“You’re right to be concerned, Tenma. But the students do have combat experience,” Prince Caesar reminded me. “And judging by their reactions, I’d say they’re ready to risk a few bruises. Still, I’d like you to go easy on them, if possible.”
“I’ll hold back as much as I can, but if we’re calling it a match, they better be ready to take responsibility for themselves.”
With that decided, Prince Caesar turned towards the students and their guests, confirming the deal. Later on, I discovered that this idea had come from the families of some of the top students. Several had backed the idea, and the academy had reached out to the king earlier that morning about it. Incidentally, most of the students in the room were only learning about the match just now.
“By the way, Queen Maria? This match is being proposed by reformists and the academy families who aren’t exactly my biggest fans, right...?” I asked quietly.
She sighed and nodded. There weren’t many nobles who had both the king’s ear and a grudge against me, so that narrowed down the possibilities quite a bit.
“I bet it was Duke Durham, huh?”
She nodded again. As word had spread that I supported the royalists, public support for the royals had grown while the reformists had taken a hit. On top of that, Jeanne was my charge, and she was a key member of the neutral faction. So, thanks to me, the royalists and neutrals had formed a friendly relationship.
Because of all that and the fact that a bunch of nobles who had previously backed the reformists had jumped sides, the reformists had lost a huge chunk of their influence. Duke Durham, the leader of the reformists, had also taken a serious hit in regard to his power as a result.
“So this match is just them trying to cause trouble for me, huh?” I asked.
“Precisely. I have a feeling that even Duke Durham thought that no matter how skilled you are, it would be tough for you to handle that many students without hurting anyone.”
So if I did end up injuring one of the students, they’d use that as an excuse to chip away at the royalists’ support. And if his plan didn’t work, there’d be no harm, no foul. It was low risk, high reward if they did win, however.
“I’ll do my best. Tida, Amy... You two go easy on me, okay?” I said.
The rest of the students were raring to go and practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. But when Tida and Amy saw the smile on my face, they immediately went pale.
“All right, let’s go over the rules,” I began. “Tida is your team leader. If he ends up unable to continue, I win. If even one of you manages to land a clean hit on me, then you win. I won’t use any attack magic or weapons, but you guys can use whatever you want—magic, weapons, you name it.”
“Um, are you sure you’re okay with those rules? And what about your gear, Tenma?” Tida asked incredulously.
This setup gave the biggest advantage to both me and the royal family. In the worst-case scenario, only Tida would get hurt. He seemed fine with that, but he was concerned about my equipment.
That was because the students were all armed like they were about to go on a dungeon dive. As for me, I was weaponless. I wasn’t wearing a single bit of armor either.
“What about it?” I asked.
“I just mean...are you really going to fight in regular clothes?” Tida said.
“Now that you mention it, I should probably at least take off my jacket. I don’t plan on getting hit, but I don’t want it to get dirty. Cleaning it before the party starts would be too much of a pain,” I said.
I shrugged off my jacket and tossed it over to Jean, who was acting as the referee. Both he and Tida gave me exasperated looks. Amy stood behind Tida and had a sheepish smile on her face. Meanwhile, the rest of the students were clearly getting irritated.
“Tenma, enough taunting. All right, both sides take a step back. Ready... Set... Begin!”
At Jean’s signal, I started doing some casual stretches like deep knee bends and calf stretches.
“You guys can have the first move. Just whenever you’re ready. No rush,” I called out.
That must’ve really hit a nerve—every student but Tida and Amy cast a bunch of spells at once. And they were going all out, like they were trying to end the match right here and right now.
That kept on going for a bit until Jean’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Match over!” he cried. “The winner is...Tenma!”
“Good job, everyone.”
The students were confused about how they had lost, but when they heard my voice coming from behind them, they were even more baffled.
The reason they were so surprised was that I was standing there between Amy and Tida, gently holding them by the scruff of their necks.
Jean, who’d been observing the match as the referee, critiqued the students. “It’s not a bad call to go all out when you have a cocky opponent, but not with that strategy. The conditions of this match were landing any hit on Tenma to win, and if Prince Tida got taken out, then you would lose. Your top priority should’ve been guarding him.”
Since he was a royal guard, the students listened seriously. But...
“Er, Tenma? How long are you planning on holding us like this?”
“Probably until Jean’s lecture is finished,” I said. “If the students start protesting, we might have to resume the match. Oh, and Amy, since you weren’t the target, you can feel free to go listen. Jean’s great at coaching rookies, so you might learn something useful.”
“Okay!” Amy said cheerfully and rushed over to Jean.
“By the way, Amy was the only one who managed to react to Tenma’s movement,” Jean said. “She wasn’t able to stop him and still got taken down alongside Prince Tida, but still. The way she reacted to his sneak attack was impressive, given the skill gap.”
Jean praised Amy’s actions, and I agreed with him. Of course, since Amy and I had trained together a lot, she had the advantage of already having a read on my habits. I still thought she had done a good job.
“But for the rest of you, you guys all panicked. Blasting off a bunch of spells at random, all at once, didn’t accomplish anything except kicking up so much dust you couldn’t see a thing. It was also so noisy that it was impossible to coordinate things. Tenma used that chaos to sneak in and go straight for Prince Tida. Now, if you’d put the prince at the center of your formation and had at least three of you stand guard around him, you might’ve held out longer. I know that you all wanted the bragging rights of landing a hit on Tenma, but, well... Tenma’s kind of a jerk. He was counting on that and was egging you on the entire time,” Jean explained.
Sheesh. He wasn’t wrong—I had known exactly how they’d react if I were to taunt them, but did he have to say it like that?
“But don’t beat yourselves up too much,” Jean said. “Since Tenma committed to a strategy like that, it meant he took you seriously and fought you as equals. And Tenma? It might be time to disable your spell now.”
“Oh, right. Good point.”