Chapter 21
“…Ha.”
Maximilian, who had maintained an expressionless face until then, let out a short, hollow laugh.
That lasted only a moment. Then, his face twisting into a bright grin, Maximilian suddenly burst out laughing.
“Hahaha, wahahahaha!!”
After laughing wholeheartedly to his fill, Maximilian only shook his head and sighed once his laughter had finally subsided.
“…All right, I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect that.”
“That’s a bit much.”
“I’m sorry for underestimating you. Clearly, you do possess the skill to match the confidence it takes to stand in my way.”
Maximilian said playfully to Miriam, who had replied in a disgruntled tone.
“The moment I draw my sword, I lose. That condition remains unchanged.”
“….”
“However, my assessment has changed somewhat.”
Maximilian grinned and took up his stance.
“Perhaps I really will lose.”
What a shame. Glancing briefly in my direction, Maximilian muttered under his breath.
“What did you just mutter?!”
“Nothing.”
In response to Miriam’s shout, Maximilian shook his head and answered lightly.
“Anyway. As promised, I yielded the first move….”
Then, the air around Maximilian changed.
“This time, I won’t wait for you.”
-Thud.
Maximilian disappeared.
The spot where he had been standing caved in a beat later, and immediately afterward, Miriam’s body bent sharply into a right angle with a crunch.
Miriam went flying while still bent at the waist and tumbled across the dirt. Maximilian shouted at her fallen form.
“I told you, perhaps I really would lose!”
“…Ngh, kh.”
“In other words, so long as I don’t draw my sword, I’ll give you everything I’ve got and more!”
Maximilian continued shouting as he strode toward the fallen Miriam.
“You’d best not say that this is all you’re capable of!!”
“Of course… I wasn’t going to…!”
Miriam stood up again. Then, breathing heavily, she circulated the mana throughout her entire body in an even thicker layer.
“I still have a long way to go!!”
-Crack, crack-crack-crack!
Miriam’s appearance changed once more. She went from a human with only a little fur sprouting from her body to something closer to a beastfolk.
The fur that had only sprouted below her elbows and knees crept upward as if spreading, while her sharp fangs grew noticeably longer, protruding from her mouth.
Her hands—or rather, her foreclaws—had grown so thick and long that they could be compared to daggers.
Most strikingly, a long, luxuriant tail sprouted from her back. Miriam bent her body forward as far as a real beast would, maintaining her balance with her tail.
“Is that your full strength?”
“All of it!”
Miriam answered curtly. Maximilian nodded and gathered his mana once more.
“Good.”
Maximilian’s mana radiated warmth.
Royal Sun Magic, was it? A special secret magic passed down through the generations of the Marcud family, the royal family of the Magic Kingdom.
Since it was magic that wielded the very power of the sun, the mana he wielded gave off a warm sensation even from a distance.
But it must have been a different story for Miriam, who was standing nearby.
And for good reason.
She was sweating as though she were caught in a downpour.
“Graaah──!!”
Letting out a roar more akin to a beast’s, Miriam charged.
-KABOOM!!
There was a considerable distance between them. Before she could even collide with Maximilian, a thunderous roar suddenly rang out in midair.
“Did she break the sound barrier?!”
Maximilian shouted excitedly as he gathered the overflowing mana into one fist.
Miriam thrust her own fist toward him.
-CLANG!!!
Their fists collided in midair. Beginning with that single clash, an endless exchange of blows followed.
A reckless flurry of attacks that surrendered itself to the beast’s wild instincts collided again and again with thoroughly trained martial arts that evaded and redirected lethal attacks before striking vital points at precisely the right moments.
Naturally, Miriam had taken far more of the clean hits head-on.
But that did not mean Maximilian had come through completely unscathed.
Even a nearly perfect human could not display precision on the level of a computer. Some said that humans could only be called human because they were imperfect. That was an unavoidable limitation of humanity.
The openings he failed to deflect—ones her innate beastly instincts had caught.
Clean hits were gradually accumulating on Maximilian’s body as well. Miriam’s stamina even far surpassed Maximilian’s. He was conserving his stamina by limiting his movements as much as possible and fighting with razor-sharp close-quarters technique, but unlike Miriam, who simply surrendered herself to instinct, Maximilian had to use his mind as well.
He could win if he drew his sword. A magical weapon was practically a knight’s other self. Simply drawing and holding it would allow him to multiply the total amount of power he could exert.
However, he had already promised not to draw his sword.
In other words, he had only two choices left: win with his bare hands, or lose.
“Tch…!”
As though he had instinctively realized that this would not do, he suddenly poured mana through his fingertips.
Not in the form of a beam of light like before, but in the form of a glowing sphere.
It was the sun.
A tiny, miniature sun.
But the amount of mana contained within it was overwhelming.
At least equal to, if not greater than, the fire dragon magic Karen had displayed in the first match.
No, Maximilian’s tiny sun definitely surpassed Karen’s fire dragon in every respect: destructive power, mana volume, safety, and more. The tiny sun even began amplifying its own mana and growing larger.
-Boom…!
Maximilian ‘placed’ that sun directly in front of Miriam.
-Fwoooooosh!!!
The tiny sun exploded in front of Miriam, shining brightly.
“Graaaargh!!”
Faced with the immense heat and explosive force that could be felt even from a distance, Miriam screamed and raised both arms in front of herself.
Maximilian did not miss that opening.
Apparently, he too had been hit by the explosion at close range; part of his forehead and both forearms were charred black.
‘A self-defeating move…!’
It was an obvious gamble, placing even the damage he would suffer on the scales.
Yet it was also a bold and precise move, backed by the confidence that he could at least completely incapacitate his opponent.
‘This is impossible.’
Watching him, I thought to myself,
‘His skill and experience… They don’t belong to a boy that age.’
Even compared to when I was eighteen, he was far stronger. Just how much training had he undergone? Perhaps he had experienced real combat beyond mere sparring from an even younger age than this.
-Crack.
Maximilian’s fist slammed into the center of Miriam’s body. Clear fluid spilled from the corner of her mouth as her body bent into a right angle. In that instant, Maximilian wore a faint smile, as though he had sensed his victory.
But.
‘He overlooked one thing.’
No matter how much real combat he might have experienced, he was ultimately a prince of a nation. The odds that he had ever faced true danger remained low.
There was a strong possibility that he had never once fought a beastfolk beyond the borders.
And as far as I knew, Miriam’s durability in her ‘transformed’ state was….
‘Above that of most beastfolk.’
“…Got you.”
With her body bent at a right angle, her claws dug into the ground to brace herself, and her face twisted with pain,
Miriam grabbed Maximilian’s forearm and grinned through a grimace.
“…Damn it.”
Maximilian muttered under his breath, and immediately afterward his body rose lightly into the air.
-KABOOM!!
Grabbing his forearm and lifting him just like that, Miriam slammed him into the ground.
And not just once.
-Bang! Bang! Bang! KABOOM!
Miriam repeatedly drove Maximilian face-first into the dirt.
As easily as swinging a towel with a stone tied to its end.
“Graaahhhhhhh!!!”
As though this were the final blow, Miriam raised Maximilian high into the air.
And at the very moment she was about to slam him into the ground,
-Slash!!!
A streak of light sliced through Miriam’s shoulder.
“?!”
Miriam twisted her face in pain and let go of Maximilian.
The cut to her shoulder had caused her strength to suddenly drain away.
“Ghurgh….”
Freed from Miriam’s grasp, Maximilian groaned roughly as he rolled across the dirt.
In his hand, he held a magic sword shining with a vivid light.
“…He drew it.”
Charlotte, who had been watching the spar nearby, muttered blankly.
“….”
The other children could not even find their voices as they stared blankly at the scene.
“This is impossible.”
“Did he really… win?”
The Class A students also muttered one after another as though they could not believe it. The only one who did not speak was Ayla.
“…Ha.”
Only belatedly noticing the sword in his own hand, Maximilian let out a sigh, apparently baffled at himself.
Then he returned the sword to the sheath at his waist and spoke quietly.
“If I drew my sword, I would lose… That was our promise, wasn’t it?”
“……!!”
Only then did Miriam let out a deep sigh and slump down where she stood.
“I-I won.”
Miriam muttered breathlessly in a hoarse voice.
The thick fur that had sprouted over Miriam’s limbs receded and disappeared in an instant, returning her to an ordinary human appearance.
Once the thick fur fell away, the wound on her shoulder was reduced to no more than a shallow paper cut.
And when the barrier stone lost its power and the barrier vanished completely, the wound was reduced to something like a scratch from a fingertip.
“…Your Highness!”
Even while panting with an expression of utter exhaustion, Miriam raised her head toward Maximilian and said,
“What a shame!”
“…Huh. Yes.”
Maximilian still wore a dazed expression as he nodded blankly.
Then he muttered so softly that even Miriam could not hear him.
“I wanted to cross swords with a knight called a ‘hero’ at least once…. What a shame.”
Then he turned to Miriam and said,
“I promise you. Next time, I won’t hold back. I’ll draw my sword from the very beginning.”
“…Next time?”
“Yes, next time.”
At Maximilian’s words, Miriam’s eyes began to sparkle.
“At the midterm evaluation for Practical Class in the middle of the first semester—the final stage of that evaluation. I’ll be waiting for you in the class competition.”
“The class competition…!”
Maximilian quietly watched her begin snorting excitedly, then sighed and continued,
“Though there is a prerequisite: you must defeat at least two of Classes B, C, and D.”
“Gasp….”
“You’ll have to do at least that much to make waiting worthwhile for me as well.”
Leaving behind Miriam, who had slumped down and was beaming with an expectant smile, Maximilian turned away.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”