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Allen listened to Paul's answer and lowered his head, silently running his fingers over the hilt of his sword.
Paul, however, looked at Allen with the expression of someone dealing with a troubled teenager, squinting slightly as he spoke softly.
"Besides, I think if this question were put to Philip... he would make the same choice as I did."
This statement snapped Allen out of his somewhat touched mood. He glanced at Paul and suddenly realized why the man hadn't gotten angry at his question but instead had taken the time to explain so patiently.
"So, after all that buildup, the punchline was waiting here?"
'Paul, projecting your own experiences onto others isn't the way to go. Just because you're a responsible father doesn't mean everyone else is.'
'The root of my distance from Philip isn't some childhood trauma or psychological scars... It's because I'm a transmigrator. I've already adapted to being alone in my past life. Rekindling family bonds in another world? That's not for me.'
Paul scratched his head as he watched Allen's indifferent expression. He thought he had done his best to help Philip's case, but it seemed Allen wasn't swayed.
From a distance, Roxy noticed Allen stepping away. During a break in Sylphie's magic practice, she turned her head slightly and gave Allen a questioning look.
Allen smiled and gestured that everything was fine.
"Hey! Sylphie, what are you looking at? Your fireball almost burned my hair!"
"I-I'm sorry! I got distracted!"
Allen turned his gaze to the flustered Sylphie, his eyes softening.
"Teacher? Teacher?"
"Ah... sorry, Rudeus, I got distracted..."
At that moment, Paul's hesitant voice reached Allen's ears again.
"...Allen, Philip is also in a difficult position... You should know, it's the tradition of the Boreas family. If you had grown up by his side, you'd understand his character..."
Allen glanced at Paul with a faint smile.
'Paul, who values family so much, would naturally speak well of Philip... However, Philip's ambition to seize power in the royal capital has never faded. In the original story, after seeing Rudeus's exceptional talent in magic during the tutoring period, he even used his daughter as a bargaining chip to lure Rudeus into marrying into the family. Unless he willingly gives up his obsession with power, he won't focus on something as trivial as family bonds...'
'And it's not just him. The entire Boreas family has an innate drive for power and ambition.'
'Sauros's deep-rooted responsibility for the territory, after the Great Teleportation, he was willing to spend the family's wealth to rebuild the land, regardless of his descendants' wishes.'
'Eris's determination to protect Rudeus drove her to train relentlessly, even leaving him a letter after their first night and disappearing to train in the Land of the Illiterate for years without contact.'
'And then there's me...'
Allen's grip on his sword tightened, veins bulging on his hand.
'This pursuit of power is ingrained in my blood and soul, something completely different from my past life...'
Allen turned to Paul.
"I have a question about swordsmanship I'd like to ask you, Uncle."
Paul seemed a bit confused by the sudden shift in topic. One moment they were talking about life and death, and now it was about swordsmanship?
He blinked.
"Huh? Uh... still about the Sword God style? If it's the Sword God style, I don't have much more to teach you..."
"No, the Water God style."
Paul's face stiffened, and he pointed at himself in disbelief.
"The Water God style? Me? Do I look like Reida to you? Your mastery of the Water God style is clearly far beyond mine."
Allen shook his head.
"I need the spark of inspiration that comes from clashing with a completely different fighting style. You know, creating your own secret techniques requires constantly building your own combat methods and theories..."
'The underlying logic of getting stronger in the Mushoku Tensei world lies in talent and epiphanies. Whether it's Orsted, the Dragon God's son born in Ranoa, or Rudeus with his Laplace factor, every top-tier fighter has at least one area where they're ridiculously gifted. Right now, I've already gained the Dragon Saint's fighting spirit in terms of talent, so the next step is to use my cheat-like abilities to pursue epiphanies and refine my combat theories. I can't be like Ghislaine, who relied on instinct during her adventurer days and stagnated at the Sword Saint level for years, only breaking through to Sword King after realizing she needed to refine her combat theories.'
'Speaking of epiphanies... I suddenly remember that bastard Kino. He literally had an epiphany after sleeping with his wife, and within a year or two, he went from Sword King to beating his father-in-law, a Sword God, so badly that the latter lost his will to fight. The old man even resorted to using the Water God style against Eris in his final moments, which was just plain delusional.'
Paul tilted his head, looking at Allen with a curious expression.
"...Is that so?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he drew his sword, excitement gleaming in his eyes.
"Epiphanies require constant hammering, right? Perfect timing—let me see your self-created secret technique. What do you say?"
'Paul is so easy to read.'
"While I don't need to be hammered to have an epiphany, if you're a feel-based fighter, then maybe 'hammering' will work better for you, like yesterday morning..."
As Allen spoke, he slowly drew his blade from his waist.
——
As Allen and Paul took their positions in the yard, Zenith, Rudeus, and the others immediately stopped Sylphie's magic assessment and formed a circle around the two to watch.
Roxy, feeling the tense atmosphere between the two, leaned over to Rudeus and whispered, covering her mouth.
"This morning, when you mentioned your fight with Allen, I didn't really get a sense of it, but... he can actually spar with Paul? I remember Paul is at the advanced level in the Sword God, Water God, and North God styles... Allen, he..."
Rudeus, his young face serious, watched the two intently.
"I don't want to say anything that might undermine Father's reputation, but Allen is really strong... really strong. You heard a lot during this morning's debrief, right?"
Roxy nodded, her blue hair swaying slightly.
"Honestly, because I was so focused on this match... uh..."
Rudeus glanced at Roxy and continued.
"So during these two months, I did a thorough investigation of Allen, creating detailed counter-tactics based on all the abilities he's shown. But even so, he still beat me twice, both times because he used sword techniques I'd never seen before, leaving me completely unprepared."
Roxy recalled the high-speed slashes Allen had used to dismember the monster two months ago and nodded.
"...He really can use some sword techniques that are completely beyond his age. Even after all my years as an adventurer, I've never seen a swordsman use moves like his."
Rudeus nodded.
"The first time I lost was because of a North God throwing technique. I'd never seen him use it before, so I didn't control the distance well and ended up within his throwing range..."
"Uh... I heard about that this morning... What about the second time?"
"The second time was a combination of Water God and Sword God techniques... Damn it, how many techniques has this guy been hiding? He buried tricks from every style that I hadn't seen... The second time, I used a large-scale mixed magic to trap him in place and stop his high-speed movement. He first used a self-created Water God technique to block all my magic, then used it as a 'springboard' to escape the mud."
"Even so, I had anticipated that he might find a way to break free, so I used geothermal mud and ice spears to create a large-scale 'fog' mixed magic to obscure his senses..."
By this point, Roxy was already sweating. She hadn't even heard of this 'fog' mixed magic, and she couldn't help but marvel at the world of geniuses.
"I thought I had prepared thoroughly, but I still messed up. I hadn't accounted for Allen's Silent Sword. The moment I released the ice spear magic, the fog dispersed, revealing my position. He used the 'springboard' he had prepared to seize that fleeting opportunity... And so, I lost again."
Roxy frowned.
"Oh? You didn't consider that he might use the Silent Sword?"
Rudeus, watching Allen in the yard as he warmed up with various sword stances, shook his head.
"I did consider it, but I didn't expect him to be so fast—almost faster than Father... You don't know this, but he's not actually very skilled in the Sword God style, so he's been learning from Father these past two months. And just that morning, before the match, I confirmed that he still hadn't grasped the essence of the Silent Sword..."
Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"Then how..."
Rudeus rubbed his face in frustration, truly feeling that even with his ability to cast magic without chanting and all the praise Roxy heaped on him, he still couldn't match Allen's level of genius.
"That's the problem, Teacher... He really hadn't mastered the essence of the Sword God style before I left that morning... But afterward, I heard from Father that he had given Allen some pointers on how to swing the sword and how to capture the 'feeling' of the Silent Sword. And after just one experimental swing..."
Rudeus turned to Roxy.
"He mastered it."
Note: So far this story is published up to chapter 90 on my patreon, go take a look.