Simple man with his Chapter 6: Sword tournament

Chapter 6: Sword tournant

So ti later when the main group that went to investigate the town of Lostwood, Sarah ca running and leaped at Lud who was doing so paperwork. She made Lud fall with his chair and the papers spread around the room.

After Sarah hugged Lud for a mont, a paper fell on Lud’s face, which made him co back to his senses to question the situation. Lud asked Sarah "What made you crash my office like that Sarah?"

Then Sarah rose up from snuggling with Lud to sitting on his crotch and said "You see, I heard from Tear just now that there’ll be an event called "Grand Sword Tournant" in one of the towns... what was it called again... Ah! Porintos! The town of Porintos is holding an event that will test people’s swordsmanship and I want to try it out."

Lud thought "Why on earth would Tear tell her that? She knows it better than I do that she is a battle maniac who would fight anyone for the thrill of it." Then Lud said to Sarah "Why would I send one of the most valuable people in our kingdom to a tournant where she’ll likely wreck the whole place, causing a massive political issue even before we make a proper contact with the whole nation?"

Sarah ponders a bit and says "Well... If you send , then... You’ll make my power known? You know, since the most skilled swordsn will gather there and... Boom!"

Lud looks at Sarah in the eyes wondering "How on earth did you manage to be a leader of an organization?" After which Lud realized that he said it out loud, but before he could rectify his mistake, Sarah said with a hint of embarrassnt "Well... I was more of a figurehead than an actual leader. I let the people around

make most of the decisions with the organization and stuff."

Then with a hint of sadness, Sarah added "And also, when I did make a decision on my own, I often caused trouble for others since they didn’t dare to speak against my wishes. Even when I asked for their opinions, they would say "Your plan is absolutely flawless, my lady" and "If there is a problem, the problem lies within us". So eventually, I let them make their own decisions and keep my mouth shut and agree with whatever the majority seed to think was best."

Sarah then rests on Lud’s chest and says "I may be born of the remains of a fallen god, but in the end, that was all I was. I didn’t receive any training, but I was gifted with the knowledge of language and the power that runs through ."

Then Sarah hides her face on Lud’s chest and says "In the end, my whole purpose was gaining more power to destroy the world and by proxy, destroy those who I held dear."

There was silence for a while, until Sarah continued "Don’t get

wrong, I do like to destroy things and fight strong opponents, but that doesn’t an I like seeing my friends suffer. I was born of the most powerful god’s fragnts that held deep regret over the deaths born between both sides of the great conflict. In those regrets, the wish to redo the world from scratch ca across in the form of destruction. And I heard that the most common version of

was clouded by this destructive will that forgot why it was wishing for a clean slate in the first place. I haven’t been told why it happened, but I do wonder why those versions of

forgot the beauty of the world."

Then Sarah strengthened the grip that was holding on to Lud’s clothes and said "If it wasn’t for you then... I would have t a similar fate. For that I... Am very grateful."

There is a mont of silence, until Sarah sniffs and rises back to the sitting position with a smile on her face as she said "I didn’t expect to reminisce about the past that much, but back to the topic. Let

enter the tournant."

Lud was about to say sothing, until a female voice said "I didn’t know when to enter, so I just got this over with and showed my presence." Sarah turns her head and Lud leans his head to see who it was that was talking. They saw an elf woman with short white hair and green eyes. Then a man’s voice was heard from across the room that said "My dear Yi, it is not proper to interrupt these kinds of monts."

Then Yi said "But master Xu, they were talking about the subject that I was going to talk about." To which Xu said "Nevertheless, it is quite impolite to make your presence known when you see two people in a compromising position. Instead you should either take the coward’s way out, remove yourself from the situation and not look, or be a gentleman that appreciates the beautiful mont that they are presented with."

Then Yi says "I see. I will morize this lesson for later use. But master Xu, can a woman be a gentleman?" After which Xu says "Oh absolutely. It isn’t gender specific to be a gentleman just because the word has a man in it. Gentlewoman doesn’t have the sa ring to it and the term that won use is "lady" leaves too much to the imagination for your average person. Yes, won CAN be called gentlen if they so wish to be called, but whether or not they can be called TRUE gentlen is left for their actions to prove."

Lud then says "For a second I thought that you would go the route of letting won act like n if they wanted to or even that the gender you were born in didn’t matter, but you went to a completely different route than I imagined. You just went and said that your understanding of gentleman isn’t what the actual term is used for and you fit your own depiction of it to the term to confuse your daughter."

Xu then says "I have no idea what you are talking about, but in any case, Yi has a request that is related to why Sarah is here. Yi." Then Yi said "Yes. I ca here to ask for permission to enter the sa tournant that Miss Sarah asked you just earlier."

Lud thinks for a mont and then asks "Which finger were you again?" To which Yi said "I’m the first." To which Lud muttered "So the so-called weakest model then" and then said "Okay. I permit you to enter this tournant."

Yi shouted in happiness "Yes! I will not let you down!" After which she left and Sarah whined "Why did you let her go, but not ?! It’s unfair!" To which Lud said "I told you that it would cause a political incident if I let one of my commanders enter the tournant. Participating is a no go."

Sarah was about to whine so more, but Xu said "I may have a suggestion that might be a solution to your problem." Then Lud said, "Speak away." And Xu responded "Yes. I suggest that Sarah will go to the tournant as a spectator."

Sarah then says in annoyed tone "A spectator?! But I want to fight!" To which Xu said "Think about it for a second Sarah. If you won’t even witness the fierce battles between the best swordsn of this world, then you will be left with the ever wondering feeling that you missed sothing interesting." Sarah said with a bit toned down voice "But... fighting..."

Then Xu asked "What do you say my lord? Would you let her at least go and witness the tournant if she promises to not be a participant herself?" Lud thinks for a mont and then says "If she can promise to not interfere with the actual tournant, then I can let her go."

Then Xu says to Sarah "So what do you say Sarah? If you can promise to our lord that you won’t cause problems, you’ll see many battles between the best swordsn of this world."

Sarah is hesitant for a mont, until Lud says "Well now that Yi is entering, you can see how the fighting spirit of seventh battalion fares with the inhabitants of this world with your own eyes. And since Yi is the first finger, she is undoubtedly very passionate about proving her worth in the arena."

Sarah ponders for a mont and then says "Fine. I’ll go and watch the little one’s battles. While it is a sha that I won’t be able to enter, at least I can see soone who has the motivation to prove themselves while fighting to their heart’s content. Yes, now I’m excited."

Then Liz enters the office with so papers in her hands and hears Sarah say "Thank you Faust" and make a sound that sounded like a kiss. Liz is stunned by this as Sarah jumps over the table again and runs out of the office.

As she was leaving, Sarah shouted "Love you!" This makes Liz drop the papers in shock and then makes her start to mumble sothing incoherent. This makes Xu say "It seems that my job is done. Good luck my lord."

Afterwards Lud had to explain to Liz what just happened. It took so ti, but eventually Liz cald down enough to get back to work and clean up the place.

Yi was flying with the use of her sword like in one of those Chinese cultivation stories. Sarah was flying with magic behind her and caught up to Yi eventually.

While on their way, Sarah said to Yi "I am going to watch from the audience this ti, but I have great expectations after hearing you and the first of the Ten sword-saints of Rucksta will be participating."

Yi said "Yes! I’m excited to et her as well! Though I hope that my swordsmanship lasts to et one of the best in this world. I heard that after the final round is settled, only then the one standing gets to duel with her."

Sarah said "I have great expectations for you young one." To which Yi said "Thank you, miss Sarah!"

anwhile a shadow was tailing the two won who were heading towards the place where the tournant was held. That shadow was none other than Tear.

For you see, before Lud gave a go ahead for Sarah to go see the tournant, he asked Tear if one of their battalions would be able to go supervise Sarah. Tear answered with a quick "I’ll go" Which left Lud to wonder why she was so eager to go herself, but left it at that and proceeded to give Sarah the go ahead.

Eventually, Yi and Sarah got to the town of Porintos in the kingdom of Rucksta. The town was apparently famous for being a town where great heroes were trained and laid to rest. The tournant was still taking participants, and Sarah let Yi go by herself as Sarah was appraising the other participants. Sarah thought "If these are the strongest of the bunch around this world, it would be a cake walk to conquer the whole world with our current strength." Then Sarah paused for a mont and said "Then again, we are in an unfamiliar world. There might still be surprises for us to find."

Eventually when it was Yi’s turn to sign up, the receptionist asked "What is your na, race, age, occupation and if you have a title, then what is it?" Yi answered with a smile "My na is Yi and I’m an elf! I am the first finger of Xuthe thousand swords. And my title, well... I’m most commonly known as The weakest finger where I’m from."

Then the receptionist says "I see. If you’d like, you can also say what school of swordsmanship you trained under." Yi thinks for a mont and then says "There really isn’t a na for it, but my father calls the style Qian Jian." The receptionist then writes it down and gives Yi a slip that contains Yi’s number.

Then the qualifiers start. The way the tournant works is that those without any recomndation from a noble have to go through qualifiers and work their way up from the bottom. Before the main event starts, people are put in small rings to have a bout with another person with a number. There are six rings in total and each ring is watched over by a referee.

In one of the qualifier matches, Yi’s opponent said "Listen here little elf. You don’t feel like you belong here. You look way over your head after taking in so victories on your belt. You should..." Then the referee says "Do your talks before or after you enter the ring! Begin!" And with a swift motion, Yi defeats the opponent like any other.

Eventually, Yi gets past the qualifiers and the next match is in the main arena with an audience a couple days later. In the anti, Yi and Sarah look around the town and ask a bunch of things from the people there. Most of what they gather is unimportant information, but they gain a very few interesting tidbits.

For example, the countries Lastias and Restias are on the verge of collapse from fighting between themselves and their sister country Vortias. Apparently Vortias has managed to keep themselves together by not acting aggressively and letting the other two countries start all the fights. Vortias would reclaim what the lost territory if any was lost, but not go over the border that was agreed when the three states separated.

Apparently the three countries were once one unified demon country, but one generation of rulers decided to let the country split into three parts and make them their own separate countries. The rulers of these three countries were once siblings and a couple of generations of peace later, the two kings decided that they wanted to unify the three countries into what it once was. All countries agreed with the vision of reuniting the once separated countries, but the dispute rose when the ruler was to be decided.

The queen of Vortias didn’t initially care for the position and let the two kings decide between themselves. Both of the kings were adamant that they themselves would be the ones to be the ruler of a unified demon country. This strife lasted years of harassnt between the two kingdoms, but eventually the strife between the two would reach a breaking point and a war started.

It was when the war started and the two kings were putting their troops into Vortias was it that the queen of Vortias declared that "No soldier under the nas of either Lastias or Restias are permitted to enter inside of Vortias’ borders until the ruler of unified demon country is decided." This declaration made the two kings think that Vortias wanted to be independent and started taking that territory by force.

The war has lasted nearly a decade with Lastias and Restias not coming into agreent. Both countries are running out of resources while Vortias is holding strong for a variety of reasons. Both kings Lastias and Restias are now paranoid of any movents made by the queen of Vortias.

The reason why this topic ca up while Sarah and Yi were gathering info was because the princess of Vortias was visiting Porintos to see the sword tournant. With her being there, Lastias and Restias most likely sent people to see if the princess’ visit had so sort of deeper aning.

Then the ti for the tournant had co. Yi was excited to the point she started to annoy even Sarah.

The first round where Yi was fighting was about to start and all that was left for Yi was to be called to the arena to face her opponent. The announcer said "For the next match, we’ll have an adventurer who had earned the recognition of the dark elf matriarch Diane herself. She is a dark elf adventurer who has reached the rank A in the adventurers guild in re five years and she is known as the hero of Lodres. Ladies and gentlen, please welco, Lucina Lirel!"

The crowd cheers as Lucina walks to the arena while waving her hands to the audience. You can hear people confess their love for her and telling her to show the might of Rusteror.

Then the announcer said "And as for the other person, she is an elf girl who has tal hands. Her origin is a mystery, but she claims to be the first finger of Xu the thousand swords. Though she has passed the qualifiers, among her peers, she is called the weakest finger. Please welco, Miss Yi!"

While Yi walked to the arena, the cheers from the crowd could be heard. They were clearly much less than what Lucina received, but the spirit of competition lifted so to cheer for the unknown girl.

Lucina said to Yi "Haven’t heard of you, but since you passed the qualifiers, you must have so skill. Hope you won’t disappoint." To which Yi said enthusiastically "Yes! I’m honored to test my tal against soone hailed as a hero!" Lucina was a bit taken back, yet smiled nonetheless and said "At least you’ve got so spirit."

Then the announcer said "Ready?! Begin!" And Lucina charged at Yi with amazing speed and made a strong strike. Yi redirected it and countered the strike in a way that pushed Lucina to the edge of the arena. All of this happened so fast that the audience didn’t know what just happened. All they saw was Lucina disappearing for a mont and then she was flung to the edge of the arena.

Lucina was flabbergasted that her attack was countered, but collected herself quickly and took a fighting stance. She poured so mana into her to strengthen her next attack and then made another attack that she was sure would break the barrier that was placed in each participant.

The rules were quite simple, if a contestant’s barrier would break, that ans they had lost. Additionally, if you exit the designated area by any point of the match, you lose the match. If you would be found using a magic item, you’d be disqualified, but the usage of a magic item wasn’t prohibited in the down low.

Lucina, with much more strength and speed, charged at Yi with the amount of power that could kill a dragon of this world with one strike. Yi however, just guided the attack that was coming diagonally from the left in a way that Lucina’s sword was found ending up upwards. It was not as if the attack was blocked and the sword bounced upward, the strike that was ant to start from the left and end up to the right, it instead put the force of the strike skywards as if it was Lucina’s intention all along. The wind blew the dust from the ground upwards, causing a small pillar of dust to appear.

In the mont that Lucina was defenselessly holding the sword upwards, Yi made a piercing strike towards Lucina’s abdon, which broke Lucina’s barrier and sent her flying across the arena.

All of this was explained soon after by the announcer, who barely managed to catch what just happened. The audience was in awe and then Yi was declared the winner. Yi then sheaths her sword and runs to Lucina.

When she is near, Yi extends her hand to Lucina and says with a smile on her face "Those were so magnificent strikes Miss Lucina. If only I had the skill to do a perfect reverse L parry, then your last attack wouldn’t have gone to waste." Lucina is a bit stunned that her opponent extended their hand for her.

Though a bit frustrated at herself for losing this early, Lucina takes Yi’s hand and says "I clearly underestimated you. For that, I apologize." To which Yi says with a smile "It’s okay. After all, I’m the weakest finger." Lucina wonders "If she’s supposedly the weakest, then I can’t imagine how strong the rest of the fingers are."

Both went their rry ways, and then Yi waited for the next match.

Then ca Yi’s second match. The announcer once again gives an introduction for both contestants. The announcer says "For this match, we have the aspiring knight of the Iron order, Jesper Fern Colt and the weakest finger Yi face each other! Hope you have made your bets, since the fight is about to start!"

Yi’s opponent this ti was a wolf type beastkin, who wore heavy armor and had a greatsword. He said to Yi "I saw your last match little Yi and I must say to you that I’m quite impressed that you managed to break the barrier with just two hits. Unfortunately for you, since I have armor, my barrier’s strength is increased according to the protection my armor gives. You’d have to hit a little harder than before if you want to beat ." Yi said enthusiastically "Yes! I promise to try and et your expectations!"

Then the announcer gave a mark and the fight began. Yi and Jesper t at the middle point of the arena and exchanged blows. Jesper was pushed a little back with the strength that Yi put to her attack, which surprised him a little. Nevertheless, Jesper carried on and moved to make his next attack.

After a couple of blows, Yi did sothing that Jesper didn’t expect. Yi threw her sword at Jesper, which he dodged, but this gave Yi an opportunity to strike with her fists. With a mighty blow, Yi broke Jesper’s barrier and sent Jesper back a couple of ters. The audience was stunned by this move and the fact that Yi’s fists were enough to break a barrier that was boosted by the armor her opponent wore.

The announcer announced that Yi was the winner and the crowd cheered. Jesper was about to leave, but then Yi said to him "Thanks for this opportunity mister Colt! Though I had to make a shaful move to get through your defense, it was a magnificent duel!" Jesper just said "As a knight, I feel ashad to lose to an opponent who threw their sword away. I will rember this failure."

And so the two parted ways. Now Yi has only three more matches before she can et the first of the ten sword-saints.

The next match, the announcer said "For the next match, I’ll welco the descendant of the mighty draconian Ruch Magnar, Marar Magnar! His opponent will be the weakest finger of Xu, Yi!

Then Marar said to Yi "Bask in my glory oh little elf. I’ll show you the might of Magnar bloodline." The draconian had two horns and a red dragon tail. He was wearing light armor and had two curved swords. Yi said to Marar enthusiastically "I don’t know who Ruch Magnar is or was, but I’m honored all the sa!" Marar was a bit taken back and said "Well, it is only natural that there are few ignorant people who don’t know of my ancestor’s great deeds. No matter, his blood flows through my veins and I’ll show you the power it holds."

Then the announcer gives their mark to start and then Yi and Marar et their swords. Marar has quick and powerful attacks that Yi has to be a little careful of. The quick movent of both contestants and the power of their attacks makes people watching look at them in awe.

The fight lasts for a while with neither party making any significant moves to win over the other. The fight lasts so long that Marmar starts to get out of breath, to which Yi notices and says "It is a sha that you are getting out of breath this soon. On the other hand, I’m not even getting warm by this exchange." This makes Marar angry, who then says "Who are you to say that I’m out of breath?! I’m only just getting started!"

Only three swings later, Yi says "I guess that’s enough ti" and jumps to the edge of the arena. Marar says "What?! Giving up already?!" To which Yi says "Qian Jian 7th form. Loaded Spear Leap"

Then Yi makes a huge leap from one end of the arena to the other like a spear that is thrown with a great force. During the leap, Yi pointed the sword so that her body beca like a spear. This attack pierced the barrier and actually did physical damage to Marar. Thankfully, Yi only made it so that it would scratch Marar’s cheek, so the damage wasn’t that bad.

Marar was standing in shock for a mont, then touched the wound that appeared to check if he was truly bleeding. In his shock, when he looked at his hand and there was blood, he started shaking as if he just had a near death experience."

The announcer announced that Yi was the winner yet again, and both contestants left the arena without saying another word.

Sarah, who was watching the whole match, muttered to herself "So the little one let her emotions take over this match. Poor lizard should’ve just not bragged about his lineage since that seems to be a sore spot for the little machine." Then after listening to the chatter of the audience, she muttered yet again "One’s blood may be superior to soone else’s, but this does not an one’s worth should be made solely from it." Then after so more chatter from the audience, Sarah said "I have to give it to Xu’s kind though. The ability to store power of each hit made to the user, be the attack damaging to the user or their weapon, makes them able to store power that can be later used in a single attack. This makes Xu’s kind of perfect fit for defensive plays. Illi really outdid himself when he ca up with it. Or was the idea one of the real one’s and Illi just made it happen? In any case, enviable power indeed."

The battle against Marar was Yi’s last battle of the day. Yi spent the rest of the day maintaining her body and talking to Sarah about all kinds of things. Before this visit to Porintos, the two really haven’t talked much. This trip gave the two the opportunity to get to know each other more, which would have not happened otherwise thanks to the difference in rank.

The next day, Yi entered the arena and the announcer gave an introduction of the next match. They said "Thanks for waiting folks! Today will be the final day of the tournant and today we will start with the semifinals! The first match of today will start with the weakest finger Yi and the fourth of the ten sword-saint’s disciple Annika Ulota! Both contestants are almost at the top, so let’s not keep two waiting and start the match when both are ready!"

Annika was a cat-like beastkin who had white hair, ears and tail. She was wearing so armor, but it was mostly lightweight.

Annika said to Yi "That strike you made against that lizard really was sothing. Care to do it against ?" To which Yi said enthusiastically "If the situation demands it, I’ll do it again!" Then Annika gave a fake smile and said "Then I better give it my all then."

Then the fight started and both contestants were exchanging swords. One hit after another, both contestants fell a little back and pushed it up a notch the next attack.

Then Yi said "I think I’ll have to try a little more than I’d like." Then she breathed deeply and said "Qian Jian 9th form. Apex razorstorm." Then in a split second, Yi made attacks from many different angles as if she was a storm of razor blades. The attack wasn’t necessarily strong, but there were so many attacks that it was sure to cause so damage. The speed of the attack was sothing that put Yi’s software into overdrive. This attack was sothing that was ant to be used from the 30th finger and above, but Yi had honed the technique so that even soone at her level could do it.

This attack shredded Annika’s barrier so that she even didn’t notice it at first and was ready to attack Yi. It was when Yi sheathed her sword did Annika notice that her barrier was gone. The announcer then said "The victor is miss Yi!" The crowd cheered and Yi said to Annika "Thanks for the opportunity to try one of the more advanced techniques of Qian Jian. If your barrier would have been a little more durable, I would have had to extend the duration of the technique, which would have been damaging to my body."

Annika said "This can’t be. I... I can’t be defeated yet. I have to..." Yi extends her hand to make a handshake with Annika, who then proceeds to say "No. NO! I won’t be defeated yet!"

Annika tries to attack Yi, but then a woman grabs her shoulder and says "What do you think you are doing Ann?" The woman had white hair, white fox ears and white fox tail. Her eyes were sky blue and she had a small painted line under her left eye. She was wearing an expensive looking coat that had edges coated in a white fluffy fur.

This voice was familiar to Annika. A voice that caused fear ran down her spine. Annika muttered "Master Weiss, I... I." Then the woman who held a dangerous aura even for Yi said "Do not tarnish the na of your master. She will forgive you for not winning against a worthy opponent. Now sheathe your sword and accept your defeat in an honorable way."

Then Annika walked towards Yi and said, though with a weak voice "Tha- thanks for a worthy battle. I... I’ll face you again o-o-one day." Then Annika leaves the arena and the woman known as Weiss says to Yi "I’m sorry you had to see a shaful sight. I hope the na of the ten sword-saints of Rucksta wasn’t tarnished in your eyes."

Yi then said "No worries. Sotis pressure from others drives people to act unexpectedly." To this Weiss said "Thank goodness. Now the only thing I need to do is talk to Monica about this mishap and we’ll be golden. Now if you’ll excuse ." Then Weiss leaves and Yi is left speechless for a mont.

Soon after, Yi leaves the arena as the announcer suggested so that they can move to the next round. anwhile Sarah was smiling like a maniac and said in a terrifying tone "I finally t soone interesting." This made the ones near Sarah back down a little, until Sarah noticed what she was doing and got herself together.

After the other semifinal was fought, the ti for the final match was approaching. The crowd was excited to see the two best contestants fight each other. The announcer did their thing and said "Ladies and gentlen! It is ti to see who is this year’s Grand Sword Tournant’s champion! Let’s not wait around the bush and do the introductions of our two best contestants! On the other corner is the so-called weakest finger of Xu the thousand swords. Her skills have baffled both amateurs and pros alike and none of us can’t wait to see if she has anything else up her sleeve! Please welco, Miss Yi!"

As Yi was walking to the arena, the crowd was cheering her on like crazy. So people could be heard shouting "Show them the might of elves!