Making Contact (1)
A few days later, during a mock battle. As usual, I had taken up a position on the high ground at the rear of the battlefield.
“What a boring position,” I thought.
Perhaps because I had pushed my swordsmanship to its absolute limits not too long ago—for the first time in a long while—my body felt twice as stiff. I wanted nothing more than to draw my sword right now and clash with the other cadets. But doing so would only ruin my plans.
“Let’s just play nice, at least until this match is over.”
Of course, that didn't mean I was actually going to pick up a sword. It was just that lately, even considering the fact that I was using a bow, I had been fighting far too passively. But even that was part of the plan.
“I need to keep my evaluation as low as possible.”
And I wasn't the only one.
“She’s doing well.”
I had clearly shown Yoo Seora how to utilize her full strength. Yet, she wasn't using any of it. She was sticking to her old swordsmanship, which naturally had its limits.
“Her evaluation was bound to drop naturally anyway.”
After her duel with Elsie, the opposing teams had completely figured Yoo Seora out. They knew she could only exchange a maximum of ten clashes. Armed with that knowledge, her opponents didn't panic; they simply focused on enduring those ten exchanges.
“You could call it throwing the match, I suppose.”
The current Yoo Seora was clearly holding back. It wasn't that she didn't feel guilty toward her teammates. But was I entirely to blame for this situation? Not quite.
“Because that damn woman, Setia, must have calculated even this.”
The mid-term trade event was just around the corner. Setia planned to discard Yoo Seora during that event. She was going to use her just as much as needed and then throw her away.
“Though for me, it’s actually a favorable outcome.”
I had advised Yoo Seora to let herself be kicked out of the team, just as Setia intended. The most important thing for now was to get away from Setia. One might ask, couldn't she just raise her evaluation to transfer elsewhere? Well, even if she did, she had nowhere to go.
Sigrid, a traditional swordsman, wouldn't favor Yoo Seora's style. As for Instructor Huff, not only did I have no desire to go to his class, but he also wouldn't want to accept Yoo Seora or me, since we didn't come from prestigious noble families. In the end, only one option remained.
“Come to think of it, I should make contact with her soon.”
I had been putting it off because the timing didn't particularly matter, but with the trade event right around the corner, I couldn't delay any longer. While it wasn't the ultimate reason, she was part of why I had entered the Academy in the first place. Conveniently, our paths were set to cross very soon.
“She was figured out much faster than I expected.”
Setia, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 2, bit her lower lip. Beside her, Huff, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 3, along with the instructors of archery, spearmanship, magic, and tactics, watched the mock battle.
"As expected, ten clashes is her limit."
"We only got some use out of her because it's a mock battle. Her ability has absolutely no practical value in real combat."
For a while at the beginning, Yoo Seora had drawn quite a bit of attention with her outstanding swordsmanship and decently strong reinforcement ability. She had performed far better than Setia had anticipated. Thanks to her, Setia had managed to defeat Team B of Swordsmanship Class 1—led by her rival, Sigrid—but that victory had only accelerated the analysis of Yoo Seora's weaknesses.
“Especially that last match. That was the turning point.”
Setia had deliberately tried to manage Yoo Seora so she wouldn't exhaust all ten of her clashes. However, during her battle with the cadet named Elsie, Yoo Seora's limitations had been laid bare for everyone to see. That was all the opponents needed to complete their analysis.
“It will be difficult for her to perform like before now.”
Setia's plan to trade Yoo Seora away at the peak of her value, before her ability could be properly analyzed, had gone awry. Still, considering Yoo Seora had performed better than expected initially, it wasn't a devastating loss. The league was already more than halfway through, and the performance of the two teams she supervised had been excellent so far. In particular, Team B had seen outstanding contributions from the archery cadet, Wilhelm.
“I should focus on drawing up a solid trade plan.”
Of course, in principle, a cadet's preference was supposed to be the top priority during trades. If a cadet wished to transfer to a specific instructor's class, the academy was supposed to accommodate them. But Setia had no intention of letting things go so smoothly.
“I'll try to persuade them first, but...”
If that failed... she had plenty of other methods at her disposal.
Inside the multi-purpose training hall designed for elective classes, the only sound was the dry clacking of wooden swords.
With the first semester past its midpoint, the elective swordsmanship class had finally begun. I was currently exchanging blows with my assigned partner, Wilhelm.
Wilhelm deflected my sword with impressive speed and thrust his blade forward. I didn't block—no, I couldn't block the attack.
"Ah, I lost again."
That should have looked natural enough. It wasn't even like I was holding back an absurd amount. I had simply restricted myself to using only the three basic stances we had learned in our very first lesson.
“His stats are ridiculously high.”
People often assumed archers were agility-focused characters, but that wasn't the case in Hundred Braves. While agility was certainly important, strength was ultimately the most crucial stat. Even in terms of agility, without using my Wind Authority, I was actually slower than him.
“Not that I didn't hold back at all, though.”
Had I gone all out, I could have won using only the three basic stances we learned today. But since there was nothing to gain from doing so, I deliberately left openings here and there. This was only possible because of the vast gap in skill between Wilhelm and me.
“By the way...”
Aside from Wilhelm, who put his all into everything he did, the other students from the archery class didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about practicing swordsmanship. And Freira, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 4, was merely watching us.
With her long, dull gray hair, she looked utterly bored, making no effort to supervise the class.
“Does she just not care?”
After teaching us three basic stances, she had done nothing but watch our sparring. Actually, given her attitude, it was hard to even say she was watching us. Her gaze wandered constantly—looking up at the sky, down at the ground. It was impossible to tell what she was actually looking at.
“Which is exactly what makes her terrifying.”
The class was finally drawing to a close. Only when it was almost time to dismiss did she stand up and speak. Though her tone sounded as if she were talking to herself, her voice was far too loud to be a mere monologue.
"A swordsman I once knew used to say this."
The archery students all turned their attention to her. Without showing any sign of noticing their gazes, she continued.
"A sword is ultimately nothing more than a tool."
What was she suddenly talking about? As we stood there blankly, wondering the same thing, she asked us:
"Do you understand what that means?"
A sword is ultimately a tool. On the surface, it sounded incredibly obvious. Because of that, none of the cadets stepped forward to answer.
“Though it certainly sounds familiar to me.”
Freira's eyes swept over the silent cadets and lingered on me. But I remained silent. Seeing this, she let out a helpless chuckle.
"Well, I didn't expect much. After all, what I wanted to say is that if you don't actually need swordsmanship, you don't need to bother learning it."
Telling students they didn't need to learn swordsmanship wasn't exactly something a swordsmanship instructor should be saying. Yet, she wasn't wrong. In reality, there were plenty of people who would never be able to raise their swordsmanship to a usable level no matter how hard they tried.
"If you don't want to learn swordsmanship, I don't care what you do or where you go. Just do whatever you want. It's already enough of a hassle for me to focus on the kids who actually need it."
Her teaching style was far more reckless than I had anticipated.
“Of course, that doesn't mean she lacks skill.”
If Sigrid, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 1, had produced the current Rank 1 Constellation-grade Hero, she was the one who had produced the Rank 2 Hero. Yet, if there was a problem with her being an instructor... there was only one.
“The question is whether a person like this should even be allowed in the Hero Academy.”
The other students filed out of the training hall. As if by unspoken agreement, she and I were the only ones left behind, facing each other. She curled the corners of her lips upward, looking slightly amused.
"I didn't expect you to be the one to approach me first."
"Strictly speaking, you were the one who approached me first."
"Because of 'A sword is ultimately nothing more than a tool'?"
I nodded. The moment she uttered those words, there could only be one identity behind her. Seeing my response, she let out a bitter laugh.
"Hmm, but it feels like you've known about me since long before that. And in far more detail than what you could have guessed from just that phrase."
She had hit the nail on the head. But...
"If you knew about me, shouldn't it be fine for me to know about you as well?"
The fact that I had entered the Hero Academy under a false identity. There were only three people who knew this for certain: the Cult Leader, Gwen, and...
“This woman.”
A spy planted by the Demon King within the Holy Church, and simultaneously a spy planted by the Holy Church within the Demon King's faction. I had never even considered hiding my identity from her in the first place. She was a person of that caliber. That was why I had taken the initiative to meet her.
"Do you have something to say to me?"
But the words that came out of her mouth next were completely unexpected, even for me.
"Well, instead of an apology, let me make one thing clear first."
She spoke with a bright, radiant expression that I hadn't seen once during the entire class.
"I'm a huge fan of yours."
"Excuse me?"