Total Victory Reward (1)
After exchanging polite greetings with Seraphin and Luke as I entered the student council room, I settled into the clerical seat Luke had guided me to and waited for the other members to arrive.
Well, I'd already heard about some of the officers from Seraphin, and I had a rough idea who her student council members were from the original story anyway.
As I sat in my seat chatting casually with the other council members, familiar faces — familiar in more ways than one — began trickling in one by one.
"It's been a while, Lilith."
"...It has indeed, Lady Auguste."
"Did you enjoy your summer vacation? I spent mine at leisure in one of the Auguste Merchant Company's villas."
"How lovely. I'm glad you had such a wonderful time."
"...If you wouldn't mind, perhaps next summer we could go on vacation toget—"
"I'd rather my maid not get too attached, Lady Lizzie Lyn Auguste."
"...F-forgive me."
One noble daughter who had been happily rambling about her summer holiday beat a hasty retreat, eyes darting away, the moment Ethan appeared.
"Is everyone here~? Hm? That young lady over there — feels like I'm seeing her for the first time~?"
"A pleasure to meet you, Senior Orion. I'm Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, first year, Magic Department."
"Ahh, so you're that girl~? I've heard plenty about you~."
"Pardon? About what, exactly...?"
"Oh, you know~. This and that~? You're already quite famous despite being a first year~. I'd say you and Agnes are the most famous in the entire first-year Magic Department~?"
"...Senior Orion, if you come any closer to my maid—"
"Oh my, Ethan~! It's been ages~! Not since we saw each other at the royal palace, right? You've grown a bit taller since then. Have you gotten a touch more manly~?"
"...Pardon?"
"S-senior Orion, please step away from Lord Ethan!"
One Magic Department senior who, much like in the game, remained an unfathomable mystic — and looked dangerous in more ways than one.
...And then, on top of that, one low-presence commoner-born character I knew nothing about beyond a bare 'name.'
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Gwyn Ebelt, second year, Engineering Department."
"Ah, yes. Lilith Blackwood Rosewood, first year, Magic Department."
"Noted. I will remember you."
"...Thank you."
A character so faintly present that, in a certain sense, even less was known about him than about Orion.
This was my first meeting with Gwyn Ebelt — the rival character of Luke's route.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
Gwyn Ebelt.
Honestly speaking, aside from his name and appearance, I could barely remember the guy.
You might ask how someone who sank thousands of hours into Luminor Academy couldn't know a heroine's rival character, but he was genuinely so faint in presence that it was simply impossible.
He didn't talk, he had no connections with the main cast, and consequently had no story presence whatsoever — practically a student NPC in all but designation.
Short brown hair, about 180 centimeters tall, a blunt, taciturn male student.
The kind of design that made you suspect the developers had simply gone, 'We're getting tired of fleshing out the cast — let's whip up a random character and attach him to Luke.'
He had no memorable traits and no storyline of his own. Even old Ethan and Caraham had main storylines, for crying out loud.
Worse, for a rival character, he didn't even act like a rival. The moment the protagonist started building any rapport with Luke, he'd fade out of the story like so much air.
So why call such a background extra a rival character at all?
Because in the ending where the player showed Luke absolutely zero affection, the epilogue introduced him with a single line — she married this guy.
He only got counted as a rival because he's the one she ends up with.
'Either way, he's got nothing to do with me.'
He was a character with zero possibility of getting entangled with Lilith or Ethan in the original story. Honestly, whether his route connected to anyone other than Luke was a mystery in itself.
With the main characters already entangling me in all sorts of troublesome ways, I had no attention to spare on some forgettable nobody.
And as I mentioned before, this semester was a hideously busy time thanks to one thing after another.
"Now that Vice President Gwyn has arrived as well, let's begin the meeting. The first item on today's agenda will be..."
All the student council members were gathered — including me, who had been absent the day before — and under Seraphin's leadership, the council's work got underway.
Rather than interjecting with proposals or questions, I simply focused on my clerical duties and filing paperwork.
'Keep my head down. Cruise through the middle of the pack.'
After all, I'd joined the student council with my own purposes in mind.
The public image of the Third Princess's faction joining hands with the House of Blackwood — a stock price sure to soar.
And getting close to Lizzie so I could commission potions for the Hunting Festival at the end of the semester.
As long as those two things went off without a hitch, the rest was irrelevant to me.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
Roughly two weeks had passed since I fell in step with Seraphin's student council regime.
It was the stretch of relative calm after the midterm exams.
Nothing out of the ordinary had happened in those two weeks. Not that I'd expect special events to spring up around non-protagonists like Ethan and Lilith anyway.
If anything even remotely notable had occurred, it was that I'd been utterly crushed — again — in the practice duel held during Harold's class?
I lasted a little longer than in the second duel, but this time, too, I failed to produce a contest as fierce as the very first one.
Then again, the only reason I lasted longer at all was probably the flat four-level jump that had boosted my stats across the board. There were surely minor improvements on the dagger side too, but still.
Come to think of it, that first duel might have been my first and only chance.
The more blades we crossed, the more Harold got accustomed to fighting me — which meant I should have landed something, anything, during that first duel, when he knew nothing about me.
I refuse to believe I'll go an entire semester without winning once.
Of course, a Magic Department student failing to take a single point off a Swordsmanship professor wouldn't earn a failing grade. But the thought that I might end up taking literally zero points off Harold, on a personal level, was nagging at me in a way I couldn't quite shake.
...Though that might have less to do with Harold and more with the dream I'd started having since my third defeat at his hands.
'Pathetic, Lilith. I know you fight with daggers, but how can you fail to land a single proper strike for an entire semester?'
'I'm sorry, Master. My skills simply fell short...'
'I can no longer keep a maid who wields her blade so shabbily at Ethan's side. From next year, you will resign as his exclusive maid and leave the Blackwood Estate.'
'N-no, Master! Just give me one more chance—!'
After waking up several times from that bizarre dream with my heart in my throat, it was only natural that my attention kept drifting back to the issue.
Well, I knew perfectly well Harold was not the kind of man to fire an exclusive maid over something like this. It was just that, lately, this was the sort of content my dreams had been serving up.
Regardless of my dream content, if I wanted to make a good impression on Harold, I needed to win at least one bout before the semester ended.
Besides, the man was blocking three daggers plus offensive and support magic alike with a single sword, and watching him do it was grating on me more and more.
He might be a Sword Master, but honestly, I just wanted to beat him once. Even if he was fighting with both his ki and mana sealed away.
I was mulling over exactly that while watching Ethan's class duel with Harold from the spectator seats.
As befitting a man on the very threshold of Sword Expert, Ethan was fighting a duel of an entirely different caliber than the one I'd had with Harold.
—CLANG! CLANG! KRA-KANG! CLANG! CLANG!
"Hah... hah...! Haah...!"
"..."
Ethan swung his twin swords with the ferocity of a man determined to devour the opponent before him, while Harold met his blades with a grave, focused expression.
Ever since the battle with the kraken not long ago, something in Ethan's spirit had clearly shifted.
Since that day, Ethan's swordsmanship had grown at a frankly absurd pace.
In the evaluation duels with Harold, he now drove his twin swords relentlessly without tiring, his strikes far heavier and more powerful than before, and in the weekly live monster-hunting classes he was posting results well beyond anything he'd managed until now.
Catching one glimpse of the threshold of Sword Expert had apparently set Ethan's motivation ablaze.
—KCHAANG!!
"...Tch!"
"Hah— hah... hah..."
With Ethan's horizontal slash, the sword in Harold's hand went spinning briefly through the air.
A murmur of awe rippled through the watching students.
"...Huh?"
"D-did he just disarm Professor Harold...?"
"Truly the House of Blackwood..."
His first outright total victory in a duel against Harold.
Among the students in the same class, it was the second total victory ever recorded — after Gehmajoshigi-gwat's.
"Ethan."
"...Yes."
"Since you have achieved total victory over me, your grade for this semester shall be a perfect score, just as Gehmajoshigi-gwat's was."
"Thank you, sir!"
"Furthermore, from now on I, too, shall use my mana in our duels. Be prepared."
"Yes, sir!"
Among the advanced class, that made him the second student to 'graduate' from Harold's course this semester, after the Hero.
Meanwhile I, stuck in the intermediate class, hadn't managed a single win against Harold even with his ki and mana sealed.
Different people excel in different fields, so it couldn't be helped — but still.
After finishing the duel, Ethan came back to stand beside me, and I offered him a measured compliment.
"Congratulations, Lord Ethan. Your skill improves at a remarkable pace by the day."
"...Thanks, Lilith."
"Since you won your duel against Master, I shall prepare your reward tonight as well, Lord Ethan."
"...About that, Lilith."
"Yes?"
"Today wasn't just taking a single point off Father like usual — it was a total victory. Isn't that right?"
"...It is."
"It feels a little awkward saying this myself, but — shouldn't a total victory earn more than the usual reward?"
"...Do you desire a different reward in exchange for your total victory?"
"It's less that I want a different reward and more that... I'd like to take things a bit further than we have so far. I mean, you and I are temporary lovers now, after all. Of course, if you say it ends at the usual, I won't push."
"...Understood. If that is Lord Ethan's wish, then I shall prepare a reward befitting a 'total victory' as well."
"I'll look forward to it, Lilith."
...What do I do now.
I'd never given a single thought to what a total-victory reward was supposed to be.