Even a Year Is Not Too Late
Even a Year Is Not Too Late
A blow to the head right at the start hadn't split his skull.
The match wasn't over yet, so Aiden didn't give up, swinging his sword no matter who the opponent was.
His blade wrapped itself in sharp aura, tearing through the empty air.
Even by his own judgment, its trajectory was far more refined than before.
If his opponent had been the Aiden from when he first enrolled, the gap was so wide that he wouldn't have been able to block a single strike—he'd have been cut clean through along with his sword.
Contrary to his somewhat sloppy appearance, Aiden was the type who didn't skimp on effort. He had never slacked off during his academy days, and he hadn't goofed around since entering Siyoram either.
He didn't know why he had been admitted to Siyoram... let alone through recommended admission, but for now he chalked it up to heavenly luck and made the most of the Blessing of Growth.
Thanks to that, Aiden had undergone explosive growth compared to ordinary cadets, and by now he had settled into a spot a little above the middle of the pack.
- Clang!
But the attack pierced through him effortlessly.
The serpentine spear-tip wormed its way between the sword strikes he swung while clenching his teeth.
He'd already been caught by that bizarre trajectory several times. He yanked his sword back in alarm, but the spear-tip had already stabbed him in the solar plexus.
The thick layer of aura he'd wrapped around himself in advance blocked the spear-tip, but it couldn't fully dissipate the impact.
Bam! The impact boring into his chest choked his breath away. Shattered aura scattered. Aiden gritted his teeth.
'Shit, fuck... counter...'
In that split second when his breathing stopped, Aiden's wavering vision caught the spear spinning around.
- Crack!
"Gahk!"
Right after, an impact slammed upward into his lower jaw. His body, smacked by the spear shaft, floated into the air. His head snapped back, giving him a view of the spotless ceiling.
'Ah?'
Against the spotless ceiling, a long shape shot upward—the same spear shaft from moments ago.
A long shadow fell across Aiden's dazed face.
- Crack!
"Gyaak!"
The spear shaft came crashing down magnificently, smashing into his face. Aiden, who had let out a choked scream, slammed face-first into the floor.
"Grrr..."
His head was hazy from the consecutive follow-up attacks. Even so, as Aiden tried to pick himself up, a spear blade grazed past his head.
Thunk! The spear blade stabbed into the floor. The chill tapping against the nape of his neck made Aiden's body flinch.
At the same time, an announcement echoed from the ceiling.
[Time elapsed, match concluded]
[Winner, Ipchun Class Lee Ha-yul]
[Thank you for your effort]
"...Ugh."
As the announcement seeped into his ears, Aiden let out a groan and went limp.
The moment he registered that it was over, his entire body throbbed. He'd really been pummeled all over the place during that sparring match, so every bone ached...
[You worked hard]
Lee Ha-yul, who was standing beside Aiden, held out a hand. Aiden, who had been rubbing his face against the floor, turned his head and glanced sideways at Lee Ha-yul.
...Completely unscathed. Not a single collar was out of place, and there wasn't a single scratch on that pure white skin. It was only natural, since not a single blow had grazed him during the match to begin with.
Aiden hadn't managed to land a single scratch on Lee Ha-yul the entire spar, let alone an effective hit.
'Jeez...'
Aiden's expression grew complicated.
'I put in a decent amount of effort, but I couldn't even graze him. No, damn it, how do you not even graze his collar?'
Every sword he swung was blocked. Even with his eyes closed, the guy dodged by a hair's breadth this way and that, and any attack that seemed like it might land was batted away by a spear thrust out before he could even swing properly.
So when he tried to exploit the spear's weakness and slip inside, the guy just stepped lightly backward and smacked him repeatedly; even if he somehow managed to close the distance, he just got swatted away outright.
Toward the end, when the guy batted away a volley of wild aura blasts like baseballs, he'd honestly stood there gaping with his mouth wide open. And then, obligingly, Lee Ha-yul had uppercut his jaw to close it for him, how kind...
'Whew.'
On top of that, it hadn't even been a year since that guy became a superhuman, while he himself had received early education starting from elementary academy.
So getting wrecked this helplessly left him with a very unsettled feeling.
"Thanks."
Pulling his thoughts together, he took Lee Ha-yul's hand and got to his feet.
"Ugh, my head... Isn't my jaw cracked?"
Once he was standing, Aiden poked and prodded at his aching body here and there. When he casually rolled up a bit of his clothes, signs of bruises forming on his skin were visible.
More than anything, his head and jaw hurt... He'd been smacked in the jaw and uppercutted like a combo attack a full three times...
Seeing Aiden clutching his jaw, Lee Ha-yul shrugged.
[I checked, and there isn't even a crack, so don't worry]
"...You can even detect the inside of someone's body? What about resistance—... No, you'd manage somehow anyway."
Aiden was taken aback by the statement that his insides had been precisely scanned without him knowing, but he soon cut off the question, figuring the guy would handle it just fine however he wanted.
In the first place, he had no plausible knowledge about detection-type abilities, and even if he did, it didn't seem like it would really apply to Lee Ha-yul.
"So, that, you know, the spear that squirmed around during the spar... Is that an expansion ability?"
Instead, he voiced a different question. The spear art that had toyed with Aiden the entire match.
As if dozens of martial artists were packed into a single body, the styles were varied, but what stuck in his memory most was the spear that drew those bizarre trajectories.
[Yes, it's an expansion ability I learned during the last Tower entry]
At that answer, Aiden suddenly recalled a memory from the last tournament.
The shocking memory of an expansion ability achieved through painstaking effort being copied the very moment it was first used... which had instantly resolved the trivial question of just what kind of talent that was...
Thinking about that, it wouldn't be strange at all for Lee Ha-yul to possess multiple technique-category expansion abilities.
[Your swordsmanship, Aiden, is orthodox, like a textbook. If the form is correct, it produces excellent power, but it's difficult to respond to irregular attacks. Like the spear art I just used]
"Ah."
Aiden let out a sound of realization. It was true that against attacks that slipped cleanly into his openings, he'd been utterly helpless and repeatedly beaten down and sent rolling on the ground.
If it had been a real fight, those were attacks where it would have ended at that point, not with rolling on the ground.
"That's something I've heard pointed out by the professors before too, and it really is a fatal weakness."
[Yes, so I think... you might consider developing your ability to respond to things that exploit your orthodox style, Aiden]
"Thanks. I've been thinking about it for a while, but I really need to patch it up quickly."
Another thing to fix...
Seeing Aiden heave a deep sigh, Lee Ha-yul pursed his lips. Thinking about it now, it seemed like he'd just rattled off nothing but flaws.
Caressing the spear shaft, he casually offered a compliment.
[Still, orthodox swordsmanship can deliver at least average results in any situation. Also, compared to last time at the tournament, you've grown enormously]
"Honestly, compared to you, it feels like baby steps..."
[Uh... isn't comparing yourself to me a little, well...?]
"...Yeah, I guess."
For a moment he had the thought that it sounded cocky, but on the other hand, he also felt it wasn't exactly wrong.
Aiden looked over Lee Ha-yul with fresh eyes.
Setting aside the fact that this was the person who had just beaten him to a pulp, the impression was very round and harmless.
But the reality was a lump of potential openly declared by the Tower Master of Growth. The frontrunner of the next generation, with no telling just how far he would reach in the future.
And because of that, there was a whole crowd of people wanting to get even a little closer to Lee Ha-yul...
"Ah."
[?]
A forgotten thought suddenly popped up. Aiden let out an exclamation and opened his mouth.
"Do you, by any chance, have time on the day of the Birth Festival?"
[Time? Why do you ask?]
"Apart from the official Birth Festival schedule, the cadets also get together and hang out on their own, you know. The first-year male cadets are planning to reserve a spot and get some drinks, and they asked me to ask if you're coming."
[Drinks...]
Lee Ha-yul shut his mouth firmly. Even now, it was a word that made revulsion surge up. Suddenly, it felt as if scents from the past were filling his nasal passages, making his head spin.
...Those scents were soon washed away by the faint smell of milk lingering on his body. Lee Ha-yul glanced at himself briefly, then shrugged.
[The first day and the last day probably won't work. And I'd rather not stay too long at a gathering either...]
"A lot of people just show up in the middle, hang out for a bit, and leave, so it should be fine, right? And the plan is to do it from the evening of the fourth day."
[In that case, I'll think about it. But there's a high chance I won't go]
"Sure, the schedule's already set, so if you feel like it, you can just drop by for a bit and hang out."
[Yes, thank you for passing along the message]
* * *
During combat major practicals, the person who loses moves to a different spot.
After repeating three matches like that, the evaluation ends.
Because of that, once the grace period passed, Aiden left the sparring hall on his own two feet.
There were no special injuries, but the fatigue accumulated in his body was restored the instant he stepped out the door.
'A drinking party... honestly doesn't appeal to me.'
I remained in the first sparring hall, stroking the spear shaft still in my hand as I sank into a small dilemma.
'It's not mandatory, so I could just ignore it, but still, it'd probably be good to show my face at least once...'
Honestly, a lot of the plans I'd made when I first came to this world had gone off track.
Especially the plans that fell under sub-quests had almost all been passed over.
I'd intended to at least get familiar with the faces of various promising talents, but in reality I hadn't even run into more than a few.
Drinking parties triggered a sense of rejection, but I wasn't at the level of having a fit and running away like before.
That change was largely due to the drinking party held at the mansion last time.
I hadn't actually drunk any alcohol, but that memory was clearly a happy memory spent with precious people.
That memory covers the bad memories, so now alcohol isn't something I'm purely terrified of anymore.
'Even if someone at the drinking party causes a ruckus, I can restrain them myself.'
Above all, I myself have changed from the past. Since now I can not only avoid getting hit, but can instead beat down and suppress an opponent.
- Whirr...
While I was mulling it over briefly, my next opponent entered the sparring hall. I, who had already confirmed them from afar with Observation, tightened my grip on the spear I'd been stroking.
It was already the last match. I'd better finish it quickly and head back.
'?'
And then I felt a sense of dissonance.
"...Gogu Class, Rigna Krisis."
The opponent who entered gave a slight bow of the head.
A sturdy... no, burly was the right word for this male cadet.
His appearance and name weren't particularly emphasized in the original either.
'Who is it?'
I felt like I'd met him somewhere before. But for all that the thought crossed my mind, a face and name like that hadn't stuck in my memory.
'...Manifestation?'
Fwip! Books unfurled inside my head. The memory books where I'd sorted out the jumbled mess of past memories. Among them, I searched for a memory resembling that cadet.
Originally, it would have been a task that took some time and gave me a headache, but thanks to the Authority of Knowledge, it was accomplished very quickly and without any pain.
'Ah.'
And I found the opponent's identity.
- Tch
A tongue-clicking sound I'd heard sometime before.
It was the cadet who had shoulder-checked me at the Freshman Welcome Party and then vanished without an apology.
At the time, spatial perception only measured the dimensions of external appearances, so I hadn't recognized him right away.
'...Hmm.'
[Ipchun Class, Lee Ha-yul]
After giving a rough greeting in return, I stroked the spear shaft. The opponent didn't bother with idle chatter either.
'Hmm...'
[Second semester midterm evaluation, beginning the third match of the combat major practical. Countdown. 10...]
While that was happening, the start notification began from the ceiling.
[3... 2... 1...]
[Match start]
Match start. But instead of charging in right away, the opposing cadet raised his weapon warily.
The weapon was what's commonly called a halberd.
'Hmmmm...'
After a moment of deliberation, I gently stroked the spear shaft.
- Szzzt...
The spear blade melted and seeped into the shaft. The spear shaft, now missing its blade, soon transformed into a simple rod.
Tap tap! I bounced the rod on the floor, then nodded my head.
And then.
[Re?venge]
- Whack!
"Guhk!?"
I smacked the tense cadet across the shoulder. The burly cadet staggered as if he might fall over, just like someone else had on a certain day.
Soon, a consecutive sound of bursting drums echoed inside the sparring hall.
.
.
.
"...Junior, did something good happen?"
A little while later.
After finishing the practical, I happened to run into Lee Ji-yeon, who asked me with an odd expression.
I tilted my head while noisily sipping the warm milk in my cup through a straw.
[Do I look like it?]
"Yes, how should I put it... you look sort of refreshed."
[Mm... something slightly similar happened]
Truthfully, it was a grudge I'd forgotten about, but once I actually resolved it, my chest felt quite refreshed.
Shrugging, I took the straw back into my mouth.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul→Aiden Reynolds
●●●●●○○○○○(44▷50/100)
｢Acquaintance｣ ｢Idiot｣ ｢Hard Worker｣
...
Lee Ha-yul→Rigna Krisis
●○○○○○○○○○(19/100)
｢Dislike｣ ｢Indifferent｣ ｢Shoulder-Checker｣