Chapter Chapter 82: 10. We came, we saw, we won (7) (2/2)

I hit them with an attack an ordinary person wouldn’t have gotten back up from, but an unordinary person could.

What if my enemy had been No.1?

What if my enemy had been No.1000, whose food was on the line?

I would definitely have broken both their legs, both their arms, and even that wouldn’t reassure me enough so I’d shackle them with magic-restraining cuffs, and put down a magic formation over them as well.

But I didn’t do any of that.

In a corner of my heart, the feeling that this place was different from what I had experienced made me weak.

No, to be accurate, it made me conceited.

“Yugrasia is different from the other people on the outside that I knew. Those people, are the same as me. They were all people that had something they feared worse than death.”

-Although I don’t want to believe that…

As the wooden bat was to me, something similar also resided in Yugrasia.

When I thought over it, they did not fear losing in itself.

They feared that after they lost, they would meet with this so-called silver devil.

“In that case, I will also return to what I used to be!”

I’d already shown off enough of my pathetic side.

If the instructor could see me now, he’d probably be thinking that his education methods up till now had been too lenient, and was deliberating over it.

And he would have shown me some other hell I had yet to experience.

Once again, I will revert to myself of the past.

Myself of the days back when I would struggle and flail purely to survive.

Myself of the days back when I fought with my life on the line, all for the sake of a single meal!

And the next day.

Three days into the imperial festival, for the first time, I managed to steal away a victory from Yugrasia.

#14 Their story: A certain student council president’s story.

“Damn it…”

Day 3 of the imperial festival. Our goal of a total victory was shattered.

And moreover, with the loss of our most trustworthy card, Lady Aris!

[This, Young Lady Nermiaaaa!]

[Incredible, simply incredible! We knew that she was a daughter of the Nermia family, a long-established family of magicians, but who knew how splendid her swordsmanship was!]

[And she’s also the master of the archdevil Surtr, a summon that won’t fall behind to Lady Aris’s!]

[And with this, three days into the imperial festival, the undefeated Yugrasia have finally recorded their first loss!]

[Who knew she’d move into close combat against a swordsmaster?!]

[With close combat skills better than most battlemages, top-class firepower even amongst magicians, and a splendid ability to be able to utilise both skillsets! Who could possibly think of Young Lady Nermia as just a fifteen year-old girl?]

I honestly didn’t think of defeat.

Just yesterday, the young lady of the Nermia family had lost to a bunch of third-year Yugrasia students, students that were considered some of the weakest among their cohort.

Rumours had it that she was Marcis’s secret weapon, but after yesterday’s victory, we saw her as just another immature brat.

Why had we forgotten?

That she was someone who Professor Nicerwin personally approached to scout to Yugrasia on the grounds that he saw apititude for summoning in her!

She, Young Lady Nermia, completely changed in a signle day.

No, to be accurate, you could say that she showed her true colours.

The moment we saw her fight, we realised.

She was the same as us.

Only those who had experienced hell, and struggled with their all, would have those eyes and actions.

Compared to men, women were at a disadvantage in the imperial festival which was broadcasted around the entire empire.

Because compared to men, women have fewer freedoms in terms of their marriage.

And especially among Marcis and (old)Yugrasia, where many noble girls enrolled, there were multiple cases where they forfeit winnable events to preserve their image.

Not even a man of Arucia who trained in the sword, would roll around in the dirt to avoid enemy blades out of their sense of pride, and yet she did it.

Moreover, the areas on her uniform where Lady Aris’s blade had nicked her showed her wounds and soft white inner skin, yet she cared not one bit about any of it and charged right in.

That was the appearance of a warrior who had overcome death, which was for some reason, familiar.

Lady Aris was shocked momentarily by this revelation, and was immediately sucked into the Young Lady Nermia’s pace, and eventually lost to her.

“That was amazing. Who knew that a magician would deliberately throw herself into a swordsmaster’s range and duke it out with swords.”

“What’s more amazing is her change overnight. She brought out Surtr’s sword Lævateinn yesterday as well, but she didn’t use it properly then, did she?”

“Yep, even if it was fake, it’d still drawn upon the power of the original. You could die if something went wrong.”

“But this time, there was no sign of those weaknesses.”

“Was it because her opponent was Lady Aris? That she won’t die because she’s a swordsmaster?”

“You idiot, can’t you read the mood? She’s completely different from yesterday. She’s definitely like us.”

“It is… but how? That’s impossible in Marcis which only has brats?”

“Does that mean that House Nermia trains them it feels like what we’d gone through?”

“Her grandfather’s one of the Lords of the Magic Tower so it could be on that side, too.”

“Damn it, that’s the empire’s high-ranking nobles for you! That’s exactly what you’d expect from the highest family among the Counts!”

“We truly were just frogs in the well. The outside world is full of monsters like the silver devil!”

As I looked at the other students shiver in fear, I couldn’t say anything.

Because in all honesty I was scared too!

“Excuse me, pres…”

“Ah, Lady Siir.”

As I felt the fear of the world, Lady Siir, who always accompanied Lady Aris, approached me.

“President, I wish to visit Aris in the healer’s tent, will it be alright?”

“Ah, yes, I’ll come with you.”

Lady Aris had been hit point-blank by her enemy’s lightning magic, and was sent to the healers.

Checking on the injuries of one of our most powerful members was a matter of course for me as the student council president.

And so after a few more student council members decided to come along and we approached the location where Lady Aris was.

“I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Lady Siir, who, at the front, had been the first to open the door and enter, turned around and started running without looking back.

“Si, Siir? Siir!”

Followed by Lady Aris’s desperate pleas.

Slam!

“You know what it was, right?”

“Yep, I do.”

“At least her healing’s guaranteed.”

The moment I heard that voice, I didn’t even bother looking inside, and slammed the door shut immediately.

“Heeheehiit! Unni-ya! Now let’s spend some sweet quality time, just the two of us!”

“N, Nooooooaoaoooooooo!”

As we had expected, that person- no, devil had arrived before us and did exactly what we expected her to do, as she made it so that we could hear the screams that we heard so often in Yugrasia, at the healer’s tents of the imperial festival as well.