Chapter 623 – 623. God’S Atlantis
623. God’s Atlantis
She stares at me with her dark eyes.
I was flustered. I never expected to meet her here.
“I greet Princess Arpis.”
“Who is it?”
Seira Arpis.
The daughter of the Sword Duke, Noite Arpis.
“I am Sung Yujin, a knight of Valdert.”
“Valdert…”
Seira frowned as soon as she heard the name Valdert.
“What business does that witch’s knight have here? You better explain in detail.”
She pointed her sword at me. Blue haze rose from the practice sword. As in the original setting, she doesn’t like Elena very much.
‘To be more precise, she has an inferiority complex towards Elena.’
Elena Valdert is a genius who rose to the position of Empire’s Five Dukes at a young age. Although she has many enemies who hate her, everyone acknowledges her abilities.
“I came here with a letter to deliver to Duke Arpis.”
There was no reason to hide it, so I told her the truth as Seira wanted.
“Was it my father’s test? I’m sorry. The reason my father sent you here is probably because of me.”
“Because of you, Princess?”
“I’ve been staying here for three months. My father’s intention was probably to use you to provoke me and get me out.”
“Three months here? Is there something troubling you?”
“It’s training. While here, I don’t need to eat, and if I stay still, my wounds and stamina recover. The Sword Tomb is the perfect place to train.”
As she said, the Sword Tomb is a perfect place to train.
‘But I have no intention of training here at all. It’s practically a closed-door training.’
I don’t have time to leisurely train. I need to get out of the Sword Tomb as soon as possible and deliver the letter to the Sword Duke.
“Princess Arpis, do you have any intention of returning with me?”
“No.”
She said firmly.
“Don’t worry, my father won’t mistreat you just because you don’t come with me.”
“Yes. That’s a relief.”
I scanned Seira’s body up and down. Seira frowned. No one would feel good if someone blatantly scanned them.
“How rude.”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a body as exceptionally trained as yours…”
“Is that so.”
Her expression brightened at the words ‘exceptionally trained body.’
But I was looking at her body sexually.
The fact that she is similar in height to me means she is very tall for a woman. And as tall as she is, her physique is also large. Her arms and legs are long, and her chest and hips are large. She has watermelons on her chest. The cleavage tightly pressed between her training clothes is visible. It must be at least a G cup.
Her hips are big and her thighs are firm.
I want to pounce on her right now, but she is by no means someone I can take lightly. I couldn’t guarantee victory if I fought her. And I have to keep in mind that the Sword Duke is behind Seira. If I forcefully pounce on her, my head will be chopped off.
“Princess, may I swing my sword next to you?”
“I don’t mind.”
Seira swung her sword first. It was a clean sword strike. The following strikes were also clean.
‘She’s drawing the exact same trajectory without an inch of error.’
I also swung my sword.
From top to bottom.
That simple swing.
It was clean enough to satisfy myself.
And the second sword strike.
「The trajectory is off.」
‘…Off? It was perfect?’
I swung my sword a few more times. But each time, the system’s response was similar.
「The trajectory is off.」
For the first two or three times, I could match the trajectory reasonably well. But after that, the trajectory would be disrupted almost certainly.
‘Since I can’t see the trajectory, it’s hard to match it perfectly.’
I focused and swung my sword. As time passed, I became more accustomed to it.
Since I had basic swordsmanship skills, I could match it about 30 times. The problem was that I kept failing after that.
‘Is this even meaningful? Should I give up and leave?’
Just standing still and swinging my sword from top to bottom was killing me. I’d rather fight orcs with a heavy sword. This kind of simple repetition didn’t suit me.
I glanced to the side.
Seira was silently swinging her sword. She swung her sword almost once every two seconds, and the trajectory was perfectly consistent.
‘Amazing.’
If we were just talking about swordsmanship, she might be stronger than me.
“What’s wrong?”
Seira stopped abruptly and asked me.
“Ah. I’m sorry. It wasn’t going as well as I thought, so I ended up looking at you. You’re amazing, Princess. I can only do it about 30 times…”
“I’ve been doing this training for years, so I’m used to it.”
“What’s the maximum number of times you can do it?”
“About 1,300 times. That’s about my limit.”
“……I can’t even compare to you.”
Swinging a sword 1,300 times with a perfectly identical trajectory? How much training would it take to be able to do that? Just imagining it is terrifying.
“It seems like you want to clear the Sword Tomb as soon as possible.”
“Yes. My mission is to deliver a letter to Duke Arpis. I’d like to go back, but if I did, Duke Arpis wouldn’t acknowledge me.”
“There’s a trick. I’ll tell you.”
“Really?! Thank you!”
“Your presence is also hindering my training.”
Seira swung her sword at the wall. A long scratch appeared on the wall with an unpleasant noise.
A perfectly straight scratch.
“Swing your sword along this line. There’s a big difference between swinging while looking and swinging without looking.”
“Indeed…! I’ll try it.”
I swung my sword along the line a few times. As Seira said, the difference was quite significant. I didn’t have to concentrate as much as before.
‘This is more of a trick than a technique.’
I felt like I could easily do it 100 times with this.
「You have passed the Repeating Sword Room.」
「As a first-time pass reward, agility and strength increase by 1 each.」
I succeeded.
I lowered my sword and shook my shoulders. I had failed a few times in the middle, so I had to start over. Because of that, my shoulders felt a little stiff.
“Looks like you passed.”
“Yes. Thanks to Princess Reina.”
“You already had the basics. You would have passed soon even if I hadn’t taught you the trick.”
“Still, it would have taken time. I am sincerely grateful to you, Princess.”
“Enough with the empty words. You must have a path to take? Go.”
“Will you continue to stay here, Princess?”
“I came here to train. I can’t leave when my training isn’t over.”
“What are you training for, Princess?”
“There’s only one reason to train. To become stronger.”
“What I’m curious about is why you want to become stronger, Princess.”
“Do I have to tell you?”
Seira’s eyes sharpened. I quickly apologized to her.
“I’m sorry. I was a little presumptuous.”
I didn’t want to part with her like this. If we parted like this, I would only remain as one of Valdert’s knights to her.
That shouldn’t happen.
Even if I can’t take her right now, I need to leave some kind of impression.
“It’s fine. You should carry out your mission.”
“……I’ll take the liberty of saying one more thing. Is one of the reasons Princess Arpis is training related to Elena?”
“……You speak your lord’s name so carelessly.”
“I’m only saying this to Princess Arpis, but I’m not actually a formal knight of Valdert.”
Seira’s eyes lit up. It seemed like she was somewhat interested in me. As expected, selling Elena was the right answer.
“Not a formal knight? As far as I know, that witch isn’t a soft woman. What’s your relationship with that witch?”
“It’s not a normal lord-vassal relationship. It’s a bit complicated.”
“Is it a romantic relationship?”
“Something like that.”
I smiled slyly. Seira looked at me with distrustful eyes. Since she knows about Elena, she also knows how absurd a romantic relationship is.
“Do you want to beat Elena, Princess?”
“Why do you think so?”
“I guessed because you’ve been reacting sensitively to Valdert since earlier.”
“……Yes. I want to beat that witch. One of my goals is that woman. So? What do you intend to do by knowing my goal?”
“I received help from you, Princess. Thanks to you, I easily passed this room. Since I received help, isn’t it natural to return the favor?”
“Do you think you can be of help to me?”
Seira’s reaction was cold. It wasn’t to the point where I felt an overwhelming pressure.
“Elena’s power is illusion magic.”
“There’s no one in this empire who doesn’t know that witch’s power. That’s why she’s called the Illusionist.”
“Elena’s illusion magic doesn’t work on me.”
“……What?”
Seira’s eyes widened.
There was no one in this empire on whom Elena’s illusion magic didn’t work. Even the other Empire’s Five Dukes couldn’t completely escape Elena’s illusion magic.
“I can’t believe it. Do you expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth. It’s also the reason why Elena is interested in me.”
“…….”
“Aren’t you curious why Elena’s illusion magic doesn’t work on me, Princess?”
“You must have a special skill or trait. The world is vast. It’s not strange that there’s an ability that makes that witch’s illusion magic ineffective.”
Elena’s illusion magic doesn’t work on me because of my Absolute Spirit. Of course, that alone isn’t enough to beat Elena. Even without illusion magic, Elena has other magic.
‘I can’t honestly say here that I have Absolute Spirit.’
I don’t forget that the King of the Heavenly Demon is watching me.
“I don’t have such an ability.”
“…Then why doesn’t illusion magic work?”
“It’s my mental strength.”
“Only because of mental strength? Do you think I’ll believe that?”
“You might not believe it, but it’s the truth.”
“That’s enough. It’s my fault for expecting even a little. You should go on your way.”
I was a little flustered. I thought she would be interested in me if I said that.
But thinking about it, it was natural that she couldn’t believe me since I suddenly mentioned mental strength.
“And the basis of that mental strength is my martial arts. Ah, now that I think about it, this would also be a special ability. I’ll take back what I said earlier.”
Seira, who was turning around, looked at me again.
“Your martial arts?”
Her eyes were more interested than before.
“It’s a martial art called Heavenly Demon Divine Art.”
“I’ve never heard of that martial art. What’s its rank?”
“It’s SSS rank.”
“……!!”
Seira’s eyes widened as if they would tear. SSS rank is the highest rank.
“Princess Arpis, this is a secret.”
“I’m not so loose-lipped that I’d go around blabbing it.”
Seira lowered her sword.
“I’ve become interested in you. I want to see that Heavenly Demon Divine Art with my own eyes. May I watch you from the side while you’re conquering the Sword Tomb?”
“Of course.”
It was something to welcome.
I should have talked about the Heavenly Demon Divine Art from the beginning instead of mentioning Elena’s name or talking about mental strength.
•••
Seira followed me and observed me closely.
Thanks to that, I was able to easily conquer the rooms of the Sword Tomb with the help and advice of her, who could be called a veteran of the Sword Tomb.
「You have entered the Bewildering Sword Room.」
「Find the real sword and destroy it.」
Dozens of swords appeared around me. I have to find the real one among these swords and break it.
As I held the practice sword in my hand, the swords scattered in all directions and flew around.
One of the swords flew towards me. I dodged the sword’s attack with a back jump. The sword fell where I had been. There was no sound, and the sword disappeared. It was because the sword was fake.
‘Even if I look with my eyes wide open, I can’t tell which one is real.’
It’s also annoying to find the real one by hitting each sword.
‘I’ll just sweep them all away at once.’
Heavenly Demon Divine Art (天魔神功) Heavenly Demon Sword (天魔劍) Demonic Wind (魔風).
Black sword energy became wind and swept around, striking the swords. All the fake swords disappeared, and the real sword was left alone on the floor, being toyed with by the black wind.
「You have passed the Bewildering Sword Room.」
「As a first-time pass reward, mana and stamina increase by 1 each.」
