The Swordreck mansion had a training hall in the garden. When they led me to it I almost stared. This is — a Japanese kendo dojo.
A polished hardwood floor. Wooden swords on the wall. Hold on — there’s a kamidana shrine?
“This dojo was designed by Juubei-dono and built by my father. Eashen-style.”
“Resembles our family dojo. Nostalgic.”
I’m getting nostalgic too. I really did need to visit Eashen.
“Pick a wooden sword. Arranged left-to-right by grip thickness.”
The viscount, now changed into training gear, picked up a wooden sword and adjusted his belt. Yae picked several, gripped them, swung them experimentally, and finally settled on one. They faced off in the center of the floor.
“Anyone here capable of healing magic?”
”…Me, and her.”
I raised my hand and gestured to Linze.
“Then no need to hold back. Come at me with everything.”
We sat at the edge of the floor to stay out of the way.
While I sat, I had an idea — and pulled out my phone. Let’s see…
”…What are you doing?”
Linze asked, puzzled.
“Just keeping a reference for later.”
While I was setting things up, Elze stood between them as the referee.
She confirmed both were ready and called it:
“Begin!”
At Elze’s call, Yae shot forward like a bullet. The viscount met the strike head-on with his sword, and the combinations that followed he parried, redirected, deflected — without striking back himself.
Yae jumped back to recover her breath. The viscount didn’t pursue. Just watched.
They circled each other, slowly closing distance, until the line was crossed and the blades met again. Another flurry of strikes.
But still: Yae attacking, the viscount only flowing, dodging, parrying. No counter.
“I see. I understand.”
The viscount dropped his wooden sword to a low stance. Yae held middle stance, breath labored. Clearly tiring.
“Your sword is correct. Textbook. No wasted motion. Exactly what I learned from Juubei-dono.”
”…That’s a bad thing?”
“Not bad. But — you can’t grow past it.”
“What—!?”
The viscount raised his sword to high stance. A combat presence radiated outward I hadn’t felt before. Sharpness reached me where I sat.
“Here I come.”
He stepped forward — and was inside Yae’s range in an instant. His sword swung down at her from straight ahead. Yae raised her wooden sword to block overhead.
That’s what I saw.
The next instant Yae was down on the floor. Side clutched, groaning.
“M-match!”
Elze called it. With real swords, Yae would’ve been cleaved in half.
“Argh…”
“Don’t move. Several ribs broken, I’d guess. Move wrong and they puncture your lung. You — heal her.”
“On it.”
I held a hand over Yae’s side and cast Cure Heal. After a moment the pain ebbed and her face relaxed.
”…I’m fine now.”
She rose and bowed deeply to the viscount.
“My thanks for the lesson.”
“Your sword has no shadow. The mix of true and false, drawing back to step in, the gentle giving way to the violent. The right sword alone never leaves the dojo. That’s not bad. Strength differs by individual.”
The viscount’s eyes pinned her.
“What do you want from your sword?”
Yae said nothing. She stared at the wooden sword in her hand.
“That’s where to start. Then the path will appear. When it does, come back here.”
He walked off.
“Well — ah — don’t dwell on it! Wins and losses are luck of the draw; sometimes you lose no matter what!”
”…Elze-dono… that’s not much of a consolation…”
Elze’s dry-laugh response under Yae’s flat look.
Linze drove the carriage; we headed for the noble-district checkpoint to leave.
“So, Yae, what’s the plan? We’re heading back to Reflet.”
“What’s the plan, indeed…”
She looks gutted. Like an off-the-roster salaryman. Chin in hand, staring out the cart’s side at the sky.
“If there’s nowhere to be, come to Reflet with us! Register at the guild, party up, train with us on the side!”
On the side. Well — fair, I get what she’s going for. We’d just gotten close; saying goodbye now would suck.
“That might be acceptable…”
“Great! Locked in!”
“You’re so pushy…”
I cracked a wry smile at Elze’s hard-sell. Taking advantage of Yae being in a weakened state — no, she’s worried about her. That’s it.
While I was thinking that, the carriage rolled up to the checkpoint. Linze showed her ducal medal with light hesitation; we passed straight through. Duke house is powerful.
“The world is wider than I thought. There exists someone of that strength. I am — far from there.”
Yae murmured. She’s still on it.
“Especially the final strike. I cannot understand what happened. I’m certain I caught his sword overhead — but the sword came from the side…”
“It was crazy. I was right there and I couldn’t see it. Suddenly Yae was on the floor.”
Yae analyzing, Elze enthusiastically reliving.
“My regret — if only I could see that strike again…”
“You can?”
”…Eh?”
Yae blinked at my offhand answer.
I pulled out the phone, played the recording back.
“Wh-what is this!? Ah! S-sessha! Sessha is in there! Viscount too! Elze-dono!”
“Whoa, what is this!? They’re moving on their own! And I’m here! Wait — that’s not me, that’s Linze! No, Linze’s here too!? What’s happening!?”
“Settle down.”
"" Ow! ""
I chopped both their heads. Calm yourselves. Slightly entertaining.
“This records what’s happening and lets you play it back. A — Null-magic-like thing of mine. I recorded the duel.”
“Astonishing! What magic is this!?”
“What’s it called?”
“Uh — smartphone?”
“Smartphone — never heard of it. Null though, so — sure, makes sense.”
Elze folded her arms and tilted her head. Yae was staring fixedly at the screen.
The defeat moment came up.
“There!”
The strike that I’d seen come down on Yae’s head — on the playback, was a side strike from the start. What — but it had clearly been overhead—
“What is this?”
“No idea?”
I asked Elze, who shook her head — no idea.
“T-Touya-dono! Can you replay this!?”
“Yeah. As many times as you want. From the start? Or from just before?”
“Just before!”
I tapped the controls and handed it over. Viscount steps in, sword comes through horizontally. Not vertical. But in the moment, it had clearly been—
“Shadow Sword…”
“Shadow Sword?”
Yae murmured.
“A technique. The wielder turns concentrated combat-presence into a sword. An illusion — no substance. But because it’s made of presence, you can sense it. So you misperceive its existence. The viscount placed the shadow sword above, and the real sword to the side. The presence I read led me to defend the illusion. The real sword, with no presence around it, came from the side. I was — neatly fooled…”
An illusion shown to her, essentially. I’d thought she might deflate further confronting reality, but Yae was — faintly smiling. Not resigned. She’d grasped something. Mumbling to herself, slightly off-putting, but still.
“My sword has no shadow. …I see. Of course it doesn’t. I am not waiting for the opponent’s opening — I make them open. That, too…”
“Hey, Yae? You okay?”
”…I am fine. My thanks, Touya-dono. Greatly helpful.”
Yae handed the phone back, expression clearer. If it gave her a foothold, good.
“I will train harder. Become stronger. With all of you.”
“That’s the spirit!”
Yae and Elze high-fived. Youth.
“Don’t leave me out…”
A small, mournful voice from the driver’s bench. Right. Linze. Sorry, Linze.