Chapter 126: Did I Learn the Sword for This? I Feel Tormented and Ashamed (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 126: Did I Learn the Sword for This? I Feel Tormented and Ashamed (2)
Daisy is a celebrity at the Academy.
Even before becoming the Saintess, she was famous as the sole girl in a club filled with the Academy's most prominent figures.
After becoming the Saintess, her fame reached a point where talking about it only made one's throat sore.
Following the incident in the Holy Kingdom, there wasn't a single student left who didn't know her.
And considering the various incidents that followed, her name had likely reached the ears of every imperial noble and influential figure of similar standing.
And now, such a person was fighting a Dragonkin.
What exactly is a Dragonkin?
A descendant of a dragon.
That fact alone made complex explanations unnecessary. They were beings that ordinary people, and even high-ranking nobles, would find difficult to encounter even once in a lifetime.
In fact, it was common for no one to have met one throughout an entire family's history, let alone an individual's.
When news broke that such a being had suddenly come to the Academy—and as a student, not a professor—many students were shocked.
"But dark mages show up all the time, too."
"Isn't that a bit different?"
"Well, they're both things you'd rarely see in a lifetime."
"I guess so?"
Thanks to the dark mages who visited on a regular basis, the level of shock was somewhat mitigated.
However, just because the shock was lessened didn't mean the curiosity about the Dragonkin had diminished.
Furthermore, wasn't that Dragonkin fighting Daisy right now?
As soon as they heard the rumors, students dropped what they were doing and flocked to the training grounds to witness the unimaginable showdown: Saintess vs. Dragonkin.
It reached a point where even the General Department students, who usually did nothing but study—including the fourth-years preparing for the Imperial Civil Service Exam, whose lives would be shrouded in dark clouds if they didn't pass this year—came to sneak a peek.
Even the students from the Swordsmanship and Magic Departments, who had been fighting in the name of their respective honors, stopped their bickering with a collective "I can't miss this" and came to watch together.
And as if mocking the proverb that there's nothing to eat at a famous feast, Daisy and Irin were satisfying the crowd's expectations by over 100%—to a degree that couldn't be expressed by mere numbers.
"Whoa..."
"Is that Dragonkin magic for real? My heart is pounding."
"And what about the Saintess blocking all of it? Didn't they say she only started learning the sword this year?"
While ordinary students were marveling like that, not everyone felt the same.
"Daisy..."
According to the possessor Violet, he should have been the frontrunner in the RoFan male lead candidate race by now.
However, Esid, the Prince of the Empire whose presence was steadily fading, stood with his mouth agape, watching the fierce battle before him.
Even in the world-line known as the "original work," he wasn't a character who was particularly helpful in combat.
But that wasn't because he was weak. It was simply because the level of the enemies appearing was absurd.
Perhaps it was only natural.
Ellen, the swordsman with the greatest talent in the world.
Arwen, the mage who also possessed the greatest talent in the world.
And then there were Asran and Gerard, who were slightly below those two but possessed their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Each of them was skilled enough to be treated as a powerhouse from the moment they entered the Academy.
As time passed and their talents blossomed further, they were characters destined for even greater growth.
To be a narrative threat to such individuals, enemies of equal caliber were required.
And Esid was too weak to face such foes.
Ironically, that was the very reason the character "Esid" could become the most likely male lead candidate in the "original" world-line.
The Daisy of the original work was in a similar situation, which allowed them to form a bond of empathy.
They were in a position where they had no choice but to help their friends, who were fighting powerful enemies, through means other than martial force.
Through their shared struggles, they connected emotionally, which allowed Esid to take a strong lead from the beginning...
"..."
But that world-line had vanished a long time ago.
And for good reason.
"Whoa..."
It was because Daisy had become so strong that even Ellen, who was destined to be the world's strongest swordsman in the "original work," was watching with his mouth hanging open in shock.
"Can I... even win?"
The duel before them was of such a high level that those words escaped Ellen's lips.
Of course, if one looked closely, there were still many lacking areas.
No matter how much of a genius Daisy was, the sword was not a discipline that could be mastered simply by learning.
One had to swing the sword hundreds, thousands of times to correct oneself to fit the swordsmanship.
Then, one had to swing it hundreds, thousands of times again to adapt the swordsmanship to oneself. Only after repeating this process could a swordsman forge themselves as sharp as a blade.
A genius is someone who can shorten that process, not someone who can skip it.
Ellen himself was proof of that.
However, Daisy was filling that void of refinement with brute mana.
It was even more absurd because that mana wasn't even her own, but her opponent's.
But what Ellen found most ridiculous was Daisy's skill, which was becoming more refined with every single exchange.
"They say people grow in real combat for a reason, but..."
Still, isn't this way too fast?
Of course, he himself had been able to grow further because he had a friend like Adam.
But even that was within the bounds of common sense.
Furthermore...
"Lately, he hasn't been sparring with me much..."
Recalling Adam Smith, who had been sparring more with Asran than with him since coming to the Academy, Ellen let out a small sigh.
"..."
Meanwhile, Asran was filled with his own set of worries.
"Is my fourth-place spot confirmed now?"
To Ellen, Adam was a rival.
But to Asran, Adam was like an insurmountable wall standing before him.
Of course, the situation was similar in the world-line called the original work.
However, the difference between second and third place is larger than one might think.
Just as his nickname, "Minor Sword Emperor," which had been maintained in the original, was now more frequently called the "Defeated Sword Emperor."
Unlike the Asran of the original work, who had made pure efforts to catch up to Ellen, the current Asran's self-esteem had dropped quite a bit.
It was unavoidable.
He saw no possibility of defeating Adam, and even if he did, Ellen—whom even Adam couldn't beat—was still standing there.
At the same time, powerhouses like Daisy and the heterogeneous species were pushing up from below.
It would be one thing if he wasn't trying, but Asran was doing his absolute best.
Compared to the original world-line, parts of the story commonly referred to as "RoFan developments" had been deleted entirely.
Asran had put in effort equivalent to that void, so he was already much stronger than his original self, but the reality of the situation had transcended the original work far too much.
Because of that...
"..."
Gerard could only watch the duel between the two in silence.
The moment even Asran became a side character, Gerard was forced into a position similar to the original Esid.
Many people at the Academy worked hard to prevent dark mages from infiltrating.
However, as if mocking the Academy's efforts, the dark mages were always successfully planting their own.
Vera, who had entered as a freshman this year, was no different.
She was someone who had infiltrated the Academy under the orders of a dark mage to provide information.
While she had her own reasons, conspiring with dark mages was far too grave a crime for such circumstances to be considered.
However, she didn't have many choices.
To achieve her goal, she had eventually joined hands with the dark mages.
And now, she was regretting it.
'I... might have made the wrong choice...'
It wasn't anything else that snapped her out of her spirit, which had been filled with hostility and malice toward the world.
"Song of Destruction."
Along with a somewhat eerie name, a heatwave swept through.
The magic was far too immense to be called a mere duel.
But when her opponent not only blocked it but also counterattacked, the Dragonkin who cast the spell began preparing an even more powerful magic.
That's right.
What brought Vera to her senses was nothing other than martial might.
It was a level of power that even several head professors of the Academy were now watching in admiration.
'Since when?'
The training grounds, which had been filled only with students, were now crowded with most of the professors from the Swordsmanship and Magic Departments—the so-called combat departments.
Looking closely, it seemed the professors were blocking the shockwaves generated by the duel between the two monsters.
"O Light, be with us here."
However, the fight before them was so incredible that the students, except for those with special purposes like Vera, were unaware of the professors' presence.
This was true even though the Sword Emperor, whom every swordsman on the continent dreams of meeting once, and the former Tower Master of the White Tower, from whom every mage wishes to receive teachings, were present.
That was how extraordinary the fight between the Saintess and the Dragonkin was.
It was so incredible that Vera was worried about how she should even report it.
She recalled the requirements the dark mage had given her.
They wanted everything about the Saintess: her routes, her actions, any peculiarities, her weaknesses, and so on.
Until now, she had provided everything she had seen and felt about the Saintess as they wished, but...
"They expect to win against this?"
Even if a legendary demon, rather than a dark mage, were to step forward, could they win?
She probably couldn't...
Unaware of the fact that there was a demon who had actually been beaten, Vera did her best to report as accurately as possible.
"Ah."
Vera, who had been writing diligently, suddenly had a thought.
"Isn't that actually a real Breath...?"
At those words, the world burst into flames.
Thanks to being the first to know about the duel between the two, I was able to snag a front-row seat.
Because of that, I was able to watch from the best spot while munching on popcorn.
"...I prefer caramel."
I was watching like that when I realized someone was plundering my popcorn.
This guy, he's already stealing a salary. Now he's stealing someone else's popcorn, too.
To think he'd even demand unrefined caramel.
I wanted to say something, but the masterpiece unfolding before my eyes—one that would easily draw ten million viewers if released in a theater—was too captivating to look away from, so I decided to save it for later.
After observing with such focus, they finally reached the point where they were both preparing their final blows.
"Hey, what's up with that...?"
"Boradori... doesn't know Dragonkin..."
Our Super Fire Spammer was becoming Super Fire Spammer 2.
If the ratio of human to dragon had been about 6 to 4 before...
Now, should I say the dragon part had become 6?
Furthermore, the way she took a deep breath reminded me of something.
"Ah."
By the time I noticed and realized what it was, a powerful heat had already struck my entire body.