The Academy's Sword-Drawing Young Lady
"It's the young lady's turn now.."
Before I knew it, time had passed and it was Violet's turn for the duel. She was waiting in a separate room somewhere. '..I'm a little worried.'
Thanks to that crazy blue-haired bastard, I couldn't remember a single thing about the matches I'd watched in between. Still, I'd come to my own conclusion during that time.
'The world I'm in right now is Stardust.'
The sequel to Starlight, with a few DLCs added. So maybe that blue-haired guy was a newly added playable character or named NPC, just like the Demon Kings I didn't know about. It felt like a bit of a stretch, but what could I do? He was definitely absurdly strong, but not beyond what a playable character could be.
'There's no guarantee that playable characters have to have good personalities, either.'
I let out a deep sigh as I looked at Hibriel sitting far away. That guy, a playable character? No, maybe he was actually a good person at heart, just not mature yet and full of edgy middle-schooler lines. Other games had wind-wielding swordsmen who kept saying "Death is like the wind" or whatever. Who's to say this game didn't have something similar?
'Even thinking like that, I'm not just a little worried—I'm really worried..'
Of course, even with that assumption, the worry was real. Unknown characters and enemies popping up out of nowhere. It was genuinely terrifying.
'At least the major plot points seem unchanged. That's a relief.'
I'd roughly confirmed that the basic event timelines, the playable characters, and several named characters I knew were all the same. If those hadn't changed, it meant the game's overall framework was still intact.
Just then, the announcement for the next duel reached my ears.
"Next match: Hapel Leto versus Violet Floyd!"
Oh, so it was finally the young lady's turn. At the professor's signal, Violet and the student I didn't know walked steadily into the arena. Ah, our eyes met. I smiled and waved at her. Violet, still fuming that she hadn't managed to snatch my pen-shaped recorder from me, huffed angrily before quickly looking away. Typical. So prickly.
I felt like an idiot for deciding to be a little nicer to Sebastian. I'd thought I was the one playing with him, but that wasn't it at all. Sebastian had been playing with me the whole time!
'Ugh.. This is so annoying..!'
Now I couldn't even figure out what his real intentions were. It really did seem like he cared about me, but the moment he got a chance to tease me, he went all out! And the way he handled me so skillfully while teasing.. it was like..
'Like we've been best friends for eight whole years or something?'
Of course, I'd only known him for less than three months. But still.
'..Maybe he's just got a lot of experience with women?'
Saying exactly the right sweet things, naturally leading into skinship? Watching him juggle my feelings however he wanted.. Maybe the reason he joined this household as a butler was just so he could do whatever he wanted with me?
'No way. I'm not that easy!'
Even as I tried to deny it, thinking back to everything he'd done to me today.. just remembering it made me mad. I'd basically been toyed with all day, hadn't I?
"Next match: Hapel Leto versus Violet Floyd!"
Ah, it was starting. 'Alright, where is that guy?'
The moment I stepped into the arena, I looked around for Sebastian. The second I spotted him in the stands, I completely ignored my opponent and just glared at him with wide eyes. 'Seriously.. does that guy have no self-awareness or what!'
He just grinned that smug smile and waved, completely oblivious—or maybe not—to how I felt. My face started burning, so I snapped my head away irritably.
'Just thinking about what happened earlier makes my face heat up..!'
I'd been completely overwhelmed by Sebastian's almost-confession, his pleading, and then I'd blurted out those weird words without even knowing if they were my real feelings. And it had all been recorded. And at the end..
'When I lost it and tried to snatch the pen back, I didn't realize how embarrassing the whole situation was..!'
A girl climbing on top of a guy, desperately trying to grab something from his hand? That must've looked incredibly undignified to everyone watching. And at the end, I'd almost ended up in his arms..? No, maybe I'd already been in his arms several times without even realizing it.
"As expected.. that bastard definitely planned this too!"
Honestly, it hadn't felt bad, but the feeling of being completely played with in the palm of his hand was infuriating. What if I pretended to be crazy and clung to him cutely instead? Would that fluster him?
'...'
That would never work! I'd definitely get embarrassed and die first! Or maybe he'd just enjoy it and push even harder!
Alright, decision made. I didn't know about anything else, but I was sure that guy cared about me and liked me. I wasn't going to fall for that wolf-like butler's tricks or let him play with me anymore!
"Hey! The duel started already!"
"Eek..?"
..When had the duel even started? Yeah, this was all that guy's fault too!
"..What is she doing?"
Long after the signal to start the duel, Violet remained rooted in place, completely still. Even her opponent looked confused and stopped attacking. She seemed to be deep in thought. At first, I thought she was concentrating on casting some unique skill of her own. But when I looked closer, she was just spacing out.
'The drug's effects must've kicked in.'
The medicine she'd taken yesterday was probably circulating late. Her face was red, too—that was a dead giveaway. Even when she was 'doping' during fights, her face had turned that same shade of red.
"Eek..?"
The sleeping beauty of the arena finally snapped out of it.
"Haa.. I don't know what you were thinking about, but get ready. We'll start over from the beginning!"
In the end, for the first time today, the duel had to be restarted. Tsk tsk. You should've focused. And gone easy on the drugs.
"Alright, once more. The duel will now begin!"
The match started again. But for some reason, Violet just stood there in the arena doing nothing. Or rather, it looked that way.
-Chachachang!
At the same time, multiple layers of barrier magic stacked around her.
'Retouching Shield, Reflecting Area, Regulation, Phasing, Glad, Shield Repair, Anti-Tracking.. Wow, she really piled them on.'
From what I remembered, the eight layers of barriers and various buffs now surrounding Violet were all focused on resistance and defensive functions.
-Bang! Kwaang!
Her opponent finally realized what was happening and started desperately striking the barriers with his sword. 'They're ridiculously sturdy..'
This was Violet's first phase when encountered as a boss in the game. Insane protective barriers. Unlike other bosses, the difference between her phases was enormous. The first pattern she showed was surrounding herself with an enormous number of barriers. It was both her greatest magical talent and the solid achievement that made her such an incredible tank.
"Oh, that's pretty cool?"
Her opponent even wrapped something dragon-like around his sword and kept striking with everything he had. I cheered him on too, but—
-Crack!
After all that effort, only one layer of the barrier broke. Of course, the student thought that was it and swung his sword with renewed hope..
-Clang!
"?"
There was another barrier inside the barrier. Watching his expression as the strength drained from his sword hand was almost painful. Then a light flashed from within the barrier magic.
-Pakang!
With a short sound, an incredibly powerful sword strike flew toward the student in the blink of an eye. The once-solid barriers had vanished without a trace.
"..."
In the center stood Violet, sheathing her sword once more.
"Hurk..!"
The student let out a short scream and collapsed backward.
-Shashashak..
The barriers that had disappeared reappeared around Violet as if they'd never left.
'..That's way too underhanded.'
Besides her specialized barrier magic, Violet had another technique. 'Iaijutsu.' I'd heard something about converting the frictional energy from drawing the sword into kinetic energy, though I didn't really understand the details. As I'd just seen, it was a technique with overwhelming power. In the game, it was an instant-kill pattern—if you got hit, you died immediately.
'I had to roll around so many times to dodge this.. brings back memories.'
That said, the technique took a considerable amount of time to activate. Something about gathering energy.. and what gave her massive synergy during that process was the fortress-like barriers surrounding her. She bought time to gather energy with those insanely strong barriers, then deactivated them only when she was ready to draw her sword. It was incredibly underhanded, but also extremely effective.
'Good thing she was just a sub-boss you didn't have to fight..'
If she'd been a main boss like a Demon King, this game would've gotten even more hate than it already did. Demon Kings appeared in the very late game, so you could at least overpower them with gear, but Violet appeared in the mid-game when equipment levels were still low, and her difficulty was no joke. Plus, this Violet had a second phase where she used all her techniques offensively instead of defensively. In that phase, she was even 'doping' to enhance her physical condition.. but I'd think about that later.
Honestly, I was getting worried now. Worried enough to want to stop the duel. Violet was using far more advanced techniques than I'd expected. Why was that a problem?
-Shrrrk..
At that moment, the barriers surrounding Violet deactivated at just the right timing.
"Puhak..!"
Violet coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the floor.