Declaration of Departure
"Aren't you going to tell me to give up?"
"Even if I did, you wouldn't accept it."
They had lived under the same roof for more than ten years. A single glance was enough to know that much.
No—even without those years together, anyone who saw the unwavering look in his eyes would have thought the same.
At Jun's reply, Leon gave a bitter smile and nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. I can't accept it. Donald, Father Leonard, everyone else said to just try—but you never know until you measure yourself against someone, right?"
"Confident you can win?"
"No. I'm not."
Contrary to what he had said earlier, Leon shook his head freely. Then, through his expression, he laid bare every emotion he was feeling—jealousy, greed, resignation, resentment—without holding anything back. As if dragging everything he had kept buried inside out into the open.
"After that day, I replayed the way you fought over and over. Jun, you're really strong. Strong enough that there's nothing I can do about it."
"I got lucky."
If luck had not been on his side—if he had not gained Aura through the electric eel's blessing, if his convenience-focused abilities had not meshed together like gears, if the lucky angel who soothed him had not been at his side—he would never have obtained the strength he had now. Jun truly believed that.
"Leon. The gap between your skill and mine isn't because you're lacking, or because you didn't work hard enough. I just got a little luckier, that's all."
Though saying you're luckier than me in the overall sense, not just combat, would be rude, wouldn't it?
Born a prince, he had received abilities, looks, and wealth that others envied—but in exchange, he had lost his mother and been separated from his father. Whatever he might think in the future, with parents mattering so much in the present, he would not consider himself lucky.
"Thanks for the comfort, Jun. But what you need to do for me as a friend isn't that kind of comfort."
"Then what?"
"Thoroughly crush me in this match. That's what you need to do right now."
At those words, Jun asked if he was really okay with that—if he could handle it.
Leon made a contemptuous face and clutched his own chest.
"Jun, you hid the fact that you'd awakened your Aura Core from me because you were worried I'd go off the rails, right?"
"...Honestly speaking, yeah, you're right. I didn't tell you because I was afraid it'd wound your pride and you'd fall into jealousy. Was that pointless?"
"No, you did well. You really did the right thing. Because..."
Thump! Thump!
"Even now, my heart is pounding with filthy jealousy. If I'd found out when I was younger than I am now, I definitely would have gone crazy from jealousy."
Leon pounded his heart a few more times, as if telling it to calm down already. Then, with a far colder expression, he leveled his sword at Jun.
"Jun, you're... like a hero out of a novel."
"Is that so. What a burdensome role."
"I hate that about you, and at the same time I want it for myself."
"Stop being so clingy. It's annoying."
Jun shuddered. Leon dropped the blank expression and smiled, however faintly. Smiling at a reaction someone else hated—his tastes really were something else.
"So thoroughly crush me. So I don't go mad seized by filthy jealousy. So I can't hold onto any more lingering attachment to you."
"Sure, no reason I can't. Just don't regret it."
Hummm—
Taking a combat stance, he activated all three cores. Holding nothing back, giving it everything he had. The friend who had been fretting him all this time was steeling his resolve and trying to move forward. As a friend, he intended to meet him with full force. Absolutely no other ulterior motives. Absolutely none.
"Here I come, Jun!"
Squeeze!
With the shout, Leon clutched his heart. He knew the skill gap between himself and his friend well. That was why he did not drag things out clumsily—he went all-out from the very start.
Lionzer Family Secret Technique — Over Drive
Blood surging from his heart reinforced his entire body along with Aura. The blood pressure was so intense it felt like his whole body would tear apart, but he did not stop the pumping of his heart. Of everything he had, this was the only weapon that could reach his friend. So for this day, this moment, he had cut sleep short for three nights and devoted himself to this technique. He could control this much. No—he would control it, no matter what.
Aura responded to his will and seeped into his blood vessels. The vessels became flexible and sturdy like rubber. His blue eyes dyed red, and pale crimson smoke leaked from his entire body. At last, he had truly completed the secret technique. Smiling with exhilaration, Leon gathered all that surging power into his legs and charged toward his friend.
Who's calling who a hero here.
Jun let out a hollow laugh of disbelief. The technique Leon had just unleashed was clearly the same one he had used three days ago when charging the assassin—but compared to then, both its stability and effectiveness had risen dramatically. It was not something possible in a mere three days.
Clang!
The sound of blades colliding. Before it had even faded, the same sounds rang out in succession. Like a lion on the hunt, Leon swung his sword without rest. His blade was incredibly fast and astonishingly flashy.
As expected of imperial swordsmanship. By contrast, my swordsmanship...
Was crude, and unimpressive. It could not be helped—his swordsmanship was the standard-issue kind used in the military or training camps. Robin had refined it into something practical for real combat, but the skeleton remained unchanged. Moderate speed, moderate feints, moderate weight. A swordsmanship that excelled at nothing and lacked nothing.
Did he hate that? No, he did not. Jun liked his own swordsmanship, and believed there was nothing better suited to him.
Why does it have to be fast? Why does it have to be flashy?
His sword, which had been speeding up in sync with Leon's, gradually slowed and grew heavier. And yet Leon's blade still could not reach him, and his own blade still would not yield to Leon's.
Even if it's slow, if you follow the optimal trajectory, you can stay one step ahead. If you want to break the opponent's stance, put more power into the sword.
It was not easy. To do that, you needed a mind that would not waver even in the face of rapidly approaching danger, and physical ability that could overwhelm the opponent. But Jun could do it. He had mental fortitude superior to anyone else's, and a body tempered through relentless training.
Whoosh, clang! Whoosh, clang!
"Kh! What the hell!"
By now Jun's sword had slowed enough that even an ordinary person's naked eye could follow it. But the one being pushed back was not Jun's blade—it was Leon's. Even the swordsmanship that had been his one remaining advantage was falling behind, and Leon gritted his teeth and thrashed about, but it was futile.
Speed lost its pace to dullness, and illusion was shattered to pieces by dominance. He was already no different from a lion trapped in a cage.
"This easily!"
"I can't end it yet!"
"What!"
When Jun cut off the words Leon was about to say, Leon was flustered. Seizing that opening, Jun's kick flew in.
Thud!
Taking the kick to the gut, Leon groaned and stumbled backward. He immediately boosted the healing of the struck area through Aura, then turned his gaze back to Jun. And what entered his eyes was—
"Huh?"
Jun, clutching his heart just as Leon himself had moments before.
"D-don't tell me."
Unable to believe it, not wanting to believe it, he shook his head and murmured quietly—when blue eyes charged with lightning locked onto him.
Copy — Over Drive
Squeeze!
Jun clenched his heart. The electricity concentrated in his heart spread through his entire body along with his blood. Every cell in his body activated, and vivid blue electricity crackled across his skin.
"Ha... hahaha. Even so, that's a bit much, isn't it?"
"It's repayment for the insight. Opportunities like this don't come often, so enjoy it to your heart's content. A fight against yourself, that is."
Whoosh!
Jun's form vanished. Leon flinched and swung his sword guided by instinct alone.
Clang!
Whether by luck or not, he managed to block the first strike safely. But as he blocked the flurry that followed, he realized. It was not simply luck. Jun was swinging his sword in a way that made it easy for him to block—roughly mimicking his family's sword style, the Lion's Sword! It was not complete, and he was filling the gaps with physical ability and deduction—but even that was enough to drive Leon insane.
Cornered and cornered again, Leon finally attempted a gamble.
Lionzer Family Secret Technique — Lion Claw
The lion bared its claws. Jun even stopped breathing as he watched it carefully. The timing of the breath, the movement of the muscles, the trajectory the sword drew. He grasped all of it, input it into the mannequin in his mind, then unfolded it with his body.
Copy — Lion Claw
First exchange. Due to incomplete technique mastery, Jun was pushed back slightly.
Second exchange. Jun's sword was pushed back a little less than before.
Third exchange. Neither sword yielded.
Fourth exchange.
Clang!
"...I lost."
"...Well done."
Leon's sword never completed its swing, and only Jun's blade swept through by a hair's breadth to point at Leon's throat.
Thud!
"Haha. I didn't think I'd get wrecked this badly."
Leon collapsed flat onto the ground. The powerless laughter soon became the sound of weeping, echoing around them. Without a word, Jun turned his back on him and walked away. Comforting him was not his role.
"Leon!"
"Oppa!"
Right on cue, his fiancées ran past Jun toward him. They would be able to comfort him well.
Soon Jun stopped in front of one person among the crowd that had gathered before he knew it. The man greeted Jun with a bitter smile.
"So you're leaving now."
"Yes."
"...That was quite harsh."
"It's what Leon wanted, and I wanted to convey my intentions."
"Yes, the meaning of ending our connection came through loud and clear."
Leonard nodded and patted Jun's shoulder as he continued.
"I've received your personal declaration well. Jun, three days late, but congratulations on becoming an adult."
"Thank you for everything."
Jun bowed deeply at the waist, offering his respects to the many connections who had raised him and to the church. With that, his long, long adolescence came to an end.