Complete Victory Reward (1)

After entering the student council room and exchanging brief greetings with Seraphine and Luke.

I sat at the administrative desk Luke guided me to, waiting for the other student council members to arrive.

Well, I already knew some of the committee members from what Seraphine had told me, and I roughly knew who made up Seraphine’s student council from the original story.

Around the time I was sitting at my desk in the student council room, casually chatting with the other members, familiar faces from various perspectives began to appear one by one.

“Long time no see, Lilith.”

“…It’s been a while, Lady August.”

“Did you have a good summer vacation? I spent mine leisurely at a villa owned by the August Trading Company.”

“I see. I’m glad you had a good time.”

“…If you don’t mind, perhaps we could vacation together next summer…?”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t cling so much to my maid, Lady Lizzie Lynn August.”

“…M-my apologies.”

One noble lady, who had been boasting about her summer vacation until Ethan’s appearance made her hastily avert her gaze and flee.

“Is everyone here~? Hmm? The lady over here seems unfamiliar~?”

“Nice to meet you, Senior Orion. I’m Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, first-year Magic Department.”

“Ahh, so you’re that girl~? I’ve heard a lot about you~.”

“Huh? What kind of rumors…?”

“Just, you know~. This and that~? You’re already quite famous even as a first-year~? I think you and Agnes are the most well-known first-years in the Magic Department~?”

“…Senior Orion, if you get too close to my maid…”

“Oh my, Ethan~! Long time no see~! It’s been a while since I saw you at the royal palace. You’ve grown a bit taller since then. Maybe a bit more manly~?”

“……Huh?”

“P-please step away from Young Master Ethan, Senior Orion!”

A mysterious senior from the Magic Department who, just like in the game, seemed dangerous in various ways.

…And in addition, one plain-looking commoner character whose only known trait was their ‘name’.

“Nice to meet you. Gwyn Ivelt, second-year Technology Department.”

“Ah, yes. Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, first-year Magic Department.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“…Thank you.”

A character whose faint presence made them even more enigmatic than Orion.

This was my first meeting with Gwyn Ivelt, the rival character in Luke’s route.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Gwyn Ivelt.

To be honest, aside from his name and appearance, I barely remembered anything about him.

You might wonder how someone who spent thousands of hours in 『Luminor Academy』 could forget a rival character, but this guy’s presence was just that faint.

He barely spoke, had no connections with major characters, and thus had almost no role in the story-essentially, he might as well have been an NPC.

A taciturn male student with short brown hair, standing about 180 cm tall.

The kind of appearance you’d expect if the developers of 『Luminor Academy』 said, “We’re tired of giving everyone unique personalities, so let’s just slap a generic character next to Luke.”

No memorable traits, no storylines where he was the main focus. Even characters like the old Ethan or Karaham had their own main stories.

He didn’t even act like a rival. Once the protagonist builds some rapport with Luke, he just fades into the background like air.

So why is such an extra-like character considered a rival?

Because in the ending where you don’t show any affection toward Luke, he ends up marrying this guy with a single line of explanation.

Since he’s the one Luke ends up with, he gets the rival treatment.

‘Anyway, he’s unrelated to me.’

From the original story, there was zero chance of him getting involved with Lilith or Ethan. It was questionable whether his story was even connected to anyone other than Luke.

With all the messy entanglements I already had with the main characters, I didn’t have the energy to spare for a character with no presence.

As I mentioned earlier, this semester was already ridiculously busy with various matters.

“Since Vice President Gwyn is here, let’s start the meeting. The first agenda we need to address today is…”

On the first day when all student council members, including me who had been absent the day before, had gathered, Seraphine led the meeting, and student council work began.

Instead of interrupting with proposals or questions, I quietly focused on organizing documents as the administrative officer.

‘Stay under the radar, just go with the flow.’

After all, I had other reasons for joining the student council.

To publicly announce the alliance between the rising Third Princess Seraphine’s faction and the Blackwood family.

And to get closer to Lizzie to request potion brewing for the second semester’s final hunting festival.

As long as those two things went smoothly, the rest didn’t matter.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

About two weeks had passed since I started following the student council order led by Seraphine.

It was a somewhat relaxed season after the midterm exams of the second semester.

Nothing particularly special happened during those two weeks. Not that non-protagonists like Ethan and Lilith would have special events anyway.

The most notable event during that time was probably how I got utterly crushed again in a sparring match during Harold’s class.

Compared to the second match, I lasted a bit longer, but this time, I couldn’t create as intense a battle as the first one.

The slight improvement was likely due to my stats increasing after suddenly leveling up four times. There might have been some progress in my dagger skills too.

Thinking about it, maybe the first match was my one and only chance.

The more we clashed, the more Harold got used to fighting me, so I should’ve landed a hit when he had no information about me in the first match.

At this rate, I might not win even once before the semester ends.

Not that a Magic Department student would fail for not winning against a Swordsmanship Department professor, but the thought of not scoring even one win against Harold was oddly unsettling.

…Maybe it was because of the dreams I’d been having frequently since my third loss to Harold.

‘Pathetic, Lilith. Even if you’re fighting with daggers, how can you go an entire semester without landing a single proper attack?’

‘I’m sorry, Master. My skills are still lacking…’

‘I can’t keep a maid who wields such pitiful blades by Ethan’s side. Starting next year, you’re dismissed as his personal maid and will leave Blackwood Manor.’

‘N-no, Master! Please give me one more chance…!’

After having such strange dreams and waking up several times feeling restless, it was inevitable that my mind would fixate on it.

Of course, I knew Harold wasn’t the type to fire a personal maid over something like this, but lately, my dreams had been like this.

Anyway, regardless of the dream’s content, I needed to score at least one win against Harold before the semester ended to leave a good impression.

It was also getting increasingly frustrating how Harold blocked all my attacks-three daggers, offensive magic, and support magic-with just one sword, even if he was a Sword Master.

Honestly, I wanted to win at least once, especially since he was fighting with both ki and magic sealed.

While thinking this, I watched Ethan and Harold’s class sparring match from the spectator seats.

True to someone on the verge of reaching Sword Expert, Ethan was engaging in a completely different kind of spar compared to mine with Harold.

-Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Huff, huff… Haah…!”

“……”

Ethan, swinging his twin swords with a ferocity as if he wanted to devour his opponent, and Harold, blocking his strikes with a serious expression.

It seemed Ethan had undergone significant mental changes since the battle with the Kraken.

After that day, Ethan’s swordsmanship grew at an absurd rate.

In his evaluation matches with Harold, he relentlessly pressed forward with his twin swords, showing far more power and stamina than before. Even in the weekly practical monster-hunting classes, he was achieving better results.

Apparently, glimpsing the threshold of Sword Expert had ignited Ethan’s motivation to improve.

-Clang!!

“…Tch!”

“Haa, ha, haa…!”

With Ethan’s horizontal slash, Harold’s sword momentarily flew into the air.

The students watching let out quiet gasps.

“……Huh?”

“D-did he just knock Professor Harold’s sword away…?”

“As expected of the Blackwood family…”

The first ‘complete victory’ against Harold in a spar.

Among the students in the same class, he was the second to achieve this after Kyetmajosyegigot Bolt.

“Ethan.”

“…Yes.”

“Since you’ve achieved a complete victory against me, like Kyetmajosyegigot, your grade for this semester will be full marks.”

“Thank you!”

“Also, from now on, I’ll use magic in our spars as well. Be prepared.”

“Understood!”

Among the upperclassmen, he was the second to ‘graduate’ from Harold’s class this semester, after the Hero.

Meanwhile, I, in the intermediate class, still hadn’t scored a single win against Harold, who wasn’t even using ki or magic.

Well, everyone has their own specialties, so it couldn’t be helped.

I gave Ethan a calm compliment as he returned to my side after his match with Harold.

“Congratulations, Young Master Ethan. Your skills are improving rapidly day by day.”

“…Thanks, Lilith.”

“Since you’ve won against the Master, I’ll prepare your reward for tonight as usual, Young Master Ethan.”

“…About that, Lilith.”

“Yes?”

“Today wasn’t just a regular win-it was a ‘complete victory’ against Father, right?”

“…That’s correct.”

“It’s a bit awkward for me to say this, but even for a complete victory, is the reward just the usual thing?”

“…Are you saying you want a different reward for the complete victory?”

“It’s not that I want a different reward, but I feel like we should progress further. After all, Lilith and I are temporary lovers. Of course, if you say this is enough, I’ll accept it.”

“…Understood. Since you’ve said so, I’ll prepare a reward worthy of a ‘complete victory’ for you.”

“I’ll look forward to it, Lilith.”

…What should I do?

I never really thought about what the reward for a complete victory would be.