39 Sword Heart

Unknowingly, a year has passed since Rudeus arrived at the Boreas household. During this year, many things happened, including a failed assassination attempt. There was still no response or further action taken by the Notos family since then. They seemed content to just leave the Boreas family alone with a warning that had been delivered through from Eris' kidnapping.

Sauros and Philip similarly did not want to invite disaster by provoking the Notos family before Rudeus was ready and prepared to lean on his own strength. So they kept quiet about the assassination attempt, instructing servants and guards to forget what they have seen.

It may seem cowardly to outsiders, but to the Boreas family it was just a tactical retreat. Humiliation and dishonour were difficult pills to swallow, but taking bitter medicine was always more beneficial in the long run.

During this time, Eris managed to reach the late stage Intermediate rank in the Sword God style, as well as Beginner-rank in both Water God and North God. The latter two was due to Rudeus teaching her what he knew since Ghislaine never learned Water God and North God style and neither was she interested in doing so.

The achievement she was most proud of, however, was grasping her first and only incantation-less magic spell. This had been a pleasant to surprise to Rudeus and her family members, since they knew from the year Rudeus had been teaching her that she has the barest minimum of talent in magic to reach Beginner rank. However, even her magic tutor Rudeus underestimated her determination to, as she puts it, "throw fire out her sword".

Beginner rank Fire magic, [Fireball] was the only spell she learnt how to cast without incantations. Something about a fire spell matched Eris' own fiery disposition, which resulted in a compatibility that transcended magical talent.

According to the girl, she managed to succeed with casting Fireball chantlessly after engraving the image of Rudeus doing the same thing into her mind. By using her memory of Rudeus chantlessly unleashing flames from his sword combined with circulating the mana according to the spell theory of fireball, she succeeded.

The flames that came out of her sword was meagre, not even reaching the peak of what a Beginner rank magic spell was able to theoretically achieve like how Rudeus could maximise the potency of Beginner-rank spells. She was also only proficient in Fire magic, being hopelessly useless in any other type of magic.

Ghislaine, on the hand, managed to reach Beginner rank in both Fire and Water magic. Even though she started off slower than Eris, her experience in manipulating mana with Battle Aura, as well as her more even tempered disposition, allowed her to grasp two elements instead of the single one by Eris. Chantless magic was still impossible for the beast woman, but she was still beyond ecstatic that someone as dense as her was able to read, perform arithmetic, and now cast spells.

Rudeus was really glad that Ghislaine managed to grasp Water magic. After hearing her story of she almost died from dehydration and starvation, he wanted his Master to be able to create water for consumption if this ever occurred again. Ghislaine similarly expressed gratitude for this literally life-saving ability.

In this one year, Rudeus had not been sitting around doing nothing either. His self-study of the three foreign languages were slow. It seemed that his mind wasn't one suited for linguistic studies. There was still some progress. Fighting God language was remarkably similar to English, such as its alphabetical system and grammar, so he took to that like a fish to water. The others were a lot more complicated.

Aside from learning all the necessary royal court etiquette and political knowledge, Rudeus also broke through the Saint-rank realm, and was officially bestowed the title of Sword Saint by Ghislaine. He first grasped three of the four Sword Saint techniques representative of Speed, Unpredictability and Control. The effectiveness of these techniques, however, was severely limited without Saint-rank speed and strength.

Thus, even though Rudeus could already perform these Saint-rank techniques satisfactorily, he still couldn't call himself a Sword Saint without having the necessary strength and speed to perform these techniques to their fullest potential.

It was only a month or two ago, that Rudeus managed to comprehend Saint-level Battle Aura. It just suddenly clicked in his mind, halfway through a bloody spar with Ghislaine. The mana that surged through his veins and enhanced his muscles suddenly felt like it could be moved in a different way that would boost his physical ability even further.

Right after, Rudeus started circulating his mana according to this new method, and surprisingly, he managed to explode with true Saint-rank strength.

Ghislaine has been caught by surprise from his sudden and significant increase in speed and strength, allowing Rudeus to take advantage of this by landing a pretty deep gash on her torso.

It was the first time he had ever drawn blood from the Sword King. And it was also the last time.

Ever since he reached achieved Sword Saint level, Ghislaine correspondingly adjusted her physical ability back to the threshold of King-rank, and Rudeus went back to becoming her bloody punching bag.

Eris only grew even more motivated after seeing Rudeus achieve Sword Saint. Though Eris would have been considered a prodigy for reaching Intermediate Sword God level at the young age of 9, she was unfortunately stuck in the shadow of Rudeus' colossal talent. A Sword Saint and North Saint at the age of 8. It was an achievement that no one had ever seen nor heard of before.

Rudeus might have even had envoys sent by noble families or the Asura royalties if the Boreas family had publicised this achievement. However, they kept this news under wraps, with only the inner circle consisting of Boreas family members and Ghislaine herself aware of this development.

Partly because the Boreas family did not want Rudeus to be scouted and snatched away by other families. Forget his Sword Saint status, just his Magic Sword style alone was an extremely valuable advantage unique only to him (and apparently another young girl in Buena Village as well).

His future potential was even more boundless, with no estimation of what he might achieve in the future being considered overly exaggerated.

But the main reason was that they did not want to alarm the Notos family and their cowardly Head. Who knew what Pilemon might do if he felt threatened and decided to nip a potential calamity in the bud before Rudeus had the chance to bloom?

Rudeus was not just a close family friend, he was also someone who had a real chance of getting their sons back from the Capital city in the future. They fully intended on protecting him even though they never announced anything publicly.

Rudeus shared similar sentiments. The Notos family had connections to unsavoury organisations like the Assassins guild, and the resources to employ a King-ranked assassin. And Rudeus held no illusions regarding his ability to deal with someone at that level.

Despite having only recently receiving the title of Sword Saint, his actual strength surpassed that estimate with the addition of Magic Sword style. However, he was fully aware that against a King-level warrior, he was still far too lacking.

His repeated spars with Ghislaine proved that. Arrogance bred complacency, and complacency led to stagnation, which in turn was weakness. And weakness would mean death, for someone in Rudeus' position.

...

Today, Rudeus took a day off to go in to the city with Eris and Ghislaine. Nowadays, they made sure the Sword King was available to protect the two children before they were allowed to leave.

This particular day off had a different purpose. Today, Rudeus had a few places he needed to visit.

His first stop was the Adventurer's Guild located within Adventurer's lane. The reason why he needed to go there was a simple but exciting one - to sign up as an adventurer!

This decision had come after his last spar with Ghislaine...

Rudeus healed himself after once more being left as a bloody wreck. Recently, he felt like he was making great progress.

His fights with Ghislaine, while still leaving him a bleeding mess, was becoming less and less one sided. He could actually put up a fight occasionally before getting smacked down with the full-powered strikes from a Sword King.

Recently, he had even been able to block Ghislaine's King-rank technique: Sonic Sword!

But Ghislaine soon told him why.

"There's no point to us sparring anymore."

"What? But why, Master? I always learn a lot from fighting you."

She shook her head. "You are learning a lot about fighting me. Your techniques, footwork and rhythm are all getting over familiar with facing a Beastman Sword King. This is a demographic that is extremely narrow."

Rudeus tilted his head in confusion.

Seeing that he didn't understand, Ghislaine continued her explanation.

"You have gotten too used to fighting a Sword God practitioner. You are starting to anticipate which Sword God technique I am going to use in advance and counter them before I even do it. This is a very effective strategy... if you're fighting a Sword King. If you are fighting a North King, for example, your mind and muscle memory that has gotten too used to fighting against Sword God techniques will not be able to adapt to North God techniques. You will get cut down before you can even have time to adjust."

"Oh." Rudeus verbalized in understanding.

It was like an MMA fighter who only trained against boxers. Even if they got really good at boxing, when put against a grappler, they would get taken down and choked out before being able to do anything.

Ghislaine nodded. "That's why you need to go out and fight other people. There's a reason why many swordsmen, after learning all they can from their master, will go out to challenge other warriors. It is to accumulate experience that will holistically improve their swordsmanship."

"Then did you go out to challenge others too, Master?"

"Mm. After leaving my Master's tutelage, I joined an adventuring party, alongside your parents actually. I challenged everyone who I thought was strong and I learned a lot too."

"You must have won a lot then, Master."

"Not every time. I lost to Paul many times too." Ghislaine confessed.

Rudeus widened his eyes, "EH!? You lost to my father? Even though you are a Sword King?"

Ghislaine nodded stoically, "Yes. He introduced me to another type of competition where we engaged in battle on the bed. I have never won against him in those games."

"… Ah, I see." Rudeus felt his impression of Ghislaine change after hearing that. As attractive as Ghislaine was, he couldn't really look at someone his father conquered in the past with the same thoughts as before. He felt like the mental image of Paul besting Ghislaine in 'competitions' on the bed would scar him for life.

"That's why you need to accumulate experience as well. You won't be able to do that only fighting me. You should go out to challenge other warriors, test yourself against strong monsters, and in so doing comprehend the essence of your sword."

"Essence of my sword?" He questioned, unfamiliar with this term.

"The Essence of your sword is the fundamental direction of your swordsmanship. For me, it is clear. I pursue only speed and ferocity of the blade. It is something engrained in me, based on my temperament, my body structure and my innate abilities. That is why the Sword God style is the only style that is compatible with me."

She stroked her sword longingly, as though remembering a fond but distant memory.

"So to must you comprehend the essence of your sword. Your Magic Sword style is only the instrument, but its essence is something you must discover yourself. And you can only do that by fighting many battles, exchanging moves with other experts, and taking all that you have learned to form a singular 'sword heart'."

"My Master once told me that only when one understands the Heart of one's Sword can they achieve the Heart of a King. In other words, only when you comprehend the essence of your sword can you achieve King-rank."

"If you were studying in the Holy Land of Swords, the headquarters of the Sword God style, you would have no problem finding other swordsmen to compete against. When there is time, I will bring you there one day. First to present you to my master, the current generation's Sword God. Then I will ask him to take you as his disciple."

Rudeus' eyes glimmered. He would not stubbornly declare that he would only have one master for the rest of his life. Being able to learn from the one and only Sword God would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. He was not foolish enough to turn it down.

"Unfortunately, we are not in the Holy Land of Swords. We are in Roa. So you will have to seek out challenges yourself. I would recommend you to register at the Adventurers guild. That is where I found many strong opponents to duel."

"Okay! I will bring Eris along too. She will get mad if I registered without her."

And that was how Rudeus decided to officially register as an adventurer in the Adventurer's guild. Even if he didn't have the time to take on missions, since he was working as a bodyguard for the Boreas family, he might still learn something from the many adventurers who visited the guild.

His second destination for the day was to visit the one and only Magic Guild in the Citadel of Roa. Though his swordsmanship had improved sharply after arriving at the Boreas estate, his magic had stagnated quite abit. His Magic Sword style, ultimately, still heavily relied on his arcane knowledge. Improving on this would only help and not harm his development of Magic Sword style.