Until Claire Opens Her Heart (4)
As soon as I stepped onto the training grounds, countless eyes locked onto us. It was because Claire Artifare had appeared, and because word had spread that she had challenged Gerox to a duel.
The academy trained the empire’s finest adventurers, mages, and knights. Nobles destined to hold high office had gathered like vultures. The pressure on Gerox was immense.
A loss in class could be brushed off. Everyone went through it. Unless you were an unmatched genius, a few defeats were normal, and if they happened during lessons, they were simply stepping stones to growth. But a public duel was something else entirely—especially in front of this many nobles.
He hadn’t expected to lose, but if he fell to Claire Artifare, the label of “the man who lost to that cursed girl” would follow him forever. And if he couldn’t crush her overwhelmingly, that too would become a stain.
“...Are you really going to fight me for the sake of that commoner?”
Gerox sneered again, as if the idea itself was laughable, and asked Claire once more. This duel held far more risk than reward. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t understand why she would risk herself for someone like Reyan.
“...”
But Claire gave no answer. The words Gerox had spat—“commoner,” “taught him a lesson”—kept echoing in her mind.
In a life that once held no reason to continue, someone had thrown even his own safety away just to become her “friend.” Being beaten so badly that his wounds reopened was something even she had never experienced. And it had all happened because he tried to help her?
Because he had grown close to her, Gerox had done that to Reyan?
...It’s been days, yet he’s still covered in bruises and wounds.
Every time Claire looked at Reyan, she smiled. Not because she was truly happy. Each time she saw those injuries, guilt crushed her. She had only barely swallowed the tears that threatened to spill, because if she cried, if she showed weakness and ran away, she knew Reyan would come back and do even more for her.
Reyan was kind. He did things for her sake.
That was why she had pushed him away when the nobles surrounded them—because she feared he would get hurt again because of her.
But when the noble who had hurt him appeared, everything changed. The moment Claire saw Gerox, instinct overrode reason.
“...Answer me. I kindly asked if you really want to get hurt for that bastard.”
Gerox’s snarling question meant nothing to her.
“Gerox, focus. Chatting during a duel is hardly proper.”
Claire had no intention of stopping. She wasn’t going to walk away.
Uuuung—!
Just like her eyes, now dyed black, dark Black Mana began to ripple and surge around her.
“...Ha. A girl who can’t even use magic, only capable of dragging out mana.”
Pure mana, without circles or aura. Gerox dismissed it, but the truth was far more dangerous. The fact that her mana was visible and roiling without any magic circle meant her magical power was so vast she had no need for one.
...Claire was the villain of the novel. Not just any villain—the final boss, the hidden mastermind.
The novel’s descriptions of her Black Mana piercing through people, of her smiling as she watched them scream in agony, had never felt real to me. The illustrations were beautiful, and the Claire I had met in person was pretty, fragile, and seemingly ordinary. I had thought those depictions simply didn’t suit her.
I had only seen her as frightening and insane through her mindset, her words, and her actions. There had been a clear disconnect.
...Insane.
But now it was different. After living at the academy and frequenting the adventurers’ guild, I had seen real magic.
Don’t you need a magic circle to calculate and cast spells? What the hell is that?
Mana was energy scattered throughout nature. You gathered it, condensed it in your heart or dantian through breathing, then converted it using a magic circle. That was magic.
Yet Claire made mana ripple without a circle and—
“Kgh—! S-stop…!”
Instead of converting anything, she wielded the Black Mana like torture, ravaging Gerox as if she meant to break him.
A duel ended when one side was incapacitated or surrendered. The terrifying part was that Claire seemed determined to make sure Gerox could never rise again. She sliced his skin with precise, merciless cuts, and whenever he tried to surrender, she struck at his face as if to say he hadn’t suffered enough.
“...That cursed bitch. It was real.”
“Someone stop Artifare!”
“That girl can’t even use magic—how is she controlling mana like that?”
Blood sprayed. Screams tore through the air. A noble’s honor was being trampled without mercy.
The murmuring was inevitable. Nobles close to Gerox, those who had come to watch, even the commoners they had bullied—all of them turned to me with expressions that said this was going to cause serious trouble.
“...Go stop her! Gerox is going to die! This will be bad for Claire too!”
A noble lady with striking white hair spoke to me urgently. Even as she shouted for me to intervene, her eyes never left Claire. It almost looked like she was worried.
Of course, that couldn’t be true.
They used to be friends, so she’s asking me to stop it.
I would have stepped in even without her persistent staring. Not only because I hoped Claire wouldn’t awaken the evil nature the novel had described, but because it wasn’t right for her to face more punishment or worse bullying over a worthless bastard like him.
Besides, Claire doesn’t need to kill someone like that. He’ll ruin his own life eventually.
The moment I stepped onto the training ground, the Black Mana shot toward Gerox.
Clang—!
Gerox, drenched in blood, barely managed to raise his sword and deflect it. Yet Claire showed no mercy. Six strands of mana, sharp as spears, closed in from his blind spots.
I had planned to approach slowly and stop her, but I had no choice but to move quickly. If I waited, Gerox would suffer grievous wounds.
“Only block the one coming from the front.”
I snatched up a sword—its owner unknown—and rushed toward him. Gerox, hearing me, let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaagh—!”
He blocked the frontal attack. I leapt behind him and sliced through the remaining strands of mana. Strangely, it was easier than it should have been. She must have seen me, regained her senses, and weakened her power.
When I glanced over, Claire’s eyes had returned to their usual red. She was running toward me.
Her combat form was terrifying, but I felt certain once again that at her core, she wasn’t a bad person.
“...Reyan!”
Claire looked at me with wide, panicked eyes, blinking rapidly. She knew that speaking intimately with me in front of so many watching nobles could be poisonous, yet she didn’t seem to care.
She came close and examined my hands, shoulders, cheeks, and back, worried I might have been hurt while cutting her mana.
“Why did you intervene! I-it’s dangerous!”
For the first time since we became friends, she raised her voice at me.
“This is enough.”
I was her only friend, her only ally. The fear that she might have hurt me with her own power must have weighed on her. Instead of answering her anger with anger, I spoke calmly, filled with gratitude. After all, she had done it for me.
“Thank you, Claire. For stepping forward for my sake. But I don’t want you to end up in a difficult position because of it.”
“B-but… Gerox hurt you, Reyan…”
“He’ll have understood by now.”
I glanced at Gerox and extended my hand. It was still stained with blood, which made me hesitate slightly, but with so many nobles watching, I couldn’t afford to humiliate him.
It should have been a simple gesture, yet Claire clearly hated the idea of us shaking hands. Before our hands could meet, Black Mana lifted Gerox to his feet.
“...Lord Gerox, I believe you now understand what Lady Claire wished to convey through this duel?”
Gerox couldn’t even meet my eyes. He nodded frantically, then glanced at Claire. Even though she did nothing, he lowered his head further.
“...I was wrong.”
He continued with words he didn’t need to say.
“...In the duel, I was fairly defeated by Reyan. The reason I went to the Forbidden Library was simply because I couldn’t accept losing to a commoner. I only wanted revenge.”
Objectively, Gerox wasn’t that strong, but his family ties to the swordsmanship instructor had given him an inflated reputation. I had no desire to become the commoner who made a noble feel inferior enough to seek revenge. The academy was full of battle maniacs, and final rankings were decided by real combat.
I had to graduate and live in the empire. No matter how much of a bastard the nobles were, I couldn’t afford to make enemies of them all.
“You don’t have to say all that…”
I tried to stop him, but Gerox, consumed by terror, stumbled backward and collapsed. “I admit it. S-so please… just leave me alone.”
Then, crawling like a broken thing, dripping blood with every movement, he fled the training grounds.
The nobles who had watched his miserable retreat now turned their gazes on Claire, the one who had caused it. The murmuring grew louder. Of course the main topic was me and Claire. Some claimed we were lovers. Others said people should stay away from Artifare. That Gerox was pitiful. All I heard was criticism, yet no one dared insult us openly.
If it were me, I wouldn’t dare challenge us either.
It was good that Gerox had run with his tail between his legs, but the way Claire became even more isolated was not.
Even if we survived by becoming friends, if her path still led toward the empire’s destruction, then surviving would be little different from being dead.
Before the situation could worsen, I took Claire’s hand.
“R-Reyan…?”
“Look, this isn’t the time, but since the volunteer work is already ruined, let’s go get something to eat.”
Claire’s hand was burning hot. As we left the grounds, it grew so strangely warm that I wondered if we should head to the infirmary.
The moment we passed through the academy’s main gate—
“...Claire!”
The noble lady who had shouted for me to stop the fight was waiting.
“...Let’s talk for a moment.”
“No.”
“Please, it will only take a minute.”
“I said no!”
I hadn’t noticed earlier from the side profile, but now I saw her clearly.
“...Heste?”
The protagonist of the original novel—Heste Meliard. The woman who would lose everything because of Claire and eventually kill her was standing right in front of us.