vs Luke Cruella (1)

“Winner! Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!”

“Waaah! Blaze! Blaze won!!”

“Hellfire! Hellfire!”

“As expected, she’s the next Red Tower Master!!”

The results announcement from the sparring arena and the cheers of the spectating students could be heard all the way to the waiting room.

As those overwhelming voices echoed inside, the tension I had momentarily suppressed began to rise again.

It was obvious Agnes, the top student of the Magic Department freshmen, must have utterly crushed Isobel, the second-ranked student, and finished it. It was obvious even without seeing it.

This much was one of the basic events that occurred after playing 『Luminor Academy』 just once or twice, so it wasn’t particularly surprising.

Unless the protagonist character enrolled in the Magic Department, Technology Department, or Pharmacy Department and targeted Agnes, this event would occur with 100% probability.

In fact, if you really thought about it, it wasn’t even an event. In actual gameplay, it was just a brief summary of the story, appearing in one or two sentences, and had no real significance to the game’s plot progression. It was just poor Isobel, who got beaten every time simply for being the second-ranked student.

While thinking that, after about 10 minutes passed for the arena to be cleared, the match between Karan and Shizu, ranked 3rd and 7th respectively, also began.

And that result also ended uneventfully in less than 5 minutes, just like Agnes’s previous evaluation match.

“Winner, Karan Iris Stormweaver!”

“Waaah!”

“Karan! Karan!”

Less than 10 minutes after Agnes’s sparring match ended, the declaration of victory and the students’ cheers could be heard once again.

It was a natural outcome. Students who had the right to nominate their opponent usually tended to choose someone they could easily defeat.

If you only considered the skills of the 3rd and 7th ranked students themselves, it wouldn’t have been a match that ended so quickly, but Karan had too great an advantage over Shizu in their specialized fields.

Karan’s specialty magic was Wind Magic, and Shizu’s specialty magic was Plant Magic.

‘Normally, I would have just won easily against those who use Summoning Magic or Dark Magic and finished the semester.’

I still couldn’t understand how things had turned out this way.

Anyway, this damn Academy won’t let me rest easy even until the end of the semester.

“Lilith.”

“…Yes, Ethan-nim.”

Ethan, who had been waiting for my turn in the same waiting room, saying he was worried about me, spoke to me.

Surely he wasn’t going to tell me to forfeit because he was worried, was he?

Even if he did say something like that, I had no intention of missing out on such a huge experience event. I’d have to politely refuse…

“You must win, Lilith.”

“……Huh?”

“Because I believe Lilith can win.”

…What’s gotten into him all of a sudden?

Well, it was much better than him telling me not to do it because it was dangerous.

Receiving encouragement, if nothing else, helped me steel my resolve, even if just a little.

I slightly bowed my head and replied to Ethan, who was speaking to me with serious eyes.

“Of course, that’s what I intend to do.”

“Alright. I’ll be waiting.”

…If I say something so brazen and then lose and come back, I’ll be so embarrassed I won’t be able to show my face for a while.

It seemed there was no choice but to win this sparring match and return.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

“Next match! Magic Department 4th rank, Lilith Blackwood Rosewood! Technology Department Vice-President, Luke Cruella!”

As I stepped into the sparring arena when the match announcer called my name, the rather spacious Magic Department evaluation match arena greeted me.

At the same time, I felt a strange sensation as the gazes of the other students, the spectators, also landed on me.

‘Well, it can’t be helped. Evaluation matches are quite a spectacle within the Academy.’

As an Academy built in an isolated place called the Island of Knowledge, sparring matches involving swordsmanship or magic among these top-ranked students were one of the few spectacles available to the students.

They say the most interesting things in the world are watching fires and fights, after all.

As I approached the center of the training ground with those thoughts, I could also see Luke walking towards the center of the arena from the opposite side.

She seemed to have firmly resolved herself to face me in this match, with a rather grim determination.

‘She’s really got some venom in her, too.’

Just seeing her holding two daggers, her characteristic weapons, in both hands, was enough to confirm that she wasn’t approaching me with a light heart at all.

She had literally ‘sharpened her blades’ and prepared to face me in this match.

If I let my guard down for a moment, it wouldn’t be strange for a dagger to be plunged into my side and for me to be instantly retired.

For reference, this evaluation-specific sparring arena is equipped with Death Prevention Magic to prevent mishaps during intense matches.

It’s a facility that gathers renowned talents from all over the country to learn knowledge and cultivate individuals, so naturally, death accidents occurring during evaluation matches must be prevented.

The moment a fatal injury is sustained, the progression of that injury is halted by Death Prevention Magic, and students who have suffered such damage are transported to the Academy Church via spatial transfer magic.

Of course, the damage received doesn’t completely disappear, and it’s a situation where only death itself is prevented, so there might be cases where students lie in the Church for days or even weeks.

Anyway, the important thing was that the lives that needed to be protected above all else could somehow be preserved, and most injuries in this world could be treated, excluding mental aspects.

…In other words, within this sparring arena, there was no problem even if one attacked with the intent to kill the opponent. Because Death Prevention Magic protected lives.

‘It also means I can use Mana Blast without worrying about consequences.’

If I could land even one hit, that would be my victory. Conversely, if I failed to hit or failed the cast, it would be my defeat.

It was a simple formula for victory. It was just that the process of getting there seemed a bit difficult.

As I met Luke’s gaze as she walked from the opposite side, I immediately felt complex emotions directed at me in her eyes.

Without any particular conversation, we stood at a slightly reduced distance and completed our preparations for battle.

“…Ready.”

“…….”

“…….”

Following the match announcer’s words, Luke and I took our stances.

I tightly gripped the silver dagger in my uniform’s inner pocket, preparing to cast a spell as soon as the battle began, and Luke, too, held daggers in both hands, looking ready to spring forward at any moment.

In the subtly tense atmosphere of the arena, the announcer’s declaration of the battle’s start fell.

“Start!”

-Pababak!

Luke’s body rushed towards me with swift steps, and at the same time, her daggers swung towards both sides of my body.

Her twin daggers, closing the approximately 15-meter distance in an instant, were swung rapidly as if to finish me in a single blow.

Blades, difficult for an ordinary person to even perceive, approached, aiming for both sides of my body.

It was a firm resolve to definitely stab one side, no matter which way I dodged, but the sound that followed was not that of a blade tearing into flesh and embedding itself, but a single friction sound.

-Chang!

“…Huh?!”

My silver dagger, drawn from my bosom, clashed with Luke’s left dagger, and sparks flew into the air from the impact.

At the same time, mutterings of surprise, seemingly from my reaction, gradually began to be heard from the stands.

“A sword? Isn’t that a long knife?”

“Wasn’t Lilith in the Magic Department?”

“Hey, hey, isn’t that the girl who cut Reidenhardt’s wrist with a silver dagger at the entrance ceremony…?”

Because I had caused a somewhat major incident at the entrance ceremony, most students in the Magic Department and Swordsmanship Department already knew that I was capable of fighting with a silver dagger, but the stands weren’t exclusively filled with students from those two departments.

So it wasn’t strange for them to show such surprised reactions.

It seemed the same applied to Luke, who had rushed at me with daggers.

“H-how…?”

“How,” my ass. She started the fight in the first place, so she shouldn’t be surprised by something like this.

In truth, it wasn’t a pure sword-on-sword duel. She had swung her dagger purely with her grip strength, whereas I had used Magic Enhancement and even a Shockwave to deflect Luke’s blade once.

I had twisted my body to dodge one of the blades flying from both sides, and deflected the other to create an opening.

Of course, that wasn’t particularly important. What was important was that I had a means to counter Luke’s movements and techniques.

“Weren’t you a mage…?”

“No, I am.”

“But how, a long knife…”

“So what? If you don’t like it, use magic yourself.”

“…….”

“You’re in the Technology Department, so stop bullshitting.”

It might be obvious, but there was no rule stating that mages couldn’t use swords in the final evaluation match.

To begin with, magic itself wasn’t exclusive to the Magic Department, and among nobles, there were quite a few close-combat warriors who used magic as a supplementary means, even if they weren’t in the Magic Department.

It wasn’t a rule violation whether the Magic Department fought with swords or spears.

Ultimately, what the Academy desired was ‘Academy students with cultivated combat abilities,’ and it wasn’t a foolish institution that would prohibit mages from equipping secondary weapons to cultivate those combat abilities.

“…….”

On the other hand, in Luke’s eyes, whose first attack had been blocked by me, a somewhat confused emotion could be felt.

For her, who had strong pride as the Princess’s escort, the situation where her sword was parried by a female Magic Department student must have been quite incomprehensible.

However, the time she spent hesitating actually became an opportunity for me.

For a close-combatant to create distance and give time to a Magic Department student meant giving the opponent that much time to react.

Grateful for Luke’s momentarily foolish judgment, I secretly used the next spell I had memorized.

-Paaat!

“Kugh?!”

For this battle, I had specifically learned a spell from the support magic tree: Blurred Light.

It was a spell used to create a strong flash of light in front of the eyes, momentarily blurring vision, and allowing other party members to attack during that time. Of course, since there were no other party members now, I had to handle both support and offense myself.

Luke, momentarily squinting her eyes at the flash of light thrust before her, revealed an opening.

That opening was precisely the moment I was aiming for, and this time, three Magic Arrows created by Triple Casting immediately flew towards Luke.

There wasn’t enough time to use Mana Blast, so the plan was to inflict damage, even if just a little at a time.

-Puuk!

“Aaaaargh!”

With an accuracy rate of only 20 percent, there was a chance all three shots would miss, but fortunately, the god of fate didn’t seem to have abandoned me.

One of the three Magic Arrows struck Luke’s left forearm, and her painful scream reached my ears.

‘Alright, that’s one hit.’

For a match between a close-combatant and a mage, the start wasn’t too bad.

Whether I could finish it without things going badly until the end remained to be seen.