There is a popular saying among the people of the West Coast whose provenance is no longer traceable.

"Anything that has to do with the aristocracy is never easy. "Obviously, complicating things, a lot of red tape, and things that could have ended here have been turned over again and again, and it is the people's deep impression of those lords and nobles above their heads.

Take one of the most common jokes: a peasant gets into an argument with another peasant and the peasant punches him in the face, and if a lord gets into an argument with another lord, the first thing he has to do is invite him to dinner.

After that, invite a group of people to watch, stand in an elegant posture opposite in full view, and then take off their gloves and throw them at each other.

If the other person picks up the gloves then they have a duel, and if the other person does not pick them up, then ...... His honor will be damaged.

This rather 'efficient' method, along with many other things that seem to ordinary people to be completely unnecessary, has become the talk of these commoners, who are more or less envious of their lives, and it should be mentioned that the truth of the rumors is not very high, because people will always listen selectively to what they like and exaggerate the facts.

Although the real lords and nobles also have some red tape, most of them still live a relatively normal life. If you want to say that what they really pester, it probably lies in their persistence in reaching the level of indomitable face.

The Sivalier poet Jean-Raoul René, himself a member of aristocratic circles, once wrote of a baron whose treasury was empty because of years of war, and who had to find a craftsman to customize a set of gold-plated armor despite his family being hungry. And for now, in Chester, a small town on the border of the kingdom of Crane. After completing the commission the day before yesterday, we returned to the hotel and slept well, but as soon as we woke up, we found that it was bustling outside.

The small wooden window did not open at night. The mosquitoes in the swamp were big and fierce, and Henry glanced down through the gap. I roughly guessed what happened.

"I guess I expected it. He shrugged, and a sleepy-eyed Mira on the other bed got up and stretched, then tilted her head to look at him suspiciously.

"It's okay, let's go have breakfast. ”

Henry smiled.

It took more than half an hour to finish the morning's business, and by the time he finally walked out of the hotel, it was almost ten o'clock in the morning.

This made the corner of the eye's eye twitch almost at the center of the crowd, and the other woman next to her, who was also dressed incompatible with the civilians around her, spoke in a slightly worried tone: "Miss......"

The identity of the other party only met for a moment, and even Mira could guess it clearly, Henry looked down at this young aristocratic woman with red hair of more than 1.6 meters, she was holding a sword in one hand and a half. The blade dug deep into the dirt, apparently holding that position for quite some time.

"Are you mercenary Henry Mayer? The tall figure of the sage and the large sword she carried behind her back made the female knight next to her look even more worried, and she stepped forward as if trying to persuade her young lady to leave, but as soon as she walked over, the red-haired young woman glared back fiercely: "I know what you have to say, but I won't listen, Margaret, it's about the glory of the Rosita family." ”

"My father refuses to make a move, but I can't swallow this breath, a mercenary has brought shame on my brother!" the noblewoman grabbed a half-sword stuck in the mud and pointed it at Henry's chest. There was a commotion from the onlookers, and the red-haired female noblewoman proclaimed word by word in a high tone.

"I'm Sheila Rosita, the eldest daughter of the Rosita family, mercenary Henry Mayer. I challenge you. Sheila continued: "Until one of them concedes defeat or dies." ”

"If you don't accept it, it will be my victory. Picking her slender eyebrows, the woman looked quite resolute. On the other hand, her guard knight, Margaret, was full of worry.

The people around looked at the two of them, and it was not every day that there was such an exciting event as a life-and-death duel early in the morning. For civilians who are desperately lacking in forms of entertainment, the excitement of watching is greater than the danger of being injured by mistake.

Sheila tries to put on a high profile to show her contempt, but she can't do that anyway because of her height. The air seemed rather tense. The people waited in silence for the sage's answer.

"Okay, then you win," Henry shrugged, and was about to turn away.

"Hmph, that's what it looks like—huh?" Sheila was stunned, and Henry and Mira turned and walked in the direction of the stables--they were already about to leave, and the white-haired Luoan girl turned her head and glanced at the red-haired noblewoman with pity in her eyes, while she changed her previous calm and firm appearance and came up in a bit of a panic and shouted: "Wait, wait, are you going to turn around and leave like this, is the honor worthless to you!"

The fact that she was still young showed that she was still young, and Margaret, who had short hair and was wearing a swordsman's costume behind her, sighed while Henry, who was in front of her, turned her head.

"Yes. He shrugged his shoulders and replied, then turned to leave, but Sheila was furious and grabbed a half-sword and rushed at him.

"Damn mercenaries, honor is nothing!" lost his composure as if he had touched the scales of the rebellion, but Henry, who turned around to avoid this sneak attack that seriously violated the spirit of honor of the nobility, closed his eyes slightly.

'Something interesting' the sword stabbed and made a clear whistling sound, which proved that the other party was very good at it, and Henry stopped moving forward and became interested.

"Aren't you like that yourself?" he said, still lightly, but motioned with his eyes for Mira to step aside.

"You, you......" Sheila gritted her teeth, and she didn't know how to answer with this sentence, so she could only get angry, and Margaret also leaned over at this time - Henry turned to face them, obviously intending to meet them.

"That's pretty much it. Unlike the female knights' worries about the sage's physique and the rank of the blue card, Sheila's face was filled with a desire to try her hand at confidence.

"You're better than your brother. Upon a closer look, Henry became more aware of the fact that the young noblewoman was quite skilled in both standing and holding his sword—and he reached for his broadsword.

"Thank you. But even if you praise me, I won't be soft. The female swordsman pulled away.

- As the most standard swordsmanship textbook would tell you, she lowered her weight. Then lower your hands naturally, so that the whole sword is diagonally upward. Pointing to the sage's chest.

"Plough ......," Mira muttered quietly behind her—it was clear that what Sheila had learned was the same system of swordsmanship that Henry had taught her, and that the whole person's breath was natural, and her movements were much better than the girl's.

"Halfway. The sage drew his staggering sword, but he didn't look defensive. The other party's choice of this starting hand style further proves that she does have two strokes - taking the roof pose as an example, according to the posture of holding the sword from top to bottom, it can generally be boiled down to three stages: upper, middle and lower.

The lower section is suitable for upward flirting, usually as a means of forcing back the enemy or as a continuation of a continuous attack. Or it can be used to defend when the enemy is trying to attack your own leg - the "Fool's Pose" in the basic starting style belongs to the lower ranks, and it is so named because most of the opponents will choose to attack the head or torso, so the initial stance will often lead to an attack on your own vital points.

So with the next paragraph. The upper stage, on the other hand, is mostly output-oriented, with the over-the-top "rooftop" and the extended secondary moves leaning on the back to swing the "rage", and the top-down slashes are often the most lethal to the opponent - but that being said, the starting hand in the upper stage is very easy to avoid or block.

Because its intention is so obvious, the trajectory of the attack is naturally expected - what is really difficult to judge is the mid-range position that Sheila is now adopting, and this starting position that firmly protects her chest can be transformed into another position at any time. Coupled with the center of gravity of the noble female swordsman, it is obvious that even though she is a little impatient and quite young, she is steady and steady in terms of swordsmanship, and has a better level than the average noble knight.

This may be the real opponent Henry has faced in a long time, both in theory and in terms of technology.

Sheila had a serious look on her face. She wore only a dark blue swordsman's costume with white vertical stripes, slim sleeves for easy movement, and a double-breasted blouse, not a skirt underneath, but a pair of white breeches and leather boots.

The age is about 20 years old, and he already has a good foundation at such an age. I think there will be a lot of promise in the future-"Are you underestimating me!"—well, if you can get rid of this pretending to be calm but actually impulsive. Henry thought so, and Sheila, who had endured a morning and finally couldn't hold her breath, stepped forward directly, and then stretched out the tip of her sword with her "long" hands and pointed directly at the sage's right collarbone.

She intends to show mercy. Trying to make Henry's sword-wielder unable to exert his strength due to pain and win. This was clearly the fault of the young man again, and Sheila made one of the biggest mistakes at the beginning with the sword move of thrusting forward with both hands fully extended.

- She revealed the range of her attack.

"Huh-" Henry dodged the attack with a slight sideways turn. There was a sound of surprise from the crowd next to him. Sheila's stab seemed quick and ruthless to them with their lack of eyesight, but the Sage easily avoided it. You don't even need to use a sword to block.

"Hmph, is it because the big sword is too slow to be blocked? The swordswoman spoke, and the words, along with her choice of first attack, exposed another weakness of the young noble swordsman - she had no combat experience.

The look of disappointment on Henry's face flashed instantly, the other party's spirit and the standing posture of the whole person did reach the level of an excellent swordsman, but the impatient attack and wrong choice gave another explanation.

"Probably I was able to defeat my opponent with my reflexes and swordsmanship until now," the sage made an easy judgment as he dodged another attack from Sheila.

"Alas......" sighed Margaret, the older behind her, the female knight seemed to be able to judge the development of the situation. Sheila, who had already exposed her attack distance, thought she had the initiative and wanted to win gracefully after overwhelming Henry with her fierce rhythm, but she didn't know that she was doomed to not even touch the corners of the sage's clothes from the first attack.

"Snap-" lost interest, this kind of sparring game of you come and I hide, Henry naturally did not intend to continue, he turned around and missed another "long" thrust from Sheila, and then took a big step back to pull away.

"Qiang-" The sage finally took a stance, and he put his great sword on his shoulder, apparently in the "fury" style of the upper stage.

"Hmph—" Sheila saw Henry's posture, but a smile appeared on her lips.

As the slash in the upper section, the "Fury" slashing ability is even higher than the "rooftop style", and with the size of Henry's greatsword, this attack is afraid that even a dire crocodile will choke - but Sheila smiled, because the size of Henry's greatsword is both a strength and a weakness.

Fury, who was swung with all her strength from behind, couldn't use any other slashes later because of the huge range of movements, and ordinary longswords were like this, and a big sword of this size was even more inevitable, as long as she focused on dodging Henry's blow, she could seize the opportunity of the opponent's slow attack speed to step forward and win in close quarters.

"Snap-" The sage swung his broadsword, and Sheila dodged the blow, and as she expected, the attack used all her might—a smile tugged at the corner of the swordswoman's mouth, but it was replaced by a sluggishness in the next second.

"It's not over...... Lie!!"

"Woo-woo-" The sage's attack did not end with the landing, the tip of the greatsword slashed across the ground, and then reversed his hands and stabbed hard from a high position, Sheila Kankan dodged the blow, but then Henry raised his hands above his head and flipped the greatsword and swung it in another direction.

The one-meter-and-five-long big sword swung three swords in one second.

"Whoa!" The swordswoman was caught off guard by a series of lightning-fast attacks, and she rolled on the ground to dodge it, but that wasn't the end of it, as the sage took a step and turned around as she twisted her greatsword, smoothly connecting the end of the robe slash and transforming it into an upward slanting flirtation.

"Ding!

In a panic, the half-hand sword that blocked downward could not withstand the pressure and fell to the ground, followed by another diagonal attack Sheila was already unavoidable, she closed her eyes with tears in the corners of her eyes, but Henry stopped the sword steadily.

"Uhhh

The female swordsman sat down on the dirt floor with a sluggish ass, while the female knight Margaret behind her looked at the sage who slowly withdrew her big sword in a daze, and muttered in a voice that was not very loud.

"Iron Butterfly ......"

The word with its unique beauty caught Henry's attention, and he glanced back at the other, it was a surprise for a sage to recognize such sword skills in a small kingdom like Crane, but he wasn't going to do anything about it.

"Ahh

"Who the hell is Your Excellency...... There are only lost swordsmanship left behind, and this kind of thing is not something that a mercenary can have. She said this as she looked at Henry with wary eyes, and the Sage shrugged his shoulders and replied in a relaxed tone.

"Actually, I'm a sage. ”

Leaving these words, Henry turned and walked with Mira to the stable.

Only Margaret with a pensive face remained, and Sheila, who still looked sluggish.

......

R: I tried to explain the real swordsmanship battle in a popular way, and I think that it is easy to understand and easy to understand, and the rhythm is well-controlled. This chapter is quite satisfying to myself, and similar attempts will be made in future battle descriptions. If you think so, please let me hear the reaction. (To be continued.) )