Chương 112: 179 - Obligation

Vivi was quite proud of herself for how she had escaped her duel with Suyin Vey while maintaining anonymity. The swordswoman had clearly been suspicious from the start, but persistently feigning incompetence—a good portion of which was genuine, admittedly—had convinced her that Vianora was nothing special. It would have been embarrassing if in Vivi's very first fight, she had leaked how powerful she was. Not that she was going incognito.

By definition, she would be showing off more and more of her power as she climbed the brackets. Qualifying for the main tournament would bring her an enormous amount of attention, not to mention as she began working through it and winning. She just didn't want to be the obvious rising star from moment one. And she had accomplished that goal! Evidently, she was learning to navigate the world with more subtlety.

Of course she could stomp anyone she needed to, but that wouldn't serve her purpose of studying void magic, and she would also feel bad not letting earnest participants demonstrate their skills to the best of their ability. The matches after Suyin were less interesting in most ways, but more engaging in others, since Vivi didn't have to throw the fight and could therefore analyze void magic freely.

Her second duel was against a shield-and-mace-wielding cleric, and though his divine spells were hardly anything to intrigue her by themselves, getting to watch how equally weak void energy affected his defenses meant she found herself lost in thought. The bout lasted ten minutes, and she'd have been fine to keep going, but the cleric had exhausted himself to the point he was dragging himself around the arena. Vivi hadn't noticed.

She sheepishly finished the fight off and praised him, taking a cue from Suyin's behavior. Subsequent encounters against a rogue and then two warriors were slightly less fascinating but still more than worth her time, as each had different skills they tried to bring against her. She developed a reputation as someone as concerning to be matched against as Suyin, since both of them would be guaranteed defeats.

Vivi caught a few people muttering about how the first fight must only have looked so mundane because of how incredible Suyin was.

'She's so far ahead that even a mithril looks clumsy next to her.' Vivi was happy to let that be the running theory. Saffra also dominated her opposition. Vivi sometimes forgot that the young beastkin was gold rank—or would be after a perfunctory exam—and thus more powerful than the majority of human adventurers. Toss in her hand-crafted-by-the-Sorceress gear and her recent training, and she towered over the masses.

She drew a lot of impressed gazes from the crowd, seeing how she was a whopping thirteen years old and visibly that age too. Saffra might not be formidable in the grand scheme of things, but she had been an unusual case even before the Sorceress had taken her under her wing. I wonder how far she'll go in the thirteen-and-under bracket. Vivi didn't have enough context to make a good guess. Were there lots of monstrously powerful thirteen-year-olds?

The bracket wouldn't be gated by level, so if there were even a single orichalcum, then Saffra wouldn't win no matter how good of gear or how great of training she had. Even mithril would be an enormous gulf to jump, seeing how someone who reached that rank so young wouldn't be an average mithril. By necessity, they would be a genius of their discipline. She probably won't win, but she might get pretty far. And not just thanks to her gear. She's getting better. My lessons are helping.

Being able to see a clear improvement in the girl's casting ability meant a lot, since Vivi always struggled to distinguish the differences between mages so far beneath her. Such visible progress pleased her. She congratulated her apprentice after every win, though cat ears twitched and Vivi only received mumbled excuses from Saffra on what she could have done better or why the victory wasn't impressive. Despite that, Vivi noticed how the girl perked up for a few minutes afterward.

Not immune to praise, she thought with a smile threatening to creep onto her lips. Just not great at accepting it. Vivi would have thought three separate high-rank challengers—herself, Saffra, and Suyin—would drive away most of the competitors at Ring Seven. Their arena was more heavily skewed toward the higher ranks than most, if not all others, in the field. Yet strangely, it only grew more and more popular as the fights progressed, with adventurers changing rings to join the fray.

Vivi mulled the discrepancy over and eventually understood why. Most of them didn't expect to make it out of the bronze pool. A chance to fight against someone strong was all they were looking for. What would they care that they weren't maximizing their win-loss ratio? After all, anyone who had to game their way into the silver qualifying bracket, or any higher tier for that matter, was going to slam face-first into a brick wall. And this wasn't the tournament proper, just the qualifiers. There wasn't any point.

Suyin ended ten-zero, surprising no one. So did Saffra, though one of her matches—against another gold on the higher end of that range—posed a minor challenge. The fight still concluded decisively. Not all golds were made equal, and while Saffra had yet to even get her shiny new badge, she wasn't a run-of-the-mill mage. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Vivi ended nine-one, which left her with a worse record than Saffra.

Saffra seemed mortified when Vivi pointed that out. The girl was surprisingly easy to tease, sometimes. Despite Suyin having finished her matches half an hour earlier, she hung around until Vivi and Saffra had completed their qualifications too. Upon noticing that, Vivi instantly became wary. She chose to believe that the disciple didn't have anything better to do and was intrigued by the bouts on display, but her optimism was dashed when Suyin strode up once they made to leave.

Suyin clasped her fists together and bowed first to Vivi, then Saffra.

"This disciple apologizes for the interruption. She asks for a moment of your time, honored sister of the sword."

"Of course." Vivi almost added that the over-the-top courtesy wasn't necessary, but wondered if that in turn would be rude. She decided to say nothing.

"How can I help?"

"I wish to make you an offer. But before I do, I should lead with honesty. I recognized your strength during our duel earlier." Vivi hesitated, then dismay slowly washed over her. She'd just taken pride in getting through a match with Suyin without being recognized. That's a critical hit, she thought with a mental sigh.

"My strength?" she asked, tone reserved. A part of her prayed that she had misunderstood, but the shreds of lingering hope were crushed shortly.

"Yes, honored sister. I did not press at the time, as I had already shamed myself and had no right to interrogate—as I still do not. This one will leave immediately upon your request." She gave Vivi a moment to accept that offer and, when Vivi didn't, continued, "Yes, I recognized the strength of who I was fighting, if perhaps not the extent until after deeper consideration."

"How?" Suyin paused as if it were a trick question, but it wasn't. Vivi just wanted to know.

"Your eyes. They react faster than your sword does. Much faster. I was not immediately certain, but I came to the conclusion you were holding back. You also never showed fear, nor even a glimmer of concern—that was what made me initially cautious. But your eyes were the definitive proof."

"I… see. You paid close attention." Internally, Vivi pouted. How am I supposed to stop my eyes from reacting to stuff? That's unfair. She paused. Could I make an illusion? It would be tricky to get it to work properly, but with the right design, I could probably make something functional. Her musing was cut off by Suyin's response.

"I do not deserve such praise after my earlier misconceptions and poor behavior." She bowed yet again.

"Once more, I apologize for the insult I offered." Vivi almost huffed in amusement. Suyin was making a far greater deal out of that blurted-out question than Vivi herself was. Especially given the context that Suyin had illuminated. No wonder the disciple had been shocked that Vivi's swordsmanship was so poor, when Suyin had realized that her reaction speed put her in an elite tier of adventurers. It must have seemed like a bizarre contradiction. Vivi didn't care about insults to her swordsmanship.

Her eye might've twitched if someone had said something of that sort about her spellcasting, since she took pride in that field. But while she might appreciate other people's skill with a sword, Vivi was hardly sensitive about not knowing how to swing bits of metal around in the perfectly optimal way.

"It's already been forgiven. Forget it happened." Unsure where Suyin was leading, Vivi prompted, "You said you have an offer for me?" Suyin nodded seriously.

"Yes. I wish to ask my honored sister if she would accept more of my instruction." Vivi paused. That's… not where I was expecting this to go. Then she digested the offer itself. And the implication therein. There was only one reason Vivi could imagine for such a talented swordswoman wanting to train someone she already knew was powerful. Secretly Titled, even. Oh, no. She thinks I'm so embarrassingly bad that she feels a personal responsibility to get me up to scratch. How mortifying.

People didn't go around poking the pride of Titled without good reason. Suyin felt such a strong duty toward her art that a random Titled running around and mangling basic blade craft was something she had to correct, if she could. She was ethically obligated to as someone on the Path of the Sword. If that's the case, I should really accept… She hadn't considered how insulting her act might be to experts. And it would only get worse the deeper she got into the tournament.

Especially once she stopped holding back and started going up against other Titled, if she used her sword as a club and won her fights without displaying an ounce of skill, she might destroy her opponent's confidence forever. Or at a minimum, she would disgrace a sacred art that people spent their lives pursuing. She wouldn't be able to approach mastery, but she could at least perform better than she had against Suyin.

Massive dexterity boosts through spells like [Perfect Form] would give her incredible control over her body, and when time moved by at a crawl, she could display some amount of swordsmanship without a huge time commitment. Even if she just copied the techniques that Suyin showed her down to the smallest detail. Mentally, Vivi's cheeks burned. But her blessed disposition held firm as always.

"Very well. I accept." Suyin seemed surprised. She bowed hastily several times in a row.

"This one thanks you profusely. She is honored by the opportunity." Vivi cringed. She actually sounds honored. She finds it that important on a moral level to fix my sloppy form. This is so embarrassing.

"I'll be working my way through the silver-rank qualifiers at the same time tomorrow," Vivi told her.

"We'll meet then?"

"This one will ensure she is punctual, honored sister."

"All right. We'll talk later." After yet another bow, Suyin departed.

"You're learning the sword now?" Saffra asked, seeming baffled by the exchange. Vivi barely suppressed her sigh.

"I have to, after that."

"After what? I'm not sure why she offered in the first place, much less why you accepted." Vivi paused. It seemed her apprentice hadn't picked up the undertones and implications of Suyin's offer. And I won't clarify. It's humiliating enough as it is.

"I just have to." She patted Saffra on the shoulder, wondering if her cheeks were burning yet. She quickly changed topic.

"Now, let's get back to the guild. It's been a productive day, and I'm sure we're both hungry."