Chapter 67
Chapter 67
The sharp tip of a sword, converging into a single point, surged toward my glabella.
I lightly twisted my head to evade it, then gripped my sword in a reverse hold and slashed upward from below.
Alice kicked off the ground like a nimble squirrel and sprang back to widen the distance.
“Considering how boldly you talked, you still seem a long way off.”
If judged by academy standards, Alice’s swordsmanship was clearly among the top tier.
She could easily suppress Darius, and even Carius.
But if she truly was the protagonist of this world, the potential she carried within her would not amount to just this.
Depending on how I stimulated her, the direction in which her awakening accelerated would differ.
“Hmph!”
Snorting lightly at my words, Alice charged at me again.
The difference in the sound of air being torn compared to before suggested she had activated her body using mana.
In sparring, everything except aura could be used.
Of course, methods like reinforcing one’s body with mana, as she was doing, were no exception.
I too lightly stirred my mana to harden my body and struck away the sword Alice swung straight at me.
‘She hasn’t reached the upper level yet.’
Her realm was still mid-level Sword Expert, just on the verge of crossing into the upper tier.
However, judging by the air-splitting sounds resonating through the void every time her sword swung, her strength and mana reserves alone didn’t seem inferior to mine.
Of course, that didn’t mean she was just pushing through with brute force.
At times, the trajectory flowed gracefully, then suddenly closed in sharply, like a bee firing its stinger.
She certainly looked worthy of being called a protagonist, but unfortunately, her opponent was bad.
Tung-!
Right after the sparring began, her sword—which had continued attacking without pause—was knocked up into the air.
It spun several times before crashing down onto the ground with a clamor, and Alice stared blankly at her now-empty hand.
“I know you’re focused on the spar, but when facing a swordsman of a higher realm than yourself, that becomes poison.”
When extraneous movements disappeared and useless flow vanished, a person could immerse themselves in something.
That was when things approached naturalness, and the end of that path would likely be called perfection.
But what if the opponent was already looking down from that point? Since it was a road already trodden, piercing through the gaps was an exceedingly easy task.
“…Again.”
Yet Alice didn’t give up and requested another bout.
I silently flicked my sword, and she picked hers up from the training hall floor and stood before me once more.
‘Nice.’
The momentum that had been clouded with excitement just moments ago sank down like the chill of midwinter.
What would she become once fully formed? As I briefly imagined her future, the figure and presence of Alice before my eyes began to fade.
‘The Blessing of the Silver Veil, huh.’
Along with the Blessing of the Silver Veil, the assassin traits she possessed unfolded together.
The advantage of someone who hadn’t followed a standard growth route was unpredictability.
Seeing her find her own direction within my teachings filled me with joy.
“Hoo.”
As her figure vanished in an instant, I steadied my breathing.
Like the Curse of the Veil, the Blessing of the Silver Veil was an artifact that could deceive even my eyes.
Unless I swept the entire area or Alice attacked first, it would be hard to find her.
That was why I honed my senses sharply, so I could respond no matter which direction she came from.
Tuduk.
From behind me came the sound of a small pebble rolling across the floor.
As always, the first thing was bait.
As if to prove it, killing intents poured in from all directions, and I tightened my grip on the sword.
Tang-!
With a single swing, I knocked away the throwing weapons that came flying from seven directions.
After all of them bounced away with sharp sounds, I tried to locate Alice’s figure, but she was nowhere to be seen.
“Got you.”
At the small voice that came from behind me, I widened my eyes.
‘Did she use my previous patterns against me?’
Still, I had one hidden move left as well.
“[A short step that leaps through space. Blink].”
My reflexes alone would have been enough to dodge her attack, but suddenly a good idea crossed my mind.
Borrowing Gawain’s explanation, there were three elements required to use magic.
First was the ‘formula’ constructed as the foundation for using magic.
Second was the ‘incantation’ to materialize it into reality.
And lastly, the ‘mana’ that served as the driving force behind all of it.
Without mana, the first two were nothing more than calculations and recitations.
I hadn’t known that magic as a discipline was structured this systematically, so at first I had been quite taken aback.
That was why I had postponed learning magic until last—but I had a convenient ability called system assist.
“…Huh?”
In an instant, my vision flickered and the scenery swapped.
Alice let out a confused sound, flustered by my sudden disappearance mid-ambush.
As she stood frozen and looked around, I lightly tapped her shoulder.
She jolted and even stumbled back, which made it fun to tease her.
“What was that? How did you do it?”
With her eyes wide, Alice asked how I had moved behind her in an instant.
In response, I repeated the incantation I had just memorized.
“[A short step that leaps through space. Blink].”
The same phenomenon, the same result.
Seeing me appear behind her once again, she expressed her astonishment.
“You said you were double-majoring—did you really learn that already?”
“Do you even know who I am?”
When I put on a smug smile, saying this much was easy, Alice clicked her tongue, saying it really was cheating.
She wasn’t exactly one to talk, given that she herself possessed the most cheating abilities of all, but there was no denying that system assist was amazing.
I didn’t know exactly how far its scope extended, but it would surely be useful going forward.
“If you want, do you want to try learning it too?”
“…I really hate formulas and equations and stuff like that.”
When I casually suggested it, Alice grimaced and shook her head.
Judging by the way she spoke, she was probably a liberal arts student in her original world.
After finishing the sparring with Alice and returning, it was already dark.
With sparring continuing right after supplementary lessons, I hadn’t even had time for dinner and had just grabbed something quick, so I was hungry—but it was late, and the cafeteria was already closed.
Since tomorrow was the weekend anyway, I decided to rest properly.
After washing up and returning to my room, I found that a letter had arrived.
“Who could it be?”
The emblem stamped on the bright red seal was familiar.
When I went into the room and opened it, sure enough, a familiar name appeared.
“Petra, huh. It’s been a while.”
Written in flowing handwriting, the letter asked whether I could spare some time tomorrow.
Well, it was because of mutual interests, but we were engaged nonetheless.
Since I had been sticking mostly with the main characters due to the early storyline, I hadn’t paid her much attention, which made me feel a little guilty.
At this point, she was probably active in the academy’s student council.
Her family’s prestige was relatively low, but Petra herself was outstanding in ability.
Because of that, she must have received many offers from influential noble families or prestigious houses abroad.
It seemed like I would need to sort that out soon as well.
Weekend morning.
I had planned to laze around and rest for once, but because of Petra’s message, I left my room early in the morning.
The meeting place was the cafeteria inside the academy.
Since it was the weekend, most people were sleeping in or had gone out, making it exceptionally quiet.
I arrived a little early, so as I sipped a cup of coffee to chase away my drowsiness while waiting for Petra, I ran into some familiar faces.
“Ostia.”
“Oh, you’re all up early. Going out?”
“Yeah, we were planning to go out together today.”
Alice, along with Elysia, Maria, and even Leysias and Yuria, greeted me.
They looked excited, saying it was been a while since they’d gone shopping and wondering what to buy.
In the middle of that, Alice asked me,
“Why are you already up? Don’t you usually crawl out of bed around lunchtime on weekends?”
“…Crawl out?”
As I put on a hollow expression at the unfair treatment, they burst into laughter.
At that, Leysias spoke with a slightly teasing look.
“Could it be that you have an appointment with a woman?”
“No way. There’s no way Ostia would wake up early because of an appointment with a woman…….”
As Elysia shot back, saying I would never get up early for such a reason, a shadow fell behind them.
“You’re already here.”
“…?”
At that voice, the five girls’ eyes widened, and as if on cue, they cautiously turned around.
Glossy, vivid red hair.
A woman stood there whose looks rivaled anyone present, and who, perhaps because she was a year older, carried an air of composure that made her seem even more mature.
“…W-what is it, everyone?”
The person herself, flustered by the sudden silence and the gazes looking up at her, looked toward me.
“I have an appointment with her today.”
Since there was no reason to hide it, I shrugged as I said so.
A question mark rose in Alice’s eyes.
When Elysia beside her whispered something into her ear with a look of sudden realization, Alice’s pupils began to sink into darkness.
“Th-then we have our own plans, so we’ll be going now.”
As the atmosphere turned strange, Leysias hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.
After bowing lightly to us, they left, and Petra sat down across from me.
“You seem close.”
“Well, yeah.”
We had crossed the line between life and death together.
There was no way we wouldn’t be close.
At my answer, she rested her chin on her hand and silently watched the group walking away in the distance.
“So, why did you want to see me?”
I cut straight to the point.
There weren’t many people in the cafeteria, but it wasn’t completely devoid of eyes.
If people saw me with Petra after the attention drawn by Alice’s group earlier, it could get troublesome for them in more ways than one.
But Petra hesitated for a moment, then touched her hair and spoke.
“…I just wanted to chat. It’s been a long time since we talked.”
At that, I gave a wry smile, about to suggest moving somewhere else if it was hard to talk here—but then I realized that the light in her eyes when she had been looking at Alice’s group earlier seemed, for some reason, like envy, and I fell silent.
‘…Did Petra not have any friends?’
Had there ever been a time in the story when she was with friends?
She was certainly someone who achieved excellent results in both academics and martial arts.
It wouldn’t be strange if she had many enemies as well as allies.
She was someone desperately struggling for the revival of her family.
Having pushed herself so hard that she even considered an engagement with a degenerate imperial prince who treated her like a commodity, she probably didn’t have the leisure to spend time like others.
It was an unexpected realization.
I set down the hand holding my coffee cup and looked at Petra.
“Since we’re meeting after so long, just chatting won’t be enough.”
It seemed I would need to move up the plans related to her a little.