Chapter 6 - 06 Explosion, SOP Magic
Steve separated from Brian and was moved to a different room. The soldier ordered by the Chancellor guided him to the room, but when he arrived and looked inside, it was somehow a soldiers' training ground. Burly men were running and conducting mock battles.
Thinking it might be some kind of mistake, Steve asked the soldier who guided him.
"Um, is this the right place?"
"Yeah. The Lord Chancellor ordered me to guide you here."
"I see..."
He wondered why it was here, but nothing came to mind.
Then, a large man who noticed Steve approached him.
"Is this Brian's son?"
"Yes!"
The guiding soldier replied to the large man's question.
Seeing his posture and expression at that moment, Steve figured the large man must be someone important.
The large man had sun-tanned skin and burning red hair. He had arms and legs so thick you'd believe it if someone called him a red-haired bear. Naturally, his neck was also so thick that it looked like it could support his entire frame even if he stood on his head. He was forty years old, but he looked about thirty.
"My name is Oliver Shields. Son of Brian, I'm glad you've come."
The man who introduced himself as Oliver Shields reached out his hand for a handshake. Taking the hand that was like a large rake, Steve exchanged a handshake and a greeting.
"I am Steve Archibalt. You know my father, then?"
"Yeah. We're comrades who ran across the battlefield together."
When Steve checked his surroundings, he realized the soldiers in the training ground were looking this way. Moreover, they had eyes full of expectation.
"Actually, Brian bragged to me that his son's sword skills are outstanding among his generation. So, I'd like to see that skill for myself."
Steve showed reluctance at Oliver's proposal.
"Even if you say skill, I have no experience crossing swords with anyone other than my father. Rather than disappointing your expectations, I'd prefer to remain at my imagined level of skill here."
"Don't be so humble. Well, I do get the feeling Brian might just be a doting parent. I know, how about this: if you win against me, I'll present you with a year's worth of salt to be used in your territory?"
"A year's worth!"
Steve fell into thought at that extraordinary offer. Considering the territory's difficult management, this offer was a godsend. However, he was curious about what lay behind such an exceptional proposal.
"It is a grateful offer for us, but I would like to hear the conditions for when I lose."
"Hmm. I hadn't even thought of that. I assumed it was natural for me to win, so I thought if I made you bet something, you'd decline."
"So, there is nothing even if I lose?"
"Yeah, I promise."
If there were no conditions for losing, there was no reason to refuse here. Besides, he calculated that if he could acquire the techniques of the clearly strong-looking Oliver using his [SOP Magic], it would be useful later on.
"So, what are the conditions for victory?"
"If you land even a single hit on me, you win. Your loss is when you say you give up."
"Understood."
Once Steve decided to accept the match, a young soldier brought wooden swords and wooden shields for two people.
The wooden sword for Oliver was likely the largest size, while Steve's was the smallest size. The wooden shields for both were circular and about the size of a buckler.
They took their distance from each other, and the match began.
"You may take the first move."
"Understood."
Steve used his [SOP Magic] to perform the same movements as Brian. He mixed feints into his consecutive strikes, looking for an opening in Oliver. However, Oliver was unmoved by the feints and parried all of Steve's attacks.
"It feels just like I'm fighting Brian."
Oliver was composed enough to say that much. Then, once Steve's consecutive strikes ended, he went on the counteroffensive. This time, Steve was purely on the defensive. Oliver's sword techniques were superior to Brian's, and Steve, using Brian's techniques, was unable to transition to an attack.
But that was only for a very short time. While receiving Oliver's attacks, he was acquiring those movements with his [SOP Magic]. When the SOP was completed, Steve went on the counterattack.
"Nugh!"
Oliver could not hide his surprise at Steve's attacks, which had suddenly risen several levels in technique. It's said that one grows in battle, but he had never seen a soldier grow so remarkably.
And he understood that the Chancellor, who had given him this mission, had a correct eye for people.
Oliver was the head of this country's Royal Guard Knights Order. In other words, he was the strongest knight. From his conversation with Brian, the Chancellor suspected that Steve's magic had something more to it and had instructed Oliver to discern the nature of that magic.
Oliver, who was acquainted with Brian, had internally mocked the Chancellor for taking Brian's doting parent stories seriously. However, seeing Steve's growing form before his eyes, he became convinced that such magic did indeed exist.
Oliver and Steve traded blows for thirty minutes. The surrounding soldiers also noticed the abnormality of the situation. The only soldier they could think of who could trade blows with the Royal Guard Knight Commander for thirty minutes was perhaps the Vice-Commander. Yet, the child before them was doing exactly that.
Furthermore, it didn't look like Oliver was holding back. At first, they thought Oliver just wasn't being serious against a child, but looking at the speed of the attacks Oliver was unleashing, they could tell whether he was holding back or being serious. A mere ten-year-old child was fully receiving those serious attacks.
Before long, nothing moved in the training ground except for the two of them. Everyone became transfixed by the offense and defense of the two, watching the match without speaking a word.
And then, one hour passed. At this point, Oliver began to feel impatient.
Even I have started to become short of breath, so why can this child remain so composed?
It was only natural to think so. Normally, if one attacks continuously, they get winded. However, Steve's magic, the SOP, was something meant for performing the same task for eight hours a day. Whether one's physical condition is perfect or poor, whether it's hot or cold, whether one is happy or sad—the SOP is what is required to repeat the same task under any circumstances.
In reality, such a thing is nearly impossible, but that's where the magical SOP came in. It turned the ideal into reality.
Due to accumulated fatigue and the fact that he was lost in thought, Steve's attack almost hit Oliver. His years of experience moved his body naturally so that the strike missed by a hair's breadth.
But Oliver realized there wouldn't be a next time. If it was the prodigy before him, he would surely correct his attack so it would hit next time. It was utterly vexing, but that was none other than Oliver's own specialty in fighting.
It was like fighting himself reflected in a mirror. That was Oliver's impression. He hadn't met anyone he could call a rival for years and hadn't had a chance to go all out. However, he could throw his full power at the ten-year-old before him now.
But if they continued to fight normally, defeat was inevitable.
In that case, Oliver took a certain-kill stance. That stance resembled Iai. He would bet everything on a single strike that gathered the essence of his accumulated techniques.
Steve sensed through intuition that something was coming. This intuition was also the danger-sensing ability that Oliver possessed, and the SOP had copied that as well.
Then, the moment he thought Oliver's body had relaxed, the wooden sword passed through where Steve had been. A speed where even the initial movement was indiscernible. If there were a VTR, it was a momentary event that wouldn't be visible even if played back in slow motion.
Normally, that strike would have surely hit Steve, but as mentioned before, it passed through where Steve had been.
While Oliver was surprised by the absence of the impact that should have been there, pain suddenly shot through his flank. A crack appeared in his training breastplate, and fragments danced in the air.
For a moment, he couldn't understand what had happened, but if he turned around, he could understand it.
Steve, who had moved behind him, had pulled off the exact same attack.
"I landed a hit, didn't I?"
To the boy smiling brightly, Oliver admitted defeat. A stir arose in the training ground.
"The Godspeed Sword... I've never had anyone dodge it until now. Were you able to see that?"
Oliver scratched his head vigorously.
"No, I couldn't see it. But I felt the presence of something coming, so I just moved beforehand," Steve answered.
In fact, detecting the presence of the attack, he had moved behind Oliver using [Teleportation] magic.
"I couldn't follow your movement with my eyes either. Just how did you get behind me?"
"It's a trade secret."
Steve dodged the question like that, but Oliver grasped that it was a movement using magic. Because there was absolutely no trace of the training ground's soil being disturbed. Even if one moved at a speed the eye couldn't catch, the soil would move at least a little. If there was none of that, it meant he hadn't used his body. The answer derived from that was magic.
However, if that was Steve's trump card, he thought he couldn't force the secret out of him. Besides, he wanted to know the reason why his [Godspeed Sword] was so easily imitated first.
"Still, to think you could even use the Godspeed Sword. I thought it was my original technique."
"It is definitely an original technique. But I saw it once, so..."
To Steve, who answered nonchalantly, everyone present retorted in their minds, "No, no, no!" Even Oliver, the person who was imitated, thought such a thing was impossible. Who would believe that someone could use a certain-kill technique that only the Royal Guard Knight Commander could use just by seeing it once?
However, it was also a fact. Steve wasn't telling a lie.
It was just that Steve had grown up in the countryside until now, and furthermore, with his knowledge from his previous life, he thought that in a fantasy world, anyone strong enough to join a knights order would have this kind of certain-kill technique. Therefore, he didn't think the person in front of him was the Royal Guard Knight Commander or a special existence.
"If you really imitated it just by looking, can you explain that movement?"
Oliver, unable to believe what Steve said, asked him for an explanation.
"You hold the sword horizontally and first relax your body. Then, after that, you create speed by accelerating the sword through a series of joint movements starting from the ankles. Is this correct?"
After explaining it like that, Steve showed the [Godspeed Sword] once more.
"That is correct."
Seeing that Steve's explanation was correct, and because he reproduced it so easily, Oliver realized that Steve had undoubtedly used the [Godspeed Sword]. It wasn't magic or anything. After all, it was the pinnacle of technique reached by Oliver, who could not use magic. Even so, he felt a sense of "as if you could copy it just by looking!"
However, what Oliver didn't understand was that the technique Steve imitated was also due to the magic called [SOP Magic]. If Oliver had been a magic user, he would have known through sensation or the remnants of magical power that Steve had used some kind of magic, but unfortunately, Oliver had no talent for magic.
Therefore, he would report only the facts that happened before his eyes to the Chancellor. Later, the Chancellor, receiving this report, would be troubled by the appearance of a ten-year-old child stronger than the Royal Guard Knight Commander.
Steve himself was innocently rejoicing that he had gotten a year's worth of salt. He reported this to Brian, who joined him later.
Incidentally, they were to stay not in the royal palace but in a high-class inn arranged by the Chancellor, and it was at that inn that the father and son reunited.
"A year's worth of salt is quite extravagant. So, who did you fight?"
"Ah, I forgot the name."
"I see. Well, if it's Steve, as long as the opponent underestimates you, you have the skill to deliver at least one blow even against the knights order."
Brian also never imagined that the person Steve fought was Oliver Shields, the Royal Guard Knight Commander. Therefore, he misunderstood that someone in the knights order had taken him lightly, so he luckily managed to take a point.
"Father, so are we going back to the territory tomorrow?"
"No, I was told that since you're here, why not do some sightseeing in the Royal Capital? I'll be visiting an old acquaintance, so you'll be sightseeing in the Royal Capital with a guide."
"Sightseeing, huh? I'm looking forward to it."
"Opportunities to come to the Royal Capital are rare, so go and enjoy yourself."
"I don't have any money to buy souvenirs for Mother and Sister, though," Steve said, and Brian smiled while taking silver coins out of the leather bag at his waist.
"This is?"
The leather bag made a clinking sound, letting him know there were still more coins inside. Steve, who had no memory of bringing such money, pointed at the leather bag suspiciously as he received the silver coins.
"Your tribute was given a price. It seems His Majesty felt bad about receiving those without any reward. The springs aside, that pasta machine thing has no merit for us, after all."
"Ah, so that's how it is."
Steve learned that the [Pasta Machine] he created with magic had turned into money. In that case, there was no need to hesitate in using this money.
"But I don't have the confidence to choose souvenirs that women would like."
"Ah, about that, your guide tomorrow is a woman. You can just ask her. She's the daughter of an acquaintance of mine, and since she lives in the Royal Capital, she's perfect as a guide."
Hearing that the guide was a woman, Steve thought it would be easy to have the guide choose the souvenirs for his mother and sister.
He would realize the following day that that was a big mistake.
The strength of the SOP is a plagia—
An homage.