Golden Cross: Prologue
Prologue
A building stood out in the vicinity of the main road in the great city of Eintelhofer. It was a stone constructed three story building which was famous among the city’s dwellers for its exotic design. According to the legend, it was built about 200 hundred years ago, and its owner was a re-born knight from a holy war that took place in the East.
No matter what its history was, this building was the liveliest spot in the city. The ‘St. Marco’s Brotherhood’, who currently owns the building, was one of the seven emperor certified swordsman guilds, and had various satellite locations throughout the empire. Especially in Eintelhofer, St. Marco’s Brotherhood’s influence was unilateral. As their competitors, there were ‘The swordsmen of the Rose’ and other yet to be certified swordsman guilds, but they did not rise to the level of posing threats to St. Marco Brotherhood. Hence, countless number of people visited Marco’s Brotherhood in order to learn swordsmanship and other martial arts such that this white stone building was always crowded.
Unlike the front of the building where there was always crowded with people, the inside of the building was rather quiet. Among them, a training hall that was open only to the swordsmen at the provost and above levels was comparatively quiet. As it was not easy to ascend to the level of provost within the Brotherhood, the number of people who had access to this area has always been limited.
Nevertheless, two men were engaged in a charged sword fight in that room.
“Yeah!”
“Tat!”
The clear sounds of elastic feather swords (Federschwert) crashing echoed inside. Although both of their skills were excellent, one of them seemed to be more relaxed. They were a master and student pair, and the master’s name was Manuel, and the student’s name was Eugene.
Eugene could not advance forward as he has been pushed back by the master’s skill throughout the fight. Having thought over and over, he gave up looking for a single winning strike. Manuel did not have any openings, anyway. Also, there might come an opening if he continued to make a series of offensive moves. At the moment when he stopped breathing, he targeted Manuel’s shoulder, using the wrath slashing.
‘No matter how much I would think I would never know what move the master will make. If he makes one of the several moves that I was thinking about, that would be lucky, if not I’ll lose.’
Eugene’s slashing was tremendous as he trained on it with all his might for many years, so such powerful offensive move could not even be imitated by even some elite swordsmen. However, Manuel easily evaded them, and countered with a half step offensive moves.
‘Good!’
Eugene was elated. By the luck of the draw, his master’s attack was one that he had guessed. If he hadn’t guessed it, he would have gotten defeated by the half a step faster attack, even before he could have drawn his sword. However, he had reserved enough energy, while using the wrath slashing skill, to be able to defend against attacks that might come from several directions. Raising the lowered sword directly up over his head, he posed a crown form. Chaang!
With an appropriate defensive move, he blocked Manuel’s sword with crossed swords.
“Nice!”
Manuel appeared to be satisfied with his apprentice’s maneuver. Taking a step further, Eugene took on the bull position as he went after the master’s solar plexus. The intention was commendable, but this time around, Manuel took a step back as he pushed down Eugene’s sword with his blade.
“Aaah!”
Naturally, the end point of Manuel’s sword was already directed at Eugene’s solar plexus. And Eugene accepted his defeat without any protest.
“I’ve lost.”
Although he lost, he has shown good progress.
“Now, you have highly improved your wrath slashing skill. That powerful diagonal slashing is beautiful all by itself, but the series of various forms of counter offensive maneuvers that follow it are also attractive. When you attacked me with the wrath slashing, I countered with a half step. And when you pushed the sword forward at me, I went for the victory with a down strike. What does this tell you?”
“It tells me to not retreat when attacked, but make counter offensive maneuvers.”
“Correct. The swordsmen must exchange attacks and counter attacks as if you’re engaged in a fierce dispute. When the debaters get excited, they do not give the other party a chance to speak. Likewise, we cannot afford to defend ourselves after waiting for the opponent to attack. Such passive dispositions would only lead to defeat in both in sword or word fight.”
That was a great parable, and the words that contained the secret of the long sword technique. Eugene took his respected master’s words to his heart, once again.
“Please drink some of this.”
Claudia who was watching them handed drinks to both. Claudia worked as a servant girl at the Brotherhood, and was popular due to her cute appearance. She was like the mascot of the Brotherhood as far as the swordsmen in the Brotherhood were concerned. Nonetheless, the look on Claudia’s eyes seemed unusual as she handed the drink to Eugene. Her fragile hand gentry rubbed the back of Eugene’s hand.
“Thanks.”
Eugene winked at her as he said thanks, and Claudia appeared to be surprised by that.
“Not at all.”
With a pretty smile, she went towards the inside of the building. Then a man came running as he passed by Claudia.
“Sir Manuel!”
He was the administrator of Duke Christopher Markgraf who owned this Eintelhofer and many other cities. As he was a rather calm person, it was highly unusual to see him running out of breath like that. Manuel passed his feather sword to Eugene, and approached the administrator.
“What is it?”
He was in pain as he was running out of breath, and finally, he was able to speak, though barely.
“A war broke out. Duke Markgraf is looking for you.”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?”