Chapter 108 - Thinking after Warning (2/2)

Remembering that far, Loren remembered that Dia had said something about the gesture he did being interesting.

“First, the one who taught you the sword knows how to fight like a knight. The moves you made were tracing the basic fighting style of a knight.”

Why would the leader of a mercenary group know the fighting style of a knight?

That was indeed an interesting point, but Loren thought that it wasn’t something uncommon.

There was the possibility that the leader’s fighting style was coincidently similar to one of a knight, and it wasn’t uncommon for knights who lost their nation or had been dismissed to become mercenaries.

If one had fought with or been taught their skills, it wasn’t strange for a mercenary to learn how to fight like a knight.

Even if it wasn’t, there was always a chance to fight enemy knights in the battlefield, so there was the possibility it had come naturally.

“With that amount of experience and mastered swordsmanship to the point where he could teach others, I would think that he is quite the genius though.”

Dia seemed to think it was strange that such a genius wouldn’t make a name for himself, but Loren hadn’t heard anything about him being well known.

Even Loren, who wasn’t interested in such things, had heard of well-known mercenaries such as ‘Sword Demon’, ‘Slaying Wind’, and ‘Hellfire blades’.

If his leader was someone like them, there was no way he wouldn’t have heard about it, so Loren thought that he wasn’t well known at all.

“Well, even so, that’s not what caught my interest.”

“There’s something else?”

“Resalute. A knight’s resalute.”

It was the salute that knights made to each other in a duel.

It meant that they would fight fairly within the bounds of knightly order, and of course, it wasn’t something a mercenary would do.

Loren used to think that it was a strange thing to be taught.

It wasn’t something you would do during battle, and unless it was against knights that followed some sets of rules, it was unnecessary.

But for some reason, the leader had taught Loren the resalute.

He had stopped being so persistent about it after Loren changed his weapon to the great sword, but he had told him to do it when he used a normal sword, especially in a duel, and Loren kept it even now.

Loren thought it as showing respect to his leader, who taught him how to fight, but Dia was interested in that resalute.

“I know it’s strange for a mercenary to do it.”

“That’s not it. Not whether you do it or not, but how you do it is strange.”

Loren cocked his head at Dia’s words.

Her being interested in how he was doing it, not whether he was doing it or not, was unexpected, so he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Usually a knight’s sword is devoted to his master, so it is pointed upwards.”

As she walked, she reached out to a short tree and easily pulled it out with her childish arm, held it with both hands, and held it at her chest.

The tips of the branches were pointed up towards the sky, and Dia said that this was a normal knight’s resalute.

“But Loren’s resalute pointed his sword downwards. This isn’t normal.”

“Maybe some nations do it differently. I’m not sure what nation Leader saw it in, though.”

There were numerous nations in the world, and there was that many knights as well.

Loren thought that there would be knights that resaluted as he did, but Dia disagreed.

“There are different styles of sword techniques, but for resalutes, this stance is almost universal. No matter where the knight is from, it would be strange if he didn’t take this stance. Of course, this is what I learned from my master, but it’s the knowledge of a long living Elder.”

“You said almost just now, right? So that means there’s nations that are different.”

Loren thought there were exceptions to everything, but Dia threw away the tree and shook her head once more.

“There is indeed exceptions. I only know one exception…but that’s why I can’t help but be interested. After all, the exception is something no one in the current world knows about.”

“Don’t tell me it’s some vampire knight.”

Loren didn’t want the think that Leader was an undead, but when Loren asked Dia about the possibility, Dia shook her head again.

“There are no knights among vampires. There aren’t any nations in the first place either.”

“Then…”

Loren’s question was silenced by Dia’s gaze.

As his words were caught in his throat, Dia said to him in a somewhat uncertain tone.

“I can’t talk about this so easily. There’s the possibility that your leader arranged it in a weird way. So I want more information on him. What’s his name?”

Loren recalled his leader’s name.

The name of the person who raised him and taught him all the knowledge and skill he possessed.

“Juli Muthschild. That’s his name. He used to brag that he had a family name even though he’s a mercenary.”

“I see. Let me think for a bit. I’ll tell you when I find something out.”

After saying so, Dia ended the conversation and started walking towards their destination again.

Following her, Loren started thinking about his leader’s identity, even though he knew he wouldn’t find out anything.