Chapter 37: "Pain means you’re not dreaming."

"...E-Grade One Slash?"

Lurker couldn’t quite believe what he’d just witnessed. The girl who’d started out as nothing more than an interesting dark horse had just given him a performance he wasn’t going to forget any time soon.

How could he possibly forget it?

The girl hadn’t just shown off remarkable mastery of an F-Grade skill for someone her age, she’d also demonstrated genuine skill in reading the flow of battle, precise body control, and flawless execution.

Every movement flowed so smoothly that Lurker could confidently say, even if that girl were brought over to the elite region and entered into an identical tournament there, she’d easily place in the top twenty, maybe even the top ten, assuming she still had hidden cards left to play.

As for Lukas, Lurker found his interest in him fading fast, growing far more captivated by the girl instead.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Get me information on that girl."

If she truly carried this much talent, and if her potential had somehow been overlooked or misjudged this whole time, Lurker might have just stumbled onto a hidden gem worth polishing.

"Understood," the woman, his subordinate, answered, immediately leaving the spectator stands.

***

"Inna, tell me, briefly, what just happened."

Adelle had completely lost her drowsiness. Not without reason, all of this stemmed from what she’d just witnessed from a girl she’d only chosen originally for her fairly unique swordsmanship style.

And here she was now, realizing that it wasn’t just a matter of swordsmanship style, this girl was a genuine gem from head to toe.

"Kiena has already mastered Flash Step, and it hasn’t even been a full month since she got her first skill book. She’s also reached E-Grade mastery with her One Slash. Her swordsmanship style is remarkably clean, and she won decisively."

Inna, the vice-headmaster, explained concisely, making Adelle realize that what she’d just seen hadn’t been some trick of the eye.

"I was incredibly sleepy earlier, so how likely is it that I’m actually dreaming right now?"

Inna blinked from behind her. The vice-headmaster carried remarkably little in the way of expression, a stark contrast to the headmaster’s overly dramatic reactions.

"...Should I test that for you?"

"Oh...! How would you do that, Inna?"

Inna gave a small smile as she approached Adelle, then briefly touched her cheek, pinching it and pulling.

"Eh!? W-wait, what are you doing? That hurts!"

Adelle slapped Inna’s hand away, rubbing her now-red cheek from the pinch while groaning far too dramatically.

"Pain means you’re not dreaming."

"Tsk, but couldn’t you have done that a little more gently?"

Adelle knew that method proved she wasn’t dreaming, but could she really allow someone ranked below her, a Rank-C Hunter, to humiliate her by pinching her cheek hard enough to leave a fairly visible red mark?

No. She absolutely could not.

She let out a low groan and muttered, "Why does someone with a lower position than me get to act this recklessly?"

Hearing that, Inna let out a small sigh, rolling her eyes. "I’m your older sister. Is there something wrong with that?"

"....."

Adelle clamped her mouth shut tight.

After a moment of silence, she said, "By the way, how did Kiena develop this fast? Wasn’t her Talent just mentioned as F-Grade?"

Adelle rubbed her chin. No matter how she thought it over, this level of growth was genuinely abnormal.

"Well, I think this year’s tournament winner has already been decided. I’ll try talking to Kiena after this."

She said that, nodding to herself, ignoring Inna’s puzzled stare directed her way.

***

Once the semifinals ended, the crowd erupted over what they’d just witnessed. Naturally, not everyone had expected this outcome, and plenty of them started questioning whether Kina might have cheated somehow.

But they were all easily silenced by the Academy itself. With that, there wasn’t much anyone could do, and Kina ended up standing on the final platform, the one that would crown her as this tournament’s champion should she win.

Her opponent was a woman who, as it turned out, was considerably weaker than Lukas. So Kina beat her easily and claimed the championship.

With that, the first-year portion of the tournament wrapped up with what could honestly be called an almost too-easy victory for Kina.

After that win, Kina found herself swamped, having to deal with a swarm of reporters. Meanwhile, Julian, thoroughly satisfied, decided to leave the spectator stands, having no interest in watching any more given how badly his backside had started aching.

He’d already gotten his fill of Kina’s performance.

Of course, Julian didn’t head straight home. Instead, he made his way to a nearby park, one with a small lake where swans swam about and pigeons perched in the surrounding trees.

Julian sat down on a wooden bench and decided to wait. They’d agreed to meet here once Kina finished up with her tournament matters.

***

The reporters moved fast, covering Kina’s matches from the very first round all the way to the finals, uploading everything across social media.

Thanks to that, Kina became famous almost instantly, not immediately, of course, but news always had a way of spreading on its own, little by little, like a spark of fire creeping steadily across dry ground.

—Kiena, Canelo Academy’s dark horse, check here for the full video and details.

—Is it true Kiena comes from the Slums? Check her background here.

Beyond the flood of news coverage, people’s reactions themselves varied wildly.

—Has anyone else seen this? Personally, I think this might just be some staged setup by the Academy, since they haven’t produced a genuinely talented student in a while.

—You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about, buddy, I watched it live and Kiena is genuinely terrifying, she’s basically a monster!

And as that spark kept spreading, it slowly seeped deeper and deeper, eventually reaching all the way into the elite region itself.

Information didn’t just spread through social media, it traveled by word of mouth too, and eventually that information reached one particular family.

The great Mivelo family.

"Didn’t Lurker personally show up at that tournament today?"

"That’s right... this talent... if I’d known, I would’ve gone in person too. Unfortunately, we’re already too late, Lurker’s made off with an enormous windfall this time."

"Can’t we try to take her for ourselves?"

"How exactly?"

"Kiena will likely end up entering the elite academy first, I’m fairly certain of that. Once she does, we could try winning her over, get her to defect to our side instead."

The ones speaking were two men, each sharing the exact same distinctive features.

Black hair paired with blue eyes. The difference was, one of them looked considerably older, wrinkles lining his face, while the other appeared noticeably younger.

"Hmm... assign someone to handle it, we can at least try."

The younger one nodded, then, after a moment of hesitation, glanced far off toward the attic of their household and said, "Kina herself, she’s already been confirmed dead, hasn’t she?"

There’d been no word of her at all for nearly a month now, so it certainly seemed that way.

That Kina Mivelo was already dead.