novelraw Chapter 142 : Chapter 142
Chapter 142 : Chapter 142
142
It was only a brief opening, but a stance that had been ingrained into my body for a long time unfolded naturally.
I lowered my posture and extended my sword so that the force braced against the ground could flow cleanly, without resistance, all the way to the tip of my arm.
Cassian’s Swordsmanship, First Form.
Proper Cut.
And in that instant, the Spear God moved.
“Yahhh!”
He threw his body sideways as if he had fallen to the ground, slipping cleanly out of the arc of my blade.
At the same time, he yanked hard on his spear—but instead of the spear coming with him, his body shot toward the spearhead with a sharp pull.
While lowering his body, he had driven the spear deep into the ground.
‘Interesting.’
The Spear God was now using both his spear and his entire body as though they were a person’s two legs.
Had he expanded the limits of his body by using the spear as a tool?
Using it like a single crutch was clever, but it still felt insufficient.
I immediately shifted my footing and swung my sword with the intent of cutting through the spear shaft.
But the Spear God moved faster.
“Hngh!”
The moment he bit down hard on his lower lip and drew in a breath, it was as if gravity doubled on his body, and he dropped straight down.
THUD!
The ground beneath his feet caved in.
The spear shaft he held bent like a bow.
As a result, the rigid shaft slammed directly into my blade.
CLANG!
Using that vibration, the Spear God tore the spear free from the ground.
The shaft, still violently warped, oscillated from side to side and shot toward me.
Its path was utterly irregular, completely lawless.
If I could not predict the trajectory and block it cleanly, then the safest option was simply to deflect it away.
I stepped back and angled my sword, guarding against every possible arc the spear could reach.
Fortunately, the spearhead struck my blade at a slant and was knocked away.
“Yah!”
Seizing that instant, the Spear God charged forward.
His hands were empty.
While the spear danced wildly through the air on residual elasticity, stealing my attention, he had already moved.
With his hunched back arched grotesquely toward the sky, his body slid forward in a sudden rush.
The acceleration was several times faster than an ordinary sprint.
And the moment he closed in on me, his hand snapped up and caught the spear suspended in midair.
“Hngh!”
With a sharp grin, the Spear God swung his spear as if it were already decided.
I could read his thoughts plainly.
I have won.
‘So that is it.’
I recalled the acceleration the Spear God had just demonstrated.
He was shifting his center of gravity in bizarre ways.
It was not simply a matter of shifting balance while standing.
Even in midair, he freely redistributed his center of gravity throughout his entire body.
When he moved it to the tips of his toes, it created the effect of his body weight multiplying severalfold.
When charging forward, he shifted it toward his chest, generating acceleration as if riding a massive gust of wind.
To achieve that, the body had to be pushed into an extreme state of relaxation, with all centers of gravity converging into a single focal point.
‘It is similar to Mana Road.’
Just as one aligns the body with the sword to express sword intent.
I imitated the technique I had seen twice.
Shifting the center of gravity—
That part was not difficult.
WHOOSH!
I evaded the Spear God’s strike and flattened my body close to the ground.
The muscles I had forcibly relaxed for the sake of shifting my center of gravity—my elbows, ankles, back, chest—felt as though they were being torn apart by the sudden movement.
Even so, I clenched my teeth and endured it.
Before my body fully pressed against the ground, I rolled and swung my sword upward.
For a fleeting moment, the Spear God’s face flashed past, frozen in shock.
SLASH!
The cloth near his heart was cut open.
My victory.
CRASH!
Whether from panic or loss of balance, the Spear God rolled across the ground several times.
Worried that he might have been seriously injured, I approached him, only to find him staring blankly up at the sky.
“Are you all right?”
“You damned little bastard. I want to drag every fool who ever called me a genius here and show them you!”
“It seems you are fine.”
“Fine? Does this look fine to you? Do you have any idea what you stole from me? You stole my entire life!”
“It was a technique for freely shifting the body’s center of gravity. I did not realize it was possible to push the body to such extremes in this way.”
Perhaps the physical limitation of being hunched had forced him to focus on the concepts of balance and axis.
Those movements were far more agile and powerful than those of an ordinary adult man.
More than anything—
“It would be difficult for most bodies to endure, I imagine.”
I had only swung my center of gravity once, yet my entire body screamed in protest.
Even after the sparring ended, it felt as though my body might burst apart.
“That is why I told you your body is weak! It is a technique that demands you bear all balance on even a single toe! A body trained only halfway would explode!”
Thanks to him, I had learned an excellent technique.
“That fulfills one of my conditions. Thank you, sir.”
“Damn it! This is a scam! You said you would teach me if I won, but stealing it first and then winning with it is not the proper order!”
“Then since I won and there is nothing left for me to learn from you, would you care to present new knowledge?”
“Shut up! Damn it all! This must be how that old hag Ulf felt when that thief woman stripped her clean! Truly, master and disciple are alike!”
At the Spear God’s grumbling, Rozalin let out a soft chuckle.
For reasons I did not understand, she seemed pleased by his words.
Why?
Then, out of the corner of my eye, Pan was doing something strange.
He drew his wooden sword and swung it several times through the air, muttering to himself as if pondering something.
It was not simple sword swinging.
He repeatedly stepped forward with one foot and pulled it back, and the force behind those movements was anything but ordinary.
That was not just a step—it was a supporting axis, bracing against something unseen.
“Is that it? Hm. Might work… or maybe not.”
“Pan?”
“Well, it will probably work.”
Pan trudged toward me.
Rozalin’s, Serris’s, and Hati’s gazes all focused on him.
Rozalin wore an expression that said, surely not, yet looked unable to contain her amusement.
When Pan finally reached his destination, he dropped to one knee and stared straight down at the Spear God.
The Spear God’s eyes locked onto Pan’s.
“Grandpa, fight me too.”
It was a declaration of war.
“What?”
“I watched you fight Teacher, and I think I can manage. Fight me too.”
“Hah? What? Why? Huh? Whaaaat?!”
Since when had Pan’s mouth become that sharp?
I did not remember him being so aggressive by nature.
Had he picked it up from kids like Jelta?
No… at that level, was it Rozalin after all?
I shot Rozalin a sideways glare, and she flailed both hands furiously, looking wronged.
“Teacher! What on earth did you do to him? Give us back our gentle, sweet Pan!”
“?”
An aggressive personality did not suit me at all, did it?
I looked at Rozalin with that thought in mind, but she avoided my gaze.
What was that about?
“I will not fight!”
“What? Why not?”
“You think I do not see what you are aiming for? Why would I fight! Bah, move aside! I am an invalid! You want to fight an old man who just took a blade to the heart? Do you want to bully the disabled that badly—”
“Scared?”
“What, what did you just say? Huh? Scared? You say I am scared?”
“Triggered?”
“Why, you little brat!”
The Spear God’s face reddened with rage, but in the end, he never sprang to his feet.
For someone with such a combative disposition, his restraint was strangely pronounced.
Why?
“It is Pan, after all.”
“Pan? What about him?”
“In the final battle, everyone who survived until the end had their lives saved by Pan at least once, whether in big ways or small. If you count the regressions, the world itself was saved on a massive scale. Fighting Pan equals a world-ending crisis. That kind of formula gets burned into your head.”
“So even the Spear God holds back when it comes to Pan.”
That he did not react even to that level of provocation was impressive.
“Well, that, and I kind of want to protect him.”
“Hm?”
“I told you what Pan was like originally. When I see the Pan of today after knowing that, he looks like he has been starved somewhere, weak and fragile, like he would collapse if you tapped him.”
“……Hm.”
That was a sensation difficult for me to empathize with, lacking memories of the future.
In any case, Pan’s provocations continued steadily all the way until we reached the capital.
They did not stop because we were about to visit the Lionheart Knights.
The reason was something else.
Something far more shocking.
***
The day we arrived in the imperial capital, the weather was clear.
The winter sky shone with its characteristic cold brilliance, and the biting wind forced us to bundle up in thicker clothing.
“……Ah.”
As I fastened my cloak, I pricked my fingertip on the clasp.
It was a mistake I would not normally make.
“It is a wound.”
Serris healed my finger using divine power.
The bleeding stopped quickly, but for some reason, the sensation of the metal biting into my skin lingered with a faint ache.
“You are Cassian, correct?”
The moment we passed through the entrance checkpoint, a man who appeared to have been sent by Abrahal sprang lightly into the carriage.
“You will need to change your destination immediately.”
“Why? Did those Lionheart bastards recognize us? Are they planning an interception?”
“Is it Dark Moon? Or Blue Moon?”
“At Cassian’s level, it would not be strange for intelligence groups to take an interest. But they would not try to eliminate him outright.”
Everyone in the carriage chimed in at once.
“No. Your destination is the Imperial Royal Academy.”
I focused on the man’s solemn expression.
The slight tremor at the corner of his eyes, the sigh mixed into his voice, the subtle way his body language centered on me.
Despite not having crossed blades, information flowed into my mind more clearly than if we had.
There was no clear logical chain of cause and effect, yet the wound from this morning surfaced faintly in my thoughts.
With a sense of foreboding, I asked him,
“Professor Hollians is… in critical condition?”
At my question, the man stared at me with his mouth agape, clearly startled.
He hesitated several times before trying to speak.
That hesitation alone was answer enough.
“……Please move the carriage quickly.”
In a situation like this, it was more important than meeting the Lionheart Knight Commander.
The man nodded and urged the coachman onward.
I looked up at the sky beyond the carriage window.
On a day like this, it almost felt as though rain should fall.
But the sky was clear, and the wind was cold.
The carriage arrived at the waiting grounds of the Imperial Royal Academy.
Numerous carriages already occupied the area.
Crowds disembarked, and judging by their skin tones and attire, people had gathered from all corners of the world.
“To Zone B-13.”
At the man’s instruction, the coachman guided the horses forward.
Several carriages were already parked there, but they moved aside as soon as they saw ours.
From one of them, Abrahal stepped down along with his attendants.
In an attendant’s hands were a black coat and cloak tailored to my size.
“I am not sure whether to say it is fortunate you arrived early, or—”
“……When was it?”
“Last evening. He passed quietly in his sleep.”
Professor Hollians had completed his long life and entered eternal rest.
He was eighty-eight years old.