ESL Chapter 57

Zakar caught his sword and looked at Ian with curiosity as Ian slid back. It had been a light swing, but the mere fact that Ian had blocked his sword meant he was quite skilled.

“From the way you handle your sword, you’re a knight. Looking at your movements, you seem fairly capable at concealing yourself too. You don’t seem to be a knight of a lower noble house… Which house do you belong to?”

Ian tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, impressed by the man’s sharp eye for having discerned from a single clash of blades that he was a knight of a high noble house. The red-haired man standing before him was dangerous. Every instinct in his body was sounding alarms telling him he was no match for this opponent, yet Ian could not retreat. As a knight of the Kaien Duchy, and as the lady’s personal guard, he had to hold his ground.

“Well… it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s entertaining, that’s enough. Shall I play with you for a bit?”

Reading the resolve in Ian’s eyes that he would never open his mouth, Zakar clicked his tongue and lifted his greatsword. A short distance away, Guster was locked in an evenly matched fight with another man, but that one was at roughly the same level as the man before him, so he held little interest. He raised his greatsword and brought it down toward Ian with a casual swing, as though swatting a branch.

“Urgh…!”

A groan escaped Ian’s lips as he raised his sword to block Zakar’s greatsword. The powerful impact transmitted through the greatsword rampaged through his insides. But Ian gritted his teeth, ducked low to press in close, and swung his sword.

“Damn…!”

Guster glanced over and confirmed that Ian’s situation was not good, then broke away from the sword he had been pressing against. Even if he went to help, he couldn’t guarantee they could defeat the red-haired man. But for now, it was the only option, so he swung his sword fiercely at Kun, who was blocking his path.

Clang! Kun parried Guster’s sword and stood blocking his way, leveling his blade.

“Tch… you have no intention of stepping aside easily, do you? What a troublesome opponent.”

Guster’s eyes changed as he began to fight Kun with full force. The moment he revealed the ability he had been concealing, the tide turned, and Kun began to be pushed back by Guster’s sword. He had nearly driven him to defeat and victory was about to be decided when Guster’s sharp hearing caught Ian’s crisis.

“Ugh!”

At the faint sound of Ian’s groan, Guster stopped pressing Kun and quickly stepped back several paces, turning his gaze to Ian. Seeing Ian — seemingly cut somewhere, having dropped his sword and fallen to one knee — and Zakar slowly lowering his greatsword with bored, disinterested eyes, Guster tried to lunge in that direction. But he quickly stopped and assessed the situation. Something was diving down from above toward Ian.

“Ian!”

A clear voice rang through the air as a robe billowed and scattered in the sky. Zakar raised a dark eyebrow slightly as his greatsword was blocked by the sudden intruder. He had been swinging the sword slowly, toying with Ian like a lion playing with a mouse — yet that had not been enough time to pick up a fallen sword and block his blow.

“Oh~”

Those cold, inorganic silver eyes began to gleam with interest. He couldn’t make out the features beneath the robe, but judging by the aura emanating from whoever had blocked his sword, they were by no means beneath him.

“…….”

Lea deflected Zakar’s greatsword and swiftly assessed Ian’s condition. She couldn’t see clearly since his head was bowed, but the long gash across his chest and the volume of blood flowing from it were alarming.

“Ian!”

At her second call, the bowed Ian barely lifted his head and looked up at her. Seeing Ian’s face, pale to the point where it would not be strange for him to collapse at any moment, Lea’s eyes grew heavy and dark.

“…I couldn’t… hold on… I’m sorry…”

Unable to finish his words, Ian crumpled to the ground.

Ian…!

Lea felt urgency rising within her and bit her lower lip. Looking at his condition, she needed to get a potion into him immediately if there was any hope of saving his life. But the situation was unfavorable. Guster was still mid-battle, and for her own part, the red-haired man standing before her was too formidable to simply turn away from to administer a potion. On top of that, for reasons unknown, the red-haired man had let his greatsword hang loose as he studied her with an intrigued gaze, making it impossible to take her eyes off him. Just then —

“Lady Lea…!”

At the sound of Berchel’s voice accompanied by the patter of approaching footsteps, Lea’s eyes lit up. While keeping watch on Zakar’s movements, she quickly opened her dimensional space and withdrew a potion Abel had made for her. Then she swiftly threw it toward Berchel.

“Berchel! Give that to Ian!”

He seemed startled by the glass vial that suddenly flew at him, but he caught it on reflex, and upon seeing Ian collapsed on the ground, he grasped the urgency of the situation and ran to him. After confirming that Berchel was heading toward Ian, Lea let out a brief sigh of relief — then stiffened at a low, deep voice.

“Interesting. To think I’d see someone using dimensional space as a supply pouch… Or rather, since it’s not a man, should I say ‘girl’?”

Looking at Zakar as he smiled, Lea felt her body tense. The red-haired man, who appeared languid yet showed no openings, was a remarkably handsome man — one difficult to forget after seeing just once. If Luciel had an appearance that gave off a beautiful, refined impression, this man had a rugged, wild masculinity to his looks. But the drowsy madness flowing from his cold silver eyes sent a chill down her spine. It felt as though she were face to face with a wild beast.

He’s powerful. With my current ability, I might be able to hold out, but I cannot win.

She glanced over toward Guster. It seemed that if she could stall just a little longer, he would be able to subdue his opponent and join her here. And as if reading her thoughts, Zakar spoke with unhurried ease.

“Then shall we play a little until that one comes over? This is the first time I’ve come across a girl who uses a sword — it rather whets my appetite.”

The moment the words ended, his greatsword came driving toward her. Knowing well the force behind that blade, Lea raised her sword to block and deflected it with the minimum amount of force, letting it glance off. Being weaker in strength and muscle than a man, her specialty was not meeting force with force, but subtly twisting to redirect and drain it. In an instant, the two exchanged several blows. The number of times their swords clashed was not many, yet the exchange was enough to make even Guster — who had been driving Kun back — stop and stare in surprise.

For someone whose appearance gave absolutely no hint that she could handle a sword, the bloodline of the Kaien Duchy truly does not disappear.

Thinking that he would have to report this to Razen when he returned, Guster pressed Kun all the more ferociously.

Zakar looked at the robed woman holding her sword leveled at him and smiled slowly, with an air of satisfaction. Swordsmanship of this level would have been intriguing even from a man — and she was a woman at that. Feeling a desire to claim the opponent before him as a plaything beginning to stir within him, he raised his greatsword.

As the madness glinting in his silver eyes deepened, Lea tightened her grip on her sword. Until just moments ago, the opponent had been handling her as if in play. She, too, had not been fighting at full strength. But now that her opponent was growing serious, she had to as well.

This time, it was Lea who struck first. Zakar raised his greatsword to block her downward swing, and she quickly retreated and drove into his right flank. Zakar parried that attack and lightly swung the greatsword toward her; Lea likewise sidestepped the greatsword, fell back, then drove in to attack again. An exchange of blows with no room to breathe broke out, and small cuts began to appear on Lea’s body as well. The same was true of Zakar, though he had fewer than she.

What’s this?

Mid-attack on Zakar, Lea caught a sudden opening in his guard and furrowed her brow slightly. If she thrust her sword in now, she could wound the shoulder of his sword arm. It might be a trap — but she couldn’t afford to simply waste time stalling, so she resolved to take the gamble and thrust her sword toward the gap.

Thud.

With the sound of flesh tearing, red blood sprayed as her sword sank into Zakar’s shoulder. The man’s body was unnaturally solid, and she couldn’t drive it in deep with her strength alone. Even so, he should have at least staggered from a wound like this — yet his body didn’t move even a fraction. Instead, a low, deep voice laced with amusement rang in her ears.

“That’s the price to pay to see your face, then.”

Lea reacted in alarm, hastily pulling her sword back and retreating — but his other hand had already seized her robe. In an instant the robe was yanked and pulled away, and jet-black long hair flew through the air. With it, a snow-white face with crimson eyes that smoldered like flickering flames was reflected in full in his silver gaze. Having gotten his wish and confirmed the face of the beautiful young woman, Zakar smiled with languid satisfaction.

“Worth the price. Quite pretty.”