A Flame to Touch the Shadow
Noir would never forget her first meeting with Blanc.
Three years ago, in a back alley of Preas.
Unable to use either sword or magic, she had received Blanc's help—that was their first encounter.
Noir would never forget her second meeting with Blanc, either.
When she had been trembling in fear, Blanc had protected her.
In the end the accumulated damage had taken its toll, and Blanc collapsed right before she could bring V down.
Lost and wandering the plains, Noir had been nothing more than a weakling who could only receive Blanc's aid.
But could the me of today become of help to Blanc?
I don't think I can defeat her.
Even if there were two of me—no, three—I would never be able to beat Blanc.
But if only this pure white flame of mine could touch Blanc's shadow, that would be enough.
This was proof.
Proof that I had the right to stand by Blanc's side—a proof directed at myself.
My flame is not a light meant to cast shadows.
My flame will race alongside the shadows and smash through every obstacle that stands in our way.
“Young miss...”
“So, Blanc. Come at me with everything you've got.”
At first the fact that she had to fight Noir left Blanc looking utterly dumbfounded.
But when she saw the fierce fighting spirit burning in Noir's eyes, Blanc had no choice but to steel herself as well.
As a maid she had no desire to raise a blade against her young lady. Yet for some reason Blanc felt she had to cross swords with the Noir who wore that fierce look in her eyes.
“Yes. I shall face you with all my strength.”
Noir gazed into Blanc's rose-colored eyes.
Those red eyes she had looked into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times by now.
Noble and beautiful, like a delicate rose blooming on the prairie.
And within Blanc's pupils, the fighting spirit that had been hidden like thorns among the splendid petals was rising sharply.
“I'm jealous of that.”
“Hm?”
While Noir and Blanc were stoking each other's fighting spirits, Chelln, who had been chatting with Rouge, muttered as she watched the two.
“Partners who bring out the best in each other. Doesn't that look pretty cool to you too, Fel?”
Partners who could entrust their backs to one another.
It might sound childish or cringeworthy at first glance.
But Chelln was genuinely envious of the relationship between Noir and Blanc.
Though Chelln was a crybaby who shed tears the moment her emotions ran high, she was still a proper Destiny protagonist.
A protagonist, by nature, needed the charisma to form bonds with all sorts of people.
Chelln had made many friends in the holy city-state of Bargan.
Yet even after making those friends, a corner of her heart had always felt lonely and empty.
That was why the relationship between those two, who could fill each other's emptiness, looked so very wonderful to her.
“Yeah. It does.”
Chelln's eyes were wistful as she watched them. With nothing particular to say, Rouge simply nodded along to Chelln's words.
“Alright, preparations done? Then Jerry Husson and Talon Arca, step forward.”
At Willy's call the two walked to the center of the clearing.
“I'll be in your care, Arca.”
“Yeah. Same here, Husson.”
Jerry bared her teeth at noble students, but she treated commoners like Talon or Rouge kindly.
The sight of Jerry smiling and exchanging greetings with Talon was so at odds with the way she always looked at him as if she wanted to kill him that Desang stared at her in disbelief—but what could he do?
Half of it was Desang's own fault, after all.
After their light greetings the two returned to their positions and drew their weapons.
True to his hunter family background, Talon took out a bow, while Jerry produced a small handgun and several little flasks filled with multicolored liquids.
“Potions? Is she an alchemist?”
Desang muttered as he watched Jerry pull out potions instead of proper weapons.
This practice match focused on confirming each other's abilities.
Naturally, outside help like potions would violate the rules—but if Jerry had made those potions herself, they counted as part of her own ability and thus weren't against the rules.
Still, alchemists were non-combatants.
How exactly did that commoner intend to fight?
“Alright, begin!”
Whish—!
The moment Willy, standing between them, gave the signal, Talon's arrow flew.
Not knowing what potions Jerry had brought, Talon tried to attack before she could finish doping.
“Ohh.”
Even to Kelron, who had faced many warriors, the rapid fire was extremely fast and the trajectory incredibly accurate.
It was an arrow no untrained fighter could handle, and Jerry was no warrior.
But Jerry was no ordinary person either.
She was a prodigy who had taken first place in the notoriously difficult written portion of Aegis Academy's general admissions, and she had already anticipated that Talon would loose an arrow the instant the match began.
Jerry immediately flung herself sideways to dodge Talon's arrow and tried to swallow a potion.
But there was something she had overlooked.
Talon had also passed Aegis's general admissions exam—he was a talent in his own right.
Boom!
“Kh!”
Talon had enchanted the arrow tip with explosive magic in advance, anticipating that Jerry would dodge.
The moment the arrowhead hit the ground an explosion erupted, and Jerry, caught in the blast, dropped the potion in her hand.
Seizing the opening, Talon immediately nocked another arrow.
Twang—!
And loosed it.
Even with her stance broken, Jerry didn't miss Talon's movement.
She raised the ground with magic to block his arrow.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
While the wall she had created exploded under the magic in the arrow tips, Jerry fired the handgun she still held from among the collapsing rubble.
The shots went toward the spot where Talon had been standing moments earlier—but he had already moved the instant she raised the wall.
The three rounds Jerry managed to fire simply passed through empty space.
Twang—
Having left the open clearing, Talon hid himself among the trees.
Moving between the trunks with such speed one might wonder if he was a monkey, he loosed arrow after arrow from his hands.
Jerry somehow managed to respond to Talon's arrows, but the limits of a non-combatant were clear.
Every time she blocked and dodged Talon's variously enchanted arrows, more wounds accumulated on her body, and with each new wound her reactions grew slower.
Just when everyone was predicting Talon's victory, an unexpected turn occurred.
—Boom!
“Ugh!”
As Talon shifted position to track Jerry, who had hidden herself behind a wall she created, an explosion suddenly went off beneath his feet.
It was the spot where Jerry had been caught in the explosion while dodging Talon's first arrow at the start of the match.
While Talon had been focused solely on the potions she held, Jerry had secretly planted magic on the ground.
Caught in the blast, Talon finally saw the numerous traps laid across the floor.
It wasn't mere coincidence.
She had manipulated the terrain with magic to lure him into this minefield.
“Kh!”
Because she had set the traps as small as possible to avoid detection, they didn't deal major damage to Talon—but they did break his stance.
Not missing the chance, Jerry burst out from behind the wall and hurled a flask from her coat at him.
—Crash!
Talon immediately shot an arrow and destroyed the flask Jerry threw.
Through the shattered glass fragments, the liquid inside dissolved into particles that melted into the air.
What Jerry had thrown at Talon was highly concentrated mana particles refined through alchemy.
—Zap
Confirming that mana had seeped into Talon's surroundings, Jerry immediately cast lightning magic.
A small spark of lightning gathered at her fingertips. It was Spark, one of the basic magics.
Though it was a basic spell, the mana particles saturating Talon's vicinity would maximize its destructive power.
“Eh...?”
Jerry flung the lightning from her fingertips at Talon, but the spark vanished the moment it left her hand.
Mana exhaustion.
Lacking combat experience, Jerry had failed to account for her own mana reserves. Beyond the pitifully vanishing spark, Talon's arrow came flying.
And so the first match came to an end.
They proceeded with recovery for Talon and Jerry, along with a review of the match.
Winner: Talon. Loser: Jerry.
In Willy's eyes, Talon's archery skill was quite decent, but he harshly criticized the way Talon had carelessly closed the distance at the end and fallen into Jerry's trap.
Conversely, he praised Jerry's wit for planting traps here and there like sowing apple trees even in that disadvantageous situation, creating openings as she went.
“Desang von Oblia and Kelron von Gross, step forward.”
After finishing the review and combat analysis, Willy immediately called the names of the two boys for the next match.
Even though they had lost, watching the non-combatant Jerry put up a good fight had left both of them itching for action. They faced each other and smiled.
“I've heard many rumors about the Gross baronial house's spear arts. I look forward to a duel worthy of nobility.”
“I'll be in your care.”
As Kelron drew his massive spear, Desang took out his sword and shield.
Fighting spirit clashed between the two armed boys, and—
“Then begin!”
Clang—!!!
The moment Willy shouted the signal, their figures collided at high speed.