F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 314: A Reasonable Consensus

The discussion in the government meeting hall quickly heated up.

The topic, after all, had already shifted from whether Onimaru Kunitsuna deserved the spot to "who deserved it more".

The Ashen Crown Representative was not in a fantastic mood despite her successful complaint, though.

The more she had to argue with other representatives, the more she realized that they were doing all this because of a mere S-ranker.

It felt degrading.

An S-ranker was still a top-ranker, true, and Onimaru Kunitsuna was not your everyday S-ranker, either.

It was just that, one way or another, he would be overtaken in the future. Perhaps not all of those in this room would be able to.

However, at least half...or more.

Why did they have to give the little bastard so much face?!

The Ashen Crown Representative grew impatient, and soon, she could not take it. The youngsters had long lost their patience, too.

"Enough!" the representative yelled in frustration. "How is this fair? Why do we have to pit ourselves against each other while Onimaru Kunitsuna is waiting as though he’s a seeded individual in a competition? This doesn’t make any sense!"

Caladbolg’s eyes narrowed.

This time, however, Walker spoke up.

"Why does this not make sense? After all, our talent has been chosen by Lord Caladbolg because of his previous achievements for humanity. I believe it’s not a stretch to call him the most qualified out of the five of them, no? The fact that you’re given a chance to even challenge him is ridiculous, yet you want more?"

His words were met with a tidal wave of scoffs.

How was Onimaru the "most" qualified?

Before the sword-tier biased thoughts could simmer in their minds and explode out of their mouths, however, Walker continued:

"The high-stakes, novice duel event that he won without any assistance, and the fact that he defeated Skylar Ashwind, someone a rank higher than him and should have had zero excuse in losing to someone with no background...Imagine what this young man would achieve with proper support? Yet, we’re all ignoring his achievements. Pardon me for being blunt, but what has ’the Four Starblades’ achieved?"

The hall fell silent; no one could respond for a while.

Infuriating as the Iron Lotus Representative’s words were, they were true, yet somehow, there was still indignation and unwillingness to acknowledge in the hearts of the opposition.

"Hmph!" A snort of displeasure broke the silence. "This princess doesn’t like your words, but I must admit that, at this stage, Daru has indeed achieved more feats than this princess did, though mostly because I’m not focusing on achievements but on growth. Still, this princess will not make excuses and acknowledge that, for now, I have indeed achieved less. Don’t you three stuck-up fools agree?"

"Hmph." A young man with short hair and eyes of roaring flames, Gram, only snorted in response.

Another young man, one with a flowing hair of dark wine, only stared at Elara coldly, neither agreeing to nor denying her words.

He was Durandal, Cluster 4, Noravia’s very own SSS-ranker.

"Hahaha!" Chi Xiao cackled. His extremely short, golden chestnut hair was like a partial helm, clinging closely to his head.

His charming, amber, monolid eyes turned to Daru with amusement and interest.

"Oof, that princess’s words are quite cutting," he continued, his playful tone hovering somewhere between genuine admiration and sly mockery, though it was unknown whether it was for Elara, who had been calling herself "this princess" the entire time, or Onimaru Kunitsuna, who turned out to be a mere S-ranker.

"Yeesh, I wouldn’t dare say something so controversial...that’s for sure. Still, I kinda want Onimaru Kunitsuna as my teammate. See the man, the myth, the legend, in action for myself. You guys feel me?"

The entire hall fell silent again.

The Four Starblades...they’re not helping!

Caladbolg knew he had to drive the conversation towards progress, especially since his time was limited.

"If purely on a merit-based perspective, then I can agree. However, we also could not deny that sword-tier is the bread and butter of one’s talents. Onimaru Kunitsuna would have to prove himself."

The other representatives were quite genuinely surprised and pleased.

None of them, much less the guilds behind them, were idiots.

Although Onimaru Kunitsuna’s choice to join Iron Lotus seemed to be borne of natural, biological human greed, there was still a small chance he was the government’s double agent.

Caladbolg being this impartial suggested otherwise.

Naturally, Walker, too, looked at the situation from multiple perspectives. If one asked him whether he trusted Daru, then he would answer not yet.

It would be dumb not to push the interests of a young, malleable talent just because of sheer distrust, though.

After all, they’ve handled moles before, and more than half of them — a considerable number of which are veterans — chose to switch sides with a perfect mix of nice treatment and chilling threats.

They were not worried that a backgroundless, inexperienced Daru Finnley could not be converted fully, even if it turned out that he was a double agent.

This was a game the apex guilds had been playing for a long, long time already, after all.

"But one duel, that’s it. Also, make it quick. I don’t have much time," the exalted elder continued.

The Ashen Crown Representative gritted her teeth.

After all that...weren’t they back to square one?!

The other representatives were frustrated, too, but they at least acknowledged now that they had been overlooking Onimaru Kunitsuna’s achievements way too much.

For a while, the professional battle of sly tongues continued...until a blonde young man’s patience finally snapped.

"I have a suggestion." His slightly irritated voice cut through the chaotic domain of words. Everyone fell silent for a moment, turning to look at him in a swirl of negative emotions.

"How about we settle this in an arena within the Myriad Sword Realm so Big E—... Lord Caladbolg can be on his way? I’ll fight all challengers. However, the use of items during battle will be prohibited, and after each victory, I must be allowed to fully replenish my stamina and hit points, provided by the defeated opponent’s faction. No one may watch the matches aside from a neutral, professional referee and Sir Walker. Furthermore, those I defeat will be monitored by someone from my guild so they cannot inform the others of my abilities through some means. Ah... right." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Daru turned to the three from Iron Lotus with a fiery grin he could not suppress.

"You three are welcome to challenge me, too."

This idea of his...was quite genius, no? How has no one thought of this? Had he been selling his intelligence short all this time?