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“Now then, I shall take my leave—”
“Master Tao Ran. Would you grant me some instruction as well?”

Perhaps inspired by Hom, Estea stepped forward to stand before the master.

“Hohoho… you have the same eyes as Misora. In that case, refusing would be a waste of effort,” Master Tao Ran said warmly as he walked toward the barn.
“I’ve been told my stubbornness comes from my mother,” Estea replied with a faint, determined smile.
“I can see that quite clearly. You truly are her daughter. …Very well then—come at me from wherever you like.”

Master Tao Ran drew a wooden sword from the barn and tossed it to Estea.

“…Is this all right?”

She caught it, looking at it in surprise. It seemed she had intended to fight barehanded.

“If you’re Misora’s daughter, then you must be a practitioner of the Canado-style sword art—Whirlwind Blade, are you not?”
“Yes. However—”
“No need to worry. Should anything go wrong, young Miss Leafa and Miss Alfe can fix the lodging for us.”

The old master’s gaze flicked toward Alfe and me. He had clearly noticed that Alfe had been calmly deploying precise defensive barriers throughout.

“As long as it’s not a direct hit, I can block it.”
“Much appreciated.”

This was the same person Hom had once faced in the dormitory courtyard, when she couldn’t even land a blow. Even though she had later defeated her in the Zersteller, who could say how close she’d come to matching her in a real, unrestrained fight?

I didn’t doubt Master Tao Ran’s strength—but still, was it really safe for them to be fighting here?

“Here I come!”

With a swift motion like drawing a blade from its sheath, Estea readied the wooden sword. In the next instant, a fierce wind rose around her, and a shimmering green aura—an edge of wind itself—wrapped around the weapon.

“Hold nothing back. Come at me with your full strength,” said Master Tao Ran, hardening his fists through Armament Transmutation.

Estea closed the distance in a single breath, leaping straight into the master’s range.

“Hah!”

Master Tao Ran slipped past her first strike with ease, his body spinning through the air as he drove a kick toward the back of her head.

But Estea had anticipated it. She dropped her stance low and pivoted sharply, flowing into her next technique.

“First Blade—Gale!”

The wooden sword cleaved through the air, unleashing twin blades of wind that crossed in an X-shaped strike aimed at the master.

“Excellent form!”

The old master expanded the gauntlets on his arms—blocking the first strike with his right arm and the second with his left—then delivered a clean front kick to Estea’s unguarded torso.

“—Gh!”

A strained sound escaped her lips as her body slammed into the ground. Yet in the very next heartbeat, she was back on her feet, blade raised high, unleashing another Swift Gale.

“—!”

Master Tao Ran reacted instantly, retreating just beyond her reach.

“I’m not finished! First Blade—Gale Break, Swift Wind!”

Estea stepped forward, releasing a storm of slashing wind blades. The wind-wreathed sword flashed in a relentless barrage, assailing the master from all directions.

But Master Tao Ran met each strike head-on, deflecting them with his enlarged gauntlets. Then, without warning, he vaulted forward, closing the gap between them in an instant.

“Well? What will you do now?”

He didn’t strike, merely halted with a knife-hand poised at her throat, his voice calm and probing.

“…The difference in our ability is clear. But I’ve yet to give it everything I have.”
“Then let us continue,” he said with a nod, stepping back to open the distance once more and raising his fists.

“Second Blade—Whirlwind Wheel!”

Estea’s eyes flashed with determination. She began to spin her wooden blade, chanting as the air around her stirred into a vortex—one that swelled outward like a small tornado.

“Just like back then…”

Watching the accelerating blades of wind that kicked up pebbles and dust, Hom murmured from within the defensive barrier Alfe had deployed.

“It’s exactly the same—but the positions are reversed.”

Whether Estea herself realized it or not, her current fighting style almost perfectly mirrored the battle from the day she and Hom had first crossed blades. The only difference was that now Estea was the one being completely overwhelmed, unable to land a single blow on Master Tao Ran.

“Back then, it felt like a storm… but now—”
“Yes…”

If one were to describe Estea’s swordsmanship in a single word, “storm” had always seemed the most fitting. Yet now it was different. The wind blades she conjured—once fierce enough to swallow and tear through everything in their path, the very embodiment of a tyrant wind—seemed powerless before Master Tao Ran.

“Here I come! Third Blade—Flying Swallow!”

A violent gale howled as the blades of wind swelled in size. Yet the slashes Estea launched alongside her strike couldn’t even graze Master Tao Ran.

“Is that the end, then?”

Forming rails through Armament Transmutation, Master Tao Ran asked from directly above her.

“—!”

Estea kicked off the ground with the tips of her toes, swinging her sword upward toward the master on his trajectory. Before the first wind blade she had released could even reach him, Master Tao Ran flashed downward with a lightning-cloaked kick.

“Thunder Step!”
“Fourth Blade—Azure Dragon Dance!”

Estea’s countering slash barely managed to block the lightning-charged assault.

“Fifth Blade—Sky-Shattering Gale!”

Forced onto the defensive, Estea tried to unleash her next strike—but at that very instant,

“Thunder God’s Might!”

Master Tao Ran’s thunderous voice resounded, and in the next moment, his entire body was enveloped in a blinding radiance of lightning.

“Wh—what is that…?”

Witnessing a technique she had never seen before, Hom’s eyes widened in shock.

“Physical Boost… Most likely, he’s using lightning magic to boost his strength and reaction speed.”

Hom’s voice carried quiet astonishment. She had thought Thunder Step was Master Tao Ran’s ultimate technique—but it seemed there was still more beyond that. Estea’s Sky-Shattering Gale also used the generated windstorm to amplify her speed, yet Master Tao Ran’s Thunder God’s Might clearly surpassed it.

In the blink of an eye, the master closed the distance to Estea and drove a blow straight into her solar plexus.

“This is as far as you go.”

His calm words came almost simultaneously with the moment Estea dropped to her knees and collapsed where she stood.

“…I’ve lost, Master Tao Ran…”

Her strained voice was filled with more pain than any Hom had ever heard from her before.

“It seems I let myself forget restraint before your earnestness.”
“…No. I never wished for you to hold back in the first place.”

At Master Tao Ran’s words, Estea staggered as she forced herself upright, managing a faint, defiant smile.

“That was a fine match—better even than Misora’s back in the day. But it seems you’ve lost confidence, haven’t you? There’s hesitation in your blade. You’ve lost sight of your own sword.”
“Th—that’s…”

Estea’s eyes wavered as the master’s words struck home, and for just a fleeting instant, she glanced toward Hom.