Sword Saint [1]

(Julius Argenti POV)

A few weeks had passed since the start of school. I attended classes regularly and only a couple of exciting events happened.

I eliminated the forger the day after my Newstien mission, though not without any problems. I had fought the most dangerous opponent yet and nearly died.

It wasn't that the report was wrong, I was just unlucky. To survive I did something only a villain would do. The worst part is that I felt no remorse for doing so.

I know I joked about being okay with massacring innocents, but the depths of my indifference was scary. It's not something I want to reveal to anyone.

At school, some of the factions attempted to recruit me, but with my strength, I managed to repel most of them.

I thought Amina and others would have been harassed more than me with them being prominent nobles. The nobles' faction especially. However, with Maximillian, one of the leaders of the faction, the humiliating defeat against Amina discouraged many attempts.

I choose the same elective as last year, food tech. I could've chosen a combat elective, but my love of food came first. Plus I bet the combat electives would've been useless to me.

During these weeks, I also underestimated how much politics this school has. It was an unspoken rule to involve first years and to let them adjust to the school. Breaking that rule earns the ire of every other faction.

Now that we second-years have chosen their electives, they are automatically considered part of a certain faction.

Violet, being the social butterfly knew about it beforehand and told James. She and James joined an elective that leaned towards the ideal's faction side, though it was mostly neutral.

But she neglected to tell Amina and I so we were unaware of it. Or maybe we just didn't care. Amina joined the shooting club which primarily consists of an anti-war faction that believes that they should spare the demons.

This is an extremely controversial opinion, so she is being pestered by many people. Though none attempted to do anything as she was too feared. She is also an idol, so most could forgive her.

Food tech was an elective primarily consisting of people from H-Z sectors who couldn't get accepted into any other club. Therefore it was a neutral club. Yay, good for me.

I also discovered that this year the government only accepted 1/5th of the people they usually would. Mages are less important now that the war is over.

The fewer uncontrollable factors they have, the better control they have over their subjects.

Discarding all that, our mage course lesson today now involves us meeting with one of the 20 Rulers, the Sword Saint, Mikami Loho.

He ranked 11, formerly 16 and is a weapon specialist, primarily using a sword.

Many were excited to see him, especially Lisa Rosario who considered him to be her hero. He was a part of the Loho family, one of the 15 Royals and had an Asian-looking face with black hair.

He looked quite young, but he was in his mid-40s. His stance exuded a sense of confidence and our class couldn't help but respect him.

"Everyone, as you already know, this is Mikami Loho. He will be teaching you today. You better respect him as he has given up his time so he can teach you. Try to learn as much as you can because you won't meet a better weapons expert than him."

Mrs Rumbles introduced Mikami Loho to us.

"Haha, Sarah you don't have to be so formal. I don't mind giving up time as the war is already over and I don't want to stay at home all day. Let's go to the training field."

We followed Mikami and changed into our combat uniform. We all stood around him waiting for him to speak.

"Everyone, come at me. Don't worry, I'll reduce my enhancement to the level of an average C rank. I'll show you the importance of skill."

***

(Mikami Loho POV)

The students rushed at me weapons drawn. It felt weird for my body to be so slow, though I shrugged it off quickly.

The first student arrived in front of me and swung his sword down. To me, it was full of openings and the swing was full of inefficiencies.

I drew the sword from my waist and smoothly deflected the first blow. In my next swing, I cut him down, putting him out of commission.

With the barriers, he was completely uninjured, though he did experience the pain of being cut in half. If I wanted to, I could completely bypass the barrier and kill them outright, though I would never do so.

Seeing one of their classmates defeated so easily, they all rushed toward me. Their lack of coordination made it easy to exploit their openings.

Even with my speed and power being worse than theirs, I was single-handedly defeating them one by one. After knocking out 7 of them, the rest all retreated in shock.

Some of the students were standing back analysing the fight. I even felt one of the students probing me with their mana.

Even though I could easily deflect the probe, I didn't do so as I promised to limit myself. One of the students suddenly walked up to me.

"I would to challenge you in a one-on-one."

A girl walked up to me without any fear. She had brown hair tied in a ponytail with two katanas in her hands. An unusual style, sacrificing control in favour of power.

"You know you won't win. Why don't you work together?"

I replied to her calmly.

"I want to see your skill and power."

"Okay. I accept."

I respected her decision as her warrior and a swordsman. Her swordsmanship spirit was shining brightly. I was tempted to take her as my disciple but I had to see if she had talent.

She swung her swords at me, one after the other. I could've ended the fight with the multitude of openings she had, but I constantly defended her.

With my concept {Sword}, I could easily tell mistakes in everyone's attacks, so every little thing was very noticeable.

To outsiders, her moves seemed like a dance. Her attacks were extremely elegant with her rapid attacks. She was constantly moving, switching up the tempo.

I had to admit, she was extremely talented, better than I was when I was that age. Her sword style seemed to be taken after the flower style which could be found on the internet.

Reaching this level just by practising on her own showed her extreme talent. I had decided now. I would take her as my disciple. But I had to show the difference between us now.

Just as she was about to swing her sword, I intercepted it midway, catching her off guard. I twisted the sword out of her hand and the girl retaliated by swinging her other sword.

I evaded the sword, letting it miss by only an inch with her stance broken, I rushed forward and cut her. The force of the blow caused her to drop on the floor dropping her second sword.

"I win. You did well. What is your name young girl?"

"Lisa. Lisa Rosario."

"Well, Lisa Rosario. How would you like to be my student?"

Lisa's eyes widen in surprise. The other students all looked at her with envy.

"To think Lisa would be the first one to have an S rank teacher. And he's SS rank and one of the 20 Rulers."

"Yeah, I thought it would've been one of those four prodigies."

Other students whispered among themselves. I ignored them and asked everyone who had been defeated to leave the barrier. They were other students I still had to face.