Ch.4544. Party Members (8)

# 44. Party Members (8)

-BANG!-

The thunderous collision of my greatsword and Briton’s shield instinctively made everyone present cover their ears.

Briton seemed quite flustered, and I seized that opportunity to continue my assault.

-BANG! CRASH! CRASH!-

As Briton struggled against my fierce attacks, Chris and Reina simultaneously approached me.

Chris threatened me with his fists, while Reina brandished her sword.

-THUD! CLANG!-

I blocked Chris’s punch with one hand while parrying Reina’s sword with my other hand that held my weapon.

“Chris is definitely stronger.”

Chris’s attack was slightly more powerful since [Mortal’s End] intimidation didn’t work on him.

When Chris tried to attack me with his remaining free hand, I first swung my sword at Reina.

-CLANG!-

Reina managed to block the attack but was pushed back considerably.

As Reina was forced away, I ignored the fist rapidly approaching me and kicked Chris’s abdomen with all my might.

Given his notably low defense, it would be quite an effective attack.

“Ugh…!”

Unable to withstand the impact, he was sent flying.

And with that ridiculous “Ugh…!” sound, no less.

While those two couldn’t protect Briton, I charged at him again.

“What kind of tank hides behind his teammates?”

I raised my greatsword and struck his shield with all the strength I could muster.

Briton tried to block my attack using his unique skill [Invincible Rampart].

However, the current situation was overwhelmingly in my favor.

With his stats reduced due to intimidation, Briton couldn’t withstand my strength, which had been enhanced by [Mortal’s End] and [Absolute Loyalty].

-BANG!!!-

My sword, emanating a ferocious aura, shattered Briton’s [Invincible Rampart] and threatened the shield he was hiding behind.

Thanks to Briton’s high defense, the shield wasn’t completely destroyed, but a large crack formed where my sword had made contact.

Briton appeared quite shocked by what had just happened, and Reina, who was in the best condition among the three, approached me and swung her sword.

-CLANG!-

However, Reina’s still-developing swordsmanship was no match for me.

When I forcefully struck her sword, it flew out of her hands, leaving her momentarily disarmed.

I pointed my sword at the bewildered Reina’s neck and said:

“You still have a long way to go.”

Compared to the Reina I remembered from before, she was still far behind, but not bad.

The difference in our stats was too great, but looking solely at her swordsmanship, it was actually quite good.

However, she herself must be well aware of her inexperience.

“Let’s end it here. Good work, everyone.”

As soon as I heard her declaration ending the match, I approached Chris.

Chris was nursing the spot where I had kicked him.

“Does it hurt?”

“Hurts like hell… Did you have to kick so hard? My defense is already pathetically low…”

“Sorry about that. Drink this.”

I tossed Chris the healing potion that she had given me before the survival test began.

Chris hastily drank the potion I threw him.

Allin, who had returned at some point, approached me and said:

“Looks like you won.”

“What about you?”

“Did you think I’d lose?”

Allin shrugged with a confident expression.

Seeing no injuries on her, it seemed she had won by a significant margin.

Indeed, apart from Her Majesty and myself, it felt like Allin had no real competition.

‘I wonder if Raycle could evade her?’

As I was thinking about him who hadn’t participated in the survival test, Allin shared some news with her.

“That guy isn’t joining our party.”

It was something I had somewhat anticipated, but hearing it now made it feel more real.

Leo had participated in this survival test not to join our party but to have a chance to fight Allin.

Neither she nor I was surprised since we had both expected this.

It would have been stranger if he had joined the party, after all.

“As expected.”

Hearing her calm voice, Chris looked at us and asked:

“So what happens to us?”

“For now, Chris and Reina, you both pass.”

Chris and Reina were briefly happy but then looked at the one whose name hadn’t been called yet.

Reina, looking at Briton, asked her about the one whose name hadn’t been mentioned:

“What about Briton?”

“He hasn’t passed yet.”

Hearing this, Briton nodded as if accepting the result.

Compared to the other two, Briton had shown a much more passive approach.

While the other two had at least attempted to counterattack, Briton had only focused on defense from start to finish.

Even considering his role as a shield-bearing tank, one couldn’t help but think, ‘Isn’t he too passive?’

Despite showing many shortcomings, she didn’t immediately disqualify Briton.

I asked her:

“Not yet?”

Briton, hearing the word “yet,” looked at her with a puzzled expression.

Seeing his reaction, she made a proposal to Briton:

“If you can land even one hit on me in a duel, I’ll let you join our party. However, if you can’t…”

She continued in a calm tone:

“You’re out. What do you say?”

Briton’s expression darkened again upon hearing her proposal.

The proposal was probably designed so that Briton would pass just by accepting it, but Briton didn’t know that.

In the end, Briton said in a gloomy tone:

“I’ll forfeit…”

“That’s a shame. Then the only ones who pass this survival test are Chris and Reina. Congratulations.”

Hearing her concluding remarks, Chris and Reina breathed sighs of relief and left the set.

We then disqualified all the survivors who had fled earlier and followed them out of the set.

Today, too, she offered warm words to us who had successfully completed the survival test:

“Good work today.”

Allin responded with the brightest voice I had ever heard from her:

“You too, unni!”

I wasn’t sure when, but Allin had changed her form of address for her to “unni” (older sister).

I was quite envious but tried not to show it.

I was maintaining a poker face with gritted teeth, but somehow she seemed to understand my inner feelings.

“Albert, you can call me noona too.”

“I’m fine.”

While I envied the familiar term of address, I didn’t particularly want to call her “noona” (older sister).

To be honest, rather than changing the form of address, I wanted to speak informally to her or have her speak informally to me, but that seemed very difficult.

“The form of address will change soon anyway.”

She asked me shyly:

“When will that be…?”

“Before you graduate, I suppose.”

She and I stared blankly at each other, while Allin chuckled incredulously beside us.

***

In the library, which was quite crowded on the weekend.

Allin looked at the list of participants for the tenth and final survival test tomorrow and said:

“Wow… this is the last one.”

She and I were also looking at the list, and like last time, our gazes were directed towards one particular name.

‘I’ve waited a long time for this.’

I thought of the princess of the Orion Kingdom, who was probably somewhere diligently honing her skills even now.

Since the day Rachel told me she would participate in the survival test, she had shown an incredible amount of practice.

After the academy ended, she would either train in the training grounds or clear dungeons, and occasionally challenge me to duels.

I won each time, but I could feel Rachel’s skills improving day by day.

‘I hope she hasn’t pushed herself too hard.’

Considering Rachel’s personality.

It was obvious that she was giving it her all, using every ounce of strength she had.

She was the type of person who would endure any pain to achieve what she wanted.

She also knew this well.

“She’s probably working hard alone right now.”

She had intended to include Rachel in the party from the beginning and was even planning to trigger Rachel’s second awakening through tomorrow’s survival test.

‘I hope it goes well.’

As I was silently praying for things to go smoothly, she said to me:

“I’ll handle Rachel.”

“That would be best.”

Pushing an opponent to the edge to draw out their maximum potential was her specialty.

And it was practically impossible for Allin and me to do such a thing with our abilities.

I could push an opponent, but that was all, and Allin couldn’t even do that.

Among us, only she could do it.

“But wasn’t Rachel unni already part of our party?”

I looked at her and answered Allin’s question:

“She is, but a certain kind-hearted person wants to help her achieve her second awakening.”

“Who might that be?”

She was pretending not to know, gritting her teeth.

“There’s this very beautiful and kind-hearted person, who also happens to be someone I like.”