But the most eye-catching detail was his rippling layers of back muscles. Back at school, Eugeo served as page to Golgorosso Balto, who was quite imposing himself, but this man was on another level entirely. He didn’t seem young, but the muscle around his midriff was still perfectly taut.
Eugeo was so arrested by the body of this warrior god that he initially failed to notice the countless scars crisscrossing his skin. In fact, they all seemed to be either arrow or blade injuries. Even deep wounds would heal without a trace if treated right away with high-level healing arts, so this spoke to a number of harrowing battles.
This had to be the commander of the Integrity Knights. The strongest one. The greatest obstacle Eugeo would face on his way to the top of the cathedral…
In that case, now was the time to strike, when he had neither weapon nor armor. Kirito would certainly do it.
Eugeo knew what needed to be done, but once again he froze.
He couldn’t tell whether the man was exposing his back to him as a sign of carelessness or as an exhibition of total confidence. If anything, it seemed like he was enticing Eugeo to attack.
The man finished stretching, totally unconcerned with the boy, then sloshed north through the water. On the walkway just ahead, there was a basket that most likely contained his clothes. He strode up the step onto the lip of the walkway, removed a pair of underpants from the basket, and put them on. Next he donned a thin top—it appeared to be a kimono from the eastern empire, with a wide sash that matched the fabric.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said, facing Eugeo at last. His features were chiseled and bold, in keeping with his deep, manly voice. The crisp wrinkles lining his mouth indicated that he was over forty when he became an Integrity Knight, but his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose were hard and strong. The most distinct feature of all was the powerful eyes under his full brows.
There was no real hostility in the pale-blue irises, but even standing over fifteen mels away, Eugeo felt a powerful pressure from them. It was interest in the foe he would soon overpower that dwelled in those eyes, and eagerness for the battle itself. Only one with absolute confidence in his skill could produce such a look. He was like Kirito in that way.
Once he was done tying his sash, he held out a hand to the basket. A longsword rose up from the bottom and fit into his burly hand. He lifted it to his shoulder and walked barefoot across the marble toward Eugeo.
The man came to a stop just eight mels away, stroked his lightly bearded chin, and said, “Now, can you tell me just one thing before we fight?”
“…What is it?”
“Is, er…the vice commander…is Fanatio…dead?” he asked, in the tone of one inquiring about the dinner menu. Eugeo felt momentarily offended—she was his subordinate, after all. But then he noticed an awkward artifice to the man’s expression: He’d glanced off to the side. He truly wanted to know the answer, couldn’t wait to find out, but didn’t want to seem too obvious about it. That, too, reminded Eugeo of someone very familiar.
“…She’s alive. She’s being tended to now…I believe,” he answered.
The man let out a long breath and said, “That’s good. In that case, I won’t take your life, either.”
“Wha…?”
Eugeo lost his voice again. He felt so inferior that it wasn’t even worth trying to call the man’s bluff. Kirito had once told him that belief in oneself could be a weapon of its own, but even he hadn’t exhibited this much confidence in the presence of an enemy. The enormous man had a wealth of confidence as unshakeable as a boulder thanks to something neither he nor Kirito had: the experience of having won countless furious battles, enough to leave his body covered in their scars.
But while Eugeo might not come close to matching him in victories, he had vanquished more than one Integrity Knight on the way here—the very title this fellow wore. If he felt overwhelmed before they even started fighting, he’d be shaming the knights he defeated, Golgorosso and the other people at the academy who’d helped train him, and most of all, his black-haired partner.
Mustering all the courage he could, Eugeo glared at the man facing him. He tensed his gut to ensure his voice would not falter.
“I don’t like it.”
“Oh?” the man said amusedly, his hand paused on the inside of his eastern-style clothing. “What don’t you like, boy?”
“Fanatio is not your only subordinate. There’s Eldrie and the Four Whirling Blades…and Alice as well. Don’t you care for their lives or deaths?”
“Oh…that’s what you mean,” he murmured, looking up and scratching the side of his head with the hilt of his longsword. “Well…Eldrie is little Alice’s disciple, and the other four belong to Fanatio: Dakira, Jace, Hoveren, and Geero. But Fanatio is my disciple. I’m not the kind to fight out of hatred and hostility, but if a disciple of mine gets killed, I need to avenge them. That’s all.”
He smirked, then added, “Actually…little Alice might consider me her teacher…but just between you and me, if we fought, I couldn’t say who’d win. When she was an apprentice knight six years ago, sure. But now…”
“Six years ago…apprentice knight…?” Eugeo murmured, forgetting his anger for a moment.
Six years ago was just two years after Alice had been taken from Rulid. The Integrity Knights’ names included numbers in the sacred tongue, and according to what Kirito had taught him while they ascended the stairs, Alice was thirty, Eldrie was thirty-one, and Deusolbert was seven. Based on the high value of her number, he doubted that she was converted all that long ago…
“But…Alice is the thirtieth Integrity Knight…isn’t she?” he asked.
The man looked briefly confused. “Ohhh. The apprentices aren’t given numbers, as a general rule. She was officially made number thirty when she was turned into a proper knight last year. She was certainly powerful enough to be a knight six years ago, but she was so young then…”
“But…Fizel and Linel had numbers, and they were very young.”