I Forfeit
I forfeit.
The moment Hakan reflexively touched his shoulder and pulled his hand away, it came back soaked in blood.
“Ha… hah…”
He forced a smile, but he couldn’t completely hide the bewilderment on his face. The referee turned to him with an equally startled look. Hakan, for his part, simply showed his bloodied palm and signaled that he was fine.
“I’ve never even heard of magic like this! What kind of trick did you pull?”
Hakan shouted, but Laward only pointed at him with a fingertip in reply.
One more step.
Whoosh!
It came flying.
Thud!
Even though Hakan twisted his entire body to dodge, it wasn’t enough.
“Kh…!”
His left thigh was punched clean through and he lost his center. If he hadn’t planted his sword into the ground, he would have gone down right then and there.
“Not a unique magic— the extreme of the basics, is it.”
Two consecutive direct hits. Hakan reset his stance, now wary of Laward’s magic.
“Since you’re compressing mana into a single point, the amount you burn must be considerable.”
As Hakan narrowed his eyes and muttered, Laward’s halo flickered faintly. Just as Hakan had predicted, Laward had poured most of his mana into those two attacks.
“Isn’t that right!”
Hakan recovered his confidence and closed the distance.
Whoosh—!
In an instant he was there, delivering a single stroke. Hakan’s longsword scythed toward Laward.
Clang!
Laward set his blade edge-down and blocked. But the difference in raw power was not something he could overcome. Hakan’s sword shoved back not only Laward’s blade but both of his arms at once. While being driven backward, Laward barely kept his footing and re-gripped his sword.
Both of them realized it at the same moment.
For either side, defense was no longer an option— whether against Hakan’s monstrous arm strength or Laward’s Holy Light Emission. Evasion was the only way.
Hummm—!
Laward summoned light to his fingertips.
“Not a chance!”
Hakan charged straight in, refusing to give him even a second to gather mana.
Swish!
As Laward twisted away from the swinging blade, the light that had formed at his fingertips winked out. Hakan grinned. An expression that said he’d found the answer.
Just don’t give him time.
Hakan poured on a relentless flurry.
Swish-swish-swish!
Laward dodged well enough, but with all his focus locked on Hakan’s sword path—
“There.”
He missed the feint.
Crunch!
Hakan’s right foot slammed into Laward’s ribs.
“Guh!”
Laward groaned and staggered. But—
Grip—
He clamped onto Hakan’s leg and barely held his ground.
“…What.”
“That spot got broken not long ago. I’ve been training it hard.”
Laward smiled like a vile little villain as he squeezed Hakan’s leg even tighter.
“There’s no way that would work…”
Hakan shook his head in disbelief— and in that instant Laward coughed up blood.
“Yeah… there’s no way that would work…”
“You, on the other hand… it must be hard to keep standing on that leg.”
Where Laward’s gaze dropped was Hakan’s left leg, the one with the hole punched through it.
“Isn’t that right?”
The left leg that had been supporting his weight in that state sprayed blood as if screaming. If the standoff continued like this, Hakan would hit his limit as well.
Just as Laward lifted one leg to stomp down on Hakan’s injured one—
Whoosh!
Hakan made a short jump while swinging his sword from below to above. Abandoning his center of gravity and entrusting his body to gravity, he slashed with everything he had. He deliberately fell while swinging the blade.
“I knew he was a crazy bastard, but…”
I muttered quietly, and the headmaster turned his head to look at me.
“Hm?”
“I didn’t think Hakan would try to finish it right there. At least he has a gambler’s spirit.”
He means to end it.
Laward must know that as well. If this attack fails, Hakan will simply collapse in an unsightly heap. They had been trading swings and dodges over the span of a single second— or even less. If he hit the floor in the middle of that, it would be as good as confirming Laward’s victory on the spot.
But both Hakan and Laward were men willing to stake everything on that single move.
“Uraaaah!”
Hakan roared as he thrust. The distance was already so close that he’d grabbed the leg; Laward hadn’t secured enough space to evade. So he could only block. Even knowing that the difference in raw strength would shove him back, Laward put every ounce of power into meeting Hakan’s single stroke with his own blade.
Kaaang—!
The two swords collided with a roar that seemed ready to tear eardrums. The final single stroke succeeded. Laward blocked Hakan’s attack— but the impact felt like facing a hammer rather than a sword, and he lost his grip on Holiday.
Whirl—
The sword spun up into the air with a bright ping. Hakan, who had flopped down at the same instant as the stroke, looked up at the blade gleaming in the sunlight above his head. And he smiled with absolute certainty.
Hakan bounced up onto one knee. There was no time to stand fully. When he tried to swing from that half-seated position—
Laward’s both hands were right in front of his eyes. Close enough that those palms completely filled Hakan’s vision.
“You. Forgot about this.”
Boooom—!
Hit point-blank by Laward’s stun magic right in front of his face, Hakan was driven into the ground.
“…Kh!”
Both men groaned at once. Hakan had been slammed hard enough to crack the arena floor; from the rebound, Laward’s right shoulder dislocated. Even as he groaned through the searing pain, Laward stretched up his remaining arm— his left.
Thud.
The sword that had flown into the air settled into his hand.
Hummm—
Then he filled the blade with divine power. Gathering every last drop that remained, he painted the blade with sunlight. Raising that arm high overhead, he focused his mind.
Seeing that sight, I couldn’t help but snort a laugh. Before my regression, when the monastery was attacked— my own appearance back then somehow overlapped with his. Laward had hoped to turn the magic I taught him into a unique magic of his own. But in the end, ending up resembling me was unavoidable, was it?
Whoosh.
In that moment Laward lightly— from above to below— swung his sword. But the divine power released from the tip was not light at all. A blade of energy as tall as a fortress wall. Immense mass came crashing down on Hakan like a tidal wave.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa—!
When the divine power that had sliced the arena in half and charged at Hakan gradually faded, Hakan collapsed, clutching his broken sword.
I expected cheers to erupt at once, but the stands were surprisingly quiet. As if no one had quite found their sense of reality yet, not a single voice rose. After some unknown stretch of time—
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
A roar finally exploded from the Academy side of the stands. Even the Military Academy and Theological School sections that had been cheering for Hakan joined in. Some offered quiet applause or wore long faces, but most of them sent their congratulations toward Laward.
“Daywin! Did you see that? That’s Laward! That’s the Laward we raised!”
Beside me the headmaster was, needless to say, beside himself with excitement.
“Ugh…”
Naturally, Headmistress Simena on the opposite side hung her head with a gloomy expression.
“Headmistress, what do you intend to do now?”
“…Pardon?”
“The championship prize. I believe you said you would award a treasure of the Military Academy.”
As if she had only just remembered, Simena’s face grew even darker.
“Ah, well…”
“Surely you don’t mean to go back on your word.”
Before she could say anything, I cut off her escape route in advance.
“You yourself said this Dowon Festival would become a symbolic one— where a relic of a hero is passed down to the genius of the current generation.”
“Yes… I did… say that.”
“It seems that genius wasn’t Hakan.”
“……”
Simena slipped away without answering.
“Haha! Truly a historic day! Now the finals will be between Academy students! It’s the championship— the championship! The Academy’s victory is confirmed! Just how many new students will we get next year… heh, heh-heh…”
The headmaster raised both hands and crowed. When I gave a light laugh, he thrust those hands even closer toward me.
“Hm?”
Ah. Right.
Smack—
I lightly slapped his palm with one hand.
“Oh— Headmistress. When did you get all the way down there?”
At the headmaster’s words I looked at the arena; at some point Simena had already climbed onto it. She shared a blue light with Hakan. The wounds on his battered body began to close.
“I didn’t expect the headmistress herself to heal him.”
“Which only means… the weight on Hakan’s shoulders will grow that much heavier.”
Just as he said, Hakan accepted Simena’s healing with the face of a sinner. He seemed to say something to her, but Simena offered him not a single word. Afterward she lifted her head and looked at Laward.
“Student.”
“…Me?”
“Yes. Come sit here.”
When Laward sat opposite Hakan with a blank look, Simena extended a hand toward him as well. Laward’s wounds slowly closed.
“Th-thank… you.”
“You somehow found Hakan’s weak point. Did Daywin tell you?”
“Pardon? I don’t know what you mean…”
“No need to pretend. The match is already over.”
“No— I never knew anything about a weak point to begin with. My teacher didn’t particularly tell me anything either.”
“So you’re saying you really just charged in for a frontal contest without any plan?”
“Well… yes. That’s right.”
Because Laward answered honestly, Simena’s expression grew even more complicated. After that the three of them left the arena, and the stage was cleared in an instant.
“Ah, it’s almost Rebecca and Lucia’s semifinal. Who do you think will win? Not that it matters who wins anymore! Ahaha!”
“You’ve finally memorized all the names, I see.”
“Of course! Do you know what kind of students those two are? They’re the talents who will make the Academy shine!”
Setting aside the headmaster’s slippery attitude, if I had to say who would win—
“Lucia will win.”
“Ah, of course… she was incredible earlier too. Her opponent was a Military Academy student, wasn’t it? Dropped without even exchanging a single blow. That poor kid must feel so wronged.”
“And she’ll lose in the finals.”
“Pardon?”
“I can tell just from her face.”
Among the heroines, Lucia is the one I’ve watched the longest and most often. Even without turning on the scouter, I can roughly read her condition from her expression alone by now.
“She looks ready to die of sleepiness.”
Her nocturnal constitution was flaring up again.
In the semifinals, Lucia overwhelmed Rebecca just as expected. But that was as far as it went. The moment the match ended, dark circles dropped under her eyes like something out of a cartoon, and even after receiving Simena’s healing she walked with a stagger.
And so, when the finals finally began—
“I forfeit.”
Contrary to the heated expectations of the students, Lucia barely managed to force out that single sentence before collapsing.
With the finals ending so anticlimactically, the Dowon Festival drew toward its close.
Before the closing ceremony came the awards. The Academy had taken the sparring championship; adding those points to the overall score, they stood proudly in first place. It was their first victory in thirty-three years. Academy students were moved beyond words that they shared a school with the golden generation that had just been born, and the headmaster wept openly.
A laurel prepared by the Military Academy settled onto Laward’s head; he looked my way and beamed. It was obvious that Hakan’s name had been hastily peeled off the wreath, but Laward didn’t seem to notice, so I pretended not to either.
Bang!
Just as Simena finished placing the laurel on Laward and straightened her posture, fireworks exploded. The very fireworks Veronica and I had brought. They were large and magnificent enough that the trouble of hauling them by train felt worthwhile.
And then—
—!
Along with the chime of the system window, it was time to open the reward.
The protagonist’s victory.
The reward was a random one-rank increase to a single stat.
At first I had wanted [Stamina] or [Strength]. Just looking at how he was outmatched by Hakan, whose two stats were S-rank, made it clear those were abilities Laward needed. Of course, with Laward’s talent they would rise naturally over time— but faster wouldn’t hurt.
But now it was different.
[Intelligence]!
Please, [Intelligence]!
I clasped both hands tightly and prayed to the goddess for only the second time in my life. Please give Laward intelligence. Between the earlier mix-up about the finals being the “second round” and everything else, I couldn’t leave him an uneducated fool forever. Sending him to school and assuming [Intelligence] would rise on its own had been my mistake. He intended to keep pouring time into physical training from now on; if I missed this chance, there might never be another opportunity to raise [Intelligence].
So please.
With my eyes half-lidded, I slowly moved the palm that had been covering the system notification. The alert that one of Laward’s stats had risen by a rank came into view. Beneath it was written which stat it was.
I took a deep breath, then whipped my palm away.
Dowon Festival Champion Reward: Stat rank has increased!
[Divine Power] S → [Divine Power] SS
What is this.
It could go even higher…?