The Bloody Valkyrie

The light revealed his full appearance. Hidden underneath the clothes, his body was lean but not skinny, and his muscles were tough as steel and tempered through experience, rather than training,

His hair was cut haphazardly, the length was uneven, and it pointed outwards in random directions. His brown eyes glared straight ahead, and a sneer was plastered on his lips. The stubble on his chin gave it the appearance of mold.

Although his appearance was untidy, his movements were smooth and elegant, similar to that of a wild beast.

As he walked towards the entrance where the attack was taking place, another man was heading in his direction. He recognized the familiar face as one of his allies. As soon as the other man spotted him, his face brightened in relief, as if to say victory was now assured.

“What’s going on?”

“Enemy attack, Brain-san!”

The man— Brain laughed bitterly and responded.

“I know that, the attackers? Who are they?”

“There are two of them, both women.”

“Women? And only two? Blue Rose… no, that’s impossible.”

With his head turned slightly in thought, Brain continued to head towards the source of the disturbance.

The strongest adventurer party in the kingdom was called ‘Blue Rose’ and was made up of five women. A while back, he had encountered an old woman who could match him blow for blow and the two had fought to a draw. There was also a rumor that the greatest assassin of the empire was a woman.

Strong women were not uncommon. After all, the difference of physical strength between a man and a woman could easily be filled by magic.

Of course, the strongest body coupled with the strongest magical power would mean that person was invincible.

Brain could feel his heart swell in anticipation at the thought of fighting an opponent strong enough to attack them head on.

“Ah, you don’t have to come with me. Head back inside and strengthen the defenses.”

After telling the mercenary such, Brain put strength into his steps and walked towards the strong opponents from the surface.

Brain Unglaus.

Originally a farmer, he was gifted with what could only be described as a God-given talent in the mastery of the sword. Coupled with his natural talent, he had never lost with a weapon in hand. Even in the battlefield, he was a genius whose worst injury was a scratch.

Having never known defeat with the sword, he had always walked a path of victory.

Everyone around him believed it, and he himself never doubted his skill. However, a dramatic change came into his life at a tournament held in the Kingdom’s palace.

It wasn’t as if he joined with the aim of being the champion. He simply wanted to show his skill to the rest of the Kingdom. He believed that they would kneel to his strength. But the result, he faced an unbelievable situation.

Defeat.

His first loss since he first held the sword, no, possibly since he’d been born.

The one who defeated him was a man named Gazef Strolonoff. He was now serving as the Knight-Captain of Re-Estize, and known to be the strongest man in the surrounding nations.

Both men had won all of their battles almost instantly, but the fight between them was long and drawn out, as if they had been saving all of their time for this one battle.

In the end, Gazef finished the battle using his martial art 「Fourfold Slash of Light」. A battle that was still talked about to this day, no one questioned how a man of the lower class rose to the position of Knight-Captain. It was a fight on a scale where even the nobles who disliked Gazef had to admit that he wasn’t weak.

The victor was showered with glory, but to the loser, it was as if everything Brain had built up to that point had come crashing down. Although the battle was close, Brain realized that his confidence of being the strongest was only a delusion born from the narrow-mindedness of a fool.

For one month, he locked himself away in his own world. A normal person would have drowned away his sorrows in alcohol, but Brain threw his despair aside and pulled himself together.

He rejected countless offers for employment from nobles, and sought strength for the first time.

In pursuit of strength, he trained his body.

In pursuit of magic, he gathered knowledge.

A prodigy was working hard like an ordinary person

His defeat had elevated him to a new level.

The reason he had rejected offers from nobles was because he didn’t want his skills to rust away. In order for him to train his skills to the utmost limit, he needed opponents. Since he didn’t train himself just to show off, Brain needed work that provided ample opportunities to experience real battles while also bringing in money.

It was possible to earn a fortune as an adventurer, but that path was closed to him. An adventurer’s work offered little to no opportunities to fight against other humans. Cutting down monsters wasn’t bad, but Brain’s ultimate goal was to defeat Gazef. For that, he needed human opponents.