154 – Feeling naked
From noble mtl dot com
Feeling naked
As the end of the preliminaries approaches, the number of stadiums decreases and spectators gather.
It’s still in the preliminaries, but from this point on, they couldn’t even get back up to the loser’s group, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was actually the start of the finals.
It has all the elements that people would like, such as the academy student who came up with outstanding skills and the academy student who came back from the loser’s bracket over and over again.
This time, even the outside guests and the heat in the audience soared high into the sky.
“Hey, I’m proud to see Mia come up to the 5th round. A kid who couldn’t do anything has grown up in a year and shows a dazzling performance. The seniors should rather watch and learn from it. Right? The seniors who couldn’t even pass the 4th round?”
Rye leans over to see Philia and Abigail sitting in the seat next to her.
The match was unstoppable and the match ended in a draw.
Draw. It was said that both were eliminated.
Now that she has been eliminated, she recovered with miracles and potions, but at the time of her fall, she suffered severe injuries and fainted, so she could not even compete in the loser’s match.
Thanks to that, someone who was Abigail’s lower bracket opponent was able to advance to the fifth round without doing anything.
Rai continues to watch with a smirk, but the two do not make eye contact with him.
“Yeah- the seniors cheer me on, would it be nice for Mia? Right? The seniors couldn’t even pass the 4th round.”
No matter how much you ignore it, Rai teased him until the end, and Abigail and Philia only look at the stadium with trembling bodies that do not know whether it is anger or embarrassment.
“It’s because of you.”
“It’s not you, it’s me? Wasn’t it you who lost the taste?”
“The problem is that you pretended to be smart but didn’t even notice the difference in your skills.”
“Whoever hears it will know you won.”
Philia and Abigail ignored all of Rai’s words, but answered each other without losing a single word.
It even looks childish to see him fighting with his elbows while keeping his eyes fixed on the arena.
Rai dared to get up from his seat and entered the sight of the two, and smiled.
“Seniors who couldn’t even pass the 4th match, even if the two of them fight over who’s better, their grades are lower than Mia’s.”
Clearly, Rai came into view, but Philia, who did not avoid her eyes while treating her as an invisible person, let out a sigh.
“I’m also reflecting on myself. To fall for childish provocations, I’m still not good enough.”
“I’m also reflecting. I should have killed him properly.”
“For what I’m going to say later. Thank you.”
They are still fighting, but the two learned a lot from this confrontation.
Perhaps when it comes time to get swept away by emotions on the battlefield, you may make a more sober judgment based on this experience.
After confirming that the eyes of the two people who do not meet have feelings of regret, Rai smiles and sits down.
Athlan was entering the arena.
“Hey-“
Aslan greets her happily, but Mia turns lead and greets awkwardly.
Her battle method focused on defense is now attracting the attention of academy students.
The crescent moon, which uses vast amounts of magical power, acts like a shield, but is quite useful in that both hands are free.
It’s thick, but it doesn’t block it with cotton like a shield, but it gives you a chance to attack.
That’s a trap, so when a predictable and obvious attack comes in, Mia easily defends it.
She does, but she doesn’t have time to leisurely observe loopholes in front of her eyes.
With time passed, magic spheres containing enormous magical power called Akasha’s Jewel are created one by one.
It’s fortunate that the speed of making magic spheres is slow since I’ve been using magic properly for less than a year.
Many academy students thought that the way to attack Mia was to prevent them from making magic spheres and break through the defense of the crescent moon.
And I was looking forward to how Aslan would break through that.
“Please be gentle, senior Asran.”
“Huh? If you’ve come this far, you should be confident. Trust your skills. I’ll do my best.”
Mia wants to vomit her own blood.
As he said, she is starting to gain confidence in her skills little by little, but I really want to avoid this match.
Although she has no chance of winning, Asran was her hard counter to the point where she thought it would be better to fight Abigail or Philia.
“I’ll start.”
“Senior! Gentleman, gentleman!”
As Asran lunges at her with her greatsword, Mia hurriedly shouts and steps back from her.
Her crescent moon wraps around her with her strange movements, and her spear blade stretched out in front of her threatens to keep her from approaching, but Aslan charges with her terrifying momentum.
Aslan lowered her greatsword as if dragging her stance down, her forearm bulged with tendons.
“aaah!!”
It’s not even a skill using magic. It was a simple swing, but the floor cracked and fragments splattered from the sword pressure.
– Boo Woo Woo
Hearing the unbelievably heavy sound of her sword, Mia stretched out her spear and tried to send it away, but her spear bounced back with her mighty power.
As if she didn’t care about the crescent moon surrounding her, her Aslan greatsword swung.
– Kaaang!
“Kiheh-!”
The crescent moon can’t stand the power of her great sword and bounces off, dragging her lost child and flying away.
All the heads of the audience go up.
As it is, Mia, whose waist is caught in her crescent moon, stretches out so much that she wonders if she is flying high into the sky.
Looking up at her sky blankly, Aslan notices that her lost child has passed out and walks to her falling position to receive her.
“…… Su, winner Aslan!”
The referee was flustered and belatedly declared victory, and cheers pour in for him who showed an exciting home run.
“An ignorant, strong man.”
Abigail frowned as if she didn’t like it, and the other academy students didn’t like it either.
I clearly showed Mia’s strategy of neutralizing the crescent moon, but that was possible because it was Aslan.
It was a home run that seemed to ridicule them for contemplating a strategy.
“If you don’t have strength, your head suffers.”
Rai’s giggling words spoke to the hearts of all the academy students.
“Then, is Asran the only one among us who advanced to the finals? Half of the finalists are sophomores, so it’s a bit embarrassing from a teaching standpoint.”
As he said it with regret, he glanced at Philia and Abigail.
I didn’t mean to blame, but the two felt that Rai, the teacher, had been humiliated.
His private lessons are undoubtedly excellent, and this will damage his reputation.
Since they have easy-going personalities, they don’t care about fame, but the two learners feel sorry for Lai for losing face because of them.
The eyes of the two calmly submerged go back to the stage.
They were two people who were determined to go up next time.
* * *
“Diana! Do your best in the finals!”
“Okay! Everyone give me strength.”
“Huh? What are you doing?”
As Diana wraps both of her hands around herself, her academy student blinks at her and asks.
“He’s stealing Helena’s power. I’ll use it in the finals.”
“Ahahahaha, are you going to become a succubus?”
“Hey, can you share some sap in our Helena bed?”
Diana, cheered by her academy students while playing around, smiles brightly and heads to the stadium.
She gave her a day’s rest to recover her condition, but Diana, who easily climbed the qualifying round, was in excellent condition from the start.
She wasn’t the winner last year, but she rather got more attention and glory than she was the winner.
Thanks to that, most of her opponents withdrew from the preliminaries.
In the prelims, the only fight she fought was the 5th round where her ticket to the finals was at stake.
She was a tattered opponent who had barely risen from the loser’s group, so she easily overpowered Diana and advanced to the finals without any problems.
But the problem is the finals.
She met Violet again from the first match of the finals, as if it was a trick of fate.
Although she showed a relaxed appearance in front of her friends, Diana takes a small deep breath and soothes her heart.
It’s not for nothing that Violet and Sojeta are called millennium equipment.
Violet’s skills, which she briefly showed during her semester, have grown so much that her description of her as a first-class performer is rather an understatement.
She knows her skills well, so Diana closes her eyes and meditates when she gets nervous.
“Okay, let’s go.”
She opens her eyes and stands up with a bright smile.
Her appearance, which had been tense up until now, has returned to her usual relaxed and carefree atmosphere.
Diana laughs when she sees Violet’s dazed expression, who was on stage first.
She is still a girl who looks lax and fierce.
But when the battle begins, she turns into a terrifying monster.
Diana drew her sword, hoping that the goddess of victory would smile at her this year as well as her last year.
“……”
As the confrontation between the two comes to an end, the audience becomes silent.
It was a match that we looked forward to more than the final, so even when it first started, the audience was chanting the names of Violet and Diana.
By the halfway point, the cheers for Diana grew louder, and by the time she reached the end, no one opened her mouth.
Overwhelming.
There is no word that can describe Violet better than this one.
With the tip of her sword stretched out, Violet looked down at Diana with blank eyes.
Diana, now in a state of disrepair, breathes heavily, leaving her usual bright side gone.
Covered in her blood and dust, Diana’s eyes, barely standing up by her sword, lost their light in a half-fazed state.
She tries to stand up, but her body won’t listen, so she falls over and gets back up again.
Violet silently looked down at her desperate struggle.
“Diana… Are you okay?”
She really would have asked with a pure heart if it were her character with a strong corner, but to the person on her knees it was a word that hurt more than any insult.
Diana’s mouth with long veins smiles.
Maybe she wants to have a relaxed smile as usual, she tries to smile brightly, but her trembling body and mesmerized eyes make her smile even sadder.
“Cool-“
Diana vomits her blood and reaches out to dry her hand to Violet, who approaches her worriedly.
She had no intention of being sympathetic to her opponent.
The more she did that, the more she was hurt.
Diana collapses helplessly as her unspeakable emotions grip her heart.
Her referee, who confirmed her fainting, declared her Violet the victory and her match was over.
“……”
When Diana opens her eyes, she sees the ceiling of her infirmary, where she thought she would never have a connection with her all her life.
Diana laughed bitterly at the ceiling engraved with the magic circle that prevented her contamination, and forced her throbbing body up and leaned against her back.
“Are you awake?”
“……”
From noble mtl dot com
Diana stares helplessly at Rai, who is sitting next to the bed and eating snacks.
“I… Lost… Lousy…”
“It was terrible. The spacing was all read, and it didn’t respond to Violet’s movements at all. Her legs were as hard as stone and she hovered in a tight spot.”
Diana bows her head at her sharp criticism.
Leaving her alone as she bites her lip and takes her small breath, her rai rummages through her bag and takes out only her delicious snacks to eat.
It is quiet in the infirmary where Diana is the only patient.
Only the sound of cheering from the audience and the rustling of envelopes can be heard in the distance.
Diana, who was looking down at her hands without moving her, asked in her uncertain voice.
“I… Why did I lose… I worked hard. Do you know Raicang?”
Looking at Diana, who still has her head down, Rai finishes chewing the sweets in her mouth and then opens her mouth.
“Efforts are in the wrong direction.”
“……”
“Didn’t you practice in your room?”
At Rai’s words, Diana raised her head.
Looking at Rai with widened eyes as if a secret had been revealed.
“Since practicing in a small room, the walls and furniture must have been bothering me. As a result, the spacing was narrower than the original, and the range of movement was based on the width of the room I was used to, so I couldn’t keep up with Violet’s movements, which are very active.”
Looking at Rai, who seemed to have seen her training, Diana was speechless.
“Aren’t calluses shaved off and treated with potions? It’s a technique that assassins use a lot, but it’s hard to handle sophisticated swordsmanship because the fingertips have become numb. If you’re worried about calluses, use a sharp sword instead, like Arya.”
Diana smiled while blinking her eyes at Rai’s face as she calmly explained to her.
“Does Raicang really know anything?”
“It’s nothing. You only know what you know.”
“Ahahahaha. It’s so embarrassing. It’s the first time I’ve been exposed like this. It feels like I’ve been naked to Raicang. The red thing to show you? Touch it, touch it. Are your cheeks hot?”
Returning to Diana’s usual form, she takes Rai’s hand and puts it on her cheek.
Diana’s eyes widen as she showed her bright smile.
“I… Am I wrong?”
“Uh. A few years behind.”
At her cruel words, Diana laughs dejectedly.
Diana, who wiped her tears away by rubbing her teary eyes with her Rai hand, looked at her Rai with moist eyes.
“Raikang, go on a date with me.”
“……Why do you talk like that?”
“There are many things I want to tell you, and I want to go on a date with Raicang.”
Looking at her expression, Lai nods her head after pondering for a moment.
“… I got it.”
“I promised. See you tomorrow. You have to wear your prettiest clothes. This is my first date.”
She had wet blue eyes, but Diana had a happy smile.