TLed by NolepGuy
Chapter 47
Kraush laid Bianca on the bed and fell into deep thought.
‘I never imagined I would end up sparring with Charlotte.’
In his entire life, Kraush had never sparred with Charlotte even once.
Well, that was only natural.
By the time Kraush was born, Charlotte’s talents were already in full bloom, making any comparison between them absurd.
As such, there was never a situation where it would have been appropriate for them to spar.
Kraush never desired it, and Charlotte had no reason to spar with Kraush either.
Thus, it was ironically the first time Kraush found himself sparring with Charlotte.
‘Am I nervous right now?’
For some reason, cold sweat formed in his palms.
He had spent his life under Charlotte’s overwhelming shadow.
Perhaps that was why the mere thought of sparring with her made even Kraush uneasy.
‘It’s ridiculous to be nervous over a spar.’
Just as Kraush tried to clasp his hands together, he felt a soft touch.
When he lifted his head, he saw Bianca holding his hand.
“Mr. Kraush, your hands are sweaty.”
Bianca spoke with half-open eyes.
Normally, Bianca would have let go, complaining about the sweat, but this time, she quietly held his hand.
Kraush, who stared blankly at this, suddenly felt the tension melt away.
‘Yeah, this is probably just a passing interest.’
Charlotte was always a battle maniac.
She even wore provocative outfits at the Holy Land of Stars to deliberately provoke confrontations.
The reason she had taken an interest in him was because he had defeated the Butcher Dog.
In the meantime, Bianca had fallen asleep while still holding Kraush’s hand.
Perhaps it was just sleep-talking.
After surviving the ordeal with the Butcher Dog, Bianca’s body had yet to fully recover.
Seeing her sleep so often recently, Kraush gave her hair a gentle pat and then stood up.
When he stepped outside, Aliod was waiting for him.
“Mr. Kraush.”
“It’s just a spar with my sister. What’s got you worried enough to come all the way here?”
Though Kraush said so, Aliod’s expression remained far from bright.
He, too, was concerned about Kraush.
‘Yeah, this is how it usually feels.’
Lately, he’d been thrashing a few geniuses, and it seemed he’d momentarily forgotten his place.
The real reason he was called Half-Penny was none other than Charlotte.
‘It’s time to overcome this trauma.’
Kraush had no intention of ending up like Belorkin.
Even though it was just a spar, he resolved to face it head-on this time.
‘I may not win, but I won’t break.’
Kraush headed straight to the training grounds.
The outdoor training ground had mostly thawed, leaving it clean.
There, Charlotte stood alone.
Her wooden sword pointed downward, she stood tall, her hair slowly fluttering in the still-chilly breeze.
That alone exuded an inexplicable sense of intimidation.
At that moment, her gaze slowly lifted.
Her blue eyes, identical to Kraush’s, shone vividly.
“Youngest, you’re here. I thought you’d run away. Impressive.”
“If I ran, you’d chase me to the ends of hell, wouldn’t you?”
“Knowing my personality so well deserves some bonus points.”
She said this with a slow smile.
“You have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, don’t you?”
Even if you’re sharp, it’d be nice if you weren’t too sharp.
“I won’t go easy on you. If you don’t impress me, I’ll really teach you a lesson.”
With that, Charlotte raised her wooden sword.
“Show me your full strength.”
That statement was undoubtedly sincere.
If he held anything back, Charlotte might beat him senseless with her full power.
‘Not that I planned to hold back in the first place.’
He already knew she wasn’t someone you could afford to hold back against.
Above all, this was Charlotte.
‘She’s not the kind of person to go around spilling secrets about me. There’s nothing to hide.’
She didn’t have a single friend to begin with.
After all, why would a lion need to befriend a pack of mere foxes?
“Should I use a real sword?”
“Yes, this spar is to assess your skills.”
A wooden sword wouldn’t be a disadvantage for Charlotte anyway.
Kraush exhaled and assumed his stance.
“Understood.”
“Then, begin.”
Charlotte let her wooden sword hang loosely, taking an entirely defenseless posture.
Seeing this, Kraush simply stared at her.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes.
By the time three minutes had passed.
Charlotte’s brows slightly furrowed.
“Are you not going to attack?”
Kraush didn’t respond.
He just silently observed Charlotte.
Without even drawing his sword.
Charlotte tapped the ground with her wooden sword.
Her intentions were blatantly obvious, almost too obvious.
For a moment, Charlotte swallowed a hollow laugh.
‘What a cunning youngest sibling.’
Kraush had no reason to make the first move.
It was Charlotte who had requested the spar, not him.
“I concede the first move.”
The moment Charlotte said this, her figure blurred.
In the blink of an eye, she kicked off the ground.
Her sword sliced through the air, thrusting straight for Kraush’s neck in an instant.
She had made the first move.
But she had no intention of holding back.
Her sword aimed to end it in a single strike, closing in on Kraush’s neck in a flash.
Whoosh!
Kraush had been waiting for this moment.
He had relentlessly suppressed his ki-gathering technique in anticipation.
Sssshhh!
Then, the instant Charlotte thrust her sword.
The heat surging from his entire body ignited the World Erosion, pushing his physical limits to the brink.
Without a second of hesitation, Kraush unleashed Annihilation Erosion.
In a split second, his vision accelerated.
His Sixth Sense, pushed to its utmost limits, narrowly caught sight of Charlotte’s wooden sword.
‘One second.’
At the same time, inside Kraush’s scabbard.
Amidst the storming Aura, the flames of Annihilation Erosion seeped in to prepare for the ki-gathering technique.
The jet-black flames rapidly enveloped the interior of the scabbard, their explosive force breaking past its limits in an instant.
In that fleeting moment, as the Annihilation Erosion that seeped into the scabbard transformed into a massive explosion—
Whoosh!
With the brief sound of flames flaring, Kraush unsheathed his sword.
Annihilation Erosion (滅火浸蝕)
Form One (一式)
Sky Annihilating Draw (滅火抜剣)
Crashhhhhhh!
Kraush’s sword clashed with Charlotte’s wooden sword, unleashing a fierce storm of flames.
But the true spectacle lay elsewhere.
At the heart of the sound.
Kraush’s sword had pierced into Charlotte’s wooden sword, grinding it down as it splintered.
A ki-gathering technique fueled by the storm of Aura pushed to its limits and empowered by Annihilation Erosion.
Had Charlotte fully summoned and enveloped her Aura to kill from the start, it might have been a different story.
But this was ultimately just a sparring match.
Thus, Charlotte’s wooden sword, not fully coated in Aura, was mercilessly being ground down.
Charlotte’s eyes widened slightly as she realized this.
She had caught on to Kraush’s true intention.
Thud!
At the same moment, before her wooden sword lost its blade entirely, she twisted its trajectory to escape Kraush’s blade.
Bangggg!
Simultaneously, the flames of Kraush’s Sky Annihilating Draw, carrying his full power, swept past Charlotte and crashed into the training ground’s wall.
That she managed to redirect the flow of power with just a twist of her sword was nothing short of a feat.
At the same time, her gaze shifted.
From the very start, at full power.
Kraush’s unhesitant, all-out clash had caused her to feel a fleeting exhilaration.
However, there was one thing Charlotte failed to notice.
Though she had twisted her sword’s trajectory to escape Kraush’s blade, his sword had no intention of stopping.
‘Two seconds.’
At that moment, Kraush’s mind plunged into a state of compressed focus.
Deep within Kraush’s consciousness, a single droplet fell onto the surface of a tranquil lake, rippling outward.
Soon, that ripple surged upward as if awakening Kraush’s very soul.
Above the sword Kraush was bringing down—
The storm of Aura surged upward in a flash, meeting the Annihilation Erosion.
His eyes, glowing crimson, burned with the dazzling black flames of Black Flame.
One Sword (一劍)
And within the training ground, a storm raged.
The most powerful downward strike unleashed from Kraush’s sword tore through the training ground and opened its maw toward Charlotte.
Immediately following the Sky Annihilating Draw came the One Sword.
For Kraush, it meant squeezing every ounce of himself to use his ultimate technique twice in succession.
Before the One Sword, Charlotte swung her half-shattered wooden sword horizontally to block it.
The blade, which had twisted away earlier, returned at an astonishing speed.
Banggggggg!
In that moment, the black flames entwined with the One Sword erupted, colliding with Charlotte’s wooden sword.
Even the Thousand-Face Demon, reinforced by Crimson Garden, had been blown away by a single strike of this technique.
No matter how sturdy Charlotte’s wooden sword was, it couldn’t withstand that power, and another half of it was blown away.
The storm of the One Sword, centered around Charlotte, shredded everything in its vicinity.
However, the ground where Charlotte’s two feet stood remained untouched.
Finally, when the storm of the One Sword had expended its full force and dissipated—
Kraush had vanished from Charlotte’s sight.
Instead, his sword, released from his grasp, was hurtling straight toward her face.
Charlotte stifled a bitter laugh.
Beneath the flying sword, Kraush was charging toward her with clenched fists.
‘He deliberately chipped my wooden sword twice, waited for it to be farthest from me, threw his sword, and attacked simultaneously from below.’
A cheerful smile spread across Charlotte’s lips.
Her face brimmed with exhilaration.
“Not bad!”
In that moment, an Aura Blade surged from her wooden sword.
A pure Aura Blade, a feat achievable only upon reaching the Master level.
At that point, the length of the wooden sword became meaningless.
At that instant, the world around Charlotte fell silent.
In the stillness, Kraush’s movements and the sword flying toward her slowed to a crawl.
Charlotte’s Aura had seized control of her surroundings in an instant.
Within that stillness, Charlotte’s sword first intercepted Kraush’s sword, which had been flying toward her.
Kraush’s sword, its trajectory forcibly twisted, shot upward into the sky.
But even as Charlotte deflected his sword, Kraush’s fists were still short of reaching her.
Such was the gap between them.
A gap so overwhelming that, had Charlotte intended, she could have ended it with her first strike.
Charlotte’s wooden sword, having deflected Kraush’s sword, instantly swung back toward him.
The distance between Kraush’s fists and Charlotte’s body was about 50 centimeters.
But that gap was insurmountable, no matter what he did.
Unless Kraush had a skill.
‘Black Hood.’
In that razor-thin moment when Kraush’s Sixth Sense detected Charlotte deflecting his sword—
Kraush’s Black Hood activated.
A move even Charlotte failed to foresee.
Within that move—
Kraush’s fist, reaching outward, gripped his sword once again.
Charlotte’s eyes widened as she realized what was happening.
Clang! Crash!
With the sound of something colliding, Kraush was sent sprawling across the ground.
Having lost his sword, he rolled several times before finally coming to a stop, unable to rise as he gasped for air.
‘Three seconds.’
The Annihilation Erosion extinguished, and the heat left his body.
At the same time, he faintly raised his head, feeling the exhaustion in his body.
The sword lay abandoned in front of Charlotte.
Yet Charlotte stood frozen in place, unable to move.
Of course, Charlotte bore not a single scratch.
A constant, massive flow of Aura enveloped Charlotte’s body.
It was a unique power innate to Charlotte, and unless one’s Aura equaled or exceeded hers, they could never harm her.
Blessed by the love of all gods, Charlotte was a perfect being who couldn’t be harmed by those weaker than her.
Even Kraush had once remarked that Charlotte’s most absurd trait was her distinct Aura flow.
Kraush’s sword had touched that flow.
Charlotte’s Master-level Aura.
An area Kraush could never penetrate.
And yet, it had touched her.
That was the problem.
That flow was the one that hovered just above Charlotte’s skin.
Until now, she hadn’t allowed anyone of lower skill, or even those equal to her, to touch that flow.
And yet, Kraush had touched it.
Charlotte’s gaze slowly turned to Kraush.
Even in a situation where his own sword was swung toward him, Kraush struck out with his blade without a moment’s hesitation.
Even though he knew that attack wouldn’t succeed.
What did that mean?
If the attack had succeeded—
It meant that Charlotte might have been struck as well.
From beginning to end, Charlotte had held back.
She had been careless, overly so, and refrained from using her swordsmanship entirely, only unleashing her Aura Blade at the very end.
Yet she had been bested.
For Charlotte, that was something that should never have happened.
“Youngest, you…”
“Haha…”
At that moment, a faint laugh escaped Kraush’s lips.
As Charlotte stared blankly at Kraush, he spoke while still laughing.
“Got you.”
With that, Kraush collapsed, his head hitting the ground.
The price for using Annihilation Erosion, the Ki-gathering technique, One Sword, and Black Hood had been steep.
Watching him silently, Charlotte let out a long sigh.
Giving his all and then collapsing on his own—
‘How selfish.’
It seemed, in some way, that even that trait was similar to her own.
Feeling oddly drained, Charlotte shook her head and approached Kraush.
Then, she glanced at his right arm.
Judging by the recent attack, it seemed his right arm was functional.
That was enough.
This sparring match had only been to confirm that.
Just as Charlotte was about to lift Kraush—
Someone suddenly popped up in front of her.
Charlotte widened her eyes as she saw none other than Kraush’s fiancée, Bianca.
“You.”
“I’ll take him.”
How long had she been watching?
Thinking that the little girl lacked any presence, Charlotte watched as Bianca struggled to lift Kraush.
But there was no way Bianca, who was even smaller than Kraush, could lift him.
Watching Kraush being dragged out with his legs scraping along the ground, Charlotte let out a faint laugh.
They were, oddly enough, a well-matched pair.
“Caw—”
In the meantime, the cry of a crow echoed once.
Glancing at the crow perched on the ceiling of the training ground, Charlotte opened her mouth.
“Aliod.”
“Yes, Young Lady Charlotte.”
At Charlotte’s call, Aliod appeared instantly in front of her.
Seeing him, Charlotte asked,
“Kraush said he wanted to go to Rahelrn Academy, didn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
At Aliod’s reply, Charlotte placed her hands on her hips.
Then, as if satisfied, she nodded and spun around.
“Got it. You’ve worked hard while I was here. Go to Kraush.”
The moment she said that, Aliod disappeared immediately.
Watching this, Charlotte began stepping out of the Green Pine Mansion.
About three weeks remained until the much-anticipated opening ceremony of Rahelrn Academy.
It was a tight schedule, but it was enough.
Because she was Charlotte.