I Became the Teacher of the Imperial Family’s Bastard

079. Grand Duke Tibria (2)

Only after throwing my fist did I realize my mistake.

Is this the problem with being overly sensitive?

When it comes to threats that arise during breathing, the body makes decisions faster than the mind.

The phenomenon is more extreme than usual… Yes, it’s because the Grand Duke’s level is what it is.

‘It’s been a while.’

Fighting an opponent close to a Sword Master.

They have no temperament or aura, but humans who reach this level all possess reaction mechanisms that surpass human limits.

So, in a fight, they make moves based on physical judgment rather than rational judgment.

In other words, there’s no time to think, so they engage in offense and defense as their body leads them.

The process of finding the right answer through this is called ‘experience.’

A Sword Master’s fight is, in a word, close to a beast’s fight.

Smack!

“Ugh!”

Thus, victory or defeat is determined by the compatibility of temperaments, the form of enlightenment, and the remaining amount of aura.

But now?

‘I apologize. I couldn’t let you win.’

The Grand Duke is at the highest level of Expert.

In other words, if there is no temperament, aura, or enlightenment, it is a pure skill battle, and at this point, there is no one on this land better than me.

I see the path of mana.

I sense the pulsation of muscles.

I know all the solutions that can arise based on that.

Swoosh!

I lunged forward, throwing a punch to the face.

The duke blocked my attack with his nose and immediately kicked up his knee.

My body reacted first this time as well.

Wham, I caught his knee with the inside of my elbow and spun my body around.

Twisting my waist,

Crack!

“Ugh…!”

I drove my knee into his solar plexus.

Then, belatedly, I realized my mistake.

“…Ah, my mistake.”

Was that too much?

It was the moment I thought that.

“Ugh…!”

The duke, who had rolled on the ground, lay face down on the dirt, coughing and spitting.

His face was hidden by his long hair.

But soon, the duke lifted his head, and I let out a hollow laugh.

“…Are you alright?”

“Heh, hehahaha…!”

The duke’s eyes curved into crescent moons and gleamed.

“This is… This is an unexpected situation!!!”

Boom―!

The duke’s mana exploded, overturning the ground of the garden.

His exposed face was filled with a mad grin.

Feeling awkward at his deranged appearance, I spoke up.

“Well, um. Up to here……”

“Who said so! This damned system is unbearably hot!”

Rip!

The duke tore his shirt.

Muscles and scars etched like sculptures, with steam rising and intertwining with mana.

The Grand Duke’s hair stood on end.

Ah, that’s it.

‘…Vision of Heiron.’

You’re really going to do it.

The Grand Duke’s eyes rolled back.

At this rate, it won’t end until someone truly passes out.

He glanced at his sister.

She was covering her mouth, looking like she might faint any moment.

The decision was made at that moment.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

He unleashed his mana.

* * *

Tibria thought.

When was the last time I got hit this hard?

To recall that, she had to go back quite a long time.

Before she started hunting beasts barehanded, before she sparred with the knights of the North as the Grand Duke, before she trained with the knights of the capital.

So,

‘…Hilla.’

Back to her cadet days.

―Dieeeeee!!!

It still appears in her dreams sometimes.

That crazed look in her eyes as she lunged, even while coughing up blood, to bite into her collarbone.

The voice that howled with a fierce determination to win no matter what.

And then, as soon as the match was over, the clear smile as if nothing had happened.

―Ha! I’m hungry! Tibria, what’s for lunch today?

―I don’t know, you crazy girl!!!

It was terribly hard, but just as enjoyable.

When she was with Hilla, she could forget everything else and just enjoy the competition.

At those times, she could laugh purely without the pressure of grades, the burden of being the Grand Duchess, or the worries about tomorrow.

How long had I lived forgetting such things?

‘…Ah, right.’

It was after Hilla married Philip.

How sickening it was to see her clinging to a man all day, forgetting about the sword and everything else.

Despite that, she couldn’t fix her fiery temper, so they often argued, but I remember it never being satisfying.

There was a bit of resentment in my heart.

‘She said we’d spar again.’

The last time we met, Yuren was five years old.

Hilla had promised that now that she had an heir, she would pick up the sword again, and in ten years, she would come to the north with Yuren and fight all day.

―Just wait. Next time, I’ll break your nose for sure!

I still vividly recall her laughing as she made that bold declaration.

And then she died.

For such a ridiculous reason as a mere carriage accident.

‘That wretched woman…’

She was always so selfish.

Whether as a cadet, later, or now, Hilla was always a troublesome woman who left the cleanup to others.

Had it been building up inside me all this time?

“Ah, sorry.”

Thud―!

“Ugh…!”

Yuren’s fist struck my solar plexus.

For a moment, my breath and thoughts stopped.

Even using vision, it was a draw.

No, I was at a disadvantage.

Even though I used mana to heat my body and accelerate, I couldn’t keep up with Yuren’s reactions.

At this rate, I would lose disgracefully.

Even in such a moment, Tibria couldn’t help but laugh.

“Why apologize when you’re going to hit me so hard?”

“…I did it without thinking.”

“Why, are you going to slap me too…?”

Smack!

“…There was a gap.”

“Ha ha ha!!!”

It was in the midst of being hit that he finally remembered.

How to end that guy’s incomplete combustion.

‘Sparring was good.’

Sparring with Hilla, the moment when he poured out everything he had, was good.

Yes.

It was Hilla who made him the sparring maniac Tibria.

And yet, she left without a word.

That had always been his grievance.

Thud!

Tibria grabbed Yuren’s fist that was lodged in his solar plexus.

Yuren tried to pull his hand out.

He spun and kicked him in the head.

Boom―!

“Ugh…!”

As he received it, he dug his fingers into Yuren’s wrist.

Crunch!

Yuren’s brow furrowed.

“You crazy…”

“Good. Your kick is just like your mother’s.”

“Sir…?”

“…I made a promise.”

Crack―!

Tibria spoke as he gripped Yuren’s wrist as if to crush it.

Yuren’s face twisted in pain, but Tibria didn’t care.

“The day I bring you to the north, I promised to spar with her. Because of that promise, I went through quite a bit of tough training.”

Mana surged.

More fiercely than before, as if it would explode at any moment.

“Even after she died, he did not stop training. It felt like he had to.”

He looked straight into Yuren’s eyes.

A face twisted in pain.

This brought quite a bit of pleasure.

“It must have been for today.”

“Please, stop now…”

“This is the seed your mother sowed. Reap it.”

At that moment.

KABOOM!!!

A gust of wind swept through the space.

Mana absorbed the heat of the body and ignited.

His body grew hotter.

Tibria felt as if her entire body was being burned.

But what surged was ecstasy.

Her mouth opened.

“Heyron is dreadfully cold. Settling there for a thousand years. The greatest enemy of our ancestors was always the cold.”

At that moment, Yuren’s eyes widened.

He seemed surprised, as if he had forgotten the pain.

Of course, Tibria did not know the reason.

No, she couldn’t even imagine it.

“A cold wave that freezes everything in the world. But even facing that, we had to walk. We had to move forward and fight. That’s why Northerners are so mad about fighting. But I found it puzzling.”

The source of the technique she was using now,

“Why resist the cold? Just make the cold fear you.”

It was connected to the ‘Sword’s Will’ that Yuren and Kallios had created through all their research.

“Let’s go to the end. Whether you fall first, or I fall first.”

BOOM―!

Somewhere in the capital, a pillar of fire rose from a garden full of flowers.

So huge and high that it could be seen from the imperial city.

* * *

The ‘Sword’s Will’ is the foundation.

Questioning the ‘why’ in martial arts and imposing necessity and inevitability on it… It’s akin to the core of martial arts, which completes mere body movements as miracles.

The future crown prince only realized this after becoming a sword master.

Thus, to resolve the fundamental deficiency underlying all martial arts that began with imperial swordsmanship, he engaged in endless debates and sparring with me, and in the end, he perfected the most human swordsmanship.

However, there was one fact that should not be misunderstood.

Swordsmanship was not something we ‘developed’, but a concept we ‘discovered’.

In other words,

‘It reached itself…!’

It means that anyone, not just us, can handle swordsmanship if they realize it.

‘Did he realize swordsmanship?’

No, it’s a coincidence. That is the grand duke’s desperate struggle to resist the concept of ‘cold’, manifesting in a physical form, and it just happened to coincide with swordsmanship.

But even so, it was astonishing.

Developing martial arts to resist nature.

Just attempting such a crazy thing and succeeding was already close to a remarkable achievement.

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The grand duke’s heat pierces my skin.

The storm of mana relentlessly tries to tear me apart.

It’s not a heatwave that can be blocked simply by setting up a barrier with my mana.

Sorcery slash? Can it work? The thing moving that mana is not a rule but a will.

As long as the ‘will’ contained in this flame is unbroken, I will lose.

Did I have to go this far against my nephew?

At the end of my lament, resentment towards my mother surged.

Because it was certain that the grand duke was doing this because of my mother.

‘If you made a mess, you should clean it up before leaving.’

Clicking my tongue, I moved my mana.

To face swordsmanship, I also had no choice but to counter with swordsmanship.

What it intended to contain was heat that even cold would fear.

Piercing through, forming intimidation, going to the root, forming fear.

The moment you know the nature of swordsmanship, it ends.

Which style should I use?

After a brief contemplation, the mana moved.

The barrier of mana that had been surrounding my body disappeared.

The heat tore at my skin, but it was fine.

‘Because that’s the technique.’

My blood boils.

The pain fades.

And so, the excitement rises.

In the past, it was a swordsmanship created to face ogres.

A sword that grows stronger the more painful it is, as it must be drawn without fear even against an enemy as massive as a mountain.

Now, it erases all pain until the end of the battle, turning the body into a combat machine during its execution.

During the war, it was quite favored, the ‘Berserk Technique’ was activated.

Crack!

I choked the duke’s neck,

“Krah?!”

“Take it easy…!”

Taking advantage of the moment when his strength loosened, I pulled out the hand that was caught and struck the duke’s cheek with my fist.

“Do it!”

Boom―!

At that moment, the heat wave subsided.

Thud!

The duke rolled his eyes and fainted.

…No, one more.

Thud!

“Sister…?”

In the distance, my sister also fainted. Her eyes tightly shut.

‘…Ah.’

The back of my head throbbed.

* * *

Tibria opened her eyes about an hour later.

A strange ceiling.

For some reason, a light body.

Upon inspection, all the parts that had been injured in the fight were completely healed.

Is it a dream?

I thought, then soon realized it was reality.

‘Hmm… Am I healed?’

There was still a lingering sensation on my body.

Traces of divine power.

It seemed I had called for a priest in the meantime.

Tibria blinked and recalled the fight.

Then she chuckled.

‘I lost.’

But why do I feel so refreshed?

Usually, defeat should make one feel bitter or humiliated, but this refreshing feeling was unfamiliar.

…No, saying it’s unfamiliar would be misleading.

Tibria knew this kind of refreshing defeat.

‘Hilla, as expected, Yuren has your blood strongly.’

After fighting with Hilla, I always felt this refreshing feeling regardless of victory or defeat.

Along with that, another phenomenon occurred, my stomach growled.

―What’s on the menu today?

It felt like I heard such a voice.

Tibria jumped out of bed and headed to the dining room.

Then there were people in sight.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

Yuren.

“Oh, uh! Hello!”

The saintess of the Papal Palace… It seemed Yuren had called her.

Lastly,

“…….”

Cecilia, who somehow looked sullen.

Seeing her gaze, I felt a pang of guilt.

In fact, if you think about it, wasn’t it like I had really tried to kill my niece who was more than twice my age?

And then, to lose, I really had no face as an adult.

“Haha! You were already eating. Nice to see you too, Saintess! Ah, thank you for the treatment!”

“What? Ah…”

Tibria avoided Cecilia’s gaze and sat down.

Then she grabbed the meat with her bare hands and tore into it.

If her husband were alive, surely there would have been one more person in that gaze.

At this moment, she was almost glad that he had gone first.

Yuren’s gaze felt particularly intense.

Tibria threw her shame far away and laughed heartily.

“Truly impressive! It’s been decades since I fainted during a duel!”

“Yes, I’m glad you were satisfied, but… I just remembered a question I didn’t get to ask earlier.”

“Hmm?”

“What brings you to the capital? Without any notice at this time?”

At that question, Tibria suddenly stopped.

Then she sighed with a blank expression.

“Ah.”

…She had forgotten.