Club (4)
Perhaps the title of Northern Grand Duchess was not something she wore for nothing. Anastasiya cleanly cleaved the black wooden doll clean in half.
No—more than that, that sword of hers was ridiculously covetable. It had looked ordinary while still in its scabbard, yet the moment she drew it the blade swelled large and thick like the Ruyi Jingu Bang. What even was that?
Even if I was a girl right now, there was a romance about it that stirred something deep in a man’s heart.
And when she simply settled into her stance to cut, frost began to form across that massive blade; when she swung, glittering rime scattered along the arc of the sword. I could not hold back my admiration.
Jessica, too, was looking at Anastasiya with something close to awe—nothing like the way she had watched me swing.
“Amazing, amazing! I half-expected it, but I never thought you’d actually smash it! And that unusual sword, and even your breathing technique! Are you from the North by any chance?!”
“…Yes. Um… was I not supposed to destroy that wooden doll?”
Being a fellow social outcast myself, I could at least tell she was flustered. Outcasts wither and die under nothing more than other people’s attention. Jessica, an obvious social butterfly, seemed completely oblivious to how an outcast’s heart worked.
“What? Not at all! We made it so that if you can break it, you’re welcome to try! It looks shabby, but that wood is ridiculously hard! You usually need to be a vice-captain at least to cut it in half—I never imagined a freshman would pull it off so stylishly!”
“…You flatter me.”
“Wait. That hair, the runes carved into the blade, and you’re from the North… don’t tell me you’re the Ice-Cleaving Anastasiya I’ve only heard rumors about? The one who’s been hunting magical beasts since she was nine?!”
In front of the murmuring crowd Anastasiya hung her head low and kept her mouth tightly shut, looking exactly as though she were screaming please stop on the inside.
No one had ever recognized me out in public and tried to act familiar, but if it ever happened I was certain I would be mortified beyond words. On top of that, calling her by some weird nickname in front of everyone and even bringing up what she had done as a child… the fact that Anastasiya was still standing there at all made her look impressive.
By the way, how long was that golden-haired sunbeam planning to keep staring at me? At this point it was starting to make me genuinely uneasy.
“…Y-yes, I am Anastasiya, but the part about hunting magical beasts as a child is an exaggerated rumor.”
“Ahaha, sorry! I got a little too excited. All right, next person… before that. I was supposed to split you into groups and completely forgot…”
Looking a bit sheepish, Jessica scratched her head and then turned her eyes on me.
What now? She had already called me up first and thoroughly embarrassed me. In my heart Jessica was already no different from an enemy, so whatever she was about to say filled me with dread.
“Hmm, is it all right if I call you Anastasiya?”
“…Yes.”
“Could you take the friend who went first and go stand behind that sky-blue-haired girl over there?”
“…Pardon?”
“Ah, is that too much? Was it an unreasonable request?”
Jessica had a thoroughly social-butterfly side completely different from Dogeon’s. I had suffered more than once or twice at the company because of requests that made you look like garbage if you refused them.
I had no gift for writing, but I was competent enough at actual work that I could always somehow handle it. Every time, though, the unreasonable requests only grew more unreasonable.
Maybe I should have said just once that something was too much. Well, I could barely remember what my old job even was anymore, so no real resentment remained.
It was only that the office lady and Jessica briefly overlapped, and for a moment old memories had surfaced.
“Ah, n-no! It’s not unreasonable, it’s just… how should I put this…”
As she spoke she kept glancing back and forth between Jessica and me; pure confusion was written plainly in her eyes. Anyone could see she desperately did not want to do it and simply had no idea how to refuse, so she was floundering.
“So it’s not unreasonable?”
“Ugh… yes.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you. Next—hey, the blond young master over there?”
Just like that, any room for objection was smoothly crushed. Anastasiya hesitated, yet still began walking toward me.
I didn’t know exactly how high a grand duchess ranked, but if she didn’t want to do something, couldn’t she just say so?
I might be a princess, but I knew no one around me and had come from an entirely different continent, so of course I was keeping a low profile.
Then again, she was an outcast; of course she would be weak against requests like that.
Through plenty of experience I knew that the more you disliked a task, the less painful it was to finish it quickly. With the thought of helping her, I started moving toward Anastasiya myself.
“We meet again.”
“…So we do.”
“Shall we go, then.”
There was no need to push through the crowd. There weren’t that many people to begin with, and the moment we drew near they parted of their own accord, like magnets of the same pole repelling each other.
Was it because they disliked me, or because they were afraid to stand in the way of someone of her rank…? No, remembering what had happened yesterday, the former seemed more likely.
If my presence somehow damaged her reputation I would feel terrible. Had it been a mistake to approach her? Maybe I should have just walked a polite distance away.
“Um… if I may…”
While I was sunk in gloomy thoughts she spoke first. I was a little surprised, but she was a kindred spirit of the soul; whatever it was, I intended to answer her sincerely.
“What is it? Speak.”
“About… family… how do you feel about it?”
She was bringing up family all of a sudden?
It caught me off guard, but I had sworn to myself I would answer, so answer I must. Still, it was so completely out of left field that I couldn’t think of what to say.
Family. Family, was it.
“It is everything.”
“Everything…”
“But why do you ask?”
I was genuinely curious what train of thought had led her to ask how I felt about family. It wasn’t a forbidden question; it was simply too abrupt.
“Well…… you said your father taught you swordsmanship, so…”
Ah, so that was it after all. Watching me swing, she had probably been thinking, Just what kind of father teaches someone to swing a sword that badly?
I could live with people bad-mouthing me. I would not stand for them bad-mouthing Father.
“It is only that I cannot match my father. Under normal circumstances it would not look so pathetic.”
Perhaps she realized she had gone a little too far; she said nothing more.
And so, in awkward silence, we reached our destination without another word exchanged.
After Hoyeon and Anastasiya, nothing else happened that managed to startle Jessica.
Several students left scratches or carved clear blade marks into the dummy, but all of it stayed within the range of what she had expected.
Anyone who could use Mana breathing techniques left at least a scratch; anyone who could not, no matter how fine a sword they used, failed to leave even a mark.
Inside Jessica’s head there was nothing but the swordsmanship Hoyeon had shown.
The speed, the trajectory, the sheer strength that had left a scratch without even using Mana breathing—all of it was impressive enough. What truly caught her eye, however, was the places Hoyeon had aimed for.
In the end a sword is made to harm others, yet to Jessica’s eyes the swordsmanship that girl had displayed looked as though it had been forged for one purpose alone: efficient killing.
For that single instant, precisely targeting only the places where a glancing blow could mean death, she had looked far more like a soldier or an assassin than a princess.
What kind of father in the world would teach his own child something like that?
She thought it over, but no clear answer came. Lost in those thoughts while she continued sorting people, she eventually realized only one person remained.
Black hair, black eyes—handsome enough, yet a youth who somehow lacked any striking individuality.
Even though Jessica had not called him, Dogeon realized it was his turn and stepped up in front of the wooden doll of his own accord.
“You’re the last one. From the looks of it you don’t have a sword—want to borrow mine?”
She held out her own blade, but he did not take it.
While carefully observing everyone, Dogeon had already deduced one fact.
Class placement was decided by how much damage you inflicted on the wooden doll.
Most likely the sky-blue-haired girl marked the advanced class, the brown-haired girl the intermediate class, and the red-haired young man the beginner class.
Ordinarily he would have swung honestly and gone wherever his skill placed him. But now that Hoyeon and Anastasiya had both gone to the advanced class, Dogeon had no real choice left.
Even before he formed any connection with Anastasiya, he needed to be in the same class as Hoyeon simply to prevent any misfortune from befalling her. That meant he had to leave at least a clear mark.
So Dogeon picked up a splinter that had been knocked free from the wooden doll.
“No, I’m fine. This will be enough.”
Leaving Jessica’s puzzled gaze behind him, he settled into a stance.
“Enchant.”
Blue Mana began to gather at the tip of the wooden fragment. What started as no larger than a small nail soon took on the shape of a blade.
“Hah!”
When Dogeon swung, the Mana blade left a trail of blue afterglow as it cut through the wooden doll.
As though it had finished its duty, the sword of pure Mana instantly scattered and vanished. Yet the blue sword-mark remaining on the doll announced that Dogeon had succeeded.
“So you were a mage…! I never expected to see rare sights one after another like this. But why would a mage join the swordsmanship club?”
To keep watch over Hoyeon and to form a connection with Anastasiya. That was the real purpose, but it was nothing he could say out loud, so Dogeon fabricated a suitable answer.
“Because the sword is the greatest of all weapons.”
“You think so too?!”
Watching Jessica excitedly launch into a panegyric on the sword, Dogeon felt certain he had succeeded.
“…Ahaha, I got so fired up I started monologuing. Sorry. Hmm, with skill like yours… advanced class!”
As she pointed toward the sky-blue-haired girl, Dogeon once again confirmed that he had been right all along.