The banquet ended naturally.
It was nearing its conclusion anyway, and the atmosphere was ruined by the sudden interruption of the female knight, Marquis Roeide.
Now, we were headed to...
"The Royal Training Grounds?"
"Marquis Roeide—Eleanora—requested this from the Emperor. She wants to assess the abilities of the adventurers to determine if we can help with subjugating the eastern Erin's Gorge."
"What a strict knight, huh?"
Though it was late at night, the adventurers were heading toward the outdoor Royal Training Grounds, spurred on by the sudden quest.
---
*Let’s earn the approval of Alpharion Empire's Master, ‘Eleanora von Roeide.’*
---
In the Astria Continent, despite its medieval fantasy setting, women didn’t hold a low status in society. Women could still hold high positions based on their abilities, and it was even possible for them to inherit family titles.
Master, *Eleanora von Roeide*.
She was the heir to the *Duchy of Roeide* and the commander of the *Roeide Knights*.
The *Duchy of Roeide* bordered the eastern region of the Alpharion Empire, adjacent to Erin's Gorge. As a knightly family down to their very bones, the Roeide family had voluntarily taken on the defense of the dangerous eastern lands.
"You got all that information by charming a passing young lady?"
"I didn’t ‘charm’ her."
Chris chuckled while I pouted. That noblewoman had blurted out everything as soon as she received one of my smiles, her eyes glazing over.
"I did manage to learn almost everything I wanted."
The *House of Roeide*.
A founding family of the Empire.
A family that had produced the Empire’s finest knights for generations.
No wonder they had the strength to boldly express their opinions before the Emperor.
The reason the Roeide family crest was the same as Melissa’s family crest was because—
"Melissa’s last name was Roeide."
I thought of *Melissa*, the companion from the Hero's Party with her striking smile and blue hair tied into a ponytail.
She never talked much about her family. The only time she mentioned it was in passing, when we talked about a demon’s tomb in the desert.
A thousand years ago, during a dark time for humanity, *Master Melissa* left her family, even though she was the greatest swordswoman of the continent, to join the Hero’s Party.
Now, her descendant had inherited the title of *Master*.
"So, Melissa's family has continued serving the Alpharion Empire all this time."
The pieces were starting to fit together.
However, I also learned something less pleasant.
The Roeide family’s sore spot.
It was the fact that their ancestor, the greatest knight of the continent a thousand years ago, had lost her name.
The root of the issue was the conflict between *Melissa* and her family head, which led to her leaving the family.
The family head had wanted to gather humanity's remaining forces and create a kingdom to push back against the demons, while Melissa wanted to storm the Demon King's castle and cut off his head.
In the end, both methods had been necessary for humanity's survival.
But Melissa never returned.
She never reconciled with her family head.
Perhaps that’s why, despite the *House of Roeide*’s fame as a founding family of the Alpharion Empire, they weren’t remembered as the family of the ancient hero who saved humanity.
I knew that name.
The full name of *Master Melissa* of the Hero’s Party.
"Melissa von Roeide."
Finally arriving at the training grounds, I looked at *Eleanora von Roeide*, who was standing proudly in the center, ready to test the adventurers' qualifications.
And I smirked.
You think you’re testing our qualifications?
No.
I’m going to test whether you deserve to inherit the title of *Master* from Melissa.
Whether you deserve to reclaim the name of the ancient hero, your ancestor.
I'll be the one to test your qualifications.
---
The Royal Training Grounds, with its open sky, was impressively large. A named battle area?
Several imperial mages were on standby to create barriers, and the Emperor was watching from a platform with his advisors. From the small look of the Emperor’s face in the distance, it seemed like he was looking at me. The slight smile on his face made it clear—this was one of his planned scenarios.
Had he really thought this far ahead?
Rest assured, clever Emperor.
That reckless knight who only believes in her own strength will be thoroughly educated by this great matriarch.
Though it was late at night, floating orbs of magical light illuminated the training grounds like it was midday.
Standing in the center of the grounds, Eleanora surveyed the gathered adventurers and spoke.
"Adventurers from the Stars. I wish to see your abilities. Show me what you’ve got."
Her confident declaration caused murmurs among the vanguard players.
"If we don’t earn her approval, what happens? Do we miss out on the expansion?"
"I don’t think so. The World Quest was triggered. But we’ll probably get less material support. The region we’ll be active in seems to be her family’s territory, so the rewards for monster-hunting quests might be reduced. If she decides her family’s forces can handle the demons on their own, she won’t ask for help from adventurers."
"So, we either have to defeat this knight or at least show enough strength to satisfy her."
*Skada* raid group made the first move.
*Srring.*
*Park Jung-gwon*, the main tank of the Skada team, drew his sword. The weapon in his hand was the *Northern Corps Commander’s Sword*, the second legendary weapon from Astria Online, farmed from the Abyssal Tree.
"If the opponent is a swordswoman, it should be a swordsman who takes her on. Even though this is an event, a 1v1 feels like the right move."
The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.
*Ding.*
---
[Level ???]
[Master Eleanora]
[HP ??? / ???]
---
The named boss interface appeared above Eleanora in the center of the training grounds.
But the information was unclear.
It wasn’t a simple matter of reducing her HP. This was an event boss with a strategy to defeat.
I had seen this kind of stat screen before during fights against ancient heroes, but it was clearly new to the other players.
"What the hell!? Her stats are unknown?"
"That means we won’t know how many hits it’ll take to beat her."
"Don’t underestimate her. She’s a knight NPC at the top level of humanity. Think of her as a raid dungeon boss."
I warned Park Jung-gwon.
While her attack patterns wouldn’t be the same as a raid boss, she was going to be incredibly strong. If she was anything like Master Melissa, she might even be able to take on a corps commander alone. Though in this world governed by systems, things might be different.
"Hmm?"
Though Park Jung-gwon had drawn his sword and stepped into the arena, Eleanora hadn’t drawn hers. She stood in the center of the grounds, arms crossed, eyes closed.
Park Jung-gwon hesitated, sword in hand, and then Eleanora’s voice rang out from her still form.
"Come at me whenever you like. I hope you understand the overwhelming difference in our levels."
Park Jung-gwon’s face turned red with frustration.
"Hmph, is she taunting him?"
"What a knight."
"Park Jung-gwon, are you going to let her get away with that?"
I could hear the Skada raid group members egging him on.
*Click.*
*Whumm.*
Starlight began to shimmer around Park Jung-gwon’s sword.
"Fine. I don’t know how strong this ‘named boss’ is, but—"
And then, like a flash of lightning, he launched himself at Eleanora.
*Swish!*
---
*Clang, clang, clang!*
"W-What is this?"
Park Jung-gwon’s fierce offensive didn’t last long. He was quickly forced into a defensive stance, desperately using his ‘block’ skill to fend off Eleanora’s strikes.
Taking advantage of a slight slackening in Eleanora’s swordsmanship, Park Jung-gwon gritted his teeth and swung his sword. *Swoosh!* The horizontal slash didn’t even come close to hitting Eleanora’s sword. Moving like a ghost, she smoothly evaded his strike, stepping out of his range and bringing her blade up from his blind spot.
*Clang!*
Sweat dripped from Park Jung-gwon’s forehead as he barely managed to block the attack. Was he fighting a ghost? Eleanora’s movements were almost ethereal.
"Dodge! Park Jung-gwon, it’s a dodge check!"
The Skada raid leader, *Skada*, shouted urgently.
"Dodge check!? What the hell?"
Park Jung-gwon was shocked.
At the current level, players’ gear and agility stats had reached significant levels. In the top-tier dungeons, where most of the bosses were massive, dodge checks were rarely required.
"But it’s definitely a dodge check."
Next to me, Chris nodded.
"Yes. It’s just like the third named boss in Forward Base, *Zarkhan*."
I agreed with Chris.
NPCs with agility stats higher than the players’ did trigger dodge checks. If the agility difference was significant, no matter how fast you swung, the attack wouldn’t connect.
But it wasn’t an automatic miss. By adding intention and control to the trajectory of the sword, rather than relying solely on skills, it was still possible to follow and hit. And a skilled vanguard swordsman like Park Jung-gwon definitely knew how to pull off such techniques.
*Swoosh,
clang!*
Eleanora lightly placed her sword along the path of Park Jung-gwon’s thrust, drawing a smooth arc to guide his sword downward. Park Jung-gwon’s face paled as he hurriedly activated a backstep dodge, just barely avoiding Eleanora’s upward slash.
"That—! Rain, isn’t that your technique?"
"Hehe."
I couldn’t help but laugh at Chris’s exclamation. How closely had she been watching me fight?
Though, it wasn’t exactly *my* technique.
It was the swordsmanship of the *Roeide Family*, which I learned from *Melissa*.
A fluid movement that follows the flow of the opponent’s blade, turning it aside effortlessly while simultaneously transitioning into an attack. It’s not something you can do with just a skill.
Even after a thousand years, that swordsmanship has been passed down properly.
That deserves a passing grade.