The gang was having a typical lunch at the usual dining hall.
“Ahhh…”
Blade opened his mouth wide, building a harmony of pork cutlet, curry, and rice on his spoon before attempting to ferry it all into his mouth.
“Ugh, this is the worst. So awful. I’m, like, beyond depressed.”
Earnest was sitting next to him, talking to the other girls. It was a bit unusual that she wasn’t yelling at him, saying something along the lines of “You’re always eating that damn katsu curry!” So Blade decided to join in the conversation.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Listen to this. Apparently, we’re going to stage a match against another school soon.”
“Sounds like it, yeah,” Blade said, still focusing around 98 percent of his attention on shoveling food into his mouth.
Out of the remaining 2 percent, one half was devoted to his conversation with Earnest, while the other was focused on the master-apprentice duo of Eliza and James, who were sitting opposite him and eating together.
Their synergy was a fascinating sight. James, who had only recently joined the academy, seemed like quite a capable apprentice—though he was being treated as a teacher at their school. Whenever he got too big for his britches, Eliza would mutter something about how maybe she wouldn’t mind devising a system for creating homunculi after all, placing a finger to her chin and gazing off into the distance. Whenever she did that, it was like a switch flipped inside James. He became servile, nodding and bowing like a bobblehead. The difference between this behavior and his usual awkward demeanor was quite amusing to see in action.
“About this interschool match,” continued Earnest. “There’s this real prick who’s gonna be participating.”
“I thought they hadn’t decided any teams yet. It’s against Chestnut Academy, right?” Blade returned his attention to their conversation. If this was about that competition, he had already heard about it.
There were several other champion training schools along the lines of Rosewood Academy scattered throughout the surrounding countries. It was customary to name such schools after a type of wood, since they were trying to raise the talent that would build a strong future for their respective nations. That was why this school was called Rosewood, and why the one they were competing against was called Chestnut.
Chestnut Academy was located in a neighboring country, and it had been decided that the two schools would stage a friendly competition. Blade was actually looking forward to it. Ever since he was young, he’d wished for a rival.
Coincidentally, Chestnut Academy’s educational motto used to be “nurturing the next generation of champions,” but it had recently been changed to “nurturing the next generation of Heroes.” Champions appeared even if you didn’t consciously create them—in fact, sometimes a whole bunch of them would pop up at once—but with the right bit of “education,” you could mold anyone into a champion in a surprisingly short time. Heroes, on the other hand, were quite difficult to raise from scratch. It wasn’t something you could half-ass. Blade was an ex-Hero with over a decade of experience, so he knew that for a fact.
If they were going to fight a school powerful enough to boast about “nurturing the next generation of Heroes,” maybe it would be okay for Blade to go all-out against their best students. In his current state, of course—limited to 18 percent of his original power. Could this be his chance to find a rival? He couldn’t wait.
“Hey, are you listening to me?” asked Earnest.
“Honored Father, I can’t breathe.”
“Hmm?” Blade snapped back to his senses. He had apparently been hugging Cú in his lap a little too tightly. “What were we talking about?”
“The other school’s team,” said Earnest.
“Chestnut Academy hasn’t decided on its team members yet, right?”
No announcement along those lines had been made. Rosewood hadn’t picked its team yet, either.
“Well, I’m sure she’s going to be part of it. It’s a given that I’ll be part of our team, so it’s a given she’ll be part of theirs.”
“What about me? Huh?”
“Oh, you want to join?”
“Of course,” Blade said, his breathing a little accelerated.
“Uh…”
Earnest’s expression clearly conveyed her distaste. Her face seemed to say, “You want to enter a super-being into a competition between regular humans?”
“Please? Please? C’mon, please? I won’t do anything crazy, all right? I’ll try to be as normal as possible! …Okay? Okay?”
Oh, no. I sound like James, don’t I?
Blade didn’t know what James wanted from Eliza, but it was now clear he was asking for something.
“Well, at least you’re aware that you’re usually abnormal. All right. You’re on the team.”
“Yesss!”
Earnest was being a hundred times kinder than Eliza usually was. She didn’t string him along one bit before saying yes.
“But you’re gonna be the last one in our team to go up, all right? I’ll go before you, and I’ll make sure I finish up the match before you even get a chance to fight.”
“Aww…”
“Don’t ‘aww’ me. If you went first and took out the entire opposing team by yourself, it would destroy our nations’ balance of power.”
“What, am I a tactical weapon now?”
Well, yes, that was the role the military unit known as a Hero usually played. It was something only Gilgamesh Soulmaker, the ruler of an entire continent, possessed. That was all right during wartime because the other side had an Overlord equivalent to the Hero, but right now, that Overlord was either dead, or he’d be in rehab for a long time to come.
As a result—as far as the public was concerned, anyway—this country presently had no Hero. The Hero from before had disappeared like a gust of wind after defeating the Overlord—that was the story the king’s PR team had spread.
And really, that was true. Blade had lost his Hero force, rendering him an ex-Hero. He was just a grunt who’d die if he used even 18 percent of his full power from back in the day.
“Ugh… This is so depressing. So depressing. Sooo depressing…” Earnest ran her fingers through her hair, so distraught she seemed ready to scratch off her entire scalp.
“I can do this, all right?” Blade insisted. “I’ll do it the proper way and everything. Or…if it’ll make you feel better, I can always sit it out.”
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean that. This isn’t about you. It’s just…thinking about having to deal with that prick… It’s so depressing.”
Earnest brightened up a bit as she tried to reassure Blade, only to fall back into distress a second later. Now Blade was wondering what kind of opponent had her so upset. What sort of amazing, awe-inspiring figure could they be? If they made Earnest this despondent, they must really be something. What were they like? Stronger than Blade, maybe? Man, this was exciting!