Chapter 41
With a sharp pop, my foot kicked off the ground. It was a moment too brief for anyone to react.
It felt as though I alone were gliding through frozen time. My hand closed around the hilt of the sword at my waist.
My target was Senior Elsie, who naturally had her back to me—but a burly man was standing guard beside her.
“W-what the hell…!”
He glanced over his shoulder at the sudden presence, then let out a cry of shock and immediately blocked my path. As expected of a fourth-year, his reaction was swift, unlike those rank amateurs.
But his mistake was that he hadn't drawn his sword from its sheath.
Fwish—a silver line flashed. Blood spurted along it. The man's eyes went vacant.
Before he could even fully draw his sword, my blade, wreathed in silver aura, swept across his forearm. It was not a deep wound, but neither was it a shallow one.
It was enough of an injury to disable a swordsman. A scream burst involuntarily from the man's mouth.
“Aaaaargh!”
At the sudden commotion, everyone's gaze turned toward me. After shoving aside the man who had blocked my path, I charged forward once more.
It was then that my eyes met Senior Elsie's. Her dazed gaze turned toward me, like a beast that had just suffered an unimaginable attack.
But my sword did not reach her. Two more men had blocked my path once again.
The man on the right was heavily built, while the one on the left was lean. But they had one thing in common: both held swords.
The two men swung their swords in a crossing motion. A time-delayed attack—the angle and timing were flawless in every respect. This was how frightening trained swordsmen could be.
Because they reacted on instinct even within a moment as brief as that. That was why a surprise attack needed an element of unpredictability.
I stopped just short of where their sword strikes would barely miss me, then poured the momentum of my charge into my sword.
With a sharp whoosh, the sword flew. Confusion appeared in the eyes of the two men.
“W-what…!”
The sword was naturally aimed at Senior Elsie.
The two men who had read the sword's trajectory hurriedly withdrew their blades. Then, without waiting for the other, they swung upward to knock away the blade I had hurled.
And that was the end. A secondary weapon, already familiar in my hand, was drawn from my waist.
With two sharp cracks, slashes opened across the men's thighs. Blood sprayed like fountains, and the two swordsmen's stances crumbled along with their screams.
“Aaargh!”
“Ngh…!”
The time it took for three fourth-years to fall was truly no more than an instant. My body, acceleration piled upon acceleration, was moving through a different flow of time from everyone else. Even the victims' screams seemed to drift by in slow motion.
But I was not the only one who could perceive that fleeting span of time.
Waiting for me after I vaulted through the gap between the two men was Senior Elsie, who had already finished a rapid incantation.
Blue mana suffused her body. It was a shield (shield) spell—one of the basic spells every mage learned and an important spell that could save one's life in an emergency.
A mage of Senior Elsie's caliber would not have a weak shield, even if she had cast it in haste.
Even with aura layered over it, I had to assume that shattering it in a single strike would be impossible.
That meant I would have to land several effective blows, and that much time would be more than enough for the rest of the group, who were still standing around dumbly, to join the fight.
A smug look appeared in Senior Elsie's eyes as she realized this.
It was a condescending gaze that seemed to say, What are you going to do now?
A cruel smile had already formed at the corners of her mouth. Her thoughts about how to teach this insolent junior a lesson were plain to see. Her gaze was innocent yet brimming with malice, like a child tearing the wings off a dragonfly.
So I launched myself forward without a word. Not my sword—my body.
A deep boom rang out as my body collided with her shield. I did not stop there; I forcibly pressed my body against it and shoved Senior Elsie once more.
A shield only absorbs impacts above a certain threshold. If it resisted every kind of force, it obviously would not even be possible to breathe inside it. I was skirting that precarious threshold.
Before she could do more than stammer, Senior Elsie had already fallen. And on top of her was me.
“Y-you, what are you doing… Eeeeeek!”
Bang, bang, bang! The hand axe coated in silver aura pounded Senior Elsie's body like mad. Each blow made a translucent membrane appear, sending fragments flying in every direction.
Trapped inside, Senior Elsie could do nothing but weep and scream.
“S-stop! H-help… sob, ugh… help me! S-someone… Eeeeeeeek!”
Crack. That was the last sound.
It was only a shield thrown up temporarily, after all. It could not keep resisting for long.
Centered on the point where the axe blade had struck, cracks spread across the translucent membrane. They spread at an irreversible speed. Soon, with a shattering crash, the shield broke into pieces.
It was a beautiful sight. Particles of light scattered in every direction, creating a hazy atmosphere. But deep despair colored Senior Elsie's face as she witnessed it.
Her blue eyes, drenched in fear, turned toward me. Reflected in those eyes was me, raising the hand axe.
Senior Elsie could no longer contain her fear. She cried out.
“S-stop!”
At that moment, my arm, which had been about to swing the hand axe, stopped dead.
Haa, haa—my chest heaved up and down with my ragged breaths. I had been too focused on the fight to notice, but I seemed to have pushed myself quite hard. My lungs hurt as though they were being squeezed.
I was not the only one who stopped. Senior Elsie's group, who had belatedly come to their senses and were rushing toward me; Senior Delphine's group, who had snapped out of their daze and were staring at Senior Elsie; and the hundreds of spectators all fell silent.
It was a strange silence, an illusion that the world had stopped for an instant.
Only when a drop of sweat trickled down my hair and fell to the ground did the world come alive again.
What broke the silence was Senior Elsie's sobbing voice.
“Sob, sob… I—I lost. S-so… sob, p-please… sob… s-stop… sob, waaaah……!”
Her crying was high-pitched and drawn out. She acted like a street thug, but the sound of her sobs was as delicate and clear as her doll-like appearance warranted.
Tears dripped from her eyes. For her, those falling tears could only be humiliating.
She had been caught from behind and brutally beaten by me, a third-year junior she had looked down on, rather than Senior Delphine. I could not even imagine how she felt as she now wept and begged for her life.
Only then did the spectators begin to murmur again. Senior Delphine was still standing there in a daze, while Senior Elsie's group watched me and Senior Elsie, pinned beneath me, with hollow eyes.
I exhaled slowly and composed my breathing. My hand still gripped the hand axe tightly.
I whispered in a low voice.
“Senior Elsie, what did you say just now?”
“H-hic, sob… W-what?”
As though she found my sudden question puzzling, Senior Elsie asked, her tear-wet blue eyes filled with my reflection.
My reflection in those eyes, like a lake on a rainy day, looked quite ferocious, drenched in sweat and blood. I liked it.
“Senior Elsie, didn't you just say you'd wait one night if Senior Delphine took a liking to me?”
At my continued words, Senior Elsie flinched. Her eyes began to shake violently. My expression did not change at all.
Savage golden eyes, filled with murderous intent. That was how my reflection in Senior Elsie's eyes looked.
“Th-that was… a-a misunderstanding! Yes, there was a misunderstanding!”
“Senior Elsie, you know this, don't you? A fight waged over a noble's honor is always a fight to the death.”
Even in the face of Senior Elsie's desperate excuse, my arm holding the hand axe showed no sign of lowering. Fear filled her eyes once more.
Her body trembled violently. With her small frame shaking so hard, she looked several times more pitiful. The spectators seemed to have heard our conversation as well, because their expressions turned flustered.
The desperate ones were Senior Elsie's group. They tried to approach me, but after I shot them a few glares, they had no choice but to retreat.
No matter how fast they were, they could not be faster than my hand axe. Senior Elsie grew even more desperate.
“S-so… It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! I—I had no intention of sullying your honor……”
But Senior Elsie's plea did not cause the slightest ripple in my expression. The fear in her eyes grew even deeper. By now, she could not even shed tears.
Even when honor was at stake, such fights rarely led to murder. The families could end up nursing a grudge against each other. That was why Senior Elsie had felt somewhat reassured.
The naive thought that she only had to declare defeat, that all she had to endure was a moment of humiliation.
But there she was, pinned beneath me, while the hand axe inside the shield crashed down as though it might split her throat open at any moment, and I had slashed through her group without the slightest hesitation with an aura-infused blade. Even she could not help but think it.
What if this really ended with me being killed?
When I raised the hand axe even higher, Senior Elsie curled into herself and screamed.
“I-I was wrong! I’m sorry! I-I’ll never do it again! P-please spare me! Help me! Someone, please help… Eeeeeek!”
Crack.
The axe blade slammed into the ground right beside Senior Elsie's head.
Relief flickered through the eyes of the spectators who had been watching me tensely. Lupin was the same; apparently, his sister was precious to him after all, and he had been bracing himself to attack me if necessary.
But that was true only of the spectators.
Senior Elsie, whose life had actually been threatened by me, still stole a glance at the hand axe buried beside her with trembling eyes.
The blade's chill sent unmistakable fear into her eyes. She sucked in a breath with a shrill gasp.
I whispered one last time into her ear.
“Senior Elsie……”
My eyes flicked toward Lupin. It was something I'd said to her younger brother before.
“……There won't be a next time.”
With tears brimming in her eyes, Senior Elsie nodded desperately. That was enough.
I pulled out the hand axe and fastened it back at my waist. Then I staggered to my feet. When I exhaled, I finally felt my breathing ease somewhat.
I had done something crazy again today.
If safety had been my priority, I should have waited until the clash between Senior Delphine and Senior Elsie was over. Even I had no idea why I had been taking the initiative so aggressively lately.
Still, I felt refreshed. I spoke to Celine, who had been looking back and forth between Senior Elsie and me with dazed eyes.
“Let's go, Celine.”
“……Huh? O-okay, y-yeah!”
I took Celine, who was still standing there blankly, and started walking.
The members of Senior Elsie's group who had been blocking my path and the spectators surrounding us naturally stepped aside, making a path for us.
All I had to do was walk down that path.
But there was still one person left who could stop me from leaving.
“……Wait.”
My movement stopped dead at that brief call.
I turned my weary gaze over my shoulder. There, I found a pair of blood-red eyes whose true intentions I could not read.
“Why don't we have a little conversation?”·It was Delphine Yurdina, showing an interest in me.