Ch.8888. An Unsettling Conclusion

There was no particular reason for suddenly taking out a fork.

I just realized that I hadn’t taken out any weapon while I was completely zoned out.

It’s not that I was trying to thoroughly hide my inventory, but it felt a bit awkward to openly show it in this kind of setting… So while thinking about what I could reasonably pull out of my pocket, this fork came to mind.

It’s already proven itself as an excellent weapon, having sent the Crown Prince flying before.

Since Lias Faizen is holding a mace, which is a blunt weapon, and this fork also technically counts as a blunt weapon, I’d say it’s an appropriate weapon choice.

But… I guess it looks pretty ridiculous from the outside, doesn’t it?

“…What are you doing?”

“I don’t have a weapon.”

“I know. But why did you pull that out?”

Lias seemed completely unable to understand why I suddenly pulled out a fork and asked such a question.

“What do you plan to do with that? Are you messing with me?”

“I’m always serious, senior.”

Without my dodging and parrying skills, I’d really be a nobody.

“…I thought you were a decent guy. Now I see I was wrong.”

However, my sincerity didn’t reach her, and in the end, it only resulted in the collapse of the good first impression I had built up.

Can’t be helped. From her perspective, she was trying her best to face me seriously, but when her opponent pulls out a fork and starts waving it around, it would naturally make her feel bad in many ways.

To be fair, she’s not entirely in the right either, challenging someone who clearly has no weapon… but I decided to keep quiet since prolonging this conversation would only lead to more misunderstandings.

Lias then frowned slightly and began swinging her mace again.

This time, too, it was a horizontal swing.

‘Looks like your pattern got heavily nerfed.’

The point of blunt weapons is their heavy impact.

And usually, the heaviness of weight-based weapons comes from downward strikes.

That’s why downward strikes with blunt weapons are almost always classified as unparryable… but what about Lias’s current situation?

If she were to strike downward at the floor, it would immediately result in property damage. Everyone watching would be witnesses, so she couldn’t deny it either.

For the same reason, she couldn’t use magic either. All the spells she used were known for their destructive power.

In the end, with downward strikes and magic sealed off, she was essentially left as an empty shell, forced to continue with inefficient attacks that only swung from side to side.

Of course, her physical build and strength were impressive, making her threatening even with just that, and the air pressure I could feel was no joke… but that doesn’t change the fact that her motion is vulnerable to parrying.

After deliberately just dodging a few times, I catch the right timing and meet her mace with my fork.

Twooong-

With a heavy sound effect, Lias’s swinging mace was deflected backward.

“Huh, what?”

With the direction of motion suddenly reversed, a surprised Lias lost her balance and staggered.

But she quickly regained her stability without falling.

When I sent the Crown Prince flying with a fork parry before, he went airborne, so I guess there’s quite a difference in their builds.

I wonder how that exchange just now looked to everyone else.

I could feel the noisy surroundings suddenly fall silent.

But the silence was brief, and soon it became chaotic again.

“…Did I see that right?”

“He deflected Senior Lias’s mace? With just that fork?”

“Why are all the most unbelievable rumors turning out to be true?”

Between my dodging and parrying, even Celia Rubetia and Alkine Debaran, who’ve seen me in action before, are amazed—so it must be quite shocking for those seeing it for the first time.

And that… would certainly include Lias, who just experienced the parry firsthand.

“…”

Whatever she felt from just that one parry, she was staring at me blankly without saying a word.

Not wanting to appear boastful by speaking up, I quietly watched her, and soon Lias collected herself and carefully opened her mouth.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“Just now, you overlapped with our year’s top student in my eyes.”

…I didn’t expect the 4th-year top student to come up here. I don’t really know how strong that person is.

Well, being the top student, they must be strong… but since they don’t appear in the game, I don’t have a reference point…

“Ah, you see, I recently had a match with them. At that time, my mace was deflected by that tiny spear tip, and what you just did reminded me of that moment.”

Since I didn’t know how to respond and just stared at her, Lias added an explanation, probably thinking she had said something wrong.

Hmm, so the 4th-year top student uses a spear. They probably have a technique that shoots mana waves from the spear tip.

But this is a compliment, right? She’s acknowledging that I’m on the same level as the 4th-year top student?

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“…That’s right. I ended up complimenting you.”

“Is this enough to be recognized as someone worthy of standing beside the princess?”

When I probed a bit, Lias looked startled and quickly raised her mace again.

“I guess it does. No, I can’t accept that. I was holding back until now. Let’s fight properly again.”

“You don’t look very confident.”

“…”

I didn’t say that out of overconfidence. Her expression really did seem more subdued compared to before.

Lias couldn’t respond to my words and remained silent, then glanced somewhere in the crowd.

“Kyaaa! Senior Lias looked at me!!”

Someone misunderstood her gaze and screamed, but in reality, she was looking at Celia.

“…Even if my image is already ruined, I want to show my best effort at the end.”

She seemed to have found some resolve while looking at Celia… I could understand her feelings somewhat. Rather than retreating pathetically, she wanted to show a valiant fight even if she ended up losing badly.

But… the truth is, Celia probably wouldn’t care much about what she does.

If Lias were an acquaintance, it might be different, but from Celia’s perspective, she’s a complete stranger.

Celia’s stance as a true introvert is to respond with complete indifference to strangers.

No matter what kind of emotional display Lias puts on, Celia would probably remain uninterested.

“I’m coming again. This time I’ll be serious, so it’ll be different from before.”

Since that seems to be what would satisfy her, I decided not to provoke her further.

Lias’s attacks came rushing in again.

As she said, it was a different momentum and power from before—just adding speed to that massive mace doubled its intimidation.

Bwoong-!

Bwoong-!

Even though I’m right in front of it, if the air pressure from her swings is enough to make my body stagger, it’s really no joke.

But… again, that was all there was to it.

Twooong-

Due to the limitations of the location, she still couldn’t use downward strikes or magic, so she was just destined to be a victim of my parrying.

But… perhaps she put too much force into it? With the parry, she flew backward and fell face-first onto the ground.

And in the process, the mace she was holding flew out of her hand.

“Ah.”

Lias made an expression like she just realized her mistake, but the mace had already flown beyond her reach.

If it falls from that height at that angle and gets stuck in the ground… it would create at least a mini-crater.

And so, Lias’s giant mace was about to become a landmark stuck in one corner of the central plaza…

“What?”

“It’s floating in the air.”

…but that didn’t happen.

Celia, who was watching, used magic to make the mace float in the air just before it hit the ground.

The mace landed safely on the ground. The floor remained intact.

“What is this…?”

“The princess you admire so much helped you, senior.”

“…The princess did?”

When I explained the situation to Lias, who didn’t understand what had happened, she alternated between looking at the mace on the ground and the spectators.

Then, with an incredibly moved expression, she covered her mouth with both hands.

“The princess helped me…!”

She exclaimed while trembling, genuinely seeming happy.

“Even someone like me, who dared to challenge someone close to her, was helped by her. How kind…”

She seemed like a normal person, but seeing this makes me understand why she’s the vice president of Celia’s fan club…

Hmm… it seems like this incident has deepened her admiration for Celia?

‘Does that have anything to do with me?’

Given how far things have already gone.

“Is this for real?”

“Even if the senior didn’t use magic… it wasn’t at a level where you could say anything about it.”

Hearing the murmurs around me, I glanced through the crowd and saw Celia talking with Alkine.

“Why are you looking at me like that’s unexpected?”

“I thought you wouldn’t care about this. It’s not that big a deal even if there was some damage.”

“What do you take me for? If things escalated further here, the annoyance would outweigh the enjoyment, so of course I had to help.”

“…Your way of thinking is exactly like Ludion’s.”

“Does it seem that way? Thank you.”

“That’s not a… well, for you it would be a compliment. Fine. I don’t dislike that personality either.”

I’m not sure what they’re talking about… but Celia looks quite uncomfortable.

It seems like being squeezed in the middle of the crowd is bothering her.

Why are people watching so intently? Is this the power of favorability?

…No matter what questions arise, they all lead back to “because the favorability is high,” which isn’t confusing but makes the pressure endlessly greater.

Anyway, the priority now was dealing with Lias, who I had knocked to the ground.

“Huh-up, huh-up. The princess helped me… hehehe… hihihihi.”

Left alone, she started sobbing and then began laughing in a disturbing way… She has her own fan base, and it didn’t seem right to leave her like this with everyone watching.

“Excuse me?”

“Huh? Oh, what?”

Fortunately, she hadn’t completely lost her mind, and just tapping her shoulder lightly was enough to bring her back to her senses.

“S-sorry. I made a scene.”

She said that as she quickly got up, picked up the mace that had fallen to the ground, and let out a deep sigh.

“I really lost pathetically.”

“So you’ll acknowledge me now, right?”

“…No.”

…? Wait, she lost but won’t acknowledge me?

“I admit I lost to you. But I still can’t acknowledge you. Sorry.”

Then what was this fight even for?

I was about to say something out of disbelief, but before I could, she quickly continued.

“But… as the loser, I don’t have the right to say anything. I won’t bother you anymore. So I hope you can understand if I still hold some resentment.”

“…I understand. Thank you for your effort, senior.”

“Take care, talented junior.”

With those words, she trudged away.

Due to her large build, her retreating figure was very visible, and she looked quite dejected.

…That ended on a rather unsatisfying note.

I didn’t get a clean acknowledgment, nor did I completely shut down her resistance.

But I achieved my goal of making a statement in front of everyone, and the situation seems to be over, so I should head back now.

With that thought, I was about to leave when a voice from somewhere stopped me.

“Where are you going? It’s not over yet.”

“Are you really going to do this, bro?”

“I have my reasons. It’s worth it.”

“…Can I trust you on this?”

Two men emerged from the crowd.

Mitein and Latein. The appearance of the crazy concept-obsessed twins.

“Hey, we can’t fight properly here, so follow us. Let’s have a proper match at the training ground.”

…So it’s not over yet.

Although I’ve already achieved my goal of filtering out troublemakers by defeating Lias, I couldn’t back down here.

Ignoring them might lead to even more annoying situations than not having a filter at all.

The situation was ending a bit flatly, so this is actually good timing.

“Yes, let’s go, seniors.”

I gladly accepted their request and immediately headed to the training ground.