It was only meant to be a bit of harmless fun. A demonstration, mixed with a little instruction.
“If you’re ready, sir.”
“Very well. Make your move.”
A young man and an old gentleman faced one another with their swords, standing on the palace training field. The two men prepared to fight as a group of dignitaries, led by the king, looked on. Even the least observant of the onlookers couldn’t miss that the two had wildly different levels of equipment.
The older gentleman was protected by metal armor that covered him from head to toe. He carried a magic sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He was, in essence, fully equipped, ready to stride onto the battlefield in the event that a war was to suddenly break out. By way of contrast, the young man was poorly equipped. He wore simple clothing, woven straw shoes, and a wooden training sword.
Youth alone wasn’t enough to make up for such an obvious gulf in equipment. The knight himself wasn’t simply an old knight. He was the Grand Commander of the Royal Guard, still regarded as the greatest warrior in the kingdom despite his age. Known as the “Thunder Knight” due to his skill with lightning magic, the king placed his absolute trust in his skills.
No one watching expected it to be much of a fight.
“Thunder Ray!”
Lightning lanced from the tip of the longsword. Unleashed with all of the elderly knight’s hard-won skill and precision, the bolt dissipated harmlessly as it struck the spot where the young man had been standing a moment earlier.
“Impressive, sir.”
By the time the spell had fired, the young man was no longer in the same location. Making use of his skill “Flash Step” to instantly close the distance, the young man brought his wooden sword down on the older man’s helmet-clad head.
In spite of how it appeared to the crowd, the young man hadn’t actually moved faster than the lightning. Instead, he had anticipated the moment the spell would fire, closed the distance before it triggered, and struck his blow a heartbeat after the lightning spell had even gone off.
“Pardon, but could you bring a stretcher? He’s taken a hard blow to the head. I recommend immediate treatment.”
However, none of the others saw what had occurred in that split second. Everyone present had misinterpreted what the young man had done. That is... All of them were under the impression the young man had cut through the lightning.
“He cut...the lightning?!”
Despite the fact that he had so swiftly defeated the kingdom’s greatest warrior, leaving even the king muttering those words to himself, the young man showed no sign of celebrating, and simply returned the wooden sword to his hip. He held the old man he had knocked out in his arms, keeping the knight from falling to the ground.
The lack of concern in the young man’s stance sent a ripple of confusion and fear through the gathered dignitaries. Had he scoured the field clean with a firestorm or slashed the old knight in two with a mighty swing of his sword, they would have understood what they had just witnessed.
But the young man’s calm, quiet air was so far removed from their experience with soldiers as to border on the alien.
The only exception were the young man’s employers, members of one of the Four Great Houses, the Sepaedas.
“Well done. As to be expected a swordsman in our family’s service.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
The young man knelt at his master’s praise. Despite so thoroughly defeating the Grand Commander of the Royal Guard, his attitude was modest, verging upon servile.
It was understandable that the Thunder Knight’s subordinates would find the display unbearable.
“Your Majesty, if I may!”
The orderlies placed the Grand Commander upon a stretcher and carried him away. At that moment, the Captain of the Sword Company, renowned for his particular offensive skill even within the Royal Guard, stood before the gathering.
“Your Majesty, even the Grand Commander could not fight the ravages of time. Age has dulled his edge.”
The words were a pretense. As Captain of the Sword Company, he knew more than anyone that the Grand Commander’s skills had grown even sharper with age. However, it was a necessary excuse, made so that he would have the chance to redeem the reputation of both his commander and the Royal Guard itself.
“I, the Captain of the Sword Company, lack my commander’s experience. However, I am confident that, in terms of fighting ability, I am already the strongest in the Guard! Your Majesty, I beg you to provide me an opportunity to duel this swordsman!”
The ease with which the swordsman defeated the Grand Commander had left the king in a stunned stupor. Snapping out of his daze, the king turned his gaze to the Captain of the Sword Company, a man he hoped would become the next Grand Commander.
“Duke Sepaeda... Do you accept?”
“Certainly. As warriors, it is only natural that any challenges must be accepted. However, given the agitation of your guardsmen, I doubt they will simply back down if the captain is defeated.”
The Duke had concluded that his swordsman wouldn’t lose, no matter how many duels he engaged in with members of the Royal Guard. He chose to press on with a rather extreme proposal.
“Let us say you fought the entire Sword Company. Could you win?”
“That...”
“I will not allow false modesty or servility.”
“...Then I am afraid I must state that I believe I could handle the entire Royal Guard.”
The Royal Guard consisted of one hundred knights, divided between the Sword Company and the Shield Company. Every member of the Royal Guard was a warrior and spellcaster of the highest caliber, the elite of the kingdom.
To declare that a single swordsman could take them on by himself... That was a boast that the knights could not let pass unchallenged.
“Your Majesty, your permission, please! For the honor of the Royal Guard and the honor of the Crown!”
“...Very well. We shall allow it.”
That day, the title of the greatest warrior of the Arcana Kingdom passed from the Grand Commander of the Royal Guard, the “Thunder Knight.” It now belonged to a young man who had taken on the hundred members of the Royal Guard by himself, thoroughly defeating them without taking so much as a blow in return.
That young man, a bodyguard of Lady Douve Sepaeda, daughter of the House of Sepaeda, was named Sansui Shirokuro.
Feared as the “Baby-Faced Master Swordsman,” none suspected that he was in fact an Immortal, and one who had spent over five hundred years perfecting his craft...