episode_0030

“Sorry, Princess. If possible, we’d like to do it by ourselves.”

“..Huh?”

When I looked at Cosette and Agnes, dumbfounded by Cosette’s words, it seemed like she had no intention of taking back what she had just said. No, why?

“If I team up with the princess, I might win very easily… but I think I’d be disappointed in myself if I did that.”

“Besides, if not this time, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to beat the princess.”

Agnes was talking with his arms crossed with a confident expression on his face, so I felt a little annoyed for a moment, so I attacked Agnes’ cheeks with both hands. Agnes was defeated.

“Of course, I know that since the princess is the head of the class, I can’t help it if she doesn’t give permission… but I’d like you to compromise.”

As I watched Cosette hesitantly speak, I felt a bit bittersweet. It was like the feeling I got when I heard that my daughter was self-made. I’ve never been married and I don’t have a daughter, but anyway, that’s how it is. How come you’ve grown taller than your mother, daughter!

“You’ve grown so much, Cosette.. You were so small.. And now you’re trying to leave your mother..”

“What, what are you saying..”

As I stroked Cosette’s head with those words, Cosette tried to avoid it, but it would be ten thousand years before she could escape my hand. Feeling that my hand would never leave her head no matter how much she ran, Cosette gave up and left her head in my hands.

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing I can do. For the sake of my daughters’ independence, I have no choice but to give in this time.”

I heard Agnes grumbling, “Am I included?” but I ignored it. If you think about it, Agnes is much less attractive than Cosette, but she doesn’t seem to know it.

As I watched the two people chattering away, I couldn’t help but get lost in thought.

..Who should I team up with?

After entering the academy, 2/3 of the friendships I made over the past year have disappeared─the remaining 1/3 is Katrina… I’m not sure if I can call her a friend, though─, so there’s no one I can just casually go up to and say, “Let’s form a team together.”

Of course, as the top student in the written exam, I could force most of the students to join, but the important thing is who and how many to put on the team. And honestly, my social skills weren’t good enough to put anyone on the team just by looking at their grades.

Where else could there be a suitable talent who is strong enough to be trusted, capable of doing various things, and has a personality that is easy to get along with, so that it doesn’t matter if they are meeting for the first time, and who can be included in the team? When I glanced at Yu Gram, Yu Gram nodded as if he had read my mind. He said that he believed in me.

“I wonder if this could happen because of the young lady’s terrible friendships, of course.”

I read the materials that were handed over naturally, along with the words that pierced my heart. Thinking about it, I think Yugram and I had originally talked about choosing one person each to form a team, but I don’t think so.

The name written on the documents was Ayla. I have hardly ever talked to her, but I know her. She is a considerably tall child with long blue hair that reaches down to her waist and is neatly braided into a single braid. I have seen her use dual swords in swordsmanship classes once.

Dual swords. Even from the vague memories of my past life and from my current common sense, this is a martial art that is quite unreliable. If you think about it simply, you would think that you would be twice as strong if you held a sword in both hands, but common sense tells you otherwise.

It goes without saying that there should be no difference in handling both hands, and since it is extremely vulnerable in terms of defense, it always had to be a prerequisite to attack in a way that overwhelms the opponent, and the prerequisite of high activity level and the characteristic of using both arms at the same time had the disadvantage of requiring much more stamina than other martial arts.

Also, most martial arts, especially swordsmanship, have been developed and adopted in the form of using two-handed swords or one-handed swords and shields. The swordsmanship I am learning is also two-handed swordsmanship. In other words, it is difficult to find a teacher. In any field, there is bound to be a huge difference between learning from an excellent teacher and learning on your own.

Then, if you are able to wield both hands without any unnaturalness, have stamina that doesn’t tire thanks to arduous training or innate strength, and are lucky enough to meet a master of dual swordsmanship and accept him as your disciple, can you properly learn dual swordsmanship?

Unfortunately, there is one more condition. You must be an incredible genius. There is no option for defense, so pushing your opponent is an extremely risky act. If you do not have the natural talent to continuously try and succeed in tightrope walking where life and death depend on a single choice, you will just wave your sword in the air and be instantly slashed and cold-hearted by an opponent who has learned proper swordsmanship.

Still, the fact that Yugram recommended Ayla means that Ayla has considerable talent.

Although his grades for both the journalism department and the written test are average, judging from Yugram’s investigation and my own, it’s almost certain that he’s a commoner. If his grades are like this from the beginning of his schooling, it was obvious that his grades would improve as the semesters went on. Even if he’s a problem child from his family, his starting point is different from that of a commoner.

Okay. This one is confirmed.

“The one I chose is Matias. You know him too, right? He’s a guy you only see in the journalism department classes. ”

“..hmm.”

Yugram showed a slight discomfort, but didn’t say anything. Yugram probably wanted me to make a team of only girls. I would rather play with only pretty girls, but when I thought about making a team, I thought that there might be a situation where it had to be mixed gender. It might not be necessary, though.

And he was quite a troublemaker. He only took classes in the journalism department all day, but his grades were at the bottom. Judging from the fact that he always looked like a mess, he was obviously a commoner, and probably poor. But seeing him attend classes so intently, I thought he had some kind of terrible situation.

There’s a class there, but it’s basically military training. It’s really hard, but the tenacity to endure it twice or three times as much as others throughout the first year is definitely not ordinary. Doesn’t it feel like the main character of an old creative work? Except that his skills are stagnant.

I was also one of the students who accompanied Katrina to her apology, and I remember that both Katrina and I couldn’t make eye contact, trembling, and then ran away as soon as the apology was over. Why me, even if Katrina was like that?

But it’s true that I became more interested because of that meeting. Even with such a weak personality, why does she take classes like that? There had to be some kind of huge family history, a secret of birth, or something like that …

Okay. Should we go recruit him?

.

.

.

The place I went to find Ayla was a small forest within the premises. Is this where she trains?

When I sometimes recall common sense from my previous life, I used to think that natural mana was something or other, and thought that this was natural, but surprisingly, the people living in this world didn’t think that way at all. Training always had to be done efficiently under the supervision of an instructor or master. Since the main content was extremely practical and useful teachings, it’s unnecessary to say now how much of a mess this academy is, which is conducting education by roughly throwing children in and telling them to do whatever they want.

Anyway, Ayla, who left the well-maintained training ground and crawled into the forest, was considered a bit strange even by the common sense of this place.

The Ayla I found was doing some kind of static training, standing on one leg with her hands holding her twin swords spread out to the sides, slowly lifting her other leg so that her soles were facing the sky. It was a difficult move to imitate without flexibility and strong muscles. I don’t know for sure because I haven’t tried it, but maybe.

In that state, she slowly lowered her foot again and repeated the same thing with the other foot, or she seemed to be training something by changing poses here and there. After seeing Ayla relax her posture and exhale, I slowly approached her.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“Did you know?”

“How can you not notice something so conspicuous?”

Ayla looked at Yugram and snickered. Well, even I would be drawn to someone who had a servant like that, even if I didn’t like it.

“So, can I assume that you came to me because of the grand battle? Masked Princess.”

“..That’s true, but I wish you’d just call me Leah.”

The fact that I have to hear that embarrassing title from someone I’m meeting for the first time has made the Cosette training schedule in my mind a little more difficult. I can’t forgive you.

“Sorry, but according to the information I’ve received, this competition is a guild activity, right? So we have no choice but to call each other by our stage names. By the way, I’m going to decide on my stage name as Black and White Wings that Embroider the Blue Sky.”

“..Huh?”

What did you just hear?

“Hmm, it may be hard to believe, but it’s pretty solid information. From the guild..”

“No, not that. The stage name is…”

“Black and white wings embroidering the blue sky. Isn’t it great? I even ordered a new scabbard for my twin swords for this.”

Aha. The blue sky is derived from the color of your hair, and you’re going to match the scabbards of your twin swords with white and black to represent your wings? I imagined it for a moment.

This is the Masked Princess, and I am the Black and White Wing that embroiders the blue sky. You’ve heard our names, right? As Aila confidently spoke, the idiots in the guild ran away in panic, talking about the Masked Princess and the blue sky.

..This is a bit much? I didn’t have the confidence to handle such a future.

I looked at Yugram with longing eyes, but Yugram did not meet my gaze.