After a while, it seemed that the noble brat realized that the way he was casting Body Fortification was inefficient. He then switched up strategies and began to rely on his own physical abilities instead, hopping around to continue pursuing me while barely using any magecraft.
Well, color me surprised. Everybody had their own strengths and weaknesses. In Ted’s case, he didn’t seem to have any talent for magecraft, he wasn’t especially attractive, and to top it all off, he was an idiot. Even taking the fact that he was a child out of the equation, I didn’t sense even a single ember of intelligence in his brain.
However, that being said, he was above average in the physical strength department. Despite being a child, he hadn’t stopped trying to chase me down. For that, he deserved praise.
“H-How is it that you haven’t broken a sweat yet?” he gasped through labored breaths.
I’m well trained, unlike a little kid like you. Even back in the day, there wasn’t anybody who could keep up with me when I got serious. To put it into perspective, Roy, as the Hero of Wind, was probably the closest to posing even a slight challenge to me.
“There’s still plenty of time before the sun sets. Do you wanna keep going?”
“Damn...it all... You little—”
Ted stuck his arm out straight towards my scarf, but he was too slow—way too slow. There was no way such a straightforward attack would reach me. I deflected his arm, taking a step back.
“Agh! I-I can’t— I can’t keep going!” Ted yelled, before collapsing to the ground.
So this is about his limit? Honestly, I’d only expected him to last five minutes. The fact that he’d hung in there for twenty was pretty impressive. This was beyond my expectations. Despite being scummy, he still was an “elite” noble. Most likely, he’d been given basic training to increase his stamina.
“One day... One day I’ll definitely win!”
At any rate, Ted had given up, so I decided to put an end to my exercising and return to the library. I turned on my heel and right as I did, something caught my attention. What is that? From up here, I could see into the luxurious mansion next door. There I saw a familiar face.
“Barth...was it?”
The older noble brat was apparently talking with Lilith...but about what? I was curious, so I used Body Fortification to strengthen my hearing. My ears rang a little, but after a moment, the sound became clear. I adjusted the scope of my hearing and focused it on my targets. This was a technique I often used in the past to eavesdrop on the strategy sessions of my enemies, and now I was using it to eavesdrop on the two of them.
“As I’ve said multiple times before, I am unable to court you.”
The conversation seemed heated. It was only now that it dawned on me how beautiful Lilith had become. No matter how calm Barth played it, he was still an adolescent. Being in the presence of a beauty like Lilith day after day was sure to make anyone develop feelings.
“Is there something about me that you’re unsatisfied with?!”
I’d loved to have quipped that his attitude was not doing him any favors, but I felt bad for him. He may have been a kid, but being rejected must’ve been painful—maybe even more so for an extremely prideful noble like him.
“My problem does not lie with you, but the fact that my heart already belongs to someone else.”
“Are you talking about that Abel kid?”
“Yes, that is correct. In any case, I must apologize. However, I have never and will never consider courting you, Master Barth. Please move on.”
This reminded me of reading about how there was no time a woman was more cruel than when a guy she had absolutely no interest in tried to approach her. I was getting a real-life demonstration of that.
“Y-You are in love with your own blood brother. You’re disgusting! You should be ashamed!” he yelled before running away, wiping away his tears with his sleeve.
He had my sympathies. I wasn’t really her little brother, but I had to pretend I was; otherwise a lot of things wouldn’t add up. From where I was, I could tell that Lilith was slightly bothered by what’d just happened, but regardless, she returned to work.
Okay, well, now that that’s over, I’m just gonna pretend I never saw it and erase it from my memory. Besides, it was about time I moved out of the way—I didn’t even have to turn around to see what was coming.
“Great Ted Kick!” Ted yelled out the name of his dropkick, which I easily sidestepped. “Dammit! H-How did you dodge that?!”
I can dodge you with my eyes closed. I knew exactly how this noble brat was going to move. If he wanted to catch me off guard, he’d first have to learn how to suppress his presence.
“Oh no. I’m...I’m really at my limit.”
In the end, that final attack was the last drop of strength he could muster. Now that he was fully out of mana, he passed out on the spot. Is this a failure? I might’ve gone a little too hard on him. It was only the first day, though.
But I only felt these regrets briefly, because it turned out that Ted liked this little game of ours. He came over the next day and the day after that as well to continue playing. As for me, I welcomed it because it was nice to train not just my mind, but my body as well. Looks like I found a convenient person to kill time with.