🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 47
Friday.
The day of the duel between Yeon Mirae and the man named Arthur, whom she had mentioned.
I sent my prepared doll to the Seoul Awakened Academy as planned.
Of course…
“As expected, this barrier isn’t ordinary.”
Arriving at the entrance of the Academy, I thought this as I looked at the barrier the director must have set up.
A barrier with strength that could easily surpass that of a normal fortress wall.
There seemed to be almost no way to force a passage through it.
And if I did force my way in, a signal would immediately alert the director.
“Same goes for the entrance.”
The entrance of the Academy.
Students, staff, or anyone with pre-approved access simply passed through, while unauthorized individuals were either blocked or triggered a signal to the director.
“This… seems more secure than most guilds or criminal organizations.”
Having dealt with many security systems before, I could tell.
Among the security systems I had seen so far, few surpassed the Academy in terms of security.
Not that none existed, but very few.
With that in mind, I hid my doll in a quiet area near the Academy.
Then, quietly drawing my sword, I focused.
“Read the flow.”
Samādhi.
A power I had been concentrating on recently to completely burn away the ether forming black mist.
A power to perceive the essence of things.
With it, I read the flow of space.
“Here.”
Then, I sliced through the space.
Through my training in Samādhi, my ability to read space had naturally improved, and so had my ability to manipulate it.
Unlike before, slicing space no longer caused it to shatter.
“……”
The moment after the space was cut, a rift appeared.
It would probably close on its own after a while.
Before it did, I threw myself into the rift.
“!$@^%)#*@”
Inside the rift was a realm beyond my comprehension.
A place where normal physical laws did not apply.
No, perhaps it had its own laws of physics, but certainly not ones I could understand.
Trusting my instincts, I tried to ignore everything I could see.
Then, I swung my sword.
Swish…!
A rift similar to the one I had just seen formed.
I hurled myself toward that rift.
Thunk.
I could sense my doll’s feet touching the ground.
I could understand that my doll was breathing.
I could understand that it was observing the surrounding scenery.
In other words, inside the rift, I couldn’t comprehend any of this.
Meanwhile…
Drip…
“Ah….”
Blood started flowing from my real body’s nose.
“Geonwoo?! What’s happening?!”
“Uh… I just… need to go to the bathroom…”
“No, go to the nurse’s office. I’ll contact the nurse myself. Okay?”
“Yes….”
Following the teacher’s advice, my real body went to the nurse’s office, nose bleeding.
It seemed my brain had been strained trying to unconsciously process what I saw inside the rift.
Our homeroom teacher, seeing the strongest student suddenly start bleeding, panicked, and the nurse even went as far as contacting my mother.
Setting that aside…
“……”
After confirming the rift my doll had passed through had closed, I surveyed my surroundings.
The scenery was familiar.
It looked almost exactly like the Academy I had attended before reincarnation.
“Ah, right. The duel.”
Lost in a brief moment of nostalgia, I reminded myself of the purpose of being here.
Since the scenery was similar to the Academy I had attended, I assumed the duel arena would be in the same location I remembered.
Following that thought, I headed toward the duel arena along a familiar path.
Clang! Clang!
Upon arriving, I heard the sound of blades clashing.
“The level is high.”
I climbed to a high place and quietly observed the duels.
It wasn’t Yeon Mirae’s duel with Arthur yet, but with other students of the same age.
“Yeon Mirae’s duel… it can’t be over yet, right?”
Looking for her, I saw she was seated in the stands, watching other students duel.
Her turn hadn’t come yet.
“Then the man named Arthur…”
He was harder to find than I expected.
I didn’t know what Arthur looked like, only that he was a British exchange student who called himself Arthur.
“There can’t be too many British exchange students here…”
Among them, none of the male students appeared particularly strong.
So who was this Arthur?
“Could it be he hasn’t arrived at the arena yet?”
I even considered that possibility.
As I quietly watched other students duel, the instructor overseeing the duels announced:
“Next! Arthur! And Yeon Mirae!”
Yeon Mirae stood up.
She wasn’t alone.
From the group of exchange students, a male student stood up as well.
“… That’s Arthur?”
A man with golden hair and blue eyes.
He carried a sword prepared for dueling and headed toward the arena with Yeon Mirae.
But by my senses, he was not an aura user.
The energy in his body was not aura…
“Magic…?”
So he was a magician, not an aura user.
Of course, being a magician doesn’t prevent someone from using a sword, but…
“… Wait, he’s not even human.”
On closer inspection, he wasn’t human.
Not a monster either… ah, right.
“He’s a doll.”
A doll. As intricately made as my own doll at the Academy.
In some ways, even more sophisticated.
A doll perfected in a different way than mine.
“I enhanced my doll with something like sorcery, but he increased his doll’s perfection through traditional craftsmanship.”
In other words, it was a doll made by the original creator of doll techniques in the Awakened system’s database, or their student… or someone who independently studied doll techniques.
So…
“Yeon Mirae lost to that doll?”
Now it made sense.
Judging by the structure of this doll called Arthur, it probably couldn’t use magic effectively.
But Yeon Mirae had certainly limited her internal energy in the duel.
This doll probably did the same.
“Then it’s no surprise the doll wins.”
If the doll had been programmed with a master swordsman’s techniques…
If those techniques surpassed Yeon Mirae’s…
Then her loss would make sense.
“I thought maybe someone her age just naturally out-swords Yeon Mirae.”
Even a genius swordsman like her was still young.
Her techniques could not fully match those of someone who had honed their swordsmanship for decades, even if that person was only an aura master.
At the same time…
“This is almost a lucky opportunity for Yeon Mirae too.”
Duelling against someone superior would also be beneficial for her growth.
As I thought that…
“Duel, start!”
The duel between Yeon Mirae and the doll claiming to be Arthur began.
Arthur attacked first.
He swung his sword rapidly, leaving no time for Yeon Mirae to respond.
To an outsider, it might have seemed like random swings, but the students present knew better.
All of them had some skill with the sword.
Even if Arthur’s movements seemed chaotic, they weren’t.
“……”
Yeon Mirae dodged and parried repeatedly.
It wasn’t easy.
She concentrated all her senses on Arthur’s sword.
“My master must be watching this duel.”
She didn’t sense Han Geonwoo’s presence.
Her senses hadn’t detected the doll he had hidden.
But she had received his message—he would come to watch.
“I can’t perform poorly in front of my master.”
Not only did she not want to lose, but she didn’t want to win shamefully or through cheap tricks.
It was a duel of swordsmanship, after all.
Clang!
Lost in thought for a moment, Yeon Mirae defended against Arthur’s thrust, entering her counterattack.
Even distracted, she didn’t miss the opportunity.
Her skills were too high to let a momentary lapse cost her.
Swish…!
Arthur narrowly dodged her sword.
Yeon Mirae’s eyes flickered.
“Again…”
It had been the same in their previous duel.
Arthur always accurately read and evaded her attacks.
Even when she attempted feints, he anticipated and parried effortlessly.
Momentarily letting go of the sword to extend distance was possible, but it left her defenseless against his attacks.
“I thought I’d learned about tactical dueling from sparring with my master…”
But in tactical dueling, the opponent has to respond for it to be meaningful.
Arthur focused on attacking while perfectly evading her sword.
Yeon Mirae felt her attacks were useless against him.
“What am I lacking?”
Why couldn’t her sword touch him?
Strength? Speed? Technique? Judgment?
“……”
Yeon Mirae couldn’t decide.
Facing Arthur, she felt her talent was inferior in every way.
Ah… the world is vast.
The only thing superior to him was her personal cultivation.
In every other aspect, Arthur overwhelmed her.
“… Did I grow too quickly without solidifying my foundation?”
Han Geonwoo would probably have muttered, “How is that not solid foundation?” but Yeon Mirae thought so.
“Ugh…!”
Then she would solidify her foundation.
Strength and speed couldn’t be fixed quickly, so she focused on technique and judgment.
And conveniently, right before her stood someone far superior in both.
A man wielding his sword as efficiently as a machine.
Making precise judgments like a machine.
“I’ll make all you have mine.”
She remembered the chimeras her master had fought—monsters with human genes, copying skills by observation.
“Master said he’s never seen anyone surpass me in sword talent.”
Yeon Mirae trusted his words.
He wouldn’t lie.
Her sword talent must surpass even the prodigies her master had encountered.
Even if those prodigies were unusual beings…
“Then… there’s no reason I can’t do this.”
Yeon Mirae began analyzing.
Arthur’s swordsmanship.
Unaware that she was deconstructing, analyzing, and reconstructing techniques honed by a sword master over a lifetime.
