Chapter 19
“Haa..”
Mist let out a sigh.
Her fingertips were trembling.
“Fortunately.. I did win.”
She trudged away, utterly exhausted.
Her destination was the bed.
She didn’t even want to take off her clothes.
She didn’t want to shower, either.
She just..
wanted to lie down.
No one was watching.
It was fine.
- Ring.. Ring..
The moment Mist lay down on the bed,
a phone began ringing from somewhere in the room.
“I hate this..”
Mist forced her exhausted body upright.
Then she answered the phone.
“Mist.”
“Yes, Father.”
“I watched your match.”
Mist said nothing.
She was certain.
If it was her father,
he wouldn’t say only that.
“You weren’t overwhelming.”
“.. I’m sorry.”
“You need to work harder. You have to crush the others.. so they can never even approach you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Keeping it in mind isn’t enough. Our family was once nothing. A family that was barely above a baron in a remote region rose to the rank of marquis through strength alone. Mist, I expect great things from you. You must..”
“..”
“Phew.. No. I hope you can achieve a better result next time..”
“Yes, Father. I’ll show you a better side of myself next time.”
“Good. Always maintain the dignity of a noble. Don’t forget that.”
“Understood.”
- Beep.. Beep..
The call ended.
Mist let out a sigh.
She headed back toward the bed.
“.. This is exhausting..”
Mist lay down and turned on the hologram.
She didn’t feel like training today.
“.. What is this?”
[Mel Academy Spring Sparring Match - Bin | Red]
Mist watched a video that had appeared on her algorithm.
Who on earth had uploaded something like this?
“Hmm.. This is.. I suppose I should watch it as part of gathering information...”
Mist carefully clicked on the video.
For some reason,
she kept checking to make sure no one was nearby.
“Wow.. Mr. Bin is weaker than I expected..”
Bin looked unsteady on the screen.
The opponent named Red in the video was, at best, a lower-ranked student.
And yet he was having this much trouble.
“Oh.. You’ve identified your opponent’s weakness well..”
Mist tilted her head.
Now that she was watching.. he wasn’t being overwhelmed nearly as much as she had expected.
Bin seemed to have regained his composure and had even started talking.
- ...distance.. …. ….. what?
“The audio.. is hard to hear..”
Mist turned up the volume.
So she could hear Bin’s voice better.
But.. she also felt that she might have been better off not turning it up.
- If you keep your distance, what can you even do?
“Uh.. That’s a little cowardly..”
Mist puffed out her cheeks slightly.
Throwing off an opponent’s composure with words.. wasn’t exactly admirable.
“.. It’s Mr. Bin, after all.”
But she couldn’t force everyone to live by her standards.
Bin was weak.
You couldn’t impose your sense of justice on the weak.
Of course, that didn’t mean she liked it.
“It would be better not to listen to the audio.”
Mist turned off the sound.
If Bin said anything worse than this..
she felt she might become a little upset.
Mist continued watching the video with a slightly heavier heart.
And then..
she saw Bin’s [Fire Tornado].
- Fwoosh!!
“.. Even I would find this a little frightening..?”
Mist smiled faintly.
Bin was weak.
But.. in order to survive with that weak body,
she could tell he had put in an incredible amount of effort.
Good.
‘Something like this.. is actually rather cool.’
She found herself thinking that perhaps she might see Bin in a sparring match.
Because she couldn’t quite imagine someone like Bin,
who possessed a finishing move like that,
losing.
Of course.
That was an absurd thought.
***
“I surrender.”
I raised both hands as I looked at my opponent.
The fire magic card had been blocked.
The wind magic card had been blocked as well.
The other magic, such as water and earth, had been useless too.
“.. Why? Are you simply surrendering?”
“There’s no way for me to win.”
“You.. You can’t possibly be this weak..”
I gave my opponent a sad smile.
I had no intention of playing any more hidden cards.
Besides, the weather was cloudy today.
Aside from a few tricks I had kept hidden.. this really was the full extent of my ability.
I was weak, after all.
What else could I do?
So I simply surrendered.
“Bin, Jerry! The winner is.. Jerry!”
There was no need for me to win anymore.
Nor was there any reason to.
‘Climbing into the upper ranks would be overkill.. I lost well enough here.’
Jerry was an ordinary mid-ranked student.
He was just a little stronger than Red.
‘Of course.. I could win if I struggled hard enough..’
‘But why bother?’
Losing was the better outcome here.
Why should I?
“Phew..”
I left the training arena and headed to the lounge.
A single screen was floating in the lounge.
Every match was being broadcast on the screen.
They were probably being recorded, too.
The world of Mel Academy was more near-futuristic than I’d expected..
‘I could have watched my own match here too.’
I hadn’t been able to watch my last match because I’d passed out.
But now that I’d come here, it seemed like a fairly useful place.
I could see all the matches at a glance, couldn’t I?
‘But no one watched my match, right?’
Well.
Anyone who wanted to watch it probably did.
But.. was there anyone who wanted to?
I thought I was fairly good at assessing myself objectively.
There was no way anyone wanted to watch my sparring match.
But.
I was wrong.
“.. Why did you do that?”
While I was quietly resting,
Mist approached from behind.
Her snow-white skin had taken on a slight reddish tint.
And.. her expression looked a little frightening.
.. Why?
“.. What?”
I had a bad feeling.
Mist showing this much displeasure
was a more dangerous sign than I would have expected.
What on earth was it?
“The second round. You didn’t do your best.”
!!
The moment I heard that, my head began throbbing sharply.
Checkmate.
Mist valued doing one’s best above all else.
In the game, if I didn’t do my best,
or deliberately lost or played around,
my favorability would mysteriously plummet.
Right.
That was why I’d been able to make an excuse during the entrance ceremony.
Because [Best Effort] was a higher-level keyword than [Honesty].
Which meant
there was no keyword higher than [Best Effort].
‘.. Damn.. This is a little dangerous.’
I was in serious trouble.
I.. hadn’t expected anyone to watch my match.
I hadn’t thought there would be any reason to watch it, either.
‘Quickly.. Is there a good excuse..?’
I had to think fast.
How could I express that this had been my best effort?
There was no time to deliberate.
If I looked like I was deliberating, that meant it hadn’t been my best effort in the first place.
I immediately looked into Mist’s eyes.
Then I opened my mouth.
“My strategy is a one-time use. I saved it so I could do my best in the team match, where everyone will be present.”
It wasn’t completely true..
but it was true to some extent.
However.
It seemed to be of no use.
Mist stared intently at my face.
Then.. she furrowed her brow.
“Lie.”
Mist turned around.
She said nothing more.
- Thud.
- Thud.
Her footsteps headed away from me.
‘.. Am I screwed?’
‘How did she know it was a lie..?’
There was no way she could have detected a lie from my tone or gestures.
I had spoken no differently than I had until now.
But the fact that she had noticed so quickly meant
there had to be some external factor.
‘Could she have watched my first match too?’
If so, it made sense.
The performance of [Fire Tornado] I had shown in the previous match
was objectively good enough to compete in the upper ranks, even the very top ranks.
But.. I had been nearly first in the order during the previous match, hadn’t I?
How had she happened to see it?
‘.. What a pain.’
Suddenly, my head began to ache.
At that moment, another voice drifted over from beside me.
“Exactly. You should have done it better without getting caught.”
Pink hair.
A slightly mocking smile.
But her eyes looked happy somehow.
It was Ena.
“…”
But.
My head began hurting even more.
‘Without getting caught, huh..’
It seemed Ena had noticed, to some extent,
what I was doing.
“Exactly.”
The sort of work commonly called [favorability farming].
The problem with it was..
what happened when the other person realized it was favorability farming.
But.
The truth was, I was doing that favorability farming..
with Helia, Mist, and countless others..
And right now,
I was doing it to Ena, too.
But.. wouldn’t she realize
that I could be doing to her the same things I was doing to Mist?
No.
She probably would.
“But I don’t mind you showing your vulnerable side, either~”
Contrary to her words, Ena’s eyes glowed red.
Right. There was no way someone so perceptive wouldn’t know.
‘.. What should I do?’
I had no idea.
My head hurt, and that was all I could think about.
“Want to go get something to eat?”
I spoke to Ena without thinking.
My body was tired.. and I didn’t want to think about it anymore.
“Yes!!”
Ena nodded.
She showed no sign of disliking the idea at all.
.. Why was she acting exactly the same as before?
***
“Phew..”
Mist let out a deep breath.
“Was I being too sensitive?”
“No.. Absolutely not.”
A person who didn’t do their best at everything was not beautiful.
It was something a noble should never do.
No, it was something no one who understood their own honor should do.
“.. He could have won.”
Mist recalled the pillar of fire in the video.
With a powerful technique like that,
there was no sense in simply surrendering.
“Now that I think about it.. it’s strange that he didn’t ask me to team up with him, either..”
Mist’s lips briefly protruded, then settled back.
At first, she had thought it was simply rude of him.
But now that she thought about it.. it also seemed like a ploy to hide things from her.
No.
That wasn’t it.
She must have misunderstood something.
He.. hadn’t seemed like such a bad person.
“Did I.. see something wrong?”
Mist didn’t even eat.
She returned to her dormitory.
Again.
She needed to watch the video one more time.
- If you keep your distance, what can you even do?
Now that she thought about it,
she heard that line differently.
Wasn’t it an incredibly.. cowardly ploy?
This.. this wasn’t right.
“As expected.. I should turn off the sound.”
Mist lowered the hologram’s volume to zero.
But..
that was a terrible mistake.
Because she failed to hear what Bin said next.
- The weather is nice.. the dome arena’s roof is open.
- The sand floor of this training arena.. must have been heated by the sun.
Watching Bin speak with such a cowardly expression..
Mist ground her teeth.
“He must have been saying something ridiculous again.”
“It isn’t worth listening to..”
- Fwoosh!!
“.. Even though he can use such a powerful technique..!”
Mist turned off the video of the first match.
Then she immediately turned on the video of the second match.
Bin had held his own fairly well at the beginning of this match, too.
Just as he had against Red,
he avoided close combat as much as possible
and used a troublesome style that completely disregarded the enemy’s strengths.
“You did the same thing up to this point..?”
Mist bit her lip hard as she watched the next scene.
Bin had both hands raised.
- Surrender.
It was a word she could infer just from the shape of his mouth.
“Why.. did you surrender here..?”
Mist looked at Bin’s face, which was covered in shadow.
Clearly, only moments ago,
he had been burning fiercely beneath the sun.
But now..
he was a coward hidden in the dome arena’s shadow.
“... I misjudged him.”
Of course.
The shadow of the dome arena
had also covered the sand floor and made it cool.
Mist
had no idea that was an important fact.