Chapter 336
Chapter 336: I'm Good at Everything (Fever, Even Later)
2 students had just stepped down from the arena ahead.
No one else had gone up to fight yet.
Hearing Auréliane's words, Hilda paused slightly. She was about to speak up in dissuasion when she caught the glance Auguste tossed her way.
So she hurriedly shut her mouth, afraid of saying something else wrong.
At this, King Auguste smiled and spoke up casually.
"But of course."
"I'd very much like to see the Princess's skills as well—perhaps she could give our students quite the lesson."
His words were flawlessly measured, easy to warm to.
Even the Empire's foreign ministers, had they wished to object, could find no fault in them.
And besides, this was ultimately the Princess's own choice—the Empire's ministers couldn't say much about that.
Hearing the King's words, Hilda also came to her senses.
Just now, she had misspoken in front of a visiting delegation from another nation—an egregious mistake.
What kind of host invites a foreign princess on a diplomatic visit and then asks her to put on a demonstration of swordsmanship?
But the mistake had already been made. The only path forward was to follow through.
Otherwise, she had just said she'd like to see it.
And now, when the Princess had clearly expressed her willingness—
If she turned around and tried to talk the Princess out of it—
Wouldn't that be deliberately kicking the stool out from under someone?
How many heads did she have to dare say something like that?
So Hilda promptly spoke up:
"Your Highness the Princess, please feel free to take the stage."
"I'll have the instructors below prepare your next opponent."
The Princess gave a calm nod. A sharp, commanding aura began to emanate from her body.
She turned sideways and made her way to the aisle of the spectator stands.
As she was just stepping out, the female student who had been on the arena moments before happened to be walking past.
The two crossed paths in the same aisle.
Sensing Auréliane's sharp, imposing aura, Joanna couldn't help but turn and look at Auréliane's retreating figure.
Someone she didn't recognize.
She made her way to Hilda's side, and upon seeing the King, dipped into a deep bow.
"Your Majesty."
The King waved a hand, signaling there was no need for formality.
Joanna straightened up, then turned her gaze toward her sister—Instructor Hilda.
"Sis…"
She wanted to ask how she'd done.
But before Joanna could finish, she noticed that Hilda's hand was gripping a communication crystal the entire time.
As though relaying something of great importance.
She tactfully closed her mouth and stood at her sister's side without looking for a seat.
She simply lifted her gaze toward the arena.
By now, the girl Joanna had just seen was already standing on the stage before countless spectators.
She wore a long gown fitted with interlocking armor, its surface rippling like flowing light, as though wrapped in a faint luminescence—a breathtaking sight.
Though this left Joanna deeply puzzled.
That girl was someone she had never seen before.
She wasn't even wearing the Academy's school uniform.
Even the students below, the moment they saw who had appeared, were visibly bewildered.
At this point, several instructors below received a message from Hilda.
So they calmly and steadily announced a startling piece of news to the crowd:
"An urgent notice—the new competitor who has just taken the stage is Her Highness the Princess of the Carencia Empire."
"Her Highness, Auréliane Sorel."
At that moment, the audience below erupted into a wave of uproar.
The Empire's Princess—participating in their Kingdom Academy's assessment matches?
The students naturally knew nothing of politics. They were simply thrilled.
Thrilled to the point of rubbing their hands together, eager to challenge this Imperial Princess.
After all, if they won, they would have won honor for the Kingdom.
Wouldn't they be set for life after that?
Even Joanna was utterly stunned.
A Princess from the Empire?
No wonder her sister had been so preoccupied earlier, without even a moment to respond to her.
She had clearly been sending urgent notifications to the instructors below at a rapid pace.
Just then, the instructors' voices carried through the amplification, filling the entire venue once again.
"We look forward to Her Highness the Princess delivering our students an outstanding demonstration match."
With cheers and applause sweeping through the stands—
King Auguste finally let out a breath of relief.
So long as the name "Princess" was put forward first, any student with half a brain would understand they needed to let the Princess win on purpose.
Of course, even if the student turned out to be a hot-headed fool, Auguste had already thought through every contingency.
Worst case, there were still the instructors on the field.
All they needed to do was arrange a relatively weaker student.
It wasn't that he doubted the Princess.
But nobody had ever seen this Princess fight, and it was difficult to gauge Auréliane's true strength.
If the Princess happened to lose carelessly to some ordinary Kingdom student—losing face in the process—
The diplomatic relations between the Empire and the Kingdom could wrap up early.
The same logic applied the other way around.
If their own side lost, wouldn't that mean the Kingdom's students were hopelessly weak?
That their students were so poor they couldn't even beat an underage Princess?
And on top of that, this Princess was only a Mage.
Swordsmanship was merely her secondary discipline.
Which was precisely why—when the disparity in standing was so obviously unequal—even suggesting she'd like to see such a match was already deeply improper.
No matter who won or lost, nobody came out ahead.
But weighing the pros and cons, Auguste had no choice but to prioritize letting the Academy lose.
After all, done this way, the only one losing face would be the individual student.
All that was needed afterward was some compensation for the student who had been put on the spot.
In the end, a student strode confidently onto the stage, his face wearing unmistakable pride.
He had already begun fantasizing about the glorious scene of his victory.
If he could defeat the Empire's Princess, he would naturally win incomparable honor for the Kingdom.
He might even earn the King's recognition—a shot at becoming a 2-star, or even a 3-star noble…
That could all wait until after the match, of course, but without a doubt, his fame would shoot straight to the peak of the Kingdom.
This match, he had to win—and win spectacularly.
At this point, the audience found something strange.
The Princess on the arena didn't appear to have brought any weapon onto the stage.
Even the instructors were a little puzzled.
While warriors used a wide variety of weapons—not limited to longswords—
The blade was the most fundamental skill Stardust Academy cultivated in its students, and it carried with it the elegance befitting nobility.
Everyone aspired to be a noble. Naturally, everyone trained with a sword.
So the instructor below couldn't help but ask:
"Your Highness the Princess, shall we select a weapon for you?"
Auréliane shook her head. Suddenly, faint silver specks of light began rising from her body.
At once, everyone's eyes went wide.
Behind Auréliane, those silver-white specks of light gradually formed into something unidentifiable.
It was entirely pitch black, revealing only 2 eyes—like twin bright moons.
It was grinning—rows of neat teeth bared as if laughing.
Wh—what on earth was that thing!?
In its hand, a slender white radiance extended outward, forming a hilt like the bright moon.
The silver that followed took the shape of a slightly curved blade—like a silver sword.
In full view of everyone, the grinning, unidentifiable entity let the longsword drop.
Clang—
The blade landed squarely on the ground, driving straight down into the hard surface of the arena.
The very arena floor that hadn't so much as chipped during any of the other students' matches—and this sword, falling from above, had punched a hole clean through it.
At last, Auréliane walked to the blade, bright as a silver moon, reached out a hand, and pulled it free with effortless ease.
She raised the sword and turned to face the student who had just taken the stage.
After that display, the student who had been brimming with confidence moments ago was now completely dumbstruck.
Even now, he could barely keep his sword hand from trembling.
That… was that… Magic?
Magic could be used like that?
Even the audience below wore expressions of shock. This extraordinary feat had caught countless people completely off guard.
Even Grand Duke Balo's gaze had turned toward Auréliane.
In his eyes flickered a trace of interest.
The instructors below finally snapped out of their stupor and hurriedly announced:
"Th—the match begins!"
The student facing her was deeply shaken by Auréliane's act of conjuring a weapon through Magic.
But beneath all his glorious visions of what lay ahead, he refused to buckle so easily.
Perhaps this was all just an illusion.
The moment the match began, the wind rose at his feet, and he surged straight toward Auréliane.
At this, King Auguste also came back to himself from Auréliane's display of Magic.
He had watched that Magic carefully.
The blade itself was merely a conjured extension—what was truly astonishing was the unidentifiable entity she had summoned behind her.
It seemed to have no relation whatsoever to any of the 6 elemental schools of Magic.
It had a chaotic appearance—as though it were a fusion of light and darkness.
Auguste was curious, but this was clearly the other party's secret, and it wouldn't do to ask outright.
So he turned to Viktor at his side and broached the subject indirectly.
"Council Member, you are indeed Princess Auréliane's teacher, yes?"
"Mm."
Viktor gave a casual nod.
With confirmation in hand, the King continued:
"I'm curious, because as far as I'm aware, you're a Mage—you shouldn't have taught Princess Auréliane swordsmanship."
"So—Princess Auréliane has more than one teacher?"
At that, Viktor didn't say much, and the King took his silence as confirmation of the assumption.
He went on:
"For a student to gain wider knowledge, each teacher ought to bring their own strengths and weaknesses."
"Mr. Viktor, what are you particularly skilled at teaching?"
Auguste's gaze turned toward Viktor, awaiting his answer.
But suddenly, a wave of uproar swept through the students around them.
Then a chorus of gasps rang out across the venue—the nobles were utterly stunned.
Hilda's eyes went wide. Even Hilda's younger sister stood at her side, staring gravely at the arena.
Grand Duke Balo watched the whole thing to its conclusion, then quietly closed his eyes again.
Auguste, who had no idea what had just happened, couldn't help but turn and look.
What he saw left him profoundly shaken.
At some point, the match had already ended.
Auréliane stood exactly where she had been—without having moved so much as a step.
And yet the moonlight blade in her hand had run clean through the student who had charged at her.
The student stood frozen in place. His sword slipped from his hand and clattered onto the arena floor with a cold, ringing sound.
He looked down to examine his own body.
Where he had been run through, he felt no pain at all—not a single drop of blood had been drawn.
The moment Auréliane drew the moonlight blade back out, he crumpled to his knees.
A wave of weakness surged through his mind. His body had gone so rigid he couldn't move.
At this moment, countless eyes turned toward the arena—and could not look away.
What had happened!? Had someone been killed!?
But there was no blood on the stage. No one dared jump to conclusions.
Even so—
Shock and confusion were written plainly across every face.
Auréliane gracefully bowed toward the student.
"Thank you for the match."
With that, she turned lightly and stepped back toward the stands below.
King Auguste had witnessed all of it. His expression grew profoundly serious.
At this, Viktor at his side finally gave his answer.
"When I think about it carefully—there are quite a few things I've taught Auréliane."
"So, if I had to put it in so many words—"
King Auguste turned his gaze back toward Viktor, and saw Viktor clasping his hands together, looking at him with a slight smile.
"I suppose I'm…"
"A little good at everything."