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“Hey, Russ. What was that foolish act yesterday all about?”

They were referring to Russ’s reckless charge during the appearance of a demon the previous day. It was an act that endangered not just Russ but the entire Tenes Knight Order. Naturally, they couldn’t remain silent about it.

However, Russ continued swinging his sword as if he hadn’t heard them. One of the knights, Sir Harris, exclaimed in frustration.

“You idiot! If you’re going to act on your own, the least you could do is apologize!”

Russ then turned around, his gaze chillingly cold as he looked at Sir Harris.

“I was merely trying to take down that demon.”

His attitude showed no hint of realization that he might have endangered his comrades. Another knight, Sir Patain, clenched his teeth and shouted.

“Who asked you to take on that demon?”

Both were visibly frustrated. Russ was always like this, always disobeying orders and acting on his own whim, yet facing no repercussions because he was favored by the head of the family, Count Tenes. Russ, a mere bastard, was oddly cherished by Polt Tenes, even against the strong objections of Sir Eusus, to the extent of including him in the Tenes Knights Order.

Naturally, no one in the Tenes Knights Order liked Russ. Even if it weren’t for the respect they held for their captain, Sir Eusus, this gloomy-faced young man in his twenties was simply not likable. Despite being a bastard, he acted as though he were a noble, dismissing others without proper socialization and relying solely on the favor of the head of the family to act recklessly. This time, too, he had disobeyed orders and charged at Sephiatan on his own accord.

“Didn’t you hear the order to wait until the leader arrives, you brat?”

At that, Russ turned his head sharply and muttered under his breath.

“… I, too, am a sword of Tenes.”

The expressions of Sir Harris and Sir Patain twisted simultaneously. Facing them, Russ narrowed his eyes and retorted in a chilling voice.

“If you have a complaint, request a duel. I will accept it.”

“Ugh!”

Both seemed ready to draw their swords at any moment. However, they ultimately did not.

It wasn’t simply because Russ was of the Tenes family’s bloodline. To them, that bloodline meant little more than being a bastard, and besides the family head, everyone disliked him. There would hardly be any punishment for cutting him down in a duel. In fact, Sir Eusus might even secretly praise them for it.

Yet, they did not draw their swords, and the reason was simple.

Russ was strong.

The swordsmanship he had learned was only one: a downward slash, along with the corresponding breathing technique.

His other sword techniques were all clumsy. However, this clumsiness was only in the eyes of someone as powerful as Eusus. To the average knight, his skills were more than formidable.

“Filthy mongrel…”

The knights, grinding their teeth, finally turned away with snorts of disdain. Watching them leave with a cold gaze, Russ took up his sword again and assumed his stance, then he slashed downwards.

With a perfect breath, the blade cut through the air, tracing a flawless trajectory.

A satisfying sensation flowed through his arms, filling his entire body.

This time, he changed his stance and slashed horizontally.

A clumsy breath, a clumsy strike brushed the air. It might appear powerful to ordinary knights, but for Russ, who knew perfection, it was an utterly unsatisfying blow.

Curses flowed from his lips.

“Damn it…”

He didn’t understand. No matter how much he practiced, he couldn’t grasp how to execute other moves as perfectly as the downward slash.

A sensation almost within reach yet incomplete. Something was missing. No matter how much he swung his sword, that missing piece remained unfilled.

The words of his father, Polt Tenes, came to mind.

-I’m sorry, my son. This is all I can give you now.

Even if they had forgotten true swordsmanship, the Count Tenes family was a noble house of knights, naturally possessing sword techniques for their knights. However, Russ was unable to learn them. Those techniques belonged not to the Tenes but to their vassals, and all the vassals opposed teaching their sword techniques to someone who was merely a bastard. Thus, his father could only impart one thing to him.

“This is the swordsmanship originally possessed by our family, the fragment of that great sword.”

The only remaining downward strike technique was still a part of Tenes’ swordsmanship. Hence, even the loyal retainers could not oppose teaching it to Russ. That downward strike was the only thing he could learn.

Russ had no choice. The magical armor, Eldrad, belonged to Eusus. The powerful force capable of facing aura users was not bestowed upon him. What was given to him were mere incomplete remnants of the past.

Now, it was a swordsmanship no one sought, considered trash.

“But it’s also the true path to the aura.”

Once a true sword capable of drawing great power, properly mastered, it could become a true Tenes sword. Not a shameful warrior who borrows the power of magical tools, but one who could wield the sword of a great knight.

“You might be able to awaken this forgotten power.”

His father had hoped so. And Russ did not want to let down that expectation.

However, it was a path that could never be reached with just a single downward strike. No matter how much he searched for it, swung his sword again and again, the fragments of the lost swordsmanship never resurfaced.

“Ugh!”

Eventually, Russ threw his sword and screamed out in frustration, his chest feeling as if it would burst.

* * *

On the second floor of a building constructed of gray bricks, beyond the windows overgrown with dried ivy, Eusus silently looked outside.

In the coldness of the setting sun, he saw Russ dedicated to his training in the corner of the backyard. Eusus frowned.

“Hmph…”

In Eusus’ eyes, looking at his half-brother, there was nothing but hatred and contempt.

His father, Polt Tenes, was a cold man. Whether dealing with him or his mother, the Countess of Tenes, he always showed a business-like and cold demeanor.

As a child, he didn’t find it particularly strange. He simply thought of it as the cool demeanor befitting a warrior. Although he felt sorry seeing his mother cry secretly at night, he didn’t hate his father for it.

He began to hate his father 15 years ago, right after his mother passed away, when he heard that he had a half-brother.

It was not unusual for nobles to have one or two illegitimate children. Therefore, the existence of a half-brother was not particularly surprising. However, the expression on his father’s face when he met that brother was shockingly different.

His usual cold expression was nowhere to be seen. Looking at Russ, Count Eusus von Tenes wore a face full of affection and love, the very picture of a ‘father’. The sight of him bringing his mistress into the family made one doubt whether this man was indeed the father they knew.

It was then that he realized.

That his father was not inherently cold-hearted. His father’s cold demeanor was reserved solely for himself, and his mother, the Countess of Tenes. Originally, his father was a passionate man who, in his youth, even attempted to elope with Russ’s mother, Eiri. Despite the failure and the strategic marriage to his mother, he continued to secretly meet Eiri whenever possible.

His father did not love his mother. The only woman he ever loved was Eiri.

Nor did he love his son. The only child he truly cherished was the one born from the woman he held in his heart.

As the heir to the family, he was forced into a strategic marriage, separating from his love. Outsiders might sympathize with the father, seeing it as a beautiful and sad tale of love.

However, this story utterly ignores the grief of the legitimate wife and her children. Even if the marriage was bound by a family pact, the mother strived to love her husband. As his wife and the lady of the Count house, she lived a life without shame.

‘Is this how you repay my mother, by bringing that mongrel into our house as soon as she passes, father!’

Eusus clenched his fist unconsciously. The mere thought of his deceased mother and the contemptible woman who took her place filled him with rising anger.

Immediately after his mother’s death, his father brought Eiri into the Count house, along with her son. Despite being a bastard, he acknowledged him as his legitimate son, even bestowing upon him a knighthood against the family’s opposition. This current expedition was no different, forcing him into the exploration team despite everyone’s objections. No matter the love, such actions were unbefitting of nobility.

Eusus’s gaze on Russ, a thorn in his side, suddenly turned cold.

The perfect trajectory of Russ’s downward slash was vividly captured in the eyes of Eusus, a swordsman.

The movement, sharp and smooth as if splitting the space itself, remained chillingly perfect in its execution. Eusus bit his lip.

“Indeed…”

He, too, had not neglected to learn that downward slash. As the heir to the Tenes family, he couldn’t ignore the one remaining sword technique. Yet, he could never replicate such a flawless trajectory.

“That bastard is……”

Of course, Eusus had not properly trained in the downward slash. He was the successor to inherit Eldrad, and thus, he had devoted all his efforts to mastering the use of magic armor. For him, acquiring a surefire strength was a more definite path for the family than dedicating himself to the swordsmanship of a family that had already fallen into disrepute.

However, even with effort, he doubted if he could ever demonstrate such prowess.

“He’s a genius…”

Russ, who knew nothing but the downward slash, had nevertheless reached a considerable level in other movements as well. He had innovated these movements and breathing techniques on his own, without any relation to the downward slash. Although they did not come close to the power of the downward slash, they were by no means trivial. In fact, they were not inferior to the swordsmanship of quite a few noble guards.

“To think he could do so much without being taught anything…”

If a genius is someone who learns ten things when taught one,

What do you call someone who learns ten things without being taught even one?

Russ was that kind of person.

Even Eusus, who hated Russ, could not deny that the latter was a possessor of talent beyond what the word ‘genius’ could convey.

“… That’s probably why father clings to him all the more.”

The Golden Knight of Graim was looked upon with awe everywhere. As a magic swordsman who handled Eldrad, he was confident that he would not be inferior in combat against most aura users. He had put in the effort, and as much as he had put in, he had received the price of strength in return.

Yet, there was an emotion lodged in his heart like a splinter.

“After all, a magic swordsman is just a magic swordsman.”

While the laymen revered him, the true strong ones never acknowledged him. Although they praised him to his face, behind his back, they scoffed at him as merely the power of a magical tool. Eusus was not unaware of this fact. A shameless knight who parades the power of magical tools as his own strength, this was the other side of the title held by the illustrious Golden Knight of Graim.

And this was also a longstanding concern of the Count of Tenes family. To the Count living in such unseen disdain, Russ’s talent must have felt like a ray of light. If that was the intention, it was not entirely incomprehensible why his father acted the way he did.

“But that’s about it.”

Understanding did not mean he agreed. Eusus snorted. He understood what was expected, but realistically, Russ was just a mere knight who had mastered only one technique.