manynovel Chapter 694 : The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult IV
Chapter 694 : The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult IV
Chapter 0694 The Strange Tale of the Djinn Cult IV
Translator: Jay_Forestieri
Editor: Tseirp
“I’ll state it again. My name is Dainan.”
“Come to think of it, I hadn’t introduced myself. My name is Abel.”
Dainan and Abel stood facing each other outside the castle gate.
Ryo, Anju, and Ronja, of course, and most of the villagers of Farafao Village had climbed up onto the castle wall and were transfixed by the sight of the two of them confronting each other.
“Ryo-san, will Abel-sama be able to win?”
It was a direct question, though Ronja asked it softly.
He had heard Abel say he would avenge Anju.
That was why it was a question he did not want Anju to hear...
“To be honest, I do not know. The Djinn’s retainers are very strong.”
Ryo answered honestly.
Of course, he was wishing for Abel’s victory, and he did not think Abel would lose.
And yet... in a battle against beings beyond humanity, one never knew what could happen.
“Back when we were in the kingdom before, Abel fought a Djinn’s retainer.”
“Eh...”
Ronja was left speechless by Ryo’s words.
“And the result?”
“He said he cut the retainer’s head off.”
“Oh!”
“But the retainer came back to life.”
“Wha...”
Ronja was speechless again.
It seemed the whole exchange had just barely not reached Anju’s ears.
“Unless the Djinn itself is defeated, it will revive over and over.”
“The Djinn...”
Ronja muttered that, then looked at the black-haired girl sitting on a stone chair, legs crossed, watching the battle begin between the two.
She was beautiful, looked strong-willed, and gave off an overwhelming sense of composure... but she did not look stronger than her retainer, who was about to fight.
“Attacking that girl would be a bad idea...”
“Yes, that is absolutely not to be done.”
At Ronja’s confirmation, Ryo nodded firmly in agreement.
By mutual consent, a one-on-one duel between Abel and Dainan was about to take place.
A duel is a kind of oath.
A vow that no one else will interfere.
A sacred battle carried out under such an oath, such a constraint.
Anyone who broke it would be met with furious contempt at such boorish, unrefined behavior.
“All we can do now is trust Abel and watch.”
When Ryo said that in a louder voice, every villager on the castle wall nodded.
And then the battle began.
It was not that a starting gong sounded.
Neither Abel nor Dainan had been in ready stances with their beloved swords raised... it simply began suddenly.
Dainan took the initiative.
That may have been because, through their earlier conversation, Abel had robbed him of his composure.
But whether that was the case or not, the opening strike was fierce.
Clang, clang, clang...
Even as he deflected that powerful first blow, Dainan unleashed a flurry of attacks.
Abel angled his sword and deflected every single one.
Dainan, a Djinn’s retainer with strength and speed superior to humans, fought with power; Abel opposed him with technique.
The structure naturally became Dainan attacking, Abel defending...
A horizontal slash worked into Dainan’s chain of attacks.
Abel dodged it instead of parrying it.
More than any other strike, it flowed past, and Dainan’s follow-through shifted off balance.
Into Dainan’s next strike, connected from that shifted body, Abel stepped half a pace forward and thrust his sword.
A block at a point different from usual... a point where Dainan’s power was not carried.
Even a Djinn’s retainer, with his overwhelming physical strength compared to humans, could not ignore the laws of physics.
Dainan’s sword was knocked back hard.
The offense and defense switched.
Abel was now attacking, Dainan defending.
“Ooooh!”
Cheers rose from the villagers of Farafao watching from the castle wall.
But among those who shouted, Ryo was not one of them.
(As expected of Abel, but his opponent is strong too. This looks like it’ll go on for a while.)
Ryo was usually seen as a jokester, but when it came to battle, he was serious.
That was because lives were on the line.
When you put it that way, of course, it was natural.
For that reason, he never cut corners in training and always approached it earnestly.
This was why he held Abel in such high regard for continuing to strive and reaching his current heights.
Come to think of it, perhaps Ryo was the one who rated Abel highest of all.
Ryo liked physics.
And he thought the principles of the sword were the principles of things, that is, physics.
Let us think of the defender when facing an opponent’s overhead strike.
The defender has three options.
The first is to receive it firmly.
The method is to hold the sword parallel to the ground.
By doing so, the kinetic energy of the downward strike is received head-on and canceled out.
The second is to deflect the opponent’s sword.
The method is to angle the blade.
If the blade angle used for the first option of catching it firmly is considered parallel to the ground, zero degrees, then in the case of deflecting, the sword tip would be tilted forty-five degrees or more.
Then, after striking this sword, the opponent’s blade would flow off to our right.
Likewise, if the tip were tilted minus forty-five degrees or more, the opponent’s blade would flow off to our left after striking ours.
This is a phenomenon that occurs regardless of sword skill, strength, or speed.
Because it is physical.
That is why the principles of the sword are the principles of things.
Incidentally, the third option available to the defender is to dodge so that neither the sword nor the body is touched by the opponent’s blade.
In the end, the choices available to the defender are condensed into these three.
This is the physics manifested in swordplay.
However, Ryo knew.
That many of those who devoted themselves to the sword would, in their later years, come to think about human beings themselves.
The principles of the sword. The principles of things.
Would philosophy appear beyond that?
The swordsmen who left their names in history ultimately, in Western terms, plunged into philosophy.
Conflict between people... the sword is the crystallization of that.
It is perhaps only natural for those who devoted their whole lives to the sword to think about what humans are and what the relationships between people are.
Since ancient Greece, the finest physicists were also philosophers.
At first glance, physics and philosophy seem like the two ends of the world, never to intersect at all.
And yet, perhaps those two ends of the world loop around and sit right next to each other.
Ryo found himself thinking such unconnected things.
He shook his head slightly.
What he should be focused on now is Abel’s battle unfolding right before him.
Unconcerned by the spectators, including Ryo, the two fighters poured all of their nerves into the combat before them.
(Impossible! Is this magic sword user seriously human? Unbelievable.)
Dainan was greatly astonished in his heart... and at the same time, thrilled.
A battle that made his heart race after so long.
(Yes, he must be human. His strength is within human limits, though of course at a high level even among them. But that is not the point. This magic sword user... Abel, was it? This Abel guy’s speed is outrageous. No, I know that. It is the highest level of speed a human can produce, and yet I feel like it is far beyond that. The reason is that every possible useless motion has been stripped away. Not just the movement of the sword. From the top of his head to the tips of his toes, every ounce of waste has been eliminated... the pinnacle of refinement.)
This was the battle Dainan had wanted.
And the battle that had unfolded was beyond what he had hoped for... truly beyond expectation.
That was why he was rejoicing, understanding, and trying to accept all of it.
(One could say he reached such speed by perfecting technique. Of course, all of that is the result of facing his own body and his own sword with sincerity. His technique has been honed, his speed has surpassed the human realm... no, there is no change to the fact that this Abel is human. He may have had talent, too. But perhaps this is proof that if a person thinks and keeps striving, they can reach even this far. Ah, to be able to fight someone like this... I’m glad I didn’t yield to Raja-sama.)
Dainan was delighted from the bottom of his heart that he had insisted on his own will.
Even in his long life as a retainer, battles with opponents like this had been few and far between...
For example, his master Raja— she was strong.
Dainan would not be able to beat her.
But what stood before him now, what was making him rejoice, was not that sort of strength.
A pure swordsman.
A strength forged by devoting everything to the sword.
That was what delighted Dainan.
(I had a feeling. I sensed the signs too. But to think that fighting a human could be this thrilling... ah, this is genuine astonishment from the bottom of my heart. If I feel such potential for becoming a swordsman in a human being, won’t I end up unable to kill humans anymore from now on?)
There, Dainan gave a wry smile, in his heart, of course.
(No. Not likely. Impossible. A swordsman like this is not one in several million, or tens of millions. More like one in hundreds of millions. Yes, even the possibility alone is that rare. And now I’m actually crossing swords with such a person... what is this? A miracle?)
The Djinn’s retainer kept swinging his sword, delighted.
(As expected of a Djinn’s retainer, he is strong.)
On the other hand, Abel too was marveling inwardly, though he did not show it on his face.
(Garwin’s retainer... was it Oranj? He was amazing too, but this Dainan guy is incredible as well. His strength and speed are completely different from a human’s. If I make even one mistake in deflecting, it’s over.)
Though surprised at the strength he had expected, he was calmly analyzing it.
Abel himself did not fully realize it, but this was an entirely different situation from when he fought Oranj.
The reason this different situation had arisen was solely that Abel had become stronger.
During his journey through the Eastern Countries, he had regained the strength he had once possessed in his days as an A-rank adventurer—and surpassed it by a great margin.
(I miss one deflection, and that’s the end. And yet this guy can brute-force his way through it with sheer physical strength. It really is unfair.)
Abel continued fighting while grumbling inwardly.
Even while thinking such things, his battle with the retainer continued without issue... that alone was proof of how different it was from the swordfight against Oranj during the Djinn War.
Back then, Abel had not had such room to spare.
But now he did.
Differences create room.
Differences in strength, in experience, in perspective... any sort of ‘difference’ would do.
Difference creates room, and room allows one to notice yet more differences, which creates room again.
The ‘difference’ between Abel and Dainan was not strength or experience.
It was a difference in perspective.
What they were looking at, what they were aiming for, what they were comparing themselves against...
The swordplay between the two shifted into a phase where offense and defense swapped violently.
There was a clear reason for that.
Abel.
Because Abel’s sword became unstable.
But the one who got angry was Dainan.
“Hey, Abel! What the hell are you trying out?!”
“Hm?”
“You’ve been testing something from the start, haven’t you! Focus on the fight!”
“What an unreasonable thing to say.”
Abel gave a wry smile.
Still, it was true that he was testing things.
“I thought your way of handling the sword was interesting.”
“Huh?”
“This.”
Saying that, Abel extended his sword slightly farther forward than his usual receiving point, caught Dainan’s sword, and changed its trajectory.
“Huh? The way you redirect force is more efficient, or rather more effective, than the way I’ve been doing it. So I’m trying it out... but even so, it only works sometimes.”
“You...”
Abel explained politely, and Dainan got angry.
But Dainan’s anger was anger mixed with delight.
“Normally, you don’t test things in a life-or-death fight! And just because you think it’s interesting doesn’t mean you can do it right away!”
“No, I did.”
“That’s why I’m saying normal people can’t! Abel, you’re abnormal!”
“That really is an unfair thing to say.”
Abel grimaced.
(A monster. Yeah, no doubt about it. This guy called Abel is a monster wearing human skin!)
Dainan shouted in his heart.
He shouted in delight.
(And he’s still growing even now, with sword skill like this? He’s trying to learn my technique? Of course, once he can do that, he’ll reach even higher heights. But to ‘try it out’ in the middle of a life-or-death battle? What kind of crazy head does it take to do that! )
Dainan was screaming only in his heart.
By contrast, Abel’s words were calm.
“It is certainly a place where lives are at stake, but that applies only to me.”
“Hm?”
“You Djinn retainers don’t die even if your heads get cut off, do you? The one with his life on the line is only me. How unfair.”
“You... don’t tell me you know other retainers?”
Dainan was shocked by Abel’s complaint.
“Hm? Didn’t I say so? That I’d fought one before.”
“I only heard that you fought other Djinns.”
“Then I’ll refrain from answering your question from earlier.”
“You bastard, Abel...”
Abel said it with his mouth twisted in a sour expression, and Dainan—still a mix of anger and delight—answered.
Abel was testing Dainan’s techniques.
Mentally, that meant he had enough room to spare for it.
But in truth, there was almost no difference in ability between the two of them.
No, perhaps it would be fair to say the difference was zero.
That was how evenly matched they were.
What existed there was a difference in perspective.
Perspective... what are you looking at?
Abel was looking not at the present, but at the future—at the version of himself who would become even stronger.
“Focus on this battle right now!”
“Yes, that is absolutely true.”
Abel gave a wry smile at Dainan’s shouting.
“But I can’t help it once I want to see something.”
“Want to see something?”
“The version of myself that has taken your technique and become stronger than I am now.”
“You bastard...”
At Abel’s words, Dainan answered with a face that mixed anger and delight.
Angry that he was not focused on the fight with him in this very moment.
Delighted by that stance of trying to make his opponent’s techniques his own, even in a battle where his life was at stake.
Human hearts are complicated, and the hearts of retainers are complicated too.
“In the past, I used to think every day that I wanted to become stronger. I remembered that feeling.”
The words leaking from Abel’s mouth were almost gentle.
Ever since becoming a king, or perhaps even before that—ever since founding the ‘Crimson Sword’—he had felt that the desire to fight for his comrades outweighed the desire to become stronger himself.
Even so, he must have grown day by day.
But he had not possessed that fierce, burning longing... he was aware of that.
He remembered that longing for strength.
No, to be precise, he had been remembering it little by little for some time already.
Probably since meeting the water-attribute magician who watched the battle from atop the castle wall.
After being swept together into these Eastern Countries and traveling together, that longing had become more clearly recalled.
And now, upon encountering a sword with the same strength as his own, it had burst forth.
“I want to become stronger.”
That determination was spun from Abel’s lips.
“Incredible! Fine then. In that case, defeat me and get stronger!”
“I will make an effort.”
After answering that, Abel exhaled sharply, deeply.
In an instant, he concentrated only on the battle before him.
The gleam of the sword became sharper still.
(Hey! It’s getting faster still? A human can really move this fast? No, no, no, wait a second. Is this guy seriously not human?)
Dainan’s astonishment finally began to show even on his face.
Only two people noticed the change and its reason at this scene.
One was the Djinn Raja.
And the other was Ryo.
“In Abel’s sword’s radiance, green has mixed in.”
That murmur was heard by Ronja, who was standing beside Ryo.
But Ronja did not understand what it meant.
Abel’s sword was a magic sword.
That was why it shone red.
Yet somehow, Ryo felt that the brilliance was different.
“I haven’t fought him. But I’ve heard of it. If I remember correctly... Richard of the Kingdom of Knightley, his sword... ‘Ex’. I’d heard that no one else could wield it properly, but this swordsman called Abel is wielding it? No, even so, I guess that still isn’t its full power? Why can he use it? Is he some kind of descendant?”
Raja muttered while watching the battle.
Then she smiled faintly and added:
“Dainan, I envy you.”
To desire battle with a strong opponent.
That is the nature of Djinns.
It is the same thing as humans wanting to eat delicious food.
That is why one cannot escape it.
Just as there are people like sages who do not obsess over food, there are Djinns who do not obsess over battle too... but those are merely eccentrics, no, eccentric Djinns.
Somewhere, they are probably wearing red clothes.
If they see one of their retainers fighting a powerful foe, they feel envious.
Naturally, they themselves would want to fight that powerful foe too.
That is only natural.
But if asked whether they would want to snatch that fight away from the side and take it for themselves, the answer is no.
For a Djinn, a retainer is, in a sense, a child.
No, rather than a child, perhaps it is better to say they are a part of oneself.
After all, they are beings created by dividing one’s own power, and also the targets to which one supplies one’s own power.
If it is a part of oneself... then surely one would not want to snatch away that part’s joy from the side, would one?
Of course, if that part were defeated, then one would want to take over the opponent oneself.
With such a Raja looking on, the battle continued.
“Abel, you really are a battle maniac.”
“Huh? Dainan, don’t say random things. I am a normal, ordinary swordsman.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
“Smiling?”
At Dainan’s remark, Abel was surprised.
He had not been aware that he was smiling.
“You’re smiling faintly.”
“Must be your imagination. You’re seeing things.”
“As if!”
He had pointed it out because his opponent was faintly smiling right in front of him.
There was no way it was a hallucination.
But the swordsman before him refused to admit it.
“Listen, Dainan. A battle maniac is someone like you, or like that ‘Ryo’ guy who’s watching from the castle wall while wielding a sword despite being a magician and charging into close combat. It’s definitely not someone like me, a swordsman who loves peace.”
Abel’s manner of speaking had become somewhat like that of a battle-maniac magician, likely due to their rather long acquaintance.
“I’ll admit I’m a battle maniac. I’m a Cjinn’s retainer, after all. My master, Raja-sama, is far more of a battle maniac than I am, but that can’t be helped because she’s a Djinn. But Abel, you love fighting too much even though you’re human.”
“Hey, now, don’t say things that could be misunderstood.”
Abel objected to Dainan’s words.
Saying “you love fighting too much” might be acceptable for a swordsman, but if a king were called that, it would definitely be a problem.
A country ruled by such a king would never make its people happy.
“I’ve never fought him myself, nor has Raja-sama, but there was once someone who defeated a Djinn while still human. His name was Richard.”
“Ah...”
At the familiar—far too familiar—name of his ancestor, Abel’s lips escaped a word before he could stop it.
“That guy was apparently the type who ‘loved fighting too much’.”
“I see... King Richard.”
The kingdom ruled by King Richard was said to have prospered.
That prosperity led to the kingdom of today, and it now stood supreme as one of the three great powers of the Central Countries.
In that case, Abel thought, perhaps being told he was a king who “loved fighting too much” was not so bad after all.
If he were like the great King Richard, then perhaps that was fine.
After that, the battle between Abel and Dainan continued.
By around thirty minutes in...
“It should be about time.”
Ryo murmured.
No one heard that murmur.
The villagers on the castle wall were watching the battle with rapt attention, alternating between joy and sorrow.
Dainan, the Djinn’s retainer, kept fighting while smiling the whole time.
From the outside, it looked rather eerie, but it could not be helped.
The man himself was overflowing with a sense of bliss he had never felt before.
Abel, for his part, was also fighting with a faint smile.
To those who saw him, he might have looked even more eerie... but that too could not be helped.
The man himself was feeling his own growth even while fighting.
A sword battle lasting thirty minutes was unquestionably a long fight.
In a prolonged battle, humans are usually at a disadvantage.
That is because they have difficulty with stamina.
Moreover, among living things able to wield weapons, humans are fragile and soft.
Not to mention Djinns, retainers, and vampires... even compared to centaurs, for example.
But the magic sword swordsman fighting here was not bad at prolonged battles.
Rather, one might even say he was good at them.
Why?
Because he excelled at thinking.
As they fought, he analyzed the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and even exposed their weak points.
Furthermore, he grasped the opponent’s sword path and optimized his own defense against it.
Growing stronger while fighting... for Abel, that was in truth ordinary life.
“Yes, Abel the swordsman is a coward.”
Ryo muttered in a small voice, oddly denouncing him.
In truth, Ryo had a similar side himself...
Neither of them knew that, of course.
And then, in an instant...
“Now should be fine.”
“What?”
Abel’s murmur reached Dainan as their swords clashed.
Instead of blocking Dainan’s downward strike with his sword, he dodged it with body movement.
From the downward strike, Dainan flowed into a horizontal slash.
Normally, Abel would dodge this horizontal slash.
But this time...
Clang!
He stepped in all at once, bringing his body deep in close to near the base of Dainan’s sword, raised his own blade, and used his whole body to take the horizontal slash.
The principle of leverage.
When you swing a sword, the tip becomes the fastest and carries the most force.
Conversely, the closer you are to the hilt, the slower it is and the less force it carries.
At that point near the hilt, Abel could withstand it even against a retainer’s brute strength.
Spinning once with a quick step to add momentum, he severed both of Dainan’s wrists.
Continuing the rotation, he cut off the neck, both legs, and finally pierced the heart with his sword.
The sword duel between Abel and the retainer Dainan ended in Abel’s victory.
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