“When the academy was going to be built, all the areas on the lakeshore had already been occupied, leaving only the outskirts of the town available. That would have been too far for the students living on the other side of town, so the academy was built on the island in the lake instead. Four bridges were made so the students could enter from any direction to make travel to the academy easier.”
Seleiyu was giving us a crash course on the school’s creation. Maybe she wasn’t such a bad person after all. Noa didn’t seem upset by her, at least. She was just having a perfectly ordinary conversation with us.
Honestly, after talking with her, I couldn’t say I disliked her either. The problem was that she was just so serious. So tiring to deal with. Nothing like me at all—I took a pretty relaxed approach to life.
“First, let’s go find Shia. I’m sure you’re eager to see her, Noir.”
“Yes, I’d like to visit her.”
Noa seemed happy to get to see Shia for the first time in a long while. Wait, did that mean we’d have an audience for our duel? That would be bad. I couldn’t say anything, though, as we were already on our way to the training grounds where Shia and the other students were.
I saw about ten people in the same uniform as me practicing magic.
“There’s Shia.” Noa pointed at Shia, whose golden pigtails swished as she moved.
“I’m glad they were where I thought they’d be,” Seleiyu said.
“Lady Seleiyu, may I go to Shia?”
“I don’t want to interrupt the others, so let’s just call Shia over instead. One moment, please.”
Seleiyu had us wait as she headed over to Shia herself. They spoke briefly, then Shia looked over at us. After exchanging a few words with someone—presumably her teacher—Shia came over to join us.
“You brought Noa with you, Yuna,” she said. “Thank you.”
“No, Shia, thank you for inviting us!” Noa said.
“You should thank Yuna, if anyone. After all, she’s the one who agreed to take you.”
“Really? I thought you asked Yuna.”
“So why are you with Lady Seleiyu, Noa?”
“I had something I wanted to discuss with you, so I brought them with me,” Seleiyu said as she approached us from behind Shia. “Why would you allow your sister to be escorted from the capital by this student instead of a proper guard? Didn’t it occur to you that that was dangerous?”
“Yuna is her guard, Lady Seleiyu.”
Shia looked at me.
“Not you too! Why do you trust a student so much? It’s one thing to allow her to be an escort within town, but do you have any idea how far the capital is from Yufaria? What if they had been attacked by monsters or bandits?”
“Yuna would have done her job as her guard and protected her.”
Shia and Seleiyu seemed to have utterly contradictory opinions of me.
“So you trust her too then, Shia? Is she really powerful enough to deserve that much trust?”
“I don’t think I know anyone as powerful and trustworthy as Yuna.”
Shia was very clear about her feelings.
“Haah... All right. In that case, I’d like you to be a witness. We are having a duel. If I win, then I will be allowed to assign a guard to Noir while she stays in Yufaria. In addition, Noir will need to return home with you, Shia.”
“Um, wait. What’s this about?”
Shia had no idea what was going on, looking to me and Noa for an explanation. Noa and I gave her a quick rundown of what had happened.
“Ah, so she just won’t accept that Yuna is capable of guarding you.” She was finally up to speed.
“Shia, can’t you convince her or something?”
“I don’t think so…” Shia looked over at Seleiyu.
It was clear Seleiyu was too stubborn to reconsider. That was just the way she was. Guess my only option would be to go through with the duel.
“So, Yuna, was it? I’d like to see what you’re truly capable of. Would you like to use magic or fight with swords? I’ll allow you to choose.”
“Let’s use swords.”
I’d already decided on swords in advance. That way I’d feel less guilty when I won.
“All right, we’ll use swords. Do you have a practice sword? If not, then I will provide one for you. I will say, however, it would be better to use one you’re used to.”
A practice sword? I thought for a bit. What about that random branch I picked up off the ground when I first got to this world? I still had it in my bear storage, since I hadn’t bothered to throw it away. I also had that wooden sword that I’d used to teach some new adventurers a few things.
I pulled out the wooden sword.
“It’s made of wood?”
“It should be safer than a real sword,” I said.
Most practice swords were made from metal, but they were blunted. The downside was that they hurt a lot more than wood when you got hit. There was a real risk of injury.
“All right. If you have two, would you allow me to borrow one?”
I pulled a second sword from my bear storage and handed it to Seleiyu.
“Ah, so those strange gloves you wear with faces on them are actually item bags?”
“They’re bears,” I said.
I opened and closed the mouths of my bear puppets as I held them up toward Seleiyu.
“Your shoes are odd too. You’re a strange person.”
So she’d noticed those too.
“Let’s move to the side so we’re not in the way.”
“Are we going to do the duel here?”
“Is there an issue with that?”
Yeah, there was. Shia was one thing, but there were other students here.
“I was just thinking that if a noble like you loses, it’d affect your standing.”
“I am not worried about that. Even if I were to lose, that’s no reason to be embarrassed—but it’s not an issue, as I do not intend to lose.”
She sure was confident. I was going to have to figure out a way to win without attracting attention to myself.