Chapter 38
‘Why….’
Steam billowed from his bright-red, overheated forehead.
Sweating buckets, Kariya muttered repeatedly to himself.
‘Why can’t I find an opening?!’
Even after driving her that hard.
Despite attacking her relentlessly without a moment’s pause, Haru showed not the slightest sign of fatigue and remained calm.
Even the wooden sword was completely intact.
By this point, Charlotte had not only scorched the wooden sword black, but had even driven her tomahawk into it.
Kariya glanced back at Roxanna.
As he had initially ordered, Roxanna dutifully replenished her stock of bombardment magic while firing delayed buckshot spells.
She was panting in short, labored breaths, as though even that was beginning to tax her, but she still showed no sign of being meaningfully tired.
“Hyaaaah!!”
-Kagaang!!!
Miriam was… not merely fine; she was practically flying.
‘Damn it. Trying to keep three people’s thoughts running in parallel instead of just my own… it’s draining my stamina far more than I expected.’
It was such a grueling pace that he was almost tempted to hand the class representative position over to Charlotte.
That was understandable, since Kariya had been a lone wolf during his mercenary days. He had never had anyone he could call a comrade, and even when he happened to accompany someone on a job, his default had been to look after only himself, so it was no wonder he wasn’t used to this.
But.
‘I can’t do that, if only for the sake of my pride…!’
Kariya muttered inwardly and tightened his grip on the chain swords.
“Hey, Roxanna!”
“Y-yes!”
“That thing, what’s it called? The one that uses three fireballs! The one that bends its trajectory and flies wherever it damn well pleases!”
“D-do you mean the Yasakani no Magatama…?”
“Yeah, that one. I don’t know why the magic names used by the royal capital’s nobles are in an eastern style, but anyway, I mean that magic with the familiar name.”
Kariya said, layering mana thickly over his chain swords.
“Use that from now on.”
“B-but my stamina….”
“You don’t need to use it as often! Just use it to keep her in check!”
Kariya shouted again at Roxanna, who hesitated.
“It’s not like we have that much time left anyway.”
Muttering, Kariya kicked off the ground and charged.
In the direction opposite Miriam, who was already crossing swords with Haru. It was the simplest formation, but all the more effective for it: a pincer attack.
“Hngh!!”
Kariya gritted his teeth and let out a battle cry. Holding the two chain swords parallel and upright, he slashed them down diagonally.
Haru, who had been tracking him from the corner of her eye, twisted her entire body.
-Kaanng!!
The wooden sword she had swung at Kariya blocked his chain swords, while she answered Miriam’s flurry with her bare hand.
A pincer formation without any prior coordination was this easy to counter. It was exactly what Haru had pointed out to Kariya moments ago.
‘But…!’
That didn’t mean Kariya intended to go down without a fight.
Using the wooden sword that had blocked his strike as a foothold, Kariya forcefully pushed off against the crossed blades and leaped backward.
Haru said as she looked at Kariya floating in midair.
“Going up into the air like that on your own isn’t a particularly good strategy, is it?”
“Look over here!!”
Still blocking Miriam’s flurry with her bare hand, Haru said to Kariya,
“There’s nothing easier to hit than a target suspended in midair with no ground to stand on.”
A blood-origin magic circle formed at the tip of the wooden sword pointed at Kariya.
The gathering blood transformed into the shape of a stake. It was one variation of Blood Cannon, Haru’s primary spell—nearly the equivalent of a basic attack.
Blood Spear Cannon, an improved version that maximized its piercing power at a single point and its physical destructive force.
“How about this?”
Yet even with the sharp-pointed red stake before him, Kariya remained calm. Instead, he faced Haru with an air of confidence, even wearing a self-assured smile.
-Fwoom!!
Something flew through the air, cutting through the wind. It wasn’t Haru’s Blood Spear Cannon, but one of Kariya’s chain swords.
“Without even taking a ready stance…?”
Haru was startled, but quickly composed herself.
“As expected, sometimes I get a nasty shock when I think of them as ordinary students.”
-Clatterrrrr…!
Watching the chain sword fly toward her, its long chain streaming behind it like a tail, Haru muttered softly.
“I see what you’re after. You’re going to catch my wooden sword, aren’t you?”
-Gloop.
The Blood Spear Cannon, now fully solidified, sank back into the blood-origin magic circle as if taking a step backward.
The retreat resembled the loading of a weapon; a metallic click would have suited it.
“But I have a means of my own….”
“I won’t let you do that!!”
At that moment, Miriam shouted and leaped over Haru’s head.
Her thick, razor-sharp claws, brimming with mana, jabbed into the center of the blood-origin magic circle and ripped it apart.
“Oh, no…!”
Leaving the flustered Haru behind, the Blood Spear Cannon left the blood-origin magic circle of its own accord and flew toward Kariya.
A single-shot spell fired without even proper aim had no chance of hitting. Kariya lightly tilted his head in midair to evade the Blood Spear Cannon, while the chain sword that flew in at the same time wrapped tightly around Haru’s wooden sword.
-Clink-clatter…!
“Oh dear….”
Haru let out a troubled groan. Three fireballs flew toward her, spinning one after another as though chasing each other’s tails.
-Kwoooom!!!
“Yes!”
Kariya cheered before he could stop himself.
He had thought it would be enough if Roxanna merely did a good job of keeping Haru in check, but he never expected her to pull off such a powerful strike.
Having set foot on the ground again, Kariya immediately grabbed the chain with his free hand and pulled it taut.
‘Now, if I join forces with Miriam and focus on attacking the wooden sword…!’
“…What a shame.”
Haru spoke softly from within the billowing, acrid smoke.
“Everything was going well, but the finishing touch was just a little lacking.”
“Ghk…!”
-Zzt….
At the feel of his heel scraping along the dirt, Kariya grimaced.
‘What… wh-what kind of strength…!’
He had thought they would at least be evenly matched in strength, but even that had been a misconception. Even in pure physical power, the gap had already grown to a level he could not approach.
Kariya did not know that even in their spar on the first day, Haru had held back considerably while fighting him. Thus, any predictions based on that first spar were inevitably far off the mark.
He had expected her physical strength to be, at best, roughly on par with his own, perhaps a little greater. What he had thought put her leagues above him was her skill and experience with the sword, along with her skill at manipulating magic and mana.
Even the strategy of binding the wooden sword with his chain swords to restrict its movement, thereby shutting down those advantages and forcing the fight into one of pure strength, had been completely overturned in this moment.
“If I had to pick the most disappointing part… it would be Miss Roxanna’s magic. The timing of its use was quite poor.”
Haru pulled Kariya toward her with the wooden sword held in one hand and glanced toward where Roxanna stood.
“Even if we leave the details for later, there must have been a better way to make use of Miss Roxanna’s bombardment magic. That part is a shame.”
-Krrk…!!
Haru slowly pulled the wooden sword toward herself.
“The fact that you hadn’t made any preparations, such as coordinating with Miss Roxanna beforehand, inevitably makes me compare you to Miss Charlotte.”
“Gh, ugh…!”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Haru stopped pulling the wooden sword and spoke softly as though she had just remembered.
“It’s been eighteen minutes.”
“…Ah.”
At those words, the strength abruptly left Kariya’s hand.
=
“There’s only one reason Kariya lost.”
“Only one… you mean?”
I said to Kariya, who was sitting slumped in the shade.
“You grossly underestimated Miss Roxanna’s combat potential.”
“…Isn’t that a fact, rather than an underestimation?”
“Kariya.”
When he muttered as though unconvinced, I knelt and crouched down in front of him.
“‘Being strong’ and ‘being a viable fighting force’ are two entirely different concepts, you know?”
“…What difference does that make?”
“Miss Roxanna is certainly weak—from your perspective, Kariya.”
I nodded and said,
“But that doesn’t mean Miss Roxanna has no value as a one-person fighting force.”
“….”
“In fact, when Miss Charlotte was class representative, Miss Roxanna contributed greatly to achieving the objective. Twice, in fact.”
I said as I held up the wooden sword broken in half. Then I picked up the intact wooden sword from Kariya’s turn and continued.
“What about your turn, Kariya? She couldn’t do anything beyond simple harassment. Even the bombardment magic that landed a powerful blow at the very end didn’t fundamentally contribute to achieving the objective. At best, it did little more than obscure my view. If you had coordinated with Miss Roxanna beforehand, and the bombardment magic had landed just a little sooner, wouldn’t you have been able to restrain my wooden sword more easily?”
Kariya lowered his gaze without a word.
“This is just my opinion, but Kariya’s standards—for both others and himself—seem excessively high. If someone doesn’t reach at least this level, they’re useless. A force below that standard is worse than having no force at all… I don’t think that kind of mindset can be called a particularly desirable standard for judgment.”
I met Kariya’s gaze and said,
“In the end, it comes down to how you put them to use. Do you understand?”
Kariya nodded silently. Feeling relieved, I tossed the wooden sword aside, then grunted as I rose to my feet.
“Well, that’s all there is to it. Charlotte fought three against one, while you fought two against one. That’s why you lost.”
I nodded, finishing my explanation.
Then I turned toward Charlotte and the other children, who had been waiting, and said,
“Then Charlotte is the class representative of Class E. Does anyone object?”
“…No.”
Kariya answered quietly as he rose to his feet.
“I went on about my experience and all that… but even when I was a mercenary, I was alone in the end. To be honest, I’ve never had any experience leading anyone.”
Kariya shrugged nonchalantly.
“I have no intention of objecting.”
“Then I’ll take it that there are no objections….”
-Clap clap.
After I clapped twice, the children’s gazes turned toward me in unison.
“That’s all for today. We’ll end things here!”