Lesson (2): The Sparring Rivalry
Dana started calling roll. Every time she read out a name, the students melted into puddles of emotion, thinking, Dana called my name…! I wondered what the hell that reaction was supposed to be, but when I remembered she was one of the 5 Greats, it started to feel almost normal. Still, it was an emotion I couldn’t relate to no matter how hard I tried, so I gave up thinking about it.
“And last… Plea.”
“Here.”
I shot Dana a quick side-eye. The corner of her mouth lifted by a fraction. Good. At least she wasn’t planning to pretend she didn’t know me. That said, I didn’t act overly familiar either. She was still a professor and I was a student; charging in like old drinking buddies would’ve looked weird. It was enough to confirm she hadn’t drawn a line between us. Of course I paid attention in class too. Paying attention didn’t mean I understood everything perfectly, though.
“All right, let’s begin the lesson.”
“Yes!”
“Huh?”
Among all the students with sparkling, passionate eyes, one confused voice leaked out an awkward “Wait, what?” That voice belonged to me. Hold on—Dana wasn’t going to spend the first day messing around? The Dana I remembered operated on classic slacker-college logic: play on day one, play on day two, and maybe squeeze in some actual teaching on day three only after exhausting every excuse to goof off. Is this person really Dana? It was definitely the same Dana I knew, yet something felt strangely off. Where had the old lazy version gone? The Dana standing in front of us now was trying to conduct class with genuine sincerity.
When I stared at her in open confusion, she flinched like she’d been caught red-handed and quickly turned toward the blackboard.
“So… our subject’s classes will proceed in the following manner.”
Dana scrawled the syllabus across the board in crooked handwriting. She looked exactly like any ordinary professor. “I’ll begin the lesson now. I’ll take questions after class ends.”
The lecture that followed was utterly ordinary. Well, learning combat theory in a university setting wasn’t exactly normal, but the atmosphere itself was eerily similar to the university I’d attended in my previous life. Taking notes on what the professor said, watching educational videos… The only real difference was that nobody was dozing off or messing around. After forty-five minutes of furious note-taking, Dana picked up the remote and turned off the TV. Was class already over? I glanced at the clock—only an hour had passed since we started. Her basic combat studies class was supposed to run for roughly four hours, yet she’d shut everything down after just one.
As expected… People don’t change that easily. I figured she’d pull the same line she used to give me back then—“Let’s call it here for today!”—but it seemed the current Dana had changed more than I anticipated.
“Then we’ll move to the gym. It’s time for practical training!”
“Looks like everyone’s here. Today we’ll learn basic combat techniques. You’ll work in pairs, and mana usage is strictly prohibited. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Then pair up with someone you’re comfortable with!”
Pairs, huh. There was the perfect person for that. I subtly shifted my feet, trying to drift toward Siwoo, when a hand suddenly caught mine.
“Where are you going? We agreed to take this class together, remember?”
“Ah, I completely forgot. Sorry.”
Now that she mentioned it, I had promised Aria we’d partner up. But the moment we left the lecture hall, it had slipped my mind. Since I’d talked with Siwoo more, he was the first friend that came to mind. I smiled apologetically, but Aria narrowed her eyes and forced a smile, clearly displeased about something.
“Oh, it’s fine to forget. Don’t worry about it too much.”
“Hmm… If you say so.”
If she told me not to worry, I’d just act normal like usual. Once the practical training started, I wouldn’t be thinking about any of this anyway.
“If you’re ready, review the stances I taught you earlier by sparring! Use the remaining time to practice, and I’ll walk around correcting your forms.”
At Dana’s instructions, I extended my right arm toward Aria.
“Let’s start.”
“Good.”
Aria pushed my outstretched right arm away with her left, signaling the beginning of the match. I took the first offensive. Hup! I drew a deep breath, planted my right foot, and swung a roundhouse kick toward Aria’s torso with my left leg. Since we were only repeating basic movements, I didn’t make it fast enough to be unreadable or load it with mana. Aria blocked the kick with her right arm and immediately drove her left shoulder into my torso like a tackle.
Whoa!
My left foot wasn’t planted, so my balance collapsed in an instant. To keep from slamming onto my back, I barely managed to hop off my right foot, which was barely holding me up, and pulled my left leg back.
“I almost fell there…”
As I muttered and reset my stance, I felt something hook around my right foot. The strange sensation rising from below made me flinch. When I looked down, Aria—who had stepped forward—had wrapped her foot around my landing leg.
I didn’t need anyone to explain what came next.
-Thud.
“Ugh…”
With my center of gravity completely thrown off by Aria’s foot sweep, I collapsed to the floor without even managing to fix my posture.
Ow, my tailbone…
A sharp pain radiated from my backside. I frowned and pressed a hand to my hip. Aria smiled triumphantly.
“Then I’ll take that as my first win.”
“First win? Of what?”
“Professor Dana said we’d proceed in the form of sparring, didn’t she? Wins and losses are only natural.”
I stared at Aria’s face in blank amazement at her completely unexpected declaration.
“…Why are you staring at me like that?”
“No reason. Just thinking you’re way more competitive than I expected.”
The Aria from the original story had been competitive, but I didn’t remember her being this competitive. It must have been one of those small changes that occurred when the game became reality.
“Up we go.”
I brushed the dust off my rear and stood. Aria looked at me with pure disbelief.
“You lost because I tripped you and you’re not even frustrated?”
“Huh? Well… not really.”
Was there anything here worth getting frustrated about? Sure, I lost the exchange, but this wasn’t a real match—just a class where we matched movements. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It was a weird question… While I scratched my cheek, trying to figure out what she meant, Aria extended her arm toward me again.
“…Shall we go for round two?”
“Sure. We’ve still got plenty of time left in the session.”
I reset my stance and continued sparring with Aria. By the time class ended, our record stood at 20 wins, 5 losses, and 3 draws in my favor. Even though we belonged to the same ability category, it was only natural that I—who had casually picked up combat techniques from Dana in the past—would be superior in physical combat.
I lost…
Aria bit down hard on her lower lip as she lay on the floor. Up until the very first round of practice, she had believed she could defeat Plea. After all, she had completely overwhelmed the girl in that opening exchange. She had thought she could bring that sly bitch to her knees with pure physical technique. That was why she had slightly twisted the professor’s words and turned the class into a series of sparring matches against Plea.
But that had been a miscalculation on Aria’s part. After losing the first bout, Plea’s combat proficiency rose at an almost supernatural pace. By the final rounds, it was Aria who was being overwhelmingly crushed.
But I was confident in my physical skills…!
Before entering the academy, back in high school, she had personally learned combat techniques from a hero she knew. She had trained with genuine effort, so she believed that among the academy students—excluding those specializing in martial arts—no one could beat her in a purely physical fight.
Just who the hell is that girl?
Aria rose to her feet and stared at the strange girl. A student who had walked through the academy gates on her first day already wrapped in every kind of scandal. Yet she behaved as if none of it touched her, as if she existed on a completely different plane from the mundane world. Aria simply could not stand her.
Everything about her enrollment was shrouded in mystery, and the exams she took always carried questionable elements. Special admission? That was possible. Early rumors had claimed she was all talk with zero ability, but she had proven her strength by winning the final match of the aptitude evaluation. Since she had demonstrated she belonged at the academy, there was nothing more to say on that front.
However, both the entrance evaluation and the aptitude evaluation were things Aria could not accept. During the entrance exam the girl hadn’t even been visible anywhere, yet she received the bizarre ranking of “excluded from the list” and still walked away with a full scholarship. For the aptitude evaluation she skipped the entire test and only participated in the final match—which she won.
And… the final piece that completely shattered Aria’s composure was the way the girl kept subtly approaching the boy she personally liked.
Siwoo. The boy who had stepped forward first during the entrance evaluation to save the other students and fought the demons at the very front line. When he had been on the verge of death, Aria had thrown her own life on the line because she wanted to protect him. In return he had shed a single tear as he picked up the sword that could have become her relic.
Of course it had all been an illusion, but the scene had been more than enough to touch her tender heart.
Yet before that feeling could properly bloom, the girl named Plea had suddenly appeared between them. The memory of Plea kidnapping Siwoo—who had promised to walk around the academy with her—and leaving Aria waiting for over three hours was still painfully vivid. On top of that, the way Plea kept trying to sidle up to him was something Aria could not tolerate. So when Plea had tried to sit next to Siwoo, Aria had pulled her over to sit beside her instead.
But Plea herself only ever showed an utterly expressionless face, as if she harbored neither thoughts nor emotions. In the end, even after Aria had provoked her and picked a fight because she couldn’t stand that blank face, the one who lost was Aria.
What am I even doing…?
It was disheartening. In cruder terms, reality had slapped her across the face. And just as a faint malice began to stir behind that crushing sense of futility, someone called out to her.
“Aria, do you have a moment?”
“Professor Dana? Of course I have time, but… what is this about?”
“There’s something I want to tell you regarding Plea.”
Dana gave a bitter smile as she led Aria toward her private office.