Specialty / Aptitude
As Kairon continued to distinguish himself, my reputation steadily rose.
Before I could even start talking about how convenient and pleasant auto-hunting was, I had not left my role to Kairon thoughtlessly.
Of course I had intended to spread good word of mouth. I had aimed for it. Knowing his abilities, it was only natural that if he ran wild in my form, fame would come to me of its own accord.
But the ripple effects sprang up in places I had never expected.
“Master.”
Rebecca dropped to her knees and clasped her hands together.
“Please teach me the sword.”
It was because I had somehow become famous as an outstanding swordsman.
“I beg of you!”
I had gotten myself tangled up with the Academy’s swordsmanship otaku.
What a headache.
I had drawn every eye and spread rumors specifically to help Amelia—never imagining I would pull Rebecca’s aggro. And of course it was because Kairon was far too strong a swordsman.
“Master!”
Rebecca still kept her head bowed. Smooth golden hair half-tied back; fluorescent hairpins crossed near the corners of her eyes. They glittered. I almost imagined I could hear the sound effect.
Even if she asks me to teach her, I don’t know the first thing about handling a sword.
One of my combat methods was to pour heavily buffed spirits into armor or a blade and use them that way… but the sword I carried around was little more than a stick for storing spirits. I stocked them cheap, mainly from whatever was on discount at any random weapon shop.
“Hmm.”
Even so, I could not simply turn Rebecca away. Setting aside that suspended third-year, she was the only heroine I had barely exchanged a few words with so far. Now that a heroine had walked straight into my net, it felt wasteful to let the chance slip. If I failed to snatch her up here, an event with Laward might start. On top of that, an unexpected variable had appeared recently—for some reason one of Rebecca’s endings had locked. I might be missing something already; I could not afford to waste more time.
So…
“Hmmmm.”
I stared down at the crown of Rebecca’s abundant hair and thought long and hard. Wait… something about Rebecca’s hair seemed…
“Master?”
In the middle of my thoughts she jerked her head up. Her face was full of expectation for my answer.
Just go for it?
But a lie only begets more lies, doesn’t it?
“Very well.”
I decided. I already had far too many secrets. What difference would one more make?
“R-really…?”
“Of course. I’m your sponsor, aren’t I? I’m simply glad you’re the one asking to learn.”
Once the decision was made, the lies came pouring out smoothly. As always.
“Wonderful!”
The pitiful kneeling face vanished in an instant; she sprang up and charged at me. I barely dodged, only to be hit by a pleasant fragrance instead.
“I still don’t understand why a mage is so obsessed with swordsmanship, but…”
“Please take care of me!”
Rebecca clasped her hands again and bowed deeply at the waist.
“So when exactly were you planning to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Don’t play dumb. From the very first day I became an Academy sponsor I looked through all of your school records.”
The moment I brought up her student file, the ease drained from Rebecca’s expression. She looked like an applicant who already knew regular admissions were a lost cause.
“Your first-year grades. Last year’s entrance scores.”
“Th-that’s…”
It was different from Ester, who had failed to turn a weakness into a strength, and different again from Amelia, who was deliberately hiding her own abilities.
“Why is there no record?”
Completely blank. No entrance scores from last year. A ghost student, pure and simple. And even the “Specialty / Aptitude” field on Ester’s file—where it had at least said she was “struggling with mana control”—was the same.
“It was empty.”
Blank. Erased.
“You and the Academy are both deliberately hiding something.”
“U-umm…”
She let out a low sound and hesitated. Was she wrestling with the same choice I had just made—whether to lie or not? Was it Rebecca’s turn now?
“Don’t even think about lying.”
“U-ugh… it’s not that.”
“I could dig it out of the chairman myself, but I’m giving you the chance to speak. If you refuse, I can always go digging into your past.”
Into those unnaturally erased blanks.
“I’ll talk!”
“Smart decision.”
“But… one month from now!”
“One month?”
“I promise. One month from now I’ll tell you everything.”
Rebecca thrust out her pinky in a rush.
“Hmm.”
Not the cleanest answer, but I could wait a little longer. It was a good opportunity to build trust with a heroine. And it wasn’t as if I was asking because I truly didn’t know.
“When the time comes I might not remember, so please remind me first.”
“…All right.”
“So!”
Clap!
Rebecca slapped her hands together hard, changing the mood completely.
“What should I start with?”
Ah, right. I had agreed to teach her the sword.
“That… will also be in one month…”
“Eh…”
Rebecca’s face fell into genuine, serious disappointment.
“I was being completely sincere.”
What, so it’s fine for you but not for me?
“I already know. Everyone’s been buzzing about you lately, Master. Anyone who matters already knows.”
“I didn’t realize you were interested in the throne.”
“A little. Though what I’m really interested in are the candidates’ partners.”
As if she had prepared for exactly this moment, Rebecca pulled a notebook from her small handbag. It was a scrapbook she had made by cutting out newspaper articles herself.
“From ancient times, the partners of succession candidates—knights, that is—have been powerhouses gathered from every corner of the country. I’m sure you already know that, Master!”
Flip, flip.
Rebecca leafed through the pages at speed.
“Do you know how shocked I was when I saw this?”
It was an article declaring that I was Amelia’s knight.
…I hadn’t meant the pun.
Either way, once Rebecca had cut it out and pasted it in, there was no more room for excuses. And there was no way I could say that wasn’t me—that it was Kairon.
Flip-flip-flip.
The scrapbook turned again. Almost every page was about Kairon’s exploits.
“I made up my mind the moment I saw this! No matter what, I had to become this person’s disciple…! Master’s Hundred Blades, One Flash! I absolutely have to learn it!”
What even is that?
The journalist writing the article had clearly overdone it. I could not picture the taciturn Kairon shouting out a technique name he had invented himself while swinging a sword. Though imagining it was… oddly entertaining?
“Ah, this is the last page. I was wondering why there hadn’t been any news lately…”
Rebecca looked up at my face and smiled contentedly.
“I guess it’s because you were right here—”
She spoke as if she knew everything… but she was wrong. The real reason Kairon’s recent exploits had stopped being updated was almost certainly that the Death God Cult had begun to take notice. Those bastards must have realized something was off and decided to pause their activities and watch for a while.
“Next time, please tell me the stories yourself.”
Rebecca smiled as she put the notebook away. Looking closer, I saw notebooks of other colors as well.
“Ah, these are articles about the other knights.”
“You’ve been collecting every article about the succession candidates’ knights.”
…I truly had no intention of making puns. If I could have replaced the words, I would have.
“Yes! Most of them are swordsmen, so researching them is actually fun—”
She seemed to have a habit of gathering and writing down absolutely everything. It didn’t match the personality I had expected. Besides the ones in her bag, there were probably many more similar scrapbooks.
“Try studying like that.”
Ah. I couldn’t hold it in.
“Swordsmanship is training, not studying!”
But the damage didn’t land at all…
“So, what should I start with?”
Fine. I, who knew nothing about swordsmanship, had just figured out how I was going to teach Rebecca.
“A spar.”
“A spar right away? With you, Master?”
“No.”
I slowly extended a finger and pointed at the fellow who happened to be walking past me.
“Oh, Eunsanim!”
Laward greeted me cheerfully—unlike Rebecca, whose brows knotted.
“…With him?”
I nodded calmly. Laward no longer had any rivals left in the Academy. The only ones remaining were the heroines; if Rebecca sparred with him, she could raise her stats with ease. Under normal circumstances—and if this had been first semester me—I would never have considered pairing Laward and Rebecca. I wouldn’t even have let them exchange casual conversation.
But now that one of her endings had locked without my noticing, at least Rebecca’s favorability toward Laward could not be high. I would put the two of them together and observe. I chose the spar to uncover why Rebecca’s ending had locked.
“What, don’t want to?”
“N-no! It’s not that I don’t want to…”
Rebecca hesitated for a moment, then her eyes filled with resolve.
“He’s just someone I don’t particularly want to get close to. But since it’s Master’s order…!”
Until now it had always been Laward who rejected and refused the heroines.
—It would be best if you stayed out of my sight.
—I find you repulsive.
—In that case, Senior… you are a target for purification.
Or, like Amelia, there had simply been no point of contact at all. Rebecca was none of those things. She was different. At some point, she had become different.
“I’ll do it. Not that I plan on losing to trash like that.”
…What is going on with her?
As if determined to prove her words, Rebecca pressed hard from the start.
Clang! Cla-clang!
Footwork that almost danced, sword paths built around curves. At a glance the movements looked soft, yet the force riding the tip of her blade displayed the kind of power one would expect from a perfectly straight swing.
Crash!
Laward, face startled, knocked her blade aside. From the beginning he had done nothing but knock it aside.
A mage who loved the sword, swordsmanship, and swordsmen themselves—Rebecca. Her claim that she aimed to become a Sword Saint had clearly not been made in jest. She extended the tip of her foot and the tip of her blade with confidence. Laward regulated his breathing, careful not to get dragged into her rhythm. Watch carefully. Block precisely.
Laward had not decided to do nothing but defend, either. He attempted counter after counter, but Rebecca anticipated even those and shut them down. One move ahead—sometimes two. Even to my untrained eye it was obvious she was thoroughly accustomed to the sword.
And yet her essential nature as a mage still remained.
…Can she use magic on top of that as well?
Watching the spar with the Favorability Scouter active let me see even more. Rebecca was more skilled with the sword than I had expected. Even so, she was still superior with magic. And—
“Laward. What do you think you’re doing?”
I stepped in midway and stopped the match.
“…I apologize for the unsightly display, Eunsanim.”
Laward looked truly flustered, as if he had never imagined such a powerhouse was hidden in the Academy.
“Unsightly display?”
“I-I’ll try again.”
“You know that isn’t what I’m talking about.”
The Scouter made it even clearer.
“Why haven’t you been using your divine power this whole time?”
Laward had not even wrapped divine power around his sword, let alone manifested a halo. According to the Scouter his divine power was S-Rank—already grown to the absolute peak—and yet.