Defeat?

It was the day of the academy entrance exam.

“What a coincidence! You’re on your way to take the exam too, right?”

“Yeah.”

The guy beside me was none other than Ian. I ran into him on my way to the academy.

…This is awkward. Why is he so energetic?

“Aren’t you nervous?”

“Huh? Well… not really. There’s no way I’ll fail!”

“…You’re certainly confident.”

Fair enough. With Ian’s level of skill, getting into Class A was practically a certainty.

Even I could tell he was pretty strong.

“Ah! We’re here.”

“We sure are.”

By the time we’d finished chatting, we’d arrived at the academy.

A huge crowd had gathered there. There had to be well over a thousand people.

And only 120 spots… The competition’s tougher than I thought.

“Let’s go in.”

“Sure!”

The academy was, as expected… incredibly magnificent. It was on a whole different level from what I’d seen in the game.

Seeing it in person really was different from seeing it through a screen.

“Good luck on the exam!”

“Yeah.”

With that, Ian went to his assigned seat, and I sat in mine.

-Creak

After waiting there for a while, a professor came in through the door… and a zombie?

Ah, no. It was a grad student. An assistant, to be precise.

“All right, everyone. Welcome. You have one hour for the exam. Let’s begin.”

Wow. He just greeted us and started right away.

Well, at least I didn’t have to listen to some pointless speech.

I opened the test booklet and found a variety of questions.

Everything from the basics, like the history and language of this world and math, to questions requiring specialized knowledge, like the difference between mana and divine power.

The questions covered quite a range, but I wasn’t worried at all.

Because… I knew all the answers.

History was just memorization, language and math were basic subjects, and the difference between mana and divine power was information even the game covered.

There were a few other somewhat difficult questions, but they were no problem for someone who’d received the Grand Ducal family’s elite education.

As a result, I managed the feat of finishing every question in thirty minutes.

Apparently, they usually give you a lot of questions so you can’t finish them all in an hour, but as someone who knew about Korea’s CSAT, it was… well.

Since it was pretty rare for anyone to finish all the questions at the academy, unless I’d gotten everything wrong, first place on the written exam was practically in the bag.

Still, just in case, I went through them one more time.

…

Once I’d finished the written exam without a problem, it was lunchtime.

The menu was quite lavish—something commoners might never get to eat even once in their lives, though nobles were another matter.

They probably wanted to show just how impressive the academy was.

Anyway, since a good thing is a good thing, I was looking forward to enjoying my first fancy meal since running away… but I couldn’t.

“El! There you are! How’d you do on the exam?”

“…Yeah.”

Why did this guy have to come over here?

“…Why are you here?”

“Huh? I came to eat with you, of course!”

“…But why?”

“Huh? Just because?”

I couldn’t bring myself to chase him away when he said it so innocently, so I let him sit down for now.

“Did you do well on the exam?”

“Huh? I did great! It was a little hard, but not so hard I couldn’t solve them. It’s just a shame I didn’t finish all of them.”

Great job, Flia! You brought it up first!

…Ahem. Anyway.

“Really?”

It was pretty surprising that Ian had done well on the exam. He seemed like the type who’d be bad at studying.

“Why? Are you surprised?”

“To be honest… yeah.”

“Everyone says I look like I’d be bad at studying.”

So looks really were nothing but superstition?

“Well… congratulations on doing well.”

“Thanks! By the way, El, how many questions did you solve?”

“Me? All of them.”

“…Huh?”

Ian froze with the same smile still on his face. What was that? Had he eaten something weird?

“You… solved all of them?”

“Yeah.”

“There were forty-five questions!”

“…? They were easy.”

Forty-five questions were nothing for someone like me, who’d gotten a top grade on Korea’s CSAT. More importantly, the overall level was lower than in Korea.

I’d even been solving the easy ones at a rate of four per minute, so that should tell you everything.

Of course, asking people in this world to solve forty-five questions in an hour was insane.

“Wow… El, you’re really smart!”

“Huh?”

“People only finish all the questions once every few years, even at the academy! It’s impossible unless you’re a total genius!”

“Uh… yeah. Thanks.”

Ian kept praising me for quite a while after that.

This is really embarrassing.

I thought that as I desperately tried to hide the corners of my mouth, which kept wanting to curl upward.

…

After lunch, we entered the practical exam arena.

It was a huge arena that looked just like the Colosseum.

The duels would be held in this arena over the next few days.

There were too many people for all the duels to be finished in a single day.

Well, they started with the top-ranked students, so my turn would come soon.

“It’s huge! Isn’t it amazing?”

“It sure is. It’s definitely on an incredible scale.”

Maybe it was even bigger than the Colosseum on Earth.

Anyway.

-Oh! Someone’s coming out!

-Is that the principal?

-Whoa! Seriously?

At the voices beside me, I looked toward the center of the arena and saw the principal standing there, with even less hair than in the game.

He’d already been balding in the game… Now he barely had any hair left. Poor guy.

“Welcome, prospective students.”

The principal continued with his opening remarks.

And, of course. A principal’s speech was long and boring in every world.

After a ten-minute speech that felt like an hour, finally…

“Now, let the practical exam begin!”

At the principal’s command, fireworks flared above the arena. It felt kind of like a festival.

“Then let me announce the glorious first pair of duelists!”

I wonder who it’ll be? The first duel is always the most exciting.

“Ian Jegen Gaillis!”

“Oh! I’m first!”

“Good luck.”

First… It was certainly an honorable spot, but it was also the most nerve-racking position.

If I had a choice, I’d have preferred somewhere around the middle…

“El!”

Eh?

“Uh… Is it the two of us?”

“…Looks like it.”

Damn it. Why did I have to be first? And against someone I knew, at that!

“The two duelists who were called, come out to the arena!”

Sigh… I trudged forward with heavy steps.

I had to fight this guy. I’d thought we might become friends, too.

Of course, fighting wasn’t a problem. I wasn’t going to let personal feelings get in the way, and I was definitely going to win.

But if that happened, Ian and I would end up in different classes. No matter how well you fought, losing meant you could only get into Class B.

“Well… it’s a shame things turned out this way. But let’s fight with everything we’ve got! I won’t go easy on you just because we’re friends!”

“Huh…?”

Saying that, Ian ran ahead of me.

Friends? Could I already be called his friend? I wouldn’t know. I’d never had any friends.

“Both of you, take your places!”

Ian’s sudden declaration of friendship left me a little dazed, but I soon came to my senses and took my stance.

I still didn’t want to lose, no matter what.

“Ready! Begin!”

As soon as the referee announced the start, Ian charged at me.

He was fast, and his stance was solid. I could tell he was definitely strong.

-Clang!

I easily blocked his downward slash with my sword, then counterattacked.

-Whoosh!

A straightforward horizontal slash. Ian dodged by retreating, but a sheen of cold sweat had formed on his forehead.

Had he realized how dangerous that was?

“Keep it up.”

I said that with a smile, then charged forward.

I wasn’t using mana to enhance myself, so I wasn’t that fast, but I was still as quick as an average B-rank adventurer.

From there, I made a straightforward vertical slash.

-Claaang!

Ian blocked my sword, but I could see his arms trembling. Heavy, huh?

“You… you’re really strong!”

“You’re no slouch, either.”

Ian knocked my sword aside and attacked me with flashy swordsmanship.

Ah, I see. Since it’s hard to block my attacks, you’re not giving me a chance to attack?

Normally, that kind of trick wouldn’t work at all, but against me while I was holding back, it was quite effective.

He had great combat instincts, too. As expected of the Hero’s son.

-Clang! Clang!

I blocked every one of Ian’s attacks, but I wasn’t seeing many openings to press in.

Of course, he wasn’t completely without openings, so I managed to counterattack now and then. But Ian had already figured out I could only use two kinds of attacks, and he was careful never to step into the path of my strikes.

His judgment was good, too. He was such a promising talent that it was a shame he might not get into Class A. With skills like these, couldn’t they make an exception and put him in Class A?

Still, I couldn’t keep defending forever.

-Clang!

“Huh?”

I knocked Ian’s sword away with brute strength.

His stance was wide open as his sword was knocked aside in the middle of a downward strike.

Looks like this is the end.

I brought down the sword I’d raised to knock Ian’s weapon away, delivering the final blow.

Or I was going to.

“Guh!”

-Bam!

Ian reacted in an instant, throwing himself to the left and dodging my attack.

I could’ve easily caught up if I’d changed the angle of my sword mid-swing, but I didn’t because of the restrictions I’d placed on myself.

“You dodged that. You’re pretty impressive, huh?”

“And you’re incredibly strong!”

I guess I am pretty strong.

“Honestly, I haven’t been fighting at full strength until now. I guess I was being arrogant.”

As he spoke, golden mana began to emanate from Ian.

There was a lot of it, too—enough to put him around the level of a high-ranking A-rank adventurer.

“I’m going all out from now on!”

-Bam!

Ian blasted the ground apart and closed the distance in an instant.

So he hadn’t been going all out until now… Impressive.

-Claaang!

Ian’s sword had become incomparably heavier and faster than before.

Without enhancing my body, it was difficult to block head-on now.

Well… if I couldn’t block it head-on, I could just deflect it.

I deflected every one of Ian’s fierce attacks and began counterattacking, too.

A horizontal slash, then a vertical slash. A combination linking the two.

It was an incredibly simple technique, but it’d be hard for Ian to block.

Sure enough, Ian was desperately dodging my sword and only parrying the strikes he couldn’t avoid.

Even then, he managed to counterattack every now and then. That was impressive. A student at this level… If I hadn’t been here, Ian might’ve been the top student.

“Grr…!”

But it looked like he was at his limit now.

Ian was getting slower and slower, and he couldn’t completely avoid my attacks. Blood was running from various wounds on his body.

“You fought well.”

Now I really had to finish this.

I said that as I raised my sword. I’d intended to end it with this attack, but…

“Light!”

“What!?”

Something unexpected happened.

A blinding light and a loud bang burst from Ian’s hand.

-Eeeeeee

My sight and hearing vanished in an instant. Normally, that wouldn’t have worked on me at all, and I could recover even now in two seconds, but in this situation, it left a fatal opening.

“…!”

By the time my vision had partially returned, Ian had already cast another spell.

-Clang!

The next instant, a tremendous impact hit my sword.

I barely managed to keep hold of it, but Ian was already rushing at me like lightning, pointing his sword at me.

Mana instinctively surged through my body, and just as I was about to cut Ian down along with his sword…

-Peeeeep!

“Duel over! Winner: Ian Jegen Gaillis!”

The whistle signaling the end of the duel rang out.

My sword was still raised overhead, not yet brought down, while Ian’s sword was already on the verge of piercing my heart.

Of course, if this had been a real fight, I would’ve cut Ian down, even if it meant taking some injuries.

But this was a duel.

Anyone could see who’d won.

-Clang! Thud.

“I… lost?”

I dropped my sword and sank to the ground, muttering without realizing it.

Well… I had plenty of excuses.

I’d placed a lot of restrictions on my strength, I’d underestimated my opponent, I hadn’t expected him to use magic…

But no matter what excuse I made, the fact remained that I’d lost.

Don’t they say the same thing in famous manga? A sneak attack is a skill, and letting your guard down is a skill.

I’d arrogantly looked down on my opponent, and he’d simply taken advantage of the opening to win.

Still… I lost? To an academy student. An applicant, no less?

I was in shock. I couldn’t get back to my feet for a long while.