Mushoku Tensei: Sword, Magic Hats, and the Romance System [141]

“Let me see for myself—what makes a King-level [Longsword of Light].”

Allen shut off his perception of sound and made no attempt to suppress his killing intent.

In that moment, immersed in the extremity of his focused [Perception Flow], he let it all go.

Faint tremors rippled from his throat, spreading outward like ripples over a dark, viscous lake.

That was his sharpness.

His killing intent.

It struck against the darkness five meters ahead—

Struck against—

That white thread of killing intent—barely suppressed yet still trembling—emanating from Ghislaine!

Killing intent.

Clash.

Each wave stirred the other.

Then came the boil.

In that instant, the surrounding darkness roiled like murky water pierced by a red-hot iron rod, bubbling madly under the assault of pure killing intent.

It swelled. Shuddered.

Waves surged—roaring high into a crashing tide.

And amid that howl—

Another tremor, from another throat, responded in kind.

“Good!”

All the bubbles burst in unison.

White lines swam through the darkness, trailing arcs of light—

—and in the blink of an eye, one had reached Allen’s flank.

Too fast. Far too fast for him to react.

It forcefully shoved him out of his [Perception Flow].

Color returned to the world.

And the blood-hued blade, as if skipping space entirely, was already poised at his abdomen.

---

Rudeus was watching.

This time, he stared with eyes wide open. He refused to miss it again—the top-tier Sword God technique that Allen and Paul had spoken of so often these past two years.

As a transmigrator, he understood full well just how extraordinary this world of sword and sorcery truly was.

Especially when he cast spells—the mana surging through his body always left him with the illusion that magic was omnipotent.

Even if the highest magic he could use was only Saint-rank.

But swordsmanship?

In this world, swordsmen outranked magicians—in power and in stature. They could split stone with wooden blades, defying all reason.

And the Sword God techniques, the ones on the same level as Allen’s utterly unfathomable [Perception Flow]…

What were they like?

This—this was a King-level [Longsword of Light].

He stared fixedly at Ghislaine. At the blade at her waist.

Then, his mind went blank.

What kind of experience was that?

As if one moment he stood amidst the clamor of a bustling city—and the next, the world had fallen into silence.

He hesitated. Then realized—

No, it wasn’t that the world had gone silent.

At that very moment of confusion, Ghislaine’s figure vanished from his sight.

Crap! He missed it again!

He whipped his head around, trying to look toward Allen—

But in that very instant, a deafening shockwave exploded through the air! The whistling wind roared outward from where Allen stood, surging in all directions like a visible shockwave.

Before he could even make sense of the scene, the gusts of upturned dust stung his eyes.

In the violent wind, the familiar ringing in his ears came—belatedly, this time.

Rudeus squeezed his eyes shut. Then, a flash of realization:

It hadn’t been silence just now.

He had gone deaf.

The sonic boom from the sword cleaving through the air had struck him with such force, it robbed him of hearing for a moment.

The blade was even faster than before. That’s why the ringing was delayed too.

Rudeus forced his eyes open.

And he saw the source of the wind.

In his line of sight—

Tree leaves fluttered and fell from above.

Through the falling leaves—

Allen stood perfectly still.

Blade in hand, extended before him.

And at the tip of that blade—

Another blade was hovering.

Held in Ghislaine’s hand.

Once again, Allen had placed his sword precisely where it needed to be.

Once again, with that beyond-comprehension [Perception Flow]—

He had judged the exact point of the strike.

Rudeus stared, eyes wide.

His hearing slowly returned. Eris’s cheers rang out beside him, growing clearer and louder by the second.

They tugged at his own emotions, lifting them with each syllable.

He too wanted to shout. To let out the storm that was churning in his chest.

That was a King-level [Longsword of Light]—and Allen had blocked it.

Didn’t that mean his ability—

Then Allen’s voice drifted through the air—light as a whisper—yet it made Rudeus’s expression freeze.

Just two words.

“Too bad.”

The tone was cold. Discontent. And tinged with regret.

Not the words of someone gloating over victory.

No, more like—

Something he said to himself.

---

At the heart of the shockwave, Allen’s disheveled bangs fluttered down before his eyes.

He lowered his gaze.

Ghislaine’s blade was suspended, perfectly halted at his waist.

Exactly like her first Saint-level [Longsword of Light].

Still fifteen centimeters.

Not a hair’s difference.

So why the gale?

Because she had forcibly stopped her sword fifteen centimeters from Allen’s body.

She’d canceled her momentum—but the force of the swing didn’t just vanish. It poured into the air, bursting outward like a detonation.

Across from him, Ghislaine stared in astonishment at Allen’s blade, which rested horizontally before her own. Her expression was one of open admiration—utterly unguarded.

Allen merely shook his head and spoke again.

“Too bad.”

Ghislaine’s tail flicked from side to side.

“Too bad? You’re being modest, aren’t you? Honestly, the fact that you could track the point of impact from the [Longsword of Light] again—it completely blew me away.”

“I’ve never seen a Saint-ranked swordsman who could see my [Longsword of Light]. No—not even King-ranked. My opponents at that level always responded based on their knowledge of the technique, either dodging in advance or slipping outside its range. No one—not a single one—has ever accurately predicted where it would land.”

“Not even those Water God Style users I’ve fought before.”

That reminded Allen of the original work—of the time Ghislaine, freshly transported to the forest’s edge after the Displacement Incident, had sliced a charging Sword Saint cleanly into chunks in her berserker state.

The man hadn’t even had time to raise his weapon.

This was the [Longsword of Light] from Ghislaine—the Empire-class gatekeeper.

From behind came the hurried footfalls of Eris and Rudeus.

Allen lifted his blade accordingly—

Letting them see.

Sunlight spilled across his blade, casting a chill gleam—and with it, a presence that made the air around him freeze.

It was Allen’s killing intent—no longer held back, no longer suppressed. That dormant, unborn sword force now spilled freely from him, naked and raw.

Eris flinched, skidding to a halt, her heels digging into the dirt. She frowned, hesitated, and cast a cautious glance at Allen—then at Ghislaine, who was quietly returning her blade to its sheath.

“What was that just now?! Why did you say ‘too bad’? Who even won?”

As she spoke, a flicker of light from Allen’s blade caught her eye.

Reflexively, she turned toward it.

His sword.

He gave a slight twist of his wrist, and the sunlight ran the length of the blade—glinting sharply at one spot halfway down.

That was what had dazzled her.

Eris blinked, narrowed her eyes, and looked again.

There, at the midpoint of the blade—

A small notch glinted amid the shifting light.

To a fellow swordswoman, its meaning was obvious.

That was—

A cut.

A divot—left by a blade strike.

---

This is a fan translation of 无职转生：剑，魔法帽与恋爱系统 by 意外火灾 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!