Senior-Junior Exchange Match (6)

I had obtained one item, but there was still a long way to go. There were six days left until the senior-junior exchange match. Hint raced across the entire academy as if his feet were on fire.

Leaving Stelle alone weighed on his mind a little, but fortunately she seemed to have other things to do.

The first place Hint visited was Fenrir, the Ice Snow Wolf.

“Since you’ve already decided to help me, I was wondering if I could ask for a little more assistance.”

“Could I possibly receive some of your breath and fur for this bottle?”

“Hehe, thank you. By the way, Stelle seems quite busy lately. Do you happen to know what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she’s up to?”

“What is it? Do you have some business with me?”

“I heard a rumor that things aren’t going well with your boyfriend lately—”

“Even if a duel with the president is scheduled, if you cross the line, I will kill you.”

“Hehe. But this won’t be a losing proposition for Vice President Shion either. Please hear me out.”

“…Fine. But if it’s nothing important, you’d better be prepared.”

“If it is something important, could you grant me one favor?”

“Sure, as many as you want.”

Shion, the academy’s greatest buffer and supporter. I had gone to the vice president to request her cooperation.

“Ohh! Aren’t you the young master Hint who’s been the talk of the academy lately! What business do you have with this humble one?”

“Nice to meet you, Battle Smith, Senior Kiri. I have an item I’d like to commission.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, young master Hint. I’m not taking personal commissions right now.”

“Hehe. Consider this my sincerity first. Take a look and then decide.”

“Hmm…?! This is… the fur of a legendary divine beast! Young master Hint, where on earth did you get this?!”

“I have a personal, and quite regular, method of obtaining it.”

“Goodness… I’ve made a mistake. Please, have a seat. Young master Hint. I will craft whatever you desire.”

I had visited Senior Kiri, the S-class combat blacksmith known as Battle Smith, and commissioned a weapon.

“What do you want. Get lost. You’ll die.”

“Nice to meet you, the continent’s renowned Steel Sword, Senior Elde.”

“…I won’t repeat myself.”

“Hehe. I’ve come to make a formal request.”

“Get lost. You think someone like you can commission me?”

“Even if the reward is information about the enemy who killed your father… could you lower that blade? It’s quite frightening.”

“Speak. If you don’t want to die.”

“Mercenary Elde. I want a legitimate request. I provide the information, and you fulfill one of my requests in return.”

“…Those fearless eyes of yours are to my liking. Speak. If what you say is true, I, Steel Sword Elde, will not refuse any single request you make.”

“I like how straightforward you are. Your mortal enemy is—”

Using the Mercenary King Elde, I obtained two hidden pieces that were still impossible for me to acquire on my own. When I said one was disappointing, he gave me two. As expected from such a hot-blooded senior.

Hint examined the anti-Hina Lionhart equipment he had prepared inside his room.

“One, two, three… The numbers still don’t add up.”

He could definitely block up to five exchanges, but after that it would be entirely his own domain. Luck and miracles wouldn’t work anymore.

Hint smiled bitterly as he gently stroked both of his arms.

“I’m sorry… You’ll have to work hard tomorrow.”

Stroking the arms that would undoubtedly be battered all over the place tomorrow, Hint fell asleep.

The senior-junior exchange match.

While it was a major event and a long-standing academy tradition, it wasn’t usually a time when the entire school became particularly excited. Normally, seniors and juniors would exchange a few blows, give each other feedback, and that was it. The kind of blood-boiling deathmatch people imagined simply didn’t happen.

But today was different.

The academy’s grand dueling arena, Audetium—an ancient word meaning courage—felt unusually heated today. Although seniors and juniors were sparring on the central stage, everyone in the stands seemed completely uninterested in the matches. Instead, they kept stealing glances at two particular students.

The center of attention.

The crazy freshman who had dared to challenge Hina Lionhart.

Hint.

And while less sensational, the other was a talent who had ranked first in the entrance exam despite being in F-class—a feat unseen in a thousand years.

Stelle.

Normally, anyone in F-class would be harassed, but no one had the guts to mess with these two right now.

“Ahaha… They’re staring really hard.”

“Hehe. It’s the fate of celebrities. You’ll get used to it, Stelle.”

Whether others were staring or not, Hint was focused on the C-class freshman and sophomore fighting on stage.

“Haaaa!!!”

“Fast. Heavy too. But that’s not how you use a dagger.”

Both were dagger users. The difference was that the sophomore used dual blades.

The sophomore effortlessly parried every one of the freshman’s storm-like consecutive strikes. An astonishing display of skill. Was there really this much of a gap just from surviving one more year at the academy? Hint watched the match with great interest.

“If you want fast and heavy attacks, switch to a sword. Daggers don’t suit you.”

After deflecting every attack, the senior counterattacked. He deliberately slowed his strikes, yet each one was so sharp that the freshman could barely block them. The small dagger blade was difficult to defend against; even when the freshman tried to knock them away, red lines gradually appeared across his body.

“The advantage short, light daggers have over other weapons is their size and sharpness. You can draw out maximum potential with minimal movement, and their uniquely small blades make them hard to block.”

“Kuh…! Haaaaap!!”

When the senior deliberately created distance, the freshman seized the chance, gripping his dagger with both hands and raising it high. Of course, the senior wasn’t about to let that happen.

An thrust at a speed too fast to perceive. The dagger stopped right in front of the freshman’s throat.

“Good work.”

“…Thank you for the lesson!”

“You still have a long way to go. Come find me if you need help, junior.”

“…Yes!”

With that, the spar ended. It might have been a boring match to the high-class students, but Hint had watched it with intense fascination.

‘That technique the freshman was about to use just now. That was definitely Dagger Strike.’

Dagger Strike. A basic dagger skill where you grip the weapon with both hands, raise it high, and after a short casting time, slam it down on the enemy. Even if guarded, it inflicts 0.2 seconds of stun. If it hits, it deals massive bleed damage and nearly a full second of stun.

In the game it was considered a bit outdated because the casting time was too long for close-range dagger users, but that wasn’t the important part—

‘Normal dagger techniques didn’t look that slow, but that Dagger Strike almost looked like slow motion to me.’

Hint was a modern person. He had barely any real fighting experience; most of his knowledge of action came from behind a monitor.

Thanks to Fenrir’s blessing, his stats had risen enough that he could hold his own against E and D-class students in pure stats. But C-class and above were a different story. The dagger techniques that had looked slow to others had still seemed very fast to him.

Yet when his opponent used a technique he already knew, it appeared almost in slow motion.

‘Perhaps this is the clue I’ve been looking for… the key to fighting against so-called extras who aren’t main characters.’

Feeling slightly sorry for the other students, Hint waited to analyze the next match as well.

Along with Vice President Shion’s announcement, Audetium erupted.

The roar was loud enough to burst eardrums.

The entire arena shook with the appearance of the main event everyone had been waiting for. As Hint stood there stunned by the unimaginable heat of the crowd, someone leaped from the opposite stands.

“I’ve been waiting.”

With a thunderous boom, Hina Lionhart jumped straight from the stands onto the stage in a single bound. Her flashy entrance poured fuel on the fire; Audetium shook even harder.

Hina lightly lifted her greatsword—which was larger than her own body—with one hand and pointed it at Hint.

“Get down here, kid! You’re not running away, are you?”

A clear provocation. Bathed in the endlessly rising heat of Audetium, Hint descended onto the stage. Many people expressed doubt at the sight of the boy stepping forward with apparently empty hands.

“Hehe. Why would I run away from victory?”

Maintaining as much composure as possible, Hint stood facing Hina. Seeing this, Hina felt her breath quicken.

Truly delighted by the appearance of such an interesting junior, Hina sheathed her sword with a sense of infinite gratitude.

“I’ll give you a bit of a handicap, so don’t worry too much, kid. Your nervousness is showing all over your face.”

Hina had no intention of using her unique skills in this fight. Her intuition couldn’t be turned off even if she wanted to, but the moment she brought out the Lion’s Heart and Flame Mane, this would no longer be a spar. It would be closer to one-sided violence.

“Nervous? This is simply the joy of earning the student council president’s free-use ticket.”

“Haha. Yeah, that’s good enough.”

Hint’s hands trembled slightly as he refused to yield in momentum. Pushing any further would be cruel.

Hina grinned and adjusted her grip on her sword.

“Do whatever you want. Use any means or methods, kid. Bet everything you have. If you can endure ten exchanges, it’s your win.”

“Sounds good.”

The two took their stances without another word.

Hina was ready to burst forward at any moment, while Hint smiled and slipped his hand into his pocket. Audetium fell momentarily silent.

Yet the heat from the stands never cooled; it simply waited to explode.

The vice president’s declaration to start the match released the boiling energy of the crowd. Amid ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the deafening roar that shook the massive stone structure, Hina took the initiative.

‘Let’s start off light for now.’

Hina Lionhart had never once considered the possibility of her own defeat.

She had told him to endure ten exchanges, but honestly, she would have been satisfied if he could just deflect her first strike with that Parry. Still, ending it too quickly would be boring, and she wanted to encourage her clearly nervous junior whose hands were already shaking. So she would start lightly.

Of course, even that “light” strike would be a one-hit kill to Hint. If he fell to just that much, then that was as far as this junior could go.

With a stomp that seemed to shatter the arena floor, Hina’s body accelerated explosively. It was a super-high-speed charge that Hint’s eyes could barely follow.

That was when Hina’s intuition screamed in alarm like crazy.

“You said ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I could use any means necessary—”

Instead of swinging his arm to deflect the greatsword as she had expected, Hint pulled something out of his pocket.

A small bottle. The contents were opaque and hard to see, but Hint yanked the string and opened the lid.

“—because it’s you, Senior?”

Hina was sent flying backward even faster than she had charged, slamming into the wall right below the stands.

An unexpected situation that no one in the audience had anticipated. As if trying to cool the insane heat that had been burning in Audetium just moments ago, snow began to fall from the sky.

Hint dropped the bottle he had been holding.

—Clatter…

The sound of the bottle rolling across the floor echoed through Audetium.

In a situation where no one could even open their mouths, only Hint was smiling.

“That’s one exchange, Senior.”