152 – You are strong
You are strong
The change occurred in the third round.
Unexpected academy students did not defeat the championship candidates. I just met the winning candidates.
Coming on stage, Sozeta looks at the silver-haired girl with a dazed expression in front of her with her calm eyes.
Sojetta vs. Violet.
Two strong contenders met before reaching the finals.
If they decided to fight, it was clear that no matter who would win, neither would be in good shape.
There was a possibility that both the person who went down to the loser’s group and the person who advanced to the next round would be eliminated from the preliminary round if they were unlucky enough to meet another champion.
Since there are few competitors, if someone gives up, both can easily advance to the finals, but Violet doesn’t seem to have any intention of giving up.
“It will be fun.”
Violet was looking at Sojeta with eyes full of anticipation, and Sojeta pulled out her sword as if she had no intention of stepping down.
It was a moment when the academy students who were mentioned as candidates for the championship were delighted.
As soon as they start, the two rush at each other and swing their swords.
There were no flashy techniques pleasing to the eye or clashes between gigantic mana.
However, the speed at which the two swords intertwined and the tricks contained within them were enough to catch people’s eyes.
Compared to Violet, who was fast, ran in all directions, and attacked from multiple angles, Sojeta’s sword was plain.
The static Sojeta, which uses a sword close to the basics and simple movements, and the dynamic Violet, who runs around like a cat stepping on water, have conflicting fighting styles.
– Quaang!
As Violet advances strongly, the stage shatters and shattered pieces float in the air.
“Huh-“
After taking a deep breath, Violet’s body sped up as if by magic.
Violet’s movements as she steps on the pieces floating in the air are so dizzy that the eyes cannot follow them.
Violet, who occupied not just a flat surface, but also the air, attacks like a storm.
Sojeta, who is at the center of the storm, calmly grasps the location of all the floating pieces around her and predicts Violet’s movement.
– Seok
As Sojeta swung her sword into the air with the sound of cutting the wind, Violet, who was about to move there, pulled herself back and retreated.
After taking two or three steps back, Violet stood on one foot, tilted her body to keep her balance, then stepped on the other foot.
It looks peaceful, as if balancing while walking on a low wall.
“How did you know?”
Sozeta stared at Violet, who asked with shining eyes, then inserted her sword.
“I abstain.”
“Why? Let’s play more.”
When Sojeta, who seemed to show a good match, suddenly withdrew, the referee panicked and belatedly declared Violet’s victory.
Violet chases Sojeta back to the waiting room and starts talking to her, but he doesn’t seem to want to join the conversation.
“I thought he was a wood stone, but he’s surprisingly clever.”
Rai, who was sitting in the audience, smiled.
This gave me time to analyze, so when the two reached the finals, Sojeta’s win rate went up.
Of course, this means that it has risen compared to the first 10%, so Violet still has a higher chance of winning.
However, at a young age, he made a cool decision and looked for ways to increase his win rate.
That alone was a passing point.
No matter how hard you see the answer, if you put the pieces together, you will find a thread of possibility.
And most of the victors left in history did not abandon that will.
While Rai is silently praising Sojeta, Layla comes over and sits next to her.
Rai giggles as she feels the air flow change in her as soon as she sits down.
“Can I be a wizard now? It’s natural.”
“Because of you.”
“It’s thanks to you. Your skill level went up thanks to me.”
When Leila talks to Rai, she uses so much soundproofing magic that she can now use it like she breathes.
Glaring at me as if telling me not to say nonsense, she looks at the silver-haired man in the audience opposite him and says,
“You met Ermene.”
“Do you even know who he is? What the hell is the Empire thinking when an outlaw is walking around openly?”
Rai laughs at Layla, who recognizes Ermene at once.
She
As soon as she finds out, she sees the leader of the resistance, who can be killed right away, let alone arrested, and she speaks casually as if she met someone she knows.
“There are overlapping interests. It’s hard to touch now.”
“Aha, even though the deputy minister of the Ministry of Information was hit, he didn’t touch it? Do you need to take more damage to come to your senses?”
“It’s not that simple. It’s also the task of extracting the poison from the empire.”
Just as the Empire played tricks on the Kingdom of Cailen, the Kingdom also did a lot of tricks behind the scenes.
However, with the fall of the kingdom, the spies established in the empire lost their purpose.
Among them, there are those who are struggling to keep their positions, and there are those who secretly help the resistance and are still loyal to the kingdom.
The Empire, which they were eating, had no intention of forgiving them all.
It is different from the former port captains like Melanie who surrendered and surrendered.
The beliefs of the empire do not allow those who eat the rust of the empire to leave without paying off their responsibilities and the karma they have done so far, whether they are loyal or not.
We have been dealing with those who have deeply infiltrated the intelligence department and other departments using resistance forces, and now we are working to eliminate all of the few remaining.
It would have been nice if they had obtained the secret documents related to this when they conquered the kingdom of Kaylan, but by the time the empire reached the palace, all documents had already been burned.
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After hearing Layla’s words and figuring out her situation, Rai smiles as if she is having fun.
“Even the Empire suffers from Margos’s cowardice.”
“I agree. His malice is quite venomous.”
Layla nodded and looked at the people in the audience.
Only influential people were invited, so most of them know Leila, but there are quite a few people who don’t.
“So you found the rat?”
“There’s the guy in the gray robe under the third pillar. The guy next to Della.”
Leila stares at the man Rai pointed out and gets up from her seat.
As she enters the entrance to the arena, she feels her presence disappear.
“You cursed at me so much, but you use your manager skills to your heart’s content.”
While grumbling, Rai looks at the spot where the man he pointed out earlier was.
Della, a freshman who had nothing to do but watch as she had been eliminated from the loser’s bracket and the man wasn’t there, was in a panic when the man next to her suddenly disappeared.
* * *
The academy students who belonged to the losers group in the 3rd round went crazy.
Sojeta fell to the loser’s bracket.
That meant that although the odds were low, his opponent might be Sojeta.
She sees zero ah among the academy students who pray that she is not the only one.
She meets the 4th year championship candidate and loses unfortunately, Zeroa has a bitter expression on her face.
Her luck was not always on her side, with the unpredictable misfortune in front of her eyes.
And as if to prove him, when the roster for the loser’s match came out, Zeroa’s opponent was Sojeta.
While the academy students in the same waiting room breathe a sigh of relief, they send their compassionate eyes to Zeroa.
I’m used to this look, so it’s nothing.
Zeroa silently prepares for the game and goes on stage.
She sees Sozeta standing on the stage and greets her lightly, Zeroa gritting her teeth and forcibly awakening her fighting spirit.
She never thought she was ugly.
She was able to survive in her academy, where only talented people gather, because she knows her subject well.
Even as she watched other academy students’ skills improve remarkably, she silently did her own thing.
She is not up to par with them.
But she wasn’t ugly. She can go halfway through anything, and is quick to learn.
She’s like Rai told me, she’s dazzling and she can stand with them, even if she can’t be on par with them.
She has endured until now with just that belief.
However, she realized how helpless she was when she worked with Orleh, and his self-esteem, which had been struggling with losing to Mia, fell to the ground.
That’s probably what the heroes praised by bards look like.
When she learns one, she knows ten, and after one night she becomes a different person. She knows zero among the academy students around her, and she feels that she is infinitely small.
Mia, who only seemed fragile, started to get ahead, and she repeats her dream of leaving Asran, Philia, and Abigail all alone.
At the end Arya looks up with her sad eyes and walks forward.
The young Zeroa, who appears in her dream, teases her short legs hard to follow them, but the distance gets farther and farther away.
In the end, young Zeroa, left alone, cries sadly, but no one looks at him.
“You seem to be thinking a lot. I’m sorry, but can you focus on me?”
Sozetta swings her sword when she emits pressure that cannot be ignored.
Using her shield to strengthen her defense, Zeroa retreats backwards.
“I’m not an easy opponent to beat while thinking of other things.”
I know.
But he doesn’t know. There is no way you can win
– Paang
Seeing Zeroa’s dark expression, Sojeta frowned and kicked his shield.
Zeroa, who was shocked to have his bones numb despite defending with a shield, gritting his teeth and swinging his sword.
It was an attack that the opponent would not have seen at all, but Sojeta easily avoided it and approached Zeroa again.
“Did I look at you too highly? Where did the fighting spirit you showed Arya go?”
I’m talking about last year.
Last year’s Sojeta may be different from this year’s, but last year’s self and this year’s self are the same.
Sojeta is too far away to reach, he has risen high, but he himself is still crawling on the ground.
Reacting as soon as he sees his slightly dragging foot, Zeroa lowers his stance and raises his shield upward.
Although he managed to unleash the powerful slash through the shield, Sozeta didn’t break a single stance and attached his body to the shield as it was, preventing Zeroa from giving him time to attack.
Zeroa, who thought that if he forcibly stabbed his sword with the shield that would not open, he would be counterattacked, shook him off with all his might and stepped back.
Zeroa, who was blocked by her back against the barrier, draws out even the strength she was sucking on and charges at Sojeta.
Dozens of battles continue, and Zeroa, who keeps blocking simple but powerful attacks, is amazing, but the victory is inclined to Sojeta.
At first glance, it seems that Zeroa is too defensive and Sojeta is looking after him, but currently Sojeta is seriously fighting.
Rai’s education focused on defense.
Zeroa has been engaged in sparring close to real combat dozens of times a day.
I have accumulated experience with aggressive Abigail, whom Violet and I evaluated as worthy of comparison, and Philia, who systematically attacked.
He has dealt with Aslan, who overpowers him with ignorant power, and has a lot of experience in sparring with Mia, who overwhelms with magical power.
Before coming to the academy, I lived an adventurer’s life and watched them fight from the sidelines.
Like a seasoned Noh knight, Zero knew, who had overwhelmingly more practical experience than her other academy students, and was enduring the disadvantageous ability difference.
The problem was that Zeroa was not aware of how strong she had become.
As if annoyed by Zeroa, who is silently blocking her sword, Sojeta frowns at her and backs away from her, although her expression of insecurity and frustration prevails.
Even with the expression “I’m garbage,” I’m blocking it with an impenetrable defense, so even a calm guy can get angry.
She doesn’t get seduced by deceiving her eyes, and even if she deliberately shows her flaws, she ignores them casually.
If you try to press her with strong force, she will shed it, and if you try to subdue her with skill, she pushes in with her shield and blocks it.
Sozeta shakes her head at the nasty Zeroa, who reminds her of a tortoise with her hard shell.
“The defense is great. I don’t know how the hell that senpai beat you.”
“Because this is the only thing I can do.”
“You’re misunderstanding something.”
Sozeta, who doesn’t like Zeroa’s answer, begins to collect her mana by showing her murderous intentions.
As she gathers mana around him, Zeroa rushes right in without delay.
This is the most standard way to deal with warriors who are inexperienced in magic.
However, there are many people who cannot keep this standard. It is overwhelmed by the amount of magic power of the opponent, or it hesitates for a moment to measure the timing.
Zeroa came in to interfere without hesitation.
It is an irritating battle method from the opponent’s point of view.
“You have no idea how great your ability to talk like it’s nothing.”
“Because anyone can do it.”
Sozetta wonders if Zeroa is doing this on purpose to annoy her.
Seeing him frustrated with everything from his fighting style to his personality, Sojeta slams his shield.
Although it was an attack that relied on uncharacteristic power, Zeroa held out his sword forward while stepping back powerlessly, preventing him from aiming for a follow-up blow.
“This is a skill I didn’t see when I won last year.”
I hear a vibration from Sojeta’s sword
Sojeta’s sword, whose thickness doesn’t seem consistent because it shakes so fast, flows like water whenever it moves.
“I don’t know what happened, but it annoys me, so admit it. That’s not humility. It’s an insult.”
“……”
Zeroa did not answer and covered herself with a shield to prepare for an attack.
Seeing him whose words and actions are completely different, Sojeta laughs.
“You are strong enough to draw out my power. I will be up first, so follow me next year.”
Sojeta’s sword is swinging.
Sozetta’s sword, stretched like a whip, presses Zeroa from all sides.
While playing with a shield and sword to block his attacks, Zeroa sees the sword wrapped around his ankle and quickly tries to get away from him, but it is too late.
Zeroa’s field of view changes quickly and the world turns dizzy.
The ensuing attacks hit the body, and while Zeroa loses consciousness, she makes eye contact with Sojeta, who is staring at her with strong eyes.
The current Zeroa couldn’t understand what the sincere eyes that seemed to be dealing with a formidable enemy meant.
Maybe next year, as he said, you will understand.