True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.32 Seven's Lament

Whitney was the picture of grace since her sword style was so noble and flexible. It mirrored her father's sword style, the Winter's thorn, with a few tweaks because of the differences in their physiques.

Her sword danced in the air, and it sang with sword aura despite herself and left whips of pure white streams in the air. Since sword aura reflected mastery of the sword in a way that was different from mana, she still had some trouble controlling it. She discovered how hard it was to hold back her aura while maintaining bloodlust and realized that it involved a fine level of control she hadn't mastered yet.

Her father explained to her that level of control was one of the many factors that separated the sword masters from the Sword Saints. And that his old school mate Seven had created the Seven-star spar as a means of becoming a Sword Saint. Unfortunately, Seven never succeeded, but Her father credited the Seven Star spar method for producing so many sword saints in a single generation.

Duke Highwall Explained that most swordsman look to defeating an opponent in traditional ways. But Seven was more battle hungry than any of the Sword Saints. Not for the sake of killing but for the ritual of the sword fight. He often dragged out fights he could win easily just to strike steel a few more times with an opponent. Seven would fall into an almost meditative state while trading steel and it was a unique talent of his to turn what may have been a battle to the death into what looked more like a dance. Seven's sword dance was a marvel to see, but few were the opponents that could keep up with him.

Many people thought he was condescending since he would routinely drag them out so long it came to a point where only a handful of people would even entertain him with a chance to spar.

But Seven had a more profound roadblock when it came to mastering the sword. It came in the form of having trouble using sword aura and using aura, and he was diagnosed with a condition that made it dangerous for him to ever use aura or magic. But he still loved to trade steel with people, so with the few people that would still give him the time of day he proposed the Seven Star Spar.

A sword dance ritual with no sword aura, no magic, only skill.

Seven would lose the second that sword aura was involved but he almost never lost a Seven Star Spar. Although it was only a silly game, or a desperate attempt to not fall behind, it did change the sword master's views on what swordsmanship was. Through practice and unique enlightenments, the six people who played with Seven each became a Sword Saints and Seven settled down with a crazy mage girl who was just as crazy about fighting as he was.

For now, Whitney was satisfied with the dance, the ritual pushed her body and skill while in her mind she dreamed of the handsome duke Highwall. She took pride in the fact that she had seen the duke fight at his best against her father. Duke Highwall was famously enclosed in his own territory and barely ventured out when the emperor himself called for him. Since the Westhold March bordered the Highwall Duchy she was sure that she was the one girl in the empire outside his territory that had seen him the most in the last decade. She had not only seen him she had talked with him, and he had given her pointers on her swordsmanship.

The grizzled and handsome Duke Highwall was so clearly defined in her head and her heart. Just a few more years and maybe just maybe he would entertain the idea of taking her hand in marriage. They could have beautiful sword saint babies and become a pillar of knighthood in the empire.

She was stopped in her tracks and her fantasies when the coarse sound of steel striking stone interrupted her meditative sword dance.

She rolled her eyes and looked at the stone floor where the sound had come from. Sword marks in the ground scrawled out letters.