Okay. This is going to be harder than I thought…
Rix was starting to feel this keenly after fighting Gordon for real.
He understood this after barely one minute of their battle.
He knew he didn’t even have a one-in-a-million chance of winning this fight.
Noticing that Rix must have finally realized this, Gordon laughed smugly.
“Do you get it now? This stark difference between us?” he asked. “When you knocked me down back at the entrance ceremony, that was nothing but a fluke. You happened to catch me off guard, and I couldn’t use my physical enhancement and my Sphere in time. When I’m fighting for real, there’s no way a piece of trash like you could ever win against me…”
Clang!
Before he knew it, Rix had disappeared from Gordon’s field of vision and had sneaked up behind him.
And Rix was thrusting his sword into Gordon’s back.
Gordon had no way of knowing, but this had nothing to do with Rix’s speed—it was pure excellent skill. It was the ability of an assassin to strike at the gap in their target’s attention.
Even though Gordon had a mage’s omnipotence, and even though he had weakened Rix’s body with a curse, he still wasn’t able to keep up with that movement.
Gordon couldn’t stop a chill from running up his spine.
While Gordon’s physical enhancement magic blocked Rix’s sword, and the blade hadn’t broken through…he could sense the frightening precision of the position of Rix’s sword. He was aiming for his heart.
Whether it was his neck or his heart, Rix was clearly aiming to kill Gordon.
And Gordon sensed absolutely no hesitation from Rix.
Without his physical enhancement magic, or if Rix’s sword had been enchanted by someone, Gordon would already be dead twice over.
“Wh-why, youuuuuuuuu!!”
Filled with humiliation and anger, Gordon summoned another lightning spell.
The sound rattled the atmosphere. The whirling light assaulted their vision.
This time, there was no dodging it.
“Gwah?!”
Rix took a direct hit of the lightning and was sent flying.
It was a decisive hit.
To a human like Rix, this was the end of being able to put up a good fight against Gordon.
“Trying to make a fool out of meeeeeeee?! I’ll make you wish you’d never been boooooooorn!”
This time, Gordon not only cast his lightning but explosive flames, storms of ice, and cutting winds, too—he showered Rix with all sorts of magical attacks.
It was enough to make the spectators reconsider how bad Gordon’s torture of Shino had been.
Rix was being destroyed—burned, scorched, slashed, beaten, and ground to a pulp.
The gruesome scene unfolding before them rendered everyone watching speechless.
Ah… This feeling… I’m gonna die…, Rix thought in a daze as the terrible violence and pain of Gordon’s magic racked his entire body.
He could tell that he was coming exceedingly close to death.
This sensation of impending death, which he had become so familiar with since his childhood. Now it was right in front of him.
Ahh… This really brings me back…to those days…in the Forest of Endyard…
The lightning assaulted Rix over and over again.
I can hear it now…that old song…
The flames badly burned his body.
Oh crap… I can see it… I see it again… That light at the tip of the sword…
The cutting winds sliced him to bits.
Red voids of blood bloomed over and over on his skin.
No…that light… I never wanted…to see it again…but…
But still, somehow, Rix wanted to live.
He wanted to live as a human.
However—when he saw that light—he could feel himself losing his humanity all over again.
He wanted to live as a human. But he was so far from anything human that when he tried to live as one, he became a self-contradiction.
“Rix! Dammit! Hold it together, Riiiiiiiiiiix!”
“Stop! Please, that’s enough!”
“Rix! You’ve done your best! But please, you can stop now! Allow me to help—!”
He heard his friends’ voices growing increasingly distant—friends so great they were wasted on someone like him, who didn’t have any right to be alive.
Being able to meet them had made coming to this academy worth it.
To be able to live out a happy life, in a world free from fighting… I guess I knew it was never possible for me from the start… But I wish I could stay with them just a little longer… So…
And thus, Rix decided to give up just a little bit of his humanity.
“Man…I’m impressed you could stay standing even after all that.”
Gordon’s snide voice echoed across the training grounds.
He had momentarily stayed his attacks, and standing before him was Rix, at death’s door.
Rix looked terrible. It was a wonder that he was even still alive. He had stabbed his sword into the ground and was using it to support his body.
“So? Do you finally understand it, the difference between you and me? Get on your hands and knees and promise to be my slave for the rest of your life, and maybe I’ll forgive you. What do you think?” Gordon asked Rix.
“…ne…and…”
“Hmm?” He noticed that Rix, in a daze, was whispering something. “Huh? Hey… What the heck are you saying…?”
“…One fruit, red and ripe…”
Gordon strained his ears.
“…Two fruits, round and sweet…”
Rix was singing to himself.
“…Three fruits, small in size…”
It sounded like something a mother would sing to get a baby to sleep…a lullaby.
The lyrics weren’t particularly special. It was like countless other lullabies sung around the world.
But…what was it about it?
“Ugh, ah… A-aaaaaaaaaah…?!”
As soon as he heard those lines, Gordon’s whole body was seized by fear.
His heightened senses as a mage and his omnipotent Sphere understood in an instant: He had to kill Rix right away.
If he didn’t, Gordon himself would die.
Huh…? Kill…? I—I…have to kill a person…? Gordon thought.
But the idea of this burden, too heavy to bear, made Gordon hesitate.
If he killed a person, he certainly wouldn’t be able to stay at the academy, and it could cause problems within his noble family.