IMBS 12

Chapter – 12

Firanzeva created a mana hole and mana circles, but she didn’t inform others about it. Only a few people, including the Eastern Marquis, knew about it.

Given this situation, the other trainees training with her were also unaware of this fact.

The group of trainees, displeased with Firanzeva, who appeared at the training ground after three days of rest, openly picked a fight with her. As always, Firanzeva ignored them and focused only on her own tasks.

After creating the mana hole, Firanzeva showed a physical advantage over the other trainees.

Firanzeva was the youngest among the trainees, but her attitude and performance in training were always first among the 30.

“Chadrin is targeting you. You should be careful this time.”

Skullie warned Firanzeva as she passed by.

Upon receiving such a warning, Firanzeva let out a scoff.

‘You guys who start fights are the worse ones, you bastards.’

Cursing Skullie inwardly, Firanzeva shifted her gaze to look at Chadrin.

‘They haven’t openly picked a fight since I took down those guys in the market.’

Thinking that Midorant’s actions had become lukewarm, she figured Chadrin was stepping up this time.

‘Chadrin is stronger than Midorant. And the kids under him are also excellent.’

The corners of Firanzeva’s mouth curled up.

‘They’ll make good training partners. I need to practice combos to be able to hunt Hobgoblins against them.’

If people found out that an eight-year-old was making plans to hunt Hobgoblins, they might lock her in her room and never let her out again.

Due to the situation where many knights and soldiers were away for monster subjugation, the trainees aspiring to become knights were given more personal time for self-training than before.

Firanzeva trained alone with a wooden sword. Her basic movements—downward strikes, horizontal slashes, and thrusts—were flawless, likely due to her long training.

“That guy only does that every day.”
“What do you mean, he sometimes does slashes and swings too. Hehe.”

While the other trainees laughed at Firanzeva’s training, the knight trainees, a step above them, thought differently when they saw Firanzeva training hard.

“Aren’t his movements really perfect? There’s no disruption in his posture, and power seems to be properly channeled into his sword.”
“I’m amazed every time I see him. I heard he’s only eight years old.”

The knight trainees made comments while watching Firanzeva train.

“It seems like only a few of them will become our juniors.”
Looking at the trainees as seniors, their behavior was just pitiful.
“Why? We were all like that back then. Of course, the ringleaders were all expelled.”
“But they’re nobles, so even if they’re expelled, they’ll live well.”
“I guess. There must be nobles among them too.”

The voices of these people conversing quite far away reached Firanzeva’s ears clearly.

After creating the mana hole, her body was remodeled, and not only her physical abilities but also her five senses had greatly improved.

‘So they were all expelled.’

Hearing that, Firanzeva scoffed.
‘But that Midorant guy seems to be a noble.’

She had seen the men in the market bowing their heads to Midorant and thought he was a noble.

The empire’s nobles are divided into hereditary nobles and common nobles.

Hereditary nobles receive titles and fiefs from the emperor. To manage these fiefs, they grant titles to people who assist them, so they can manage the fiefs together.

Simply put, hereditary nobles are granted by the emperor, and common nobles are granted by hereditary nobles.

As the name implies, hereditary nobles can pass their fiefs and titles to their children, while common nobles cannot pass their titles to their children.

However, it’s common practice for hereditary nobles to grant titles to the children of those who have been managing the fiefs together, maintaining noble families who are well-informed about the fief, rather than granting titles to new people.

Firanzeva thought about Midorant for a moment but soon dismissed the thought and focused on her training.

‘The Heavenly Demon Art contained mental techniques, sword techniques, blade techniques, movement techniques, fist techniques, golden silk techniques, and sound techniques.’

Before formally learning the Heavenly Demon Art, she needed to check her physical condition.

‘First, I’ll learn the fist techniques and build up my stamina until I can wield a real sword freely.’

While she was lost in thought, one of Chadrin’s lackeys approached Firanzeva.

“Firanzeva.”

At his call, she stopped training and looked at him.
“Aren’t you bored just training alone? How about we spar?”
“Spar?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it too boring just swinging your sword at the air?”

She thought he was making this proposal to insult her, but Firanzeva wasn’t one to avoid it.
“Alright, let’s do it. But what if we get hurt during the spar?”
“You have to handle that yourself.”

A smile formed on Firanzeva’s lips.
“Okay. Then let’s get permission from the seniors. We might get disciplined because of this, you know.”

To preemptively block any potential disciplinary action resulting from what was to come, Firanzeva informed the squires that she intended to spar with them. The squires, thinking it was a rare and entertaining spectacle, permitted it.

“Good. I’ll get permission from Sir Rodman, so get ready.”

The spar with Chadrin’s group was reported up to a knight, and once the knight’s permission was given, they immediately began the spar.

People formed a square around the training ground, and inside it, Firanzeva and Holland, who had the best swordsmanship among Chadrin’s lackeys, stood facing each other, maintaining distance.

With the signal announcing the start of the spar, Holland rushed at Firanzeva at a fearsome speed and swung his sword.

The sword, with added acceleration, carried strong force.

*Thwack!*

Firanzeva lightly blocked Holland’s sword and perfectly blocked Holland’s subsequent attacks as well.

Holland’s swordsmanship was flashy. He attacked Firanzeva’s entire body from various angles, enough to dazzle the opponent’s eyes.

But that was all.

Although Holland’s swordsmanship had many variations, it wasn’t very effective against Firanzeva, whose sensory perception was exceptional.

However, to the onlookers, it seemed like Holland was overwhelming Firanzeva, so they thought Holland would win this match.

*Thwack… thwack… thwack…….*

“Did you see that?”

But the knights watching the spar from behind, unlike the children, looked at Firanzeva with surprised expressions and asked the colleague next to them.
“It’s not just blocking the sword; he seems to be using deflection to minimize the damage to himself. Who taught him deflection?”

In swordsmanship, the deflection technique is considered an intermediate-level skill and hadn’t been properly taught to the trainees yet.
“No one among us taught him. I sometimes see him training with the Captain. Did the Captain teach him?”
“But that…….”
One knight pointed at Firanzeva.
“Why?”
“Firanzeva has been maintaining a constant distance from Holland from the beginning until now.”
“What?”

The knights’ eyes turned to Firanzeva.

It was true.

While dodging or blocking Holland’s fierce attacks, she maintained a constant distance between them.

“Could it be that he knows the concept of zone?”
“Knowing it and putting it into practice are different. I barely managed to grasp it only after becoming a knight.”

Zone!

This technique, commonly referred to as space, was a very important technique for swordsmen.

Because everyone’s innate physical abilities are different, finding the distance where one can best utilize their swordsmanship when fighting an opponent is recognized as one of the important skills for knights.

This distance, or effective radius, is called the zone, and Firanzeva was now using the zone against Holland.

While the knights were having these thoughts, Firanzeva, who had only been defending, counterattacked.

After parrying the sword thrusting forward with strong force, she spun around and attacked with a horizontal slash.

“Ugh!”

Holland, surprised, stepped back and avoided Firanzeva’s attack.

Firanzeva pursued Holland and attacked using only the three movements she had been training: downward strikes, horizontal slashes, and thrusts.

Holland couldn’t properly block these seemingly obvious attacks.

“Ugh!”

The sword carried a heavy force.

Although Holland was two years older than Firanzeva, the force behind the sword wasn’t something Holland could easily block.

‘What kind of strength does this guy have…….’

Holland was instantly put on the defensive. He tried to find another method, but the thought that he might die if hit by Firanzeva’s downward strike made him only defend.

Eventually, Holland lost his balance while blocking Firanzeva’s sword, and with one knee lowered, he held his wooden sword with both hands above his head and blocked Firanzeva’s downward strike once more.

From then on, Firanzeva relentlessly struck down at Holland’s wooden sword, as if intending to break it.

“Ugh!”

The expressions of Chadrin’s lackeys twisted, while the expressions of Midorant’s lackeys brightened.

This was because they had previously picked fights with Firanzeva without much success and were ignored by Chadrin and Simid, but now Chadrin was in the same situation as them.

*Whack… whack… whack… whack… whack…….*

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

The knights, seeing Holland on his knees blocking Firanzeva’s downward strikes, thought they should stop it before a major accident happened.
“Yeah, we should. The wooden sword might not hold.”

Just as one of the knights stepped forward to stop the match, Firanzeva’s wooden sword collided with Holland’s blocking wooden sword.

*Crackle!*

Holland’s wooden sword shattered, and Firanzeva’s wooden sword fell directly towards Holland’s head. Holland instinctively shut his eyes tightly.

“Stop!”

The knight’s voice seemed a step too late, but Firanzeva’s wooden sword stopped at Holland’s hair, and Holland flinched from the pressure.

Firanzeva looked down at Holland for a moment, then turned around and returned to her spot.

“Holland, get up.”

At the knight’s voice, Holland opened his eyes and assessed the situation.

Seeing Firanzeva standing away from him, he realized he had lost and got up.

“It was a good match. The winner of this match is Firanzeva.”

As the knight declared Firanzeva’s victory, Chadrin’s expression twisted sharply.

‘He couldn’t even block simple downward strikes and has disgraced me like this?’

Chadrin glared fiercely at Holland. Seeing this, Firanzeva felt sorry for Holland.

‘Holland will end up in the same situation as me. Well, that’s good for me.’

She thought that the attention of the lackeys, which had been focused on her, would shift to Holland, so it seemed she would have a slightly easier time from now on.

‘By the way, when will I get to go to the Mantova Mountains?’