[You have upheld chivalry toward another.]
[A reward for the [Oath of Chivalry] has been granted.]
I should have refused.
I got swept up in the mood and somehow ended up letting her join the club.
I really do not know whether that was the right call.
Still, there was nothing else I could do.
Because when I saw Isabella’s face, when I heard her cry out—
I remembered Dante’s face from my twenty-ninth run, standing on top of the ashes.
The face of Dante, who had followed the path opened by my choices, killed ruin, and still lost everything.
The voyeurs seemed satisfied with my answer, at least.
All I can do now is hope Isabella finds her answer too.
Still, one thing became certain.
This world does not unfold the way the game did.
A choice I believed was right can steal away the choice someone else wanted to make.
I only did what I had done in the game.
There was a faster route, so I took it.
I just picked the easier path because I wanted an easier life for myself.
I was not the protagonist, and I had never intended to become one.
Even this whole knight business was just something I used as a way to grow stronger so I could survive later, so I would not get saddled with penalties.
I may have ended up dueling Kyle on impulse, but even then, I only acted the part of a knight because I thought if that duel reformed him sooner, everything afterward would be easier for me.
And that choice ended up taking Isabella’s destination away from her.
...This is hard.
The same kind of thing is bound to happen again in future events.
So what am I supposed to choose when that road comes?
The best option would probably be to stop interfering with the story and leave everything to the protagonists.
But the stars above would never allow that.
The moment I try to back out, they will test me immediately.
What the hell is chivalry, anyway?
What is it they even want from me?
Why did I possess Ian?
And what ending am I supposed to reach by keeping up this idiotic act of chivalry?
Even now, I still could not see a thing.
#
"So then, what exactly are you and Ian to each other?"
After Ian, Angelica, and Dolnesia had all left the clubroom, only Eileen and Isabella remained.
Looking curious, Eileen turned to Isabella and asked the question.
"We are nothing to each other."
Isabella answered flatly, cutting it off at once.
That reaction only seemed to awaken Eileen’s playful side instead.
"Oh, come on. Your eyes were practically dripping honey when you looked at him."
The corners of Eileen’s lips curled high.
Seeing that expression, Isabella let out a sigh as if to say, Here we go again.
"I am going to get angry."
"Oh dear, how terrifying."
At Isabella’s little growl, Eileen graciously chose to retreat.
Laughing, she left the clubroom.
Once Eileen was gone, the room felt completely empty.
Isabella, now standing there alone, moved to leave as well, but—
"What exactly are you and Ian to each other?"
The single question Eileen had tossed out made her stop in her tracks.
What exactly were they?
Standing in the empty clubroom, Isabella turned the princess’s words over in her mind.
At first, she had thought he was some kind of lunatic.
He had been a vulgar man hiding behind a pillar, secretly listening while she and Kyle argued.
Then, just as Kyle had been about to slap her, he suddenly seized Kyle’s wrist and threw a glove in his face like a madman.
After that, he started rambling out of nowhere about a duel of crossed swords, and with that alone, he stripped Kyle’s mask away. A strange man.
And through all of it, he did not fuss over her, nor did he ask for anything in return.
The moment he heard her thanks, he simply disappeared, as if his business there was done.
He was different from the men she had met until now.
He did not speak as though he were bestowing a favor. He did not proudly emphasize that he had saved her. He did not flatter her to win her goodwill.
Every man she had met before had done exactly that...
And yet he had looked at her with eyes that seemed oddly familiar, as if he had been watching her for a very long time...
That was when she first became interested in the man named Ian.
Because he was only the second.
The second man who had treated her differently from all the others.
If that damned Kyle had simply looked down on her,
then this insolent man had not looked down on her, but neither had he put her on a pedestal.
He had not made a point of her being from Eterna. He had not praised her beauty.
He had not tried to curry favor with her, but he had not dismissed her either.
He had simply treated her like a person named Isabella.
Not as the Flower of Eterna, but as Isabella herself. That was what his gaze had felt like.
"That is narcissism, my lady."
Honestly.
"We will help you, so that woman can find the right path."
How insolent.
The way he treated her.
That look in his eyes, as if he knew everything.
The way he barged into her world and stirred it all up as he pleased—insolent.
As if he thought he were some real knight...
Even though he was drunk on that ridiculous thing called chivalry.
And with that face of his, looking like some barbarian from the north.
Covering her mouth,
she turned her eyes to the side and looked toward the place where he had been sitting.
"Honestly... so insolent."
In the empty clubroom,
the woman’s murmur echoed softly.
And Isabella’s pale cheeks
were flushed as warmly as her eyes.
#
[Ian de Logres]
◈ Level: 22
◈ Title: [Rival of the Sword Demon]
◈ Traits: [Dragon Strength], [Insight Eye], [Oath of Chivalry]
◈ Stats
Physical: 226 | Mana: 120
Luck: 10 | Mental Strength: 30
(Current SP: 0)
▶ [Skills]
Sprawled out flat on my back, I checked my status window.
Another level up this time too.
Only eight more to go until level 30.
I really need to start climbing faster.
If I assume one spar a day means one level a day,
then do I seriously have to keep up this bullshit for at least eight more days?
I wonder if they are going to hand out something like a Dreamland ticket again.
There had not been one from my first spar with Angelica, and there had not been one in the reward I got from the [Oath of Chivalry] just now either.
Then again, I still have no idea when something like a shop is supposed to open.
Or maybe, since this is reality, there is no such thing?
"The wooden sword broke again."
Angelica walked over to where I was lying spread-eagled and showed me the practice sword in her hand, its blade completely gone.
Mine was in the same state.
God damn it.
Yesterday, things had somehow slid by.
But this was the second time, so there was no way I was avoiding penalty points now.
Penalty points affect your grades.
Not that I give a damn about rankings, but the real problem is that if you rack up too many, restrictions get placed on your school life.
For example, they can limit your outings or overnight leave.
Outings and overnight leave literally mean going outside the academy.
Most students used them to go out and eat, or, if they were short on tuition, to pick up simple requests and earn a little spending money.
If I remembered right, in the game, going out let you raise affection with whichever male lead accompanied you, or accept requests to earn experience and money.
If I want to gain experience properly, I am going to need to go out...
There are just too few ways to earn experience inside the academy.
Wasting eight days on sparring alone would be way too much, and there is no telling when a club event might trigger.
And there were eight more wooden swords destined to be smashed in the future...
"Who was on duty today again...?"
"Professor Silves, same as yesterday."
I am screwed.
This time it is definitely penalty points.
As I let out a sigh—
"By the way, Ian. When you use [Mad Orlando], are you not trying a little too hard to copy me?"
Huh?
Angelica swung the broken wooden sword around in the air as she spoke to me.
"[Mad Orlando] is closer to a style of fighting than a sword art with a fixed form, so it changes depending on the user. I use it as a sword style that suits my body. But with you, Ian, it feels less like you are using [Mad Orlando] and more like you are using the exact [Mad Orlando] that I use."
Well... she was right.
The [Mad Orlando] copied by [Insight Eye] was less [Mad Orlando] itself and more like it had done a ctrl+c on Angelica using [Mad Orlando] and a ctrl+v onto my body.
So...
I knew the answer, but not the process to get there. That was the feeling, I guess.
"If you force yourself to match me too much, that technique is going to have a hard time getting any stronger from there."
So what Angelica meant was that if I wanted to grow stronger from here, I needed to find my own version of [Mad Orlando]...
"I will keep that in mind. Thanks."
"It is nothing. You need to get strong quickly so that... mm, never mind."
Her eyes definitely changed just now.
Still, it really was strange.
If other people saw Angelica like this, they would be shocked.
Normally, Angelica was the embodiment of laziness, all short answers and an attitude that made everything seem like a bother.
But somehow, whenever she sparred with me, she got unexpectedly talkative.
Today was the first time she had even shown me [Mad Orlando], yet she reacted as if it were only natural that I could use it, and then she even gave me advice.
Was that the effect of my title, [Rival of the Sword Demon]?
"Ian?"
Just then, a voice came from the direction of the training room door.
A man with short black hair and gray-tinged eyes.
My roommate, Dante de Astoria.
"Dante?"
"Yeah. I came to loosen up a little, but..."
He looked around for a moment, then scratched his head.
A perfectly natural reaction.
The training hall was a complete mess right now, thanks to the clash between two [Mad Orlando] techniques.
"Looks like you really went at it?"
"This is no time for words. Forgive the discourtesy of forcing you to look upon my face while I lie here."
If I move right now, I am going to die. That was what I meant.
Dante chuckled at the sight of me.
"All right. I forgive you."
Then Dante went to the storage room, brought back a wooden sword, and started swinging it.
With a whoosh, the practice sword cut through the air.
It was an extremely clean downward slash.
Like the protagonist of the DLC that he was, Dante was a magic swordsman who used magic and swordsmanship in harmony.
Right now he was in the Department of Magic, but I remembered that he was so naturally gifted with the sword that from his second year onward, he added the Department of Swordsmanship as a double major.
Man, he really did live a busy life.
Then, all of a sudden—
"Ian cannot move anymore? You cannot spar?"
Angelica actually poked my cheek as she said it.
"The wooden swords broke, remember?"
"There are still plenty in storage."
Spare me. If we break one more here, I feel like this is not going to end with mere penalty points.
"Go play with Dante. He is strong too."
"Haha, I am not that strong..."
He waved it off as if that could not possibly be true.
Oh, please.
You are probably the second strongest among the cadets after Angelica.
If Angelica had met you before me, that rival title probably would have gone to you.
At my words, Angelica glanced at him.
"Not interested."
Then she turned her gaze back to me.
Seeing that, Dante apparently misunderstood something.
Smiling at me, he raised a thumbs-up.
Dante, that is not it.
Put that thumb down before she breaks it. Hurry.
I let out a sigh and closed my eyes.
"By the way, Ian, did you hear the news?"
Dante kept swinging the wooden sword as he spoke to me.
"What news?"
"They say that thing showed up inside the academy."
At some point Dante stopped swinging and paused for a moment.
Was it really serious enough to build suspense like that?
What on earth had shown up?
Then, after taking a breath—
"They say a huge wolf appeared."
......
Right.
Not a werewolf, not a magical beast, just a really huge wolf?
I mean, sure, a giant wolf would be scary.
Did one escape from a zoo or something?
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