The Princess Knight is Too Strong

After Alice, a total of eight students conducted duels, and the last opponent among them was none other than Delphina.

And not a single one of them succeeded in landing an effective hit on Lore.

“Ehehe, I lost.”

Delphina chuckled and scratched her head.

But I smiled and said to her:

“Still, you weren’t using your full power, were you?”

Delphina made a strange expression as if I had hit the nail on the head, but she didn’t answer aloud.

I didn’t just say that to save her face.

Her main weapon is a large hammer.

It’s a mass weapon specialized in crushing opponents in a single blow by utilizing its weight, not suitable for mock duels conducted between people.

Therefore, she conducted the duel with a regular straight sword, a weapon she was relatively less skilled with, and naturally, she lost to Lore.

“But even if I had used my hammer… it would have been difficult to beat the instructor.”

Delphina sat down next to me and honestly admitted.

Beyond the difference in skill, it’s a difference in compatibility. A large hammer, which has a formidable level of destructive power in each blow as a mass weapon, is almost equivalent to giving up speed due to its weight.

On the other hand, Instructor Lore’s dagger technique is a lightweight weapon technique that maximizes speed to the extreme.

Moreover, with his aura sword technique based on his unique stamina, he overcame the chronic disadvantage of daggers, which is range, making it quite difficult to win with Delphina’s large hammer, a slow and heavy mass weapon.

“Student Delphina… there’s not much I need to particularly emphasize. I heard your main weapon is not a straight sword but a large hammer.”

“Yes.”

“However, I’d like to briefly advise you on using your secondary weapon, the straight sword, in case you lose your large hammer, it gets damaged, or for any other reason you can’t use your main armament.”

Instructor Lore thought for a moment and said:

“Your weapon technique itself was at a level where there’s not much to criticize for a freshman. But perhaps because you use a hammer that exerts formidable destructive power even without aura, I noticed that your aura usage is quite unskilled.”

The instructor pinpointed exactly the same point I had been thinking about internally.

“And you seemed to rely significantly on weight even when using a straight sword. A straight sword is a completely different type of weapon from a hammer. It might be difficult to change your ingrained body techniques at once, but at least try to handle it with the feeling of controlling and managing the weight when holding a straight sword.”

“Thank you!”

“Good work on the duel.”

Delphina answered confidently. After exchanging bows with her, Instructor Lore opened his mouth again.

“Now, the next in order is…”

The order of mock duels followed the order of student numbers, which were composed according to alphabetical order of names.

And Delphina was the only student in the D section.

The first student in the next E section is…

“…Oh my, it’s the Princess Knight.”

Instructor Lore muttered in a voice clearly showing tension.

It was somewhat contrasting to his relaxed demeanor until now.

Simultaneously, the gazes of the seated students all turned toward me.

‘…Sigh.’

Finally, my turn had come.

“…You’re saying you’ll face me barehanded.”

“To be precise, not exactly barehanded…”

I showed my left hand to Instructor Lore and said:

A hard metal mass intertwined with cold metal pieces rather than warm blood and flesh.

“It’s a combat prosthetic. It’s a weapon in its own way.”

“…I understand.”

Instructor Lore nodded slightly as if his pride was a bit hurt.

“From the beginning, I don’t understand why they invited you as a student rather than an instructor.”

“I don’t have the ability to teach anyone.”

Thinking his words were mere flattery, I smiled and trailed off.

Naturally, just because one’s strength or skill is outstanding doesn’t mean they also excel at teaching others.

In that sense, thinking about it now, Earl Scabbard seems to have been a man with no particular talent for teaching someone.

His education method was all about effort, effoooort. Looking back now, it definitely wasn’t training that should be given to an ordinary 12-year-old girl.

It was only because Evangeline wasn’t ordinary.

However, Instructor Lore shook his head and said:

“What are you saying? You’re the one who defeated Earl Difind and became one of the Kingdom’s Seven Swords. When I saw him fighting…”

“Wait, what did you say?”

At the familiar surname from Instructor Lore’s mouth, I couldn’t help but ask in surprise.

“You’ve seen that guy?”

Cornelio Difind.

The 6th seat of the Kingdom’s Seven Swords, and the 5th seat until I became one of the Seven Swords.

While his personal strength is indeed among the best in the Kingdom, due to the fatal flaw of his severely lacking military insight or character, he was relegated to an insignificant position despite being one of the Seven Swords.

My first meeting with him, whose name I had only occasionally heard, was three years ago during the height of the war.

He thought I was an ignorant, immature princess and showed an openly impertinent attitude, and I had to calm the situation by knocking him down in front of everyone.

The problem was that he was a powerful figure who had risen to the position of the 5th seat among the Kingdom’s Seven Swords at that time.

Since the position of the Seven Swords is determined solely by one’s personal strength, regardless of leadership ability or character, I naturally took over his seat—the 5th seat among the Kingdom’s Seven Swords.

There had been endless controversy about whether such a man should have been given the title of one of the Seven Swords in the first place, to the extent that there were even debates about modifying the selection criteria of the Seven Swords system, which was a long tradition of the Kingdom, or abolishing the system altogether.

Anyway. That guy, who couldn’t accept his defeat and ranted wildly, eventually disappeared suddenly during the Palantie operation.

Military desertion during wartime.

Thanks to his independent action, the Palantie operation failed, and the Kingdom is currently publicly seeking his arrest.

I only knew that he had completely disappeared from the Kingdom… I never would have thought he would arbitrarily head to the Holy Nation.

“…Ah.”

Instructor Lore muttered in a sinking voice, as if he had made a mistake.

“…Yes, I know him.”

“I see.”

I spoke softly, slowly clenching and unclenching my prosthetic fist.

“I need to hear the details.”

“…Of course.”

Instructor Lore nodded with a complicated expression.

“However, I’d ask for it to be after training.”

Slowly taking a stance with his dagger-holding hand forward, the instructor slightly bowed his head.

“Unintentionally, I misspoke. I’m sorry.”

“No, there’s no need to apologize.”

I shook my head and slowly channeled magical power through my left prosthetic arm.

“Just speak honestly.”

For his sake too, concentrating on each other at this moment was the minimum courtesy toward an opponent in a mock duel.

The “weapon” I chose was the metal prosthetic that replaced my left arm.

This combat prosthetic, which can be called the crystallization of the continent’s magical engineering, is basically designed to exert strength and durability that exceed even knights who easily surpass the physical abilities of ordinary humans.

The reason knights can exert formidable physical abilities is precisely the magical power that every human in this world possesses within their bodies.

Knights, or trained knight aspirants, by practicing a special breathing method called circular breathing, can supply the magical power in their bodies throughout their entire body through blood vessels, making it possible to pump up the strength and durability that each muscle fiber can produce by several times.

The operating principle of this combat prosthetic is inspired by the aforementioned principle, excluding “blood,” which is an impurity that interferes with the flow of magical power, from the “blood vessels” used for circulating magical power.

Special fiber bundles made to allow only pure magical power to flow are placed instead of blood vessels, and artificial muscles made of materials that can better accept magical power are wrapped around them.

The artificial muscles are also special products designed to produce strength far exceeding that of ordinary humans on their own.

Instructor Lore spoke softly:

“I will begin the ninth mock duel.”

Simultaneously, the gazes of about twenty students all turned toward me.

The combat prosthetic began to glow softly with a pale blue color, the color of pure magical power.

Generally, the skin of knights who start circulating magical power takes on a reddish hue as the color of blood shows through, but since there is no blood in the combat prosthetic.

Thus, only the color of pure magical power appears on the surface, and eventually, blue circuits began to show through the silver-painted surface of the prosthetic.

“…Indeed. It deserves to be called a weapon.”

Perhaps he had detected the amount of magical power emanating from the prosthetic. Instructor Lore muttered in a voice stiff with tension.

“It may be presumptuous, but Earl Evangeline.”

“?”

“In this duel, I will approach with the intention of trying to defeat you.”

Speaking in a low voice, Instructor Lore simultaneously extended his dagger.

An aura in the form of a single-edged blade extending from the dagger’s blade stretched out long.

A formidable range that would be better described as a whip rather than a sword.

‘He could extend it that far…!’

It would consume considerable stamina just to extend it to this length, but he still showed no signs of fatigue.

The blade’s speed was incredibly fast.

The choices given to me, superficially, were two.

Dodge, or counter.

However, it was clear that whichever I chose, I would inevitably lose the flow to him.

Aura has almost no mass.

Even when wielding an aura blade of this length, it would feel like the weight of at most wielding a whip, not even a steel sword of the same length.

But it’s much easier to handle than a whip, more flexible, and its destructive power is also of a different dimension.

Whether I dodged or countered, it was obvious that I would have to accept a considerable level of damage.

Therefore, I chose a third method.

I deeply thrust my left arm, flowing with magical power, into the ground.

“What, what’s that?”

“What is she doing…?”

Commotion arose among the watching students. Mixed in was the small sigh of Delphina, who was the only one who guessed what I was trying to do.

Sorry, Delphina. Cover your nose and mouth in advance.

I bent my fingers, gripping a deep part below the ground.

-Crunch…!

Gritting my teeth, concentrating all my body’s magical power to my fingertips.

I lifted the ground.

-Kwaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!

A huge rock mass, hazy dust, countless pebbles falling like rain.

Everything that burst out as half of the training ground was completely upturned rose like a waterspout, obscuring the instructor’s vision.

-Slash…!

Simultaneously, the aura blade that shot up toward the sky cut through the rock masses like cutting tofu.

I kicked off the ground and ran in a straight line.

This moment when Instructor Lore aimed his aura blade skyward to deal with the rock masses being thrown at him was the only chance.

The surest way to approach him and rob him of his advantage of overwhelming range.

But the opponent is not a fool either. Even if his vision is blocked, if he detects the dense magical power emanating from my prosthetic, it would be possible to pinpoint my location to some extent.

Sure enough. A footstep was heard from within the thick dust, which was so dense that one couldn’t see even a step ahead.

-Tap, patter, tap.

A sound like hurried running. I pricked up all my senses to follow that sound.

The dust gradually subsided, and the view cleared a little.

And looking in the direction of the sound, I saw something small rolling on the ground.

“…A pebble?”

Simultaneously, a sharp shadow enveloped my back.