"Cloudy, is it? Ideally, there would have been some spring-like sunlight to grace my victory... but no matter."
A man looked up at the sky, muttering irritably at the clouds that had spread to shroud the sun. He held a sword in his hand, and while his armor and cloak were ostentatious, they were high-quality pieces designed for practical use.
He was currently standing before a tent at the Kingdom of Mireana Army's Main Camp. All the nobles who had been inside—aside from those who had been driven into a frenzy by the sight of Rei’s magic power—had gathered to spectate the coming bout.
This suited the man just fine. It was an opportunity to showcase his strength to his peers, and more importantly, to engrave his existence into the heart of the Princess General he so adored. It would also serve to impress Filma, the Supreme Commander of the Noble's Faction.
(He may be the Knight Commander of Duke Kerebel's Knight Order, but he is nothing more than a second son. To think he would presume to give orders to me, the next head of Marquis Imahen's House... he ought to learn his place.)
While hurling silent vitriol at Filma, he turned his gaze toward the opponent he truly loathed.
Standing there was a figure wrapped in a robe that seemed to possess some manner of magical effect. This person was a full head shorter than him—hardly more than a child.
However, Lunojis had no intention of holding back. The look that this child, the adventurer Rei, directed toward him was utterly intolerable. That gaze, which seemed to pay no mind to the presence of nobility—a gaze a mere adventurer would normally cast upward toward a celestial being like himself—was something Lunojis, with all his noble pride, could not abide.
Perhaps things would have been different if Rei hadn't acted so over-familiarly with the Princess General despite his station. To make matters worse, Elena treated Rei with an easygoing familiarity in return. To Lunojis, this was an unforgivable transgression.
(Lady Elena will surely realize her mistake once I beat this filthy adventurer to a pulp. And eventually, she will accept me so we may unite our houses in marriage...)
Though he was completely unaware of it, the primary source of his hostility was Elena’s behavior.
The day before, when Ara and Lunojis had clashed, Elena had intervened. Instead of disciplining Ara, she had destroyed Lunojis's sword. In his mind, this meant Elena had sided with Ara—and by extension, Rei—over him. This sparked an intense, burning jealousy toward Rei. It was a tragedy... or perhaps a comedy, that he failed to realize his own delusions.
He ignored the nuances of the situation, fixating only on the fact that Elena had shielded Ara and Rei. His jealousy toward the boy flared, and upon hearing that Rei was to be assigned to the Lead Unit just like him, that jealousy curdled into pure hatred.
"Now, I am ready! Let us see if you truly possess the strength to stand in the Lead Unit!"
With a sharp cry, he drew his sword and took a stance, prepared for the battle to begin at any moment.
Watching him, Rei cast a brief look toward Daskar. Once he saw the Margrave give a small nod, he accessed the Misty Ring List in his mind. He withdrew the Death Scythe—a weapon created through Beast Magic with Set, a tool that was essentially an extension of himself.
"An Item Box!?"
"No, wait. Is it not just an item with expanded space? Surely a mere adventurer wouldn't have an Item Box... especially not an unknown child like that."
"Sir, your information is stale. Don't you know the Larkus Territorial Army's food supplies are far better than ours? The word was that an Item Box User was providing for them... it must be him."
"I had heard the rumors, but seeing an Item Box with my own eyes... the impact is quite different."
Daskar wore a wry smile as he listened to the chatter of the surrounding nobles.
While silently nodding to his allies in the Neutral Faction, he scanned the crowd. The eyes of many had visibly changed. It wasn't just one or two; more than half of the nobles present were staring at Rei’s Item Box with gazes seething with greed. Some were merely envious, while others looked as though they would resort to any means necessary to seize such a magic item for themselves.
(Good grief. I suppose it’s only natural, considering how rare and convenient an Item Box is. Better throw out a deterrent.)
Maintaining his pretense of chatting with his companions, Daskar spoke in a voice loud enough for the surrounding nobles to overhear.
"The Item Box is rare, certainly, but I hear it places severe restrictions on the user. Apparently, the Magic Power Wavelength differs slightly between individuals, and if anyone other than the registered user tries to access it, the consequences are disastrous. The box itself recognizes the original user's magic; it simply won't open for anyone else."
"...Disastrous, you say?"
Feeling the weight of the greedy nobles' stares, Daskar continued as if oblivious.
"Well, I don't know the specifics... but it is a mechanism crafted by an alchemist capable of creating an Item Box. At the very least, I have no desire to find out what that mechanism does firsthand."
Hearing Daskar’s warning, almost all the nobles who had been eavesdropping for information looked disappointed. Almost all. Several individuals showed no sign of wavering, their eyes remaining clouded with desire as they watched Rei.
(I'll have to keep an eye on those ones.)
Daskar thought as much, but while the nobles played their political games, Rei and Lunojis were finally about to cross blades.
"I’m ready whenever you are. ...Come on," Rei said, gripping the shaft of the Death Scythe in his right hand and beckoning with his left.
Lunojis’s pride was far too fragile to ignore such a taunt. In an instant, he kicked off the ground and lunged, closing the distance to Rei with surprising speed.
(His step is fast, but if he falls for a taunt that easily...)
Rei’s provocative expression softened into a look of disappointment. However, that look was replaced by a flash of surprise in the next moment.
"Hah!"
Just as he entered sword range, Lunojis didn't swing downward. Instead, he kicked the earth and leapt sideways. Using the momentum of his landing, he unleashed a sharp horizontal slash toward Rei’s flank.
Clang!
A high-pitched metallic ring echoed through the camp.
"Hoh, so you blocked it. You have some skill for a mere adventurer. Or is that simply the power of that ridiculously oversized weapon?"
"Who knows."
Rei parried the blade with the shaft of the Death Scythe, his momentary surprise already gone.
"To think you could take a hit from my magic sword and not even leave a scratch. Where did a mere adventurer like you find such a high-performance magic item?"
"Jealous? Well, you'd never get your hands on one anyway."
"Quiet!"
Lunojis swung again. Rei held the shaft of the Death Scythe vertically to catch the horizontal slash.
An even sharper metallic clang rang out.
The sound was the same, but the result was different.
"Guh... Impossible. It’s like striking a wall... No, I should be able to cleave even a wall of solid metal!"
Using the recoil from the impact, Lunojis retreated. He muttered under his breath, his brow furrowed as his hands went numb. Only Rei was close enough to hear him.
Rei’s Herculean Strength was formidable, but the weight of the Death Scythe combined with the sheer amount of magic power he was channeling into it was overwhelming. Unless it were a magic sword of exceptional quality, it likely would have shattered upon hitting the scythe's shaft. In that sense, Lunojis's weapon was actually quite impressive.
Lunojis loosened his grip on the hilt to ease the numbness, but Rei was not so merciful as to ignore the opening.
"Well, it looks like your turn is over. My turn now. You’ve talked quite a bit of trash; I hope you can at least survive the first hit."
A vein throbbed on Lunojis’s forehead. To him, these were not words a mere adventurer should ever be permitted to say to a noble.
"Flame, burn my enemies according to my will."
Rei chanted the spell rapidly. Magic flared, and a fireball roughly thirty centimeters in diameter manifested at the butt end of the Death Scythe.
"Oh! Is that giant scythe a magic catalyst as well!?"
"To have an Item Box and a catalyst like that... perhaps he does have the skill they claim, but..."
Rei ignored the nobles and swung the shaft of the scythe.
"Fireball."
The spell flew through the air toward Lunojis.
Its speed was remarkably slow. Rei had intentionally dampened the power, fearing that if Lunojis dodged, the spell might hit the spectating nobles and bring trouble to Daskar.
"To think you could beat me with such a pathetic spell... do you intend to insult me further!?"
Judging by the slow speed, Lunojis assumed Rei used magic only as a distraction. He stepped aside, intending to let the fireball sail past him.
Snap.
Rei snapped his fingers. In that instant, the fireball beside Lunojis detonated.
It was a small explosion, designed to avoid harming the audience. Lunojis escaped with only minor burns, but the sudden blast caught him completely off guard. The force sent him tumbling sideways.
"Guh!"
He managed to thrust his sword into the ground to brace himself, preventing his fine clothes from being ruined by the dirt—a testament to his noble pride and his own sharp reflexes.
He truly was a fighter of some skill, likely superior to many rank-and-file adventurers. However, he was still just "above average."
"Torso's next. Block or dodge."
Rei called out his target and swung the Death Scythe in a wide horizontal slash.
Lunojis tried to bring his magic sword up to block, but it was still stuck in the ground. That split second he spent pulling it free was all it took. The delay was fatal.
"Gwaaaah!"
Had he been in a proper stance, his magic sword might have held. It was a high-grade magic item, after all. But a half-hearted defense was no match for Rei's strength.
Lunojis was sent flying. The sight of a grown man—rendered even heavier by his half plate armor—being knocked through the air left the surrounding nobles staring in disbelief.
Only three people remained unsurprised: Daskar, Elena, and Filma.
Even the Neutral Faction nobles who had been warned of Rei’s power found themselves rubbing their eyes, unable to process what they had just seen.
Amidst the stunned silence, Rei walked slowly toward Lunojis, who lay in the dirt. The armor that had been polished to a mirror finish was now caked in soil, and his face was marred by several scratches from the impact.
"Guh... damn it... For me... to lose to..."
Lunojis used his sword as a crutch, trying desperately to stand, but the damage he had taken was too severe.
Rei stopped before the incapacitated noble and gently rested the edge of the Death Scythe's blade against the man’s throat. A single pull of the shaft would separate Lunojis’s head from his shoulders.
"..."
Lunojis glared up with eyes full of venom. Rei ignored him and turned toward Alius of the King's Faction, the man in charge of the camp.
"...That is enough."
Alius gave the signal to end the bout. He understood that any further fighting would only waste their military strength before the war had even begun. While the King's Faction wanted to weaken their rivals, losing the war because they killed their own officers was a losing proposition.
As Alius's voice echoed through the camp, Lunojis remained on the ground, his eyes fixed on Rei with absolute, unadulterated hatred.