Chapter 3
The swordsmanship training grounds, carpeted with soft grass, already had more than a hundred students gathered. Their chatter in groups of three or five swelled into a low murmur.
It was the vitality befitting an academy that symbolized the youth of the continent. Yet even that murmur began to die down the moment I set foot inside.
It felt as though a high-ranking noble had paid a visit to some rural village. It was hardly the sort of luxury the second son of a viscount’s house could enjoy. A chilly silence settled over the surroundings at the mere sign of my presence.
Having more than a hundred pairs of eyes focus on me all at once was a considerable psychological burden. Enough to make me want to throw up the soup I’d eaten for breakfast.
Of course, I wasn’t the only cause of this chilly silence.
I could already feel a gaze glaring at me from somewhere.
I cast a sidelong glance toward the source of that wary stare. As expected.
Lustrous gray hair, as though it had taken only the most beautiful shades from black and white, immediately caught my eye. It fell all the way to her waist; perhaps it would have been inconvenient for a swordswoman, but as a woman, it only doubled her beauty.
And those vivid blue eyes reminiscent of aquamarine, along with her flawlessly clear skin. The Swordsmanship Department’s uniform, designed to emphasize mobility, clung tightly to her body, revealing every curve that still retained a hint of youthful immaturity.
She was a beautiful woman. Sometimes, when I stared into those jewel-like blue eyes, I found myself thinking she might not be human. It would have been more understandable if she were a glasswork painstakingly shaped by a master craftsman.
She had not inherited the blond hair and red eyes that could be called the symbols of House Yurdina, but she was a woman of moonlike beauty. Having only just blossomed from a girl into a woman, she ensnared countless men like a flower that constantly gave off a sweet fragrance.
Though the fates of the men so ensnared were generally rather gruesome.
I remembered several friends who had once courted Seria Yurdina. They had soon been forced to swallow their tears beneath her attitude of utterly ignoring everyone. As I recalled those old memories, I silently met her gaze.
Her eyes were cold. By contrast, my gaze held nothing but bewilderment.
This is bad. Anyone could see that look was filled with determination—the determination to reclaim her shattered pride.
After hearing Leto’s words, I had seriously considered skipping class, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Even without that, I was already barely hanging on in the middle-to-lower ranks. I couldn’t help worrying about my attendance in the swordsmanship lectures, which had the greatest impact on our grades in the Swordsmanship Department.
Still, no matter how rational the decision, I couldn’t help feeling a little regret. That was how much icy hostility Seria’s eyes held as I faced her now.
I’d heard that I had nearly killed her last week, but at present, I couldn’t imagine being capable of beating her.
By common sense, there was no way someone like me, who was barely in the middle-to-lower ranks, could defeat her, even if she was a year below me. She was a contender for the top spot. And I was supposed to have nearly killed her without allowing her a single clean hit?
It was absurd. The opposite was far more likely.
But whether I was sweating nervously inside or not, the students who had come to attend the lecture watched the two of us with a mixture of tension and interest.
They knew the whole story of last week, which I myself didn’t. They must have been curious about how Seria’s revenge match would end today.
They would find it entertaining if Seria crushed me, and if she got crushed one more time, there would be plenty of people laughing and saying she deserved it. After all, every event was most exciting to watch when one stood a little outside its center.
But the scene they were anticipating did not unfold right away. After meeting my gaze for a while, Seria quietly lowered her eyes.
It seemed the me from a week ago had really frightened her. That rude junior had actually looked away first.
As I secretly breathed a sigh of relief at avoiding an immediate clash, someone gave my shoulder a light tap with an elbow. It wasn’t a provocation, but a greeting used by men from the Southern Kingdoms.
It also meant acknowledging the other person as a man in the Southern Kingdoms. My gaze lifted slightly. A muscular man with bronze skin stood there.
His golden hair gave him a thug-like air. As a matter of fact, he was a famous thug at the academy.
Tean of House Eitri, from the Southern Kingdoms. He stood before me, leading his gang and letting out a vulgar, snickering laugh.
“Well, well, who do we have here? Aren’t you last week’s hero?”
“That last spar was impressive, so… Ian, was it?”
When Tean, the local gang leader, offered me a word of praise, the other lackeys added a few comments of their own. Most of their reactions toward me were favorable.
Come to think of it, I’d heard that they were the ones leading the subtle ostracism of Seria.
They were too afraid of House Yurdina’s retaliation to openly do anything, yet they would sneakily trip her or mutter insults under their breath. What pathetic cowards.
As I let out a deep sigh, Tean nevertheless flashed a sly smile and tried to drape an arm around my shoulders.
“Tch, that rude bitch actually lowers her eyes first sometimes… I guess a beating with a club is the best way to teach juniors their place. Right?”
“I bet a different kind of club would work even better.”
Then came the ensuing snickering.
Around then, my hand smacked Tean’s arm away. He looked slightly flustered.
Of course he’d be embarrassed when he had tried to act friendly and been rebuffed like that. I wasn’t important enough to antagonize someone either, so I added a word to save his face.
“Looks like we’re going a round later, so I figured I should warm up.”
Tean wore a puzzled expression at my words, but soon broke into a sinister grin. He tapped my shoulder once more with his elbow.
“……I’ll be looking forward to it. Beat her to a pulp.”
Assuming she doesn’t beat me to a pulp first.
Yet Tean and his gang seemed completely convinced that I would crush Seria once again. Most of them were probably half skeptical, but they were looking forward to seeing it all the same.
It was human nature to admire a star while it was in the sky, then become desperate to smash it and claim it for themselves once it fell to the earth.
And the expectations heaped upon me, the one entrusted with bringing that ‘star’ down, were a double-edged sword. If I failed, some of the ridicule meant for the fallen star would be directed at me as well.
What a ridiculous situation. To end up in such an awkward predicament over something I couldn’t even remember.
Just as I was trying to quiet my throbbing headache by pressing my temples, a familiar back caught my eye.
Ebony hair had been neatly tied up and flowed down her back. She was a girl whose snow-white nape, glimpsed between her swaying locks whenever she swung her sword, made a deep impression.
Or should I call her a girl? By age, she was technically an adult.
The moment I spotted her, I walked over without hesitation. While she paused between swings to catch her breath, I poked her nape with my finger.
“Eek, eeeyaah!”
The girl who had been swinging her sword jumped with a strange cry. Then her startled gaze turned toward me.
She was a girl with striking tawny eyes. Her delicate features and well-balanced figure were equally impressive.
Frankly, she was obscenely pretty. But to me, she still felt like nothing more than a little sister.
She was my junior by a year in the Swordsmanship Department and another childhood friend who had spent time with Leto and me ever since we were young.
‘Selin Haster.’ I chuckled as I watched Selin stare at me in surprise.
“Hey, Selin.”
Unlike me, who had greeted her warmly, Selin frowned the moment she saw me. Then she looped an arm around my neck and pulled me down by the waist.
Our heads met in an instant, creating a tiny private conference. Selin whispered as though scolding me.
“Are you insane?! Why are you making such a fuss pretending we know each other? I was deliberately pretending not to know you……!”
“What’s with you? Are you really going to toss over ten years of friendship away like it’s worthless?”
At my unconcerned voice, Selin pounded her chest in frustration. But her generously rounded breasts cushioned the impact, so it didn’t make as dramatic a sound as it had when Leto did it.
Selin and Leto were cousins. They had spent so much time together since childhood that they were practically siblings, so perhaps that was why their reactions when frustrated were similar as well.
“Who told you to mess with Yurdina? She may be illegitimate, but a Yurdina is still a Yurdina… Can’t you tell just from the fact that they gave a bastard their family name? It means they intend to accept her as a member of the house after seeing her talent! I’m Selin Haster of House Haster, which rules a tiny rural territory, and just thinking about it makes my heart pound so hard I feel like I’ll die, okay?”
“That’s all the more reason not to pretend you don’t know me.”
I answered Selin’s long-winded explanation in a matter-of-fact tone. A shameless expression surfaced on my face.
“We said we’d go down together when the time came, didn’t we? I can’t be the only one to fall into the abyss.”
“Get lost.”
She shoved me away with a sharp push and tried to escape, but my arm had already been around her neck for quite some time. I tightened my hold to keep her from leaving.
“Come on, you’re not really planning to pretend you don’t know me, are you?”
“I am, actually. If I get mixed up with Ian oppa, I might get mixed up with Tean and those delinquent bastards too……! Don’t you know I hate those swaggering jerks more than anything?”
Selin’s resistance was more fierce than I had expected. Clicking my tongue, I tightened the arm around her neck even further.
Our breaths met at close range. Even though she had just finished swinging her sword, Selin’s breath carried a sweet fragrance. How could she smell so good all the time?
It was a mystery, but I deliberately kept the question to myself. Instead, Selin blushed slightly and squirmed when the distance between us grew closer.
“W-What are you doing…? Everyone’s watching……!”
“Then would it be all right if no one else were watching?”
Her still-free hand slammed into my abdomen with a thud. I let out a strangled groan and doubled over coughing.
“……You want to die?”
At Selin’s cold, lowered voice, I decided to get to the point. If I kept joking around, I’d have to fight Selin before I even faced Seria.
Selin’s skill was comparable to mine, but she had vastly more mana, which made her physical strength far greater than mine. Her control over that mana was less practiced, but regardless, she was not an opponent I could afford to take lightly.
“Come on, tell me what I was like when I sparred with Seria last time.”
“……?”
Selin gave me a puzzled look. It was understandable.
The person who had actually fought should have known best. Unfortunately, I had no memory of the fight I’d been in.
That was what made it even more frustrating. If I knew how I had fought, I could at least devise a countermeasure. But now I had to face that rude Yurdina girl without knowing anything.
The swordswoman who had been plucking monsters’ heads like apples from an orchard since her mid-teens. Facing her without even the slightest preparation was practically suicide.
Yet avoiding today’s fight wouldn’t make her give up, either. That left me with only two choices.
One, get pulverized by Seria and become everyone’s laughingstock.
Two, somehow show that I wasn’t outmatched by Seria and wait for her interest to fade.
Naturally, the latter was the more attractive option. If I could manage it, that was.
I quietly explained the situation to Selin, who continued to stare at me as though demanding an explanation.
“W-Well, the thing is… I don’t have any memories from the past week, you know?”
“Ian oppa, are you an idiot?”
I made a threatening tsk at her pointed remark, but Selin’s look of pity did not disappear.
In the end, I could only sigh and admit she had a point.
“Yeah, I’m an idiot. So stop that and tell me what happened, okay? How on earth did I beat Seria Yurdina?”
“Even if you put it that way……”
Now it was Selin’s turn to feel bewildered. Even if I asked her how I had won, there was only so much she could tell me.
What she had seen was me overwhelming Seria from start to finish, and reproducing those movements was entirely up to me.
But Selin soon opened her mouth with a sigh, speaking in an uncertain voice as though she would at least try.
“I’ll only tell you what I saw. I was one of the people who witnessed it firsthand too… You won’t hold it against me if it doesn’t help, right?”
“Of course not! Go ahead and tell me everything, no holding back.”
She seemed hesitant at my confident tone, but soon began describing what she had seen that day.
Her voice still sounded dazed, as though she couldn’t quite believe it had been real.
**
Seria opened and closed her eyes. The landscape rose into view like foam. The beginning and end of meditation were always like this.
Calm the mind. Composure must always be maintained like a sharp blade.
It was one of the few lessons left behind by her father, who had cast her mother out for being lowborn.
After finishing her brief meditation, Seria’s deep-blue eyes turned toward someone. It was the man who had inflicted a humiliating defeat on her not long ago.
She hadn’t even been able to use her hands properly. Only one question echoed through her mind: Why?
Yet the result was unmistakable. She had rolled across the ground, gasping harshly and unable even to hold herself upright, while he had remained so calm that even his breathing was quiet.
That terrifying man was now whispering as he chatted with an unknown woman. Unlike Seria, he seemed entirely at ease.
After watching him for a while, she lowered her trembling eyes. Once again, she recalled the fight from a week ago, replaying it in her mind for what felt like the hundredth time.
Yes, that was the day. If she couldn’t overcome that fight, she could go no farther.
That was what made her desperate. The memory of that day swept through her mind like a wave.
The man that day had seemed somehow fatigued.