CH 3

About 100 students had already gathered at the grass-covered knight’s training ground. The sound of them gathering in pairs soon turned into chatter.

It was the characteristic vigor of the academy, which symbolizes the youths of the continent. But even those chatters subsided in an instant the moment I arrived.

It was as if a high-ranking noble came to visit a rural village. At the very least, it was not a treatment that a Viscount’s second son could enjoy. The icy silence settled around me just because of my infamy.

It came as a considerable burden on my mind to pay attention to hundreds of stares at once. It made me want to vomit out the soup I ingested for breakfast.

Of course, I wasn’t the only cause of this chilling silence.

Already, I could feel an ominous gaze on me from somewhere.

At once, my eyes turned to the source of that penetrating gaze. It was just as I expected.

Lustrous gray hair stood out as if they were born out of the fusion of the finest of white and black shades. Her hair that came down to her waist might be a nuisance for a knight, but as a woman, they glorified her beauty.

She is gifted with deep blue eyes reminiscent of the ocean floor and her flawless, unblemished skin. The uniforms of the Knight’s Faculty, which emphasized ease of use, adhered to her body, revealing her filtration curves yet somehow gave off an innocent charm.

She is a beautiful woman. Sometimes, when I stared into those sapphire eyes, I often wondered if she is even a human. Wouldn’t she be a glassware that was painstakingly molded by a skilled artisan?

Although she was not born with blonde hair and red eyes, which symbolizes the Yurdina family, she was a woman with beauty resembling that of the moon. She always charmed many men just like a flower inexorably attracts bees to itself.

The end of those men who got charmed like that was disastrous.

Some of my friends who were once trying to court Seria Yurdina came to mind. They couldn’t help but burst into tears at her attitude of complete disregard.

She looked at me with an icy gaze. On the other hand, only panic dwelled in my eyes.

I was in big trouble. Those eyes were blazing with determination, no matter who looked at them. A will to redeem herself and her shattered self-esteem could be clearly seen. 

After listening to Leto’s words, I seriously thought about skipping the class, but in the end I couldn’t.

Not taking into account any of this, I was someone who was placed in between lower to middle ranks from time to time. Attendance at the swordsmanship class, which had the greatest impact on the knight faculty’s grades, couldn’t help but be a source of concern.

However, no matter how rational the decision I made was, it was inevitable that some regrets would linger. That was the degree of which Seria’s eyes, who I was facing now, harbored bitter hostility.

I heard that last week I beat her to the point of her being half dead, but at the moment I don’t think I would ever be able to defeat her.

I, who was only in the lower middle ranks according to common sense, had no way of winning against her, who was competing for the top, even if she was my junior by one year. Even more, beating her to the point of being half-dead without allowing land a single hit on me?

It was nonsense. Rather, the opposite was more likely.

However, whether I was sweating cold or not, the students who came to the lecture were watching us with a mixture of both expectation and intrigue.

These were the people who knew about the events of the prior week, which I didn’t know. They were wondering what the outcome of Seria’s revenge battle today would be.

Even if I was beaten by Seria, it would still be fun, and if Seria was thrashed once again, they would laugh and mock her by saying that she just made a fool of herself. Because every case had to deviate from common sense to some extent in order to be viewed in the most thrilling fashion.

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However, the spectacle they were hoping for didn’t appear right away. It was because Seria, who had been staring at me for a while, lowered her gaze.

It seems that the me a week ago was extremely terrifying for that aloof junior to lower her gaze first.

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, having avoided an immediate collision, when someone tapped my shoulder with an elbow. It wasn’t out of spite, it was a greeting shared by the men of the southern kingdoms.

And it also meant that the Southern Kingdom recognized the opponent as a man. My gaze twitched. There stood a muscular man with copper-colored skin.

He was a man with blonde hair that gave him the impression of a golden sheep. No, he was actually a famous ruffian in the academy .

A native of the Southern Kingdom, Thean from the County of Eitri. He led his gang before me with a frivolous laugh and a grin on his face.

“Hey, who is this? If it isn’t the Hero from last week!”

“The duel last time was impressive, so… Ian?”

Thean, the gang leader, gave me a word of praise, and the others added a few words. Most of the reactions were favorable to me.

Come to think of it, I heard that they are also the ones who secretly shunned Seria.

In fact, for fear of retaliation from the Yurdina family, they couldn’t torment her properly, but secretly spread rumors instead.

They were cheap bastards. I let out a deep sigh, and Thean, who still had a smirk on his face,  put his arm around my shoulder.

“Wow, to think that sleazy bitch would avert her gaze first… After all, the best way to establish a proper relationship between seniors and juniors is to use the carrot and a stick. Isn’t it?”

“Wouldn’t just the stick without the other one work as well?”

A squeaking sound followed.

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At that moment, “Slap” my hand struck Thean’s arm. Thean flinched in surprise.

Well, he was pretending to be my friend. However, if I do this, I would regret it. I’m not that great of a person who could afford to be hostile to whoever I wanted, so I added a word to save his face.

“Since I’ll be taking part in the duel later, I need to loosen up a bit.”

Thean, who had a bewildered face at my words, immediately chuckled and smiled insidiously. He patted my shoulder with his elbow once more.

“……I’ll be looking forward to it. Thoroughly smash her.”

Unless I’m smashed by her.

But Thean and his gang seemed to have no doubts that I would crush Seria once more. And perhaps most of them are hopeful and are anticipating such a scene.

It was the nature of people to yearn for a star glittering in the sky, but once they fall to the ground, their yearning and awe subsides.

And the anticipation poured into me as the role of the one dropping that ‘Star’ was also a double-edged sword. If I failed, some of the ridicule directed to the fallen star would be pointed my way.

This situation became ridiculous. Why am I in such a difficult situation because of something I can’t even remember?

The moment I tried to calm my throbbing head by pressing on my temple, I recognised a familiar back.

Her ebony hair was neatly tied and running down her back. You could see glimpses of the impressively white nape of her neck through her hair that fluttered every time she swung her sword.

Wait, is it right to call her a girl? In terms of age, she is an adult.

As soon as I found her, I moved on without hesitation. And while she gasped for breath rather than swinging her sword, I poked her in the neck with my finger.

“Hey, hey!”

The girl who was wielding a sword jumped back with a yelp. And her startled eyes turned to me.

She was an impressive girl with brown eyes, who had dense features and a well proportioned figure.

If asked if she was pretty, the answer would be she was incredibly beautiful. Still, I could only see her as a little sister.

Another childhood friend who I had been hanging out along with Leto since my younger days and a junior in the knight’s faculty.

It was ‘Celine Haster’. I smiled and giggled at Celine who was looking at me in surprise.

“Hello, Celine.”

But unlike me, who greeted her with joy, Celine brows furrowed as soon as she saw me. And soon she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me towards her, making me bend my waist as a result.

In an instant, the distance between our faces narrowed, and a small secret meeting place was created. Celine whispered to me in a sullen tone.

“Are you crazy?! Why are you making a fuss and revealing the fact we are acquainted? I was deliberately pretending that I didn’t know you…… !”

“No, Why would you do it? Abandoning a friendship built upon a foundation of 10 years as devoted comrades?”

Celine pounded my chest as if frustrated by my composed voice. However, when I firmed my chest the shock was softened, so it didn’t sound as loud as in Leto.

Celine and Leto were cousins. Since they were young, they had been together for so long that they were like brothers and sisters, and that’s why their reactions when they were frustrated were so similar.

“So why did you touch Yurdina? No matter how young or weak she is, Yurdina is still Yurdina… Don’t you know that Seria was given a castle? It means that they will accept her as a member of the family because of her talent! Compared to Celine, of the Haster family, who rules a snotty countryside territory? Don’t you realize  just thinking about is making my heart race to death?”

“Then don’t pretend we don’t know each other.”

I responded with plain words to Celine’s vague explanations. An embarrassed expression appeared on my face.

“When we die, we decided to die together, didn’t we? I cannot go to hell alone.”

“Go away.”

She pushed me away with a bang, but my arms had already wrapped around her neck for a long time. I gave strength to them to stop her from leaving.

“Don’t do that, you didn’t really mean to pretend we don’t know each other, did you?”

“Why wouldn’t I? If I get involved with Ian oppa, I might also get involved with Thean and those bastards…… ! Don’t you know that I hate those kind of people who messes around like them the most?”

Celine’s rebuttal was more severe than expected. I clicked my tongue and pulled the arms around her neck even stronger.

Her breath and mine blended in close proximity. Celine’s breath smelled sweet even after she swung the sword. How could she smell so good?

It was a mystery, but I deliberately didn’t put that question into my mouth. Only, Celine blushed slightly as the distance between us narrowed.

“What are you doing… everyone can see us… … !”

“Then, is it okay when other people don’t see us?”

Pow, Celine’s still free hand, punched my stomach. I groaned and coughed slightly.

“… … Wanna die?”

At Celine’s icy voice, I decided to stop right away. If I spouted more nonsense, I would have to fight Celine before fighting Seria.

Celine’s skills were on the same level as mine, but she had a lot more magical power than me. Instead, she had the disadvantage of not being good at controlling that magical power, but anyway, she isn’t someone I could take lightly.

“Don’t be like that. Tell me how I was the last time when I fought against Seria.”

“…… ?”

Celine’s curious gaze turned to me. 

As the one who fought, shouldn’t I know best? But unfortunately, I have no memory of ever fighting her.

So it was even more frustrating. If I knew how I fought, I could try to come up with a countermeasure, but right now I was in a situation where I had to stand in front of Yurdina’s bastard without knowing anything.

Seria, the girl who was said to have cleaved the necks of beasts like one plucks apples in an orchard, since she was in her mid teenage years. To confront her without even the slightest preparation was suicidal.

It didn’t look like she was going to give up, even if I somehow avoided the duel today. This meant that I had only two options.

The first one, is get smashed by Seria and becomes a laughingstock in front of everyone.

The second one, it’s to somehow not get beaten by Seria, and wait for her interest to cool down.

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Naturally, the latter was a more attractive option than the former, if I could pull it off.

To Celine, who was still looking at me as if asking for an explanation, I briefly explained the situation.

“Well, actually……I don’t have memories of the past week now.”

“Ian oppa, are you kidding me?”

I made a threatening sound at her prickly words, but Celine’s disgusted gaze didn’t disappear.

In the end, I had no choice but to sigh and acknowledge her words.

“Yeah, I might be going crazy. So don’t look at me like that and let’s talk about it, all right? How the hell did I beat Seria Yurdina?”

“You are still asking that?”

Now it was Celine’s turn to panic. Well, when asked, ‘How did I win?’, the answers she could come up with were limited.

What she saw must have always been the image of me overwhelming Seria, and how to reproduce that movement was entirely up to me.

But Celine soon opened her mouth with a sigh and a voice that wasn’t confident. As if trying to do something.

“I will tell you only what I saw. Because I was one of those people who witnessed it firsthand… Don’t complain to me later if it isn’t helpful?”

“Of course! I won’t do that. Just say it out loud.”

She seemed hesitant at the sound of my confident voice, but soon began to unravel the scene she had seen that day.

Even thinking about it now, it was a story that didn’t have a shred of reality.

****

Seria closed her eyes and opened them. The landscape came into her view as her vision became clear. The beginning and end of meditation have always been like this.

Clear your mind. You must always maintain your composure just like a sharp sword.

It was one of the few teachings left by her father who drove my mother away for being of lowly birth.

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After a brief meditation, my dark blue eyes turned to someone. It was the man who gave me a humiliating defeat some time ago.

I couldn’t even use my hands properly. Only the question of why echoed in my mind.

But the results were very clear. The figure of me, who could not even control my body as I rolled on the ground, breathing heavily, and his calm breath.

He was so terrifying, he was chatting with a woman whose name was I didn’t. Unlike me, He seemed to be a lot more relaxed.

I looked at him for a moment, then lowered my gaze as my eyes trembled. I recalled the fight from a week ago, which I had revisited many times.

Yes, that was the day. I was well aware If I couldn’t overcome the battle of the day, I won’t be able to go any further.

That made me desperate. The memories of that day swept through in her mind like tides clashing with the seashore.

The man that day looked desolate and haggard, as if he returned from a long war.