17. Substitute Teacher (2)

“... Incredible...”

Someone murmured.

Tension and excitement shone in the students’ eyes. Their interest in me had vanished completely.

Atzier was the object of every swordsman’s admiration at Constel. No, not just the swordsmen.

He was a big part of the reason I, his younger brother, suffered so much name-calling and scorn.

... Well, Frondier’s own excessive laziness was the main problem, admittedly. Yes.

“Our time together will be brief. No, precisely because it will be brief, my teaching will have nothing to do with your existing Combat Skills lessons.”

Atzier spoke as though he intended to disregard everything they had learned so far. If anything, the students welcomed that.

They were probably expecting some special lessons unique to him.

... But as someone who sparred with Atzier one-on-one every day, I could see their future.

“Starting today, you will learn the fundamentals themselves. Forget about things like Aura.”

They were about to experience the perfect marriage of misery and tedium.

“First, we’ll need a demonstration.”

Atzier slowly surveyed the students.

Who would those indifferent eyes settle on? Could it be me? I felt as though I could hear the students’ hearts pounding.

“You there.”

Atzier pointed at Aster.

“What’s your name?”

“Aster Evans, sir.”

“You’re the best here. Come forward.”

The students looked as though this was only to be expected. A few glanced at me. They must have wondered whether he would favor me and pick me instead.

They could only entertain such carefree ideas because he had never taught them.

“This will be a light spar. I’ll be unarmed, and I won’t strike you. Try to land a blow on me. You may use any weapon or method you like.”

“Except Divine Power?”

“Divine Power is fine, too. Provided...”

Aster’s eyes lit up at Atzier’s words. His clothes billowed, and his hair turned white.

But then—

TAP. THUD.

Two dry, almost anticlimactic sounds.

Aster was flat on his back, with Atzier’s finger at his throat.

“...you can use it.”

“...”

Aster gave no answer. His eyes were blank. He had no idea why he was lying on the floor.

To an onlooker, it was merely a simple sequence of movements: Atzier had hooked his foot and tripped him.

But as long as these students thought that was all there was to it, they, too, would tumble across that floor tens of thousands of times.

“Shall we try again?”

“... Yes, please!”

Aster sprang up eagerly.

Atzier asked, “Why do you think you ended up on your back?”

“... Because you caught me by surprise.”

“That’s true enough. Here I come again.”

This time, Atzier announced the start before walking slowly toward him.

Rather than using Divine Power, Aster reached for his scabbard. He had decided that releasing his Divine Power would take too long.

And again came a thud.

“...?”

Aster was on his back again. This time, he quickly recovered his senses and stood up. I could see the humiliation in his eyes. I knew why. I had felt the same thing myself.

Of course, finding yourself on the floor without knowing how you got there was aggravating enough.

But the most infuriating part was that it didn’t hurt at all. It was like a grown man carefully laying a child down. You never imagined the gap could be that vast.

“Why do you think you ended up on your back?”

“... Because you’re faster than me, sir.”

Aster offered the best answer he could. I wanted to commend his honesty in admitting his own inferiority, but...

“No.”

His answer was wrong to begin with.

“Again.”

After several repetitions, Aster at least began to exchange a few moves with him.

But he still ended up flat on his back. Still without a scratch.

Atzier’s expression hadn’t changed since he entered the room. He didn’t even look disappointed in Aster. His face said this outcome was only natural.

Did he know how much despair that expression inflicted on his opponents?

“We could keep repeating this until you understand, but we happen to have a suitable demonstration assistant today.”

Damn it.

I swore inwardly.

Somehow, I’d known it would come to this.

“Frondier.”

Atzier called my name. Every eye turned to me.

“Come forward.”

As I slowly walked out, I truly felt like Frondier the Human Sloth.

I didn’t want to do this.

“... Um, sir?”

Someone raised a hand.

“What is it?”

“Will Frondier be any match for you?”

Most of the students were looking at me with the same doubt.

Their eyes seemed to say, Even Aster couldn’t put up a proper fight. Who are you to step in?

Atzier replied calmly, “Frondier is merely assisting with the demonstration. His level of skill is irrelevant.”

Some seemed convinced by his explanation. Others did not.

Since I was his younger brother, this seemed to have fueled their suspicions that he was favoring me.

Well, they would understand soon enough. Once they saw what he did to me.

“Frondier, just as we do in training.”

“Yes, sir.”

I took my stance, one hand on the dagger at my waist and the other ready to keep Atzier at bay.

Drawing a weapon, swinging it, defending—every movement had to take the shortest possible path. Complete the motion without letting the opponent notice, before they could notice.

Throughout my training with Atzier, I had been taught this until it was ingrained in my body.

As a result, I managed to draw my dagger before his hand reached me.

SWISH!

My dagger sliced diagonally through empty air. Atzier advanced as he dodged the strike.

And here was where things differed from his bout with Aster.

Atzier’s left hook came flying in like the wind. I could barely see the movement from windup to punch.

Half leaving it to luck, I ducked and narrowly avoided it. My muscles tensed slightly as I felt it brush my head.

As you could see, there was no rule against attacking when he fought me. I heard the watching students gasp.

We exchanged several more moves. Our movements flowed naturally, almost as though following a set sequence.

But nothing was predetermined. This was merely a sequence I had barely managed to learn after being beaten and knocked down countless times.

It felt as though I was presented with countless choices at every turn and had to choose quickly, avoiding only the worst ones.

Atzier posed the problems. All I could do was respond.

So even if I lasted a little longer, Aster and I would end up the same way.

THWACK!

“Urgh!”

A blow to my stomach drove me backward. Atzier strode toward me.

Damn it. Every time I saw him do that, I felt as though I was facing some demon of carnage. There probably wasn’t much difference.

I swung my dagger as I retreated, but Atzier stepped inside my arm and blocked the attack.

My counterattacks had no power while I was backing away, and he showed no mercy whenever he spotted a poorly judged strike.

He hit my shoulder, stomach, and arms. And that was with me doing my best to defend.

Finally, I hit the floor with a heavy thud. Atzier had grabbed my collar, hooked my leg, and thrown me with a judo technique. He hadn’t shown so much as a rat’s dropping of mercy.

“Frondier, your movements have gotten bigger. Watch that,” Atzier said.

I had noticed it myself. I’d been fighting a Chimera just recently, after all.

“Aster, what did you think of that spar?” Atzier asked.

Aster glanced at me lying there in a battered heap before replying.

“He certainly fought better than I did.”

“Is Frondier faster than you?”

“... Speed didn’t seem important in that bout, at least.”

“Correct. Then what was different?”

Aster thought hard. Meanwhile, I got up and dusted myself off.

The students looked sheepish at the sight of my battered state. They wouldn’t suspect him of favoring me anymore.

After some deliberation, Aster offered an answer.

“... Anticipation?”

“Yes. That is the foundation of combat.”

This time, Atzier looked around at the students.

“Combat is fundamentally a contest of anticipation. You infer what your opponent is about to do from shifts in their shoulders, hips, and center of gravity.”

The reason Atzier could subdue Aster so easily was that he could see exactly what Aster intended to do.

“In that respect, Aster’s movements are still broad and simple. The same will be true of the rest of you.”

The students looked a little disgruntled, but no one argued. Aster really was the best among them.

“You will learn this during my lessons. No matter how extraordinary your talent or Divine Power may be, in real combat, people are frequently defeated before they can bring it into play. Just as Aster was a moment ago. This is not a question of mindset. It is a question of technique.”

Indeed, Aster hadn’t managed to use his Divine Power once from beginning to end. Even though he knew Atzier was trying to stop him.

“Any questions?”

A student raised a hand, looking somewhat dissatisfied.

“What is it?”

“Um, but that approach... How should I put it? It seems specifically meant for fighting people.”

Another student spoke up in agreement.

“That’s right. We came to Constel to fight monsters.”

Graduate from Constel and become a professional, or a court knight or mage, and slay monsters.

Eventually, go on to fight and defeat the monsters of the Outside, expanding humanity’s borders one step farther.

That was the dream of Constel’s students, and humanity’s paramount mission.

To students who held such dreams, the spar they had just witnessed seemed to have little meaning.

Atzier spoke.

“Do you remember your upperclassmen who recently fell to a monster from the Outside? The incident in Teibeon where eleven died.”

... It was the story I had told Quinier before.

The students swallowed. The atmosphere grew solemn.

“One of your upperclassmen displayed remarkable insight and predicted that a monster from the Outside would invade. It was a reject, unable to fit in with its pack and left behind. Yet eleven people died. Why do you think that was? Because it was huge and powerful? Because it was as big as a house?”

No one answered. Some lowered their eyes.

“It was merely a wolf that walked on two legs. But it hid in the darkness, anticipated the humans’ routes, and tore out their throats one by one from blind spots where they couldn’t see it. Sometimes, it killed them instantly with its claws. After hunting, it washed off the blood in rivers or lakes to make tracking it difficult. And its gait leaves few tracks to begin with.”

Revulsion crept over the students’ faces. He called it a wolf, but its behavior was no different from a human’s.

“The Outside is teeming with creatures more intelligent than humans.”

Only then did the students understand.

How Atzier had become a teacher at Constel so quickly.

“What I am teaching you is a style of combat developed expressly for fighting monsters. The reason you cannot understand that is simple.”

And that no one belonged at Constel more than Atzier did.

“You have only fought stupid monsters so far.”