"…Do you intend to fight alone?"

  Grevil asked me when he saw Alma not even taking her bow.

  "Yeah. Me alone is enough."

  I readied my sword while replying to him.

  …Well since this sword is made by Ruli, I'm not sure if 'alone' is correct here.

  In fact, the reason why the girls aren't fighting is simply because they haven't been in enough battles yet.

  Even Alma likely can't hit with her arrows, and Iris's strength is meaningless if she can't hit the enemy.

  Although amateurs could potentially disturb the opponent's moves… against Grevil, he would probably make use of it and turn it into his favor instead.

  In that case, fighting 1-on-1 without worries of the surroundings gives a better chance at winning instead.

  I actually have a bit of plan, and I need this fight to be 1-on-1 in order to employ that plan.

  "…I suppose whether that's enough or not shall be made clear once this fight begins."

  "Exactly."

  I swing my sword——and rush toward Grevil.

  Grevil matched my movement and swung his sword just right to cross with mine——

  Then our swords clashed with each other.

  Heavy.

  In term of pure strength, high level demons are still stronger.

  However, the techniques put into Grevil's sword are on a whole different level.

  Even though it looks like he's simply pushing forward with brute force, in reality it's done with delicate controls.

  Grevil's sword doesn't allow me when I try to parry his sword, heck, it feels like it's going to take control of my sword instead if I attempt to.

  When I put magical enchants on my sword, he immediately constructs the magic to counter them.

  Outwardly, it looks like I'm simply crossing swords with Grevil, but behind it, a high level magical clashes are happening.

  Grevil's response speed is not actually that fast.

  His foresight is still not quite there from my point of view. There's a considerable time lag between the time I put enchants on my sword and Grevil begins to construct the counter spell.

  However, his strength, physical reinforcement and the difference in amount of mana put into our enchants bury the gap in techniques and foresights.

  The spell Grevil cast after I had read him ahead and cast a spell to counter that spell still ended up losing in power——

  It has only been 12 years since I was reborn, however Grevil has been keeping up with his training for thousands of years.

  His raw mana and strength cannot be compared at all to mine.

  And Grevil is making maximum use of that advantage to gain the upper hand over me——

  However, there's still an opening I can utilize.

  "Mu!?"

  Grevil looked taken aback when I made it looked like I relaxed the strength I put on my sword for an instant.

  Of course, I haven't actually relaxed my strength. My sword would immediately have gotten pushed back if I did.

  I relaxed my strength for truly an instant.

  Most people except those who have greatly polished their battle prowess would have missed it.

  However, Grevil's sense was sharp enough to notice it.

  As such, he was bewildered by the odd move I made.

  Even with all the training he undertook, this level of push-and-pull should still be new to him.

  His bewilderment was shown on his sword.

  That was enough for me to change the flow of battle.

  Making use of that very small opening, I slightly altered my sword's angle and parried away Grevil's sword.

  Then I take an attack pose and point my sword at Grevil who has broken out of his posture.

  "Kuh…"

  Grevil noticed his blunder and immediately took a defensive pose.

  But I had anticipated that as well.

  I pretended to take the attack pose to prevent Grevil from pushing forward to attack.

  I leaped several steps back as Grevil took the defensive pose in front of me.

  Continuing to attack here would have been pointless anyway.

  "…Are you really a kid? The exchange just now felt like I was facing off against master."

  Grevil's tone changed.

  Unlike the theatrical tone he had been using——it's his real tone.

  "As you can see, I'm but a kid."

  I ready my sword after saying that——

  Grevil really has gotten quite strong in the thousand years I was absent.

  Grevil was hopelessly talentless in magic.

  His magic circuits were thin from birth, his mana quality was extremely low, and even his growth from gaining experience point was slow.

  His crest is like the past me, the Glory Crest——the weakest crest for combat.

  And yet Grevil's mana was only a bit better than other crests at augmentations, even though his crest was supposed to be the best at it.

  Nevertheless, as a royalty, Grevil kept earnestly training to become stronger.

  I have no idea why such a man is fighting me here now——but the fact that he's become this strong despite the situation he was in deserves a praise.

  "Now then… How should I go about this."