I still remember it.
Blancart.
A technique so absurdly overpowered that calling it a cheat still would not do it justice—the move that had brought down the lion in a single blow when I was in the worst possible condition, with my stamina at rock bottom and barely any mana left.
Even taking into account that the lion had been at its limit too, it was undeniable that the technique had broken through its final desperate struggle and overturned the outcome.
It was limited to once a day, but acquiring it was still a huge gain.
Not only would it prepare me for future events, it would also let me deal meaningful damage to enemies at a higher level than me.
It was a little iffy since both required me to be mounted, but at least I would not die in the defeat event coming up soon.
That bastard fought on horseback too, so fulfilling the condition would not be a problem.
The problem was that I did not have a horse....
Could I ask Kafka to let me ride her?
It was while I was lost in such pointless thoughts.
"So, what are you going to do now?"
Kafka’s telepathy suddenly pierced my mind.
Well.
It was the weekend, so there was no point going to a lecture hall.
Eileen had also said there would be no club activities today, so no one would be in the clubroom.
But going back to my dorm room felt a little awkward too.
"Should we go to the training hall?"
"The training hall?"
I nodded at her question.
Because there was something I needed to check.
[You can pass on your skills to your squire.]
The notification that had appeared when I appointed Kafka as my squire.
If that notification was true, it meant I could teach Kafka my skills.
Like Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method, the absurdly overpowered skill currently keeping food on my table.
Or perhaps Mad Orlando, the secret technique I had obtained from Angelica.
I did not know how far this skill transmission could go, but what if Kafka could inherit all of those techniques?
For my opponent, it would be no different from fighting two of me.
The problem was...
I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to pass them on to her.
Would it be enough to simply demonstrate them in front of her?
Just as I was about to head toward the training hall—
"Ian?"
Someone called my name.
It was Angelica.
She hurried over, then pressed her fingers firmly against my arm.
"You just woke up. Is it really all right for you to be moving around?"
Her voice was full of concern.
She had not said a word when she visited me in the infirmary, and I had wondered what that was about. Had she actually been harboring such deep thoughts?
Everyone else had only grilled me about the ring instead of worrying about my condition....
Even if she looked so blunt on the outside, she was really such a thoughtful—
"Then you can spar now, right?"
Of course not.
I stared into Angelica’s ruby-bright eyes and sighed inwardly.
Just look at those sparkling eyes.
How were those the eyes of someone worried about me?
They were the eyes of a chef smacking her lips while deciding how to cook her ingredients.
No wonder....
I had wondered why you, who had been beating my body like a sandbag, were suddenly concerned for my well-being.
Give me back my emotional moment, you bitch.
*
And so, I headed to the training hall with Angelica.
As soon as the door to the training hall came into view, it swung open, revealing a woman bringing down her sword in a slash, her blond hair flying behind her.
It was Iris.
Whoosh. Iris’s wooden sword cut down in a flawless strike.
Her posture was too neat to have been achieved with only a few swings.
Well, it was not surprising.
She might have seemed like the sort of heroine from a healing story who would leave everything to the male lead, but she was a genius among geniuses, possessing the aptitude of a saint and well-rounded talent in every area.
When it came to talent alone, an ordinary person like me would probably never catch up.
Still... she was working hard.
I did not know how long she had been swinging that sword, but one look at her face told me it had been quite a while.
Beads of sweat covered her face, soaking through her training uniform until it clung to her body and further emphasized her already prominent figure. She was breathing hard as well.
But she did not stop practicing downward slashes.
If anything, she swung harder.
That was strange. She had not been this sort of character in the game.
Had something happened to motivate her?
More importantly, perhaps because I had stared at Iris for too long...
I felt a burning gaze from somewhere.
Though it had been there ever since I entered the training hall.
The Iris fan club trio.
Apparently my presence was bothering them a great deal, because they had been keeping a close eye on me since I walked in.
Considering their stares were even more piercing than usual, it was probably because of the ring I had given Iris.
Whatever. I would ignore them.
It was a good thing that she was getting stronger.
It was absolutely not because I did not want to get tangled up with the three male leads beside her, and even less because I could not be bothered explaining the ring. Of course not.
Still, there were too many eyes around to bring Kafka out.
I did not know how to pass skills on to Kafka, but...
What if the condition was a demonstration?
If all I had to do was show her...
Though could she see the outside from within my shadow?
I sent Kafka a telepathic message.
"Kafka, can you see outside from inside my shadow?"
"Yeah, I can."
Kafka answered in her usual flat tone.
I nodded as if I understood.
Then there was no problem.
"Catch, Ian."
I caught the wooden sword Angelica threw at me.
How should I put this? She seemed terribly itchy to get going.
Maybe it was because of the title, or maybe I had simply gotten used to her, but I could read the emotions she displayed through that expressionless face to some extent.
Clearly intent on beating the hell out of me, she swung her sword with barely contained excitement.
Whenever she swung her wooden sword, an enormous whooom swept past my ears, accompanied by a gust close enough to brush my cheek.
Every time the sound and wind passed by my cheek, my hand grew wetter with sweat.
Goddammit.
You bitch.
I was a patient until just now.
I had been lying in bed for three days, damn it.
Shouldn’t you go easy on me?
I sent Angelica a pleading look containing that small wish, but...
"Come on, let’s begin."
Judging by the eager expression on her face, one that proclaimed her determination to beat me up as quickly as possible, my wish had unfortunately failed to reach her.
Fuck.
I cursed up a storm in my head and let out a sigh.
Still, I was not the Ian I used to be.
I could even produce sword aura now, you know?
I was a Sword User just like her now.
And if I wanted to properly show Kafka, it would be better to go all out anyway.
I raised my wooden sword and assumed my stance.
"Kafka."
"What?"
"Watch closely."
This was your first lesson.
[Insight of One Who Has Seen the End activates.]
[Predicting one thousand possibilities.]
I activated Insight of One Who Has Seen the End first.
I had grown stronger after defeating the lion, and I had reached the same realm as her—a Sword User.
There should be at least a hundred possibilities now...
[Identified possibilities: 1]
...You have got to be kidding me.
*
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
The level-up notification rang twice.
I drew in one harsh breath.
Then Kafka’s telepathy echoed in my head.
"Ian."
"What?"
"Was that first lesson maybe... how to get hit without it hurting too much?"
"Stop."
Kafka said that because I was sprawled flat on my back.
Was this right?
Even if I was still below Angelica in levels, I had entered the realm of a Sword User, the same realm as Angelica, and I had undergone dramatic growth through my fight with the lion.
So I had thought I would finally be able to fight her on equal footing.
Why did it feel like nothing had changed from before?
Why was I lying on the floor just like I had then?
No, why was there only one possibility of me landing a hit on her?
Insight of One Who Has Seen the End had shown me one possibility.
I rubbed my eyes and checked again, but it really was one.
And then she beat the crap out of me.
I only managed to end the spar in a draw by smashing her wooden sword.
How did that make any sense?
Could the gap between us really remain completely unchanged, even after all this?
Filled with doubts, I activated Insight Eye.
【Angelica de Olivier】
◈ Level: 49
◈ The target has only one wall remaining before the next stage.
My mouth fell open at her status window.
Angelica was level 49.
She was only one level away from the next stage, Sword Expert.
I had only just entered the realm of Sword User, while that girl was about to become a Sword Expert.
What in the world had happened during the three days I had been laid out cold?
Did another dungeon suddenly appear at the academy or something?
Fuck.
Should I be happy that, thanks to my title’s effect, I would earn more experience until I reached her level?
Or should I hang my head over my situation, where I would have to diligently serve as this monster’s sandbag for a long time so she would not be disappointed?
"You got a lot stronger. Weren’t you bedridden for three days?"
Angelica approached me as I lay sprawled out and held out her hand.
There was delight in her expressionless face.
Looking closely, it even seemed as if the corners of her mouth had lifted slightly.
I had no idea what she found so enjoyable.
I sighed once and took her hand.
"Well, it is not like I was resting around the whole time."
"The whole time? Did you attain some sort of enlightenment in your dreams?"
Angelica blinked her red eyes.
I gave her an expression of complete incomprehension at that question.
Dreams?
No, in the dungeon...
Just as I was about to answer her, something occurred to me.
Come to think of it, they had said that information about the dungeon had not been made public to the students, right?
Then Angelica would not know that I had cleared the dungeon.
Or did she? Had Kafka told her?
I asked Kafka, but—
"No. I was asked to keep the dungeon secret, so I did not tell Angelica about it."
Kafka answered my question flatly.
Then why did everyone think I had spent three days in the infirmary?
"My lady, do you know why I was bedridden for three days?"
At my question, she put a finger to her chin and pondered for a moment.
"Hmm... Professor Skeleton did say there was a reason."
"He did?"
"He told us that you tried to subdue Kafka with him, somehow ended up forming a contract with her, and then fainted from the aftereffects."
That was more ordinary than I expected.
I thought a guy like him would say something like I had knocked my head against a rock and passed out.
Or maybe he had just made up something vague.
Wait.
If that was what he told them...
"Then everyone already knows all about Kafka?"
"Well... yes?"
What the hell.
Then there had been no need to hide her in the first place.
Wait, there was something more important than that....
I needed to check whether I had managed to pass on any techniques to Kafka.
"Kafka, how was it? Do you think you can use any of the techniques?"
I asked Kafka with a sliver of hope.
After taking that much of a beating... it would be incredibly unfair if the skill transmission had failed.
"Uh... um."
Kafka’s uneasy muttering.
"You can’t, right?"
"..."
Given that she did not answer at all, it seemed the transmission had failed.
No, was a demonstration not the condition for passing on skills?
Then why had I gotten beaten up?
Not that I would not have gotten beaten up anyway...
But it was unfair.
So unfair that I wanted to vent this frustration.
"Charles."
I walked over to Charles, one of the trio who had been blankly watching us.
Charles flinched when I suddenly approached him.
Come to think of it, was this my first conversation with Charles?
No, was that really important right now?
"Let’s have a match—"
I was just about to approach Charles when—
A small hand grabbed my collar.
It belonged to Angelica.
What was this?
Had this girl finally decided to act like my attendant or something?
Countless thoughts raced through my head at her sudden move, but—
"What, you are still full of energy? That means we can go again, right?"
Something even worse than any of those countless possibilities came out of her mouth.
I am sorry, fuck.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register