Chapter 40
It was rare for silence to descend over the heart of the Academy.
It was a place with a daily footfall of at least several thousand. Even now, a crowd of at least several hundred had gathered nearby, and a few faculty members were visible among them.
Yet none of them seemed inclined to intervene in what was happening. If anything, several professors even had a gleam of interest in their eyes. It was the reaction most befitting the Academy’s spirit.
The Academy was an educational institution, but it was also a place of training. Unless students were blatantly violating the rules, the Academy did not intervene in conflicts between them.
What was more, the two factions currently facing off were each centered around a representative of the fourth-year class.
Elsie Lynella of the Department of Magic, and Delphine Yurdina of the Department of Swordsmanship.
They were famous figures who lacked nothing—not the beauty to entrance countless men, the power of their families, nor their own abilities.
There was a perception that Senior Elsie was slightly inferior to Senior Delphine. But that was only because Senior Delphine was exceptionally outstanding, not because Senior Elsie was lacking.
In some respects, Senior Elsie was probably superior. Wasn’t that why she and Senior Delphine had remained locked in competition all this time?
Just like now.
Senior Elsie was glaring at Senior Delphine with a frigid gaze. Her vivid blue eyes were as cold as frost. Her lips were pressed tightly together, betraying a subtle tension.
Senior Delphine, on the other hand, was utterly relaxed. Even while meeting Senior Elsie’s hostile gaze, she remained so. With her arms crossed and a haughty expression, Senior Delphine wore a faint smile. She looked as though she might yawn right there.
It was truly a clash between two whales. The onlookers, who had no desire to become shrimp caught between them, held their breath as they watched to see how things would unfold.
Ordinarily, I should have been one of those shrimp too, but it was a shame that I couldn’t.
Because I was nothing less than the prey those two whales were fighting over.
I was sweating bullets on the inside. I was pretending to remain calm on the outside, but what should have ended with me taking a few hits from Senior Elsie’s gang was steadily snowballing, and I couldn’t help feeling the pressure.
What if this escalated into a clash of pride between the two great houses?
I didn’t even want to imagine it. Besides, the current situation provided the two families with more than enough justification to vie for influence.
After all, hadn’t the third son of House Lynella been beaten by me for laying hands on a member of House Yurdina?
This was more than enough reason for House Yurdina to protect me. But House Lynella couldn’t afford to back down from this fight, either. From their perspective, they had been unilaterally humiliated by the second son of a provincial viscount.
A proud high-ranking noble could not let that pass as though it were nothing.
I had thought everything would end well after the Saint stepped in to mediate, but who could have imagined it would turn out like this?
I silently rubbed my face, utterly at a loss. But no one in the current situation was paying me any attention.
That was when Senior Elsie, who had been staring at Senior Delphine with a chilly gaze for some time, finally opened her mouth. A cold smile formed at the corners of her lips. Overt mockery dripped from those dainty lips.
“Long time no see, Yurdina… Looks like you’ve gotten quite a lot more meddlesome in the meantime. Interfering in a House Lynella affair, are you?”
In other words, this was a matter for House Lynella alone, so Delphine should mind her own business and go on her way.
But if that had truly been her intention, Senior Delphine would not have thrown the notebook in the first place. She placed her index finger against her lips and tapped them lightly, gazing up at the sky with a thoughtful hum.
She looked pensive, but soon she smiled brightly. It was as beautiful as the sun, as it always was.
“……I’d rather not.”
Senior Elsie looked as though anger had surged up inside her at that simple answer. Her eyes grew even fiercer, and her lips parted once.
I suspected the words she had truly wanted to spit out were swear words. But she could hardly say such things to the heir of House Yurdina, one of the five most prestigious houses in the Empire.
Senior Elsie gnawed at her lips, then began sneering in a voice dripping with irritation.
“Oh, is that so? Maybe you’ve secretly taken a liking to this little brat? If that’s all it is, I suppose I could put up with you having him for one night.”
The slightly over-the-line remark made the onlookers hold their breath. Senior Elsie’s words were problematic in two ways.
First, she had implied a sexual scandal involving the heir to House Yurdina.
As the heir to a prestigious house, Senior Delphine treasured her chastity. A sexual scandal was out of the question. Yet Senior Elsie had sarcastically portrayed her as a woman who would sleep with any man she took a fancy to. It would have been no wonder if House Yurdina had been enraged.
And second, the remark was also an insult to House Percus.
No matter how high-ranking a noble Senior Elsie was, I was also a member of the Empire’s nobility. As subjects serving the same Emperor, it was improper to hurl accusations that crossed the line so blatantly.
Going by her words alone, didn’t I sound like a noblewoman’s male prostitute for the night?
The words of nobles carried as much responsibility as power. Senior Elsie was not ignorant of that. Even so, the fact that she was gradually crossing the line could only mean one thing.
She was trying to provoke an armed clash. It was a challenge to any noble who valued honor—Delphine Yurdina or Ian Percus alike—to come at her; there was no other way to interpret it.
Since directly picking a fight first would have been awkward, her intention to provoke us was obvious.
Senior Delphine did not look like someone who would leave such an insult for her family to handle, and she must have thought I could simply be ignored, since I was merely the second son of a provincial viscount.
That was why I hesitated for a moment.
Senior Elsie and the rest of her riffraff were focusing all their attention on Senior Delphine. What if I simply smacked Senior Elsie over the back of the head right then?
“Looks like you’ve regained a lot of your confidence, Lynella… You charged at me full of confidence not long ago, too, only to end up humiliated, didn’t you? Your sullen face back then was quite a sight to behold.”
“That was when we faced off one-on-one. The true potential of magic is revealed when one has sufficient guards… Shall we put that to the test?”
I heard the two of them trading barbs. But by then, I had fallen into deep thought.
Ambush Senior Elsie and knock her down.
It was possible. Senior Elsie still probably had not grasped my true strength. Lupin had been knocked unconscious by my one blow that day and remained that way the entire time, so there was no way she could know the details of the fight.
To make matters worse, neither Senior Elsie nor her gang had dreamed that I would strike first. They were a large group of fourth-year students, and there was even a highly skilled mage among them. By common sense, they were not opponents a third-year could defeat simply by launching a surprise attack.
But if I used a real sword, things would be different.
The difference between using aura and not using it was enormous. Just as even a great master could die from a sword thrust he never saw coming, among aura users, even a moment’s carelessness could prove fatal.
And I was the junior, alone, and had even suffered an insult I could not tolerate as a noble who valued honor. A contest fought over a noble’s honor was traditionally always a fight with real swords.
My gaze grew still as I made my choice. But neither Senior Elsie nor Senior Delphine noticed that anything had changed in me.
“Ah, fine. Sounds fun… Shall we settle the pecking order? I didn’t expect to have to do that the moment I got back.”
“Pecking order? Who’s putting whom in their place? You useless, glittering cat bitch……!”
The moment the two women’s voices crossed, the members of their respective entourages reached for their waists. It was a hair-trigger moment, with everyone ready to draw their swords at the slightest provocation.
Senior Elsie glared at Senior Delphine with a smile full of murderous intent, while Senior Delphine stared back at her with a gaze that had grown slightly colder.
Both had the eyes of hunters. It would not have been strange for them to clash at any moment.
Each faction’s attention was fixed on the opposing side. The onlookers did the same. Hundreds of people whispered among themselves as they looked back and forth between Senior Elsie and Senior Delphine.
The onlookers seemed unable to believe they were about to witness a brawl in the middle of the Academy. Several people who appeared to be professors were beginning to look displeased.
They seemed to be debating whether they should step in now or leave things as they were.
If it was a contest over noble honor, it would be consistent with the Academy regulations and they would have to leave it alone. But if it was merely an armed clash, they had a duty to stop it.
Their deliberation did not last long.
Before they could do so, I shot forward like a beam of light.
No matter how I looked at it, it was insane. But so what?
If there had been no opening, I would have let it go. But now that one had appeared, I couldn’t simply sit back and take it.
That was my choice.