Hilda von Lennart was not originally the type to be thorough in her preparations.

She was usually impulsive, capricious, and sometimes even deliberately sought out dangerous situations.

For Hilda, who enjoyed combat itself, knowing the opponent’s methods or techniques in advance was an extremely dull affair.

However, Hilda was at least a girl who listened well to her grandfathers’ words.

The Council of Elders told her to investigate and familiarize herself with information about the Tin Knight’s party as much as possible, and she didn’t refuse that request.

[Adelaide von Lennart.

First, equipment.

She possesses a magic tool called the Belt of Amaryllis, and its effect is an overall increase in physical abilities.

The exact enhancement ratio is unclear, but examining past battle records confirms that she crushed metal armor with pure grip strength.

While threatening in terms of simple strength alone, if the belt’s enhancement effects also extend to factors like muscle and bone elasticity and agility, the actual power she can exert could treat even formidable beasts as trivial.

If we factor in mana-based enhancement on top of this, it’s estimated she could even crush the strongest remaining magic beast on the continent, the Ogre. Extremely dangerous.

Her other armaments don’t seem to possess any special magic powers, but their quality as weapons themselves is excellent.

Especially her two-handed sword, which is almost top-tier for a general product without any special fame or story.

Regarding swordsmanship, her father, August von Lennart, held the title of ‘Kingdom’s First Sword’ and was once a figure who could compete with Conrad von Lennart in skill, but the possibility that Adelaide von Lennart fully inherited that technique is extremely low.

She didn’t even properly complete the basic training process that children of the main family would naturally go through, and judging from her being kidnapped by a mere bandit group right after Friedel’s downfall, her combat ability at that time was at the level of an ordinary noble family’s daughter.

Judging from her overwhelming physical abilities due to the belt and the short training period of less than a year, her tactics are likely to be reckless and reliant on strength, and to counter this, appropriate guidance and counters—(omitted)]

Clang!

As she clashed swords with Adelaide, Hilda thought.

Come on, that investigation was a load of horseshit.

Relying on physical abilities for rush tactics? Swordsmanship itself was poor?

Both were incorrect answers.

The reason she seemed to rely on physical abilities when fighting normally was because it was easier and faster when dealing with multiple opponents, not because that was all she could do.

The same went for swordsmanship.

At first glance, it might look like she was swinging wildly without any formalized techniques, but at its core was a solid foundation of basics that had been repeatedly instilled to the point of obsession.

It was just that the range of these “basics” was so wide and their application possibilities so endless that it appeared wild and formless.

There was a world of difference between swinging without knowing the basics at all, relying on intuition and instinct, and swinging while knowing them.

Above all, what Hilda liked was that Adelaide’s skills were built up with real combat in mind.

While the Lennart family bore the title of the world’s premier martial arts family, few of its members had experienced true life-and-death battles.

At best, there were those like Werner, who survived the old era of wars, elite frontline soldiers, and oddballs like Hilda who deliberately sought out dangerous situations.

It wasn’t because the Lennart family was lazy or avoided fights, but because there weren’t suitable opponents even if they wanted to fight.

There weren’t many people in the world who would dare to attack the young masters and ladies of the world’s premier martial arts family, the Empire’s most prestigious house, with the intention of killing them without worrying about the consequences.

While they had prevented their members from becoming hothouse flowers through endless competition within the family and fierce sparring close to real combat, there was still an insurmountable wall between “real combat” and “sparring close to real combat”.

In contrast, Adelaide?

The journey she had experienced was almost all real combat where one misstep meant death.

Fighting life-and-death battles against opponents above her level wasn’t even a big deal, and to begin with, her teacher, the Tin Knight, was someone who swung real swords at his pupil’s face without hesitation.

When such a girl swung her sword with the determination to kill, the ferocity was terrifying beyond words.

However, Hilda was also a girl far from normal.

“Hahaha! What’s this, did you cast some magic in that short time? You’re a completely different person!”

Clang clang clang clang!

The two swords clashed fiercely, creating a noisy flower of sword energy.

Even faced with a chaotic battle where one wrong move could lead to a fatal wound, Hilda, far from being scared, burst into wild laughter as if she couldn’t help but enjoy the current situation.

“──!”

Adelaide didn’t open her mouth.

She just glared at her enemy with fierce eyes and brought down her two-handed sword like an axe.

The attack, which would have created a huge crater if it had hit the ground, was unexpectedly blocked with a light thud.

And as if in return, Hilda’s sword dug in like a snake, aiming for Adelaide’s neck.

Thanks to reflexive evasion, her neck wasn’t cut, but instead, some of her hair was sliced off.

Adelaide tried to cut down Hilda by rotating her body, but Hilda responded by turning her body in sync with Adelaide’s sword strike, like interlocking gears.

Clang!

This was a development that had already been repeated several times.

While keeping the heat of boiling anger in her chest, Adelaide’s gaze was as calm as her reason.

Adelaide’s gaze turned towards the sword Hilda held.

It’s not just an ordinary sword.

She had predicted there would be something when Hilda, who usually used a one-handed sword, deliberately brought out a two-handed sword, but this was beyond expectations.

To begin with, it wasn’t normal that their clashes continued when Adelaide was superior in both strength and speed.

She’s letting the sword take on the impact of the attacks.

A sword was a weapon that protected the swordsman’s body, but at the same time, once one reached a certain level, the swordsman also needed to protect the sword.

This was because for swordsmen who could exert extreme destructive force, even with bare hands, there were many cases where their weapon couldn’t withstand the impact and was destroyed instead.

Therefore, there was always a need to wrap the sword in sword energy and handle it delicately so it didn’t break under impact, but in Hilda’s case, there was no sign of this at all.

No, she wasn’t even wrapping sword energy around the sword to begin with.

Adelaide didn’t know that Hilda’s sword was an heirloom of the Lion Duke passed down through generations in the Lennart family, but she had already guessed its effect.

Indestructibility.

Extraordinary durability that not only didn’t break but never dulled when facing sword energy that could cut metal like tofu.

While it didn’t have flashy abilities like spewing fire or moving on its own, it was an extremely useful ability that was faithful to the basics of a sword.

Perhaps there were a few more abilities besides this, but Adelaide had no intention of checking them one by one.

Crack!

Violet lightning overflowed from Adelaide’s body.

Hilda also wrapped her body in violet lightning, her eyes filled with manic heat.

The two shadows crossed once again.

Clang!

Hilda was superior in pure technique, but Adelaide had the upper hand in detecting and avoiding attacks.

Both were moving at speeds difficult even to perceive, so if an ordinary person were to see this, it would look like just gold and violet flashes frantically intersecting.

It was an incredibly beautiful sight, but the reality was extremely fierce.

Hilda’s sword carved into Adelaide’s left shoulder.

Adelaide’s sword crushed Hilda’s right thigh.

Before the overflowing blood could touch the ground, new wounds appeared, blooming red flowers.

They strengthened their bodies through mana, ignoring wounds that wouldn’t lead to fatal injuries, and invested even that capacity into cutting down the enemy.

Their appearance was as ferocious as beasts, but at the same time, it was alien to beasts.

In the wild, where even small wounds could directly lead to life-threatening situations, reckless attacks without regard for one’s body were nothing short of suicidal.

That was why they were human.

But humans had something beyond even reckless ferocity—cunning.

Thud.

Adelaide’s waist suddenly felt empty.

The lock that had secured her belt had been undone by Hilda.

There were additional strings or covers to secure the belt on Adelaide’s clothing to prevent such situations, but they were already damaged to the point of losing their function in the midst of the chaotic battle.

And this was also proof that the precarious balance between the two had been broken.

Training through the “Game Book” had the limitation of being useful for building mental training but not applying to physical abilities.

In terms of pure basic abilities excluding the belt, Hilda still had the upper hand.

In addition, she also had the advantage of weaponry.

Crack!

As Hilda and Adelaide’s swords clashed, Adelaide’s sword broke.

Slash!

Hilda’s sword struck Adelaide’s shoulder, and the blade deeply split Adelaide’s upper body.

Just as Hilda was certain of victory.

Grab.

Adelaide’s hand grasped Hilda’s arm.

Immediately after, Hilda’s vision flipped upside down.

Huh?

Hilda didn’t know.

That Adelaide had repeatedly experienced dying and coming back to life countless times through the Game Book.

That she had painfully engraved into her body what level of attack would result in a “Game Over” and what level would allow “continuation”.

That the very flow of losing the belt and being cut by Hilda had been induced by Adelaide.

Boom!

The largest noise yet in the two’s battle erupted.

Although Hilda reflexively suppressed the impact even with her head planted into the ground due to the unexpected surprise attack, she couldn’t prevent her head from shaking and her reactions from momentarily dulling.

It was a moment that didn’t even reach a second in time.

However, for Adelaide, that was enough.

Crackle!

An enhancement that didn’t consider prolonged battles at all, using all her strength.

An output close to reckless that would cause self-harm due to excessive enhancement.

Adelaide’s fist struck Hilda’s abdomen with all her might.

Boom!

Blood spilled from Hilda’s mouth—the same went for Adelaide’s upper body.

No, in terms of bleeding, Adelaide’s condition was even worse.

Yet she didn’t stop.

Crunch!

With the fist that landed slightly higher than before, there was a sensation of the bones protecting the internal organs being instantly crushed.

This time, it seemed even Hilda couldn’t endure anymore, as the Lion Duke’s sword fell from her hand.

Instead of her broken sword, Adelaide grasped it.

“Cough…! Ugh!”

Adelaide looked down at Hilda, who had fallen to the ground spitting blood, with calm eyes.

Hilda tried to get up somehow, but her limbs only convulsed, and any further movement seemed impossible.

However, even in this situation, her eyes were still far from despair.

“Aha—hahahahahahahahahahaha, amazing… you really made it this far, cough! Well done.”

Even while spewing blood and what looked like pieces of flesh from her mouth, Hilda didn’t stop talking.

It was an injury that would normally be fatal for an ordinary person, but the sturdy body of the Lion Duke’s bloodline made it possible.

“What a shame, what a pity, I wanted to defeat you, improve my skills, and then, cough! challenge that knight, too.”

At those words, Adelaide’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

She, who had been silent all along, finally opened her mouth, “You can’t beat Sir Knight.”

“Maybe not now, but who knows about later?”

“It’ll be the same later too—because I’ll take you down before you can fight Sir Knight.”

Confusion clouded Hilda’s eyes.

Adelaide’s words sounded as if Hilda would have a “next time”.

Hilda tilted her head. In reality, it was just her neck twitching slightly.

She wondered if this person was one of those saints or fools who could forgive even their parents’ murderer.

“This won’t do.”

But with Adelaide’s next words, Hilda realized that was a misunderstanding.

“At first, I was just going to finish you off, but if I did that, you’d feel satisfied thinking you ‘died in an interesting fight’. I absolutely can’t accept that.”

Adelaide’s expression was calm.

But her eyes were burning like the flames of karma.

“So, I’m going to beat you up over and over again. Until you’re sick and tired of fighting. Until you cry out that you hate the pain. Until you beg for forgiveness and ask me to stop. Or even if that happens, I’ll continue. Again and again, as many times as it takes. So, to say it in a way Sir Knight would—“ Adelaide added. “Don’t think you can escape by dying.”

Hilda’s mouth closed.

Confirming that a faint trace of fear had settled in her eyes like a cowed beast, Adelaide leaned against the corner of the room.

Thinking that she couldn’t show this side of herself to Sir Knight.

***

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