"That would be rather pathetic"

"Haaah-!"

Faced with increasingly frequent disarming attempts, Sovell's attacks grew disorganized. He decided to stop holding back and get serious.

He drew his right shoulder back, then swung it forward with all his strength!

If his entire right arm were a whip, the tip of his stick would be its most powerful part: the lash.

Even though Sovell had chosen not to reinforce his body with magical energy in the interest of fairness, his Dragon Kind bloodline still made him stronger than a human!

Facing Sovell's all-out blow, Kay dared not be careless, even with the strength he had gained from eating the King Beast's flesh.

He steadied himself, raised his shield, then thrust it forward.

Clearly, Kay intended to deflect the attack at as wide an angle as possible and interrupt Sovell before he could deliver its full force.

At the sight, the corners of Sovell's mouth lifted.

Good. He took the bait.

Thump!

Click.

"I'll be taking that 'sword' of yours!"

Kay successfully blocked Sovell's attack and was just about to use the stick in his right hand to help disarm him when...

"What?!"

The knight cried out in shock.

Why won't my shield move?!

Why?

Kay looked behind his shield and discovered a wooden stick wedged between it and his body.

It was Sovell's stick!

When using a wooden stick in place of a one-handed sword during a spar, gripping the sword's hilt translated to holding the lower end of the stick to maximize its reach.

But just before swinging, Sovell had briefly loosened his grip and then taken hold again, deliberately shortening his reach.

This let him feign an attack while leaving enough length at the rear of the stick for his next move.

Sure enough, after swinging his stick, Sovell had not aimed it at Kay's shield, but instead extended it backward as far as he could.

Once Kay had braced his shield on his left side, Sovell used it to absorb the momentum of his right arm-

That was where the sound resembling a stick striking a shield had come from.

Then he used the length left at the rear of the stick to successfully pin Kay's shield.

The distance between them abruptly shrank. Realizing he was in trouble, Kay immediately thrust his stick out to force Sovell back, only for the Wind King Shield to block it.

Sovell tightened his grip on his stick and pulled backward, dragging Kay's shield along with it.

With his left arm forcibly trapped by Sovell along with the shield, Kay was still stuck in the position he had assumed to block the attack.

As Sovell pulled back, the boy's immense strength hauled Kay straight off his feet and onto the ground.

Just before they fell, Sovell abandoned his stick to free himself up, lunged in, and pinned Kay beneath the Wind King Shield on his left hand!

Before Kay could struggle with another strike of his stick, Sovell had already clenched his right fist.

With his index-finger knuckle protruding in a phoenix-eye fist, he pressed it against Kay's left temple!

The match was decided.

Sovell rose and offered a "helping hand" to Kay, who was now using "the sky as his blanket and the earth as his bed."

Naturally, Kay did not slap his hand away in some show of arrogance. He simply took it and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"That was quite a move, Sovell. Shortening your reach on purpose to set me up."

Sovell explained:

"Merlin taught me something: 'Flexible attacks are the key to overcoming your enemy.'"

No, summing it up as "Merlin taught me" gave the old man a little too much credit.

More precisely, he had been made to learn it by Merlin.

Ah, the emphasis in that last sentence belonged on "made."

Merlin's reputation among the three Pendragon siblings, who were also his three students, was actually rather poor, no matter which of them you asked.

That was not merely because his lack of emotion meant he approached most things as entertainment or something to toy with.

For Sovell and Artoria, it was also partly because he frequently resorted to "dirty tricks" while sparring with them.

These included, but were not limited to, "shamelessly" whipping out his staff during a two-on-one sword spar and blasting both of them with a beam of light.

Although the three did not harbor any ill will toward Merlin, over time their initial admiration and respect had turned into exasperation.

Hmm-perhaps only well-behaved Lia still gave Merlin a little respect as her teacher even while finding him annoying. Yes.

"Brother Kay, you're not hurt, are you?"

Receiving his adorable little sister's concern, Kay answered while teasing her:

"Hey, don't worry, Al. Your Sovell knows how to hold back."

"M-m-m-my Sovell..."

Seeing that the girl was about to turn into a steaming princess again, Sovell quickly cupped her cheeks in both hands to physically cool her down.

But it seemed...

It did nothing at all.

If anything, Sovell felt her cheeks grow even hotter than when he had first touched them.

So Sovell tried another way to distract her:

"Lia, why are you only worried about Kay? I fell down too."

Sovell did his best to "sell" his pretty face to the girl.

Ah, yes. If anyone could have recorded the scene, "pretty" would have been the most fitting word to describe Sovell.

Though Sovell was loath to admit it, despite being a boy, his current features were so androgynous that he could pass for a girl unless someone looked closely.

With his bloodline inherited from the White Dragon, Sovell's looks stood out so much among his peers that they could already rival those of Merlin, an Incubus.

Why bring Merlin into this?

Because Merlin was a hybrid, half human and half Incubus.

His human blood came from his mother, a princess of Wales, so naturally, that was hardly a poor inheritance.

As for the other half, his father's race, incubi had two branches:

The first were succubi, who fed on human sexual fluids;

The other were nightmares, who fed on human dreams.

Fortunately, Merlin had inherited the nightmare traits that had skipped a generation rather than the succubus traits.

This spared him from becoming Britain's number-one bedpost rattler, though that hardly seemed to make a difference. Merlin had still spent the past few decades womanizing, albeit deliberately leaving no offspring.

But regardless of which branch they belonged to, or their sex,

Their looks were all at the absolute pinnacle of human beauty standards.

To compare the exceptionally good-looking men Sovell had met:

Merlin possessed an uncanny beauty that seemed inhuman;

Gawain was handsome in an open, upright way;

Kay had a roguish charm, with "rogue" meant as a compliment;

And Sovell himself would probably fall under refined, delicate good looks.

Back to the matter at hand.

Artoria looked at Sovell's utterly "shameless" display.

Though the boy's face enchanted her for a moment, she soon recovered. Feeling playful, she put on a disdainful expression:

"Because there's no need.

Sir Sovell, with your constitution, if you could get hurt sparring with Brother Kay...

That would be rather pathetic."

CRACK!!!

In his future memoirs, the knight Kay would write:

"Though the night was perfectly clear, I seemed to hear a thunderclap reverberate between heaven and earth."

That would be rather pathetic...

Rather pathetic...

Pathetic...

Sovell at that moment → orz.

One Sovell had lost his dreams.

It seemed that, for Sovell, Miss Artoria's little joke had gone a touch too far.

But that was all right. For Artoria and the knight Kay:

Today was still another peaceful, pleasant day.