Like last time, Melia returned from her match completely unscathed. There wasn’t a single stain on her clothes. Even her hair was still neat.
“And as for this match...” she said, looking around at the audience. “Looks like it ended the way we all expected it would.”
Just observing the atmosphere in the arena was apparently enough for her to deduce the outcome of Rayde’s match.
“How was the president in battle?”
“Like a stone wall. It wasn’t even close... Honestly, he’s so strong that I don’t think observing his matches will even make any difference.”
In general, Jenifa students were stronger than those of other schools, but Cain put them all to shame. His strength already eclipsed many adults. This made the student council president an object of intense curiosity for Sain, though his interest lay not in the power he held but how he came to hold it. How had Cain become so strong?
Sain’s power as the holy knight had a clear source; it came from a supernatural entity. While being endowed with the goddess’s blessing was effectively a lottery — one for which he’d won the jackpot — the mechanism of the process was clear and simple. It wasn’t hard to understand why an infusion of power from a deity would grant immense strength. The source of Cain’s strength, however, was a mystery.
“I said it during the field exercises, and I’ll say it again. He’s way too strong to be a normal human,” remarked Melia.
“But he is. I guarantee he’s a normal human,” Sain said with certainty. “I mean, I can’t imagine he was given that power like I was... which means it truly is his.”
It was undoubtedly power he’d gained through hard work. As someone who hadn’t worked for his own, Sain knew the difference. He could tell that Cain’s strength was real; that wasn’t the mystery. What he couldn’t tell was how Cain had mustered the willpower to put in so much work. That kind of strength couldn’t have come easily. It would have required an intense, persistent effort to toil against the limits of one’s own body.
In trying to become the dark knight, Sain had been — and still was — pushing himself with desperate resolve to get stronger. The power Cain displayed must have required at least an equal amount of effort. Despite what was doubtlessly a great deal of natural talent, he probably never rested on his laurels and strove tirelessly to improve. It almost felt like there was some sort of deep-seated hunger for power, and Sain wanted to know why.
“I’ve got a ton of questions for him, but I doubt he’d answer even one. We’re not exactly on speaking terms right now.”
“More like you should be avoiding him at all costs, considering he’s almost onto you.”
In fact, there was a good chance Cain was already sure about Sain’s true identity. Ever since the incident during the field exercises, they couldn’t walk past each other without the president openly glaring at him. There was never any attempt to initiate conversation, but the constant I’ve-got-my-eyes-on-you vibe was starting to get to him. Remove the holy knight aspect from Sain, and he’d just be a simple weirdo. While his stunts might draw attention to himself from time to time, there was no reason for anyone to eye him with that kind of alert, scrutinizing gaze. Cain clearly didn’t see him in the same way as everyone else. Presumably, that was why the vice president, Emilia, had asked if he knew him. She’d probably noticed his odd behavior around Sain.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sain noticed a dejected Rayde walking out of the arena. A part of him felt glad that he didn’t have to greet him; he wasn’t sure what he would say.
“By the way, where are Miss Gold and Miss Grim?”
“They went to get seats for your match.”
Sain’s second match was coming up next. The knowledge that his friends would be cheering for him was comforting, but the fight between Cain and Rayde lingered uncomfortably in his mind. Maybe he shouldn’t have watched it, because now he couldn’t help but see himself there. Sure, Sain was desperate to win, but Rayde must have been desperate to win, as well, and look how much that had mattered. He shut his eyes, but it didn’t help. The image of Rayde hunched over on his knees, his fists bitterly punching at the ground, seemed to be burned into his retinas.
He could imagine Rayde’s anguish... During the field exercises, Rayde seemed to have thought of Cain as a rival... only to have the rivalry proven illusory before being shattered in merciless fashion through a crushing defeat. Sain tried to pull his mind away from the thought, but he kept imagining himself in Rayde’s position, faced with an insurmountable hurdle and the devastating realization that all his efforts had been in vain. How could he avoid that? He needed to do something. A rising panic filled his chest.
“Yoink.”
Suddenly, he felt Melia’s fingers on his cheeks. She pinched them.
“Hm? Wh-What’s this supposed to mean?”
“You’re thinking yourself into a corner, so I’m making you snap out of it,” she said, giving his cheeks a few tugs for good measure. “The only thing you’ll find out today is how far you’ve come. It’s just a report card, nothing more. If you win, you can be proud of what you’ve accomplished. If you lose, you’ll know it wasn’t enough. Rayde lost because he didn’t work hard enough. That’s all.”
“...That seems a bit extreme, but maybe you’re right.” He understood what she was trying to say. “I’ve already come this far. All that’s left is to go out there and do my thing.”
“That’s right.”