One day after school, as the Sword Master Festival was fast approaching, Shii called for a meeting of the Student Council. Claude was absent again, supposedly back in Vesteria, but I figured she must be in the secret underground room.
“I gathered you all here because we have a very important decision to make,” Shii said once we were all seated.
“An ‘important decision’?” I repeated.
“What are you talking about?” Rose asked.
Lia jumped in her seat, causing strands of her hair to stand up.
“Oh! Are you talking about our Sword Master Festival team?” she asked.
“Ding-ding-ding! Correct! We need to decide who to register for the Sword Master Festival!” Shii said, and a stir of excitement went through the room. “I’ve invited the winner of the First-Year Tourney, who’ll be fighting with us during the festival, as a special guest!”
In the interest of fostering growth in younger students, the Sword Master Festival required each team’s leadoff fighter to be a first year. At Thousand Blade, that position was given to the winner of the First-Year Tourney.
“Ooo, the best first year is coming…? I’m excited,” said Lilim.
“We’ll need to show her the ropes, though,” added Tirith.
They both seemed excited to act like proper upperclassmen and mentor the first year.
Oh right, they know who won.
While the rest of us had been busy rearranging Thousand Blade’s academic schedule, we’d entrusted Lilim and Tirith with planning and running the First-Year Tourney. Obviously, that meant they knew the identity of the special guest.
“I don’t want to make her wait any longer. You can come in!” Shii called out.
The door clattered open, and a girl walked inside. I was shocked when I saw her. I could never forget that face.
“I-it’s you…,” I gasped.
“I’m Lou Lorenti from Class 1-A. It’s nice to meet you all. Hey, Allen.”
Lou Lorenti was a cute girl who stood at 155 centimeters tall with medium-length flaxen hair. I’d had a minor incident with her when I proctored the Thousand Blade Entrance Examination, and I hadn’t seen her since.
“It’s been a while,” she said.
“Y-yeah, it sure has,” I responded, the memory of our incident making me feel awkward.
“Huh? Do you know her, Allen?” Shii asked, knowing nothing of our past.
“Yeah… Actually, at last year’s entrance exam—”
“He grabbed my neck and strangled me until I almost passed out,” Lou interrupted. “It was really something.”
“Hey, Lou! Now, hang on!” I said, trying to stop her from revealing what I’d done. But it was too late…
“Y-you strangled her? That’s some hardcore roleplay,” Shii said, stunned. It sounded like she’d come to some sort of crazy misunderstanding.
“I wouldn’t have expected Allen to be so domineering…,” Lilim said.
“I can kind of see it, actually…,” chimed in Tirith.
I couldn’t believe the rude things they were saying about me.
“You have it all wrong! It wasn’t…whatever you think it was! It was a complicated situation, so please let me explain!”
I launched into a detailed, careful explanation of the accident that had occurred during the entrance examination.
“So in short, your Spirit Core went berserk and strangled Lou?” Shii asked.
“Pretty much.”
“So it really wasn’t anything more?” Lilim asked.
“No.”
“You really weren’t indulging in a fetish of yours?” Tirith asked.
“Absolutely not,” I said decisively.
“I see… Thank goodness,” Shii said.
“Tch, boooring,” complained Lilim.
“I can still imagine you acting like that, though…,” responded Tirith.
Now that I’d cleared up that misunderstanding, we moved on to introductions.
“I’m Shii Arkstoria, the Student Council president. Nice to meet you, Lou.”
“Lilim Chorine, secretary!”
“I’m Tirith Magdarote, the treasurer.”
Once the third-year students were done, we second years were next.
“…I’m Allen Rodol, the vice president.”
“Lia Vesteria, a clerk.”
“Rose Valencia, also a clerk.”
That just left the newcomer.
“Thank you for having me today. I’m still inexperienced, but I look forward to fighting alongside you all,” Lou said. Her tone was surprisingly polite, and she gave a bow.
“Okay, now that the introductions are out of the way, let’s move on to the main point of this meeting,” Shii said, clapping her hands and picking up a black permanent marker. “Each team in the Sword Master Festival has a first, second, third, vice-captain, and captain. The first team to win three out of five duels advances. We need to decide who will be on our team and what position each person will fill.”
Shii wrote each position on a whiteboard and placed a piece of paper on the desk.
“We’re facing the mightiest of the Elite Five Academies, Divine Emperor Academy, in the first round. This is their roster.”
“Huh? Isn’t that usually revealed on the day of the tournament?” I asked.
Shii nodded. “That’s normally the case, but Divine Emperor Academy is an exception. They always announce their roster and positions beforehand. I guess they’ve been dominating this competition for so long, they don’t see the need for secrecy. They also didn’t register anyone in the reserve slots, deciding to compete with these five people alone.”
“They announced their roster beforehand and they’re not using reserves…? That just feels cocky. I don’t like it,” criticized Lia.
“Personally, I think it’s quite honorable…,” remarked Rose.
Those two had completely opposite reactions. They clearly had different values when it came to competition.
“Anyway, these are our five opponents,” Shii said, looking down at Divine Emperor’s roster.
First: Dreyfus Einberg (First Year)
Second: Godric Emerson (Second Year)
Third: Nemenen Tottoru (Second Year)
Vice-Captain: Medi Malum (Second Year)
Captain: Shin Rex (Second Year)
Reserves: None
One thing was off about their roster.
“…Wait, where are their third years?” I asked.
Divine Emperor Academy hadn’t registered a single third-year student for the competition. It was standard practice for the Sword Master Festival to use three third years, complement them with the academy’s best second year, then add one first year as required by the rules. Naturally, the jump from first to second year and second to third year made a massive difference in terms of strength.
Barring highly unusual circumstances, third years should make up most of the team… Yet Divine Emperor hadn’t registered a single third-year student. I wondered if they had a good reason or if it was simply arrogance from being on top for so long.
“Divine Emperor Academy’s second years are called the ‘Holy Generation.’ There are multiple prodigies in that class who people think could one day join the Seven Holy Blades. I’ve also heard they have a promising new first year,” Shii said.
“Oh, okay…” So apparently, they had so many great second-year students that there was no room for any third years.
“We need to be especially wary of their captain, Shin Rex,” continued Shii. “On top of everything else, he’s already been appointed to the Seven Holy Blades at such a young age.”
“He’s one of the Holy Blades?! As a high schooler?! That’s so cool!” exclaimed Lilim.