CH 230

“I can’t wait to see who I’ll be up against.”

Less than two weeks have passed since I made a bet with Sophie. And today is the day when the match-up list for the main competition will be released, so now we are all going to go take a look at it.

“Now, I wonder where I’ll be.”

Incidentally, there is a limit of three foreign students this time as well. This means that one person out of Elira, Bequa, Urza, and Carina won’t be allowed to compete. So the order in which they compete against each other and so on is important.

“………”

I froze when I saw the list of matchups.

“I’ll expect you in the first round.”

“Ah…”

Shana spoke to me.

“If you win the second round, you’ll be fighting me next.”

“Oh……”

Elira spoke to me this time.

“If you win, you’ll be in the semi-finals with me! Let’s have fun!”

“Oh……”

Bequa also spoke to me.

“I guess the final is going to be against my brother.”

“Yeah…..”

I’ve had too much bad luck with matchups. The first round is Shana, the second round is Elira, the semi-finals is Bequa, and the finals is Sophie. Probably I have to fight all four of them from the top counting in order of strength among our group. By the way, only me and Shana will fight in the first round among our group, and all the others are separated. Funny…why only me….. Ah, but if you think about it, me and Shana are in the same situation. Even if Shana keeps winning, she’ll still have to fight the top four in order of strength.

“Hey! Zeros!”

“Hmm?”

While I was devastated by my bad luck, I heard a voice calling me loudly. I turned toward the voice and saw Gladden, soot on his face, coming toward me.

“Wash up will you?”

“Thank you.”

He took a closer look and saw that he had soot all over his body, so he magically cleaned it off. You can use simple water magic like this even if your skill level is low.

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t finished the sword yet. And it won’t be ready in time for the first battle in the garden.”

“Really?”

The main park battle starts three days from now.

And, it would be great if I’m given my new sword right now, I hear that it’s close to the best sword Gladden has ever struck. But they say there’s still a lot of room for growth in my sword. So he needs a little more time.

“I’ll definitely get it ready before the finals…or semi-finals. Until then, please use this sword.”

Saying this, Gladden handed me two swords.

“These swords won’t break so easily even if you swing them seriously, so you should be able to use them.”

I took them out of their sheaths and swung them a little, and I think they are pretty good swords. Even if I don’t know the detailed value, at least I know that it’s not something that can be given as a replacement sword.

“Can I really borrow this?”

“Ah! No problem! When your sword is finished, it’ll be incomparable to this sword, so be prepared!”

After saying that, Gladden left. He showed up suddenly and left suddenly…. He left as soon as he was done with his business….

“That means I get to fight the real Zeros with his new sword for the first time!”

Bequa was happy to hear this. He was happy to be my first real opponent with my new sword.

“Zeros… you can’t use your new sword in a battle inside the park.”

“The new sword will be tested on monsters for the first time when we go out of the capital.”

Meanwhile some people are trying to keep me from using my new sword.

“I don’t care how Zero-niisama’s weapon changes, because it won’t change my victory.”

And Sophie had this to say. I’m sure the fact that Sophie is willing to win so much has something to do with the kissing bet, right?

“And this format would be different from last year’s inter-school competition.”

This year’s inter-school competition is a little different from last year’s. What’s different is the magic tools used in the battle against the school. In other words, you win by inflicting a fatal wound and transferring the victim off the arena. This is supposed to be carried out under the pretext of a rehearsal for the inter-school competition.

“Unlike mock battles, the fighting style changes considerably when you are trying to kill…”

Of course, the one I don’t want to deal with the most in this format is Sophie. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sophie’s magic has a level of instant death.

“Then I’ll see you in three days.”

“See you soon!”

“Bye.”

We decided not to meet at the practice field for the three days leading up to the competition, but to train individually, since we’d be practicing techniques we didn’t want to show before the competition. Sophie also said that she’d try her magic away from me for these three days. So I’ll practice mainly spirit magic on my own.