Chapter 10 - Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli.
And with that, an enemy stronger than any before must be lying in wait.
-Can I win? Al by myself?
Standing stil at the end of the hall, Eugeo asked himself. Just how could he fight against someone stronger than Fanatio, who drove Kirito half the way to his death, and Alice, who they were no match for, even as a pair.
However, now that he thought about it, Kirito had took on all of the enemies" attacks by himself in the battles thus far. Eugeo had hidden behind his partner"s back and merely activated his full control art. Kirito had said that it was the natural strategy considering the natures of their skil s, but with him away, Eugeo had no choice but to fight from the start to the end.
Gently caressing the Blue Rose Sword at the left of his waist, he ascertained the sensations of its grip and guard. He could probably use the full control art just one more time, but he couldn"t capture the enemy with the ice tendrils by activating it blindly. He had to first drive the enemy into a corner with pure swordsmanship and create an opening.
"...It"s time."
With that whisper to his beloved sword, Eugeo brought up his right hand and strongly pushed open the white door.
What immediately closed in were bright lighting, a dense, white smoke, and a dull, unceasing sound.
-Offensive sacred arts!?
Thinking so instinctively, Eugeo tried to jump aside, but noticed the white mist streaming out was not smoke, but steam.
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His hands and sleeves merely got wet upon contact, there was no pain. He a.s.sessed the state of the interior across the swirling heat.
As expected, it was a vast s.p.a.ce that expended the entire area of a single cathedral floor. The ceiling countless lamps were fitted onto was high as wel , so it likely had a name resembling the "Cloister of Spiritual Light" or "Sky Garden"*, but he didn"t have the means to find it out right now. The floor surface couldn"t be seen through the obstructing steam, but there seemed to be no human presence.
Eugeo took only a few steps into the s.p.a.ce and tried to find the source of the steam. When he did, he noticed with his ears, rather than his eyes, the splish-splashing sound of water. There was no mistake that the roaring was of a large quant.i.ty of water falling onto water, coming from somewhere far.
That was when cold air flowed in from the stil -opened door and swept aside the surrounding steam.
A marble path with a breadth of roughly five mel extended deeper into the s.p.a.ce from Eugeo"s position. The sides of the path dipped down with steps and fil ed there, to the brim, was clear water-no, hot water. It seemed to have a depth of over one mel, and Eugeo couldn"t even begin to imagine how many lil of hot water would it total up to if that filled the entire room.
"...Just, what is this room..."
Eugeo"s hoa.r.s.e voice leaked out upon the far too unexpected scene.
The temperature of the water was too hot as a pond for rearing fish or other animals and the humidity wasn"t pleasant
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enough for it be a garden for admiration. It would even be more comfortable to strip down and jump into the hot- "Ah...... do-don"t tell me..."
After murmuring once again, he knelt down by the side of the pathway and thrust his right hand into the hot water. It was neither hot nor warm, it was at a temperature that Kirito would comment as "a nice water temperature" if he was here.
In other words, this was a gigantic bath.
Without any further words coming from him, Eugeo deeply sighed while kneeling.
His home until two years ago used a rather large tub as a bathtub and by the time Eugeo got into it as the last person, only half of the hot water would have been left. Hence, he got struck dumbfounded the first time he saw the large bath in the academy"s dormitories and wondered how could such a large quant.i.ty of hot water be boiled.
However, this bath was on an entirely different level. There would stil be s.p.a.ce even if all of the apprentices in the Sword Mastery Academy were to get into together. No, of course, the male students couldn"t possibly enter a bath together with the female students, though.
After taking another sigh, Eugeo took the opportunity to wash his two hands in the hot water and stood up, holding back the urge to wash his face too. He started on the marble path likely heading deeper into the s.p.a.ce, towards the staircase to the upper floors. No matter how things were, getting a.s.saulted in a bath would simply be too-
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Or so he thought before he noticed belatedly.
The path expanded into a circle in the middle of the large s.p.a.ce, the large bath. When he approached, Eugeo finally sensed someone"s silhouette beyond the steam hanging over the water surface in front, on the right.
Instinctively jumping back, he placed his hand onto his sword"s grip.
He couldn"t see too well with the steam obstructing, but the other party had a pretty large build. Short hair and unfeminine.
Submerged up to his shoulders in the hot water, he was stretching out all four limbs.
The man appeared to be simply bathing rather than lying in wait, but he couldn"t let down his guard. Regardless of the circ.u.mstances, that was unmistakably an enemy, so perhaps he should be attempt a preemptive attack while the opponent was stil in the water.
It happened when Eugeo quietly slid his beloved sword out from its sheath.
"Sorry, but could ya wait for a bit? I mean, I just got to the capital a moment ago, so my whole body"s stiff from all the flying dragon riding."
The voice was low and worn-out, but had substance. The speech that was more crude than anyone he encountered in the cathedral unwittingly left him silent. The lack of grandstanding reminded him of the peasants of his home town rather than of a knight.
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While Eugeo stayed undecided over his reaction, splashing noises rang out and the steam concealing the gigantic bathtub parted to the left and right.
The owner of the voice had drops of water pouring off his entire body like a waterfal while he got up. With his back to Eugeo, he placed his two hands on his waist and rotated his neck, letting out a sluggish groan. He appeared ful of openings, but Eugeo didn"t take a single step with his hand still on his sword.
What a tremendous body. The part below his knees was still under the hot water, but still, it was clear the man measured close to two mel. His iron-gray hair, tinged blue, was trimmed short and exposed his shockingly thick neck. Furthermore, the shoulders it connected to were abnormally broad yet again. His forearm, on the level of a log, must be able to wave swords around with ease, regardless of how heavy they might be.
What drew his eyes the most was his back, covered in layers of muscles. Gorgolos...o...b..ltoh, whom Eugeo served as a valet, could boast of a tempered body as well, but the man in the bath reached new heights of bulkiness. Despite the unlikeness of him being young, there was no slackening around his hips whatsoever.
As his sight was stolen by the man"s standing posture, like the very image of an ancient G.o.d of war, Eugeo failed to immediately notice the countless old wounds running across his entire body.
Observing properly, he saw that they were al wounds from arrows and blades. Scars, even from severe wounds, shouldn"t remain if treated quickly with high ranking sacred arts, so that meant he must have always been fighting on battlefields which rendered even that act impossible, for long stretches of time.
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The man in the bath was, in all likelihood, the one called the Knight Commander.
In other words, the mightiest expert among all of the integrity knights. The greatest hurdle thwarting Eugeo"s path to the top of the Cathedral- In that case, it would be best to slash and defeat the man while he held no weapon and armor. Kirito would definitely have done that. Even while his mind thought so, Eugeo stayed still.
He couldn"t judge whether the man"s back was ful of openings or flawlessly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with preparation. He could even imagine the man was luring him into an attack.
Paying no heed to Eugeo"s hesitation, the man finished loosening his body, then began walking north as he parted the hot water. A basket had been placed a little way ahead on the path that seemed to have his clothes in it.
Having taken the steps up and straddled over the edge, the man took undershorts out from the basket and pa.s.sed them through his legs. Next, he spread open clothes of thin make and wore them. It seemed to be clothes made in the north empire and while wrapping a wide cloth that came with the previous, the man finally turned his face to Eugeo.
"Yo, sorry for the wait."
He had a firm look that matched the deep, worn-out voice well.
The wrinkle engraved near his mouth likely showed the man was over forty years old when he became an integrity knight, but his cheeks split by his high nose bridge were not slackened in any way. However, what left a deeper impression was the light in his eyes released from beneath his prominent eyebrows.
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