Chapter 12

A month had passed. At the Imperial Knight Academy, the month-end ranking matches were held to assess the freshmen and set their order. With all the academy’s students and instructors watching, the training ground’s atmosphere had grown intensely heated.

And finally, the name everyone had been waiting for was called.

“Kaion Aster versus Kale Reinhardt!”

The hall murmured. It was a rematch between the countryside freshman who had been soundly defeated by Kale a month earlier and the son of the empire’s foremost marquis house. Most students expected Kale to win overwhelmingly again and cast sympathetic glances at Kaion.

But the Kaion who stepped into the arena was completely different from a month ago. There was no more anger or impatience. His eyes were calm, and the hand gripping his sword was as steady as a rock.

“Huh, I thought you’d spend the month plotting your escape. Somehow you crawled back out, country bumpkin.”

Kale was as arrogant as ever. The moment the judge gave the start signal, he attempted the powerful downward strike Rian had predicted. It was his guaranteed pattern to overwhelm an opponent early with force.

But Kaion did not meet that attack head-on. He began the ‘muddy fight’ Rian had instructed.

Thud!

Instead of parrying with his sword, Kaion rolled to the side. It was a humiliating dodge a noble heir would never dream of. Kale’s blade sliced the air, and a frown crossed his brow.

“What are you doing!”

Instead of answering, Kaion rolled on the ground and, as he rose, kicked up the dirt underfoot. While Kale hesitated at the sudden cloud of dust, Kaion swung his blade along an unorthodox trajectory that ignored standard form. It was a rough swordplay taught nowhere in the academy, seen only in real combat.

“Such a lowly—!”

Kale was flustered. His elegant, refined swordsmanship had not accounted for this kind of fight. He began to be drawn into Kaion’s ‘un-noble’ movements. Kaion kept making unpredictable moves—swinging his sword then suddenly ducking to trip a leg, or pretending to drop his blade to catch his opponent off guard.

The training ground fell into chaos. Students couldn’t tell if this was a knightly duel or a back-alley brawl. But the instructors saw differently. Every move Kaion made was thoroughly calculated. He was breaking his opponent’s composure and steering the fight into the situation most favorable to him.

In the end, Kale’s patience ran out.

“You whelp… you dare insult the Reinhardt blade!”

With reasoning being lost, Kale, filled with rage, unleashed a massive, blind technique. It was at that moment—the instant Rian had mentioned when the defensive stance would be completely broken.

Kaion’s eyes flashed. Like a predator waiting for a chance in the mud, he sprang. His sword, ‘The Guardian’s Will,’ shot out like lightning and pierced exactly toward Kale’s exposed left shoulder.

Clang—!

Kale’s sword flew from his hand and skidded across the floor. Kaion’s cold blade halted beneath his chin.

The outcome was decided.

The arena fell silent as if water had been poured over it, then erupted into incredulous exclamations. The country bumpkin eldest son of the Aster family had defeated the empire’s pride, the Reinhardt family’s second son.

Kaion did not revel in victory. He quietly sheathed his sword and spoke to Kale, who stood dazed by defeat.

“Strategy is also skill. Today’s defeat wasn’t at the hands of the ‘country bumpkin’ you looked down on, but by your own arrogance.”

As Kaion turned away after saying that, the students’ gazes toward him had changed. No longer pity or mockery, but a mix of awe and fear.

Meanwhile, atop the academy’s highest tower, Rian watched the whole scene through a spyglass. A satisfied smile tugged at his lips.

The elder brother’s victory was not mere revenge. It was the surest declaration, etching the name ‘Aster’ into the social circles and seats of power in the capital.

Light had finally proven its worth. Now it was time for the shadow to move.