Chapter 84 : Chapter 84
Chapter 84 Mind Your Own Business.
“Where did these guys go? It’s starting soon.”
Adellian frowned deeply and roamed around looking for Maxim and Piontek.
“F, found them.”
Odekerkh, who was looking for Maxim and Piontek with Adellian, raised his hand with a bright expression. However, the joy of finding them didn’t last long.
“Where were you…… Why is he like that? He’s not dead, right?”
Piontek, leaning on Maxim, waved his hand feebly.
“Why is he acting like that?”
“Something like shock therapy.”
Even at Maxim’s answer, Adellian and Odekerkh only tilted their heads.
“Nothing to worry about. Who won the match?”
Adellian raised her hand high. She even spun around with her arms wide open as if boasting that she didn’t suffer a single scratch.
“Clean. But what were you doing being so noisy?”
“It wasn’t me, but the opponent firing fire here and there to show off.”
“You should have shot water back?”
“Yeah! I did that.”
A clear smile like a child settled on Adellian’s face.
Seeing this, Piontek pushed Maxim away and stood up straight with difficulty.
“A, are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Everything is okay.”
Piontek staggered and walked toward where the stadium was.
Odekerkh looked at such Piontek worriedly.
Then Maxim approached and tapped Odekerkh’s shoulder tap tap.
“He says he’s okay. Let’s watch.”
Odekerkh scratched his head. In his view, Piontek’s condition looked severely bad, but since both Maxim and Piontek himself said it was okay.
‘Is he really okay?’
Since if Maxim said so, it was so, he decided to follow his will this time too. Seeing Adellian following behind Maxim without much thought, and Michelle being the same, Odekerkh thought his own decision wouldn’t be wrong.
***
Piontek closed his eyes and breathed in the mana mixed in the air.
‘Amazing.’
The mana circulated through his whole body without a single stagnation. And it climbed onto the Mana Circle obediently. It was a sensation he had never experienced before. Because the fast-flowing sections and slow-flowing sections used to be erratic, and once it entered the Mana Circle, it roamed around trying to settle down.
‘What on earth did he do?’
Piontek looked at Maxim. He was watching the match with a bored expression.
‘Even if I ask, there’s no way he’d answer properly.’
What will you do if you know? Or if I tell you, can you even use it? He expected answers like that.
“Cadet Thomas wins!”
The match ended.
“Boring.”
Like Maxim’s words, Piontek also thought the seniors’ duel was boring. He could tell just by looking at the weakened audience response.
‘If I fought, it would have been different.’
Whoever it was, if they fought with Piontek himself, he saw that a slightly more spectacular spectacle would have been produced. It’s a matter of fighting a 2nd Circle, but he didn’t think he would lose either.
“Is life bearable?”
Maxim looked at Piontek and smirked.
Piontek narrowed his eyebrows like an aggrieved puppy and avoided Maxim’s gaze.
“Next is Cadet Samir! Cadet Piontek! Both prepare for the match.”
After the 10-minute maintenance time ended, the next match was announced.
Tension dwelt on Piontek’s face. It was partly because the duel order came faster than his expectation.
“What are you doing?”
Maxim signalled Piontek to move.
“I’m going.”
“You’re going to run away?”
“No! Why would I run away?”
“Looking at your face, it seems like it.”
“No…….”
Piontek, realizing that saying more would only make him a fool, headed to the stadium.
Towards such Piontek, Maxim shouted support that wasn’t really support loudly, saying ‘It’s okay. You can lose. Since the one embarrassed isn’t me.’
“Y, yeah. I, it’s okay.”
“You don’t necessarily have to win. Strength!”
“Is okay.”
Clumsy support from those hanging out together also followed.
“Just don’t do it.”
Piontek, standing on the stadium, let out a long sigh and shook his head.
Since the support sounds like mockery, it’s worse than not doing it.
“Did you come for a picnic?”
Samir looked at Piontek pitifully.
At this, Piontek let out a snort.
“You laugh?”
Samir’s face distorted fiercely.
***
“No need to provoke her like that…….”
Adellian looked at Piontek with worried eyes.
So I made a face asking for the reason.
“Because the weapon she uses is different and her techniques are different, she’s tricky to deal with.”
Different? Come to think of it, the skin colour is very different. If Piontek is excessively white, the kid named Samir is swarthy like a child who ran around the beach all day.
“Is she a kid from another country?”
“Ah…… You wouldn’t remember. There’s a country called Otunia that formed an alliance with us 5 years ago. A noble from there.”
Fascinating. Otunia is a country considerably far from Poinus. Between Poinus and Otunia, there is a huge nation called ‘Hispania.’ And there is the White Sea. There’s almost no reason to touch each other. Yet an alliance?
“Why did they form an alliance?”
“Not being a royal family member, I wouldn’t know. I actually wanted to ask you, but since your memory disappeared, there’s no way to know.”
Adellian stuck out her lips like a duck as if to say what could be done.
That kid has become very soft too. When first seen, she was an unlucky honour student, but now she’s smart…….
“What? Why? Did I say something wrong?”
No. Just an unlucky honour student.
“I, it’s starting.”
Odekerkh pointed to the stadium.
The two contestants, having finished greeting each other, grabbed their respective weapons and took their stances. Piontek held a spear and Samir…….
“Wh, what is th, that?”
“Three-section staff.”
Odekerkh looked at me with eyes saying he still didn’t know.
“Nunchucks with one more attached. You can tell just by looking.”
“It becomes l, like a staff then s, separates and such, so.”
“There are cases used like that too.”
Odekerkh made an ‘Ah!’ exclamation. And asked, ‘H, how do y, you know all s, such things?’
“Difference in experience.”
“E, experience?”
The gaze saying ‘What on earth does that mean?’ is explicit. Tsk tsk tsk. What you see isn’t everything. Having experienced it, and yet acting like that.
“He might lose.”
“W, why? Samir's grades aren’t good.”
“Don’t you know the reason the grades are bad?”
At Adellian’s question, Odekerkh shook his head.
“It’s because she has a hot temper. The grade deduction is all due to penalty points. Looking at grades alone, she should go to the Red Deer Class, but she was in the Blue Dragon Class. Why would that be?”
The top rank is Black Lion Class. Next is White Bear Class, Blue Dragon Class like this, right? Red Deer Class is the lowest. Then it means she’s above average.
“If, if there were no penalty points…….”
“She would have been with me.”
Then it means her skill is considerable…….
“It’s okay.”
The guys around looked at me with round eyes. Gazes asking what is okay.
“If he loses, he loses.”
Faces full of disappointment are a bonus.
But there is no need to be disappointed. Because it doesn’t seem like Piontek will lose. If the guy reads the flow of mana correctly and awakens his ability, that is. If he doesn’t awaken? Can’t be helped. He has to lose.
If he loses? He’ll have a happy time with me. Enough for tears of blood to flow.
“M, Maxim?”
“Why are you laughing like that? Scarily.”
“Weird.”
These young bastards!
You shouldn’t say that about a person laughing.
***
Thud!
Piontek blocked Samir’s attack.
‘This is really dizzying.’
The staff made of three parts wriggled like a snake. It wrapped around Samir’s arm then stood up from her back, and just when it seemed to wrap around her chest, it popped out and aimed for a gap.
“Why? Scared after getting hit a few times?”
Samir, holding the three-section staff and taking a stance, looked at Piontek and clicked her tongue.
Piontek spat out a snort. It was because the sight of her gloating over hitting him a few times was unsightly.
“Why? Hate associating with a kid from a foreign country?”
“What are you saying?”
“Unlucky bastard. Just swaggering around because you went to Black Lion Class a bit.”
Samir ground her teeth grit grit.
‘Why is she like that?’
Piontek found Samir strange. It was clear she was angry towards him, but he couldn’t know the reason. She could get angry to burn fighting spirit, but for that, a thick emotion was felt.
“Tournament or whatever, I will smash you to pieces!”
Samir spun the three-section staff fiercely.
Woosh!
The staff flew in beating the wind.
Piontek tried to ruin the flow of the staff by turning his spear.
Rumble!
A stone pillar soared from the ground.
The three-section staff rode the stone pillar and rotated largely.
Clang!
Piontek’s spear managed to block the striking staff with difficulty. However, since it was an attack striking from an unexpected location, he had no choice but to ruin his physical balance.
Seeing this, Samir swung the three-section staff and aimed for Piontek’s legs.
Thwack!
He tried hard to dodge, but it wasn’t complete. Piontek, falling to the floor, hurriedly rolled his body.
Crunch!
The spot where Piontek was got largely gouged out.
‘Opening.’
Because of swinging the three-section staff largely, Samir’s chest opened up.
Piontek aimed for this and extended his spear.
Rumble.
However, the attack was blocked by a soaring stone pillar.
“You can absolutely never beat me. While you bastard was playing around, I practiced risking my life.”
From near Samir’s heart, a brownish Mana Circle, two circles emitted light.
Stone pillars soared consecutively.
The three-section staff played by Samir rode the stone pillars and roamed around ferociously here and there.
Piontek was wary of Samir’s staff not knowing where it would fly from. But it was futile.
Thud!
Boom!
Thwack!
Bang!
If he blocked, it flew from behind. If he dodged, it hit the side. If he tried to grab a moment of counterattack, stone pillars popped up and blocked the movement.
‘Damn it.’
Piontek felt like a rat trapped in a maze being hunted.
“It cannot be so!”
He cannot just be beaten.
He circulated the Mana Circle. As felt before the match, mana moved refreshingly. The Mana Circle emitted yellow light. It was a darker light than before.
Crackle!
Electricity sparked from the spear tip. Even in Piontek’s eyes, electricity crawling on the spear tip like earthworms was visible. He recalled an event from long ago. The appearance of gathering electricity at the spear tip to make it like a sharp blade.
“Electric Shearing (Jeondan).”
Like Samir did, Piontek also used his body to spin the spear.
Slice, slice, slice.
The stone pillars soaring ceaselessly were cut away before they could even disappear.
Samir’s eyes became round. The three-section staff spinning round and round riding the stone pillars also lost its way and crashed to the floor.
“Opening!”
Piontek aimed for Samir’s shoulder.
However, it didn’t reach Samir. Rather, it became a situation giving an opening to her chest.
Thwack!
Samir’s three-section staff struck Piontek’s abdomen.
“Keuk!”
“Piontek!”
“P, Piontek!”
The moment Piontek vomited blood, Adellian and Odekerkh called him.
Piontek absolutely did not look back. Even rolling on the floor from the impact, he absolutely did not look where Adellian and Odekerkh were, where Michelle and Maxim were.
‘Don’t worry. Don’t pity.’
He didn’t want to face the worry-filled eyes of those he fought together with. He gripped the spear. To show that he is not a weak guy! He vowed and vowed again.
“Trying hard to look cool.”
At Maxim’s words, he couldn’t help but turn back.
“Seems you have the leisure to care about others? If pushed to the limit, you wouldn’t have the leisure to do so itself. Tsk tsk tsk.”
“N, no I don’t!”
“Just look ahead.”
Thwack!
Piontek felt the impact inflicted on his solar plexus.
‘Maxim, this dog-like bastard.’
If Maxim hadn’t spoken to him, he would have dodged Samir’s attack. He wouldn’t have shown an unsightly appearance to Adellian while vomiting blood like now.
‘Damn it.’
Curses came out ceaselessly. Meanwhile, Maxim’s words remained in his head continuously.
‘Leisure to care about others.’
Words his family said a long time ago also came to mind.
‘Don’t put on airs. Such things are not important.’
‘Others have no interest in you. Be faithful to the essence.’
‘Nothing is achieved by being conscious of others’ gazes.’
Still words that aren’t understood. Isn’t looking good to others important? Isn’t a knight protecting others ultimately doing so to look good to others?
“Mind your own business.”
Maxim’s words, sounding as if he saw through Piontek’s thoughts, rang out.
Piontek bit his lip.
“I know!”
That before looking at others, one must look at oneself well.
That to protect others, to look good, one must look back at oneself.
Piontek pushed all the words directed at him inside. To somehow digest them and make them his own.
Pang!
The second Mana Circle began to emit light.