Arc 2 - Chapter 34: Sivina Ecues (1/2)

The sword held in both hands by little Sivina was too heavy for her to carry. Nevertheless, at her father's command, she picked it up and lifted it.

Sivina was barely holding the sword in the air when her father came at her with it.

Sivina couldn't even defend the first move, when her father's sword collided with her own, the sword fell to the ground, and the second move left Sivina with a bruise on her shoulder.

"A real sword will do more than bruise!"

"But I can't carry this!"

Sivina was crying and waiting for her mother to come and save her from her father's torture.

"When you meet an enemy, can you tell him that you can't carrying your sword? And asking him for letting you go?"

Sivina's father believed that a man could make his way with a sword and did not want his daughter to be less than a man. Sir Ecues's daughter will not to be a woman who sat at home and looked at her husband's hand.

So the sword training and the bruises on Sivina's body continued, despite the objections of the whole family. Sivina was grateful that at least her brother could use healing magic, so the bruises didn't stay for long.

---

Sivina continued her relentless pursuit of the killer as night fell. Her hot breath vaporized in the cold air and her gasps grew louder and louder.

From the outside, the scene was strange for those who saw it. A girl in pajamas holding a sword was chasing a man who was running away from her.

"It's all torn up."

Although she could move much more easily in his pajamas than in her knight's uniform, it still felt strange to run in it.

To be honest, she was a bit unprepared, not expecting the killer to show up on the first day Yu arrived. And she was angry with herself for that.

"Ana gave this."

She was sad that the clothes bought for her by her friend were no longer usable. She would have liked to take better care of her gift.

Of course, torn clothes were not even in the top ten of the problems she had to worry about. The rock she had jumped in front of to save Ana had hurt her more than she realized, and she had run for kilometers without slowing down, further inflicting the wounds caused by the rock.

On top of these wounds were the ones Sony had inflicted with light magic, and the new wounds were much worse than the old ones. If she didn't have mana circulating in her body and her supreme race's strength, she would have collapsed and died, or at best she would have been crying in pain.

As she kept running, her wounds kept opening, hurting and bleeding. If the wounds were not treated soon, she could have lifelong scars on her beautiful body.

Yet none of this would be enough to stop her. A knight would not leave a task unfinished. To accomplish the mission and return successfully was what a knight was supposed to do, and to give up, to retreat with excuses, was not in the book of a knight or the Ecues family.

She was already glad that their mission had turned into such an adventure and had never thought of retreating. Even when Yu had suggested that she be the bait, she hadn't thought anything bad of him, she had accepted immediately.

From the very beginning, Sivina felt that adventuring was not for a knight. Although she dabbled a little in adventuring on her first journey from Elhaven to Rolderhelm, her goal was to dedicate her sword to someone she believed could make the world a better place.

But after meeting Ana, she had to postpone her dream. She still had her old dreams, but since Ana wanted to be an adventurer, she agreed to continue adventuring alongside her. Because she loved her.

Nevertheless, her old thoughts remained and She was not totally happy being an adventurer. Sivina was a knight, she served with her sword and she wanted to serve someone who would use her power for good.

Actually, not to someone, but to a great ideal.

None of their quests as adventurers were the work of a knight. Sure, a knight would hunt monsters or babysit someone when his master ordered him to, but a knight wouldn't do it for money. At least none of the knights Sivina admired did such things for money.

But now she was on a mission far more difficult and important than any she had ever undertaken before. She was fighting for justice, to avenge the murdered, and that was a job fit for a knight.

Of course, as much as she was excited by the mission and pleased to be involved in it, she was also sad that Satoshi had died because of it. She didn't feel any intense affection for Satoshi, in fact it would be a lie to say that she did mourn. It was two months after they had met before she could even consider him a friend.

The reason for her lack of affection for him was, of course, obvious. Satoshi's antipathetic behavior embarrassed Sivina every time she witnessed it, and Satoshi had a sly attitude towards both her and Ana.

But she had to ignore that and go with Satoshi, who had healing magic, because even though Sivina could defend herself, Ana was weak compared to her and could get hurt on missions. So their group needed Satoshi's magic.

"Look at me being able to defend myself."

The thought burned her, but the reason she was so exhausted after Satoshi's death was not because she loved him, but because she was angry with herself. If she hadn't taken him in the first place for her own gain, he would still be alive.

"The killer wanted to enter Sivina's room that night."

How could she hear Yu's words, especially after the murder, and not be angry and blame herself? Knights protect people, but an innocent person had died because of Sivina.

Even though the words hurt her, she was not angry with Yu for saying them. It was the most logical approach to the situation. As a knight, she often failed to put her emotions on the back burner, but at least in such a serious situation, she should have been able to do so.

"It hurts me to think about these things. I want to stop thinking about it, but I can't stop thinking about it because when I don't think about it, I suffer because I forget."

She kept running, trying to push the thoughts out of her mind. Even though her legs burned, she never slowed down.

"Gotcha!"

She jumped on a tree to accelerate, jumped from one tree to another, and from there, supported by the tree she jumped on, she shot like an arrow at the killer.

When the killer noticed Sivina coming at him, he threw himself to the ground to avoid her sword. Sivina continued to fly in a straight line as she flew over the killer and landed on a tree, after turning in the air to get support from another tree in front of her.

The strain on her legs made not only her legs ache, but her whole body ached with the pain radiating from them. Still, she didn't stop, and with the support of the tree she had landed on, she leaped again towards the killer behind her.

This time, instead of avoiding Sivina, the killer pulled one of the daggers from his belt and threw it at Sivina. Sivina blocked the thrown dagger with her sword as she continued to fly towards the killer, and when she got close to him, she tried to drive her sword directly into his chest.

Sivina's move was met by another dagger from the killer. Sivina's sword was redirected into the void by the dagger in front of her, but Sivina used the speed she gained when she leapt from the tree to shoulder the killer and knock him to the ground.

Sivina was about to tell him to surrender when the killer grabbed a handful of sand and threw it in Sivina's face.

When dust looked into Sivina's sea-green eyes, her eyes burned and the killer kicked her in the ankle, causing him to lose her balance and fall to the ground.

The killer then leapt at Sivina on the ground, dagger in hand, to kill his immediately. Sivina drove her feet into the killer's stomach, throwing him back and preventing the fight from ending almost as quickly as it had begun.

The killer's nose had been broken by Sivina and he had been injured by being under Rino, but now Sivina saw that he had no injuries other than his broken nose. Sony had healed him.

Sivina's condition worsened with each passing moment and she felt her strength diminishing. She had to be grateful for the abundance of mana in her body that she was still standing, even if she could not use magic.

Sivina turned and stood up, pointing her sword at the killer. The killer stood up as Sivina stood up and pulled out another one of his hidden daggers, bringing the number of daggers he held to two.

"Didn't you aim for me the day you killed Satoshi? Here I am, right in front of you. Why are you running?"

"I usually prefer to appear when the creatures I am targeting are not holding their swords. If you put down your sword, I will gladly stop running."

"How did you know I would be there?" Sivina ignored her rival's provocation.

They had just arrived in Redchapel the day Satoshi died. She wondered how they had gotten caught in the killer's net as soon as they arrived.

"I heard that someone was looking for me and I thought it would be good to intimidate the people who were looking for me."

"That doesn't answer my question."

Even though William was carrying two weapons, Sivina's sword had a longer range, so she had no problem making the first move.

Sivina's sword style was a combination of kuendo, one of the least respected and deadliest of the fighting styles in Elhaven, and the specialized fencing style popular among Elhaven's nobles.

Kuendo was inherited from the Ecues family and taught the fastest way to neutralize the target, suggesting the use of moves that were frowned upon by some.

The style called Elhaven Fencing, taught only among the noble families, was a swan-like graceful way of fighting, always suitable for attack and retreat.

The position of Sivina's long slender legs was what the style considers perfect. Her body was turned to the side and her head and the tip of her sword were facing the killer. Her legs were spread out to the sides, allowing her to move forward when she had the upper hand on her opponent and to retreat when he had the upper hand.

If her opponent, the Redchapel Killer, had been a swashbuckling fighter, the fight would have been over long ago, but he was not. It seems that he also knew a fighting style, even if it was not knightly.

Sivina's movements, a combination of two different species, were graceful, aesthetic and seemed to dance every time she spun around to reinforce her move.

If one had been watching Sivina at this time, one could not help but be amazed by the spectacle this beautiful knight put on. Sivina's sword dance was beautiful enough to make a man fall in love with her.

The movements of William Berry, known as the Redchapel Killer, were crude, compared to Sivina's mesmerizing movements. His fighting style was one Sivina had seen before, but she couldn't remember it. It was probably a style used by mercenaries.

Aside from the fact that Sivina was wounded, the fight the killer put up was not that bad. He managed to counter Sivina's attacks and prevent her sword from penetrating his flesh.

But that didn't mean he was any good. If Sivina hadn't been injured, her opponent wouldn't have been able to keep up with her speed and would have died before he even realized what had happened.

"You're no good against a knight wielding a sword."

"I've actually killed knights with swords in their hands, but you are the best I've ever seen. Maybe if I had entered your room that day I would have met a bitter end, maybe I wouldn't have had to deal with so much today..."

As the killer continued to retreat, Sivina kept advancing, her sword always aimed at her opponent's chest.

After each attack in which the killer dodged the sword, Sivina launched a new attack so fast that her opponent had little time to catch his breath.

"Surrender here and be tried in court, otherwise my sword will judge you."

"Sorry, I will neither surrender nor die today."

Realizing that he could do nothing as long as the fight continued like this, the killer immediately jumped back and took a red stone from his pocket and threw it at Sivina.

When Sivina saw the magic stone coming at her, she made a mistake and reflexively hit the stone with her sword to stop it from hitting her.