The Laughing Swordsman

Upon hearing Suki's gasp, most of the crowd was similarly disturbed.

With confusion, they turned to what she was looking at, the ground beneath her.

Half of one foot was outside the boundary.

There were two conditions to win. Either hit your opponent directly or have them step out of bounds.

Suki lost.

A bitter smile formed on her face.

"You did win."

She collapsed to her knees and let her sword drop to the ground with a clatter. Suki's entire body was trembling violently. It was clear she overexerted her body in this spar.

Once the crowd realized what had happened, they roared in excitement, exclaiming over how impressive Apollo was.

"Did he plan for that? Is that even something you can plan?"

"No, no it must be a fluke! There is no way that happened on purpose."

"But he perfectly dodged it all! It must've been planned, everything was planned!"

While it would be a bit of an exaggeration to say that Apollo planned everything, he was the reason Suki stepped out of bounds. As he retreated, Apollo swung out his foot to one side, pretending that he was taking a step.

This gave Suki the illusion that the boundary was further than it actually was. There shouldn't have been a reason to check, as if it was out of bounds, Apollo would already be out.

However, he never fully brought his foot down.

Eden still had trouble processing the situation despite seeing that Suki had stepped out of the tatami mat. After a full few seconds, she gasped.

"A-Amazing!"

That was the only thing Eden could say.

As for the man that arranged for the spar to happen, he hurriedly walked over, but found it difficult. That was because the crowd was also rushing over, wanting to get a closer look at the person who pulled off such an impressive feat.

In the end, the man was lost in the swarm. He raised his hand and called out towards Apollo, but several other people copied him soon after, drowning out any presence he had.

Apollo looked at Suki who was trembling and on her knees.

"Why are you on the ground?"

A bitter smile formed on Suki's face.

"I... I'm just too tired to move."

Apollo gasped.

"That's not good."

Suki shrugged her shoulders.

"It's fine. Don't worry so much about it."

Apollo hummed while rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Ah, I can carry you!"

Suki blinked a few times.

"No, no. It really is-"

"Hup!"

Apollo didn't bother waiting for Suki to finish her sentence and picked her up. He used his free hand to hold up Suki's back and carried her legs with his bokken. Then, Apollo looked at Suki and tilted his head to the side.

"Where do you need to go?"

Suki couldn't say anything for a moment. She really didn't desire to be in this situation, but decided to go along with it anyway.

Suki turned towards a direction and pointed with her chin.

"Can you take me over there? I think some benches were at that place."

Apollo nodded with a casual smile on his face. He ran forwards at a brisk pace, completely disregarding the fact a crowd of people was in front of him. However, instead of colliding, the people made way for Apollo, almost like they were a sea being parted.

Along the way, he passed right by Eden. She reached out her hand towards him, but let it fall down soon after.

Eden remembered that there wasn't any real connection between the two of them. Not to mention how much more capable he was.

A small frown appeared on Eden's face.

There was even the status gap, as Apollo was an 'angel'.

It did not take too long for Apollo to reach the bench. There was no trouble since everyone moved out of the way for him. He set Suki down on the bench.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Suki smiled gently.

"Thank you. Apollo was it?"

Apollo nodded.

"Yeah!"

Suki giggled.

"You are so sweet."

With that, she deflated like a balloon and fell down on the bench. At that moment, someone called out from behind.

"Ah, Apollo!"

It was the man from earlier. He was pushing through the crowd and was waving his hand around. Although his actions could be considered to be rude, whenever anyone the man shoved saw who it was, they did not complain.

Or more so, they didn't dare to complain.

Apollo turned around to be greeted by a man giving him a cordial smile.

"Who are you?"

The man laughed.

"Haha, you joke around too much. Regardless, you put up quite the impressive display!"

Apollo pressed his lips together.

"It was ok I guess."

The man gave a thumbs up.

"Humble! Anyways, while you won that fight, you never swung your sword. I'm sure that someone like you has impeccable swordsmanship, so why don't you have a fight where you show that off?"

Apollo shrugged his shoulders.

"Um, ok?"

The man smiled confidently.

"If you are thinking that your opponent will fall too easily, don't worry!"

He pointed his thumb towards himself.

"This time, we will spar! I am the best at swordsmanship here. I was even the one that created the dojo."

The man stood a little bit straighter and a little more smugly.

"Don't let your guard down, I might end the spar before you expect!"

Apollo tilted his head to the side.

"Ok."

The man pointed towards the elevated wooden stage in the middle.

"We will be using that stage! It will let everyone else see more easily too."

He then hurriedly walked over to the wooden stage. The man was clearly very excited. It seemed like he truly enjoyed sparring with others, but was unable to find someone that could either match or surpass him.

The man got on the stage and turned around.

Apollo casually walked over and stepped onto the wooden stage.

The two looked at each other silently.

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