Chapter 15 – Auditore da Sicilia (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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There were fifteen minutes left until the duel.

I had expected the procedure to be complicated, but it moved along more smoothly than I thought. Media did ask me more than once whether it really had to be done in subspace, but when she saw how resolute I was, she readily granted permission for the subspace spar. She even added a remark telling me to be careful.

Since subspace lay outside reality’s sphere of influence anyway, there wouldn’t be any direct physical injuries, but it was probably just a kind of motherly concern. She was a woman with a strangely two-sided charm, seeming childish one moment and mature the next.

The rules of a subspace spar were simple. Just like during the class assignment test, one of two outcomes: either you die, or you kill.

Since the inside of subspace lay outside the reach of reality’s interference under the academy’s blessing anyway, no matter what happened in there, there would be no direct physical injuries.

Even if flesh was torn open and bones burst through, you would never truly die. Of course, any mental trauma was your own burden to carry. Even if it was virtual, experiencing death was tied to a primal kind of fear.

Well, as long as I win, that was enough.

I decided to just think about it casually. Worrying in advance wasn’t going to change the result anyway. Besides, Chloe had even lent me a weapon. A sashimi knife with a rose pattern carved into it.

It was branded, so it should be better than Daiso, right.

In my other hand, I was still holding the Daiso sashimi knife.

Even here in the training-ground waiting room, I could hear the murmuring voices of the cadets. Watching a fight was fun, sure, but I hadn’t expected the reaction to explode to quite this extent.

It was enough to make all the crap I’d gone through to avoid standing out until recently feel pointless.

Letting out a drained little groan, I scratched my head. Chloe only looked my way with a face full of obvious guilt.

It seemed she thought I had gotten dragged into this because of her. After standing beside me and fretting for quite a while, I put a smile on my face to soothe Chloe a little.

“Chloe, it’s not because of you, so don’t make that face.”

“…Even so.”

“If you really feel bad, then just make me a good dinner afterward.”

With a shadowed expression, Chloe only gave a small nod. Since the waiting room was about to sink back into silence again, I tossed out whatever came to mind.

“From what I saw earlier, you looked pretty scared of him.”

“…My brother is strong.”

“You’re plenty strong too, Chloe.”

She shook her head from side to side in denial. Her scarlet lips trembled faintly.

“My brother is a genius with unparalleled talent in the entire history of House Auditore, especially when it comes to handling hidden weapons. There isn’t even anyone in the family who can match him in that. Back when he was only fourteen, adults were already calling him the pinnacle of night techniques. Of course, Geom-ma, you’re strong enough too, but my brother is still an assassin with a lot of real combat experience……”

“…The pinnacle of night techniques, huh.”

I knew what she meant, but somehow it felt oddly embarrassing hearing such a young girl say something like that.

As if to shake off my thoughts, I wiped my face once and then lowered my eyes to the sashimi knives.

It was always like this.

At the thought that no matter how hard I tried to avoid it, I always ended up having no choice but to make this selection, I found myself murmuring with self-mockery.

It reminded me of the joke my first master in my previous life had casually tossed out, saying, You were born to hold a blade for the rest of your life. Even that bastard probably never expected that in my second life too, I’d still be running around brandishing sashimi knives.

[We will now begin the subspace pairing. The relevant cadets, please come out to the training grounds.]

The same dry announcement from the entrance ceremony signaled the duel. Maybe because a battle between cadets inside subspace was something so rare, the voice somehow seemed more charged up than usual.

“I’m off.”

“…Okay.”

Chloe lowered her head and let the end of her words trail off weakly. Somehow, even though I was the one actually fighting, she looked far more tense than I did.

“Chloe.”

“Yes?”

When I called her name firmly, Chloe reflexively looked up at me.

“There are lots of geniuses in the world.”

“……”

“But in the end, I win.”

* * *

I stepped into the training grounds and looked around. Every last seat in the massive stood was full. I clicked my tongue at the crowd, which looked to be pushing close to four digits.

But what pissed me off a little was the way the place felt like an arena that called to mind the Colosseum of ancient Rome.

It felt like if they didn’t like the match, they might lower their thumbs at any second and start booing all at once.

Oh, what. Those two were here too?

In the middle of all that, I noticed the faces of the Star Class gathered up in the upper seats. Rachel of House Spear Saint, and Saki Ryozo of House Absolute Bow.

Unexpectedly, Abel von Nibelung and Leon van Reinhardt were there too.

This was making me feel weirdly pressured.

With my weapons in hand, I walked to the center of the training grounds and faced Nox. He was holding two sharply honed katanas, one in each hand. After glancing at the sashimi knives I held, he twisted his expression.

“Are you trying to mock me right now? It seems lowborn trash can’t even tell recklessness from arrogance.”

After baring his displeasure all over his face, he scattered a suffocatingly thick killing intent throughout the arena.

This crazy bastard.

Scratching the back of my neck, I answered calmly.

“Experts don’t blame their tools.”

“I’ll start by cutting out that insolent tongue of yours.”

The killing intent Nox was giving off was so vicious that it nearly froze the disorderly atmosphere of the broad training grounds in an instant.

I took a deep breath. Ever since I first saw Nox, I had already known that he was a strong opponent on a completely different level.

But now that I was facing him with all his venom stirred up, an especially chilling sensation swept down my spine.

Auditore’s unique blessing, the Blessing of the Crow, was one of the highest-grade stealth blessings in the story.

And since he was an assassin, he definitely had one or two hidden cards up his sleeve. On top of that, the twin red-bladed katanas in Nox’s hands were clearly the S-rank weapon Hongryundo.

While I was watching Nox for a moment as if measuring him.

[We will now deploy the subspace barrier.]

[May the blessings of the heroes be with you.]

The violet barrier of subspace unfolded.

And I drew my blade.

[The Blessing of the Sword God manifests.]

++++++++++++++++++++++

《Might the blessings of God be with you》

++++++++++++++++++++++

* * *

Once the duel began, the two stared at each other for several seconds as if measuring one another.

Without any change in expression, Nox tilted only his neck slightly and then ran forward with light footfalls. The afterimage that had been visible just a moment ago stretched into a long red line as it narrowed the distance, then vanished from sight.

“What the hell was that?”

“Did you see that?”

“No way, is he seriously in Ordinary Class?”

Gasps burst out from the cadets watching at Nox’s movement. Since most of them knew nothing about the truth behind House Auditore, the majority had assumed this was no more than a duel between low-ranked cadets.

But even among Star Class, only a handful of cadets were capable of following Nox’s footwork with their eyes. Most couldn’t even make out what was happening. The sound of repeated swallowing rippled through the crowd.

A blurred shadow shaped like a human body traced a red arc line and aimed for behind Kang Geom-ma. Sensing the faint killing intent at his back, Kang Geom-ma quickly sprang upward.

A sharp sound split the air. Immediately afterward, the red light chased after Kang Geom-ma.

Krrk.

The clashing thuds of metal rang out one after another. Every time the blades collided, sparks of sword-light flew like bursts of fire.

The two figures slashed at each other at an unbelievable speed. Even when one concentrated hard on watching, the two of them vanished from sight in an instant.

At once, the sharp shriek of steel exploding struck the audience in the ears.

Clang! Clang!

And so several exchanges of savage shockwaves continued to ring out.

The next moment, Nox and Kang Geom-ma had opened a distance of around eight to ten meters between them.

Nox was flustered. Just as Chloe had said, this was no ordinary bastard.

He had even activated the Blessing of the Crow midway through and erased his presence with the clear intent to annihilate him, yet the bastard responded as if it were only natural.

This bastard…

He needed to become more careful. He had probably been too obsessed with speed alone.

At first, he had intended to turn him into a chunk of minced meat, but after seeing his skill, it no longer seemed like something that would end easily.

I’ll take his head in one strike.

Nox brought his fingers to the Hongryundo he held in both hands and smeared it with blood.

The red blades became even redder. Hongryundo, the S-rank weapon and secret treasure of Auditore. The more blood it was fed, the sharper its cutting force became, enough to slice even metal like tofu.

A hard, cold sensation touched his palms. Letting a faint smile spill out, Nox gripped the blades more firmly. The feeling the swords gave him made it seem as if they could cut through anything.

By contrast, Kang Geom-ma’s weapons were kitchen knives. Even so, despite them obviously being cheap blades, the knives in his hands were giving off a dreadful ringing cry.

At that cold sensation, Nox lifted his gaze slightly and looked toward Kang Geom-ma’s face. Shadowed, cold eyes were fixed on Nox.

The bastard had let both arms hang loosely while leaning his upper body forward. It was an unstable posture with his center of gravity pitched ahead. The chill tip of the blade was raised toward him as though sighting down the barrel of a gun.

At Kang Geom-ma’s face, Nox’s body stiffened involuntarily. It felt as though his blood were freezing. An emotion he had never felt once in his life wrapped itself around Nox.

Grrrk.

Veins swelled across the forearm of Kang Geom-ma’s hand as he twisted the sashimi knife in his grip.

His breathing became faint and shallow. A thin cold sweat ran down his spine.

Bang!

Using compressed air as a foothold, Kang Geom-ma fired his body forward like a bullet.

A streak of lightning was carved into the dirt ground.

“What?”

Only afterward did the thunderous boom of compressed space bursting apart ring through the training grounds. At the same time, Nox felt heat flare at his left shoulder.

The arm holding one katana thudded and rolled across the ground. As one arm was severed and sent flying, his red pupils contracted into circles.

Unlike the movements just before, which could at least be tracked, this one had not even been visible.

Goosebumps rose all at once across the bodies of the cadets filling the spectator stood.

Faced with a situation that made no sense under any normal understanding, their screams stopped at their throats.

Tat-tat-tat.

The sound of footsteps that did not stop. Nox turned his gaze in the direction from which the footsteps came. But all he could chase were afterimages. The bastard himself was nowhere to be seen.

“Y-you son of a bitch!”

In an instant, shadows holding sashimi knives surrounded Nox as if they were shaving away his entire field of vision.

Then, lightning-fast slashes too quick for the eye to follow converged toward a single point. Someone among the viewers had their mouth fall open.

Something was happening, but there was no one who could actually track it with their eyes. It was not a speed a human could possibly produce.

Every cadet watching lost the ability to speak. No more gasps or groans came out.

The repeatedly drawn paths of the blades kicked up clouds of dirt. The thicker the dust became, the more the stench of blood drifted to the cadets’ noses.

At the merciless barrage of slashes, some people let out groans and staggered while clutching their temples.

Shhk.

The repeated sound of life being carved away.

Shhk.

The spilled blood gathered and pooled.

Shhk.

A scream mixed with agony echoed across the training grounds.