I Possessed the Villain’s Childhood Friend – Chapter 14

“I just have to beat you. Easy, right?”

“Marin? What is this…?”

“Do you think I’m joking?”

In an instant, Marin charged forward.

And swung her massive greatsword at me.

There was no sign of hesitation whatsoever.

“Ugh?”

The attack was heavy.

And fast.

If I hadn’t instinctively used Physical Enhancement Magic, I would have surely collapsed from the tremendous force.

“You want my recognition and to earn a sword, right? Then prove you have the qualifications!”

Even in the midst of clashing swords, Marin was smiling.

Her eyes were filled with sincerity.

“…Is that so? Understood.”

I slowly began to circulate my magical power through my body.

I pushed against the position where the greatsword was pressing down on me.

Marin immediately stepped back and readied her stance again.

“Alright, alright. Now you should be ready for a proper match, right?”

“Yeah. I’m good whenever.”

“Don’t worry about injuries. I have a decent Barrier set up.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Here I go!”

It was Marin who first lifted her foot off the ground.

Her movements were so light it was hard to believe she was using a greatsword.

But I definitely wasn’t going to fall behind.

Against her, my choice was to counter her head-on.

“Heh, you seem confident?”

“To some extent?”

I quickly summoned my strength and broke our stalemate.

Then I swung my sword diagonally.

Marin’s reaction was swift.

With a graceful technique that drew admiration, she deflected my attack with the side of her sword.

“Impressive.”

“Right?”

We faced each other, exchanged smiles for a moment, and continued our battle.

“Guhh!”

The balance of our fight began to tip slowly.

It wasn’t anything else.

The blade I had received from Marin was starting to crack little by little.

“Marin?!”

“Don’t stop, Aike! Keep going!”

She surely wasn’t unaware of this fact.

But she had no intention of stopping at all.

“Damn it!”

It was only natural.

My sword was an ordinary longsword. Marin said it was a mass-produced model, considering she was a blacksmith.

On the other hand, Marin’s sword was a giant greatsword.

In terms of power and durability, I was destined to lose.

I had been continuously challenging her head-on.

“Hah!”

With a fierce battle cry, the greatsword descended upon my head.

There was no way to dodge it.

I had no choice but to raise my sword above my head and defend.

The greatsword paused for only a brief moment.

Clang!

In an instant, my sword shattered and embedded itself in the ground.

Fortunately, I managed to evade the attack during that brief pause.

“Looks like this is the end. I can’t fight long with a sword made so hastily.”

Marin said this as she pulled her greatsword from the ground.

“If you understand that, please take it easy.”

“Then it won’t be fun.”

I had no retort against her toothy smile.

“I said it’s a two-handed sword, right?”

After cleaning up the shattered pieces of the sword, Marin asked.

“What you mean by that…?”

“Yeah. I’ll make you a new one. I’m excited to finally move around after a while.”

“Thank you, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Make sure to look forward to it.”

I shook her hand in excitement.

“Now it’s time for the lady.”

After our handshake, Marin turned to Reina, who had been standing behind me.

Reina had been quietly standing next to Anna, having said nothing since my fight with Marin began.

“Since it’s getting late, and you said you’d stay for five days…”

“Marin?”

“Hmm?”

“Can we talk for a moment?”

“…Well, sure. Then you just wait here for a bit.”

Marin, Reina, and Anna stepped out into the garden together.

“Haah.”

Looking up at the sky, it had already darkened completely.

When I checked my pocket watch, it was already 10 PM.

I had been in this situation for an hour and a half.

“By the way, what about Reina?”

Marin was strong.

Not as strong as Helen, but definitely stronger than most aspiring knights.

That didn’t mean Reina was weak, but it wasn’t her skill as a knight.

If the match was going to be like this, Reina would definitely lose.

I had to find a way somehow…

“Aike!”

Just as I was about to ponder, Marin burst through the door with energy.

“From now until Tuesday, you’ll be sparring with me. That’s it! Go home for today.”

“Uh? What about Lady Reina?”

“The lady is fine. She’s got a pass. You understand, don’t you? From tomorrow onwards, we’re doing this every evening like today.”

With that, she unilaterally declared and disappeared.

What kind of conversation did they have?

I asked about it on the way back, but Reina and Anna didn’t answer.

Arriving at the lodging that Anna guided me to, I threw myself onto the bed.

Having endured the heat of the forge, I had been clashing swords with Marin in full force without resting.

It wasn’t that difficult, but somehow I was mentally drained.

However, receiving confirmation for custom-made swords on the first day was a good trend.

Taking a breath, I thought about the most important issue.

The finals of the Martial Arts Tournament taking place on Friday.

My opponent was a masked man known by the alias A.A.L.

A skilled fighter who had defeated all his opponents in the preliminaries in a single strike.

“Can I win?”

I had no intention of giving up just yet.

If I had that mindset, I wouldn’t even have thought about coming all the way to Vulcanus.

The issue was that there was almost no information about the masked man.

Even if I wanted to analyze his combat strength, he had finished all his matches in one strike.

In contrast, I had revealed a lot of information when facing Helen in the semifinals.

I still had no idea how to bridge that gap.

“Aike.”

“Yeah, Anna?”

“Dinner is ready. Will you be eating in the dining hall?”

“Hmmm, I’ll eat alone. Just leave it here.”

“Understood.”

…Then I didn’t need to prepare anything separately.

I just had to prepare everything I could do.

I wasn’t a genius, and the original owner of this body, Aike, wasn’t a genius either.

All I could do was continuously put in effort.

Grabbing the practice sword on the wall, I began to swing it slowly.

And because I hadn’t eaten my meal until it had completely cooled, Anna scolded me.

★

“…I lost.”

“Thank you.”

Clang!

As soon as those words were spoken, the sword that I had barely managed to hold onto shattered completely.

“Impressive. It would break with just a slight mishap.”

“I was careful about that as much as I could.”

Marin, brushing off her pants, stood up.

In the corner of the garden lay the greatsword that had flown away at the end.

“When I first heard it, I thought it was impossible, but I really didn’t think you’d succeed.”

Today was Tuesday, the day I had promised Marin.

I had also made another promise with her.

The conditions were simple.

I had to win in the spar with the mass-produced longsword Marin had given me by Tuesday.

And if I succeeded, she promised to make the best sword she could.

The biggest hurdle was the sword’s durability.

The mass-produced longswords were too weak to clash head-on with Marin’s greatsword.

At first, I tried to fight while avoiding direct confrontation as much as I could, but eventually, the accumulated attacks broke my sword.

In the end, I switched to a strategy of finishing the fight quickly.

Overpower Marin before my sword could shatter.

Of course, I had failed that several times, but eventually, I succeeded.

“Normally, even if I’m making a custom sword, it’s common to make it based on the price, but I’ll make yours without worrying about such things. The price is free.”

“Uh? There’s no need for that. I can pay just fine.”

“No. If that’s the case, you’ll end up worrying about the price. Right now, I don’t want to think about such things. I want to throw away those thoughts and make it with all my strength.”

“…Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that. Honestly, ever since I made the Holy Sword, I felt kind of stuck. I kept thinking I couldn’t surpass that sword no matter what. But seeing you not give up even with that shabby sword makes me feel like an idiot. So this is my way of giving back.”

As Marin said that, she revealed her fangs and smiled.

“I’m starting right now. I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but I want to concentrate as much as possible, so please step away. You can come to the workshop around 10 o’clock on Thursday.”

“Okay. I’ll count on you.”

“Good enthusiasm.”

While I was swinging the practice sword alone in the room, Reina came to visit me.

“Where’s Anna?”

“She went out to prepare to return tomorrow.”

“Oh, Marin must have eaten everything, so there’s not enough food left.”

“Right.”

Reina sat down on the bed, passing by me.

“So today’s the last day.”

“Well, since Friday is the finals, I have to go back.”

“That makes sense. So, do you think you can win?”

“I will. I came all the way to Vulcanus for that.”

I still hadn’t found a strategy to face the masked man.

But I couldn’t show such weak sides to Reina.

“By the way, how on earth did you just let it go?”

“What do you mean?”

“How could you just let it slide after having a conversation with Marin? Did you threaten her with your family name or something?”

“That statement is rude, Aike.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Well, you’ll find out soon enough, so no need to stress about it.”

That just made me more worried.

But in the end, Reina didn’t share any details.

“Marin?”

I carefully knocked on the door of the workshop and slowly opened it.

“Oh, come in.”

Inside, Marin was smiling just as she had the first time I saw her.

“The fire in the furnace has gone out, hasn’t it?”

“All the work is done.”

The heat in the workshop, which had felt like it would melt my entire body when I first arrived, had calmed down to a degree.

“Here you go. A two-handed longsword and a dagger.”

Marin approached and handed each of us, Reina and me, a scabbard in blue and purple.

“Give them a check.”

Following Marin’s words, I drew my sword from the blue scabbard I received.

It was longer and heavier than the one I had used before.

But it didn’t seem like it would hinder my movement.

“It’s fine to swing it around.”

Following Marin’s suggestion, I turned around and gently swung the sword.

The sound of slicing through the air was crisp.

“…This is amazing.”

I couldn’t think of anything more to say about it.

From the weight to the feel when holding it, to the complete lack of awkwardness in the balance.

There wasn’t a single part I could complain about.

“It feels just right for me. Come to think of it, I never even measured my hand size. How did you manage this?”

“We kept sparring. During that time, I watched everything from how you held the sword to how you swung it.”

“Is that really possible?”

“I told you, I’m among the top three in Vulcanus, right?”

Marin revealed her fangs and grinned.

★

“Aike.”

“Hmm?”

On the way back to Heros.

Reina, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up.

“Here’s a gift.”

She handed me the dagger, Diana, that Marin had made for her.

“Wait, Reina. What’s this about?”

“It’s a congratulatory gift for making it to the finals.”

“You already gave me a present last time.”

“That was a thank you gift. This is a congratulatory gift. Totally different.”

“But this dagger was custom-made to fit you, right? And it’s not a weapon I can just give to someone else.”

“No. This was what we talked about on the first day. Not for me, but for you. I asked them to create a dagger that suits you.”

Now that I think about it, Marin had never once mentioned the dagger for Reina.

“Why…?”

“I’m cheering for your victory, Aike. So I wanted to help.”

“Reina.”

“So please, just accept it.”

I had no choice but to accept Reina’s gift when she looked up at me with such a sorrowful smile.

No matter what, I must win.

Since I received this gift from Reina, I had no choice but to have that mindset.

Even if my opponent was someone I had no information about.

“Goodbye, Aike.”

“I—huh?”

But on the day of the finals, the one blocking my path was the strongest and worst opponent.