The banquet came to a natural end.
It was nearly over anyway, and the atmosphere had been broken by the intrusion of the female knight called Marquis Roeide.
After that, where we were heading was...
"The Imperial training grounds?"
"It's what Marquis Roeide, Elenoa, requested from the Emperor. She seems to want to assess the abilities of the adventurers and see if they can be of help in conquering the eastern Erins Gorge region."
"Well, what a fastidious knight we have here."
Despite the late hour, all the users gathered here were heading to the outdoor imperial training grounds due to the appearance of a sudden quest.
[Gain the recognition of Alpharion Empire's Master, Marquis 'Elenoa von Roeide']
The continent of Astria, while having a medieval fantasy setting, did not have a low social status for women. Even women could hold high positions according to their abilities, and it was possible for them to inherit family titles.
Master, Marquis 'Elenoa von Roeide'.
She was also the next Duke of the 'Roeide Duchy' and the leader of the 'Roeide Knights'.
The 'Roeide Duchy' bordered the 'Erins Gorge' in the east of the Alpharion Empire. It seems the Roeide family, a family of knights to the bone, volunteered to take charge of defending the dangerous eastern lands.
"To seduce a passing noblewoman and make her spill everything she knows."
"I didn't seduce her, you know?"
Chris chuckled. I puffed my cheeks. That noblewoman's eyes glazed over after receiving my smile, and she started blabbing on her own.
"But I heard almost everything I wanted to know."
The Roeide Duchy.
A founding contributor family of the empire.
A family that has produced the empire's finest knights for generations.
Indeed, it was a family with enough power to confidently express opinions in front of the Emperor.
The reason why the Roeide family crest was the same as Sister Melissa's family crest.
"So Melissa's surname was Roeide."
I recalled 'Melissa', a companion from the hero's party with blue hair braided into a ponytail and an impressive, confident smile.
She didn't talk much about her family. She only briefly mentioned the demon's tomb in the desert as we were passing through.
A thousand years ago, in a bleak time for humans, 'Master Melissa' was the continent's finest swordswoman, yet she left her family to take up the sword for the hero's party.
Now, her descendant was inheriting the title of 'Master'.
"Melissa's family has been working for the Alpharion Empire all this time."
The puzzle pieces were fitting together to some extent.
However, I also learned an unpleasant fact.
The Roeide family's sore spot.
It was that they had lost the name of their ancestor, who was the continent's greatest knight a thousand years ago, a hero.
The cause was the background of why Sister Melissa left her family.
There was a conflict between the family head's opinion to slowly gather strength while lying low, unite the remaining human forces to form a country and push back the demons, and Melissa's opinion to storm the Demon King's castle and take the Demon King's head.
In the end, both methods were necessary for humanity to survive.
But Melissa never returned from there.
She never reconciled with the family head.
Perhaps because of this, while the 'Roeide family' gained fame as a founding contributor family of the Alpharion Empire, they couldn't claim the name of being the family that the ancient hero who saved humanity a thousand years ago belonged to.
I know that name.
The full name of the female knight from the hero's party, 'Master Melissa', was.
"Melissa von Roeide."
At the training grounds we finally reached, I looked at the current era's Master, 'Elenoa von Roeide', who was standing proudly on the training ground to test the qualifications of the adventurers.
And I grinned.
You're going to test our qualifications?
No.
I'll test whether you're qualified to inherit Sister Melissa's title of 'Master'.
Whether you're qualified to reclaim the name of your ancestor, the ancient hero.
I'll test your qualifications.
The imperial palace training ground with its impressive open sky is enormously wide. On par with a named combat area?
Several imperial court mages were on standby to generate barriers, and the Emperor was overlooking this place from a platform with his ministers.
The Emperor's small face seemed to look in my direction. Judging by his slight smile, this must have been one of the scenarios he had in mind.
Indeed, did he think this far ahead?
Don't worry, clever Emperor.
This Great Mother will thoroughly educate the reckless knight who only believes in her own strength.
Although it was already late at night, magical light spheres floating in the air illuminated the entire training ground as if it were midday.
Elenoa, standing in the center of the training ground, looked around at the users and said:
"Adventurers from the stars. I, 'Elenoa von Roeide', would like you to show me your abilities."
At Elenoa's confident declaration, the first wave users murmured.
"What happens if we don't get her approval? Will we not be able to enjoy the expansion pack?"
"I don't think it'll be that extreme? A world quest has even appeared. But, material support will probably decrease. The area we'll be active in from now on seems to be this knight's family territory, so the rewards for various monster subjugation quests will probably be stingy? They'll probably judge that they can sufficiently repel the demons with just their family's strength, without needing the help of adventurers."
"Then, we need to defeat that female knight somehow. Or at least, show her a convincing amount of strength."
There was movement from the Scada raid party first.
Shing.
Scada team's main tank, 'Park Jeongkwon', drew his sword and stepped forward. The sword in his hand was the 'Northern Army Commander's Sword'. It's the second legendary weapon in Astria Online, farmed from the Tree of the Abyss.
"If the opponent is a swordsman, then a swordsman on our side should take charge. If it's a named-level opponent, it seems like we could gang up on her, but for an event like this, a 1:1 duel is the standard, right?"
Ding.
[Level ???]
[Master Elenoa]
[HP ??? / ???]
A named interface appeared above Elenoa's head in the center of the training ground.
However, the information was unknown.
Not simply a matter of reducing HP to defeat, but an event-style named opponent with a specific strategy to overcome.
I had seen this type of stat window in battles like the one with the 'Ancient Hero', but it seems other users were seeing it for the first time.
"What!? The information is unknown?"
"At this rate, we won't know how many hits it'll take to defeat her."
"Don't underestimate her. She's an NPC knight who's among the current strongest humans. Approach it like you're facing a named boss in a raid dungeon."
I warned Park Jeongkwon.
Of course, the attack pattern will be different from a named boss, but she will be tremendously strong. Considering the strength of Melissa, who was the Master of her time, she might even be capable of going toe-to-toe with an Army Commander single-handedly. Of course, I'm not sure how it would be in the current world with its system in place.
"Hmm?"
Park Jeongkwon drew his sword and went up to the training ground, but Elenoa didn't draw her sword. She just stood in the center of the training ground with her arms crossed and eyes closed.
As Park Jeongkwon stood there with his sword drawn and a dumbfounded expression, Elenoa spoke with her arms still crossed.
"Come at me whenever you like. I hope you understand that there's that much of an absolute difference in our levels."
Park Jeongkwon's face turned red.
"Hehehe. Provocation?"
"What an impressive knight."
"Park Jeongkwon, are you going to take that provocation?"
I could hear the Scada team members making comments from behind.
Swoosh.
Woong.
Starlight began to swirl around Park Jeongkwon's sword.
"Alright, I don't know how impressive of a named boss you are, but."
And his body shot towards Elenoa like lightning.
Swish!
Clang clang clang!
"Th-This is!"
Park Jeongkwon's fierce offensive didn't last long. He was driven back, desperately blocking Elenoa's sword from behind his 'Block' skill.
Taking advantage of a slight loosening in Elenoa's sword strikes, Park Jeongkwon gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
Swish!
The horizontally swung sword couldn't even deflect Elenoa's sword.
Swoosh.
Elenoa's body moved like a ghost, naturally avoiding the gap of Park Jeongkwon's sword, and came up with her sword from his blind spot.
Clang!
Cold sweat ran down Park Jeongkwon's forehead as he barely managed to twist his sword to activate a block. Was he bewitched by a ghost? That's right. Elenoa's movements were ghost-like.
"Evasion! Park Jeongkwon, it's an evasion judgment!"
Scada, the raid leader of the Scada raid party, shouted urgently towards Park Jeongkwon.
"What do you mean, evasion!?"
Park Jeongkwon was shocked.
The current level users' equipment tier and agility stats had reached a considerable level. In the highest dungeon levels where giant bosses were the vast majority, there was no need to consider evasion judgments.
"But it's clearly a judgment that exists."
Chris, next to me, nodded.
"Yes. It's the same as with the 3rd named boss of the outpost, Zarkan."
I agreed with Chris's words.
NPCs with agility stats surpassing users clearly have evasion judgments. If the agility stats are significantly different, no matter how quickly you swing your sword, the attacks won't connect.
However, it's not a 100% miss. Not just the movement of the sword through linear 'skills', but by adding a willful swordplay, you can keep up. And the first wave swordsman 'Park Jeongkwon' obviously knew how to use such techniques.
Swoosh, clang!
Elenoa met Park Jeongkwon's thrust by lightly placing the flat of her blade in the path of his sword. Then with a spin, she made a semicircle, directing Park Jeongkwon's sword downward. Park Jeongkwon's face turned pale. Tap tap! Elenoa's sword sliced through the space where Park Jeongkwon's body had been as he hurriedly activated a backward evasion.
"Th-That! Rain, that technique! Isn't that your technique?"
"Heh."
I couldn't help but laugh at Chris's fuss. How closely have you been watching me fight?
Rather than my technique, it's originally that family's technique.
Swordsmanship learned from Sister Melissa. It's the 'Roeide family' technique.
Following the grain of the sword strike, effortlessly and naturally drawing a semicircle to deflect, while simultaneously transitioning to offense. It's a movement that can't be done with skills alone.
Even after a thousand years, it seems that swordsmanship has been properly passed down.
I can give that a passing grade.