The delegation from Chestnut Academy would be staying at Rosewood for a few days. The main event, the martial arts tournament (or the “friendly match,” as Earnest insisted upon calling it), would take place on the final day.
Earnest and Lunaria seemed to be avoiding each other as much as possible in the meantime, but they’d occasionally bump heads in the middle of some corridor. Every time they did, another verbal battle would kick off.
Claude and Leonard, their long-suffering assistants, attempted to stop them at first, but after a while, they gave up. Instead, they’d just look at each other and sigh. Perhaps their shared plight had sown the seeds of friendship.
“Oh, look, Claude. I think that wild ape is trying to say something. Would you mind translating for me? I can speak around seventeen languages, but the tongue of savage primates is, sadly, beyond me.”
Macho Leonard—sorry, Claude—looked troubled as he was suddenly pulled into the line of fire.
“Go ahead! Go right ahead! Say whatever you want to me! I’m gonna beat you to a pulp in the competition!”
“Hmm? How odd. Is she saying in her ape language that she’s going to win this time? Even though she’s never done so once in her whole life?”
“I fought you to a draw several times!”
“Yes, and I always won by decision.”
“There’s no such thing as judge’s scorecards in actual combat! You’ve never even been in real battle!”
“And you’re still just a student. Surely, you haven’t seen real combat, either.”
Earnest turned to Blade.
What did this have to do with him? he wondered, startled. Shouldn’t she be looking at Leonard?
It was true that the king had been coming up with all kinds of ideas for “practical training” and “real combat simulation,” putting every wacky new concept into practice the moment he came up with them… But was that truly real combat? As an ex-Hero, he’d have to say no. Real battle, after all, was an impossible game that placed you in a hopeless situation from the very beginning. When they were training, there was always a path to a solution. As long as you did well enough, you could succeed.
He met her gaze and shook his head.
“But…but the great war is over! There’s nothing I can do! It’s not like I can just stumble upon a real battle in the street! Still…we’re doing our best to think up new training methods that are as close to actual combat as possible! His Majesty’s providing all his support! We’re all doing our very best here, keh?! B-but we’re just kids who don’t know anything about war, keh?! We can’t help it, keh?!”
There it is! Earnest’s classic “but, but, but” cavalcade of excuses! And she threw in some “keh”s, too! The king was helping with their efforts, yes—in fact, he was kind of a nuisance. But even so…
“Sure, say whatever you want,” said Lunaria. “To me, it just sounds like you’re far more confident than your abilities warrant. Regardless, that will all be settled in our match. No matter how barbarically low your intelligence is, I’m going to spell it out quite clearly in our fight.”
“She’s speaking to me again! She’s trying to make me angry again! Someone fire back at her! Fire back!”
Lunaria’s goading was clearly having an adverse effect on Earnest’s intelligence.
“Heh… I’m looking forward to our match. Truly, I am. Because I’ve now reached a stage I could never have attained through mere effort alone.”
With a triumphant smile, Lunaria tried to walk past the other girl.
Earnest’s scrunched-up face suddenly slackened. “We’ll see about that.”
Then she drew her beloved sword and attacked without hesitation. The clang of metal against metal rang out. Her opponent was no slouch, drawing her blade and defending herself in a single fluid motion, no movement wasted. The clashing of their two magical swords echoed through the corridor. The sound was unique, unlike standard metal. The pure magic in their blades was resonating.
“What is the meaning of this?” asked Lunaria.
“Oh, I didn’t do this! Asmodeus just wanted to test you out a little. As the owner, I have to listen to it now and then.”
“I see that we agree for once. Brynhildr is telling me the same thing.”
Lunaria smiled back. Brynhildr was the name of her sword, a magical blade of ice imbued with the power of the north’s frozen glaciers. Its rank among magic swords was exactly the same as Asmodeus. It was a fearsome weapon that had earned its reputation as one of the four handed down from the age of the original kingdom.
The two of them just barely avoided the tips of their opponents’ blades. But this was merely a confirmation. Once an agreement was reached, Lunaria’s expression changed. Earnest was smiling. And that was when the fight truly began.
“Ah! Tah! Sh…! Gah! If you thought I’d be stuck in the same place forever…you were so…! So…! Wrong! Huh?!”
Earnest made giant, sweeping movements as she swung, putting enough strength in each one to chop her foe in half. Usually, such attacks would leave a person exposed, but at this scale, she was actually quite difficult to fend off. If her opponent failed to avoid one of her strikes, they’d be sliced clean through, either vertically or horizontally.
Should I get Claire in here? She can still restore someone who’s been cut in half, right?
Blade feared the worst, but Earnest was still gleefully swinging away, wild and reckless as she pushed Lunaria farther and farther back.
I’m afraid that’s not going to work, Earnest…
Blade was coldly analyzing the fight. Earnest was undeniably the more powerful fighter. But thanks to all those joyful windmill swings, she was getting sloppy. She was relying too much on Asmodeus—on the performance of her weapon, and as a result, she was already exhibiting some really bad habits. Lunaria, on the other hand, was precisely countering all of Earnest’s strikes. She’d quickly realized that she was no match in terms of power, and she had immediately changed fighting styles.
If Earnest wasn’t carrying Asmodeus—if it was just an ordinary magic sword—Lunaria could’ve easily knocked it out of her hand by now, instantly turning the tables.
Still Earnest pushed, and Lunaria kept letting her do it.
“Haaah!”
Sensing victory at hand, Earnest raised her sword high and swung down with every fiber of her being.
Ka-tiiing!
An unpleasant sound roared down the corridor. The swords bit into each other. Lunaria had just barely managed to block her rival’s big attack.
Maybe I oughtta stop this…
Blade walked up to the two girls.
“Now! Prepare to face the real show!” Earnest shouted. “You said effort alone wasn’t enough to reach your level, didn’t you? Well, lemme show you my level!”
She obviously intended to go into Scion of Flame mode.
Blade raised his fists. Then he swung them down—first the right, then the left—each one aimed at a different target.
Thooom!
Right into the crowns of the girls’ heads.
There was a little point on the skull where a few different bones intersected. Hitting it would open up all the cracks already there, making it the easiest way to destroy the brain, if that was what you wanted. But Blade was no longer a Hero, so he didn’t need that skill. He held back just enough to elicit an “owww!” from his victims.
“Owww…!”
Earnest crouched down. Lunaria was doing the same, holding her head as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. It must’ve been incredibly painful for both of them, but judging by the volume of tears, Earnest had a much higher pain threshold. They had both dropped their swords. Asmodeus and Brynhildr were now lying side by side on the ground.