Marquis of Sebatia, the skills I could show were up to Intermediate Sword Expert.
In other words, the shape of the sword aura that will be formed on the sword must stop at a certain clean line.
Well, deciding the form of a sword aura wasn’t a difficult problem.
What I did the most was to create the form of a sword aura that an intermediate level sword expert could produce.
Most of the thieves and bandits ran away in fear even if they showed Sword Expert’s Sword Aura.
Occasionally, some of the dogs were paralyzed by fear and charged, but those who lost their reason were the easiest enemies to deal with.
‘If I deal with it properly, I’m sure they’ll beg to do it again.’
What bothers me the most is when the other person insists on sparring again.
If you really give your full effort, ‘Coward! You were hiding your skills!’ And ran away until dust flew away.
If you deal with it with moderate force, you will say, ‘You bastard! Are you kidding me! Do I look so easygoing?’
Every time that happened, I wanted to beat him so much that I couldn’t even open my mouth, but I had to hold back.
I thought it would remind me of the past, so I grabbed the wooden sword with both hands and took the rider ceremony.
Tilting the sword slightly to the left was just giving an open space to come in.
In common sense, most swordsmen are right-handed, so the direction of attack can be said to be to the left based on the direction I’m looking.
Unless you are a left-handed swordsman, you attack from the right to the left, so from the opponent’s point of view, the attack appears to come from the left.
So I intentionally showed an opening and tilted my sword to the left so that the opponent could attack me.
A novice swordsman would jump at me wondering what kind of rice cake this was, and a swordsman with some level of skill would notice that I was provoking the other person.
Sir Semitern… To be honest, I couldn’t have predicted it.
She can’t be called a beginner because she’s also a sword expert, but I tilted my sword to the left with the intention of provoking her, but she still seemed hesitant.
‘Should I expose more gaps?’
However, it was too risky to expose more gaps here.
That’s the same as standing still without taking a jockeying ceremony at all.
“Hmm?”
Just as I was thinking about when Lord Semitern would run at me, I saw her eyes change.
If the eyes were hesitant before, now they are the eyes of a determined swordsman.
‘Looks like he’s coming.’
I predicted she would come running soon.
Unsurprisingly, Sir Semyl Tern charged at me with great speed, holding her sword.
‘Coming!’
I firmly gripped my sword and swung it at Sir Semiltern who was running towards me.
–
“Wow… ….”
“Did I say Alberto? Are your skills great?”
“Against Sir Semitern, I am not being pushed… ….”
The swordsmanship cadets who were conducting sparring at the gymnasium stopped sparring and exclaimed while watching Anna and Alberto’s sparring.
The sparring between the two began with Anna rushing first.
She lowered her stance and aimed at Alberto’s lower body.
Most of the swordsmen predict that when an attack comes in, the attack will come from the upper body.
That’s why most of the swordsmen focused on the upper body to block attacks.
However, that is a story that only applies to skilled people at the level of Aura users, and those who have reached the level of a sword expert will have a different story.
Anna swung her sword in the same stance as she was charging at Alberto.
The place where her sword was pointed was the part where Alberto’s thigh was.
It was so fast that it was difficult for the eyes of the cadets who were watching.
However, Alberto easily blocked Anna’s attack.
She swung her sword faster than the speed at which Anna’s sword was swung, and she cut off her sword.
“Sheesh.”
“Did you think you would be defeated so easily?”
After the first attempt to attack went futile, Anna kicked her to the ground and fell behind her.
Then, her wooden sword was swung where she had been standing a moment ago.
Although she wielded her wooden sword, her wind pressure was not inferior to her true sword.
Anna noticed that some of her own hair had been cut off.
‘It’s amazing.’
Thinking that her clumsy attack wouldn’t be able to land her effective blow on Alberto, she caught her breath and raised her aura.
Then, a stem of a slightly rough aura rose from her wooden sword.
“Cow, for a sword aura?”
“Are you saying that Alberto is an opponent who needs to bring out a sword aura?”
“That means… ….”
“I guess that means that Alberto is at least a sword expert.”
When Anna raised the sword aura, she responded that she had seen something rare around her.
Some speculated about Alberto’s real skill.
If Anna, a sword expert, had to pull out a sword aura, Alberto was also at least a sword expert.
“Come with the sword. Are you serious?”
“I am sincere. Cadet Alberto. Show your sincerity.”
“Good. I will deal with you sincerely.”
It was Alberto who grasped Anna’s true feelings when she took out her sword aura.
‘Sir Semitern, are you asking me not to play around and fight seriously?’
Alberto thought that Anna was asking her not to joke with him and to fight properly.
Alberto pondered and wondered if he hadn’t been sincere? I thought.
But there was never a time when he wasn’t sincere.
Because in order to surprise, it was essential to intentionally show an opening to attract the opponent.
However, if the person concerned took it as a joke, now it’s your turn to come out with sincerity.
“Then, let’s start in earnest.”
Alberto overlaid the sword with a sword aura that an Intermediate Sword Expert could make.
“Cow, a sword aura?”
“That… Is it about the level of an intermediate sword expert?”
“The lineage of the sword master…….”
The cadets who saw Alberto’s sword aura showed various reactions.
However, Alberto didn’t pay much attention to the reactions around him.
Because sparring was the most important thing to him now.
“Then… going.”
Alberto ran towards Anna with a sword covered with a sword aura.
A sword coated with a sword aura that can be crafted by an intermediate level sword expert flew towards Anna.
“Awesome!”
After receiving Alberto’s sword, Anna groaned.
It was because there was quite a bit of shock that I felt when the sword and the sword came into contact.
Her Anna’s center of gravity was slightly distorted as she parried off the attack she had just received.
Alberto didn’t miss it and pushed Anna fiercely.
Alberto’s attacks continued to target Anna’s loopholes.
Relentlessly targeting the openings created when she tried to counterattack, Alberto attempted to attack her.
In the end, throughout the match, Anna could only block Alberto’s attacks, but she was unable to properly counterattack even once.
“Hey, hey… ….”
Alberto stepped behind her for a moment, and Anna caught her heavy breathing.
“Do you want more? If the battle continues beyond this, it seems that Lord Semiltern will be in trouble.”
Alberto thought that there would be no point in continuing the sparring anyway, so he requested that the sparring be stopped.
Anna’s pride was slightly hurt, but she was not wrong with Alberto’s words.
She never once, she couldn’t fight back.
The result was all the more disastrous because she knew that Alberto hadn’t given her all.
“My defeat… Admit it. As expected, even if you are a sword expert, there is a difference between lower and intermediate levels.”
At Anna’s words, those who were watching the Dalian opened her eyes wide in amazement.
What level is a sword expert?
This is the level that those with the talent for swords most want to climb.
It is possible to become an Aura user with a lot of effort, but from the sword expert, you have to have both effort and talent.
Many people were surprised by the fact that a person who reached such an outstanding level was his motivation.
Even the sparring was centered on Alberto’s one-sided attack.
Anna was just in a hurry to retrieve the sword.
Alberto took the sword and conveyed his feelings about the sparring to Anna.
“Lord Semitern’s Auror skill was excellent. But, isn’t there any reason to insist on swordsmanship that doesn’t suit your body?”
“hahahaha. Thank you for saying that. It was a complete defeat. Thank you, Cadet Alberto. It helped a lot.”
Anna admitted her own defeat.
However, the defeat was by no means meaningless.
Because she found a small clue in Alberto’s last words.
All that was left was to seize the clue and somehow lead it to enlightenment.
The sparring between genius swordsman Anna Lyudmila Semiltern and Royal Academy freshman Alberto Salihar Meidern ended with Alberto’s victory.