Ch. 23

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[Greedy Leech]

The Tower Master had given it to me for free, so there was no reason to decline, and now that I knew the penalty attached to this sword didn't apply to me, there was no reason not to use it.

Of course, since there wasn't any way for me to feed on residual mana against a knight, I wouldn't be able to use the sword the same way I had against the Tower Master.

The problem was that the current situation wasn't a life-or-death duel but a simple sparring match, meaning real blades weren't being used.

'What am I supposed to do about this...'

"It's already the final round! Alright, for the Knight Department, Jane Snowtier!"

Deep in thought, I lifted my head at the voice and studied my opponent.

I saw a woman walking calmly toward the center.

The pure white hair and pale skin distinctive of the Snowtier family.

But her eyes, blood red, stood out precisely because of that pale backdrop.

If Aria, with similar hair color, was a beauty who radiated brightness like a fully blooming flower, Jane possessed a cold, glittering kind of beauty, like a snow flower blooming on a bare branch in the depths of winter.

She had a frail, delicate-looking body that might make her seem weak at a glance, but I couldn't afford to be fooled by that appearance.

Before the regression, I'd seen firsthand, more than once, just how monstrous she became after directly inheriting the Duke's sword.

"The Magic Department's final competitor is Benjamin!"

I took one big breath and stepped forward.

"Status."

[Status] 

Name: Benjamin 

Age: 18 

Talent: Reader, Editor 

Body: 56, Synchronizing... 

Mana: 14 Status Ailments: None

Even after that fierce battle with the Tower Master, my Body score had only risen by a single point.

I'd more or less expected as much, but sure enough, once you passed 50, growth slowed down as if stuck in a mud pit.

Still, thanks to the Order's high-grade Holy Potion, at least my condition was at its absolute best, which was a relief.

"Then let's begin the final match!"

Even at Anna's shout, neither Jane nor I made a single move, both of us simply standing still.

After standing there for quite a while, Jane spoke, slightly furrowing her brow.

"Why aren't you attacking? Did you give up, perhaps?"

At her question, as if I'd been waiting for exactly this moment, I shifted into a lopsided stance, tilted my head 45 degrees, and put on my most mercilessly mocking expression.

"You know me?"

Something about it felt like my delinquent mode, making its long-awaited return.

At my crooked, defiant attitude, Jane looked me over with a completely bewildered expression.

"...I at least know your name is Benjamin."

"Wait, just because you know my name, does that give you the right to talk down to someone you just met? Huh?"

Whether she couldn't come up with a rebuttal or was simply speechless from my sheer delinquent attitude, Jane fell silent for a moment.

"Nobles do not, by nature, use polite speech toward commoners. Especially not my house, given our ducal status."

That was technically accurate, but unfortunately, it was also exactly the kind of rigid, by-the-book answer I'd been hoping for.

I silently cheered inside and pointed my practice sword at Jane.

"Your dad's the Duke, not you. Are you the Duke?"

Blatant, brainless nitpicking.

Being on the receiving end of that kind of thing, it turned out, could genuinely leave you at a loss for words.

"Yes, as you say, I am not the Duke. But my father holds the ducal title, and I am a member of that house. Since I bear the family name, I too am a noble, so I don't believe there's any issue with me speaking to you informally."

At this point I'd have expected her to lash out in anger, but Jane, without so much as a flicker in her expression, calmly tried to reason with me instead.

'What is this... what kind of kid is this...'

My ultimate delinquent mode had, at times, been enough to enrage even newborn babies, but nothing like this had ever happened before.

"And this is the academy... which is exactly why even a commoner like you is speaking to me so casually, isn't it?"

"Fair enough."

"In any other place, I would have held you accountable and taken your life for it, but given we are in the middle of a sparring match, I will interpret your offensive remarks as nothing more than provocation meant to rile up your opponent."

I stared blankly at her calm, composed delivery for a moment before bursting out into loud laughter.

Judging by her words alone, it sounded like she was extending forgiveness toward me, but the way those blood red eyes of hers were starting to burn with an ever growing, glaring intensity made it clear she was actually quite thoroughly annoyed right now.

Sure enough, my finishing move, targeting the very core of human pride, hadn't lost its touch.

"...Why are you laughing?"

"Ah, sorry for laughing. It's just, you're so worked up but trying so hard to act like some composed, noble type who isn't bothered at all... or maybe I should say you're just putting on airs?"

"..."

"Anyway, seeing a young kid getting all puffed up talking nonsense like that, I just couldn't hold back the laughter. Sorry, my bad on this one."

"You... you've gone too far with this provocation."

At my gut-punching words, veins began standing out on Jane's face.

I could see the hand gripping her sword starting to tremble ever so slightly.

"Really? I haven't even started yet, though."

It might have sounded like pure bravado, but the truth was, no one had ever once managed to resist me once I actually set out to provoke them.

Which meant teasing some snot-nosed brat like her wasn't even a proper warm-up for me.

"Come at me."

Jane, apparently having given up on continuing to argue with me, raised her sword.

The moment the slowly raised tip of her sword pointed at me, that blood-red glint began surging toward me, leaving afterimages trailing behind.

The height of her shoulder, the tip of her sword, the position of her feet, the pull of her arm, the pause in her breathing, where her gaze ultimately landed.

Her movements, ones I'd witnessed before the regression, played back rapidly in my mind.

The Snowtier family's swordsmanship was, at its core, ultimately about cutting through space itself.

Since it was a swordsmanship that affected space itself, its power, one that couldn't be achieved at a single point, only manifested along a line, so nearly all attacks leaned heavily toward slashing, with barely any thrusts at all.

Soon, exactly as I'd predicted, five slashes came, and since I'd already moved before Jane even swung her sword, I easily slipped clear of her trajectory each time.

It was a feat I could only pull off precisely because I remembered her movements from the battlefield, but to her, it must have felt as though every single one of her actions was being read in advance.

"...!"

As she looked at me for a moment, seemingly trying to grasp the situation, and started adjusting her breathing once more, I called out to stop her.

"Jane Snowtier."

At my low, quiet call, her regulating breath caught for a moment, and she looked at me with a tense expression.

"I'm in the Magic Department right now, but... honestly, I used to be pretty decent with a sword before coming to the academy. So just watching someone swing a sword usually gives me a rough idea of what they're actually capable of."

She stood still, watching me, as if waiting to hear what I was actually trying to say.

"So I ran a rough estimate... you're the Knight Department's top rank, right? But I think there are at least three people among the first-years here who could beat you."

Saying this, I slowly pointed a finger toward Aden.

"One's that guy standing over there with the hollow, exhausted eyes, Aden."

And my fingertip then shifted toward Luna, who was currently glaring at me as if she were about to devour me whole.

"You wouldn't beat Luna either."

Finally, grinning wide, I pointed at myself and tilted my head, adding.

"Actually, I don't think you could beat me either."

Since I was in the Magic Department, the usual departmental ranking games never really shocked me.

But I figured this would be more than enough wording to thoroughly infuriate Jane, someone who'd built an entire tower out of pure pride from the Knight Department.

Jane had always been fairly expressionless to begin with, but the moment she heard this, her face froze solid, like stone.

Seemed like it had landed properly, too.

"You... you only became top rank because of your family, didn't you?"

At my decisive, matter of fact nod, Jane's face finally flushed with rage.

At the same time, a violent aura began pouring out of her, wildly mismatched with her delicate frame.

Unlike the strange, mana-made presence Luna had displayed, this was a genuine presence, the kind only someone who'd already reached their own personal limit could possess.

Her presence bore down on me roughly, as if its sole purpose was to force the person in front of her onto their knees.

"Aren't you curious, though? What exactly gives me the confidence to run my mouth about beating you?"

Ignoring the pressure bearing down on me, I asked, but it seemed like she no longer wanted to answer me at all now.

This... this is... you were talking just fine before, but now that you've suddenly gone quiet, it's kind of upsetting.

"I have a proposal for everyone gathered here right now!"

Ignoring her, I shouted loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

"I'm in the Magic Department, sure, but I've only just properly started learning magic! So I'd like to use a sword instead... and since this is the final match, why don't we make it a proper, real-blade sparring match, just to make things exciting?"

Since everyone had surely heard the entire conversation between Jane and me up to this point, they must have understood that this was, in effect, my challenge to the Snowtier family as a swordsman.

Whatever the actual point of the sparring match was, this meant it had become an event too big for anyone to simply ignore.

"Benjamin, right now this is a match meant to demonstrate the interplay of magic and swordsmanship, so..."

"I second it."

Marey cut into Anna's words.

At the unexpected remark, a flicker of confusion crossed Anna's face.

"Wait, Lady Marey... even so, isn't this a bit..."

"Professor Anna, don't you think this would be interesting?"

"...Excuse me?"

"I'm curious too. Whether this challenge to the family of the Sword God comes from genuine confidence, or not."

She swept her gaze around the surroundings once before continuing.

"And setting all that aside, I'd also like to see the Sword God's proper swordsmanship, something you simply can't observe with wooden practice swords."

"Lady Marey..."

At Marey's words, a stir spread through the students, growing steadily louder.

They all began whispering among themselves, watching the reactions of both women, trying to figure out if this was really something that should be allowed.

"Since it's the final match, I think it might actually be fun to make it a bit exciting. The academy has the Order stationed here as well, so injuries shouldn't be too dangerous... and we can control any dangerous situations ourselves directly. Wouldn't you agree, Professor Anna?"

Fueled by Marey's instigation, the atmosphere began shifting in a strange, unmistakable direction.

By this point, even the Magic Department students seemed curious about what the renowned Snowtier family's swordsmanship might actually look like.

The moment Marey spoke up, voices from the Knight Department began rising, all seemingly eager to see me, so arrogantly provoking their side, get thoroughly crushed.

Either way, the flow of things had clearly and firmly shifted toward a real-blade sparring match.

"Then let me ask you just one thing."

While I was contentedly surveying the situation around me, Jane suddenly spoke up.

"What?"

"Why do you want a real-blade sparring match?"

Uh... because I can't use magic and I can't block a mana-infused sword, so I'd rather use a cursed sword instead?

But since I couldn't tell her the truth, I kept up my provocative act instead.

"I figured that if we did a wooden sword match and you lost to me, you'd end up whining about how it wasn't a fair fight because of the swords, so I thought I'd skip that."

"...Whining about swords?"

"Actually, I want to ask you the same thing. What's your reason for hesitating on a real-blade match?"

"I never hesitated at all."

"Don't lie. You're clearly hesitating."

"I'm not..."

"Because you're scared you'll lose to me."

"...What?"

"You're chickening out because you're scared you'll lose to me."

I don't know how to put it.

It was the kind of expression someone gets when the thread connecting their mind to reality suddenly snaps clean through.

I watched her with a refreshingly satisfied smile.