The Strongest Villain Sets Out: Reincarnated into a Merit-Based Clan, I Become the World's Strongest Swordsman

My second battle with Aiden began.

The last time we crossed blades was around when I enrolled in the academy.

Back then, Aiden was completely no match for me. I was so disappointed I wondered if this was really the original protagonist.

But now was different.

A fair amount of time had passed since enrollment, and he’d said something about making efforts.

Then at least let me be entertained.

Of course, the villain would win in the end.

With swift movement, Aiden kicked off the ground.

With bold movements that seemed to dispel his own anxiety, he circled to my flank.

At least he wasn’t charging straight at me. Creating a lag where I had to shift consciousness to the side would occur in battle.

Still, I stood there calmly and received Aiden’s attack.

Aiden swung his wooden sword, and I guarded with my wooden sword.

The sensation transmitted to my hand was… mediocre.

His aura total was neither high nor low. Cornelia probably had more total aura.

In the game, there was a clear concept called levels. The more you raised your level, the stronger the protagonist became.

That was natural—the protagonist was the center of the world.

But now was different.

This wasn’t a game world. This was reality now.

No concept like levels existed, and what was needed was talent and steady training.

I didn’t know how much talent Aiden possessed, but so far I hadn’t seen any trace of protagonist-like qualities.

This made expecting anything just a waste.

“What, weaker than I thought. Are you seriously attacking?”

“Tch! Don’t get cocky just from blocking one attack!”

With a sharp retort, Aiden jumped backward.

After creating distance once, he kicked off the ground again and approached me.

This time from behind. Though a sharp attack came flying, predicting it was easy through killing intent and aura movement.

There were also diagonal downward slashes, diagonal upward slashes, thrusting techniques, and so on.

Aiden had prepared several attack patterns, but none of them worked on me.

All of Aiden’s attacks were absorbed by my wooden sword and sometimes deflected.

“Gah!”

With light movement, I deflected Aiden’s wooden sword upward. His body tilted slightly backward.

Full of openings. I could follow up anytime.

While thinking this, Aiden suddenly thrust forward his free hand. Palm facing me.

Immediately after, I sensed mana from Aiden’s body.

“Burn!”

A sphere of flame was released from Aiden’s palm.

Compared to Lucia, the power was laughably weak, but the magic was properly activated. Heat filled my vision—and I sliced it away with my wooden sword.

“Guh! My magic with a sword…!”

“With aura, you can cut even magic. Weren’t you watching the previous fights?”

“Shut up shut up shut up! Don’t talk so arrogantly, someone like you!”

Black mist rose from beneath Aiden’s feet.

Jet-black mist that seemed to condense negative aura itself.

Seeing this, the demon Astaroth said:

[My my… is that curses? You didn’t just create ordinary smoke, right?]

“Worse than his magic.”

I agreed with her mockery.

He probably hadn’t properly developed curses. As proof, even when enveloped in mist, I felt nothing.

Normally I should have felt sick or suffered some status ailment…

“I’ll show you real curses. Astaroth wouldn’t want such smoke to be thought of as curses either.”

Though it had been a while since using this, I similarly created black mist from beneath my feet.

The mist swallowed Aiden’s mist while clinging to his body.

The moment it did, Aiden went mad.

“Uwaaaaaaah⁉ Wh-what is…”

Aiden screamed loudly and violently spat blood from his mouth.

Not just his mouth. Blood also flowed from his eyes and nose. He couldn’t even hold his sword anymore and collapsed on the spot.

“This is curses—real curses. Yours was just smoky.”

“Ugh… gah!”

The blood wouldn’t stop. He could no longer even stand up from the pain.

This was boring. Wasn’t this just bullying the weak?

Indeed, even the participants in the spectator seats were taken aback. Only Cornelia and Lucia were laughing hysterically, but everyone else had cold reactions.

Oh, Sheila had no particular reaction. She was normally cheering for me.

So to change the atmosphere, I dispelled the curse.

Freed from pain, Aiden glared at me.

“How cruel. I went out of my way to free you from suffering.”

I wanted him to be grateful.

“D-damn you… you are—gahah⁉”

Mid-sentence, my kick gouged into Aiden’s stomach.

I kicked him into the air, carefully controlling the force so he wouldn’t leave the ring.

He spun around and fell onto the ring while protecting his body with aura.

Aiden, who couldn’t defend properly, was seriously injured. Even without curses, he couldn’t stand up.

I specially said while keeping my sword lowered:

“Come on, hurry up and heal yourself. You can use prayer magic, right?”