Sword Magic (Part 2)

He brought me to the sidelines, and there a chair was offered to me. I gracefully took my seat, my maid behind me while my brother stood beside me.

“I will be the one guarding you, dear sister. We have to be careful of any stray attacks.”

I nodded my head.

They called a pair of knights, then they stood several meters away from each other. They drew their swords and waited for Brother to declare the start of the match. I focused my eyes. Their stance, the way they gripped their two handed swords, I observed them.

“Begin!”

Then with that, the match began. The knights charged towards each other. However, I was taken off guard.

What the fuck?

Their steps, the speed of their legs were abnormal. They were fast, abnormally, and bullshitty fast. It only took them about a second to have each other in the reaches of their blades.

In an instant, their blades clashed. Their normal attack only lasted for a couple more attacks before their blades began to glow. I squinted my eyes to keep up what was happening. Their swords clashed again, and a gust of wind blew from them towards all directions, even reaching me.

I grew cold as I watched.

One knight was being pushed, so he backed away, giving themselves some space. But immediately after that, he slashed his sword in the air, and violent flames came forth, heading towards his opponent.

What the fuck?!

I was bewildered and stunned. This was different from the plain light that I saw just before. I was becoming more worried. The knight on the receiving end of those flames thrust his left hand forward, and a blast of frost crashed into the flames, spreading it away. I could feel the faint coldness from where I was.

Just as the flames were dissipating away, the knight who casted the frost rushed forward with quick steps. The blades of the two knights once again crashed into each other, but this time, both sending a strong gust of cold wind as they both emanated cold magic.

Then at the same time, they let go of one hand from their swords and thrust forward. This time a plain light spread from their hands and crashed into them, sending the both of them flying away from each other. But in mid air, they regained their footing.

I bit my lip.

Bullshit! Is this the standard of this world?!

Ridiculous! If I fight someone who can cast magic head on, I’ll die. I have no chance of winning. Fighting would only be suicide. In other words, my fighting skills in this world would be worthless in the face of those who use magic.

If I were to face someone capable of using the damn thing, then I need to take them by surprise. They must not anticipate my attack at all. I must take them out silently, or make them lower their guard, then launch my surprise strike. And that strike must be an absolutely decisive one. The one that will surely kill them. Otherwise, they would be able to take me out like a puppy barking against a lion.

Furthermore, I must not remain stagnant.

I must also learn this so-called magic. I have to be able to use it so I can stand up against anyone who could use it as well. That way, if I had no choice but to face them head on, I can at least give some resistance and defend myself, or defeat the enemy.

The two knights clashed again, their magic going wild.

I recalled what I learned from my academic lessons, or rather, lessons of Estelia before I came. Nobility had greater magic affinity than commoners. In addition, they also had greater amounts of mana. I was ignorant about how great magic was, but now its power was slapped into my precious face.

In any case, having nobles becoming knights was an important factor for the country. Normal commoners or soldiers couldn’t match up against monsters. Therefore, the knights must be dispatched to handle those monsters. The nobles were the ones who protected the people from dangerous elements beyond their capabilities.

If that was the case, then how strong were monsters?!

At the same time, two large waves of flames intercepted each other, the waves were as high as a house, and as large that could swallow someone whole. It could burn someone to crisps.

Are flames and ice only they could do…?

I hesitantly asked myself.

Just then, the match was decided as one already had a blade on his neck. The one who won was the knight who first used ice magic. They shook hands with a smile on their face before walking away.

“What do you think, sister?”

My brother asked me.

“... It’s… it’s breathtaking and mind boggling.”

“Is that so?” a broad grin emerged on his face. “Then, this next fight will be a blast. One contender will be the strongest spearman, and the other will be our fastest dual wielder of swords.”

I swallowed.

So that was not the strongest?

Dammit!

If only Estelia was a bit familiar with such things, I wouldn’t be this surprised.

If I were to compare myself now, I would be an ant! I was an amazing fighter in my old life. I could take on ten skilled mercenaries in a melee fight for crying out loud and emerge victorious. I was one of the greatest assassins in the organization!

But here?! Nope, I was nothing!

If that was the case, then I will only have to work for it.

Two knights stepped forth into the open. One was a fit knight holding a spear, his light brown hair was tied into a short ponytail, his brown wide eyes hinted at his carefree nature, he wore a broad grin as he stood in preparation. The other was a bigger man, short dark hair, dark eyes showing his grumpy personality as he glared at his opponent, in each of his hands were swords that were shorter than what the knights usually had.

“Begin!”

The two charged at each other, then I immediately noticed what happened to their weapons. Electric currents engulf the upper half of the knight’s spear as he thrust it forward. His target easily evaded it, but he immediately swept it sideways.

The dual wielder blocked it with his face turning into a grimace. Light engulfed the edges of his blades, fighting against the sparks of electricity from the spear. He stepped back before immediately rushing again to the side of his opponent.

His sword clashed against the spear. However, he kept swinging at great speed, launching a strong attack every time there was an opening. But it was not easy, the spearman would often use the bottom part of his spear to block the other sword. Spinning the entire spear to defend if he had to.

The fight was so intense that I had to hold off my jaw from falling. Gust of wind burst out at every strike, sending dust into the air. The spearman, seemingly being pinned down for the enemy being close to him, he leaped back after a vigorous counter attack.

At that moment, greater sparks of electricity formed into his spear. Then with a single thrust forward, lightning struck out. A literal lightning! It was quick and it only took a short moment to reach its target. But before it could do it, the dual wielder had already crossed his swords together, with a simultaneous swing, plain lights followed in an x shape, larger and brighter than the ones I saw previously.

The two deadly elements crashed into each other.

A tremendous energy burst out and caused a strong wind to go wild all around, sending my hair fluttering and prompting me to cover my face from the dusts. Before even anything else, they fought once again.

Tch! This is magic, huh.

Manipulating flames and ice were ridiculous enough, but lightning?! Bullshit! And there was something that even went up against that lightning!

Damn.

But I did notice something. It was the element I was familiar with.

That lightning. The lightning was not as fast as I thought it would be. A true lightning would come in a flash. But the one that spearman did was not as fast as that. It did not happen in a flash.

Therefore, I surmised there must be limitations. What could those be?

With the memories of Estelia, and the fact about nobles, I had a guess. That limitation could be their overall magical power, or to be precise, the amount of mana. Nobles were strong because of the amount of their mana. Therefore, that could also mean that was the amount of their power.

And that spearman wasn’t able to conjure the full power of a true lightning because he was not at a strength that gives him the ability to do so.

But this is interesting.

It was great to learn something that was vital about this world. Even though I was annoyed that such powers exist. But if I were to learn that, I would not be annoyed anymore.

If only Estelia learned even the basics…

It was regretful, but there was nothing I could do. I still had determined some weakness.

They can’t attack if they didn’t know they were already dead. Okay, that wasn’t clear.

They can’t attack if I already attacked a decisive strike before they could even react.

I turned to my brother.

“What are those magic on weapons called?”

“Armament Magic. Using your mana, you can enhance and do plenty more things with your weapon.”

Oh, I thought it would be called along the lines of Sword Magic, or something.

“I see.”

As I thought, mana.

“Teach me that, brother.”

“Huh?”

He looked at me in confusion. He blinked at me several times as he was processing what he just heard.

“What did you say, dear sister?”

“Please teach me.”

“Aaah, uh, hm, but there’s no need for you to learn that, Estel. You are a princess, not a warrior.”

The other knights also looked at me with bewilderment. They must not have expected that I would ask for such a thing. I looked around as though embarrassed. At that moment I was assured that there was someone indeed missing. It was Elson, the one with those daggers, he must have been with Father.

I directed my eyes to my Brother.

“Why not, at least I can defend myself.”

“... It’s not that easy, you had no experience in magic. Plus, you’re a princess, you have no time with learning such things. Leave these kinds of things to soldiers and knights.”

Why are they so strict towards me? In that case...

“Then, please at least teach me anything that is magic.”

Anything will do. I had guessed that the magic the knights used here were not for beginners or those who have never been a warrior. I am a princess, this body does not have the experience of being a fighter.

However, there must be something that could be useful. Something that they would allow me to learn.

“.... If you say that, I’m not sure if Mother and Father would allow it.”

“Then please convince them!”

I leaned towards him with my fingers intertwined with each other. My pure eyes pleadingly gazed at my Brother with my lips pursed.

“.......”

My Brother looked away as though in thought.

Then at that moment, the victor had been decided. The one who won was the dual wielder.

My Brother sighed as he made up his mind.

“Fine, I will go ask father if that is allowed.”

“Thank you, my Brother! I love you so much!”

His eyes brightened. I just gave him a little motivation.

“I’ll do my best! For my dear sister! Hahahahaha!”

I will learn and use anything that could be used as a weapon.

For the sake of self preservation, and for my beauty.

Hm. I guess old habits die hard.

I heard faint murmurs from the knights around me as they whispered to each other while glancing at me. There were statements from the female knights such as “The princess looks so adorable”, then some “She’s so sweet”, along with “She’s so beautiful, I’m jealous”. As for the men, I heard awed words like “The princess is an angel”, and “She’s also kind”.

When I heard those, I had to hold myself from smiling delightly on my face. I had to be clueless after all.

After all that, two more pairs fought before it finally ended. During the matches, I observed carefully, since there might be something to note of. Then, as for there was nothing else to do now, I excused myself and left, returning to my room. I had to do a bit of thinking.