Chapter 51
-KWA-BOOM!
-Gaaah!
-Guh!
Of course, Swordmasters were strong.
Even though we were using magic to run, she knocked us down in an instant.
Did it take her about a second to subdue each person?
It only took a second because she was holding back to ‘subdue’ us. If she’d actually been trying to kill us, she might have wiped us all out in less than a second.
She was a monster.
There were 27 of us here. Even at the very least, it would take 30 seconds to reach the base.
In other words, unless someone could buy us time, our chance of success was gone.
Unless someone bought us time, that is.
The only students left were me and Mr. Gen.
Just two. But two.
Just a little. I only needed to buy a little time.
Who?
‘Well, obviously, that would be me, the shield-bearer!’
“Haaaa!”
-KWA-BOOM!
“What?!”
I blocked Plia’s sword as it came flying at me with my shield.
She probably meant to send me flying with one blow, but shield-bearers know how to anchor themselves to the ground!
-Crack!
“Ghk…!”
Of course, I paid a steep price for it.
I took the impact with my whole body instead of deflecting it.
The bones had burst through both my arms.
Ow, ow… I wasn’t curious about what my bones looked like.
“Arin, you…!”
“Hehe… Pretty amazing, huh?”
Shock appeared on Plia’s face as she stood off against me.
She probably hadn’t expected me to take a mere training exercise this seriously.
I hadn’t planned to go this far at first, either.
But!
“I’m sick of you two flirting in front of me!”
“Huh?”
With that rather pathetic reason, I knocked Plia’s sword aside.
…Was she so surprised she even dropped her sword?
“…You’re doing all that for such a stupid reason?!”
“You call that stupid?! You’re always flirting right in front of me! And seducing him while pretending you’re not!”
“Huh?!”
“You oblivious pervert!”
“...”
Plia stared at me, dazed, apparently in shock.
…I didn’t think she’d be that shocked.
A-anyway!
“Now!”
“Huh?”
In the brief moment I blocked Plia’s sword and threw her off balance,
Mr. Gen, who’d been behind me, was already about to change the flag.
“Damn…!”
Plia noticed and ran toward him, but it was already too late.
No matter that she was a Swordmaster—with those restrictions in place, she couldn’t stop him—
-Wham!
“Guh!”
Just before the flag changed, a wooden sword flew in from somewhere and slammed into Mr. Gen’s head.
The impact knocked Mr. Gen unconscious.
Naturally, the flag didn’t change, either.
Where had it come from?
Plia’s sword was lying far away.
In that case…
“You’re too late, Ian.”
“Sorry. I was slow to catch on.”
Right. Ian was here.
I’d been so focused on Plia that I’d forgotten about Ian. That was the variable.
“Arin? Are you okay? Plia, didn’t you hit her too hard?”
“Ugh… I didn’t think she’d block it like that.”
Plia and Ian spoke as if the exercise was already over.
It was true that even if I ran over now, I couldn’t change the flag.
The same would go for any of the other students who suddenly got up and ran.
Everyone here was already out of commission.
In other words, the exercise was practically over, but…
“You two. Aren’t you being a little too careless?”
“Hm?”
“What do you mean…?”
At the start and end of every exercise, they always blew a whistle to signal it.
And…
“The whistle signaling the end of the exercise hasn’t blown yet, has it?”
““…!””
There were 30 students in Class A at the academy.
It had dropped to 29 after the former second-ranked student disappeared, but it went back up to 30 after midterms.
Minus Ian and Plia, that left 28.
And there were 27 gathered here.
What about the last one?
“No way…”
Plia and Ian looked stunned.
Right. From the beginning, I’d sent one person to the eastern base an hour later than the rest of us.
Those two were simpler than I’d expected, so they’d definitely fall for it.
And by now…
-Peeee!
They should’ve just arrived.
Along with the whistle signaling the end of the exercise, a blue light rose from the eastern base.
Proof that the base had been captured.
In other words—
“Hehe. We won, didn’t we?”
We won.
…
We lost.
“Plia, you… Shouldn’t you have counted properly?”
“Sheesh… Shut up! You’re the one who didn’t notice and showed up ridiculously late.”
“Ugh… I can’t argue with that, but…”
Who knew they’d have a hidden reserve?
Arin was so desperate that I thought we’d break through in one go.
“Aah! You losers! Quiet down! You lost anyway, so why are you making such a fuss?”
“Grr…”
I’d suspected as much, but Arin’s teasing didn’t end.
“Hehe! A Swordmaster lost to a mere first-year academy student? How pathetic!”
“Please stop… And we’re first-years too, you know?”
“So what?! It doesn’t change the fact that you lost!”
Sigh…
Of course, I’d expected Arin to tease us.
No, I knew she’d tease us mercilessly.
But…
“Loooser! A Swordmaster who couldn’t even block an attack from a first-year academy student! Loooser, loooser!”
Still, it’s annoying!
Was Arin always this much of a brat?
No! Our sweet Arin couldn’t possibly be like that…
“That’s exactly how you teased me.”
“…I did?”
“Yeah. When you were El. You’d tease me, calling me useless like that. I think she learned it from you…”
“...”
I… acted like that?
Me?
“Um… Plia? Don’t take it too hard. It wasn’t quite that bad.”
“That’s not comforting at all, so please shut up…”
Waaah…
…
“Anyway, you losers have to grant me a favor!”
“A favor?”
After teasing us for a long time, Arin suddenly stopped and spoke with a mischievous expression.
What was she going to say now…
“I don’t remember making that kind of bet.”
“Then don’t grant it. But I’ll keep teasing you. For a month, or even a year.”
“Ghk.”
Ian, who’d been acting cocky for no reason, was silenced in one shot.
Is this the fate of losers?
“Sigh… So? What’s this favor?”
“Hehehe… Well, you see…”
Arin drew it out with a creepy laugh, then shouted with a slightly unpleasant smile.
An absolutely explosive declaration:
“You two should kiss!”
“?”
“?”
What did I just hear?
“…Kiss?”
“Yes! Oh, and just a little peck where your lips barely touch doesn’t count. I want a deep kiss, with your tongues entwined in a steamy tangle!”
“...”
I asked again just to make sure, but her answer was even more outrageous.
My first kiss with Ian? Here?
With everyone watching?
Our classmates nearby were all watching us with eager expressions, too.
In other words, she wanted me to deep-kiss Ian, whom I wasn’t even dating, in front of all these people?
“No way, no way, no way! How can I do that in front of all these people…”
“Huh? So you’d be okay with it if there weren’t other people around?”
…Did it work like that?
“Can’t be helped. We lost. Plia? Let’s go somewhere private.”
Unlike me, whose thoughts had ground to a halt, Ian smiled brightly, took my arm, and led me somewhere secluded.
…This guy’s enjoying this!
“Hey, you! You’re taking me away because you think this is your chance, aren’t you?!”
“Of course. A chance to kiss the woman I love doesn’t come along every day.”
“You…!”
Of course, if I were Ian, I wouldn’t pass up this chance, either.
A chance to kiss a super-beautiful girl like me doesn’t come around often.
But… what about what I want?
“Kiss! Kiss!”
“Wait, Arin? You followed us?”
“Of course. I’m the one who asked for it, aren’t I?”
Arin followed us, speaking casually.
It seemed like the other students weren’t around, but…
“Besides, aren’t you looking forward to it too, Plia?”
“W-what are you talking about?! There’s no way I’d…”
“Then why did you follow us all the way here so obediently? Without resisting?”
“That’s…”
“No, even before that, why were you concerned about the other students watching? If you’d just said no right there, Ian wouldn’t have done it no matter what. You know that, don’t you? Ian would never do anything Plia didn’t want.”
“...”
“But you never refused, not even once.”
Doesn’t that mean Plia’s looking forward to it, too?
I couldn’t refute Arin’s confident words.
Was that it? Had I really been looking forward to it?
Was I really…
“Aah, this is so frustrating! Ian, just do it already! If Plia really doesn’t want it, she can push you away!”
“I don’t need you to tell me that.”
While I was still confused, Ian had already come right up to me.
I felt a strange pressure from him, and instinctively stepped backward. Ian strode toward me as if he wouldn’t let me escape.
Whenever I took one step back, Ian took one step forward.
After I kept backing away like that…
-Thud
The tree behind me blocked my way and sealed off my escape route.
-Smack!
Then Ian braced one hand against the tree and came closer, striking the pose known as a “kabedon,” and met my eyes.
Maybe because Ian was so much taller than me, the way he looked down at me from above… made my heart feel strangely restless.
Was this the thrilling height difference people talked about?
“Plia.”
“Y-yes?!”
His voice was low and serious, unlike his usual lively tone, and a tingling sensation stirred in my lower abdomen.
W-what was this feeling…?!
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
“Eep?!”
Ian went straight to the point without any metaphors.
Aah… My lower abdomen was tingling again…
“So resist if you don’t want me to.”
-Slurp
As he said that, Ian kissed me, as if he wasn’t going to let me answer.
At first, it felt like his warm lips were pressing against mine.
Ian’s lips were softer than I’d expected, and hot enough to feel like they might burn me.
I was already so embarrassed I could die from just that…
-Lick
“...!”
Ian’s tongue licked my lips.
As if urging me to open up quickly, as if threatening to invade if I didn’t.
The unfamiliar invader gave me a choice between two options,
“Mmm…”
and I had no choice but to part my lips slightly.
In other novels, people always try their best to keep their mouths shut, but now that we’d come this far, resisting was pointless.
And I’d made a deal with Arin, too. I’d be so mad if it didn’t count just because I hadn’t opened my lips after coming all this way.
It really was just that, and there was absolutely no ulterior motive like wanting to accept Ian’s tongue.
Really.
I was trying to rationalize it to myself with those thoughts, but…
-Schlurp.
Once Ian began kissing me in earnest, all those thoughts vanished.
The invader named Ian violently ravaged my mouth, and since this was my first time being attacked like this, all I could do was let him ravage me.
Ian’s tongue licked every corner of my mouth, as if searching for a weakness, and each time, my body writhed at the unfamiliar sensation.
This is… a kiss?
When I read about it in novels, it felt more romantic, but right now, how should I put it… I could only feel like I was truly being ravaged.
And yet, could I say I disliked it…?
“Haa…🤍”
I could feel with my whole body how passionately Ian wanted me.
The way he was already taking his fill of me, yet still reaching for more, was better than I’d expected.
He somehow felt both like a cute boy and a fierce beast.
“Haaah…🤍”
I came, if only a little.
…Am I really such a lightweight?