? The First Letter (28) ?

One should always be cautious with the use of force.

Every authoritarian essentially has the trait of privatizing force. In the eyes of the rulers, uncontrollable power is evil, and it was only judged as a thorn to be removed by any means possible.

It was only then that order could be maintained.

The order of the Empire originates from the Emperor, the order of the Southern Kingdoms originates from the Kings of each Kingdom, and the order of the Holy Kingdom originates from the God Arus. What they all had in common was that they were the pinnacle of power in each state.

Therefore, ‘just violence’ is something which only the authorities have the right to wield. This was also the case at the academy, which nurtures talented people who will shoulder the future of each nation. Rather, it would have been better to say that the Academy was a microcosm of this power struggle.

In most cases, violence was not permitted. However, everyone knew that violence was being perpetrated inside the academy, but problems didn’t arise since it was generally governed by the rules imposed by the system.

Nobles are tolerated even if they use a certain level of violence against commoners. It might change if it were to be done in a public place, but otherwise, most commoners didn’t make a big deal out of it.

You could stay as an academy student for only 4 years. After that, when they venture out into the world, the gap between nobles and commoners will become clear again, so they have no choice but to be patient.

Instead, it was customary practice for the nobles to cover everything that happened in the academy. The more this happened, the harsher the punishment bestowed upon those who dared to cross the line.

It was a strategy for the aristocracy to secure an upper hand within the academy.

Thus, while the academy might seem to advocate equality on the outside, deep down, one can’t deny the hierarchy of power.

That’s why Thean’s gang was unable to respond properly when I slapped the face of the aristocrat, or when I unsheathed the sword hanging from my waist.

It was because their brain could not comprehend the present reality.

I’m an aristocrat as well, but at best I was only the second son of a countryside Viscount.

On the other hand, even though they were from the Southern Kingdoms, Thean’s gang was a clique of children from high-ranking noble families. Actually, the first man I hit seems to be from the Empire.

However, they would never have imagined that I would suddenly attack first, and that complacency gave me a huge advantage.

I passed Thean in front of me and hit one of the gang members in the face as they tried to get up.

A man flew through the air with a great thump. Even though he had been hit with a sword’s hilt, he shouldn’t have died, but since he was hit in the face by a metal object, he must have at least lost consciousness.

Then, in the next moment, my bleak eyes sank in search of the next victim.

It was then that Thean’s gang came to their senses.

From the mouth of the man who had just been beaten by me, a couple of white teeth flew into the sky. One of the gang members saw this and let out a scream.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! What the fuck are you doi....Aarghh!”

That was his last line. It was because the way he pointed at me without drawing his sword properly caught my attention.

My next action was simple. Thean’s gang was clustered together, so my next target was also at close range.

I twisted the foot I stepped on and slammed the sword’s pommel into the man’s chin. He then made a gasping sound, and before he could even let out a muffled groan, my scabbard was slammed into his neck.

As a sound of crushing a tightly packed muscular mass resounded. The dull sound of compressed air exploding was heard.

The man’s eyes lost focus.

Thump, the giant man fell. Now, the number of people left was five, a number small enough to give it a try.

I took a deep breath and scanned the surroundings. At that moment I heard the sound of swords being drawn out. It seemed that the aristocrat I knocked out at the start was the only mage.

As the rest were drawing their swords. Then what I needed to do was simple.

Against the gang, who hesitatingly pointed their swords at me, I said with a smirk.

“Come on, bastards. Are you scared?”

Maybe because he was unable to withstand my provocation any longer, one of the gang members screamed.

“Let’s kill him! That bastard is alone!”

But in the eyes of the man who howled like that, there were signs of fear and tension that could not be hidden.

In an instant, three out of the eight fell. Even so, this was the result of not attacking Thean who can be called the strongest menace.

In fact, it was highly likely that I would have been in trouble if I had attacked Thean first. This was because Thean has one of the highest levels of skill in the Knight’s Faculty, unlike these morons.

No matter how I attacked by surprise, he was not an opponent that could be defeated with a single blow. Above all, he was a man who was surprisingly cautious and respected in his own way in the group.

Such a man could not be beaten by such underhanded means. It was only by standing up and defeating him fairly that I could defeat their gang in the truest sense.

But in this situation, no one understood my intentions. In their eyes, I was a formidable foe who was ignoring the savory prey called Thean and instead beat three of them in an instant.

Tension and fear resulted in their body becoming stiff. And as time passed, the clearer my ‘feel’ became.

The sound of me exhaling resounded in my eardrums. Time gradually passed slower. A dull, heavy atmosphere seemed to press down on the pressure points of my skin.

After the last battle with the beast, through my sharpened senses, I was able to reach a new dimension in how I perceive the world. A perception of time in which a fleeting moment and an eternity seemed to have blended together.

An imaginary trajectory was drawn before my eyes. Except for Thean, four people were running all at once towards me, their trajectory was complicated and difficult to avoid.

So I decided to opt for the next best thing.

The sword of the man who ran first was drawn. An exemplary downward slash, from the top-right to the bottom-left. I clenched my teeth and hit his sword as soon as it drew a solid line.

His sword was twisted due to my timely blow with a ‘clank’ sound and the place where it was now headed was amid the trajectory drawn by another man’s sword.

In that momentary clatter, the swords of the two entangled with each other. The swords, having received the strength of the two men, simultaneously fell to the ground. Two remaining enemies.

Suddenly, I twisted my body into the range of another man who raised his sword. The man’s eyes gleamed with embarrassment.

As if it was natural, the sword struck his solar plexus. Accompanied by the sound of him gagging, the man’s body went limp. It was then that the other sword was swung.

My body spun and moved behind the back of the man who had just got hit in the stomach. Then, the body of the man who had his torso slightly lowered came in the way of the sword.

“Argh!”

The man, having just been hit in the back with a popping sound, collapsed. The man who had just swung his sword, having accidentally knocked out his comrade, showed an expression of embarrassment. I wasn’t going to miss that chance.

With a leap, my body swooped in front of the man, who was standing in a daze. The man, who finally came to his senses, hurriedly raised his sword and tried to slash me, but my sword was faster.

“Tung,” and my sword struck the man’s sides. The man’s posture, unable to withstand the sudden shock, collapsed. I jumped up and settled down atop him.

A textbook mounting position, but I had no intention of smashing him with my fists. Before he could come to his senses, my scabbard slashed the man’s face several times.

Tak, Tak, Tak. It was only three times, but with that alone, the man’s eyes rolled back, as his consciousness gradually faded. But the price I paid to finish him was also high.

A strong blow struck me. I didn’t know when I got hit as I was on the front foot throughout this battle; The damage caused by the blow within my body differed from its outer impact.

My intestines seemed as if they were crushed, and my breathing choked. My muscles tensed spontaneously, and my movements became stiff.

The two men who initially entangled their swords ran towards me. I expected this and twisted my body to minimize the impact, but it still hurts.

I rolled on the ground, and caved in due to the pain. Then, two sword strikes slammed the spot where I just was.

If I hadn’t avoided it in time, that would have been my resting place. At least in this battle.

As I made such intense movements one after another, my breath became a little rough. Gasp, Gasp, Gasp the sound of rough breathing rang in my ears. There were still two enemies left.

Thean was still there. However, it was not a strange situation when participating in a fight. So I had to get them both sorted out as soon as possible.

The two men glared at me with even more vigilant eyes. They seemed to have realized they would be hit first if they were to rush forward.

My sharpened senses were mainly useful for counterattacks. Besides that, my greatest talents were footwork and horseback riding. In those two fields, I could be confident that I was at the top of the academy.

It was a well-known fact that footwork was important in close combat. Especially now that my senses have sharpened, so even a talented person in the same year as me could not stop me under the assumption that I do some prep work.

But now I was in a hurry. The two men had dim eyes as they waited for Thean to join them. It can’t be.

My sword was fired with an extraordinary force. It was a throw. A rotating sword flew at a frightening speed.

The two men’s eyes widened as if they hadn’t expected me to throw a weapon. The two of them swung their swords at the same time in bewilderment.

Thanks to that, my sword, which flew at a sharp speed, was deflected to the ground. But that was enough.

From a crouching position, I kicked off the ground. Before they could even come to their senses, my body dug into their range. The two men looked a little startled, but soon regained their composure.

They realized that I had no weapons. There was a limit for someone fighting with their bare hands to subdue a trained swordsman. There was a difference between armed combat and unarmed combat.

A look of relief appeared on their faces as they thought that they could at least withstand my blow. But as soon as my hand traced my waist, there was again a look of astonishment in their eyes.

Because I had one more weapon left.

Then the sound of an ax being struck resounded. It was the sound of the hatchet hitting someone’s neck, just as I intended to.

It’s just that the part that struck wasn’t the part where the blade was attached. Although the hatchet used on the contrary could not dig into the skin, it was still a great tool as a blunt weapon.

Another one fell. The remaining man stabbed with his sword as if it was an arrow. I raised the ax that I held in reverse and blocked the man’s sword blade in the corner between the handle and the ax blade.

The feeling of two solid objects interlocking with the sound of a clang crept up through my arms. The power of the opponent’s strike was so strong that I almost let go of the handle, but I clenched my teeth and gave strength to strike the sword.

I hit the chin of the last man, who still had bewildered eyes, with my head. My body, which had been slightly bent, stretched out relying on its strong flexibility and then shot upwards.

Thud, my head hurt, but it was nothing compared to the man who was hit directly in the chin.

The man who was hit in the chin staggered, then fell down. Now there were seven men moaning on the ground.

Of course, I wasn’t safe either. The muscles in the back where I got hit by that blow continued to remind me of the pain. It was normal for my head to be dizzy after hitting someone’s chin with it.

So, while staggering, I picked up the sword that I had thrown away before. I then stood up straight.

Because there was still one enemy left.

Thean Eitri. Copper skin, golden hair, and a muscular body that symbolizes a trained warrior.

He frowned, watching his gang and me fighting. His mouth opened slowly.

“.. .. I thought you were a little smarter.”

“Why did you have to touch someone who was quiet?”

With a sigh, he pulled out the great sword that was on his back. At this point, the fight could not be avoided. It was a fact that he and I knew well.historical

Even so, Thean showed a sign of dissatisfaction as he clicked his tongue. His eyes sank deeply.

“Ian, your agility and footwork have improved a lot.. In that short time frame, how did you improve your skills so quickly? Did Yurdina’s bastard give you an elixir?”

Hearing those words, I gasped since I had trouble breathing due to the my fatigue and injuries, and glared at him. A smirk came out of my mouth.

“You sleazy bastard.. They say that if you are a student of the Knight’s Faculty, you shouldn’t pry into other people’s secrets regardless of the grade you’re in.”

“They are still my competitors, aren’t they?”

“Yet you still touched the topic of Seria’s mother?”

Thean only snorted at my growling voice. A cruel light flashed in his eyes.

“I think you are misunderstanding something.....”

And the next moment.

Boom! An explosive sound echoed in front of me. Thean hit the ground and rushed in. That giant’s body was shot like a bullet.

It was unbelievable even though I was seeing it with my own eyes. Everything seemed to disappear from his vision except for me, otherwise such a straightforward charge would be impossible.

Reckless, not even considering other variables. So it felt even more powerful.

My sharpened sense had already warned that Thean was about to deliver a surprise attack. So my response was not late.

My sword blocked Thean’s sword path. But that was it.

Along with the shock wave and a thud, the sensation of my intestines being twisted surged through my body. A suppressed groan escaped from my mouth. I felt like I was about to vomit blood.

Thean’s arm muscles twitched. Footprints were dented on his location.

“Ugh....!”

“I gather information to know the opponent’s weaknesses. You know? You too, Ian.”

And once more, the great sword slammed down. With a blow that was even stronger than before, my body blocking the sword slid backwards.

My arms were already trembling, and I had only exchanged two blows with him.

My bloodshot glare turned to Thean, but he just smiled at me.

“Your mana has increased, but it is still below average. So it doesn’t matter to me.”

Thean Eitri, the heir of the Eitri County, residing in the Southern Kingdoms.

His talent as a swordsman could stem from numerous qualities. His innate viciousness and cruelty, a cautious attitude which leads him to observe the situation for a while, and the strong body — characteristic of the residents of Eitri County.

But if I had to pick just one of them, I would probably give the same answer nine times out of ten.

Mana.

His innate mana reserve was so huge that I couldn’t even compare to him.