Chapter 10
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 10: Trouble Breaks Out When You're Next to the Protagonist (1)
The red-haired Male Lead Candidate, Asel Newland, approached us.
"Hello, by any chance, is there a spot left?"
"Oh, Asel! You haven't found a group yet?"
Jean greeted him gladly, perhaps having an acquaintance with Asel.
Asel Newland, a Male Lead Candidate belonging to the Knight Department like the Sword Saintess.
Unlike Kyle who was a balanced type, he felt like a position purely in charge of martial power.
Perhaps he was a character who started as a rival and good friend to the Saintess.
Since he was a Male Lead Candidate, I didn't want to get involved if possible, but currently, I hadn't found a suitable group member.
It would be more rational to choose him, whose skills are guaranteed, rather than forming a group with someone I don't know at all because I couldn't find a member.
Considering what I've seen in the last few days, his character seemed good too.
We're not going out for practical training somewhere, and at most it will be sparring, so surely what could happen in that time?
However, apart from accepting him as a group member, there was one thing I was curious about.
I pointed at the Saintess and the Prince and asked.
"Asel Newland, if it were you, I thought you would form a group with those two."
"Ah, at first I thought about doing that too, but if we form a group like that, there would be 3 swordsmen, right? Unlike Kyle who can perform relatively different roles, the Saintess and I have similar positions, so I decided to find another group."
It was a valid point.
It wouldn't be impossible for three swordsmen to form a group, but in that case, it couldn't be helped that diversity would decrease.
Since it was still the beginning of the semester, it seemed he wanted to try various challenges.
"Just in time, we were also two people and needed to find one more, so it's fortunate that a swordsman with good skills came."
"Haha, that's a relief. I had an acquaintance with Jean, but Ethan, I was worried because I heard you dislike swordsmen."
"Me?"
That was news to me.
'I've never particularly gone around badmouthing swordsmen though.'
While pondering when such a rumor was created, suddenly the Saintess came to mind.
The fact that I keep my distance from the Sword Saintess was known to all the kids taking classes together.
Usually, they seem to know the reason is that because of the Saintess's continuous challenges, other swordsmen also bothered me...
As the rumor circulated, it seemed that part was distorted into content saying I dislike swordsmen.
While I was thinking briefly about the rumor Asel mentioned, Jean offered an opinion.
"Then let's decide to form a group like this, and shall we simply decide on positions for today?"
"Sounds good."
Our group consisted of a martial artist, a swordsman, and a spearman.
Since each of us had completely different roles, we started talking about our respective abilities for more detailed coordination.
Jean's advantage is speed.
He was specialized in infighting, dodging opponent attacks with light body movements and landing his own attacks.
Asel's advantage is strength.
Powerful attack power coming from domineering swordsmanship and anti-personnel marking ability were his characteristics.
My advantage is eyes.
Observing the opponent and examining the surrounding situation to lead the battle advantageously.
In my case, since I possessed the only long range, standing in the back was definite, but..
I needed to think a bit about how to set Jean and Asel's positions.
Whether Jean would face the enemy on the front line or share it with Asel.
It was a problem that arose because both Jean and Asel were strong in anti-personnel combat.
If Jean stands on the front line, Asel will focus on attacking.
If Jean creates an opening in the enemy, it would lead to Asel and me attacking.
However, in the case of this formation, Jean's burden was large as he faced the enemy from the front.
Conversely, if the two stand on the front line together, Jean's burden would decrease and we could maintain the formation stably, but it had the disadvantage that the difficulty of coordination would increase and there would be more parts to pay attention to.
After discussing for a while, we decided that Jean would take the front line alone for now.
The reason was that time was insufficient to coordinate breathing yet.
If the group project became prolonged, we decided to try changing it slowly accordingly.
When the lecture started the next day, Professor Kell called us to gather at the training ground.
At the training ground, assistants who had come earlier were waiting for us.
"Today, based on the content learned in the last lecture, we will conduct sparring with the assistants. One person from each group come out and fill out the list."
A moment later, when the list filling of each group was finished, Professor Kell assigned one assistant per group and started the sparring.
It was felt that the assistants were clearly stronger than us.
Because his assistants were closer to Professor Kell's disciples rather than general graduate students.
Since they are disciples of him, a veteran knight, they could be seen as practically equivalent to or slightly falling short of knights, who are the nation's strategic resources.
Our opponent was an assistant holding a longsword.
He said.
"Since I plan to give feedback after sparring first, come at me with full power."
At his words, we composed the formation as planned yesterday.
When we finished preparing, the assistant took out a coin from his pocket and said.
"Now, when this coin falls to the ground, we start."
When we answered understood, he flipped the coin.
The coin spinning in the air with a ting~ sound.
After a few seconds passed, the sound of the coin falling to the floor was heard.
As the signal announcing the start of the spar was fired, we directed our gazes to the assistant.
However, the assistant was already moving.
"Kuk...!?"
At his attack which was faster than expected, Jean barely twisted his body and dodged the wooden sword.
Although Jean prefers infighting, with a dodge this close, he had no spare energy to launch a counterattack.
Filling that vacancy was the share of Asel and me.
I thrust the spear so the assistant couldn't land a follow-up hit on Jean, and Asel swung his sword toward the assistant's arm.
Him lightly dodging my spear and deflecting Asel's sword.
In that interval, Jean who took his stance tried to coordinate an attack, but the assistant had already changed position one step faster than him.
The place he moved to was Asel's flank.
Position-wise, it was a bad composition where Me-Jean-Asel-Assistant stood side by side.
A situation where Jean and I couldn't help Asel immediately and the assistant was practically marking him 1-on-1.
"Asel, back off! Let's regroup!"
"Got i... Keup!"
"Too late."
As Asel tried to back off listening to my words, the assistant slashed down the wooden sword toward Asel.
Asel took a defensive stance lifting his sword but lost his balance.
The assistant didn't miss that opening and tripped Asel's foot to make him fall.
"Jean! Block the assistant!"
Hearing my words, Jean kicked the assistant's flank.
As if he expected it, the assistant lightly blocked Jean's kick with his sword, but in that interval, I succeeded in pulling out Asel who was about to fall by grabbing his clothes.
"Oh, the feeling is good?"
The assistant praising us while lightly clapping.
Although it was a short exchange, the gap between us and the assistant was revealed clearly.
To be this degree even when not using mana.
The difference in weight class coming from physical ability was big, but the difference in skill looked clear.
"Now, come in again."
Even so, we had no thought of giving up.
Exploratory battle is over now.
If it's this assistant, he was sufficient for us to challenge with our best.
"Let's go with full power."
"Yeah."
"Okay."
We drew up mana simultaneously.
The realm of the three of us is all Aura User.
We could strengthen our bodies and weapons through Aura.
Jean's fist, Asel's sword, and my spear began to emit blue light.
Preparation complete. No attack signal was needed.
The one who moved first was Jean.
He approached the assistant with movements one step faster than before and threw a punch.
But the assistant dodged all his punches by moving his body little by little without even swinging the sword.
I aimed for immediately after he moved to dodge Jean's attack and thrust the spear in.
"Oh! Good timing. It's difficult to dodge all attacks of several people alone."
"....!?"
Since it was immediately after dodging Jean's attack, his body shouldn't be able to move, so he lifted his sword and blocked my spear.
It was clearly a blow strengthened with Aura, but he received the attack too comfortably.
Although surprised by this, we had one more person with the right to attack.
"Try blocking this too!"
Asel appeared from behind his back.
He struck down the wooden sword wrapped in blue Aura as if to return the attack from earlier intact.
"Whew~ Amazing?"
Since it was an attack that came immediately after blocking my spear, it seemed time was insufficient to defend fully.
When the assistant couldn't block Asel's blow properly, Asel began to showcase his advantage, domineering swordsmanship.
His consecutive attacks, crumbling the opponent while pressuring with strong power, began to tighten around the assistant with blue Aura.
Asel's attacks striking down, slashing horizontally, and going up diagonally.
The assistant had no choice but to maintain the defensive continuously without being able to break Asel's flow due to the checks from me and Jean coming in between.
'Good, if we continue to pressure like this, his stance is bound to collapse.'
While thinking that, the assistant, who was retreating while maintaining the defensive, suddenly took a step forward into Asel's embrace.
'Is he trying to break the flow because it won't work like this?'
It seemed Jean also had the same thought as me.
We tightened from both sides to prevent his variable creation.
Jean aimed for the assistant's flank, and I aimed for the hand holding the sword.
It was then.
The assistant twisted his body to deflect my spear and snatched Jean's wrist aiming for his flank with the opposite hand.
"Ugh!?"
Jean in pain from the sudden counterattack.
The assistant threw Jean toward Asel.
As Jean was thrown into the sword path, the flustered Asel stopped his attack and caught Jean.
The assistant didn't miss that opening.
He kicked Jean to make even Asel fall, then swung his sword toward me.
"Kuk...!"
Heavy impact felt from the spear shaft.
'The amount of Aura he uses looks less than mine, but how?'
Ideally, I wanted to widen the distance and respond, but this time the two incapacitated people were the problem.
Since both of them looked like it would be unreasonable to help me immediately, eventually I had no choice but to choose a one-on-one on the spot.
Wooden spear and wooden sword crossed back and forth.
I tried swinging, slashing, thrusting, and using various moves, but the difference in capability was clear.
Even while dealing with me, the assistant even neutralized Jean and Asel who were trying to get up, so practically the conclusion was reached.
'Still, my pride is hurt to lose like this...'
I prepared a final blow to at least save face.
Swinging the spear widely, I widened the distance from the assistant and took a preparatory stance.
"Haha, come on."
The assistant's leisure remained the same.
I didn't miss the opportunity he spoon-fed me.
'Focus...'
I poured all remaining mana into the wooden spear.
With the durability of the wooden spear becoming precarious, I could feel this blow was exactly the last one.
Having finished all preparations, I thrust the spear into him.
The target was his instep.
It was an option possible because it was a spear.
"Oh, here?!"
Perhaps it was an unexpected attack; the assistant hurriedly pulled his foot back.
But the instep was a fake from the start.
As the spear hit the ground and went up, the spear shaft bent like a snake.
The spear shaft goes up first and the spear blade arrives later.
It was a technique utilizing the point that the spear bends flexibly.
When I thrust the spear in, the spear blade, recovering straightness exactly at that moment, flew toward his chest.
Kwajik-!
The wooden spear containing mana beyond its limit broke as it clashed with the sword.
Eventually, the assistant ended up blocking my final blow.
But I could be satisfied.
On the assistant's wooden sword, a noticeably larger amount of Aura than before was wrapped around it.