The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12. Sparring
‘Did I misspeak that badly?’
Muno stood bewildered for a moment.
“That was too much…….”
Esna, whom he’d thought had fled, was suddenly beside him murmuring something he couldn’t comprehend.
“What?”
He asked, genuinely at a loss.
“That is…….”
“Master, take up your sword. I hear the Drasen Great Sword Technique is formidable indeed. Today I shall show you precisely how outmatched you truly are.”
Carina’s voice cut through Esna’s words—sharp as a blade’s edge.
Where had that refined smile gone?
With an expression frozen like ice, she leveled her rapier at him. Her posture bore no resemblance to a sparring partner—she moved like a woman standing at the precipice of a life-or-death battle.
‘Why the sudden change?’
Was she mad?
The inexplicable killing intent made his skin crawl with goosebumps, and the faint affection he’d felt moments before evaporated entirely.
Yet he had no intention of backing down.
Only—
“Let’s move this to the Training Grounds. As you can see, I’m still dressed from etiquette lessons. Unless you’re actually planning to run me through, you might want to put that precious blade away first.”
The gleaming rapier in Carina’s hand was no ordinary weapon at a glance.
A standard rapier, after all, has such a slender blade that it flexes and quivers with even the smallest movement.
But this one was distinctly rigid, shimmering with a bluish light—unmistakably an Artifact, like his father’s cherished sword.
Weapons imbued with the forces of nature, crafted by Spirit Masters in collaboration with master smiths.
Even at the lowest grade, they were treasures difficult to obtain regardless of wealth.
And yet—
‘She didn’t even mention her family name during introductions…….’
Muno’s gaze grew heavier as he studied her.
A commoner couldn’t possibly have acquired an Artifact herself—this had to be a gift from someone of rank.
But she was at most 3-Star Class.
Only one in ten Body Cultivation Art practitioners achieved Evolution and reached 1-Star Knight rank. Then only one in ten of those knights reached 2-Star. And 3-Star—that was achieved by only one in ten 2-Star knights, making her undoubtedly a remarkable superhuman.
Yet the renowned Trian Knights Order surely commanded more than ten such talents.
Even for a Border Earl, it would be difficult to bestow Artifacts upon all of them.
Which meant—
‘Considering her apparent age, early twenties at most, this lady must be the heir-apparent to the Order’s commander.’
Perhaps a prodigy who’d awakened around her coming-of-age ceremony, or well before it—much like himself.
While he remained lost in thought, Carina’s cold voice spoke again.
“How much longer do you intend to simply stare? Shall we proceed to the Training Grounds?”
“Ah, no. I just thought you were beautiful, and I couldn’t help myself…….”
He’d spoken without thinking.
“Are you continuing to insult me?”
Another fierce reaction.
‘What’s gotten into her?’
Her hands trembled visibly—she really did seem unhinged.
Thump.
The giant behind her, Rockam, even let out a heavy grunt of displeasure and scraped his foot against the ground.
And on top of that—
“Stop it! Please! What is wrong with you!?”
Esna jabbed him sharply in the ribs and hissed, making him feel as though he’d committed some terrible transgression.
Now that he thought about it, this was the first time he’d ever told a woman she was beautiful.
He’d never encountered anyone he’d considered feminine until now.
Naturally—
‘Could calling someone beautiful be an insult?’
His understanding of common sense was beginning to unravel.
“You there, attendant!”
“Y-yes, sir!?”
“Guide us to the Training Grounds. The Young Master seems to be of far too leisurely a disposition.”
Carina, now literally blazing with fury, hurried Esna along.
“No, I’ll lead the way. Good grief…….”
Only then did Muno snap to attention and rush ahead.
All the way to the Training Grounds, he felt the heat of her gaze burning into the back of his head like flame.

* * *
There was a small problem.
Among the blunt training weapons available at the Training Grounds, there was no Rapier like the one Carina used.
Carina eventually settled on a Longsword with a reasonably narrow blade, swung it a few times to test its feel, then stepped toward the center of the Training Grounds.
“This one’s going to leave a pretty wide hole, I think…….”
A hole? What hole?
Don’t tell me in my body?
‘This is seriously insane…….’
Cold sweat trickled down Muno’s spine at the ominous murmur of an opponent who was almost certainly stronger than him.
And what came next only made it worse.
“We’ll stop the sparring when one of us drops their weapon, concedes, or becomes combat-incapacitated.”
Combat-incapacitated?
‘Does a sparring match usually go that far?!’
He felt a chill run through him, but he couldn’t show weakness here.
“……Understood.”
“Rockam, I need you as a witness.”
“Fine by me.”
A witness? Not a referee?
‘……Is she really trying to kill me?!’
He wanted to shout out loud, but seeing Carina still glaring at him with that fierce expression, he found his fighting spirit burning instead.
Talk is cheap — she wouldn’t actually kill him.
‘Right. Let’s do this.’
Muno gritted his teeth, clinging to what remained of his pride.
Then he walked slowly to the weapons rack and picked up a large Greatsword.
A Greatsword almost as tall as he was.
As its decent weight began to ease his heavy heart somewhat.
Carina added a sharp comment.
“I should mention beforehand—my specialty is speed.”
“I figured as much.”
For someone who practiced Body Cultivation, with that lanky frame wielding a Rapier, she couldn’t possibly be a strength specialist.
“And yet you’re choosing such a large blade?”
“What difference does it make if I use a light weapon I’m not used to? I should fight to my own strengths.”
“……That’s quite the confidence you have.”
Carina let out a scoffing laugh and pointed her slender Longsword at Muno.
‘Just how much talent does this one actually have.’
Though he was an irritating opponent, from her perspective he was intriguing.
Evolution is fundamentally shaped by Evolutionary Factors, but the characteristics of the Body Cultivation Art used to harness those factors, along with one’s own will, splits that evolution into countless different paths.
Even those who learned the same Body Cultivation Art could undergo entirely different evolutions depending on whether they were the original master or the inheritor.
As the directions of evolution varied so widely, matchups and advantages sometimes emerged between Body Cultivators—but such advantages lost their meaning before the star rating of Evolution embodied in one’s flesh.
With each iteration of Evolution, the practitioner’s physical capabilities and overall power expanded exponentially.
Even if two cultivators evolved along the same lines—speed or strength—their growth at the next tier would be incomparably greater than the previous, and to accommodate that evolution, the body naturally strengthened in directions outside their specialty as well.
Because of this, no matter how favorable the matchup, it was a grueling task for someone at a lower tier to defeat a Body Cultivator of a higher stage.
And this was precisely why Muno Drasen before her was remarkable.
‘They said he’d already defeated a 1-Star Class Knight even before his Awakening.’
That level of talent could almost be called monstrous.
Which was why.
“……Let’s hope you don’t die too easily.”
The moment Carina flashed a savage smile.
“Die? Wait, this is just a sparring…….”
Boom.
Rockam slammed his enormous Greatsword onto the Training Grounds floor, signaling the start of the match.
And in that same instant, Carina’s form vanished from Muno’s sight.
‘Wha—?!’
Despite having braced himself, he couldn’t help but jolt when her body disappeared from his field of vision.
In that same moment, a chilling sensation brushed his neck.
Muno reflexively reached to move his Iron Chain before stopping himself.
— Don’t show your Metal Control Ability or your Iron Chain to outsiders unless absolutely necessary. Save it as your trump card for a Life-or-Death Battle.
As his father’s words flickered through his mind, he reflexively tilted his head back.
‘Tch!’
As his neck twisted sharply with a cracking sound, Carina’s cold blade swept past where his head had been just moments before.
Even in a collapsed stance, Muno reflexively swung his blade, using the recoil to correct his posture.
Clang.
“Your sense of timing… top tier.”
The greatsword’s arc cut through empty air, and all that remained in its wake was Carina’s terse assessment.
‘Damn it.’
Then, almost at once, a sharp killing intent began to close in from all directions.
As if assaults were raining down from front, back, left, and right all at once, Muno’s expression hardened into something savage.
A knight whose strength lay in speed was toying with him now, luxuriating in the gap he’d given her, making no effort to land a serious blow.
‘Is she playing with me?’
Rage surged up in him.
Thud.
Crack.
The moment Muno planted his foot with force, the greatsword spun in a violent arc around him, completing a full circle.
Clang!
‘Got her.’
From a deceptively small movement bloomed a lightning-fast spinning strike, and for just an instant, Carina’s relentless assault came into his line of sight—
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
“Ugh!?”
The thin longsword struck the underside of his greatsword at invisible speed, blow after blow, and in that same heartbeat, his arc went awry—the blade whistled past her head.
And as his stance crumbled once more, a chilling edge of steel found its way toward his throat.
‘Hah!’
Sensing that trajectory, Muno twisted his neck with minimal movement.
Whisper.
The blade grazed the skin of his throat, barely kissing it.
And in that same instant, his greatsword swept horizontally toward Carina’s exposed flank.
‘Got—’
Clang!
But even as his blade was coming in, Carina had already withdrawn her sword and launched herself upward, raining another flash of steel down from above his head.
Muno twisted naturally with the momentum of his own swing, raising his left wrist guard to meet it.
Ting!
Her attack glanced off his wrist guard and bounced away.
She landed smoothly on the ground, already putting distance between them again.
“Strength, will, both exemplary. You certainly have talent.”
Her voice rang out with a subtle note of genuine admiration, but it only served to fan the flames of Muno’s anger.
“Talent, you say.”
Breath.
Words like that couldn’t leave your lips unless you were looking down on your opponent.
He knew she was stronger than him, yes—but knowing it didn’t make the heat in his chest any easier to bear.
Especially not when—
“Do you wish to continue? I don’t think there’s much point.”
—when the provocation was this naked.
“No. From here on out, I’m going to make this meaningful.”
“My lord, please—I think we should stop—”
Esna, watching the brief exchange, had already gone pale, her voice seeming only to stoke Muno’s determination further.
“Do you have something else to show me?”
“I do. Plenty.”
Carina tilted her head, curious, while Muno’s eyes—bristling with wounded pride—suddenly grew calm and still.
He’d expected speed to be her forte, but not to this degree.
‘If the gap in speed is this wide, a sparring match usually isn’t even possible.’
But there was a way.
The heart of the Drasen Great Sword Technique—renowned across the entire Kingdom, not merely his grandfather’s domain—lay not in the technical movement of the blade itself.
‘I’ve succeeded once already. So…’
The moment he made his decision, his body temperature began to rise rapidly.
‘It will work.’
If he fought using only the Drasen Great Sword Technique without relying on his ability, what level of power could he achieve right now?
He was about to find out.
“Be careful, Carina. I can’t control this either. So…”
“You don’t mean—”
“…don’t die.”
Bang.
Muno’s body, burning with limitless heat, converted the decomposed thermal energy into a single explosive burst of force, launching him toward Carina at tremendous speed.
The vast gap in velocity he had previously seemed unable to close was now bridged—and Carina’s eyes widened visibly at that explosive movement.
And her counterattack, the moment she began it, was now entirely readable to him.
‘As expected.’
Acceleration.
The core secret technique of House Drasen—burning the body’s thermal reserves to push physical ability to the extreme.
His father, Rion Drasen, known as the Gluttonous Knight, had once torn apart and killed a colossal 5-Star Class monster called Snow Troll by chaining techniques built upon this Acceleration, all in a single breath.
Of course, the price was that he’d remained exhausted and bedridden for some time afterward.
A sharp hiss of breath.
The power pouring from Muno’s body now was not merely the energy created by burning thermal reserves.
A peculiar crackling sound.
Steam rose where his sweat evaporated, and a strange aura rippled across his entire body.
As his massive greatsword swung, a tempest began to tear toward Carina.
A deafening crash exploded across the Training Grounds!!!
The sound that erupted was impossible to believe came from a sword strike alone—it hammered the Training Grounds as a shock wave tore through the space.
“What in the—!?”
Rockam leapt to his feet in shock, and Esna stood frozen, mouth gaping, watching the spectacle unfold.
And then, in an instant, the tempest that had ravaged the Training Grounds subsided as if it had never been.
And.
“This can’t be…….”
When Carina, her face drained of color, let out a gasp of astonishment while gripping her crumbling Longsword and sliding backward from the impact—
“Damn it…….”
Muno, his body suddenly hollowed out and gaunt, muttered a single curse upon confirming she remained unharmed, and collapsed forward onto the ground.
Thud.
“Master!!!!”
Esna’s scream filled the Training Grounds before—
the startled Trian Knights Order soldiers began rushing toward Muno.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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