Water Magician

Vol 4. Chapter 732: Zack Does His Best

And so, the mock battle between the two of them ended.

When Zack was struck in the torso, he collapsed, but of course, his body had not suffered any serious damage.

It was a mock battle, after all, and they had been using wooden swords.

The reason he had collapsed was, rather, that his heart had broken...

“That was magnificent. At the end, did you receive it with the hilt?”

“Yes. He was luring me into a diagonal cut, so I went along with it, then used the hilt to receive his downward strike... between both fists, knocked it upward, and followed with the body strike.”

“That’s something only you can do, Ryo, with the space you leave between your fists.”

“It’s a cool technique.”

It was a technique he had seen back on Earth at the All-Japan Kendo Championship.

“Still, it was very educational. As expected of a company commander of the Knightley Kingdom’s knight orders. The fact that he could keep striking with a barrage like that must be because he never misses a day of training, right? His sword path was proper, his body movement—or maybe I should say his footwork—was proper too, and I could feel that there was no cutting corners anywhere in his swordsmanship. Zack’s sword is the Hume style you mastered, isn’t it, Abel?”

“It is. It may not look it, but the Cooler family is a famous martial house that has produced knights for generations. To be honest, when he was younger, he wasn’t especially serious about the sword, but for the past four years, he seems to have turned over a new leaf and devoted himself to the path of the sword.”

“Yes, yes. I could feel his seriousness. I’d like to hear why he turned over a new leaf. It might help me in my future life.”

“Ahh, I don’t know about that. I think you might be better off not asking.”

Ryo stated his wish innocently, and Abel, who knew the whole situation, stopped him.

Abel felt it would be better to change the subject.

“When you asked at first whether you should do it like in Rune, I panicked because I thought you were going to beat him down completely.”

“What would be the point of beating him down? Since it was a mock battle, I should use it to study and practice what I want to acquire, shouldn’t I?”

“What you want to acquire?”

“How do I put this... I go into mock battles with a theme.”

“With a theme? What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain... but for example, today’s theme was ‘focus on upper-body defense without moving my feet much.’”

“I thought so. Your stance and footwork were different from usual right from the start, so I suspected as much.”

“As expected of you, Abel. I’m impressed you noticed from the beginning.”

Ryo was honestly surprised.

Abel’s observation meant that he had grasped Ryo’s usual stance and way of fighting well enough to say today’s was different.

“My information is being extracted by Abel.”

“I pay attention to anyone’s sword. You never know when it might be useful to you.”

Abel answered with a laugh to Ryo’s deliberately ominous words.

“Zack’s sword earlier... his barrage was sharp.”

“Well, Zack isn’t weak.”

“What an arrogant way to put it.”

“No, Zack isn’t weak. What I mean is that he was being swallowed by the pressure you gave off, Ryo.”

“My pressure? Was there any? I wasn’t using ‘pressure’ or anything.”

Ryo tilted his head at Abel’s comment.

“Not something superficial like your usual ‘pressure.’ It was more essential... the kind of fear only a swordsman, or a knight, would understand.”

“Fear?”

“The fear that if you strike at this man, you’ll be the one cut down... the fear you can’t help but feel.”

“There was something like that? That sounds kind of cool.”

Ryo’s expression mixed embarrassment and happiness.

“I ended up knocking Zack down at the end, but was that all right?”

“He isn’t badly hurt, is he?”

“No, I mean in terms of face, or position.”

Zack was a company commander, leading half the Knightley Kingdom knights aboard the ship.

Ryo was worried that he might have crushed Zack’s standing.

“It’s not a problem. Just look at the knights.”

But Abel said it would be fine.

In fact, the knights had begun swinging their swords.

Due to the limited space on deck, some could not swing their swords, but they were earnestly discussing the mock battle just now.

Regardless of who had won or lost at the end, it seemed to have breathed new motivation into the knights’ hearts.

“I’m glad.”

Seeing that, Ryo was relieved.

While fighting, he had wondered whether it might be better to end the match without deciding a winner.

But Zack’s sword had been extremely sharp, and as they fought, Ryo had warmed to it as well.

Of course, not to the point of losing his calm...

“In real-combat formats like mock battles, you notice all sorts of things no matter who you fight.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true. Sometimes they attack or defend in ways you never imagined before, or show you sword and body movements you hadn’t anticipated.”

“Exactly! It’s very educational.”

Ryo nodded with great delight.

Ryo did not think of himself as a battle maniac.

But he was aware that he did not dislike crossing swords.

For Ryo, mock battles were not true life-or-death fights, so rather than disliking them, he actually liked them.

As the two of them were having that conversation, the two company commanders approached.

“Duke Rondo, thank you for your instruction.”

Zack said that and bowed deeply.

“Oh, no, no. It was a very educational mock battle for me as well. Thank you.”

Ryo was a little worried that Zack, who had bowed so forcefully, might still be suffering from the damage of the mock battle, but he looked all right, so Ryo felt relieved.

Zack turned toward his lord and continued.

“Your Majesty Abel, I have cleared my mind.”

“O-oh. I see.”

“I was nowhere near enough.”

“Hm?”

“From now on, I will devote myself to the path of the sword even more seriously. I understood that otherwise, I will never reach him.”

“...Hm?”

“Then, excuse me.”

After saying that, Zack walked to the opposite side of the deck with a certain kind of high spirits and began swinging his sword.

“He said he’d cleared his mind, but he didn’t clear his mind ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ about that matter?”

“It does not seem so. I believe he merely cleared away the gloomy feelings that were troubling him.”

“I see... Well, I suppose that’s fine.”

Scotty and Abel exchanged whispers.

Yes, Zack had not gotten over the matter of Sera.

He had cleared his mind in the sense that he had decided he needed to work even harder.

To be honest, even people other than those two probably would not understand what that meant.

And there was one more person, the Premier Duke, who misunderstood and was impressed by Zack’s figure.

“Zack is amazing. He’s full of motivation. To devote himself to the path of the sword... I don’t think there are many knights who can declare that so clearly in front of their sovereign.”

“Y-yes. That’s true...”

That was all Abel could say.