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Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
The Aura Blade caused a massive explosion.
Joshua looked forward silently, gently flexing his arm to ease the vestiges of the impact. His attention was firmly fixed on the man who had just drawn his blade, and his heartless expression had given way to a solemn demeanor.
“That was something,” said Joshua.
“I’m glad you appreciate it
”
“So, Sir Valmont is the first A-Class offering?”
“Are you serious?”
Joshua shrugged. “Of course not.”
Valmont burst out laughing.
“I was just surprised to see you.”
“Oh, do you also have a desire for great honor? It’s my chance to be the continent’s celebrity at this point forward.”
“Oh, don’t you understand the desire for great honor? This is my chance to seize the center stage.”
“Me? You? Great honor?”
“Heh. I know—I didn’t come here just to talk. If I lose, the entire 6th Battalion will be humiliated.”
“...!”
The eyes of the imperial knights, who were silently watching the situation, widened.
“B-Battalion Commander, sir?” One of the 6th Battalion’s knights in the area voiced the doubts that all the Imperial Knights shared.
“What? Any complaints?”
“Well, no
”
“If you have any complaints, speak now. I still have to prove myself here, in Berche’s Bloody Battle.”
“Have you forgotten, sir?” The knight pounded his chest in frustration and surreptitiously glanced in the direction where Emperor Marcus was located.
Valmont noted the Emperor’s attention. “I know what you’re thinking, but he said we could use any means. Heck, he even said we could use our family’s political power.”
What Joshua heard made his eyes gleam. Valmont’s statement was carefully worded such that the Emperor would interpret it in a particular way.
‘I have no idea why he decided to step up
’
“Even if the 6th Battalion gets wiped out, the others are still there!” The 6th Battalion knight protested. “In the end, if we get wiped out, the losses will be ours to take!”
Joshua interjected, “What happens if you failed despite swarming me? I’m talking about what will happen afterward.”
A suffocating silence gripped the training hall.
“You people have made a big deal out of this. Do you really think that the news isn’t going to spread?”
“That’s
” The 6th Battalion knight didn’t know what to say.
“I think there’s a problem here because no one will really know for sure what other people are thinking. A Superhuman defeated the entire Imperial Knights Order on his debut.”
”I’m not the strongest Superhuman, but do you really think that His Majesty will not punish the battalions at the same time? After all, how could the Imperial Knights Order protect Avalon if a lone Superhuman managed to defeat them?”
“After all, the Nine Stars are still there, along with the other eleven Superhumans.”
“I’m sure it will cause great humiliation on the Imperial Knights Order, and the national prestige will plummet. What do you think His Majesty will think about the Imperial Knights Order’s failure to subdue a lone man?”
The 6th Battalion knight gulped a mouthful of his own saliva, and his expression stiffened as he thought about the possible consequences. Considering Emperor Marcus’ attitude, it wouldn’t be strange if he outright executed them all.
However, the 6th Battalion knight found a glimmer of hope and exclaimed, “That will only come true if you win!”
“There is no other outcome,” said Joshua as he stared right at the 6th Battalion knight.
“...!”
“Ah!”
The mountain returned, pressing the knights into the ground from head to toe. Even the knights who hadn’t attacked fell victim. A thousand knights were forced to their knees before Joshua. He was in total control of everyone.
Knight Commander Rod himself clenched his fist uneasily. A long-forgotten feeling welled up from inside him: the spirit of pride he had when he was unbound. A pure, competitive urge to outdo the man in front of him.
“You still don’t get it?” Joshua took a step forward with the momentum of an entire mountain. “I’m not saying you can’t win, I’m saying that I don’t lose. Past, present, or future—defeat does not exist to me.”
Unfathomably arrogant—but to the knight, it didn’t seem that way at all when it came out of Joshua’s mouth. If anything, he was understating it.
“Here’s one more thing to think about.” Joshua got right up to the knight’s nose.
“Wha
t
 Ugkkk
”
“Those petty, cunning, scheming aristocrats have already noticed it, but there’s a loophole in His Majesty’s orders about using the power of your family or something
”
“Loophole?” Valmont looked up while he was circulating his mana throughout his entire body to resist the mountain.
“In politics, information is power. Particularly information about inter-family power structures. If you were to examine who is close to whom—the conflicts, the alliances, the trends that follow—you could extrapolate a lot
”
”Of course, the information could have been fabricated as well, but the ability to identify suspicious forces is a net positive.” Joshua deliberately raised his voice.
As expected, he received an immediate response.
“Hahaha!” Emperor Marcus burst into manic, uncontrollable madness. His doubts had cleared and had turned into certainty.
Valmont finally spoke, “Aren’t you ashamed? Using decent knights in the petty power plays of politicians? In the chivalry I had learned, at least, there were no such things as hundreds of knights taking up arms against each other for self-fulfillment.”
Valmont tightly gripped his sword and started walking toward Joshua. “So, even if I break him with a random attack, what does it mean?”
“...” Joshua's eyes narrowed as Valmont approached him.
Considering that he had stopped the effect of the spear art on himself. The other knights couldn’t resist the might of Joshua’s Spear Arts, but Valmont dun Brown was resisting it and could even move beneath the mountain.
“After that defeat, I struggled on my own for quite some time.”
“I see...”
“Of course, I don’t think I’d win just by reaching A-Class. However, Joshua Sanders, you’re even more monstrous than anyone I had ever seen.”
The Imperial Knights reeled. They stared wide-eyed at Valmont in shock. The infamous lazy Battalion Commander was actually an A-Class Knight?
“I wanted you to be the first person to know that I have already become an A-Class Knight.”
A faint smile danced on Joshua’s lips. “It’s an honor.”
“It was eye-opening, but yeah, rather than staying in this damned place and letting my talent rot away for something I don’t really care about, I think I want a change in scenery.”
Joshua couldn’t believe it. “Are you saying that you want to become one of my knights?”
“If you’re going to allow me, yes,” replied Valmont.
‘Just what is he thinking?’ thought Joshua before finally answering, “Setting that aside, I want you to do something for me.”
“Are you seriously asking me to do something for you right now?”
“It’ll be a win-win, so I’m sure you would want to do it as well.”
“Sure, if it’s not difficult. However, I will only do what you want me to do if you manage to beat me,” said Valmont. The good-natured smile on his face disappeared as the air around him changed.
The air began to tremble as if being torn apart as the Brown family’s secret technique was revealed once again. All the stars in the sky seemed to fall from his sword as he leaped forward in a decisive strike.
“...!” Joshua's eyes widened. Valmont was moving faster than Joshua had seen in their previous battle. His swordplay still couldn’t be ignored, but the sensation it was giving off had drastically changed compared to before.
As the Fastest Star of Avalon, Valmont was known for his dextrous swordplay that resembled a meteor, but the swordsmanship he was displaying right now wasn’t just a lone meteor. It was a meteor shower—a fierce, violent, and extremely destructive shower of falling stars.
‘He changed his speed and pacing; his strength also increased. And these meteors are a difficult form of Aura Blade to master
 ’ Joshua’s eyes twinkled. He was pleasantly surprised. It was difficult to imagine a brand-new A-Class pulling off a technique as complex as this.
In fact, even Knight of Red Flame Ulabis hadn’t progressed this fast.
Valmont dun Brown was a genius among geniuses; all he lacked was the drive to grow stronger. Joshua, a hardworking genius, had never encountered a talent that could match his own—except for one.
‘I don’t think it would be bad to give this model student a bit of a push.’ thought Joshua with a light smile as he brandished his sword. ‘You’re ripe enough to take one step further if you can see this, Battalion Commander Valmont.’
The time that had stopped finally started moving once more.
“...!” Valmont felt a sense of foreboding, and he raised his sword in response.
Valmont’s eyes widened when he saw Joshua’s move.
Joshua had raised his sword in a stance strikingly similar to Valmont, and the only difference was that Joshua was wielding a spear rather than a sword. Even more shocking was the stance Joshua had taken with the spear. Valmont was more familiar with that stance than anyone else.
However, Joshua had actually executed the same stance as he had just done.
“No way
” Valmont was dumbstruck.
Joshua’s muscles on his back started to wriggle on their own as he brandished Lugia forward like he was brandishing a banner. Lugia’s spearheads started to emit bright red tails in their wake, and the trails were much bigger and brighter than Valmont’s.
“What are those
?”
In the proverbial blink of an eye, hundreds of meteors descended on the training hall in a great meteor shower.