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91: Vulcanus’s Numbering Swords (6)
‘Isn’t this a scam?’
Georg touched his chin as he looked at Anya and her golden pig.
When he thought about it, there were a lot of conditions attached to it.
The fact that Anya’s criteria apply to both the value of money and the weight of the wishes, along with that only money earned by diligently working can be saved, and the wishes can sometimes come true in unexpected ways.
However, even considering the shortcomings, it was powerful sorcery.
‘If it were me, I would have done it without having to choose anything… for her, collecting is more fun.’
He called her grubber, but she never used it for her own gain.
“You’re a scammer.”
“I’m not! I’m a wise sorcerer!”
“Yes, not so wise sorcerer.”
“Hehe.”
‘That wasn’t a compliment. It was sarcasm.’
Georg sighed.
What was he doing with a young child? As he wondered that, he decided to stop talking and wanted to sleep.
He had to get the job done quickly.
And he said,
“Let’s get the work done.”
“Yes!”
Anya nodded, took out a third pig, and smashed it.
A line appeared and then cracked away like it never existed, leaving a mark.
However, that wasn’t what they wanted.
With a puzzled face, Georg asked.
“Wasn’t that supposed to be for Irene Pareira. Why did you send it to the cat?”
“It doesn’t matter if it's Lulu since they stick together.”
“Since when did one pig equal two? Do both.”
“No. Doing it for a sorcerer is tough.”
“…”
“Are we done? Let’s go back and take a nap.”
With his question, the girl in a black dress began to walk.
Standing there silently, Georg shook his head and then followed.
“Then, let’s continue the contest.”
Victor and Randel, who were considered the top swordsmen there, their match was done.
The blacksmiths who saw Victor’s swordsmanship smiled, and Vulcanus was looking much brighter than before.
The contest wasn’t done yet. It was just the beginning.
The three blacksmiths looked for more inspiration.
At that moment, Randel, who stood on the stage, picked up his broken sword.
Shhhh!
Breathe, concentrate, and strike.
Excitement and cheers.
Although his sword was broken, Randel still stood tall.
He looked sharper when he pointed the sword at Victor.
And said,
“Vulcanus.”
“What now?”
“I’m a loser. I was weaker than Victor and lost.”
“Right. So what?”
“This result is only the current one, and the potential of my swordsmanship isn’t inferior to the man in front of me.”
“Hmm?”
Victor looked as if he was wondering what was happening.
The atmosphere of the onlookers changed too.
It was because Randel looked like he was arguing.
But Vulcanus looked at Randel with a faint smile.
“So, what is it that you want to say?”
“I put my future in the sword, and it just unfolded. My orientation, beliefs, and determination… I don’t know if that has been fully passed on to you, but I wanted to say that if you make a sword while thinking of myself 10 years from now, you’ll have good results.”
Swish!
Randel, who retrieved the sword, bowed politely and went down off the stage.
The blacksmiths, including Vulcanus, were smiling while Victor and Charlotte exchanged glances.
They weren’t worried, but it was true that the twins were older than Randel.
“A junior swordsman might show that level of ambition.”
“Right. He didn’t say something he wasn’t supposed to. Because this contest isn’t meant to search for the strongest swordsman.”
“Right. This is just for inspiration. Nothing else should matter.”
“Ah, right…”
“Right. Then there is nothing to be afraid of.”
Charlotte and Victor and the other swordsmen who heard Vulcanus’s words nodded their heads. ⁽¹⁾
That was right. This wasn’t a place to decide who was the strongest.
Rather, it was close to a self-introduction time in front of Vulcanus.
Of course, nothing inspires more powerfully than ‘overwhelming strength,’ but that wasn’t everything.
The swordsmen began to worry. What should they do? How should they appeal to their strengths?
Some seemed to have found their own answers.
The most confident ones stepped onto the stage.
Victor said.
“You look confident.”
“To be honest, I can’t beat you. But to make Vulcanus look at me, I have confidence in that and myself.”
“What? Do you want a sword in the future like Sir Randel? Are you going to call me old too? Will you?”
“That..”
“Hahaha! That was a joke. Anyway, let’s get this done.”
“Yep!”
“Done talking? Are we starting right away?”
Victor nodded his head, and the other one did too. The second match began with Vulcanus’ s voice.
Again, the results were out right away.
Kang!
“Ugh!”
Victor’s sword cut through the opponent’s sword and stopped at the nape of his neck.
The relatively young swordsman broke into cold sweat.
An eerie glare emanated from Victor’s eyes.
“I’m sorry. But I have no intentions of losing to a junior.”
“…”
With Victor’s pressure pouring down to the opponents below the stage as well, the swordsmen who were waiting to battle decreased.
Kang!
“Ugh!”
“Again!”
“Another blow…”
“What One Blow Randel, he is nothing compared to Victor!”
“This, I don’t think there will be much difference…”
Thirty minutes have passed since the contest started.
It was neither short nor long.
There were cases when swordsmen of the same level would meet, and their match would go on for an hour.
Of course, that didn’t happen in this day’s contest.
Matches that lasted for more than a minute didn’t happen, let alone an hour.
It was because Victor, the first on stage, was defeating his opponents with a single blow.
Kwang!
Sometimes he smashed their swords with his.
Clang!
Sometimes, he overpowered his opponent with a quick blow that was even better than Randel’s.
Shhhh!
And sometimes, he would play tricks on his opponent by changing the flow of his sword.
A skill no one could beat.
Kwang!
“Kuah!”
“Anyone else coming up?”
Victor, who defeated another opponent, asked with a warm smile.
No one returned his gaze.
The onlookers who saw that shook their heads and said.
“It’s over.”
“I know. No one answered.”
Only seven swordsmen participated.
And among the opponents, there were talented mercenaries with gold cards and good reputations, but none of them could unleash their swords to their hearts’ content.
Only Victor continued to prove himself.
Due to the intimidation of Victor, who was standing like a mountain, the opponents below began to hide themselves.
It was as if the owner of the 10th Numbering Sword had been decided.
But that wasn’t true.
The eyes of people who looked at the stage went down.
And looked at the man below.
The gazes increased over time.
Charlotte, the man who received the gazes, calmly asked.
“Is there no one else apart from me?”
“Right. No one but you, stop being lazy and come up.”
“You’re talking to your brother. Sir Randel’s strike seems to have hit your head.”
“Sir Randel’s strike was terrible. Enough of that, come up. There’s no one else.”
Charlotte nodded at his younger brother’s words.
It was expected.
If no one else participated, there was no other variable to find out the owner.
The 10th Numbering Sword would be theirs.
Of course, Vulcanus didn’t announce anything.
However, Charlotte’s high self-esteem didn’t think it was impossible to get the sword.
‘If we are together, we can even face a Sword Master.’
Charlotte closed his eyes. As he remembered the hardships, he and his brother went through.
Who among those who reached the Expert Level was lazy? They had trained themselves to death.
‘Great. Let’s show them properly.’
Show the little dwarf that he’s great enough to give inspiration.
Let people know who the owner of the 10th Numbering Sword is!
It was when Charlotte, who was determined, moved.
A young man caught his eyes.
“Irene, are you leaving now?”
“Yes.”
“You won’t wait for Georg?”
“I don’t think I’m interested.”
Was he twenty?
A nice face and blonde hair added to the skin, which looked like the man never suffered.
It looked like the man didn’t do a single rough thing in his life.
However, Charlotte could see that the man was a swordsman, a skilled one at that.
It wasn’t because of the air, the muscles, or the breathing.
He just knew.
The man’s body felt solid, like it was made of iron.
No one else knew, but Charlotte could feel it.
‘Interesting.’
And amazing.
But he didn’t think that he would lose.
Once again, it was something he knew.
Unless the other man was someone who practiced the sword even in his mother’s womb, Charlotte wouldn’t feel threatened by a swordsman of that young age.
Charlotte smiled.
Thinking that there was something up with the man.
“A talking cat. It’s amazing! Is that your pet?”
“Ah, she’s my teacher.”
“…what?”
“My sorcery teacher.”
“Ah… my bad. I apologize.”
“I will accept that apology! One could think that if they didn’t know!”
The cat’s voice came from behind, and Charlotte smiled. Teacher or not, the cat was cute.
Seeing that, the young man smiled too.
And said,
“You wanted to go up on stage first. I will wait down here.”
“Ah, it’s fine. I was only heading up there as there were no more challengers, but if you want to go, please go ahead. Hey Victor, you fine with that?”
“I’m fine. Hehe, a fine young junior…”
Victor was a bit surprised. But he noticed that his brother seemed to have sensed something.
Charlotte nodded his head.
‘Maybe one of the three blacksmiths will take a liking to the young man.’
Of course, most didn’t think so.
The onlookers looked at the young man slowly ascending the stage with mysterious expressions.
The man was too gentle to be a challenger.
And young.
He didn’t even have anything in his hand.
Charlotte. And Victor, too, thought that it was strange.
It was when Victor was about to open his mouth and point it out.
Vulcanus suddenly jumped out of his chair.
And ran up the stage like a crazy dwarf.
“Vulcanus?”
Victor called his name, shocked.
But Vulcanus didn’t care.
He stared intently at the face of the young blonde.
His eyes were so sharp that Victor’s opponent felt burdened, and Victor called out again.
“Vulcanus, I’ll start explaining what is happe…”
“It has been decided!”
“Gasp!”
“Eik!”
Vulcanus roared.
The sound was so loud that people were startled and jumped back.
It was like a hammer hitting iron.
He grabbed the hands of the young man, Irene Pareira.
And laughed. Making everyone confused, but the dwarf didn’t care.
In a voice full of excitement, Vulcanus shouted.
“It has been decided! The owner of the 10th Numbering Sword is this young man!”