Chapter 6: Sword Dance VI (Sword Dance vs. Hero / Sword Dance vs. Sword Saint)
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“Are you the Hero Ryuguin?”
“That’s right! I am the Hero Ryuguin, known as the Savior (Frontier Hero). Now, who might you be, the one who has called out to me, the Hero?”
Just that one exchange sparked a small sense of unease within Orphelia.
“I apologize for my rudeness. I am Orphelia Verite, a member of Clan ‘Seventh Blue.'”
“Oh, really? Hmmm, interesting.”
As Orphelia introduced herself, Ryuguin cast a lewd gaze her way. He circled around her with a lighthearted swagger, taking in her entire figure.
“You’re really cute! Want to go have some fun with me?”
From the moment she opened the guild door, Orphelia had been watching him intently. The ability she boasted about—her unparalleled dynamic vision and an extraordinary memory that wouldn’t forget what she had seen—was now at work. This time, her strength in observation detected a murky quality deep within Ryuguin’s eyes.
Throughout her time in the clan, she had encountered various people. Based on her experiences, she sensed something dark and slimy within him, a quality commonly found in base individuals—something darker than anything she had seen before.
Orphelia’s sense of unease grew stronger. Was this the same Ryuguin she had witnessed at the training grounds, a person so frivolous and vile?
“Hero Ryuguin, I apologize for my impudence, but would you be willing to cross swords with me just once?”
Upon hearing Orphelia’s words, Ryuguin frowned.
“Hah, you too? I don’t even like fighting. Yet, people like you, barbaric and uncultured savages, always draw your blades at the slightest provocation. Violence, violence, always solving things with violence. It’s utterly uncivilized.”
“You too?” Orphelia inferred that he was likely referring to his earlier exchange with Eris.
That thought irked her immensely. It felt as if her anger surged like a boiling kettle, pushing her emotions to their limits. She struggled to rein herself in.
“My apologies. Then, Hero Ryuguin, I won’t say we should cross swords or fight.”
Suppressing her inner fury, she made a concession, proposing a negotiation that hardly felt like one. Just facing the man before her felt sufficient.
“I wish to engrave the sight of the esteemed Hero upon my memory. So, just once, would you draw your sword from your waist?”
Pleased by the first half of her statement, Ryuguin flared his nostrils.
“Very well! Behold! The magnificent form of Prince Ryuguin, the Hero!!”
Like a stage actor striking a pose, Ryuguin raised his voice and dramatically drew his sword from his waist with a flourish.
“──────”
Orphelia was left speechless. No, this was wrong.
Excluding the basics, the only lesson she had received from Simmons was, “See with your heart, engrave it in your heart, and repeat it in your heart.” Following this teaching, she had replayed the training sessions between Eris and her master countless times in her mind.
Just by looking at his stance, she could tell. That master from back then—was certainly not this scum.
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Something was amiss. Her memories screamed that the master she had seen back then was now standing before her, exposing a foolish stance. Yet, her heart, her sword, told her otherwise. The master was not this trash.
Something felt wrong. An alarm rang in her mind. Should she leave Ryuguin’s presence immediately?
In the sudden dilemma presented before her, Orphelia recalled her parents, who had cherished and nurtured her.
“If you can’t tell if they’re friend or foe, strike first.”
That’s right; that’s how she had lived until now. She made her decision and clenched her fists tightly.
Ryuguin, still in his foolish stance, turned to her with a snort and asked, “How about it?”
There was no hesitation in her heart.
With all her might, she delivered a body blow right into the scum’s gut.
“Ugh!” Ryuguin doubled over, spewing vomit.
She deftly avoided it and swept his legs out from under him. Without a hint of resistance, his feet left the ground. As he lost his balance and fell through the air, his jaw came down at just the right angle, and in that moment, she delivered an uppercut.
“Boom!” Ryuguin let out a strange cry as his body shot up, bouncing two or three times against the ground like a rubber ball.
Orphelia had not forgotten the teachings from her martial parents.
“Once you’ve struck, you must finish it,” she recalled her father saying.
With a mindset of “as long as he doesn’t die,” she charged at the sprawled Ryuguin, unleashing a kick with the full power of an S-rank fighter. Ryuguin’s body slammed into the training hall wall, and with a thunderous crash, he lay still.
“Alright! That should do it!”
With her worries behind her, she approached Eris, who was kneeling with her face to the ground.
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“Eris Gladius. Let’s do this.”
Orphelia tossed a wooden sword to Eris. The sword struck her back, prompting Eris to lift her head.
“You are Orphelia Verite…”
Her eyes, swollen from crying, looked painful.
“With two swordsmen like us together, this outcome is only natural.”
Orphelia grasped a wooden sword in each hand. The Sword Dance style utilized twin swords.
“I have no reason to fight you.”
“You don’t need a reason; that’s just how it is.”
Orphelia always kept things simple.
“I have nothing left.”
Eris replied with a lifeless expression. Even after striking Ryuguin, Orphelia’s emotions remained unrelieved. In fact, she realized she was now at a point where it was impossible to suppress the magma-like passion boiling within her.
“Nothing left? What? Are you giving up being a swordsman?” she asked Eris. If that were the case, it was fine by her—
“Then just die there!!”
With that, she swung both wooden swords down in unison.
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She acted out of anger. It wouldn’t have mattered if she hit. She had intended to kill, but after all, it was just a wooden sword. Even if it connected, it would only cost her an arm or a leg.
Yet, there was a strange trust.
“You’re noisy.”
The dual strikes were blocked by Eris’s wooden sword.
“Feeling a bit more motivated now?”
No answer was needed. Orphelia pressed on.
The rapid-fire attacks of the Sword Dance style were said to flow like a dance. Among them, Orphelia’s strikes were often described as elevated to the realm of art.
With skillful precision, she wielded her twin swords, unleashing a variety of techniques.
“Scissors (Akubens)!”
Eris deflected the twin swords, which resembled the pincers of a crustacean.
“Laparotomy!”
A thrust aimed to pry with the tips of her twin swords—she expected it to be deflected.
“Cross Piercing (Cross Toupias)!”
Her style relied on speed and the number of strikes. Each time her attacks were deflected, she added that speed to her own.
“Helix!”
A high-speed thrust released in a twisting motion—Eris barely managed to evade it.
“Double Helix!”
The second spinning thrust came crashing down—Eris, realizing evasion was impossible, reluctantly positioned her wooden sword to block it.
“Jaw (Agito)!”
A dual sword attack mimicking a dragon’s jaw—Eris managed to deflect it, but Orphelia’s speed only increased further.
“X (Ex)!”
Eris barely held on as Orphelia’s speed surged.
“Dual Claw (Duo)!”
Orphelia’s wooden sword gouged into the shoulder of Eris’s battle dress.
“Delta Thrust (Delta Thrust)!”
Orphelia’s speed increased even more.
“Twin Peaks!”
With her long limbs, she unleashed a flurry of strikes at an unprecedented speed.
“Beheading (Etue)!”
Eris managed to fend off the attacks, but she was clearly lacking in her usual sharpness.
To think of this as a rival. The anger surging within Orphelia reached its climax.
“Mortal Fate!”
Eris accelerated further, as if to unleash the pent-up passion within her.
Kakakakakakaka─── The sound of wooden swords clashing echoed through the training hall, reminiscent of that time (…). Just as Eris managed to deflect the flurry of strikes and took a breath, the moment came—
“Fatal Fate!”
Kakakakakakakakakakakaka─── A barrage of strikes, double the previous onslaught, surged toward Eris with even greater speed.
“Guh…”
In response to Eris’s pained expression, Orphelia asked, almost wishfully, “You can still keep going, right?”
Yet, the climax was swiftly approaching. The seventy-seventh strike knocked Eris’s wooden sword aside, and the seventy-eighth was unleashed in a spinning motion, crashing into her back─── and then,
“It’s over.”
With the seventy-ninth strike, the wooden sword was pressed against her neck.
“Pathetic.”
“…”
“How pathetic. To think I considered you a rival.”
“Shut up.”
“Shut up or not, it doesn’t matter. I’ll say this only once. Open your ears and listen well.”
I had had enough of feeling this way. I didn’t want to see Eris’s tear-streaked face any longer.
“That thing lying over there is not your master.”
Orphelia pointed with her thumb at the figure sprawled face down.
“What do you mean?”
Something was fundamentally wrong. Orphelia didn’t understand it either, but—
“Trust not your memories, but your sword and your heart.”
That alone was enough for Orphelia.
“I will search for your master in my own way.”
Before you find them, I will.
“And then, I will reach the next stage.”
This was her way of motivating herself for the next challenge.
“Well then, see you again.”
Without waiting for Eris’s reaction, Orphelia turned on her heel and left the scene.
Left behind, Eris mulled over her words, standing there for what felt like an eternity.
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