The Sword Bears Will (8)

After changing into the new breastplate armor Emilia had provided.

Moving to the full-length mirror to check my current attire, the reflection showed a woman who could only be described as a knight standing confidently.

Especially with my unnecessarily large and heavy chest now concealed by armor, the dull impression was significantly reduced.

Though the full-body armor still felt awkward, moving around was manageable enough.

Probably because reaching level 5 had increased my attack and defense stats, giving my strength a decent boost.

In the original game, full plate armor like this was impossible for Lilith to equip, so I’d been a bit worried. But at least the weight of the armor wouldn’t prevent me from moving properly.

Initially, I’d imagined just changing into a maid uniform as training gear, but…

Emilia’s overwhelming insistence that full armor was necessary had led to this situation.

At least the chest was firmly secured and wouldn’t wobble. Though taking it off would be as much of a struggle as putting it on…

At times like this, I couldn’t help but envy Emilia’s physique.

Small chest, a well-balanced, healthy figure without excess fat.

In my past life, I’d always preferred women with a healthy, athletic build, so her body was exactly the type I admired.

Meanwhile, Lilith’s appearance was all about one exaggerated feature-her chest-making her look sluggish.

…Of course, given how I’d exploited that charm for various benefits, I wasn’t exactly in a position to complain.

After struggling into the slightly oversized armor with Emilia’s help,

the final step of choosing a ‘weapon’ for the spar consumed yet another significant chunk of time.

“…Haven’t you decided yet?”

“J-Just a moment. Let me test-swing a few more.”

“……”

Emilia gave me a strange look, silently urging me to hurry, but I had no choice.

Since this was a rare opportunity to spar, I needed to maximize my chances of winning.

As for how the training facility’s experience points were calculated… honestly, I didn’t know the exact formula.

How would I? It was just a place to dump characters I wasn’t using while moving between maps.

Still, I had a rough idea of what increased or decreased the experience gain.

Duration, level, and the character’s training completion rate.

Duration obviously referred to how long the character was left in the facility. The longer, the more experience-simple enough.

Level meant the character’s level when placed in training-higher-level characters naturally grew slower. What could a strong character possibly learn from basic training?

And the completion rate represented how much the character learned during training. Honestly, this part was entirely out of the player’s control.

The ‘training facility’ in Luminor Academy was just a place to drop off characters and retrieve them later-no minigames or direct control to influence experience gain.

Once you left them there, you could only pray they performed well and earned a high completion rate.

…But now that I was the character in question, the situation was completely reversed.

At most, I’d get three sparring sessions-maybe just one.

An opportunity so brief it could hardly be called a ‘duration.’

My level was beyond my control.

That left only the ‘completion rate’-my performance in the spar-as the sole factor I could influence.

To squeeze out as much experience as possible in this short time, I needed to maximize this ‘completion rate.’

Absolute victory. Even if I lost, I had to fight desperately until the very end.

I had to give it my all until I reached level 6.

So, choosing the right weapon-one of the keys to victory-took an unavoidable amount of time.

As I picked up and set down sword after sword, similar thoughts ran through my mind.

‘This one’s… still too heavy.’

Even at level 5, wielding a full-length steel sword while wearing full plate armor was exhausting.

If I used a weapon this ill-suited for me, I’d lose without landing a single proper hit.

If I could use magic, even a rookie soldier wouldn’t be a challenge, but revealing my magic now would cause more than just a commotion.

Just as I was about to give up and settle for the lightest weapon available…

“……Huh?”

A sword in the corner of the preparation room suddenly caught my eye.

“I’ll take this one.”

“……What?”

“This should work.”

“…No, Lilith. Stop joking and pick a proper weapon. Your opponent will be using a longsword-how do you expect to fight with that?”

“I’d rather use a weapon that suits me than a longsword I’m not familiar with.”

“No, Lilith…”

Emilia tried several times to swap the weapon in my hand for something else, but my mind was already made up.

With this weapon, even in Lilith’s body, I could hold my own against a rookie soldier.

As long as I had this ‘dagger’ in my right hand.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Emilia prayed this was all just a bad dream.

That this reckless maid wouldn’t get hurt sparring against a rookie soldier was already a hopeless wish.

Watching Lilith pick up and discard swords like it was a joke only added to her stress.

And when Lilith finally chose to fight with nothing but a single dagger, Emilia felt dizzy.

‘She’s definitely going to get hurt… Maybe even seriously injured…’

Sure, the training swords were blunted for safety, making serious injuries rare.

But that only applied when opponents of similar skill fought with similar weapons.

Adult male vs. adult female.

Rookie soldier vs. maid.

Longsword vs. dagger.

No matter how she looked at it, the power gap was overwhelming. Emilia’s mind went blank.

The threat Prince Ethan had whispered in her ear echoed again.

‘If the maid gets so much as a scratch, I’ll carve a scar on your body in the same place-one that’ll never heal.’

-Gulp.

…What if the injury wasn’t just a ‘scratch’?

What if blocking a sword strike with her arm cracked a bone?

Or if a clumsy swing severed a finger?

Or if a helmet strike gave her a concussion?

Dark thoughts swirled in Emilia’s mind, unsettling her.

If Lilith-Prince Ethan’s favored maid-suffered anything worse than a minor injury, Emilia doubted she’d survive.

She wanted to strangle her past self for protesting the service record a week ago.

To survive, she had to make a decision.

‘No. I have to stop this.’

Even if Ethan scolded her for disobeying, letting this spar happen was far worse.

To increase her survival odds, this match couldn’t proceed.

Ethan hadn’t seemed keen on the training anyway-if she stopped it, punishment might be avoided.

With her mind made up, Emilia tried to dissuade Lilith from proceeding.

But her words were soon cut off by the maid.

“Lilith, you really should reconsider. There’s no need for you to test the rookies-“

-Clap!

“……?!”

Lilith suddenly stopped mid-step and clapped her hands once.

Pressing her palms together, she gazed into the air, leaving Emilia speechless.

‘Is she… praying?’

With her solemn expression and clasped hands, Lilith looked like a girl deep in prayer.

Emilia stared blankly for about ten seconds before Lilith lowered her hands and smiled.

“Sorry for interrupting. I just needed to prepare.”

“…N-No, it’s fine.”

“About what you said earlier-I won’t back down. No matter how much you persuade me, I’m doing this.”

“……”

“Besides, I’m going to win anyway.”

With confident words and expression, Lilith strode toward the training grounds, leaving Emilia to follow helplessly.

Now, only one option remained.

‘At this point, just… please let her win.’

The faint hope that Lilith truly had the skill to solo the Hookfang.

That she could flawlessly defeat a rookie soldier with just a dagger.

Emilia could only cling to this slim chance for survival.

She desperately wished her earlier claim-that Lilith couldn’t have beaten the Hookfang-had been nothing but ignorant nonsense.