“If you succeed in obtaining the name of Lennart’s strongest, you can pick up the name of the Empire’s strongest as easily as picking up stones from the ground.”

“It’s harder to rank within the top 100 in skill within the family than to become the strongest in a domain.”

This was one of the jokes passed down in the Lennart family.

In some ways, it could be seen as arrogance.

It was pride that even the 100th ranked warrior in the Lennart family could easily claim the position of the strongest in other domains.

However, while this contained some exaggeration, it was by no means baseless nonsense.

Innately excellent physique. Outstanding mana manipulation ability. Stamina that didn’t easily tire and a body resistant to disease and poison.

Having just one of these would be enough to be evaluated as having potential as a warrior, but the characteristic of the Lion Duke’s bloodline was to be born with a bundle of these qualities, even if there were areas of specialty.

The Empire was vast, and there were geniuses comparable to the Lion Duke’s bloodline as individuals, but there was no other group boasting an insane average skill level where even a single house guard was at least equivalent to a knight from another domain.

However, this was also a shackle in some sense.

Even if one scored 99 points on a test, if everyone else scored 100 points, one would be last—that was the rule of relative evaluation.

In the extreme upward leveling where geniuses were treated as merely talented and the talented as ordinary, to stand out even further required something extraordinarily special.

Currently in Lennart, only three beings were treated as “special”.

Before the Iron Blood Emperor’s ascension. The Lion of Nemea Castle who rampaged across battlefields in the era when the conflict between the Empire and the Magic State was most intense.

During the Iron Blood Emperor’s reign. The Lennart Duke’s bodyguard knight who single-handedly repelled the challenges from the military faction and imperial knight order that rebelled against Lennart’s long reign.

And lastly. A prodigy who broke all records for the youngest age, evaluated as possibly challenging for the position of the family’s strongest within 10 years at this rate, and…

“Ahahahaha!”

…famous for her personality as hellish as her talent.

Clang! Clang!

Every time steel met steel, brilliant sparks bloomed like flowers.

The trajectory of the slashes cutting through the air was so swift and beautiful that the air, clearly cut, seemed dazed, not realizing it had been cut, and spread wind pressure several beats late.

Heated, intense, noisy flurry of swords.

Amidst this, Adelaide was inwardly astonished.

Her own action of nearly cutting off someone’s head reflexively, even if surprised in an emotionally unstable state.

The identity of the girl joyfully crossing swords before her eyes. The concern that they shouldn’t be engaging in such a noticeable battle in the middle of the city.

Such “leisurely” concerns had long since disappeared within seconds of starting the battle.

The emotion filling Adelaide’s chest now was just one.

…She’s strong! And at an absurd level!

Astonishment at the strength shown by the girl before her eyes.

Whoosh!

The girl dodged Adelaide’s two-handed sword by greatly bending her waist backward.

An unstable posture that looked like she might fall over at any moment, with her head nearly touching the ground.

But the girl rose up as if her soles were stuck to the ground, and using that momentum, aimed for Adelaide’s neck.

Thanks to quickly evading, her neck wasn’t caught, but instead, a red line was drawn on her cheek.

Adelaide also didn’t just take it but kicked the girl with her left foot using her right foot as an axis, but the girl, instead of resisting the impact, rotated her body and this time thrust her sword in mid-air.

The blade itself was avoided, but the sword energy that extended from the blade like stretching pierced through her hair.

Bizarre and unorthodox swordsmanship. Overwhelming flexibility and reflexes. Mana manipulation as free as her hands and feet.

While Adelaide had the advantage in hardware aspects like speed and power, even that gap wasn’t very large.

This was because the girl was deflecting Adelaide’s two-handed sword strikes with a one-handed sword without much difficulty.

Adelaide could send a knight in heavy armor flying like a skipping stone just by swinging her sword like a blunt weapon without properly sharpening the edge.

Blocking such attacks with one hand was impossible without superior basic physical abilities, no matter how excellent one’s technique.

Considering that Adelaide was getting additional enhancement from the Belt of Amaryllis, it meant that the girl’s basic abilities, excluding the belt, were also overwhelming.

Although not comparable to the Tin Knight or the White Knight receiving Gale’s support, it was truly inconceivable strength considering the girl’s apparent age was similar to Adelaide’s.

How much training has she done!?

“How much have you been fooling around?”

Similar context, but opposite meanings crossed in their impressions.

Creak, creak.

At a distance close enough for their faces to meet, while pushing each other’s swords, the girl spoke in a friendly manner, “I can tell by looking. You’re the same type as me. Not like the grandfather at Nemea Castle who achieved a realm through stubborn effort without talent, nor like the slick guy next to the duke who’s only good at killing people. You’re the type born with everything from the start.”

“What are you…!?”

Adelaide tried to push her sword forward, but contrary to her will, the sword wouldn’t advance at all.

It felt like not just blocking with force, but deflecting the direction to strange places the more force Adelaide applied.

“If our qualities are equal, what’s left is the difference in training. It seems you’ve made quite an effort in a short time, but your start was too late. What a waste. If you had learned properly from childhood, you would have been much better than now.”

The blade of the girl’s words deeply stirred Adelaide’s already troubled heart.

Before departing on her journey with the Tin Knight and Dorothea.

When the domain was falling apart day by day with nothing she could do, and even what she thought was her best action led to the worst outcome, helplessly manipulated by mere thieves.

Herself, who just acted spoiled as a “cute youngest lady” instead of making her own efforts, because there was a strong father, because there was a trusted older brother.

If she hadn’t done that.

If she had made efforts much earlier. The lingering attachment that something might have changed. That she might have been able to help somehow.

Regret that was now too late.

“You, what do…?”

Rustle.

The hair that had been dyed brown began to slowly regain its golden color from the roots.

The wavering eyes filled with intense emotion and a deep violet.

“What do you know…!?”

Whoosh!

The golden mana surrounding Adelaide’s body began to take on a flame-like shape.

Violet, lightning-like mana slowly bloomed within it.

Crack!

Unable to withstand the suddenly increased pressure, the ground Adelaide was standing on crumbled.

The sword energy flowing through Adelaide’s two-handed sword visibly increased its momentum.

The wounds here and there on her body began to heal at a rapid pace.

Mana, physical abilities. Perhaps even things beyond that.

All the elements constituting Adelaide began to amplify and strengthen simultaneously.

Boom!!

Unable to withstand Adelaide’s suddenly doubled abilities, the girl flew backward.

Perhaps because the remnants of the sword energy and shockwave that couldn’t be fully deflected tore through the girl’s body, the girl’s upper body, which until now hadn’t had even a small wound, was instantly stained with blood in various places.

But the smile never left the ruffian girl’s lips.

“What do I know? At least I know well about your father’s death! The poor knight who fought his best for the family, only to have his death covered up by the family head’s hands!”

“What are you, ugh!?”

Adelaide’s rebuttal couldn’t continue to the end.

This was because she had to block the girl’s sword that had suddenly rushed in like an arrow, trying to strike down hard on Adelaide’s head.

Boom!

A shockwave similar to or even greater than when Adelaide had just sent the girl flying occurred.

From the girl’s body, violet lightning-like mana was bursting up, just like Adelaide.

The overall increase in abilities was also the same.

Clang! Clang! Thud! Boom!

Every time the two lionesses growled and clawed at each other, the surrounding terrain and objects were cut or crushed along with them.

The fight between the two sides seemed evenly matched at a glance, but both Adelaide and the ruffian realized that it wasn’t actually so.

This was because while the violet lightning surrounding the ruffian maintained a very stable constant output, the lightning surrounding Adelaide was sometimes as intense as twice the ruffian’s, but at other times disappeared without a trace.

Above all, it was decisive that Adelaide herself couldn’t arbitrarily control the output.

Although Adelaide had been thoroughly taught the knack of mana manipulation by the Tin Knight, this violet mana was impossible to handle with the techniques she had learned so far.

Power that couldn’t be properly controlled was rather close to harmful, such as the lightning suddenly dying down when she needed to unleash a powerful attack, or the output suddenly increasing when she needed to step on the ground to leap, breaking her posture.

Bang!

Finally, Adelaide’s two-handed sword that couldn’t hold out for long flew into the air, and at the moment when the girl was about to swing her sword towards Adelaide’s defenseless chest.

Tap tap tap!

The bone mouse that sprang out from the gaps in Adelaide’s clothing suddenly threw its whole body at the ruffian girl’s face.

And right after that, the bone mouse’s body exploded.

Boom!

From the explosion at close range, Adelaide’s body was greatly pushed back and rolled on the ground.

The ruffian girl’s side was in an even more serious state; while she had blocked the direct injury from the explosion, she seemed to have been unable to deal with the curse scattered along with it and ended up covered in it.

The girl’s face scrunched up tightly, and her complexion noticeably worsened.

Even in the midst of this, the golden and violet mana surrounding her body growled as if trying to devour the curse, seeming like it would revive soon, but even that brief gap was enough for those who hadn’t been able to intervene due to the fierce battle so far.

“Miss Adelaide. Are you alright? Please step back.”

“Miss Hilda, that’s enough. There are too many eyes watching.”

Around Adelaide were the people from the Trudvangar branch, including Norman.

And around the ruffian, Hilda von Lennart, about twenty knights who looked quite skilled at a glance gathered, forming a confrontational structure.

Seeing Sophia supporting Adelaide and Norman protecting in front, one of Hilda’s knights frowned and said, “Are you siding with that branch family now? That side is a dangerous person who suddenly swung a sword when our young lady just spoke to her!”

Despite the knight’s threatening attitude, Norman responded calmly without being flustered, “Well, that’s a bit different from what I heard from our staff. You should know what it means to give up distance to a warrior. It seems somewhat inappropriate to call suddenly taking someone’s back ‘just speaking’. Above all, wasn’t it Miss Hilda who deliberately turned something that could have ended with a verbal warning into a fight?”

“Listen here, Instructor Norman!”

“Ah—enough. Enough. Drop this petty war of words.”

Restraining the knight who was about to step forward angrily, Hilda stood up.

Having somehow completely dispelled the curse, her complexion had returned to normal.

“Even if I was caught off guard, failing to finish is still failing, so I’ll count this as your victory. It was quite fun, all things considered.”

At those extremely casual words, Adelaide was dumbfounded.

Despite the seemingly friendly smiling attitude, she felt only discomfort rather than welcome.

An extremely self-centered and arbitrary way of thinking and behavior. The expression “ruffian” was indeed not lacking.

To be honest, she wasn’t the type Adelaide wanted to mix words with, but Adelaide still had something to ask Hilda.

“W-wait a moment! What on earth did you mean earlier? That the one who covered up father’s death was the Lennart family head?!”

“It’s exactly as I said. There were voices within the family calling for revenge, but the one who covered it up was Duke Lennart. Well, why don’t you ask him directly about the reason?”

As if that was all she had to say, Hilda and the knights left unilaterally.

Adelaide stared blankly at their departing figures, then soon collapsed as if the strength had left her legs.

For her, it had truly been a day full of misfortunes.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken