Those Who Surpassed Their Limits and Those Who Couldn't (2)
“So you’re trying to stop me now? That takes some guts, Alto.”
“Guts, my ass. Just grow up already.”
“Heh. After two days of special training with Eres, I’ve already surpassed my limits, you know?”
“You didn’t surpass anything. You’re about to hit your limit right now. Look at you, you’re already wobbling.”
After staying up two nights in a row—and even attending classes today—Fria had reached her breaking point on the way back to the dormitory.
“D-Do you think I don’t know what you’re planning? You want to get rid of me so you can spar with Eres, just the two of you…!”
“That’s not the point. Just go to sleep.”
“Nothing is more important than this! I’ve only done 321 rounds so far!”
“I see.”
Her eyes were bloodshot. Her legs trembled. Her expression had melted into something dazed. Most of all, she was talking to empty air slightly to the side instead of her brother.
“Before you show that pathetic sight to everyone else… I’ll put you to bed…!”
Alto steeled himself.
“H-Heh! N-Not bad! To think you could match me after I’ve crossed my limit!”
“You didn’t cross any limit. You’re just being stubborn!”
“S-So what if I am?! You’ve been training with Eres all this time! It’s my turn now!”
“You’ve never even done three hundred rounds! Just because Eres didn’t refuse doesn’t mean you should go this far!”
“Eres likes training with me too! She’s even more motivated than I am!”
Fria hadn’t surpassed her limit—she was simply suffering under the weight of it. Yet her desire was strong enough to keep her body moving, allowing her to clash fiercely with Alto.
“You looked ready to collapse any second… How…!”
“Heh heh. I won’t hand Eres over!”
“Enough already! I was the one who decided to recruit Eres!”
“Ha! So you finally showed your true colors? You just want to keep Eres all to yourself, don’t you?”
“Urgh…! That wasn’t my intention…!”
Honestly, it wasn’t entirely untrue. Her combat endurance was impressive, but even that emotion of hers was still far from reaching a special skill.
“Eres really is something. The Ripelreus siblings are fighting over her.”
“Yeah. Why do they even like our sister?”
Watching this sibling tragedy unfold, one person remained genuinely puzzled—the man who had known Eres the longest. Her younger brother, Pih.
Why our sister, of all people?
Pih didn’t dislike his sister, but he couldn’t deny she was eccentric.
“By the way, where is Eres herself? I don’t see her anywhere.”
“She said a letter arrived and she needed to check it. Knowing her personality, she’s probably agonizing over it right now.”
“A letter? Do you know who sent it?”
“The envelope had ‘L.C.’ written on it. I didn’t see the contents, so I don’t know.”
“……They wrote their name in initials?”
Someone sending a letter wanted to hide their identity. That was common among nobles, but for Eres—who lacked connections in that world—to receive a letter with a concealed name… what could that mean?
Gabea wasn’t naïve enough to miss something like that. Normally, he would have checked it immediately, but—
“Everyone! It’s an emergency!”
Right now, that wasn’t the priority. Arte came running toward them in a panic, and behind her—
“Foelta has returned—! Why is everyone looking at me like that…”
The grotesque figure of the man trying to pounce on her from behind came into view.
“Get back, Arte!”
“Huh? Kyaa!”
The first to charge forward was Alto. Leaving the still-disoriented Fria behind, he rushed toward the man behind Arte. He hadn’t planned on using his crystal swords, but—
“I’m not interested in you! Alto!”
“Ugh…!”
The opponent clearly had no intention of holding back. When he drew a blade he had never used even against his own friend, what choice did Alto have?
“Who are you?! You!”
“Heehee! That’s too much, not recognizing me! It’s me! Foelta!!”
“What…!”
The man before him bore no trace of his former self. If it had only been his appearance, Alto might have been able to guess, but the unnatural strength he sensed from their previous clash was something Foelta could never have produced. That overflowing madness had probably been there even just before it vanished, so that didn’t count.
“How did you already…… What did you do to Tarle!”
“I’m telling you…… I said not to pay attention to other men in front of me! Did you forget who you belong to?!”
“……I’d appreciate it if you explained what happened first. Don’t tell me Luke did this too?”
He had suspected something was being plotted, but turning one person into this in just three weeks was absurd beyond belief.
“Count Luke taught me. You wouldn’t understand. The feeling of crossing the threshold of death over and over again…!”
“What the hell did that bastard do to you?!”
“Want me to tell you? Huh? Want me to tell you?!!”
Alto could win. No matter how much stronger Foelta had become, in terms of raw power, Alto was still superior. However, having already tasted defeat at Eres’s hands, he knew that strength alone wasn’t everything.
“Fria. Let’s take him down together.”
“What? You don’t have confidence fighting alone? The great Alto Ripelreus is going to gang up on someone?”
“No? I’m the type who’ll gang up if I can.”
“Kahaha! So you’re pretty underhanded too, huh?”
“Did you not study tactics or something?”
And Alto was surprisingly someone who didn’t care about methods. This wasn’t even a duel to begin with. There was no reason to stand on ceremony when dealing with someone who had come looking for a fight first.
The problem was—
“Ha! Are you an idiot? There are two of us and three of you, so what’s underhanded about that?”
“……”
“What? Alto, when did you learn cloning magic? Now I have four older brothers…?”
“……Did that girl drink or something?”
“Damn it.”
**
“I absolutely won’t lose!”
“Can you be certain of that?”
“I raised them that way. I taught them how to handle one opponent, but not two at once.”
“As expected, you deliberately sent him, didn’t you?”
Tch, sharp as always. I was planning to go after finishing my meal, but Melina was unusually restless.
“What’s the rush? Just wait calmly and pick them up from the infirmary or the reflection room later.”
“I trust that you won’t torment my sister more than necessary, but that man is different.”
“So you’re worried about your sister. That’s a relief.”
“What do you mean by relief?”
How important it was that her affection for her family hadn’t disappeared. Their relationship was complicated right now, but I believed they would one day reunite with smiles. So for now, just chew slowly and thoroughly!
I used Foelta as an excuse to bring plenty of the sausages you like, and I even brought sweet apple juice!! If not now, I’d feel too self-conscious to get you the things you like!!
“Don’t worry. Unless one of them catches a cold, Foelta will lose. The moment he slipped away thinking I wasn’t watching, he became a fool drunk on his own power.”
“But……”
“Gaining power with that kind of mindset? It’s nonsense.”
In reality, the guy had fallen short of expectations. He wanted to become stronger, but he couldn’t bring himself to push against his own limits. He wasn’t generating power himself. I was the one yelling beside him, inflicting pain, forcibly dragging it out. That wasn’t training. It was resistance born from survival instinct.
Anyway, since he produced power that exceeded his limits, his status rose, but the efficiency of that growth was pitifully low.
“I didn’t expect him to be that rotten. It’s only because it was me that I could raise even someone like him to a usable level in such a short time.”
“Indeed. Aside from the first few days, it was closer to torture.”
“That was the only way he could raise his level.”
So I increased the number of sessions. If normal training raised stats by 1 and what I did to Foelta raised them by about 0.3, then multiplying it by ten would let him grow three times faster than the originally planned training. Even that was starting to show its limits, but since I had no intention of raising a villain like him while worrying about the aftermath anyway, it was fine.
All that mattered was getting through the present. Just enough for him to become a threat to Eres’s group and Arte, like in the original story.
“I guarantee it. That guy will be crushed miserably by the Ripelreus siblings.”
**
“What are you doing! You can’t even touch him even when you team up?!”
“Kuh…!”
Clang—!
Alto’s crystal sword was blocked by Foelta, but he couldn’t break the blade and prepare his next attack.
“What’s wrong, Alto! Was getting cut while letting your guard down that painful?!”
“You’re talking like you’ve already won…!”
“Haha! Should I tear open the other side too before you admit defeat? You’ve lost!!”
Alto’s dual-sword technique was only effective when he could press the attack himself. It was a style that required breaking through before the opponent could counter, but with Fria’s presence adding to his momentum, interrupting his attacks wasn’t easy. Charging in recklessly would only get him stabbed by the other sword.
For that to work, one would need the power gap to effortlessly block Alto’s momentum-charged attacks, or—like Foelta now—charge forward while prepared to be stabbed.
“What’s this, Alto? Your dual swords weren’t much if I can block them even once, huh?”
“You lunatic……”
“My left arm got cut off, and your side got torn open. Fria couldn’t even put up a fight!”
If Fria had been able to support him from the side, or if he had supported her while she fought, the gap would have been simple to close. Yet they couldn’t manage it.
“Alto…? In the blink of an eye……you moved all the way there…. When did you learn teleportation magic…?”
“I told you to sleep!”
“Shut……up…!! ……zzz”
“That idiot…!”
Fria, who had barely been holding on, reached her limit at the worst possible moment. She hadn’t been defeated by Foelta. She had collapsed alone the moment the battle began.
“Think you can handle it with just the two of you?”
“Did you not get enough sleep either? There’s only one of you.”
“I meant, what about that bitch Eres? She looks sturdy enough to buy some time, doesn’t she?”
“She’s too pure a woman to even look at someone like you.”
“Pure? That’s good. Very fortunate.”
Foelta’s mind was now filled with desire. That desire had been the driving force that let him endure the grueling training that was no different from torture. He would make Arte, who had abandoned him, kneel. And to Eres, who had given him the taste of defeat—
“I’ll break that woman. Completely. I’ll shatter her limbs, snap her neck, and kill her…!”
He would have his revenge. Only then could his defeat be covered up and his own strength confirmed. He refused to let the humiliation of being overwhelmed by a frail commoner woman remain in this world.
Even if he killed Alto and Fria here, he wouldn’t feel at ease without dealing with Eres. And the more he thought about it, the more excitement and elation welled up inside him. The grudge of wanting to break Eres turned into a desire to destroy her, staining Foelta’s mind.
A pure human who knew nothing of noble sensibilities, common sense between people, or the proper conduct between men and women. An existence unlike any other in this world—he wanted to ruin her with his own hands.
At that moment, Foelta believed he would become stronger than anyone else.
“……I can’t just stand by and watch that.”
“Sleep, Fria.”
“Something disgusting entered my eyes and woke me up.”
A sinister aura rose from Foelta. A more intense motivation than when he had been trained by Luke now burned within him, flowing into the sword he held.
“With the secret technique I learned from that person, I’ll finish both of you at once!”
Foelta drew his sword far back. Luke, who didn’t use weapons to begin with, naturally hadn’t taught any sword techniques—and had no intention of doing so. What Foelta was trying to use was a thrust he had copied after watching Luke’s fists. It belonged to no school. It wasn’t a formalized technique refined over time. It was nothing more than a savage punch, not even reaching the level of magic.
The siblings instinctively knew they wouldn’t be able to withstand it if hit head-on.
“Dragon—!”
But if one wanted to use a powerful attack, there were always things to consider. The possibility that the enemy would dodge, and—
“Blaze!”
The possibility of being struck while gathering power. Flames surged from behind the two siblings, searing the arm Alto had been injured on.
“M-My arm is burning!! I didn’t train to withstand fire……. Who’s there!”
Foelta could never have imagined it. That the weak Arte would interfere with him at this critical moment. He had never even considered that she would attack him, or that she would have the ability to do so.
She had trained to break that prejudice and had mustered the courage to remain here until now.
“Arte…! How dare you!!”
“Foelta……please talk with me.”
“Shut up! That damn talk……! You all just belong beneath my feet—”
And there was one more thing. An existence that did not wish for his victory.
“Beneath my feet. What?”
At that moment, the ominous aura Foelta had been radiating subsided. It was suppressed by the man who appeared from behind him, parting the flames. Aside from the fire that hadn’t reached him, no one in this place could take a single step.
“L-Luke, Master……”
“Master?”
“Th-That’s—”
Crack!
It took time even for Foelta, the one directly involved, to understand what had happened. First came the sound. Only after that did the sensation disappear from the arm holding the sword. When he looked at his shoulder, he saw his limp arm and a thick fist.
“E-Eh, Euaa—!”
“First rule.”
Don’t make weak noises. He remembered that when the sensation disappeared from his right foot. This time, he couldn’t turn his gaze. He lacked the courage to look away, and he had no confidence he could hold back a scream if he saw his ruined foot.
“I clearly said I would train you for a month.”
“Th……at’s right!”
“Leaving before completing it means you don’t trust me?”
“That’s not it! I came out because I believed in your teachings! If it’s me after learning from you, I can defeat those guys—”
“And this is the result?”
One arm cut, and even burned by fire on top of that. The fire had been Arte’s doing, but Luke hadn’t seen that far. Knowing Fria’s condition wasn’t good, Foelta couldn’t say anything.
“I said one month. You don’t trust my judgment?”
“No! Those guys—”
“I said it would take a month to accomplish. Are you saying I misjudged both their abilities and yours and just spouted nonsense?”
“Th-That’s—”
The sensation disappeared from his right ribs. He couldn’t even grasp what he was being attacked with. It would have been better if it were fists. But the movements were too small for that.
“Crawl back on all fours, trash. And don’t receive help from anyone.”
“……Yes!!!”
Survival instinct. It was the only strong point Luke had seen in him, and it wasn’t particularly outstanding compared to others. That instinct made him step on his broken foot and walk toward the training ground. The people he had just been fighting—his fiancée who had humiliated him and Eres—were no longer in his mind. Just as he had boasted, fear came first.
Even those left behind couldn’t stop the miserable figure from leaving. If they did, they would have to fight something far worse.
A monster defined by malice, evil, great misfortune, and violence.
“It was supposed to be a surprise gift, but you found out. How was it? My masterpiece.”
‘Melina nagged me so I came alone, but why are you getting beaten up so badly!!! What are you guys doing!!!’
Inside, it was the same as always!