Chapter 52: Morning Star (9)

The imperial palace in Luden, the capital of the empire, was famous for its immense size.

Some individuals, particularly Noel's father and brother Orcus, held a dislike for its sheer magnitude, considering it unnecessarily large. However, Noel cherished it. The colossal palace, surpassing anything she could compare it to, felt like both a grand residence and a vast playground, and she adored it.

"Yahoohooo!!!"

"Your Highness!!! It's dangerous to run around like that!!"

Thus,  when she was young, she was able to satisfy her overflowing spirit of adventure simply by running around the imperial palace.

Like any other child, everything around her seemed larger during that time, but even without that, the imperial palace was vast and full of fascinating places. She could explore and run around there, expending her energy and feeling completely satisfied.

When Noel reached the age of ten, the emperor curtailed her freedom. To be precise, he merely instructed her to adhere to the protocols befitting the imperial family and forbade her from running freely within the palace any longer.

After all, he couldn't raise the only princess of the empire as someone who took his words and actions lightly. On the contrary, the children of other noble families had received education from a young age, so it would be more accurate to say that the emperor had left Noel alone until now.

Regardless of the reason, the fact remained that the emperor's words took away Noel's freedom. However, Noel complied with the emperor's will without any significant rebellion.

Being bright and full of energy did not mean that she was just an immature child; thus, Noel fully grasped the emperor's intentions.

Following the emperor's decree, she no longer laughed and ran around the palace.

As a result, one of the joys of the palace inhabitants, watching the princess happily frolic in the palace, vanished. However, the biggest victim was Noel herself. Overnight, she had to relinquish the playtime she had always cherished.

Now it was time to find new toys to play with.

The imperial palace was vast, but compared to that, the things she could do were limited.

The maids kept pointing at various embroidery and pastries, but Noel paid no attention to them. The same went for books. While she didn't avoid studying and accumulating knowledge, if asked whether she found it interesting or enjoyable, she would immediately answer no.

When she turned ten years old, many things happened in the royal palace.

First and foremost, the most significant change for Noel was that she could no longer freely run within the palace as she pleased.

That year, Orcus accompanied the emperor to observe the central government. Noel possessed the same eligibility, so initially, she followed them to observe. However, she found no interest in the clamorous disputes among the nobles.

Only Orcus listened attentively to those unpleasant noises and had a faint smile on his face. Seeing that, Noel felt a strong aversion, realizing that it didn't suit her. He and she were polar opposites. She knew very well that what Orcus found amusing did not resonate with her.

The emperor didn't say much to Orcus and Noel. Apart from cautioning Noel to be careful with her behavior, he didn't impose significant restrictions on them.

Thus, having experienced everything she could do inside the palace, Noel went outside.

Once outside, she noticed the appearance of the garden and tried tending to the flowers alongside the gardener. Unlike her previous activities, it was undoubtedly interesting, but she didn't feel the desire to continue.

It was a good start.

Still, compared to desperately searching within the palace, she saw a glimmer of hope outside. Little did she know that among the things she could do in that vast palace, she wouldn't find anything as enjoyable as freely running around.

Playing with flowers was enjoyable, but Noel wanted something more active, just like freely running around inside the palace before.

As her thoughts deepened, Noel found herself walking in a place she had never been before. It was ironic that the princess living in the palace didn't know such a place. But considering how vast the palace was, it was an inevitable situation.

"Your Highness, perhaps it's time for us to return now. You have come too far from the main residence."

"What's the problem with that? It's all part of the same palace, no matter how far away we are."

"That's..."

The maid who had been murmuring by her side seemed flustered. It was as if she wished Noel wouldn't go any further.

The more someone told her not to do something, the more Noel desired to do it. With her usual bright smile, she disregarded the maid's words and continued walking ahead.

As she took a few more steps, a sound reached Noel's ears. It was the sound of something solid colliding. The maid seemed irritated by the sound that kept bothering her ears, but Noel, unlike her, perceived the chaotic clattering as a beautiful melody.

Finally, Noel was able to find the source of the sound. In Noel's eyes, as she arrived at the origin of the sound, she saw the palace knights practicing their swordsmanship.

They were the ones who always protected the emperor, so their faces were familiar to Noel. However, it was the first time she had seen them wielding swords in such a manner. Startled by Noel's sudden appearance, the knights lowered their swords and greeted her.

"Your Highness?"

Despite the knights saluting, Noel didn't respond to the maid's embarrassed question. Without uttering a word, she silently walked toward the training ground where they stood. Observing Noel approach them, the knights couldn't speak and could only remain in their positions.

Noel stood in front of the knight closest to her.

Her gaze wasn't directed at the knight; it was focused on the sword lying on the ground. When Noel picked up the sword, time seemed to stand still for everyone present. It wasn't sharpened, but it was still a sword, and a young girl wielding it could potentially get hurt.

It was an item crafted for the purpose of being wielded by a knight. It was too heavy for a ten-year-old girl to lift the iron sword. And that was what they feared the most. If Noel attempted to wield the sword but couldn't overcome its weight and fell, there was a high possibility of injury.

As Noel's hand touched the sword, the knight standing in front of her immediately tried to stop her actions. The maid screamed and rushed toward Noel, and everyone present ran after her.

However, it was short-lived. All the people rushing toward Noel stopped in their tracks, their expressions vacant.

- Ugh...

The sword trembled in Noel's hand, emitting a faint shimmer. A faint haze of light enveloped the blade.

Noel effortlessly raised the sword. As she held it, her entire body was enveloped in the same light as the sword. The knights present in that place knew better than anyone else what that light signified.

As she swung the sword, a small gust of wind followed its trajectory.

It was still a gentle breeze, not yet strong enough to tear everything in front of her apart, but no one doubted that it would soon become a tempest that could rend everything before her.

After a single swing, Noel lowered the sword back to the ground. Having found what she would do next, she felt happy and laughed loudly, just like when she ran through the corridors of the palace.

This was Noel Estelia's memory of the first time she held the sword.

***

-Gulp.

Noel swallowed her dry saliva, experiencing a foreign sensation for the first time since she was born.

Her intellect clearly understood what she was feeling, but her heart didn't. It was as if she had been invaded by germs for the first time, lacking resistance to the aura she was experiencing.

Why was her mind so weak when it came to the tool designed to harm people, a sword, despite her exceptional skills with it? Naturally, Noel knew the reason better than anyone else. She opened her eyes, which had been tightly shut, and looked at the training ground where the duel was taking place.

There were still individuals exchanging their swords with a menacing force, their faces reflecting a coldness that could send shivers down anyone's spine just by watching the fierce exchanges.

Although sparring was surely meant to be carried out without causing harm to each other, it seemed that those two didn't think so. As time passed, their swordsmanship became more intense, yet their serene expressions remained as calm as when they first held their swords.

The atmosphere seemed similar to the previous sparring sessions among the high-ranking knights, but compared to the current duel unfolding in the training ground, it seemed nothing more than child's play.

Sparks flew as the swords clashed. Their blades entangled, and for a brief moment, their swords grazed each other's bodies. Damian's sword sliced through the collar of his opponent, who was called Gwen, while Gwen's sword grazed Damian's right shoulder. Even with their lethal sparring swords, it seemed that the two warriors couldn't kill each other's techniques.

Although they didn't use aura, their swords already resembled sharp blades.

It wouldn't be strange to shout for them to stop the sparring immediately, but no one present in that place dared to utter such words. Alphonse, sitting next to Noel, also watched their duel with an indifferent expression that didn't match his age. It was as if he was already accustomed to such situations.

Noel, too, had no intention of stopping their sparring. Observing their duel, it felt as if the worries she had kept in a corner of her mind were being resolved. Without saying a word, she followed their movements with her eyes. To keep up with their increasingly faster movements whenever their swords clashed, she had to empty her mind of any preconceptions and solely focus on the trajectory of their swords.

Every time Damian swung his sword, the sunlight reflected on the blade shattered and scattered into the world. His sword seemed to manipulate light, even though he didn't use aura. The blade was filled with light, and sunlight settled along the path traced by his descending sword.

'Are they using magic?'

Although she had witnessed movements that were impossible to achieve without aura, seeing such a sword solely relying on pure technique was a first for Noel. She had never felt this kind of emotion when clashing swords with a man widely known as a sword genius, and like Kraus, one of the three greatest martial art families in the Empire, Reinhard from the Cromel family.

Lord of Cromel, Reinhard Cromel possessed a sword that constantly changed like the shifts in the sky, making it difficult to grasp. However, it still remained within the realm of swordsmanship. Noel could understand its underlying meaning and discern the path to respond. But what unfolded before her now felt like an entirely different world from the swords she had known so far.

Even though Damian's sword was an ordinary one without a trace of aura, if she were to clash her own sacred sword infused with aura against Damian's, it felt as if her sword would be swallowed whole. In her imagination, Noel's sword had already shattered with a single strike.

Even though her turn hadn't come yet, she felt as if she had already lost.

However, Noel didn't deny such a feeling of defeat. In fact, it seemed like this outcome would occur if she were to compete with Damian using her current abilities. She had no reason to deny the clear difference in skill, and it would be as foolish as denying it. So, Noel shifted her mindset and looked at the training ground.

Rather than thinking about victory like before, she focused solely on how to defend against his sword.

The light that lingered alongside their swords swayed like waves. It felt as if illusions were simultaneously swinging swords from all directions. However, Gwen didn't avoid it. He firmly planted his feet on the ground, exerted strength, and twisted his body along with his sword. He didn't need to distinguish what was real. When Damian's sword approached him, he released his stance and effortlessly struck everything in front of him.

It was truly a fierce sword strike. The sword wind he created reached even here, beyond the training ground.

The luminous swords that had been swaying in the wind disappeared. However, Gwen's sword, even the one held in Damian's hand, wasn't severed. While soaring through the air, Damian rode the wind created by Gwen and passed his sword just by Gwen's sword face. Suddenly, the blade that Gwen wielded was transformed into Damian's sword.

Before Gwen could retrieve his sword, Damian's sword had already touched his throat.

Without a hint of hesitation, the sword extended forward and struck his neck. A line of blood appeared along the path the sword had taken. Gwen's head fell to the ground, and as the fountain of blood spurted out, the sky turned red. A person had died. And it happened during the duel. However, amidst the red-stained world, no screams could be heard. It was as if a strange noise was filling their ears. At that moment, a beam of light suddenly entered Noel's sight.

The pure white blade in Damian's hand, touched by the sunlight, gleamed brightly.

Only then did Noel realize that everything she had witnessed was an illusion.

The winner of the duel was Damian. Unlike the illusion Noel had seen, Gwen's neck remained intact, pressed against his body, and Damian's sword had stopped just before touching it. After Gwen, defeated in the duel, bowed to Damian and returned to his position, Damian's eyes turned towards Noel.

His sharp, dragon-like pupils seemed to penetrate her very soul. Noel didn't shy away from Damian's gaze. On the contrary, she met his eyes with a clear smile on her face and walked towards him, holding her sword at her side.

Perhaps it was because she had just witnessed the duel. Noel's heart was pounding fiercely.

The sword that embodied death was terrifying. To someone like Noel, who had never even thought about death, it showed how a person could die and even presented such illusions. If she didn't feel fear from that, it would be a lie. However, Noel's footsteps towards Damian, the one who had evoked such fear, felt light and filled with excitement.

Whether this feeling would persist depended on Damian's actions, but Noel was also looking forward to it.

Standing before Damian, Noel held her sword and spoke.

"Now it's my turn!"

".....Yes."

As Noel spoke with determination, it seemed that Damian had something to say to her, but he refrained from voicing it. He adjusted his stance and responded to Noel's bright gaze with a glimmering look in his eyes, then assumed his position.

Seeing Damian's smile, Noel somehow felt as if he had known from the beginning why she had challenged him to the duel. So, that was why. As their eyes met, she felt as though he could still read her innermost thoughts.

In that case, it was actually good.

As her stance fully solidified and her breathing began to stabilize, the smile completely vanished from Damian's face as he gazed at her. The same emotionless expression he had before his duel with Gwen was now present on his face.

Unlike what she had witnessed from a distance, the intense aura directed at her right in front of her was undeniably different. Every hair on her body stood on end. The cold sweat in her hands made it feel as if she could drop the sword at any moment, but there was no fear. In fact, she was looking forward to this. Noel smiled and swung her sword.

- Clang!

A sound she had never heard before pierced Noel's ears.

It was far from the clear sound that had accompanied her previous sword swings. It sounded like something breaking. When Noel looked at the blade she had swung, she could see that it was true. The extended blade had been split in half, presenting an embarrassing sight that couldn't even be called a sword.

The culprit who had split Noel's sword was precisely standing in front of her throat.

Though the tip was blunt, it still hovered there. She had no doubt that if he swung it, the illusion she had witnessed would become reality. Noel met Damian's eyes once again. Just as at the beginning of the duel, it was still difficult to discern any emotion in his pupils. His gaze, devoid of feeling, made it seem as if it wouldn't be strange at all for him to drive the sword into her throat.

The common hesitation she had seen in those she faced when she wielded her sword was not reflected in his eyes. There was only one swordsman standing before him as an enemy. Upon realizing this, Noel smiled and gently placed the broken sword on the ground.

"Hehe... I lost!"

At her words, emotion returned to Damian's eyes. He smiled and replied.

"Thank you for your effort."

Damian's brief response resonated deeply within Noel's heart, more than any answer she had heard from the knights she had faced until now.

--- END OF CHAPTER ---

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