The Protagonist Already Knows

Heading downstairs on Monday morning, I found the building’s special dining hall almost filled to the brim with students.

Everyone gazed at a small paper hanging from the wall with their eyes wide.

[Try-Out Decisions]

[Team Leader #1: Leon]

[Team #1: Lily, Carissa, Xero, Zedd...]

[Team Leader #2: Ren]

[Team #2: Evangel, Han Li, Haerin, Victor...]

[Game #1: Wednesday 3 PM!]

Passing by the dining hall, I exited the building and took a short walk through the trees, only arriving at the classroom a minute before the bell.

I slid into my seat, the one next to me now empty as Lily now sat at the back of the classroom with the rest of Team #1.

As I sat down, a chair audibly screeched behind me, prompting me to look backward...and a familiar face actually sat right behind me.

Zander.

As we made eye contact, Zander immediately looked away, and I awkwardly glanced back at the whiteboard.

*Ring~ring*

When the bell rang, Professor Sooyung entered the room, followed by six new faces, and stood behind the podium.

"As all of you know, the Inter-Academy tournament will officially start tomorrow, with Meridian versus Purdrerry."

"Thus, the top students from other academies will be temporarily joining us in classes."

At Professor Sooyung’s words, everyone turned to gaze at the two human students, elven students with small pointed ears, and two dwarven students with full-grown beards.

"Please take any empty seat."

At her words, the two male dwarven students immediately took the seats in the first row, while the male and female human students sat near the back.

However...

"May we sit here?"

Pointing at the two empty seats beside me, the two blonde-haired and blue-eyed female elven students asked.

As I nodded my head before looking away, they sat beside me; however, not even a second later, I heard a whisper sound from the boy sitting behind them.

"You two should move...he’s psychotic. He skipped an entire week of class to drink and smoke at bars...and I heard then he beat up another student in broad daylight!"

"Really?"

Tucking her blonde hair behind her pointed ears, the female elf sitting to my right, in Lily’s former spot, suddenly turned to me and asked.

"My name is Charlotte, and the elf beside me is Angel! We’re from the elven realm’s #1 Academy, ’The Grange!’ What’s your na-"

However, interrupting her mid-sentence, the elf named Angel suddenly whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

"My princess, you should avoid people like him: If a person cannot be trusted by their own species, something is wrong."

Ignoring them, I just continued taking notes while Sooyung began her lecture.

...

...

...

As I headed toward one of the more out-of-the-way sparring arenas on campus, the Sunken Pearl’s streets were livelier than usual, booths set up all over the place while elves and dwarves walked through the streets with humans.

There were no signs of animosity as the three species casually talked and discussed the upcoming tournament.

Banners were hanging from each building, displaying the tournament’s brackets and Sunken Pearl’s clam logo, and shiny ocean-blue streamers ran along the street lamps, casting a festive mood.

Entering the empty sparring arena, I found Professor Sooyung impatiently tapping her foot while gazing at me.

Before I could even say anything, she threw a newly made wooden Dao at me and said.

"Try to land a hit."

As I leaned down and grabbed the Dao off the floor, Professor Sooyung approached me with her own wooden broadsword.

However, pausing a couple of steps in front of me, she sighed...and just said.

"Never mind. Just survive."

...what had she seen!?

As she jabbed her sword at my chest, I jumped two steps back...and yet in the next moment, before I even landed, she stepped forward as well, her sword whistling even farther forward.

The tip of her sword instantly hit my stomach mid-air, sending me tumbling to the ground.

"Don’t trap yourself in the air when your opponent is so close to you."

Nodding my head, I gripped my Dao even harder and clutched my pained stomach while facing her.

...

...

...

*CLANG*

For the first time in thirty minutes, that sound echoed through the sparring arena as our blades met for a moment.

The last spars had consisted of me simply failing to keep up with the speed of her movements and being thrown to the ground.

I simply couldn’t parry her attacks: her sword always changed directions at the last moment or was just too fast for my eyes to even keep up with.

Withdrawing her sword, Professor Sooyung instantly aimed a pinpoint jab diagonally downward at my left thigh, taking advantage of the fact that my sword was so high up.

I instinctively knew my sword wasn’t going to make it in time to parry.

However...with her sword aiming at my left leg, Professor Sooyung’s whole upper body was open for attack.

Ignoring her jab, I slashed my sword at the right side of her chest, blinking for a moment as I prepared for the pain of her jab.

However, the pain never came.

"..."

My sword simply continued flying through the air, slashing nothing...it was a feint?

A strand of black hair flashed across my vision as Professor Sooyung side-stepped to the right and around me.

But...it was too late.

In the next moment, her palm slammed into my spine as I was shoved to the ground, falling face-forward on the floor.

"Ah..."

Looking up, my entire body aching with pain, I only saw her lifeless onyx-black pupils mocking me, as if saying, "That’s it?"

Grabbing the back of my collar and holding my head in the air, Professor Sooyung knelt down and said while looking down at me, not a tinge of emotion in her tone.

"Watch your opponent’s eyes. And never take your eyes off your opponent."

"...yes."

Not a single hit.

Not only that...but I couldn’t even see the image behind Professor Sooyung.

She was somehow...hiding it from me.