Chapter 32 – Concession
Under clear skies, two women start to approach each other with swords.
Eventually, as they inevitably came within reach of each other’s swords, with the first blow, iron collided with iron and sparks flew.
‘… His arm strength is amazing.’
Although each beastman is different, it is a known fact that beastmen have better physical abilities than ordinary humans.
Among them, Mirian was a tiger beastman, and his physical strength was so strong that it was incomparable to that of an ordinary person.
In addition, since he had been trained since childhood, his physical strength was exceptional among tiger beastmen.
However, Mirian’s attack was met with Grindella’s own strength without any skill.
‘Even though I had an aura all over my body…’
He raised his physical ability due to the aura, but the amount of aura he wore was not great.
Seeing that his muscle mass wasn’t that great, it was clear that he was hiding something.
‘Is it a magic tool?’
She’s just invisible because she’s wearing armor like Mirian, but it’s not strange that there’s a magic tool inside her armor that increases her physical abilities.
Besides, if it was the former royal family, it wouldn’t be strange to have a fairly strong magic tool rather than a royal family treasure.
“Hey… !!”
While the hero was thinking about that, Mirian brought her spirits up and struck Grindella with her second blow.
Previously, it was Mirian who did not wear an aura because she was judged weak, but now she was amplifying her power by wrapping an aura all over her body.
“Oh… !!”
Grindella, who judged that she would not be able to overcome this attack with her strength, quickly dodged the attack and delivered a decisive blow to Mirian from a blind spot.
However, Mi An, who was keenly aware of the wide range of her attack through sparring with the warrior, rolled his body to avoid the attack.
After the first skirmish, the two stepped back and looked at the distance again.
“Whoa…”
To be honest, when Mi An first saw Grindella, he didn’t perceive him as a particularly formidable adversary.
However, now that he has been attached to him once, he realizes that Grindella is not only strong, but also has a level of skill that cannot be ignored.
‘He has undergone considerable training…’
Mirian, who thought that Grindella was an opponent that could not be ignored, pulled out the second sword from his waist to test the skill he had secretly practiced every night.
“Twin swords?”
The hero, who had never seen Mirian wield a double sword, thought out of his mouth without realizing it.
After hearing the hero’s words, Grindella, who judged that Mirian’s dual swordsmanship skills would not be so great, boldly took a step forward.
– Shuck!! Swoop!!
Grindella, who thought he could not beat him with strength, chose a fast attack, not a strong attack.
Grindella swung her sword at Mirian, thinking that she would not give her a chance to wield the twin swords, but…
“Ugh!!”
Mirian threw the sword in his left hand forcefully, and the sword bounced off, leaving a gap.
‘I had no intention of using twin swords. From the beginning, this is the purpose… !’
As the hero thought, Mirian was not so foolish as to think that the dual swordsmanship he had just learned would work against Grindella.
As Mirian’s thrown sword bounced high into the sky, Mirian jumped toward Grindella, who opened a large gap.
“Ugh… !!”
Realizing that Mirian’s sword was waiting for her wherever she fled, Grindella chose to break through head-on.
Grindella didn’t run away and ran straight towards Mirian.
He wondered if he was going to defeat Mirian by force now that he was so close, but of course Grindella had no such thoughts.
As Mirian came almost right in front of her, Grindella tried to get out between her legs by throwing her body.
Grindella grinned, thinking that she had passed between her legs safely and that the game had not yet been won, but her complexion turned blue when she saw the sword falling over her head.
‘Knife? Why… ?’
The identity of the sword was Mirian’s sword, which Grindella blew up earlier.
However, without knowing what kind of sword it was, Grindella tried to avoid the sword by turning her head…
‘Tail?’
Foreseeing that the deflected sword would be there, Mirian grabbed it by her tail and threw it towards Grindella’s cloak.
“I can’t move…”
Grindella was relieved that the sword had not fallen on her head and tried to get up, but the sword was stuck in her cloak and she couldn’t get up.
– Poof!
Mirian’s sword, which had landed on the floor, was aimed at Grindella’s neck.
“…”
Seeing the sword and admitting that she had lost, Grindella put down her sword and raised her hands in surrender.
“Mirian ball. I lost.”
“Hmm…”
Seeing this, Mirian smiled with satisfaction and put the sword back into the scabbard, then pulled out the sword from the cloak and returned it to the scabbard.
Then he reached out his hand to Grindella, who had fallen on the floor, and Grindella took it with a refreshing expression.
Grabbing Mirian’s outstretched hand, Grindella stood up and brushed off the dust from his body.
“I knew it because I saw them fight last night, but Mirian-dono’s skills are really amazing!”
“Yes, Grindella’s skills were quite good.”
Contrary to his stiff tone, Mirian was also smiling faintly. He seemed happy that after a long time he had met a foe other than Hero who could match him.
“Then, since you’ve had a fight with Mirian, would you like to play with me next time?”
“You mean Prince Yoa… ?”
Grindella remembered that the hero was stronger than Mirian, and wanted to fight against the hero, but unfortunately, he didn’t have enough stamina left.
“No… Unfortunately, I don’t have enough stamina left. Besides, today is not the only day.”
“Okay… Then I have another training session, so…”
After that, the old knight, who was watching the sparring by the side of the hero, blocked the hero’s return to the holy power training with Martha.
“What over there… ?”
As the hero was perplexed by his unexpected behavior, the old knight, who had not opened his mouth except during negotiations, spoke.
“Yoah ball. If you don’t mind, could you put your sword against this old man once?”
*****
The old knight, Marius Azul, was Grindella’s uncle and master of the sword.
On that day, from that humiliating day he didn’t want to remember, Marius gave Grindella rigorous training at Grindella’s request to help revive the kingdom.
She was a girl in her prime, so she must have a desire to decorate a little, but without showing off, Grindella has been silently training.
Marius always thought of Grindella as his pride.
And at the end of rigorous training, a powerful article was born that was hard to find an opponent among the same generation, although it was also thanks to the power of magic tools.
However, even though Grindel wasn’t miserably defeated by an unknown adventurer today, she was defeated.
As her uncle and as her teacher, she was not without resentment, but she was curious beyond that.
‘How strong is this young man?’
The hero Marius saw last night was skilled enough to say that he was a master of the sword.
Besides, in the fight yesterday, the hero didn’t use magic or aura except for the technique that caused the sword to explode.
Marius was seized with a desire to see a little of the power hidden in that body, which seemed to have been bestowed by God.
“How about having a fight with this old man…”
“Hmm…”
Meanwhile, seeing Grindella’s expectant gaze, he realized that Marius was the strongest adventurer in the adventure group.
The hero, who was worried about what to answer because he was concerned about the eyes around him, nodded his head soon after being overcome by the gazes of Grindella and Mirian.
“Great. Let’s stick together.”
“Thank you.”
Marius pulled out his sword, and soon after, the hero also pulled out his sword, and there was a sense of tension.
The confrontation began as Mirian and Grindella, as well as the adventurers who stood on the alert, could not overcome their curiosity and glanced back.
The two looked at each other’s distance, pointing their swords forward, just like when Mirian and Grindella were facing each other.
If this was a life-and-death duel, the war of nerves would have taken quite a long time, but this was just a sparring without risking anything.
‘If you don’t come, I will go first…’
Marius, who was genuinely curious about the hero’s skills, approached the hero from his own side, even knowing that he was reckless.
As the first skirmish began and sparks flew as swords collided, Mirian and Grindella broke into a cold sweat.
-Visor! Visor!
Both of them had considerable skills, so it was full of things that I wondered how the hell they would have prevented that attack if someone in the know saw it.
Because of that, it was difficult for Mirian and Grindella to follow the sword with their eyes, but either way, the two of them increased their speed and swung their swords at each other.
“You are also my uncle…”
“Surely… But even our hero is not serious yet.”
As the battle between the hero and Marius accelerated, the number of adventurers who could not hold back their curiosity and turned their heads increased.
As time passed, at first only one or two people secretly turned their heads, but before I knew it, all the adventurers who were on the lookout turned their heads to watch the battle between the hero and Marius.
Originally, Marius or Grindel would have yelled at me to go back to the guard mission, but both of them were distracted by this sparring and had no time to do so.
In the midst of everyone concentrating on Dalian, time passed and the Dalian, which seemed to last forever, finally came to an end.
-Visor!
With the sound of a sword being slashed, a sword rotated several times in the air and fell helplessly to the deck.
“Ha… Ha…”
“I lost.”
The hero, whose sword fell from his hand, bowed his head to Marius, who exhaled violently as he said that.
“As expected, Uncle… !”
“Nonsense…”
With the question that arose in the corner of Marius’ mind, the battle was won by the hero’s defeat.
*****
“You are so wonderful, Uncle!”
As time passed and night fell after the sparring, Grindella spoke to Marius before dinner.
“Lord Yoa was great too, but I can’t match my uncle, who is also called the greatest sword in the kingdom!”
“No, that’s not it…”
As time passed and he realized what the question was in his mind, Marius’ mind was confused.
“… Princess, Prince Yoa conceded victory to me.”
“Yes? What is that… ?”
The hero saved Marius’ face in front of other adventurers.
And even though no one else was on deck, what would happen if word of mouth revealed that Marius had been defeated by an unknown adventurer?
No matter how much silence is issued, rumors will leak somewhere.
For the sake of Marius’ face and furthermore, the face of the Azul Revival Adventure Team, the hero gave up victory.
“If Prince Yoah had been sincere from the beginning, I would have lost within a few minutes.”
“Oh, that can’t be…”
Grindella was about to say that couldn’t be the case, but seeing as she was thinking that while dealing with Marius, she could have been.
Besides, the hero hadn’t even used magic yet, and when he returned to the deck, he didn’t even show the skills he used.
“At first, I was only interested in Lord Yoa’s strength, but now I’m interested in him.”
If you want to be strong and go on an adventure, the most important thing will be victory.
However, what the hell is hidden in the heart of the hero who gives up the victory even if it’s a sparring?
For what the hell is it that you have that much strength and still crave more power?
“There may be a greater purpose than what the princess has in mind.”
Hearing those words, Grindella looked up at Marius and muttered involuntarily.
“I am… What you have in mind…”
Grindella’s dream.
It is to re-embrace the people of Azul Kingdom who are wandering around the country and the revival of the country.
On that day, he ran away with his uncle, the greatest swordsman in the kingdom, on the grounds that he must preserve the blood of the royal family.
She kept in mind the thought that someday she must make up for the shame of the day and embrace the wandering people again.
But did the hero have a dream comparable to Grindella’s dream in his heart?
Grindella, who usually asks Marius when there is something he does not know, asked Marius, just as a hero would ask Lina if there was something he did not know.
“… Uncle, what is that dream?”
However, Marius, who was usually quick to answer anything, said this time while shaking his head with a shy smile.
“Well. I can’t even imagine…”
