“Let’s go.”

“Oh…”

We were transferred to the forest near the royal capital, and we started running toward the royal capital.

What did that old man want to say in the end? I didn’t want him to say something half-hearted and unintelligible like that. If he was going to say something, I wanted him to say it clearly, and if he can’t say it clearly, I don’t want him to say anything. If he says something half-heartedly, it makes me wonder what he was trying to say.

“At any rate, it doesn’t seem that there was any problem in the capital, does it?”

“Right.”

When we entered the royal city, the situation there wasn’t at all different from usual.

“Let’s head for the practice field for now.”

“Right.”

We still don’t know why the inter-school competition hasn’t been held yet. To find out, we decided it would be better to go to the practice field. Because if we go to the practice field, Shana and the others will be there. If they were there, they would definitely know the reason. And if we could see Shana and the others at the practice field, we would be able to confirm that they were safe, so we could kill two birds with one stone.

“What’s wrong? Bring it on!”

“They seem fine for now…”

“I guess so.”

When we arrived at the door of the practice field, we heard Bequa’s loud voice from inside. I opened the door, relieved that there no longer seemed to be an emergency.

“Ora! Huh? Zeros! Long time no see! You look good!”

“Bequa, you’re looking good, too.”

All the members participating in the school competition were at the practice field. Shana saw us coming and came over to us.

“Welcome back.”

“We’re back. So, has the school competition started yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Why is it behind schedule?”

“Because of the heroes.”

“The heroes?”

When I asked her about the details, she told me that the arrival was delayed by more than a week because the heroes were being selfish. Rumor has it that they’re staying at a fancy inn every night and being fed a fancy meal. If they don’t do this, the heroes will be annoyed when they come….

“By the way, they can’t delay the school matches for more than a week, even because of the heroes, so the representative matches will be held without the heroes.”

“I see.”

Claudia said that the school matches will start in four days. However, it seems that the heroes won’t be able to make it by then, so they will not participate in the representative round.

“I wish they could have come.”

“Yeah.”

I wanted to think of a strategy for the survival battle after seeing how good the heroes are at the representative round, but it seems that is not possible.

“Ah, so who’s going to participate in the representative match?”

Part of the reason we wanted to go back two days before, instead of right before, the match against the school was because we wanted to decide this.

“We’ve already decided that.”

“You did?”

“Yes.”

Elira came over to me and said so. She immediately told me the members of the team.

Spearhead Carina

Claudia

Shana, center fielder

Elira, vice captain

Captain Bequa

“Oh, we’re not in?”

We were gone on our own for the past two weeks, so I can’t complain about being left out. I just didn’t think we were going to be removed.

“Zeros, are you misunderstanding something?”

“Huh?”

“Since the heroes won’t fight and we won’t be able to see their ability, then we should hide our abilities too. We wouldn’t want the Holy Taglion to be able to detect our Captain, Zeros, and vice-captain, Sophie’s abilities!”

“I see what you mean.”

Then shouldn’t Claudia not participate? I thought so, but Claudia wanted to show her power. They want to add Carina and Claudia to the list of people who would alarm the other side. It seems to be a strategy to spread the vigilance to other people and make it easier for me and Sophie to move.

“I don’t think I’ll have a problem either, but what about Sophie?”

“I too think this is good for the national team members.”

I thought Sophie would complain about us not being there, but she quickly agreed.

“Zeros, since you were gone, you must have gotten stronger in that way, right? Do you know what would have happened if you hadn’t gotten stronger?”

“Yes, I do. Fine, let’s have a go at it.”

Bequa said it in a roundabout way, but what he meant was that he wanted to have a mock fight with me.

I said that, and everyone around us, except for Sophie, started to leave.

“Start!”

Sophie said, and the first mock battle with Bequa in a long time began. I mean, shouldn’t we train for a team fight at least once?

“…… Oh? What happened to the beastification? Don’t tell me you lost it?”

“I didn’t lose it, so I’m fine. Just get on with it.”

“This guy…”

To be frank, I can’t use beastification to show my growth, because I haven’t fully developed my technique of parrying the sword when I’m in the enhanced state. In the beastified state, has my swordsmanship improved a bit? But that’s about it.

“Take a hit for now!”

Bequa was a little angry and came at me. I parried with my sword.

“……?”

“I guess this is the end.”

The sword in its scabbard was completely soundless, and I didn’t feel it hit at all. I took the opportunity to place my sword on Bequa’s neck.

“Winner, Nii-sama!”

I was able to parry Bequa’s attack quite well. Perhaps the old man’s attack was just too devilish and difficult to parry, and I had improved more than I thought I had?