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I… did not have the talent for the sword. To the point where I felt pathetic.

Nevertheless, I kept swinging the sword day in and day out.

I single-mindedly kept swinging the sword many times more than anyone else, and much longer than anyone else.

Because my mother always said ーー 『Effort will surely bear fruit』.

Mother raised me all on her own.

My father seems to have died of an epidemic when I was a baby. I heard that he was a sincere and honest person, but I don’t even remember his face thus I wasn’t attached to him. It seems that I got my sharp eyes from my mother and the pitch black hair from my father.

I don’t remember much from my childhood, but I remembered that my mother worked herself to the bone everyday for my sake.

The enrollment fee and tuition fee of the Gran Swordsmanship Academy I am attending now, are the wages my mom saved and managed carefully year after year.

So even if I was scorned as the 「Failed Swordsman」 at the academy, even when I was bullied by my classmates, even when I was treated as a burden by my teacher – I kept swinging my sword every day, no matter how painful.

I will put in ten fold the amount of effort more than anyone and become a splendid swordsman.

And I will give an easy life to my mother who has struggled so far.

ーWith that in mind, I’ve been doing my best at the Swordsmanship Academy.

All that effort will be for naught come tomorrow.

The trigger was … today at dusk.

While I was swinging the sword alone in the schoolyard as usual, Dodriel Barton appeared accompanied by two girls.

Dodriel Barton.

The eldest son of the House of Baron Barton, with his conspicuous blue hair trailing behind his back.

I abhor this guy.

Because he always scorned me as 「Failed Swordsman」and bullied me.

Usually I would pretend not to hear and pass off his snide remarks.

Today however, he said something I absolutely couldn’t forgive.

「Take back your words…!」

「Oi oi… Don’t get so angry over the truth, Allen. If the child is trash, then the parent must also be trash, right? There is nothing weird about that…」

「Dodriel, you…!」

I got enraged and grabbed onto his collars.

「Tch… how dare you touch me with your filthy hands! You lowly failed swordsman!」

He kicked me in the stomach.

Despite being a child as well, I was blown away due to the difference in our strength.

I disgracefully fell on my butt, but immediately stood back up and scowled at him.

「I certainly might be a talentless trash…. But I won’t let you call my mother trash!」

Dodriel shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

The two girls laughed at me while I shouted.

「Hah… A frog’s child is called a frog, right? Of course the parent of trash like you is trash too. It has been decided so since a long ago」

Dodriel ridiculed as though feeling pity for me from the bottom of his heart.

「Y-You…!」

With the blood running to my head, I pulled out the sword fastened at my hips.

「Oi Oi, are you sure? Anymore than that would be a violation of the academy rules, you know?」

「Tch…」

Private battle using swords between students are prohibited by academy rules.

Breaking this will result in severe penalties such as suspension or expulsion.

If I, who am at the bottom of this academy were to do this … I’ll definitely be expelled.

「…Then! Dodriel Barton… I challenge you to a duel!」

「Heh… The eternal failed swordsman against the highest genius swordsman of this academy…?」

「Yeah! If I win, you will take back those words from before!」

「Aha! Amusing… how amusing, Allen! If you were to win, I will take back my words from before! I’ll even bow my head or anything else you want! ーhowever, if you were to lose-」

He cut off his words there, and his lips curled into repulsive smirk.

「…If I were to lose?」

「Let’s see… you must quit this academy on the spot」

「Wha-!?」

The condition that Dodriel proposed was preposterous.

「Obviously… In a duel, both parties have to face off on equal terms. Don’t you know that?」

「Yeah! I know! But this is unbalanced! 」

On one hand, withdrawal of remarks and on the other, dropping out of academy.

These aren’t equal terms.

「Oi oi, don’t misunderstand, Failed Swordsman-san? You dropping out of academy doesn’t hold that much value. Or more precisely, you yourself don’t hold that much value in the first place?」

「……」

It’s frustrating but… it is as he says.

My grades at the Swordsmanship Academy were the lowest by a huge margin.

It’s a situation where I don’t know when I’ll be forced to quit due to poor grades.

「Understood… I accept the duel on those terms」

「Ooh, I accept your challenge! Time is tomorrow morning at 9. How about having it at the gymnasium?」

I gave a slight nod.

「I will take care of applying for the duel. Allen, at the very least struggle desperately to make it seem like a duel. Although, it obviously will be a waste of effort. Ahahahahahahah!」

Thus, I was to duel the Genius Swordsman tomorrow.

Thinking about it now, what a foolish thing I have done.

(No… but, if he were to say the same thing again, I would challenge him to a duel all the same)

I’m not rotten to the point where I ignore the ridicules towards my mother.

(But… Dodriel is strong)

He is the exact opposite of me ー a genius type.

Even though he hasn’t practiced much, he immediately absorbs any type of swordsmanship as his own like a sponge.

Rumour has it that he enrolled into the academy with a referral from a prestigious school in the capital…

(Even so… I definitely can’t lose…)

My dropping out of this academy hinges on this duel.

Above all, he must withdraw the snide remarks towards my mother.

After that, I returned to my dorm, and then headed to the forest with a sword in one hand.

I arrived at the place where I always practice swinging, and kept swinging my sword wholeheartedly.

「Fuh, Fuh, Fuh…!」

I continued swinging my sword recklessly and desperately.

It’s not that I had become desperate.

But rather, this was all I could do.

When I first entered, I bowed down to various teachers at the Academy of Swordsmanship and asked them to take me under their wing.

However…,

「Unfortunately, you don’t have talent. You can’t survive through my training」

「Oi Oi Oi! You sure run your mouth saying 『Make me your disciple』with such a feeble sword like this!」

「Do you know of the phrase… 『Know your place』?」

All of them flatly refused.

I had nothing to hang on to.

That is why, I don’t know the styles of sword, let alone the techniques.

The only thing I was taught in the academy classes was how to swing the sword and how to train the body.

In other words, the only thing I can do as 『training』 is to swing my sword fully.

After that, when the sun went down and the moonlight shined on me- I finally stopped swinging my sword.

「Ha, haha, hahahahaha…!」

Laughter spontaneously overflowed from my mouth.

「How foolish.. I was…! There is no way I can win by doing this…!」

Swinging the sword frantically has no meaning at all.

No matter what, I’m going to lose tomorrow anyway. It would be a tragic sight.

The gap between me and that guy, can’t be closed in a single day.

Even several years will not be enough to catch up.

(Frustrating……. frustrating frustrating frustrating… frustrating!)

It’s frustrating, but… no matter how many times I run the simulation in my mind, I can’t come up with a vision that wins against that genius.

「Just what… should I do…」

It was so frustrating that… my tears overflowed.

I want power.

The power to defeat Dodriel.

However, I don’t have enough of anything.

Power, talent, and above all else, time…

「……goddamnit!」

And right when I punched the ground.

「Ho Ho Ho……. you seem to be at a loss, young swordsman.」

Suddenly, I heard a hoarse voice from overhead.

「Wh-Who are you!?」

When I panicked and looked up, a short old man was standing there.

His hair, eyebrows, and beard were all pure white.

The waist was also clearly bent and he had a cane in one hand.

But the most ominous part of it all, I didn’t sense his presence.

「Me? I am something of a… hermit of time.」