The Ambush (2)
It was lunchtime on the day I'd been utterly, hopelessly defeated in my sparring match with Ethan.
Perhaps because of how that class had gone, Ethan spent the entire meal darting furtive glances my way.
"……"
"……"
Ever since enrolling at the Academy, he'd grown confident enough to be at least tolerable, so why was he being so infuriatingly awkward today of all days?
Naturally, it fell to me to break the silence first and salvage the meal that Ethan's needless hesitance had stiffened.
"Master Ethan, if you keep fussing like that, I'm the one who ends up walking on eggshells. Are you aware of that?"
"…Sorry, Lilith."
"Or is it your intention to make me self-conscious so that I'll hurry up and forget the duel from our Magic Swordsmanship practicum? If so, that would be a most admirable gesture."
"N-no, that's not what I meant at all…."
…Honestly, what was with this reaction, acting like he'd committed some terrible crime just because he'd beaten his personal maid once in a spar?
Now that I'd joined the ranks of second-year students, this was a duel we were bound to repeat once or twice more before the semester was out anyway. If he insisted on getting queasy over trivial things every single time we crossed blades, there'd be no end to it.
"Just so we're clear, losing to you caused me no wound to my pride whatsoever, Master Ethan."
"…I know. Of course you'd be fine. You're Lilith."
"Do you truly know that?"
"…But are you really okay with it?"
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine. And I will be going forward, too. If anything, I'm left wondering what I'm supposed to do if you ask me to pretend to be bitter so you can savor the feeling of victory."
"I'd never ask that, so don't worry…."
Ethan looked at me as though my words were utterly absurd, yet a faint chuckle escaped his lips all the same.
Now that he'd realized the thing worrying him most didn't bother me in the slightest, he finally seemed to relax a little.
"Right, I was fussing over nothing. You've got the strongest heart of anyone I know, Lilith."
"I wouldn't go that far—but no, I won't mope over losing a practice duel in class, that much is true."
"Then I'm glad."
"And in fact, it's I who would like to have a word with you about today's duel, Master Ethan. What on earth was that duel supposed to mean?"
"…Huh?"
He clearly hadn't expected a counterattack from my side. The ease that had settled over Ethan's face froze right back up, while I unleashed, one after another, all the flaws I'd catalogued during the match.
"What was that, Master Ethan? Not once did your sword ever come at my body. In a duel between swordsmen, isn't it basic to target the wrists and waist first and foremost? What exactly do you hope to accomplish by holding back your blade?"
"Ah, no, that's… I was worried I wouldn't be able to control my strength…."
"Isn't that exactly what the Divine Aegis is for? The seniors from the Divinity Department come to cast it before every duel. It's designed to shatter the moment damage reaches a lethal threshold, is it not?"
"B-but it's dangerous! If you take damage beyond a lethal wound, you could genuinely be hurt. I hate seeing you get hurt, Lilith…."
"To me, the title of a swordswoman who lost because her opponent went easy on her is the greater stain on my name, Master Ethan."
"…I'm sorry, Lilith. I wasn't considerate of you in the right way."
Only after I laid it out with a serious face did Ethan finally understand, bowing his head.
Anyone could see that he'd been searching for the safest possible way to subdue me out of consideration, and that the duel had dragged on because of it.
In truth, when I'd faced Gehmajoshigi-gwat, Nathalie, and Caraham before, they'd shown no mercy in their strikes—my Divine Aegis had shattered in an instant and I'd been forced straight into defeat. But with Ethan, from roughly the halfway point of my barrier's integrity onward, his blade had turned noticeably gentle as he moved to subdue me.
That was why the match had stretched on so needlessly indecisive—and why, for one fleeting moment, my swordsmanship had actually stood equal to his.
If he'd fought at his true strength, I wouldn't have lasted two minutes against him. That was simply what close combat meant between a mage and a swordswoman.
There was no way I—a mage who used the sword to supplement her magic—could beat someone who used magic to supplement his sword.
"In any case, please make sure this never happens again, Master Ethan. It does no good for either of us—it stunts my growth, and it plants hesitation in your swordsmanship. All it becomes is a bad example."
"…Okay. I'm sorry, Lilith."
"Even if the Divine Aegis shatters and I take real damage, I won't hold it against you. These days, losing an arm is hardly a catastrophe—you just carry it to the church and they reattach it on the spot, don't they?"
"…As much as I appreciate the spirit, that's a slightly alarming way of thinking."
"It means I want you to take this seriously, Master Ethan."
…Honestly. Kids were kids, back then and now.
"Have a good afternoon class. See you at dinner, Lilith."
"I shall see you at dinner, Master Ethan."
After using the lunch hour to deliver something resembling actual advice to Ethan for the first time in ages, the two of us parted at the crossroads and set off in opposite directions for our afternoon classes.
I might have been a bit harsh with him just now.
But Ethan had been in such a strange state today that it needed saying regardless.
He'd wielded a sword far longer than I had—there was no way he didn't understand what "holding back" in an actual duel meant. And if he wavered over something this minor, eventually that same wavering would bleed into a judgment call that cost him his life.
Better to hear my advice now than to have his heart waffle midway and lose his head somewhere down the line.
-Thud, thud, thud.
Did he still have more to say?
Not long after parting with Ethan, I felt the sensation of someone's footsteps trailing behind me, so I quietly assumed it must be him doubling back my way. Regrettably, the owner of those footsteps was not who I thought.
It was the footsteps of that bastard—the one person I wanted never to run into inside the Academy.
"Master Ethan? Did you perhaps have something further to—"
"Long time no see, you audacious little lady."
"Ah, f—"
I barely strangled the curse before it burst out of my mouth, but I couldn't hide the expression of revulsion twisting across my face—and at the sight of it, McHart simply smiled and leaned his face in toward me.
I belatedly recalled his ability and tried to put distance between us with an instinctive backward step, but McHart's grip was faster—his hand snatching for mine before I could retreat.
By the time the danger registered, I was already a beat too late.
-Grab!
In that same instant, a shroud of darkness wrapped around him and me, the surrounding air bleeding black with his demonic mana.
I'd been caught completely off guard by his ability, and now I was being dragged into his mental space.
-Crack!
'Fuck. I let my guard down.'
I tore his grip away a beat too late and put fresh distance between us, but McHart's Inner Darkness was not a space one escaped by simply pulling away.
…What could I do? If there was anyone to blame, it was the idiot who stood there daydreaming and left herself wide open.
My days had been so peaceful lately that I'd momentarily forgotten something fundamental.
Luminor Academy was an academy game about assembling a Demon King subjugation force to slay demons and the Demon King himself—and games in this genre always, inevitably, came with clichéd dangers exactly like this one.
"I wondered whether I might have gotten the wrong girl, but it seems I found the right one after all."
"…I must apologize most sincerely for my conduct at the banquet the other day, Prince McHart Paris Valtoria."
"No need to choke down your true feelings and force out an apology. I already know perfectly well that your apology isn't a sincere one."
"…No, I do still believe my slip of the tongue that day was a genuine discourtesy—"
"If you truly believed that, you'd have come to find me at the VIP quarters long ago. Locating the residence of royalty like myself inside the Academy is about as hard as finding the imperial palace in the imperial capital."
"……"
McHart advanced toward me one slow step at a time, wearing a smile that crawled over my skin like insects.
The area around us was already sealed off by the black shroud marking his domain, and only a small circular patch centered on him remained lit, casting his body and mine in a dim, rounded glow—like figures on a stage.
…Once he'd deliberately dragged me into this space, there was no more point in hiding my feelings or playing the polite maid.
"…Ah, fuck it. You repulsive son of a bitch."
The corners of McHart's mouth curled quietly upward.
It was a smile so revoltingly slimy that merely meeting his eyes made the lunch I'd just eaten threaten to come back up.