Chapter 22
“Midterm evaluation!”
Miriam shouted, practically bursting with excitement. But she was the only one.
The other Class E students, thoroughly dispirited, kept staring down at the floor.
Once all the sparring with Class A was over, Class A immediately returned to the classroom, while Class E decided to remain in the sparring grounds a little longer.
It was a suggestion I had made, not Rex.
Unlike the Class A students, who didn't seem to have much to correct from the practical exercise, I wanted to have our classmates try a few more things.
“Coach! When is the midterm evaluation?!”
“It hasn’t been decided yet.”
I briefly reined in the excited Miriam, then turned to the other three.
“Shall we go over each of your fighting styles in turn and give you some feedback?”
“F-feedback?”
Where had the Miriam who had been jumping for joy at the prospect gone? She immediately recoiled instead.
Maybe sitting still and discussing things just wasn’t her thing.
“All right, let’s focus.”
I soothed Miriam again, then turned my gaze to Kariya.
“Let’s start with Kariya.”
“…I don’t think there was anything.”
Surprisingly, Charlotte was the first to answer. As if trying hard to feign composure, she continued, lowering her gaze oddly.
“First of all, he was the only one among us who won. He didn’t fight under a handicap, nor did he struggle, and he consistently demonstrated quick and decisive judgment.”
“But I won too!”
“You had a handicap.”
Charlotte snapped at Miriam. Leaving the crestfallen Miriam behind, Charlotte continued.
“Anyway… I don’t think there was anything in particular that Kariya needs to correct.”
“Yes, thank you for the sincere feedback.”
I nodded and lightly applauded. Only the fidgety Miriam joined in.
Feeling slightly awkward, I looked at Kariya again and asked.
“Then, what do you think, Kariya?”
“…Unexpected.”
Kariya gave a brief assessment.
“What do you mean by unexpected?”
“It means you rated me more highly than I expected.”
But contrary to his words, Kariya did not look particularly pleased.
“But I disagree. That woman… no. Karen let her guard down again this time.”
“Did she?”
Miriam asked as if she didn’t understand what he meant.
“It didn’t really look that way.”
“I-I agree.”
Charlotte said, somewhat flustered.
“If anything, she gave it her all to face you. Especially that last spell, the one shaped like a fire dragon….”
“That’s precisely the problem.”
Kariya shook his head at Charlotte’s words.
“The basis for her certainty that that spell would decisively subdue me. That is what I call arrogance.”
“You could say her confidence was somewhat rash, but even so….”
“Do you know what the first thing a mercenary thrown into a life-or-death situation learns is?”
Kariya threw out the question unexpectedly, looking around at not only Charlotte, but also Miriam and me.
I briefly checked Charlotte and Miriam’s expressions, then calmly opened my mouth.
In case they noticed it first and answered.
“To always keep something in reserve?”
“…Oh.”
Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to answer. Kariya looked at me, somewhat surprised, then nodded awkwardly, as though flustered.
“…Just as you said, Instructor.”
Kariya stumbled awkwardly over the honorifics, then cleared his throat and continued with forced effort.
“Expending all one’s strength must be a last resort, reserved for the very final moment. Karen spent three fireballs unleashing offensive magic, yet still had more than a dozen fireballs left. That means she had plenty in reserve.”
“Oh, so that’s what you meant.”
Miriam muttered as if she understood. Instead of answering, Kariya gave her a brief nod.
“Since you seem to understand, I’ll explain it briefly. In other words, rather than recklessly using a massive spell all at once in an attempt to finish me with a single blow, she would have been far better off using several spells equal to or slightly stronger than the first to steadily pressure me.”
“But….”
“If her opponent had been Instructor Haru instead of me, she would not have acted that way.”
Kariya stated this decisively, as if driving a final nail into Charlotte’s attempted rebuttal.
“If she had truly taken it seriously… I would have been the one to lose.”
Charlotte, who seemed to have something to say, soon lowered her head as if conceding the point.
“M-Miss Charlotte? Is there something else you wanted to say….”
“No, Instructor.”
Despite my prompting, Charlotte shook her head.
“Kariya is right. I suppose my thinking was shallow.”
“…Yes. If that is what you think, then I’m glad.”
It left me somewhat uneasy, but this wasn’t the time for one-on-one attention. I moved on to the feedback for the next person….
‘Come to think of it, Charlotte was up next after Kariya.’
Especially with the atmosphere already awkward.
“Th-then… Miss Charlotte?”
To make matters worse, hadn’t Charlotte’s spar been practically a humiliating defeat? Compared to Kariya, who had shown an excellent result, she had fallen far short—and Kariya had even said his own victory had been nothing more than good luck.
“First, regarding Miss Charlotte’s spar… does anyone want to say how they saw it?”
“….”
Kariya looked back and forth between Charlotte and me for a moment, then clamped his mouth shut entirely. I briefly thought it was fortunate that he had at least some awareness of the situation.
Then Miriam, who lacked even that much tact, shot her hand up, and after looking at her for a moment, I nodded.
“Yes, Miss Miriam….”
“Before that, I have a question for FM… no. Miss Charlotte!”
Miriam blurted that out and strode right up to Charlotte.
“W-what is it?”
“Why do you use something as ill-suited to you as an axe for a weapon?”
It felt as though the air had frozen solid with a sharp crack ringing in my ears.
At Miriam’s reckless charge, with absolutely no brakes, even Kariya whipped around to stare at her, his eyes flashing dangerously.
Charlotte merely blinked, her face bright red, whether from embarrassment or anger.
“W-what do you mean….”
“Exactly what I said.”
Miriam nodded calmly as she pulled back from Charlotte.
“A battle-axe is a weapon that doesn’t suit you, is it?”
“….”
“The defining tactics of standard lightning-element magic are high-speed movement and hit-and-run attacks. Miss Charlotte seemed to use lightning-aspected mana in much the same way, so why use a weapon like a battle-axe that is not only unnecessarily heavy, but also has such an extremely off-center balance….”
“This is…!”
Cutting Miriam off, Charlotte shouted sharply. Startled, Miriam closed her mouth and blinked.
“Th-this axe was a weapon my grandfather gave me.”
With tears glistening in her eyes from dismay, Charlotte stammered.
After staring blankly at her for a moment, Miriam’s face slowly turned deathly pale.
‘Oh no. This is bad.’
“If my skills are lacking, I’ll accept that and work harder.”
Charlotte forced herself to continue, her voice thick with tears.
“But I absolutely cannot accept being told to throw away this weapon.”
“…Uh-oh.”
Miriam looked utterly flustered and fidgeted helplessly.
“S-sorry.”
“…It’s all right.”
Fortunately, Charlotte quickly calmed down.
“You couldn’t have known.”
“…Okay.”
Miriam gave a short reply, then obediently returned to her seat.
Kariya shot her a look of exasperation.
‘But what Miriam said itself was objectively correct.’
In fact, she had pinpointed the problem with Charlotte just as accurately as I had. For a moment, I almost thought Miriam had read my mind with magic.
‘But a gift from her grandfather….’
After pondering for a moment, I spoke to Charlotte.
“But, Miss Charlotte.”
“…Yes?”
“There’s something I’d like to ask you. Is that all right?”
Charlotte nodded. I considered my words for a moment, then asked her.
“Does it have to be an axe, specifically?”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m curious why you insist on using an axe, Miss Charlotte.”
“W-what do you mean?”
Charlotte stammered in a flustered voice, as though she had never expected to hear such a thing from me.
“I’m not saying you should throw away your axe…. I want to know how you truly feel, Miss Charlotte. Are you insisting on using this weapon to the end simply because it was a gift from your grandfather? Or do you want to wield an axe as a magic knight because it is the same kind of weapon used by your respected grandfather?”
“Insisting?”
Charlotte, flustered by my words, soon mumbled, trailing off at the end.
“I don’t think that’s… the case.”
“Then why not use a lighter axe?”
“Even if you suggest a lighter axe… Combat axes are generally long-handled, and they need their weight to….”
“There is one.”
I immediately shook my head. Then I said briefly,
“A tomahawk.”
The moment I said that, Kariya suddenly clapped his hands and said,
“A tomahawk! That’s a good weapon. It’s perfectly serviceable when wielded, and it has good balance, so it flies well when thrown. I used to favor one myself when I was a hunter….”
Kariya had been speaking with a smile, apparently excited, but belatedly cleared his throat and trailed off.
“…Ahem. Excuse me.”
“Did you get excited because you finally knew something?”
“Shut up!”
As Kariya shouted at the snickering Miriam, I turned back to Charlotte.
“…Well, it’s just a suggestion. Since it’s still an axe, I don’t think it would stray too far from the meaning of carrying on your grandfather’s legacy.”
But Charlotte hesitated before saying,
“…But a tomahawk.”
“True, it is a relatively crude weapon. Is that what bothers you?”
“Th-that’s not it!”
Charlotte quickly shot Kariya a sidelong glance and shook her head. I nodded and reached a hand behind my waist.
“No, no. I understand. It is certainly a somewhat crude weapon for a magic knight to use.”
“….”
“But, Miss Charlotte.”
In front of her, I drew my magic sword.
“My weapon is a katana.”
I lightly swung the sword I had drawn, its blade shortened to about a meter, through the air and continued.
“A traditional weapon of the eastern provinces. But people in the royal capital often describe it this way: a weapon made by somehow bending and folding the crude iron of the East, an art piece with no value beyond its beauty. A weapon used only by halfwits obsessed with appearances, liable to snap or bend outright whenever it clashes with a straight sword.”
“I-I don’t think that….”
“And yet, I insist on using this weapon.”
I withdrew the blade and continued.
“Because the first weapon my master ever gave me was a katana.”
“Your master, Instructor?”
“Yes. Though that one had a much shorter hilt than this one and an ordinary blade. It wasn’t completely bladeless like this one.”
As I spoke while remembering that time, a smile naturally spread across my face.
“The weapon I had back then… and the one I use now. I used the former well, and I use the latter well, too. Because my master left them to me.”
“….”
“What matters isn’t how other people perceive the weapon… but the heart and will of the person using it. That’s what I believe.”
Having finished speaking, I fastened the hilt at the back of my waist again.
“Well, that’s all I meant! I’m not trying to force you, so you can just ignore me. Or I’d be grateful if you would simply think about it at your leisure! Ahaha….”
As the awkwardness finally sank in, I forced myself to wrap things up cheerfully, then turned my gaze to the next person.
“Th-then, let’s move on! Let’s go to Miss Roxanna.”
And immediately after finishing those words, I realized.
Ah, one thing after another.