Boy, Decisive Match, And Red-Haired Girl

Facing a student from Aleist’s class, Izumi fought primarily with swordsmanship. Her opponent could do nothing but defend against her swift movements and slashes, and Izumi toyed with the student before finally pressing her wooden sword against their neck. …Cheers rose from the spectator stands.

Izumi had won. The referee pointed the flag toward Izumi, and she sheathed her wooden sword accordingly.

Several knights watched the scene from the arena’s VIP room. There were several High Knights and two Dragoons… Among them, one girl sat with her legs stretched forward and thrown up onto the table. Her red hair fell to her shoulders, and she idly played with its unruly locks. Her pale skin and red eyes were strikingly beautiful.

Her behavior, however, was a problem. Her posture was terrible, her feet were on the table… and the surrounding knights kept glancing at her, “Cattleya Nianis.” The man apologizing on her behalf was the vice-captain of the Dragoons, who sat beside her.

She had not become a Dragoon because she particularly wanted to. She was a genius blessed with natural talent who had managed to form a contract with a Red Dragon—a genuine dragon, unlike the gray dragons raised in Courtois.

Wind Dragons had green scales, Gaia Dragons had yellow scales, and Water Dragons had smooth light-blue scales… Those colors never appeared among domestically bred dragons. Every dragon born in captivity had gray scales.

And gray dragons were inferior in quality to those true dragons.

Cattleya looked down on the vice-captain for being contracted with a gray dragon. That was why she refused to correct her posture no matter how often she was warned. On top of that, Cattleya was trusted by the royal family. That only made her even more conceited.

“These matches are all boring. May I leave?”

The vice-captain had finally begun to lose his patience, but he held it in.

“Listen, Cattleya. One of our duties here is to identify potential future members.”

“None of them are particularly strong. Even that black-haired woman from earlier is, at best, suited to becoming a High Knight.”

The nearby High Knights bristled with killing intent at those words. But they were first-rate knights. They might have been angered, but they did not act on it. From the vice-captain’s perspective, however, it felt as though his stomach were being attacked directly.

The next match was finally Rudel’s. Aleist stood opposite him with a relaxed expression, while Rudel looked completely serious.

“Now then, time to punish an arrogant noble. …Any complaints?”

“Whether I’m arrogant or not… no, I suppose I am. I have no complaints, but I want you to take this seriously.”

“I see… But there’s no need for me to go all out.”

The instant the referee gave the signal to begin, both of them stepped forward.

The distance vanished in an instant, and their wooden swords collided violently with a sound far too sharp for wood. Aleist began to grow anxious when Rudel managed to respond to his attacks, and Rudel seized on that hesitation and went on the offensive.

When Aleist pulled back to create distance, Rudel attacked with magic. He unleashed a continuous barrage of basic spells, giving Aleist no opportunity to counterattack… but then Aleist shouted,

“DON’T GET COCKY!!!”

He tried to unleash advanced magic inside the arena. From Rudel’s perspective, it was an obvious opening and a poor move. Rudel immediately closed the distance while continuing to fire magic, intending to force the fight back into close quarters, when—

“Idiot, you’re way too obvious!!!”

Wind magic had been imbued into Aleist’s wooden sword. Rudel blocked the attack and was violently blown away.

“Incredible… I never imagined we would see a match of this caliber in the basic curriculum.”

“Aleist truly is every bit the monster the rumors claim.”

“Still, that boy from the Arses Family is doing remarkably well to keep up with him…”

Such conversations filled the VIP room. The High Knights were in excellent spirits, and the vice-captain was already excited at the prospect of promising new recruits. Cattleya alone felt differently.

(How irritating… What kind of match is this? That Aleist guy is nothing but raw power, and that idiot kid has just trained himself pointlessly!)

Cattleya was certain she could defeat either of them instantly. She directed a sharp glare toward Rudel. She did not like him. …That was the first emotion Cattleya felt toward Rudel.

“That’s Rudel of the Arses Family, isn’t it? I heard he’s aiming to become a Dragoon… At this rate, he might actually have a chance.”

At that High Knight’s remark, blood rushed to Cattleya’s head. That thing was going to reach the same rank as her? Absolutely not! He was unacceptable! She hated the idea!!!

Cattleya herself no longer understood why she objected so strongly. She simply watched Rudel and Aleist’s match with absolute seriousness.

The magic imbued into Aleist’s wooden sword… the wind magic had forced Rudel onto the defensive. If he blocked, he was blown away, and even when he dodged, the wind disrupted his balance. At present, the most effective attack he could manage was to retreat while firing spells.

“Hah… hah… Basil was right. The quality of magic drops far more than I expected in actual combat. At this rate, firing it is almost pointless.”

Rudel recalled Basil’s instruction. Then he decided to gamble everything on one attempt. A full-power spell at point-blank range… Even if it was only basic magic, at close range, with all his mana poured into it…

Aleist watched Rudel with a confident expression. Apparently, he had understood exactly what Rudel was planning.

“Heh, betting everything on one strike? Fine by me. …I’ll take it, so come at me with everything you’ve got!!!”

The wind surrounding Aleist’s wooden sword intensified. A small tornado formed around the blade… as though the tornado itself had become the sword’s edge, and the sight of that Magic Sword astonished the arena.

Aleist raised the Magic Sword overhead and waited… while Rudel gathered mana into the palm of his right hand.

“W-Wait, you two! We can’t have anyone dying here—”

Using the referee’s attempt to intervene as their opportunity, both of them moved. Fire magic gathered in Rudel’s right hand… while Aleist grinned and brought his Magic Sword down. But Rudel had secretly prepared wind magic in his left hand.

For basic-year students, using two spells simultaneously was practically impossible. Rudel could not control them perfectly either… but he used the wind spell in his left hand to deflect the trajectory of Aleist’s Magic Sword, then drove the true spell in his right hand directly into Aleist!

An explosion of wind erupted across the arena, and almost simultaneously, both of them were thrown backward. …The result was obvious to everyone watching.

“So that settles it… That was quite an interesting match.”

Cattleya had no interest in the vice-captain’s words. Her gaze remained fixed on Rudel, who was lying collapsed in the arena. While Aleist barely managed to stand, Rudel could no longer even get to his feet. Even so, he desperately struggled to rise.

“In the end, the difference in their fundamental strength showed… Aleist Hardy truly is a monster.”

Listening to those conversations, Cattleya felt fear.

(Why does no one notice? The real monster is him! Rudel Arses is the real monster!!!)

Cattleya’s assessment was that Rudel was the true monster. In addition to the dexterity required to use two spells simultaneously, however imperfectly, his swordsmanship and magical technique had both completely surpassed Aleist’s. The only reasons Aleist had won were probably his trump card, the Magic Sword, and his seemingly bottomless reserves of mana.

(But Rudel is only fifteen too… He’s still at an age where he can improve dramatically. And that strength of will, still trying to stand… After being shown such an overwhelming difference, he still keeps trying to get back up!)

That boy would claw his way upward. …Cattleya felt afraid of Rudel because of that. He certainly had talent, but not as much as she did, and in terms of pure swordsmanship talent, he was probably inferior even to the black-haired girl from the previous match. Yet if they actually fought, Rudel would surely win.

And so Cattleya thought… she would crush him.