There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 65

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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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Episode 65.
I retreated a few steps, measuring the distance like a hunter withdrawing cautiously from a trap he’d just set.
It was precisely the span Maximilian’s blade needed to come crashing down.
Seeing what he took for fear, the young man smirked slightly.
‘Can’t let my guard down.’
I drove forward using the spring in my legs, covering the distance I’d just ceded in one explosive movement.
It was a stride so large and committed that it ate up the gap entirely.
“Huh!”
I heard Maximilian suck in a sharp breath, caught off-guard.
But he didn’t earn the title of top student for nothing—his response was swift.
Crack!
Even without time to set his stance properly, the force behind his block had real teeth.
“Ugh!”
I let out a small gasp of surprise, using his counterattack as cover.
Simultaneously, I feigned a misstep and let my body tilt, leaving my face and upper torso suddenly exposed and defenseless.
‘Well, what will you do now?’
Maximilian still had his sword raised high from parrying my strike.
He didn’t need to rotate his body or change his angle.
He could simply draw the blade downward.
The choices were abundant—not just my face, but the neck where vital vessels and nerves converged, the chest where vital organs lay. Plenty of targets.
‘If I were him, I’d aim for the face or throat.’
Even the most disciplined warrior would suffer a psychological shock from being struck in the face.
Better still if I could slash the eyes and narrow his vision.
The throat was equally tempting.
True, he was using a blunt wooden sword now, so such concerns didn’t apply here—but the neck was always a vital point, with its muscles exposed unless one wore thick armor or maintained an Aura to shield it.
With the right targeting, not only could massive bleeding result, but severing the muscles that connected to the shoulder could cripple the entire arm.
Thud!
What Maximilian struck was my shoulder.
It was a meaty area with little bone beneath, so the impact stung sharply—but inwardly, I smiled.
‘You’ve never killed a man, have you?’
I’d already suspected as much because there was no Killing Intent behind his strokes.
Clean, honorable Swordsmanship meant for practice bouts.
The rigid old knight who’d taught such techniques to the young master destined for the Nox training camp would never have stained the young lord’s hands with blood.
The fact that Maximilian chose the shoulder—the least lethal of the openings I’d offered—was somewhat disappointing, but understandable.
‘He must have judged the shoulder the safest choice.’
When there’s no intent to kill, the instinct is to ignore the truly vital points altogether.
Those who’ve never crossed the line don’t even know it exists.
And that ignorance can be the difference between life and death.
Boom!
The dull report echoed from my abdomen as Maximilian doubled over, clutching his belly and staggering.
It had been so long since I’d held a Wooden Sword that the unfamiliar heft was disorienting—yet the solid feedback through my hands was deeply satisfying.
“Hack! Cough, cough!”
The young master bent forward, hacking and coughing repeatedly.
Impressively, he didn’t drop the Wooden Sword even as he choked.
The strike had landed cleanly; he had to be in real pain.
At least the thing in my hands was wood. If it had been a real blade…
I stepped back to give Maximilian space to catch his breath.
Despite my effort to return the courtesy he’d shown me, he glared at me with blood flooding his face, eyes blazing.
“You… hack, you cowardly bastard!”
“Oh.”
His instincts were sharp after all.
He’d caught on that my feigned stumble—taking the blow to the shoulder—was all part of the plan, a calculated sacrifice to achieve my true goal.
“Go!”
“What a brilliant bout!”
The trainees who’d been hurling one-sided mockery at me throughout suddenly roared in unison.
They seemed genuinely impressed by the way we’d traded skill for skill.
“Isn’t that the action unit?”
“He’s pretty good!”
“Seriously! He’s almost on par with Maxim!”
Even Maximilian’s own circle glanced at me with new respect.
‘So to their eyes, we’re evenly matched now.’
I felt a strange gratitude toward these trainees for their transparent reactions—a far cry from their earlier disdain.
This meant I’d successfully traded blows with the top student as if we were equals.
Now it was time to lose gracefully.
***
Maximilian Digrave.
Maxim, as he was called, ground his teeth as if he could devour his opponent whole.
His belly throbbed where I’d struck him, but that pain was nothing compared to the wound in his pride.
“That I could be…”
Bested by such a man!
His humiliation ran so deep he couldn’t even finish the sentence aloud.
“Cowardly dog!”
He’d never imagined that dirty tricks would be used in a straightforward test of skill.
Following in the footsteps of his idol—his cousin, Cain Digrave, the guard commander—Maximilian was meant to be the pride of the Digrave Family, and such underhanded tactics violated every principle his code held sacred.
“Come on, action unit!”
“Give us one more good hit!”
Seething, Maximilian felt his trainees’ cheers for the action unit—even as they forgot their pride as Nox’s elite—and gripped his Wooden Sword all the harder.
“One more hit? You wish!”
What had just happened was only because he’d let his focus slip for a moment.
“Don’t fool yourself thinking such tricks will work twice!”
Maximilian roared and began pressing forward with vicious intensity.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Each time his Wooden Sword traced its broad arc, a sharp report cracked through the air in its wake.
His Swordsmanship instructor had taught him never to pour emotion into his blade.
‘Forgive me, Master!’
Right now, his head felt as if it would burst unless he pummeled this man senseless.
Swish! Thud! Slash!
But the action unit evaded like a squirrel, nimble and quick.
Each wild swing found only empty air, and with every miss, Maximilian’s fury deepened.
He really couldn’t stand him.
That stupid, slack expression. Those dull, vacant eyes the color of a hazy sky.
Whoosh! Tap! Tap!
Finally, his blade began to connect.
Yet Maximilian couldn’t enjoy it.
“Huff! Haah!”
His stamina was burning out from the wild swings.
‘If I can just land one solid blow…’
He gathered all remaining strength and unleashed one final, desperate strike.
Crash!
A report unlike any before split the air, and for just an instant, the action unit seemed to falter.
Clang!
With a crisp sound, his opponent’s sword spun away in a graceful arc, landing far across the training ground.
“Haah, hah…”
Maximilian’s movement ceased; sweat dripped in heavy droplets from his chin as he struggled for breath.
The man he’d disarmed opened and closed his empty fist once, then conceded cleanly.
“I yield.”
The trainees who’d been watching with bated breath erupted.
“Wahoo!”
“Just as expected from Maximilian!”
“Maxim’s won!”
Maximilian Digrave wiped the sweat from his brow and grinned with satisfaction.
***
I flexed my right hand, which still tingled from the impact.
It didn’t seem to be torn, fortunately.
Compared to Conrad, it was nothing, but even so, the young master’s final strike had packed considerable force.
‘Well, that’s about right.’
I watched Maximilian for a moment, basking in his victory with insufferable pride, then turned my gaze elsewhere.
I’d gotten what I needed from this bout; there was no reason to pry further.
“You fought well for a loss, action unit!”
“You earned your place here for sure!”
“What was his name again?”
An applicant who’d lost to the top student, Maximilian Digrave, yet had shown solid skill in flashes—that was the image I’d cultivated.
Exactly what I’d aimed for.
“That I, Maximilian Digrave, won is only natural. Don’t grieve over it too much.”
The young master grinned widely and needled me further.
Honest in his joy like that.
For all his height, he was still just a boy.
I stifled the laugh trying to escape and turned my head away instead, shaking it gently.
That’s when Padilla Bondez appeared, walking toward us.
‘Why does she look like that?’
The moment I saw her face, that was my immediate thought.
The training ground commander, whose default expression had been a smile until now, had gone cold and severe.
‘…Did I make a mistake, winning?’
There was only one reason she’d adopt such a weighted demeanor right after the bout ended—to disqualify me.
But she’d called him the top student, the young master of the Digrave Family, so surely she wouldn’t expel someone for failing to beat him.
Yet the grim-faced Padilla Bondez didn’t approach me.
“Commander…?”
She headed straight for Maximilian, ten paces away from where I stood.
Step, step, step.
Standing before the young master, she silently swept his legs out from under him.
Thud!
“Maximilian Digrave—don’t trainees listen to their commander?”

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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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