The Shame of Showing Your Skin
As the final moments of the preliminaries approached, the stands in the stadium began to thin out. Spectators began to flow in.
Although it was only the preliminaries, from this point onward, there was no way back to the losers' bracket, so in truth it was almost the start of the main round.
Academy students who had risen through outstanding performances, academy students who had reversed defeat after defeat in the losers' bracket—every element that audiences loved was here.
This time, external guests joined the audience, and the heat in the stands soared to the sky.
"Iya, Mia's made it to the fifth match! That's impressive. The little chubby kid who couldn't do anything last year has grown a whole year and is showing dazzling performances. The seniors ought to be watching and learning. Right? Seniors who couldn't even pass the fourth match?"
Rai leaned forward and looked at Philia and Abigail in the seat beside him.
They had fought until they were exhausted, reaching a draw due to exhaustion.
A draw. Both had been eliminated.
Now that they had been eliminated, they had recovered their bodies with miracles and potions, but at the time they had fallen unconscious after taking severe wounds, so they had not participated in the losers' bracket matches.
Thanks to that, someone who would have been Abigail's losers' bracket opponent had done nothing and advanced to the fifth round.
Rai kept smiling slyly and watching, but the two did not meet his gaze.
"Iya—seniors are cheering, and Mia must be so happy? Right? Seniors who couldn't even pass the fourth match."
No matter how much he ignored them, Rai kept teasing until the end, and Philia and Abigail simply stared at the stadium, their bodies trembling with an emotion they could not tell if it was anger or shame.
"It's because of you."
"Me? The one who went crazy wasn't me?"
"Claiming to be smart yet unable to tell the difference in skill—your eyes are the problem."
"If anyone heard you, they'd think you won."
Rai's words were completely ignored, but Philia and Abigail answered every comment with one sentence, refusing to support each other at all.
Staring fixedly at the stadium while sparring with their elbows looked childish.
Rai deliberately stood up and entered their field of view, flashing a smile.
"Seniors who couldn't even pass the fourth match, if you two want to argue who is better, your results are still lower than Mia's."
Rai was clearly in their field of view, yet Philia treated him like an invisible man and continued to avoid looking at him, letting out a sigh.
"I am reflecting on myself too. Falling for such a juvenile provocation... I'm still lacking."
"I am too. I should have properly defeated you."
"Thanks for filling in what I couldn't say behind my back."
Although they were still bickering, the two had learned a great deal from this match.
Perhaps when the time came to get swept away by emotions on the battlefield, they might make slightly more rational judgments based on this experience.
Rai noticed the regret in the pupils of the two people who would not meet his eyes and chuckled as he sat back down.
Asran entered the stadium.
"Hey—"
Asran greeted him happily, but Mia turned deathly pale and gave an awkward greeting.
The combat method that centered on defense was currently drawing the attention of all the academy students.
The Crescent Shield, which used vast mana, served as a shield but was extremely useful because both hands were free.
Although thick, it did not block like a shield but left openings for attack.
It was a trap, so when a predictable straightforward attack came in, Mia could easily defend.
But there was no time to leisurely observe the weakness right in front of her.
If time was wasted, giant mana spheres filled with mana called Akasha's Gem would be generated one by one.
The fact that the speed of creating mana spheres was slow was fortunate, considering she had only mastered mana control for less than a year.
Many academy students had targeted Mia by trying to prevent her from creating mana spheres and to break through the Crescent's defense.
And they had been waiting to see how Asran would break it.
"S-Slowly, please, Asran-senpai."
"Eh? If you've come this far, you should be confident. I believe in your skill. I'll give it my all too."
Mia's heart was burning with the desire to spit blood.
According to his words, her confidence in her skill had gradually grown, but she really did not want to fight this match.
There was no chance of winning, but Asran was her hard counter, so she thought it would be better to fight Abigail or Philia instead.
"Start."
"Seniors! Slowly, slowly!"
Asran charged forward with his greatsword drawn, and Mia shouted urgently while retreating backward.
The Crescent Shield wrapped around her with exotic movements, threatening that the protruding spear blade would not approach, but Asran launched his attack with terrifying momentum.
His stance lowered, and the tendons on Asran's forearm bulged as he swung the greatsword almost dragging it along the ground.
"Uaaaaah!!"
It was not a technique using mana. It was simply a horizontal swing, but the pressure from the blade created cracks in the floor and sent fragments flying.
—Whoosh
When a heavy sound that one could not believe was from a sword rang out, Mia reached out her spear to deflect it, but the powerful force made the spear rebound instead.
As if completely ignoring the Crescent Shield that enveloped her, Asran swung his greatsword.
—Clang!
"Kyah—!"
The Crescent Shield could not withstand the force of the greatsword and bounced away, dragging Mia far away.
Every audience member's head looked up.
Mia, whose waist was bent by the Crescent Shield and who was being shot straight into the sky, stretched out.
Asran, blankly looking up at the sky, noticed that Mia had fainted and walked to the falling position to catch her.
"... ... W-Winner Asran!"
The referee, also flustered, belatedly declared the winner and showed a heroic home run, and cheers erupted from the audience.
"A brute who is only strong."
Abigail frowned, displeased, and the expressions of the other academy students were not good either.
She had shown Mia's tactic of neutralizing the Crescent Shield, but that had only been possible because it was Asran.
It had been a home run as if mocking her fellow students who had pondered tactics while hesitating.
"If there's no strength, your head gets the hard work."
Rai's chuckle represented the hearts of all the academy students.
"Then is there only Asran among us who made it to the main round? Half of the main round entrants are second-years. From the perspective of someone who teaches, that's a bit embarrassing."
He glanced at Philia and Abigail with a look of regret.
He had not meant to blame anyone specifically, but the two felt that the Rai who taught them had been humiliated.
His personal instruction was excellent without a doubt, yet this incident would tarnish his reputation.
Given his laid-back personality, he probably did not care about reputation, but for the students, their faces were pinched because of him.
The two people's calm, sinking pupils returned to the stage.
The two had vowed to advance next time.
* * *
"Diana! Fight hard for the main round!"
"Got it! Give me all your strength."
"Eh? What are you doing?"
Diana wrapped her hands around herself with both hands, and the academy students blinked in surprise and asked.
"Stealing Helena's strength. I have to use it in the main round."
"Ahahaha, are you turning into a succubus?"
"By the way, can you share some of your regular stuff with us from Helena's bed?"
While teasing the academy students and receiving their cheers, Diana smiled brightly and headed toward the stadium.
Although she had been given a day's rest to recover condition, since Diana had easily advanced through the preliminaries, her condition had been at its peak from the very beginning.
She was not the previous year's champion, yet she had received more attention and glory than the champion.
Thanks to that, most of her opponents in the preliminaries had forfeited.
The only match Diana had fought in the preliminaries was the fifth round, which decided the main round ticket.
Even that had been a tattered opponent who had barely made it through the losers' bracket, so Diana had easily suppressed her and advanced to the main round without any trouble.
But the problem was the main round.
For some reason, she met Violet again in the first main round match.
While showing a relaxed appearance in front of her friends, Diana took a small breath to calm her heart.
It was not just idly saying Violet and Sozeta were the "Genius of a Thousand Years."
The skill that Violet had shown briefly during the semester had grown to the point where the phrase "growing rapidly" was actually an understatement.
Knowing Violet's skill well, Diana closed her eyes and entered a meditative state, feeling tense.
"Good, let's go."
When she opened her eyes, she stood up with a bright smile.
The tense appearance from earlier had completely disappeared, returning to her usual relaxed and free-spirited atmosphere.
Seeing Violet's dazed expression from the stage earlier, Diana laughed.
She was still a girl who looked sloppy and foolish.
However, once the battle began, she transformed into a terrifying monster.
Hoping that the goddess of victory would smile at her again this year as she had last year, Diana drew her sword.
"..."
As the two's match reached its climax, the stands became deathly silent.
Unlike the final match, which had been full of expectations and noisy with the audience chanting Violet and Diana's names at the start, the cheers for Diana had grown louder in the middle, but by the end, no one opened their mouths.
Overwhelming.
There was no word that could express Violet better than this.
Holding the tip of her sword and gazing at Diana with her dazed eyes, Violet looked down.
Diana, who had become a complete wreck, was breathing roughly with her usual bright appearance gone.
Covered in blood and dust, Diana barely managed to stand on her sword, her pupils half-lost and lacking light.
She tried to stand but her body did not obey, repeatedly falling and rising.
Watching the desperate struggle in silence, Violet spoke.
"Diana... are you okay?"
If her personality had a weak spot, she might have asked with pure concern, but to someone on their knees, it was more wounding than any insult.
Diana's lips, stretched with long veins, formed a smile.
She wanted to show her usual relaxed smile and try laughing brightly, but the trembling body and empty pupils made her smile even sadder.
"Cough—"
Diana coughed up blood and reached out a hand to stop the approaching Violet, who was worried.
She had no intention of being pitied by her opponent.
The more she pitied her, the more she herself was injured.
An unspeakable emotion gripped her heart, and Diana collapsed powerlessly.
The referee, confirming Diana's unconsciousness, declared Violet the winner and ended the match.
"..."
When Diana opened her eyes, the ceiling of the infirmary—which she had always thought she would never see in her life—came into view.
Seeing the ceiling engraved with a magic circle to prevent contamination, Diana smiled bitterly as she forced her throbbing body upright and leaned against the back.
"Are you awake?"
"..."
Rai, sitting beside the bed and eating snacks, looked at Diana with a powerless gaze.
"I... I lost... in such a pitiful way..."
"It was pitiful. The interval was all read, and I didn't respond at all to Violet's movements. My legs turned to stone and I kept circling in the narrow space."
Under the sharp criticism, Diana lowered her head.
Leaving the girl chewing her lip and breathing only small breaths, Rai rummaged through the envelope to take out and eat the delicious snacks.
The infirmary with only Diana as the patient was quiet.
Far in the distance, the sounds of the audience cheering and Rai's rustling envelope were the only gentle noises.
Staring motionlessly at her own hand, Diana asked in a voice without confidence.
"I... why did I lose... I worked hard. Does Rai-kang know?"
Rai, still looking at the head-lowered Diana, finished chewing the snack in his mouth and opened it.
"The direction of your effort was wrong."
"..."
"Practice inside the room?"
Diana's head lifted at Rai's words.
Her large pupils, as if a secret had been exposed, looked at Rai.
"Because I practiced in the narrow room, the walls and furniture probably bothered me. As a result, the interval became narrower than usual, and since the movement range was based on the width of the familiar room, I couldn't catch up with Violet's movements, which involved a lot of activity."
Seeing that Rai had observed all of her training, Diana could not say anything.
"Your hands are rough and you've treated them with potions, right? It's a tactic many assassins use, but the nerve endings become dull, making it hard to handle delicate swordsmanship. If the roughness is bothering you, use the rapier like Aria."
While blinking her eyes at Rai's flat-faced explanation, Diana let out a dry laugh.
"Rai-kang really knows everything?"
"Everything? No. Only what I know."
"Ahahahaha. I'm so embarrassed. This is the first time I've been stripped bare in front of Rai-kang. It's the feeling of showing skin to Rai-kang. Is this the red thing you want to see? Touch it, touch it. Is it hot?"
Returning to her usual appearance, Diana grabbed Rai's hand and placed it on her cheek.
The eyes that had shown a bright smile were now teary.
"I... did I really do something wrong?"
"Yeah. You fell behind by a few years."
Under the cruel words, Diana smiled emptily.
Wiping away tears that seemed about to fall by rubbing her eyes against Rai's hand, Diana looked at him with moist eyes.
"Rai-kang, let's go on a date."
"... ... Why did it turn into this?"
"I have a lot I want to tell you, and I want to try a date with Rai-kang."
After glancing at her expression and considering for a moment, Rai nodded.
"... ... I understand."
"I promised. See you tomorrow. Wear your prettiest clothes. This is my first date."
Her blue eyes were wet, but Diana smiled happily.