It was childish and downright unpleasant to throw your weight around over being only one year ahead, but seeing the toad's face flush with bewilderment was a pleasure.
“Oh, you didn’t know? These are second-year students who came to test our applicant. If we get into the academy, they’ll be our seniors.”
When I answered as though he were the one who hadn’t known, he shot to his feet in surprise and fell flat on his backside. Same count’s house. But once we entered the academy, they would be our seniors. They were even a year older, so no matter how you looked at it, they weren’t people he could speak to so crudely.
“W-Wait! Why did you deceive me—”
A senior’s death sentence fell upon the fool, who couldn’t decide whether to use polite speech or speak casually.
“You’d better get in. We’ll be attending the academy together, right? Hm?”
The coquettish act from earlier had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only the second-years’ mocking laughter. The female senior put the finishing touch on it by addressing me. She rose from her seat and bowed deeply at the waist.
“Young Master. I am Delia Ross, daughter of the Border Marquis. The borderlands, thrown into chaos by frequent monster invasions, have been greatly relieved by the supplies you provided. I am deeply moved by your mercy.”
Ah. So she was the Border Marquis’s daughter. Come to think of it, I remembered the duke asking me about it before.
—The Border Marquis has sent a request for aid. —The Border Marquis? Isn’t he the noble who guards the border? —I hear the kingdom has reduced the supplies it was providing. Well, you have been accomplishing too much lately. —That’s unreasonable. —······Is it? —Yes. It is unreasonable that those carrying out their duty should suffer. —I understand.
I’d thought he had simply brushed it off at the time, but apparently he had gone ahead and provided the supplies after all. Helping a Border Marquis being kept in check by the king must have been quite a burden. And he had pushed it through by using his position as a duke. But he used my name for it?
“······It was the duke who made the decision, not me, so it would be best for you to thank him in person when you meet him at the academy. We are the ones who should be grateful that you have always protected our kingdom.”
I could have bragged about it, but I didn’t. Those were simply the facts, and showing off wasn’t my thing. It wasn’t stylish, either.
But perhaps teenagers saw it differently, because all the second-years were impressed. Delia, the Border Marquis’s daughter, most of all. She stared at me with her mouth hanging open, and there was something unusual in her eyes. She spoke in a whisper.
“You’re very mature, Young Master. Somehow.” “Am I?” “Yes. You don’t feel like someone our age, if that makes sense. Unlike some people.”
She glared at the toad. But he wasn’t the only one who felt the sting.
Yikes. Women’s instincts. Fortunately, she didn’t press any further. She simply expressed her gratitude and brought the matter to a close. Thanks to that, the toad’s face grew even redder.
“We will now begin the second examination. When your name is called, come forward and designate the opponent you wish to face. Of course, losing does not mean immediate elimination. There will be a losers’ bracket, so there is no need to be overly nervous.”
At last, the time had come. The duels. The second-years’ help had left me feeling considerably better, but that was only like borrowing someone else’s hand to blow my nose. I hadn’t dealt with it myself. So now.
Crack.
I’d have to kill him.
“Arthur Helleim.” “Yes.”
When my name was called, I raised my hand. As I strode forward, the applicants in the same situation as me came into view all at once. Perhaps because of the performance I had put on earlier, the children whose eyes met mine looked away. They didn’t want to face me. I felt the same way. My opponent had already been decided from the start.
“The toad—no. That one.”
The toad at my fingertip sweated nervously and darted his eyes around.
“The designated applicant, please step forward.” “I-I… I mean—” “Surely you aren’t refusing an honorable duel.”
When the professor looked at him with cold, sunken eyes, he froze up even more.
Boooo—! The other applicants jeered as though they had never looked away. With nowhere left to retreat, he had no choice but to accept the duel.
“···Just you wait! I’ll beat you half to death!”
He came forward, huffing angrily. Completely unaware of what would happen to him a few minutes later.
“You—you bastard. I’ll show you just how incredible my family’s swordsmanship is.” “Go ahead.”
I grinned and took up a combat stance.
“Begin.”
At the professor’s signal, I immediately kicked off the ground. Whoosh! I leaned my upper body backward and avoided the sword.
Clang!
I blocked another slash flying at me.
“Haha! You scurry around avoiding attacks like some little rat!”
The toad must have thought he was overwhelming me, because he bared his teeth and attacked.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
There was no connection between the attacks flying at me without pause. He wasn’t moving as smoothly as flowing water. He was simply attacking with whatever motion let him put the most strength into it.
A lack of training.
“This is the Grant swordsmanship! Swordsmanship a bastard like you, an adopted son, could never obtain!”
···I felt sorry for Count Grant, but the problem might have been the swordsmanship itself.
Whoosh!
As I continued doing nothing but avoiding or blocking the incoming sword, the spectators and applicants began to murmur.
“What’s the big deal about House Helleim?” “He can’t even swing a sword?”
The voices dismissing me belonged to people who only saw the phenomenon right in front of them.
“Not a big deal? Hmph. Even after seeing that fox?”
The head of the swordsmanship department looked down on the duel with a sardonic smile.
“Hang in there, Young Master Arthur!” “Keep it up!”
They were the second-year seniors I’d seen earlier.
Bang, bang, bang!
They must have gotten the swords and shields from somewhere, because they began pounding on them wildly as they cheered for me, until the professor chased them out.
“Return to your rooms!” “······Yes.”
I smiled faintly as I imagined their crestfallen faces. I already had allies starting with the exam. Things were different from my previous life already.
“Stop pretending you’re so relaxed!”
Perhaps because of the female senior’s voice earlier, the toad’s rage button had been pushed, and he went berserk.
Thwack, thwack, thwack! Thwack!
He attacked at tremendous speed. From the outside, it looked as though he was overwhelming me, but—
“He’s being overwhelmed!” “That’s impossible. Look closely. Count Grant’s son is already exhausted.”
Oh. So there was someone who knew how to look properly.
I glanced over the applicants to see the face of the one who had spoken.
A familiar face. The boy who had stood to my right during the first exam—the one who had been pretty capable.
“Watch out, you idiot!”
He raised his eyes when he realized my gaze had turned toward him.
“What are you looking at? You’ve done nothing but take hits!”
Along with the toad’s booming shout, his sword came flying.
Watch out?
People sometimes make a mistake. They think everyone but themselves is stupid.
They say that whatever someone does is simply because they’re ignorant. But there aren’t that many people who are so blatantly foolish.
Thwack!
“?! You little—!”
“It was… all part of the plan.”
By exposing an opening, I had guided the attack toward a specific point. The toad’s sword fell straight toward my head. Since I had already anticipated it, I was able to knock the attack aside with my own strike.
‘Stop a stone throw with a stone throw, not a castle wall.’
I turned my eyes back toward the toad. His stance had been thrown off by the recoil of his blocked attack. I could feel his panic at losing the initiative.
His torso was wide open.
Bang!
“Urgh!”
He tried to block my attack, but it sent him flying backward instead. There was no way he could have blocked it.