Older Sister And Younger Sister

By the time the first round of the tournament had concluded, the second round was about to begin. Since the royal family was in attendance this year, the matches had been shortened. Some of the first-round matches had also been held at other facilities. The bracket containing Rudel and the others was the one being watched by the royals, partly at Fina’s request.

“The second round, huh… The next class is a tough opponent too.”

Izumi muttered to Rudel while looking over the tournament bracket. Rudel answered her.

“Is there someone strong in it? Among the people in our year who seem really impressive… I beat Luecke, but aside from him, I can only think of Aleist and Unias.”

Izumi felt a headache coming on at Rudel’s sense of scale. From Rudel’s perspective, since he was always ranked among the top students in their year, the others probably didn’t seem like much of a threat… But this tournament was a team competition. Rudel winning alone would accomplish nothing.

“Honestly, we have to win our matches too if we want to take the championship.”

Rudel answered Izumi with a smile.

“It’ll be fine! We’re definitely going to win!”

Rudel replied with complete confidence. Seeing him like that made the other class representatives smile as well. Izumi collected herself and murmured the name of her next opponent.

“Milia… The elf Milia is my next opponent.”

Indeed, the vice-captain’s match would be Izumi versus Milia.

And so Rudel’s class entered the second round, but by the time it was Izumi’s turn for the vice-captain’s match, the score was one win and two losses! That placed an enormous amount of responsibility on Izumi. There was another problem as well: her opponent, Milia. …For some reason, Milia was glaring at her. Not because this was a match, nor because she was concentrating… She was simply glaring.

“Do your best, Izumi!”

Rudel joined the rest of the class in cheering for Izumi from outside the ring, putting all his energy into it. And the more enthusiastically he cheered, the harder Milia glared at her. Armed with a bow, Milia stood ready with a large supply of training arrows.

Milia had taken an interest in Rudel. At the same time, she despised the Dragoons he aspired to join. The reason lay with her elder sister, Lilim. Despite being an elf, Lilim had become a Dragoon, one of the elite among the elite of Courtois.

Lilim had been highly capable even among elves, and her people had placed great expectations on her. But… her elven fiancé had discovered Lilim’s secret and broken off their engagement. That incident had caused her sister to distance herself from both her clan and the elven race itself. Rather than remain among the persecuted elves, she had chosen to become a Dragoon of Courtois.

The elder sister Milia had once adored was now a dog of the humans… and now the Dragoons were even captivating the person Milia herself had begun to care about. She knew perfectly well that her resentment was misplaced, but she still couldn’t forgive the organization.

“…I have nothing against you personally. But I’ll fight you with everything I have.”

At the signal to begin, wings appeared on Milia’s back. Translucent, glowing wings… Then Milia began bounding all over the ring in every direction. …Yes, she wasn’t flying. She was jumping.

“Kh! What kind of movement is that?!”

Milia repeatedly created distance, darted around behind Izumi, and attacked with her bow. Izumi reacted and defended herself accordingly… And then it happened. Izumi muttered something. A creature often seen in kitchens… a black demon that leaped around.

“You’re like a bug!”

The atmosphere in the ring changed so sharply it almost seemed as though something had audibly snapped. The wings that were a distinctive elven trait could, admittedly, look more like insect wings than bird wings. And although their fluttering merely assisted the elves’ jumps… the result did resemble an insect.

The elves themselves understood that and were sensitive about it. Their reactions varied from person to person, but… Milia flew into a rage.

“Y-You… what did you just say? No, never mind. I heard you perfectly well… You called me a bug, so you’d better prepare yourself!!!”

Milia accelerated and began bounding around the ring even faster. Unable to keep up with her movements, Izumi was struck all over by training arrows. Even though they were meant for practice, they still hurt and could cause injuries.

Faced with Milia’s relentless movement, Izumi stopped moving altogether. She sharpened her senses, no longer trying to follow Milia with her eyes, but instead attempting to predict her path. She picked up Milia’s rhythm through the sounds of her movement and the timing of her bow attacks, anticipated where she would go next, then closed the distance in an instant and struck.

Milia narrowly evaded Izumi’s attack. But Izumi did not overlook the opening that created. Taking advantage of it, Izumi grabbed the ankle of the still-bounding Milia, and from there the match became completely one-sided. Unable to escape, Milia found Izumi’s wooden sword pressed against her neck.

With no way out, Milia muttered bitterly,

“I-I admit defeat.”

Hearing that, the referee declared Izumi the victor. Izumi breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that she had fulfilled her responsibility. Then Rudel rushed over and threw himself at her.

“That was amazing, Izumi! You actually caught an elf jumping around like that!”

Rudel happily praised Izumi. Seeing that only made Milia glare at her even more fiercely. She now recognized Izumi as the opponent who had defeated her, the woman who had called her a bug… and, for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, someone who irritated her immensely.

“What a boring match. That elf was getting far too full of herself!”

Princess Aileen gave her opinion of the match. Surprisingly, Fina agreed with her. That elf was getting full of herself… she should have been fluffier instead! That was what Fina was thinking.

(I hate myself for getting this worked up when she isn’t even fluffy! Haaah, haaah… I want to nibble on those ears so badly!!!)

Unlike Fina, however, Aileen genuinely hated demi-humans.

Aileen’s hatred of demi-humans had begun when the carriage she was traveling in was attacked by goblins. More precisely, it had been attacked by several different monsters. When Aileen saw the goblins charging at her from close range, she screamed and cried, making a complete spectacle of herself. That alone would not have been much of a problem.

Aileen had been young at the time, and anyone would be terrified if attacked by monsters. The problem was that Aileen was a princess. If a princess was attacked by monsters… then naturally, someone had to take responsibility, and that responsibility fell upon the knights assigned to guard her. And among them was the person who had been Aileen’s first love.

Whether by bad luck or fate, the knight who carried out the punishment had been a demi-human. Aileen had shut herself away in shame after the boy she loved witnessed her disgrace, and it was only much later that she learned of his death. She needed someone to hate just to endure it, though at heart Aileen had originally been a kind girl.

It was around then that she began to change. Demi-humans who disturbed the peace should simply be exterminated… Then a peaceful world inhabited only by humans could be created. …Aileen genuinely believed that.

“Calm yourself, Aileen… Look at Fina. She’s always composed and never loses her head. As a member of the royal family, you should learn from her.”

The king tried to calm the excited Aileen. Meanwhile, the person being held up as an example watched Rudel defeat his opponent in the captain’s match within seconds and thought,

(As expected of Master!!! That made my heart skip just a tiny bit! But please go easy whenever you’re up against something fluffy!)

Fina remained utterly expressionless—and utterly free-spirited as ever.