# Enhanced Translation
I heard that all so-called 'trained' agents embed countless intentions in even the smallest actions. Like when an angry Ivan calls Pavel down from beneath the statue.
It was unforgivable to speak of the Royal Guard's years of service as meaningless while daring to look down on him from a platform in front of the former king's statue.
But simultaneously, he needed to hold his opponent's attention to eliminate variables. In situations where you don't know the opponent's objective or what "move" they've prepared, minimal variables bring maximum results.
And that meant.
'He has an accomplice.'
The same applies to his opponent. Pavel is also a 'trained' agent, after all.
The very act of trying to persuade Ivan, or inflaming his anger, carries the intention of keeping him fixed in this location.
Furthermore, confronting Ivan head-on implies the existence of an accomplice. Pavel must know he can't face Ivan and carry out a terrorist attack simultaneously.
"..."
Ivan kept his gaze fixed while scanning his surroundings. Looking for something out of place among the festival-goers and the crowd encircling him. To be precise...
'A gaze.'
This isn't some special sixth sense. Most people are sensitive to others watching them. It's a basic sense everyone is born with. A fundamental sense possessed by all prey animals, or social creatures.
And humans are a species that excels at technically developing the senses that nature has selected.
'Three.'
Merely feeling a gaze doesn't allow one to calculate the observer's position and direction completely.
But humans aren't statues. Even in moments when we think we're standing still, we're always moving microscopically due to breathing, emotions, and surrounding circumstances.
With sufficient training, even these characteristics can be technically developed.
It's a technique of letting subtle changes in visual angle flow naturally, keeping one's gaze fixed on the opponent as if nailed in place, while analyzing the background using only peripheral vision.
The suspects calculated this way totaled three.
Now, there was only one way to confirm their identities.
-Click.
His hand, turned behind him, gripped the pistol. With the cold noise of metal pieces rubbing together,
Pavel, having recognized the sound, tracked his hand movement with his eyes and lowered his stance.
0.1 seconds. A reaction below the comma second. Superhuman combat begins in such brief moments, with just the eyes and reactions of both parties.
-BANG—!!
As soon as he confirmed that what emerged from Ivan's sleeve was a pistol, confusion spread across Pavel's face.
A mere pistol can't harm a superhuman. And besides, turning the muzzle toward the sky—
'The sky...?'
Pavel's expression hardened. He leaped almost simultaneously as the pistol in Ivan's hand spat fire.
The belt around his waist came undone.
-Chink, chink, chink.
With the sound of chains wrapping, the belt in Pavel's hand somehow took on an elongated form and solidified. A product of magical engineering.
[Dragon Strike Spear, Olov's Needle]
By the time Pavel had rushed to Ivan's face, a fully formed spear was already gripped in his hand.
-Whoosh—.
Before the surrounding crowd could even react. In slowed time where even the fluttering of a bystander's sleeve was visible in detail. In this frozen moment.
The spear blade shot forward. Faster than sound,
Ivan's pupils flowed along the movement of the spear shaft from beginning to end.
A blackened dagger, an ordinary military knife, spun in his grip and firmly locked in place.
-CLANG!!
The clash of superhumans had begun.
In between moments of time. In that gap where instants pause and split seconds freeze.
With gazes, magical power, senses, and rage.
Superhuman combat isn't mythical. It's not a fantasy battle of grand hand techniques and strange ultimate moves intertwining.
Rather, their bare reality is more desperate. Intervals, moments, fragments of time. It's a struggle to make even a single contact with the opponent's body in those spaces.
It's because of relative time. Even if bundled in the same category of "superhuman," individual skill levels naturally differ.
There are clear limits to neural acceleration through magical power. The time one can harness cannot exceed physical limitations.
However, even for superhumans, shortening records of 0.1 seconds or 0.01 seconds with a human body is a constant grinding against one's own limits.
Therefore, there's superiority in the intervals between superhumans. Not everyone can live in the same time, after all. Some can move faster, more precisely, and more meticulously than others.
-CLANG!!
The spear flies in like a comb's teeth, aiming for Ivan's nape.
Ivan draws his dagger, twists and deflects the spear shaft, turning his gaze.
Pavel's eyes reflected dismay and anger. To roughly grasp its meaning:
'Why? And how dare you?'
Different emotions but the same cause. He was furious that Ivan had wasted his first strike.
In superhuman combat, the first strike has a different meaning. It was a kind of strategic ambush that occurs before the intervals of time could be settled.
This was evident in how Ivan had been focusing solely on defense since losing the initial advantage. For a long time after their fierce battle began, Ivan couldn't easily escape from his defensive position.
-CLANG!
Facing a long spear with just a dagger is in the realm of acrobatics. Pavel had to admit it. Ivan's skill had far surpassed the rookie level he remembered from that childhood long ago.
That's why he was angry.
How dare he concede the first strike to the Captain of the Royal Guard? Firing into the sky? Even if there wasn't much a pistol could do, even so.
Arrogant. And now Ivan was paying the price for it.
-CLANG! CLANG! SCRAPE!!
Swinging, slashing, shooting—spear thrusts targeting the nape, both shoulders, heart, solar plexus, abdomen, and both thighs almost simultaneously.
The extreme of technique one person can master with a single weapon. A skill that touches the essence of that limit.
But at the same time, Ivan's eyes track the path of every strike.
-THUD! SCREECH!
Pavel had to admit it. That his opponent's magical enhancement of neural pathways was superior.
Occasionally, even he, wielding the spear, couldn't track certain strikes with his dynamic vision, yet Ivan was responding to every attack while watching them fully with both eyes. A monstrous set of nerves indeed.
But the gap in prepared armaments offsets all of that. When you have the first strike and wield a long spear, when your opponent has just a single dagger.
Even if that opponent were the Hero Maximillian, victory would be discussable...!
-CLANG!!
The dagger that deflected the spear blade shook violently.
It's not a matter of reach difference. It's a matter of power.
The reason a long weapon can exert more force isn't because the one wielding it has superior muscle strength.
In the process of concentrating muscle strength at the tip, a long weapon can fully utilize centrifugal force and thrust. With a certain level of technique, the potential a dagger can draw out can be treated as "mere."
The very fact that Ivan is blocking the spear blade with just a single dagger at this moment should rather be called a miracle.
-SCRAPE, CRACK.
With a cold sound, the base of the dagger blade breaks off and falls.
The blade, leaving the superhuman timeframe, tumbled toward the ground in a slow trajectory.
"It's over, Ivan...!"
Unlike a standard issue dagger, the Dragon Strike Spear is an heirloom of the Olov family. The quality of its craftsmanship is different. In other words, Ivan's defeat was as good as determined from the start of the battle...
-Click.
The muzzle of the pistol lightly rose to the tip of the incoming spear blade.
"Now I've seen it all. Pavel."
Ivan took his eyes off the spear blade and was staring directly into Pavel's eyes.
Seen it? Seen what?
Pavel's eyes wavered. Of course, since the beginning of the battle, Ivan's gaze had always followed the spear blade... which was certainly remarkable dynamic vision, but...
-BANG—!!
Sparks fly from the gun muzzle positioned on the spear blade.
The spear blade, hit by the bullet, wobbled, its trajectory twisted.
It grazed near Ivan's cheek, struck the air, and only then stopped.
Throughout this, Ivan stood motionless, looking into Pavel's eyes. As if he knew with certainty that the strike would miss.
Despite being within "range" where a single flick of the wrist could have blown his entire head off.
With ice-blue eyes, staring deeply at Pavel.
"According to the laws of the Royal Guard, I, Ivan Petrovich, will demand the price of betrayal from former Guard Captain Pavel Sergeyevich Olov."
Click, with the sound of metal pieces rubbing together, Ivan raised the pistol, gripped it firmly, and glared at Pavel.
"I hereby relieve Guard Captain Pavel Sergeyevich Olov of his position."
-BANG—!!
Enrique had occasionally explained to her student Lucia about the Hero Party of those days.
The one who walked at the very front, Maximillian.
The one who stood most upright, Gilbert.
The most ferocious one, Einar.
The most annoying bastard, Beolgrin.
The slightly creepy woman, Patricia.
The world's most beautiful assassin, Enrique. (Her own claim.)
And,
"The one with the best eyes."
"Best eyes?"
"Yes. He was like that even when he was inexperienced. You know how human instinct tends to make us close our eyes when in danger."
That's why from the basic level, they train reflexes to become insensitive to blades or fists. To not turn away from a blade rushing toward your face.
Ivan never needed that from the beginning.
"Even when all his other skills were unremarkable, he was naturally gifted in the way he saw things."
Being good at seeing means learning quickly. He never needed combat techniques or survival skills demonstrated twice.
Other talents didn't stand out. He wasn't particularly strong or particularly fast.
But when it came to 'vision' alone, it was truly transcendent.
Because he could do his part just by seeing.
"That's why we all thought he was part of the same party."
The Hero Party consists of seven people. Including the scout, Ivan. Because we thought so.
When we actually arrived at the Demon King's castle, we were shocked by the absence of our scout more than once.
Now it's all memories.
"But Master, what do you mean by 'seeing'?"
"He learns by seeing once. That guy."
It's not about learning. It's not about being able to perfectly imitate either. If he had such talent, he would have been a Hero.
So, Ivan's talent is closer to the meaning of not forgetting what he has seen once. From the moment he truly 'sees' something, he never falls for the same attack or the same trick again.
That guy occasionally used strange vocabulary like 'pattern recognition,' but whatever.
"And you know what he says? 'A trained agent doesn't fall for the same thing twice.' That's what he says!"
What kind of agent receives such training! she'd say.
Enrique would cackle with laughter.