Chapter 32
Chapter 32
The sound of wooden swords colliding rang through the training hall.
They were fighting with such force that even the upperclassmen nearby turned their gazes toward them.
“Phew…….”
Delke let out a long sigh as he watched.
Scratching his head roughly as if he had a headache, he looked so unlike a proper instructor that one might doubt his position, but he himself belonged to the ranks of the strong.
At least at this point in time, he would probably be stronger than Alice.
On the condition that she did not awaken, she would not be able to defeat Delke.
“Hah!”
With a powerful shout, the wooden swords screamed against each other once more.
“Not bad, both of you.”
Delke murmured his admiration as he watched the spar between Alice and Elysia.
Elysia naturally drew attention wherever she went thanks to her dazzling appearance, but people also showed curiosity toward Alice, who was fighting her to a razor-thin standstill without being pushed back by the runner-up.
‘It’s like a movie.’
I found myself nodding.
Two beautiful girls moving fiercely and exchanging blows with their swords was a scene you would expect to see only in a movie or an animation.
The spar grew more and more intense.
Alice showed skill that was exactly one step above Elysia’s.
To that near-taunting display, Elysia could only grit her teeth and chase after Alice’s footsteps.
To others, the two appeared to be locked in an even fight, but the gap in skill was obvious.
“It’s about time to end this.”
Delke shook his head, apparently deciding that continuing the spar served no further purpose.
Still, he made no move to intervene.
Instead, he tilted his head while looking at me.
“What are you doing? You’re not stepping in.”
…Of course.
The Bayern Academy was a full-boarding institution.
Regardless of status, everyone was provided with a private room of the same standard, and that included Elysia, the noble daughter of the Duchy of Britain.
Shaaah,
Hot water, steaming thickly, flowed down her body.
After the fierce spar earlier that day, Elysia had rushed straight to the shower the moment she returned to her room.
Letting scalding water pour over her from head to toe until her skin felt aflame, she replayed the spar that had just taken place.
‘That was disgraceful, not like me.’
She had been certain that the top seat of this Academy would be hers.
When she received notice that she was only the runner-up, the shock had been so great that she could not accept reality for a while.
The student who had taken first place was a boy with a peculiar aura.
They had clearly met for the first time, yet his face felt strangely familiar, as though she had seen it somewhere before.
But if she had truly met someone with such a unique presence, there was no way she would have forgotten.
In any case, the first encounter had been anything but ordinary.
His relationship with Diablo Rosso, whom she admired.
And he seemed to have some meaningful connection even with the top student of this year.
Judging by the atmosphere between the two, it was surely not a good one.
On top of that, his self-introduction had been strange as well.
“Come to me, was it.”
‘If you have outstanding skill and talent but nowhere to display them, then come to me.’
It was arrogance incarnate.
As if simply going to him would make one’s wishes come true.
Still, she could understand why that confident attitude might spark a flicker of expectation.
‘Ridiculous, though.’
To feel something like that toward a man she had just met made no sense.
And so, Elysia had requested a spar with Ostia, the one who sat in the top seat above her.
The girl named Alice, who kept sticking close to him as if they were acquainted, annoyed her slightly, but she thought that if she stepped forward, the girl would naturally back off.
That was why she had been a little careless.
She realized she had been somewhat rude and apologized right away, but the other party pushed back at her with a sharper reaction than she had expected.
Elysia was no saint.
Naturally, a quarrel broke out, and a spar with Alice—something she had never planned—came to pass.
Elysia looked down at her own hands.
They were rough, coarse palms unlike those of ordinary noble ladies.
Having trained with the sword since childhood, blisters had formed and burst countless times, leaving calluses behind.
Yet she had never once been ashamed of them.
They were the result of effort alone.
That was why she believed that among her peers, she had no equal.
She thought that even Ostia, the top student, would be an easy victory if they faced each other head-on.
As for the small girl at his side, she had not even spared her a thought.
That had been a grave mistake.
“She was stronger than me.”
A heavy sigh flowed out, riding on the white steam.
It was an undeniable, unmistakable fact.
Alice had not delivered a finishing blow, as if she were toying with her.
If Ostia had not ended the spar, what would have become of her?
Suddenly, Elysia closed her eyes as a deep sense of exhaustion filled her chest.
All the desperate effort she had poured into becoming strong felt meaningless.
But if she had given in to despair then and there and set aside her sword, she would never have attained the strength she possessed now.
Clenching her fist against the glass amid the hot water, Elysia stared into the mirror with blazing eyes.
“I am weak, so…….”
If she wanted to become strong, she had to learn.
***
The first day at the Academy came to an end.
Returning to my quarters, I immediately set about organizing everything that had happened throughout the day.
It had only been a single day, yet it was meaningful in many ways.
I had seen with my own eyes the characters I had only read about, and I had gained quite a lot.
‘Especially that plausibility.’
The effect of Absolute plausibility.
It was only a single line of text, but it introduced a massive variable.
Enough that I had to completely revise the plans I had laid out so far.
“If this goes wrong, it means all the fortuitous encounters tied to the story could be wiped out.”
“…What are you writing so intently?”
“Whoa, damn it!”
At the voice that rang beside my ear, a shiver ran through me.
I kicked back my chair and sprang to my feet, only to find Alice staring at me with a flustered expression.
“How did you get in here?”
Goosebumps rippled over my entire body.
When I looked at her with a face that clearly showed I had not noticed her at all, Alice waved her hand awkwardly.
“With this, it’s a free pass anywhere.”
“Oh.”
On her ring finger was a silver ring.
That was an artifact of the same category as the Curse of the Veil I possessed.
If the Veil sealed power, then the Silver Veil concealed one’s very existence.
As a relic-grade artifact, its ability was exceptional, making it difficult to detect unless one had extraordinary senses.
She had said that when she fought me before, the reason she erased her presence had been the power of the Silver Veil.
“Up we go.”
Alice threw herself onto the soft bed.
Lying facedown on it and swinging her legs back and forth, she asked me,
“So what were you so focused on that you didn’t even notice me opening the door?”
“I was revising my plans for the future.”
“Ah, that thing you mentioned before?”
When we had formed a contract before, I had briefly explained my plans to her.
Just like what I had told Tyrfing—that I had lost my memories of the past as the price for glimpsing the future, and that I was preparing for the dangers to come based on the future I knew.
“Hm.”
Apparently curious, she got up from the bed and came over to me.
Then she perched on the edge of the desk and picked up a sheet of parchment.
“……!”
Her eyes suddenly widened.
What was written on the parchment was nothing more than a list of information.
At least, there should have been nothing related to Alice at present—so why was she reacting like that?
“…You.”
What was she about to say with such a serious expression? But the words that came out of her mouth next were beyond anything I had imagined.
“How do you know Hangul?”
Ah.
In an instant, my mind went blank.
I was an idiot.
An idiot beyond saving.
Having grown too accustomed to the devices of a novel, I had overlooked the finer details.
To her, I was a person from another world, and Hangul was a script unique to Korea.
It was only natural for Alice to harbor suspicion.
“Hangul? What is that?”
But if I showed any sign of panic here, everything would unravel.
Maintaining as calm a demeanor as possible, I asked her back as if I truly did not know, and Alice stared at me with eyes full of doubt.
I had my fair share of experience with genre novels; fooling a single high school girl with a lie was not particularly difficult.
“You wrote it and you’re pretending not to know?”
Alice pointed at the parchment on the desk as she spoke.
I replied with a perfectly nonchalant face.
“This is a language used in the unimaginably distant ancient past. Hangul, you say? I’ve never heard such a name.”
“An ancient language?”
This time, she was the one taken aback.
Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth between me and the parchment.
Well, given the harsh life she had lived so far, would she have ever had the chance to come across such information?
At least, my words were close to the truth.
Although only an extremely small number of people knew it, Hangul was used as an ancient language in this novel.
“This is a script called Hangul from my world.”
Alice stared at the parchment with a grave expression.
I snatched it from her hand and gathered up everything else on the table at once.
“I don’t recall saying I’d show you my memories.”
“…….”
At my words, Alice pouted.
“We even signed a contract so I can’t betray you anyway. Can’t you just show me?”
“Even if you don’t betray me, what if someone reads your mind?”
“…….”
She seemed to have nothing more to say.
Snorting as if calling me petty, she left the room, and I let out a sigh while clutching a stack of parchments.
***
“Ostia-kun.”
“…Huh?”
The second morning at the Academy.
After finishing my dawn training and arriving in the classroom, I was organizing my textbooks when someone called my name.
And ‘-kun,’ really.
I had heard ‘-ssi’ plenty of times, but this kind of honorific felt a bit embarrassing.
“I listened well to your confident self-introduction yesterday. Ah, my name is Werner. I’m from the Kingdom of Demedrio, which is under the Empire.”
A handsome, blue-haired man smiled brightly as he sat down next to me.
Then, without waiting for my reply, he lowered his voice and spoke.
“May I ask what kind of relationship you have with Miss Alice?”
“…What?”
At the sudden, baseless question, I asked back without thinking.
Werner scratched his cheek with an awkward expression and said,
“Ah, it’s just that I fell for her at first sight. Still, it wouldn’t be right to pester a woman who already has someone.”
Werner Demedrio, the prince of the Kingdom of Demedrio.
There had been a single line in the comments describing him, as a supporting character with a fair amount of presence.
A cheerful loser and an unpredictable total pervert.
There had been, what, about five hundred comments at the time, with something like fifteen hundred likes.
It was that spot-on of a description of Werner as a character.
And he had fallen for Alice at first sight?