Chapter 4: Exams

Part 1

The royal capital of Roanne, Theodore.

It was larger and fancier than any other capital city in the world, and it was high in status. It had been about twenty years since Bahamut had ceased their invasion of Roanne, and the kingdom was now experiencing a time of splendor and prosperity.

It had been decades, no, centuries since Bahamut had first invaded Roanne as if they had been met with their mortal enemy and the two countries had violently clashed with each other like oil and water ever since. It had seemed like the war between the Bahamut Empire and the Kingdom of Roanne would never end for all eternity.

The countries neighboring them occasionally quarreled amongst themselves, but they never interfered in the war between Bahamut and Roanne. There was a saying that innocent bystanders would only get hurt when caught in a battle between giants. There had once been a country that had targeted Roanne’s borders like a day-old pup that knew no fear while Roanne had still been warring with Bahamut. The country had been erased off the map within only a few months.

Any other country that had been considering sneaking into the fray had turned their backs on interfering with their war ever since. The Kingdom of Roanne had enough military might to annihilate another country in the span of a few months, so how much stronger was the Bahamut Empire, which even Roanne was struggling against?

And yet, Bahamut’s seemingly endless invasion had stopped abruptly twenty years ago. Bahamut had frequently rested for a few months before moving their large armies back against them, so Roanne had ignored them at first.

But then, Bahamut’s silence stretched for ten, then twenty, years. There hadn’t even been a single trivial skirmish during that time. Roanne had been unable to obtain any intelligence on Bahamut, because the two nations did not exchange information and any spies they sent into the Empire never made it back, and the kingdom was at a loss because it was unable grasp Bahamut’s intentions.

A short while later, a newly sent spy reported back that the Bahamut imperial family was focusing their armies on the Lotso Mountains, an unclaimed territory, perhaps because they had taken interest in its natural resources.

Then, Roanne observed Bahamut’s each and every move carefully like a startled turtle for about ten years. After all, it was obvious what Bahamut planned to use those resources for. However, nothing new was found in the Lotso Mountains because of the monsters that lived there, and Roanne was happily surprised to learn that Bahamut’s efforts had been made in vain.

And so, twenty years of peace had passed. The long years of peace were more than enough to mellow the people’s hearts. The birth of a younger generation who had never known war only served to further the newfound peace.

The smaller nations, which grew fearful of Roanne’s standing army and military funding once it had entered a temporary truce with Bahamut, began crawling about amongst themselves. Roanne’s king, whose ambitions were boundless, dominated over the other kings with his arrogant behavior whenever the world leaders gathered for a conference, and the entire world knew that he planned to raise Roanne into an empire.

Theodore was an accurate reflection of the kingdom’s current status. It had once been a grey city littered with weapons everywhere —as befitting of a kingdom known for its military might—, but it was now a city glistening gold with luxury.

At heart, Theodore was a golden city protected by massive ramparts. The ramparts, which were built by thick stones that had been processed with magic, kept intruders at bay like a magnificent shield of steel.

At the center of the ramparts were two large columns, which pierced the heavens like giants, and in between the columns was a grand, cast-iron gate with Roanne’s long history engraved into it. The gates were tightly shut at night to keep intruders out and opened every day with the clear ring of the morning bell. Behind the doors was a city that lived and breathed of Roanne’s history.

The first thing that could be seen after passing through the gates was the stately dome roof of the magnificent royal palace. The royal palace was a gold and silver building made of white marble that was decorated with precious jewels. The royal palace shone as radiantly as though the gods were blessing it when the sun was directly above it and the people revered it so much that they shrank back in awe and fear.

A fancy flag with the Roane royal family’s crest, comprised of a silver hawk, a crown, and crimson rose fluttered in the wind in every district of the city. Neat stone pavement roads spread out from the royal palace and into the rest of the city like a dense spiderweb.

Gingko trees, zelkovas, and metasequoias……fresh trees provided the roads with shade, and vivid flowers, cared for by gardeners, brought color to the otherwise monotonous stone pavement.

The sounds of birds roaming the skies and wandering minstrels singing, the music of performers, and the people’s laughter. Carriages that were proceeding at their leisure, people enjoying their day off, a soldier who was urging his horse forward like he was in a hurry, people busily running down the streets. The roads were overflowing with liveliness.

Stone buildings, where the nobility resided, stretched along the central district without crossing into each other’s territories, and colorful wooden buildings, where the commoners lived, stacked on top of each other in a way that didn’t damage the city’s beauty.

A fountain depicting winged angels and the God Laos sprayed refreshing water into the air. Bronze statues of history’s great heroes were propped up here and there to boost the people’s nationalistic pride.

A giant stone statue of Roanne’s founding queen, Roanne de Roanne, large enough that it seemed to touch the skies above, overlooked Theodore with its merciful gaze from the northernmost area of the fortress. Vita River, the number one reason why Theodore had grown to be such a wealthy city, flowed lazily behind her.

If you looked down at Theodore from the sky, you would see that it was shaped like an eagle with its wings spread out and ready to take flight.

Of course, just like how light was always accompanied by darkness, there were worn down buildings and people starving away from the public eye, but Theodore looked nothing but splendid from the outside because they existed in the shadows where they could not be readily seen. The streets were filled with people who were dressed nicely, so it made it seem like everyone was enjoying themselves in the light.

The Valgenta Institution, which was located at the outskirts of the capital, influenced the area greatly.

It was the beginning of January, and the animated streets where the commoners, not the highbrow nobles, lived were bustling with people.

“Hey, don’t push!”

“Ugh, this is taking so long. Why the hell is the line so long?!”

This was a scene that always played out in Theodore in January and February. It was the line for the Institution’s admission office. Everyone in line was there to confirm the applications they had submitted and receive their exam number and date once they had paid their application fees.

Perhaps the streets wouldn’t be so crowded if the numbers and dates had been passed to the applicants beforehand. However, there wasn’t enough manpower or funding to send every single applicant their information by post, and, more importantly, the influx of applicants invigorated the local dining and lodging industry.

The reason why the Institution could maintain its scholarships was not only because of the donations the nobility made to keep face, but mostly due to the expensive application fees that applicants paid as they swarmed to the Institution like flies. It was also because of the quiet lobbying carried out by local innkeepers and restaurant owners. Business owners made an enormous donation to the Institution every year.

Skilled commoners from other countries flocked to the Valgenta Institution as well. It wasn’t that other countries didn’t have their own prestigious academies where students could study, but they were mostly attended by nobles, were costly, and could not hold a candle to the Kingdom of Roanne’s, which was often called the center of the world, Valgenta Institution.

Moreover, the Institution’s symposium in November was attended by not only foreign nobility, but also foreign royalty in search of people whom they could bring under their wings, so the Institution acted as the gateway to every ambitious commoner’s dreams.

And so, Theodore, or more precisely, the area around the Valgenta Institution was teeming with people as soon as January of the year 1513 of the Roanne calendar began.

Among the crowd was Ianna, who had also just arrived at the capital.

“Ack! I told you not to push!”

“Don’t step on me, you crazy bastards!”

Unlike the others, who were flailing about in the hell of people surrounding the admissions office, Ianna was wandering around from afar like someone who had just come from the countryside.

She had not been in any danger even though she had come from the Roberstein lands all the way up north to the capital at the center of the kingdom because the roads were well-maintained. There had been a few people along the way who had thrown curious looks at her, wondering why a young lady was travelling alone, and there had also been people on carriages who had offered her a ride with them to the capital. Ianna, however, had turned them all down politely by giving them the excuse that she wanted to walk alone so she could ready her heart to take the entrance exams for the Institutions. The people who reached out to her had all praised and encouraged her sincerely as they passed her.

The Theodore she had arrived at once she had completed her journey was a new sight for her. She had lived in the capital in the past and knew the city like it was her home, but it felt strange to see it again after sixteen years.

Ianna took one look at the boisterous scene before her and swiftly turned her back on it. She had seen this scene play out dozens of times in the past. According to her past experiences, things were always busy when they first began handing out exam numbers, but the activity died down by the end of the given time period.

There was no real benefit to getting your number early, but people always made a fuss and competed with each other to get theirs earlier out of anxiety.

There were a lot of good restaurants in the capital. And, there were a lot of good restaurants that were also cheap near the Institution because their main customers were students. Ianna opened the door to Elona’s Paradise, a restaurant-cum-inn that she had used regularly in the past. Elona’s Paradise was located in a quieter area of the district, but it had as many customers as would any famous restaurant.

“Welcome to Elona’s Paradise!”

Ianna was greeted by a sunny voice. She subconsciously turned toward the familiar voice and hesitated when the face she saw was much younger than what she remembered.

“Are you here to eat, or are you here to lodge? All of our rooms are taken at the moment……I’m sorry. We won’t be able to book you!”

The woman, whose name was Dante, was a chubby middle-aged woman in Ianna’s memories. She had admired Ianna, a regular customer who was not only one of the most skilled swordsmen on the continent but also the kingdom’s only duchess in her own right, greatly. She also liked to gossip, and had fearlessly sat down with her and talked away while Ianna ate as if she didn’t know that Ianna was called the Iron-Blooded Duchess or the Crimson Sword Demon.

Dante was good at telling stories and making them exciting, and Ianna had found her tales quite entertaining even if all she contributed to the conversation was the occasional nod of the head.

“Miss?”

Ianna smiled before she could stop herself when she found that, unlike her past life where she had been rather heavyset, Dante had a voluptuous and attractive figure.

“I’ll look for lodgings elsewhere……but I’d like to have a meal for now.”

“Understood, I’ll lead you to a table!”

Once Dante had wiped down a table and Ianna had settled in, Ianna took a look at the menu and said,

“I’ll have today’s recommended set.”

“My, Miss. Have you been to our inn before? You know how to order. Our recommended set, which changes every day, is always our tastiest! My husband’s one amazing cook, after all.”

Dante was Denma’s, the innkeeper’s, wife. It looked like she had already married him by this time.

Ianna glanced deeper into the inn. She found that Denma, who also looked far younger than she remembered, was frantically busy cooking.

Denma had a limp. He was also an amazing cook. He was a very good-natured, if naïve, man, and Dante had him wrapped around her finger.

“Isn’t my husband hard at work cooking?”

“Oh, he’s your husband?”

Dante looked happy when Ianna asked, pretending that she didn’t already know.

“Yes, he is. He was originally my business partner, but we started dating and got married just a little while ago. I keep the inn running, and my husband does the cooking. Hoho. Listen to this, Miss! I can’t cook at all, you know? Even I can’t stomach the food I make. But now I don’t have to cook at all because he’s so good at it. I would’ve gotten chased out of my own house if I’d married any other man!”

She still liked to make jokes as she had in Ianna’s memories. Perhaps people who liked the quiet would have furrowed their brows at her. But Dante’s cheer was contagious and spread the longer people listened to her, so her gossiping was a major merit of hers.

Ianna thought that the couple was truly a match made in heaven as she listened to Dante speak. This was probably why they had shown her how warm they were toward each other as a couple even decades down the line.

Ianna stole glances at him. They, who had accomplished something she had never been able to, were a pleasant sight to her eyes. She laughed gently.

“You have a great husband. In any case, what’s the recommended set today?”

“The main dish today is pork chops roasted with our special seasoning. And the side dish is steamy fried rice made with fresh vegetables. And, as always, the price is ten silver!”

In Roanne, 100 copper amounted to one silver, and 100 silver amounted to one gold. Copper, silver, and gold coins could be found in units of one and ten each, and any amount larger than that and was difficult to carry around could be issued by a bank as a gold bullion or a check.

Most of the wealthy used checks, as the magic seals stamped on them could be invoked at any time to connect with a bank receptionist and used to confirm their validity.

The food at Elona’s Paradise wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t cheap either. Still, Ianna could afford to spend a little extra for the recommended set.

“I’ll have one recommended set.”

“Okay, it’ll be ready for you soon!”

Ianna propped her arms on the table and rested her chin in her hands. Then, she closed her eyes. The smells entering her nose were so delicious that she was almost salivating. She was in a very good mood, as she was about to eat at her favorite restaurant for the first time in a long while. It had been a while since she had felt so refreshed.

She had felt so free ever since she had left the Roberstein lands, and the path spreading out before her promised her infinite freedom. The Robersteins always felt to like shackles that bound not only her body but also her soul.

“Kyah!”

Dante’s shriek broke through Ianna’s reverie. Ianna opened her eyes wide and turned toward the scream.

“Heeheehee.”

“L-let go of me! Kyah!”

“Hey, check out her body!”

A drunk man had wrapped his thick arm around Dante’s waist and was groping her breasts. His friends were simply laughing along and watching instead of stopping him.

Dante struggled with all her might to break free of his grasp but could not beat him in a contest of strength. The man pulled her into his lap. Terrified, Dante burst out in tears.

“Eek, stop this already! Sniff, honey… Denma!”

“Ain’t it cute how alarmed she is? Are you already married? Is that why your tits are so huge?”

“Please stop this, sirs!”

Denma shouted as he ran out from the kitchen. Ianna, who had been watching over the scene with a stiff look on her face, shot a glance at Denma’s leg in alarm. The Denma in her memories had walked with a limp. However, the current Denma was walking just fine. He continued,

“Why are you being so violent?!”

“Haha!”

“I’ll call the police!”

“Hah, what good will the police do in the middle of the capital, dumbass?!”

The man was very drunk. While it was normal for drunk people to show off more swagger, the effect was rather extreme in this man’s case.

Ianna clicked her tongue. The man was the real fool here. Not only was Theodore incredibly wealthy, but the public safety was also good because of the many powers dwelling within the city. Moreover, the police force consisted of only the most capable royal knights. The man either didn’t know how terrifying the capital police were, or he did know but was too drunk to care about his wanton violence.

Just then, the man grabbed his own shirt and pulled it up to expose his chest.

“To hell with the police! Do you even know who I am?! I’m a member of the great Black Fox!”

“B-Black Fox?!”

The people who had been trying to stop him flinched in alarm. Unlike the rest of the customers, who were all wearing thick clothing, the man and his party were wearing armor that smelled strongly of steel. The bloodcurdling swords, lances, and axes resting beside them glistened under the restaurant lights. And yet, what was even scarier was…….

People stared at the black fox that had been drawn into the man’s muscles in terror.

‘Black Fox…….’

Ianna furrowed her brows because her mood had soured.

The Black Fox, symbolized by their namesake, was the largest and worst criminal cartel on the continent.

They dealt mainly with drugs, human trafficking, and intelligence, but they also dipped into any sort of organized or even national crime you could name —be it contracted murder, gambling, weapons smuggling, espionage operations, loan-sharking, or tax evasion. It was frequently the case where even seemingly trivial things like organized illegal prostitution was carefully managed by the Black Fox on the highest levels.

The Black Fox was known as the worst of the worst, and their conduct suited their infamy well.

It was said that the Black Fox had abducted brides on the night before their weddings had sold them as slaves, slowly got the nobles who purchased their sex slaves addicted to powerful drugs and set them up as puppets in the government, tormented any adventurers who stood up to their evil deeds until they died, and had even went to war with and destroyed small countries that happened to pique their interest.

“Heeheehee!”

the man jeered as he continued to grope Dante. Dante was trembling in her boots but did not dare rebel against him.

Even the infamous Black Fox couldn’t act out as openly as the drunk man was doing. The current king of Roanne placed great importance on public safety and strictly ordered that any bastard who dared to oppose the peace be brought in, be they members of the Black Fox or otherwise. Everything would be over for the drunk man as soon as he was caught by the police.

And yet, the people in the restaurant did not even consider running outside to call the police. The Black Fox was a very vengeful organization. One could get on their blacklist if they tried to stop their evil because of a fiery sense of justice and would then become a target for revenge, so most people were reluctant to interfere even when they witnessed the injustice they committed.

‘What to do…?’

Ianna pondered with her brows still furrowed. She was not afraid of the Black Fox’s vengeance. All she had to do was kill anyone who came after her. She didn’t mind risking the inconvenience to resolve the situation at hand. And yet…….

‘They’ll be Arhad’s hands and feet one day.’

The Black Fox had originated from the Kingdom of Sidian, located on the southwestern edge of the continent, hundreds of years ago. Which was why most people thought that it was a criminal organization that operated from the southwest —but they were wrong.

The Black Fox was the dog of the Bahamut Empire.

It was an underground organization that had started its activities in the southwest in the distant past under orders from the Bahamut imperial family.

Ianna had only learned about this after Arhad had begun his conquest of the continent.

Her head was filled with the thought that there was no reason for her to go out of her way to interfere with and make an enemy out of the Black Fox when she was planning to go to Bahamut sometime in the future.

“Let go of her!”

The drunk man kicked Demna, who had come running even after learning that the man was affiliated with the Black Fox, hard in the shins with his military boots. Ianna, who had been watching the situation unfold in silence, opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“Ahhh!”

“Honey!”

Denma fell down and grabbed at his leg in pain. He was breathing heavily on the floor, and his leg was bent forward at an odd angle. It had been broken quite badly. The injury would leave him with a limp for the rest of his life if it was left untreated.

Ianna looked around at her surroundings. No one was stepping up despite the commotion. Everyone else was simply turning a blind eye.

“You arrogant bastard!”

The man fumed as he stood up and dug the toe of his boots into Denma’s broken leg.

“Ahhhh!”

Denma screamed, and Dante began growing so pale that she started turning blue.

“I-I, I’ll do anything you want me to do. So please, let me take my husband to the doctor’s……. Please…”

Dante looked like she was about to lose her mind not because she was terrified of the unspeakable things she would be put through, but because she was worried for Denma, who was sweating buckets in his agony.

“What if I don’t want to?”

The man sat back down and made merry with his peers as he began pulling Dante’s skirt up. She shut her eyes tight in humiliation as her white legs, which had once been covered by her skirt, were exposed all the way up to the thighs. She had gone through a number of other hardships previously as she worked, but this was still a first.

Tears fell from Dante’s eyes, but the man ignored her and breathed out hotly in excitement as he groped her soft thighs.

Disgusting bastards.

Ianna scowled. It looked like the man had drunkenly deluded himself into thinking that the restaurant was a tavern and Dante was a tavern girl. There was no point in trying to find any reason in a brute who was drunk on power.

She looked to Dante, who had fainted in the middle of a scream. She realized that this must be why Denma, who was good at cooking but was also naïve and overtly kind, had become lame. It was surely because of this very event, which she happened to be seeing due to sheer coincidence. It was truly one amazing coincidence.

Ultimately, Ianna decided to stand up with a chilling look on her face.

“You there, let go of her and leave this store at once if you don’t wish to die.”

The sharp words uttered by her girlish voice echoed throughout the room. Everyone’s eyes turned to Ianna. The man who had been tormenting Dante flinched before a dumbfounded expression covered his face.

“Yo, what’s with the cheeky little beauty?”

“I won’t repeat myself. Shut up and get lost.”

“……Whoa, what’s this now? A noble?”

The man, who had guessed that Ianna was a noble because of her manner of speech, looked around nervously for the knight escorting her. Upon finding that she was alone at her table, however, the man twisted his oily lips and laughed treacherously.

Ianna slowly walked up to him.

“What a stupid little lady you are. Want me to scold you?”

“Did you not hear what I said?”

The drunk man, trusting solely in the influence his affiliation carried, continued groping Dante’s breasts despite the frighteningly cold light in Ianna’s eyes. Dante’s face was covered with tears. Her tear-filled eyes were filled with dark skepticism.

She was grateful, but she did not think that one young lady could possibly change the situation just by stepping up. There was no reason for the sturdy young men who were easily twice her size to simply let her be. That was how terrifying the Black Fox was.

“Now I’m angry.”

The man smirked wickedly and extended the arm he wasn’t holding Dante down with. He continued,

“You come here too. I’ll forgive you if you do. I guess you didn’t hear earlier.”

Ianna slowly reached for her sword. The man then said,

“I’m a member of the Black……”

Smack!

“Gah!”

The man cried out in pain as Ianna hit him hard on the forehead with her sheathed sword. He pushed Dante roughly out of the way as he began rolling on the floor while clutching at his head. Ianna pulled Dante behind herself before the latter fell to the floor.

“The hell, did she hit him?”

The man’s peers, who had been laughing with him all this time, were so shocked that they dropped the food they were eating.

“I-it hurts, damn it……! You crazy little —that fucking hurts, ahhh!”

The man whom Ianna had hit began bawling.

“Looks like she got him pretty good?”

“Bastard should be ashamed of himself.”

“And there he goes, humiliating himself. Jeez…….”

“Pick up that piece of garbage at once and scram or you’ll meet with the same fate, you pieces of trash,”

Ianna snapped at the man’s peers, who were jeering at him.

“You little bitch!”

“Looks like the bitch here needs to be taught a lesson before she gets her head on straight!”

“Get her!”

The man’s peers, who had been laughing at his pain, stood up and lumbered over to Ianna as soon as she insulted them. They underestimated her because she was still a young girl and did not take up their weapons.

Ianna rolled her eyes when she saw them. The men, having failed to see the light in her eyes, reached out for her with their dirty hands. Ianna moved her own, still holding her sheathed sword, like lightning in response.

Smack, smack, smack, smaaaack!

“Gah!”

“Ahhh!”

No one could see Ianna’s movements. Everyone blinked in confusion as they thought that she had simply walked past them.

“Ughhh.”

“Urgk…….”

Everyone was dumbfounded by the fact that the men were rolling on the floor after having only been hit once each. It was so astounding that the men were in so much agony after being hit by a young girl barely half their size that it was almost absurd. Those who had been too afraid to step up because they were afraid of the Black Fox blushed red.

“Blarg!”

One of the men even threw up. People were looking at the group in pity.

But it was a different story for those whom Ianna had hit. Those she had hit on the head felt like their brains were splitting apart and were so disoriented they felt like the world was spinning around them. Those she had hit on the abdomen were gasping for air and dry heaving because they couldn’t breathe properly, and those she had hit across the legs were crawling on the floor. And, the unfortunate ones who had been hit on the lower regions had fainted while frothing at the mouth.

This hadn’t happened because the men were weak. It had happened because Ianna had infused her attacks with mana. She had adjusted her mana to make it weak, and therefore her attacks had impacted their internal organs instead of drawing blood. She would have cut apart or pierced cleanly through the men otherwise.

Ianna returned her sword to her waist and her lips curled up in a sneer as she looked down at the men.

“Idiots.”

“Y-you’ll pay for this!”

“Damn it!”

The men, some of whom had only just regained their consciousness, cussed like stereotypical villains as they staggered out of the restaurant.

The people in the restaurant rushed toward Denma once they were gone, and a particularly large patron carried Denma to a nearby clinic on his back.

Dante, who had been so shocked that she had stopped crying altogether and was sitting blankly on the floor, carefully stood back up. She gingerly walked over to Ianna and bowed from her waist. Ianna accepted her gratitude with grace.

“Um, Miss……. Thank you so much. But those men…….”

“I’ll accept your gratitude, but you needn’t worry about me.”

“But, the Black Fox…….”

“I know who they are. You don’t need to worry because I acted while being fully aware of the consequences, so just worry about looking after your husband.”

‘My oh my!’

Dante blushed as the charming and beautiful young lady before her refastened her sword and spoke such bold words. She found it so adorable how the lady had spoken like a cool knight with her lovely visage.

“I’m sure you’ll be busy cleaning up, so I’ll eat elsewhere. Goodbye.”

“Oh…….”

Ianna turned around and headed for her table to pick up her bag.

Dante snapped back to her senses and rolled her ankles because she didn’t know what to do. She was so grateful that this young lady had helped her when no one else would that she was almost crying again. She was still quivering in fear. She knew that she could have been raped in public if Ianna hadn’t helped her.

Ianna was her savior. She couldn’t simply let her savior just leave like this. Dante pondered over how she could repay the young lady who had saved her and cried out, “Oh!” before running after her.

“Wait. Miss, are you here for the Institution entrance exams?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then you’ll be staying here for a while. But, most of the inns nearby will be full because the exams are so close. Anything that’s still open will either be run down or overpriced.”

“And?”

“Please stay in one of our rooms for the duration of the exams. I won’t charge you. I want to repay you for your kindness, so please don’t say no.”

Dante’s face was filled with her earnest desire to repay Ianna for her kindness. Ianna thought about her offer for a moment before she nodded.

She hadn’t acted in hopes of compensation, but she didn’t have any reason to refuse someone who only wanted to thank her either. And, according to what Dante had told her, she would need to wander around many different inns in search of an available room if she declined the offer.

Moreover, there was still a chance that the Black Fox would come back to cause more violence. Ianna had knocked those men down of her own accord and no one had asked her for her help, and she didn’t want others to get roped into any harms that could arise from her choices. This was especially so if they were people Ianna had thought favorably of in the past.

“Didn’t you say all of your rooms were taken?”

“I always keep one clean and open just in case.”

“In that case, I’ll gratefully accept your goodwill.”

“Oh, of course! And thank you much again. I’ll never forget what happened today. Please let me look after you while you’re here.”

Ianna smiled a little and nodded back when Dante beamed. She was glad she had stepped up to help Dante and her husband. Dante probably would have suffered all manners of wicked things and be reduced to tears if she hadn’t, so Ianna was satisfied that she had been able to put a smile on the innkeeper’s face.

At the same time, however, there was a cold light dwelling in Ianna’s eyes that no one else noticed. She had refrained from actually drawing her blade earlier because she knew she shouldn’t commit any horrors in a restaurant that smelled of delicious food and had therefore only hit the men with her sheath, but she would really kill them if they came back for revenge after she had gone out of her way to go easy on them.

And, while it wasn’t likely that the top brass would move to get revenge for the lowest denominator, Ianna would not hesitate to make an enemy of them should they start annoying her even if the organization would one day work for Arhad in the future.

She had decided to work for Arhad, but she loathed the Black Fox, who also worked under him.

The Black Fox was an important organization under Bahamut’s sphere of influence, so she couldn’t erase them completely. Still, considering how many nobles lived like they owned the kingdom, she didn’t think it was quite necessary to maintain a friendly relationship with them either.

Hmph, Ianna snorted.

Elona’s Paradise was a mess.

Business had halted because Denma, who had been taken to the clinic, was in charge of all the cooking. The customers who were already eating finished up quickly because their moods had soured. Any customers who had not received their food waved to Dante as she bowed to them in apology and quickly left the store.

Everyone wanted to leave the store as quickly as possible. Not only did they feel guilty about the fact that they had been too afraid of the Black Fox to step up and help Dante as she was being sexually harassed, but they were ashamed of the fact that it was Ianna, the youngest girl in the inn, who had resolved the situation in their stead.

“There won’t be any bad aftereffects as long as he gets enough rest.”

The customer who had carried Denma to the clinic came back to the store with news about Denma’s status. Dante immediately brightened up upon hearing it.

“Goodness, Miss!”

Dante stirred up a fuss when she saw Ianna come back downstairs with only a small bag after unpacking in the room that Dante had opened up for her. And, anyone else still in the store stole glances at Ianna in her casual wear and blushed meekly.

Ianna had been wearing a thick coat that covered her entire body earlier, and no one had gotten the chance to take a good look at her because of the situation. But now, Ianna had taken off the thick coat and had tied up her wavy hair so the smooth lines of her neck could be easily seen, and she was captivating.

She had long supple limbs, a well-balanced body with no excess mass, hair that was so vibrantly crimson that she could have walked out of a blaze, and mottled ruby eyes that matched her hair.

Most women with vibrant red colors were likened to a rose. Ianna, however, reminded people not of a lovely flower but a fiery blaze.

Ianna gave off an impression of intensity. She was very different from the rest of the women in the kingdom, who placed greater emphasis in giving off an impression of purity and frailty, but anyone who laid eyes on her still thought she was beautiful.

She made people realize that there were different types of beauty.

Moreover, her intensity had a synergistic effect with the actions she had taken while saving Dante and made her seem all the more attractive.

Dante, who was seeing Ianna out, was not exempt from falling for her charms.

“My goodness, I did think you were quite lovely earlier, but…….”

“My apologies, but I dislike receiving compliments of that nature.”

Ianna cut Dante off as though she was cutting them short with a sword. Her actions would have normally made the other party disconcerted. But Dante, who had already fallen for her charms, simply nodded in response.

“I see. Then I’ll keep the compliments to myself.”

“……Hah.”

Ianna let out something that was a mix between a sigh and a laugh and swung open the door.

“Please take care.”

Dante waved as Ianna turned around and left the inn and made her way into a clean and tidy building not too far away. She walked up to the third floor and slide open the door to a restaurant.

“Welcome.”

A server guided Ianna to a table. The restaurant’s yellow colors made it seem cozy despite the fact that it was winter outside.

This place, too, was a restaurant she had frequented prior to her rebirth. The restaurant was known for its quiet atmosphere and many people liked to visit it for a light meal. Not many people who liked to chat noisily with others while they ate made their way here. In that sense, it was a restaurant that suited Ianna’s tastes rather well.

She was lucky that there had been an empty table that was next to a well-lit window. The restaurant was famous for its savory beef soup, which consisted of a broth made from deeply stewed beef leg bones, two spoons of red wine, and a variety of vegetables. Ianna ordered a set from the menu with familiar ease and rested her chin in her hand as she stared out the window after the server had walked away.

The people from her memories were much younger now. The buildings, which were old and run down in her memories, were also like new.

She suddenly found herself feeling sentimental.

‘I was reborn…’

It was so peculiar. Why had she, and she alone, been born again with a lifetime’s worth of memories? No one else remembered the past, so why was she the only one?

Just then, Ianna recalled the gibberish Lebony had blabbered to her through tears.

“I am Lebony, someone who was captivated by Roberstein’s power and became that person’s follower……. I am someone of the likes of which you can no longer find amongst the people of this current era that they call the Age of Magic —a person……no, a god from the Holy Age.”

Lebony had claimed to be a survivor of the Holy Age —a god.

“How did my seal break? It would have been much better if I had stayed asleep for the rest of eternity……. And what became of the Golden Demon? Did it die with that person? Ha, ahahaha. Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Out of all the gods, only Laos remained as one……. Damn you, you filthy rat…….”

A seal. The End. The Golden Demon. And Lebony, who alone remained among all the gods.

Ianna had always denied the existence of gods until now, and Lebony’s words were so contrary to her common sense that they shook her to the core.

If Lebony had been speaking the truth, then that meant that the gods and myths that Ianna had thought as mere fiction actually existed. Ianna pulled out a Holy Book from her small bag and opened it to the first page.

My Golden Demon.

I weep bitterly.

For Phaemdra’s, the token of our promise, life has run dry

And only the End remains in Paradise.

Today, you will obey my sword and disappear.

In Pandemonium, located at the end of birth and immortality.

It is there that you shall slumber.

I, too, will be at your side.

And, at long last, the blinding moment of the sun shall come upon the world…….

Lebony had said that that Roberstein had sealed her away right before the End. She had also wondered about the fate of the Golden Demon. Putting the things Lebony had said together, could it be inferred that it was Roberstein who had left behind the words in the Holy Book?

Roberstein, who had fallen into slumber with the Golden Demon. The very reason why Lebony begged for and clung to love.

Just who was Roberstein, and what was the Golden Demon? Why had the End come upon the Holy Age, which was said to have been glorious? What was Phaemdra, the token of their promise, and what did the poem mean?

And, why did House Roberstein carry her name, and why could her power be felt in their bloodline?

The only vestiges that remained of the Holy Age in the current day were things that had to do with Laos, so it was impossible to find any records regarding Roberstein. There was nothing special about House Roberstein’s history or genealogy. The records only stated that the first family head was a loyal servant to Queen Roanne. Ianna wondered,

‘Perhaps there’s a secret only the family heads know.’

She had been the head of House Roberstein in the past because she was the only person alive to carry on the name, but she knew nothing about the household because she had not succeeded the position through official means. However, she immediately erased the idea of asking Cherno about anything.

The truth was elusive.

Still, though she couldn’t be sure, Ianna felt like she had a faint idea about why she had been reborn.

“But you stole every last drop of Lady Roberstein’s divine power that I had from me the moment you were born! All of it, save for what little I had given to Horby!”

The divine power that she had stolen from Lebony when she was born. The crimson aura that had seeped out from Horby’s heart and permeated into her.

According to Lebony, that aura had been the “divine power” of the gods. Ianna had never felt anything like it before because she lived in the Age of Magic. And she had never felt anything like it since. She had tasted it once when she had killed Horby, but she could not feel even a drop of the divine power that was dwelling somewhere within her own body.

Laos’ faithful said that divine power was the power of the gods that granted life. Everything that lived carried divine power within them, but no one could feel it because God had forbidden them from encroaching upon divine territory. Assuming they were correct, it could then be vaguely concluded that divine power could only be perceived and controlled by the gods.

‘An energy that people can’t feel……. I see. I couldn’t feel it, but Roberstein’s divine power must have been inside me in the past as well. Since I stabbed Horby to death when I was fifteen and would have received the divine power he had.’

Lebony had said that she needed divine power to survive and to use her abilities. She had said that every god possessed a special power.

Lebony’s power was brainwashing, and Laos, who created the world, must have had the power of creation, so what was Roberstein’s power?

‘It might even be reincarnation…’

Ianna couldn’t be certain, but she had no other explanation for the miracle of her rebirth.

“Haha…….”

Ianna stopped thinking and laughed. She was an atheist, but she had been thinking about the gods constantly ever since that day.

‘The gods exist.’

Her reincarnation had been so miraculous that even Ianna, who had denied the existence of the gods all her life, admitted they must exist. After all, time had turned back and she was experiencing things she had already lived through once, and she had met those whom she had killed once again.

Also, it seemed like the gods could control the manner of their own death. Lebony had left behind a corpse in her past life. In this life, however, Lebony’s flesh had crumbled like red dust and had faded into the air even though Ianna hadn’t used any magic when she pierced her mother’s heart.

A normal living creature did not die like that. A body that stopped breathing stayed in the world and decayed. That was natural.

Which meant that Lebony must have been something else……which gave credibility to how she had declared she was a god through her tears.

If gods were capable of controlling their manner of death, then perhaps Lebony hadn’t wanted to shackle her with the label of matricide in this life.

‘I’m not grateful for it at all, though.’

Ianna thought dryly with a bored expression on her face.

“Here’s your order.”

A lot of time had passed since she had started thinking, and her order had already arrived. Ianna pushed away her headache-inducing thoughts to one corner of her mind and decided to enjoy her soup one spoonful at a time.

Part 2

“Hello?”

Just then, a man said hello and sat down across the table form her. Ianna stopped moving her spoon and looked up.

The young man was a total stranger. Ianna did not know this young man, whose styled wavy dark-green hair and sky-blue eyes gave him a balanced and clean impression, from her memories.

There was no malice in his sunny smile, so it didn’t seem like he had approached her with ill intentions. Ianna continued eating her soup as she responded,

“Hello.”

“Oh, good. You said hello back. I heard that you were here for the Institution entrance exams. I just wanted to say hello since I’m taking them too…….”

“You heard? From where?”

“Oh, I was at Elona’s Paradise too. I was only watching because I was uneasy about going against the notorious Black Fox. I’m quite ashamed of myself now.”

Ianna shook her head.

“They say that irresponsible courage is merely recklessness. It was only natural not to make any rash decisions in that situation, so there is no need for you to feel ashamed.”

Ianna continued eating her meal with the young man still sitting in front of her once she had said her piece. The young man, who was watching her with his chin resting in his hand, said,

“Do you mean to say that you were being responsible, Miss? Aren’t you afraid of the Black Fox? They’ll pursue you relentlessly until the day you die once you’ve been marked as a target for revenge.”

“The members of the Black Fox you need to watch out for are the top brass, not their underlings who merely carry out orders. And, the Black Fox is a secretive organization, so there probably isn’t any real reason for the top brass to care about a few bastards who got drunk and ran their mouths. As far as their role in the organization goes, they probably just exhort money from merchants or something?”

“Hmm?”

The young man opened his eyes wide in surprise as Ianna gave him her rational analysis of the Black Fox.

“If anyone was to take revenge on me, it would probably be the friends of the men from earlier who are of a similar rank. But it doesn’t matter to me even if a few insects decide to seek me out.”

“Aren’t you being a little too confident in your skills? They say that’s the kind of people who die young…”

“That is only the case when someone is blindly confident in their skills and bite off more than they can chew. I have a good grasp of my own abilities.”

‘……Though I was killed because I refused to acknowledge the fact that Arhad was stronger than me, of course.’

Ianna smiled wryly. There had been a gap between Arhad’s skill and hers which she had understood with her head but had failed to accept with her heart.

But things would be different in this life. She had been reborn, and she had started running toward the ultimate peak of swordsmanship faster than had any other, so she believed that she could defeat Arhad eventually.

Arhad was the strongest swordsman, so what reason did Ianna, who chased after him, have to fear?

Boldly, Ianna said,

“If I must, I’d say that dealing with those men barely made for a good appetizer.”

“Bwahaha!”

The young man looked dumbfounded for a moment upon hearing her confident words before he burst out in laughter. He then covered his mouth as he continued snickering, perhaps because he felt the eyes of the servers and other customers as they glared at him.

Ianna furrowed her brows a bit.

“Why are you laughing?”

“No, I’m sorry. Please don’t be offended. I agree, you have good reason to be confident in yourself. I was impressed by the way you used mana to shake up their insides real good, y’know? Honestly, I thought you were performing a sword dance or something. Or that you’d kill someone.”

Ianna was a little alarmed. She had only used a little bit of mana earlier. The fact that the young man before her had even noticed it meant that he was no ordinary person either.

The young man beamed as he reached out his hand.

“You’re here to take the exams for the Swordsmanship Department, right? Me too. I’m happy to meet such a strong fellow prospective student. I specialize in daggers, so I’ll probably be taking different classes from you since you use a rapier, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to start making friendships early on. My name’s Eiji. What’s yours?”

The young man’s, Eiji’s, face was bright with his curiosity for Ianna. He slyly looked away when Ianna simply stared back at him instead of replying. It made him look like a playboy who was popular with the ladies when he did, since he already had a good-looking face to begin with.

“Um, Miss? Hello? Mm, that’s fine too. Would you like to go on a date with me today?”

“Perish the thought. My name is Ianna. It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Eiji.”

Ianna shook Eiji’s extended hand. He clicked his tongue when Ianna didn’t play along, although she did shake his hand, but he quickly returned to his pleasant smiling. Ianna simply continued to scrutinize him.

“I’m curious. I was making sure to only use a tiny amount of mana, but you saw through it anyway.”

“Oh, that’s because I’m extremely sensitive to the flow of mana. It’s probably also why I’m pretty good at reading the mood.”

Ianna smirked a little at Eiji’s joke. He continued,

“Your skills were nothing to scoff at —how old are you, Miss Ianna?”

“I turn sixteen this year.”

“……Whoa, so you’re four years younger than me. Haha.”

Eiji let out a deep sigh as he scratched his head in embarrassment. He continued,

“I’m surprised. Not many people apply to the Institution as soon as they turn sixteen. Especially not to the Swordsmanship Department.”

“Age isn’t necessarily indicative of ability.”

“That’s true. There probably aren’t many people who have as much control over their mana as you do even in active service. Which is why I want to ask —would you like to go and spar with me in an empty lot?”

There was a sparkle in Eiji’s eyes. Ianna clicked her tongue as she grasped Eiji’s true intentions for approaching her.

“It looks like this was the real reason you wanted to talk with me.”

“Oh, guilty as charged. Haha.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. Ianna always sparred with Karnitz, but she had yet to have a satisfying match with anybody because there was a large difference in their respective sizes and Karnitz always held back because he was afraid of hurting his liege.

Also, she had never sparred against anyone other than Karnitz in this life, so she figured it wasn’t a bad idea to spar with someone else ahead of the exams. And she was curious about how skilled Eiji was, too.

“I’d like you to tell me what you think of my daggers. I don’t know if, or how much, using daggers will put me at a disadvantage during the exams……. And it’s my first time using them so publicly too.”

Ianna found something strange in what Eiji had said and asked,

“Publicly?”

“Oh, I just meant that this is my first time using my daggers in front of an audience, since daggers are typically only used in actual combat,”

Eiji replied matter-of-factly and shrugged. Ianna stole a glimpse at him. His words suggested that he had plenty of experience using his daggers in combat.

To approach an enemy secretively like a snake slithering through tall grass, hit their weak spot when they were caught off guard, and quickly move away. That was how daggers were normally used.

Longswords were also weapons meant for murder, but they were large and had to be carried around in the open, whereas daggers could be carried in secret and used for self-defense in sudden situations and were regarded as shady weapons that were used to murder those who weren’t paying attention.

This was why daggers were not highly favored and were also not often recognized as a branch of swordsmanship.

The fact that Eiji had said he had never used his daggers publicly was meaningful in another sense as well. There was also the fact that he had shown interest in the Black Fox too, so there was a possibility that he was someone from the underworld despite his sharp and tidy looks.

“Well, I suppose it’s not a terrible idea. Let me entertain you after I’ve finished my meal.”

“Nice!”

Eiji made a fist when Ianna consented.

Ianna thought that Eiji was a bright and cheerful character, but there was also something that felt strange about the young man. And that was where she ended her speculations about him.

It was natural for a person to squirm about in an attempt to free themselves from the uneasiness caused by someone they didn’t know. People generally behaved in one of two ways in that situation. Either they avoided the stranger entirely because of their uneasiness, or they grew curious and tried to find more information about the stranger.

Ianna, however, had no intention of either avoiding Eiji or asking him about himself. She felt no need to do either, especially considering that Eiji didn’t seem like he was about to divulge the information to begin with.

Ianna thought rather simply. If they were fated to become friends, then she would learn that information naturally along the way even if she didn’t go out of her way to ask him anything.

She thought that asking was the definition of inefficiency. She was sick and tired of it by now.

In any case, she didn’t care about what kind of person he was. Ianna had decided that she would only do as her heart dictated in this life. Who cared if Eiji was from the underworld? She would get along with him if she decided that she liked him, and she would stay away from him if she didn’t. And if he was dangerous to her, then she could simply kill him.

“Oh, I’ll lead you to the place. I know the area well.”

Once she had finished eating, Ianna followed Eiji outside and into the alleyways surrounded by the tidy buildings. Unlike the bright and clean buildings, the alleyways were dark and dirty. There were scraps of rotting food lying around because no one had cleaned them up, and there were rats nibbling away at them that squeaked and ran away when Ianna kicked them out of her way.

Ianna looked up to the sky. The alleyways were dark, despite the fact that it was daytime, because the buildings were densely packed and did not allow the light to pass through. The alleyways were devoid of any signs of human life, save for the sound of their footsteps echoing around them.

“Aren’t you afraid?”

Eiji suddenly asked.

“Of what?”

“You’re a noble, aren’t you, Little Ianna? I assumed you were one when I first saw you, but I was able to confirm exactly which house you’re from after hearing your name. But I won’t say anything about it, since you haven’t talked about it yourself, Little Ianna.”

“…….”

“I don’t know why a lady from a noble house would take up the sword. Neither do I know why you’ve decided to apply to the Institution instead of the Royal Academy. Is it perhaps because swordplay was the easiest way for you to gain your independence? Of course, I know that you’re incredibly skilled, Little Ianna, but it probably still wasn’t an easy decision for a woman to make. Did you never consider taking an easier path?”

Ianna stared at the back of Eiji’s head.

Anyone with a good eye for things could have easily guessed that Ianna was a noble based on her appearance. But, in order to have known exactly which house she was from and what the circumstances surrounding her were, one would have had to memorize the hundreds of noble genealogies that existed, from the dukedoms to the baronages.

It was abnormal for Eiji to be able to simply put together various pieces of information together and figure out Ianna’s house and circumstances, even after accounting for the fact that not many people had crimson hair and crimson eyes.

“I see that you deal with intelligence, but I’ll ask that you refrain from digging up too much information about me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I put you out. That wasn’t my intention at all. I was just asking out of curiosity. And how did you know that I deal with intelligence?”

“They way you talk was one thing……but it was mostly the way that you combined new information with the various things you already knew and synthesized it into something else —only those who deal with a lot of information on a frequent basis can do that and make it seem as easy as breathing.”

Eiji chuckled.

“You’re so young, yet you speak like an elder who’s already seen all that the world has to offer.”

“In any case, please understand that I have nothing more to say about myself.”

“Tch, how cold of you.”

“Anyway, why did you think I was afraid?”

“Oh, just the fact that we’re walking around in the dark like this.”

Eiji turned around and smirked. He continued,

“Girls are usually afraid of the dark, but you don’t look like it affects you at all, Little Ianna. And you were so willing to follow a man you’ve just met, too. There’s a chance you could suffer an unfortunate accident, you know……? I don’t know if you’re naïve, or just stupid.”

“Is that it?”

Ianna looked back at Eiji like he had said something completely unnecessary after hearing his somewhat ill-mannered words. She continued,

“People fear the dark because they don’t know what lurks in the shadows. There is nothing to fear so long as you are strong.”

“Meaning?”

“It means that I have nothing to fear because if I find an enemy, I’ll simply cut them down, and if I find a frightened ally, I will welcome them with open arms. The darkness can even provide you a place of rest, if you remember not to be afraid of it.”

“…….”

“And please don’t worry about me, since I’ll kill you in one blow if you try anything funny.”

Eiji was rendered speechless for a moment before he burst out in laughter.

“Bwahaha. I can’t help but find myself in awe of you when you talk, Little Ianna. It’s fun.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

“It is a compliment. Oh, and we’re here.”

They had arrived at a wide and empty lot. It was even bright and sunny. Eiji continued,

“It’s nice, isn’t it? The space between the buildings here meet so perfectly it’s hard to believe.”

“I never knew such a place existed.”

“Not many people do unless they frequent the back alleys.”

Ianna, who had been standing for a moment at the edge of the path, started walking again until she was a set distance from Eiji, who had walked to the other end of the lot and turned around. She threw the small bag she had been carrying around with her on top of a pile of crates along the side and placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“Well then, shall we begin?”

Ianna drew her sword from its sheath the moment the words had left Eiji’s mouth. A frightening sound echoed through the lot as the blade was drawn and its steel glistened under the sun. Eiji looked at Ianna’s sword and nodded. He said,

“A rapier. A double-edged sword that can be used to pierce and slash at will. Its strength is that it’s light. And I suppose its weakness is that the blade is so thin it risks breaking in two mid-slash?”

Eiji smirked as he drew two daggers and twirled them around in his hands. Ianna looked to him and said,

“I’m sure you are also aware that there’s no point in comparing swords if you can control mana.”

“Of course. But let’s not use mana since we’re only sparring. There probably won’t be many examinees who applied to the Institution that already know how to control mana. After all, there isn’t really a need to attend the Institution if you can already incorporate mana into your swordplay —you can just walk into a noble’s home and ask them to hire you, and there’s a 100% chance they will. Now that I think about it, I really don’t know why you’re applying, Little Ianna.”

“Doesn’t the same apply to you? I’m rather curious myself.”

“Oh. My bad. That’s a private matter.”

Eiji waved his hands before he fell deep into thought. He continued,

“Right-handed and favors a rapier……. Sixteen years old and female. Roughly 165 cm and has amazing body proportions. Has perfect control over mana.”

Ianna felt like she was being analyzed as Eiji muttered to himself while organizing his information.

‘Did he want to spar with me to test out my skills, and not because he wanted to see if his skill with his daggers was good enough for the exams?’

Ianna observed her sword under the sunlight. She maintained it well on a daily basis, and it obediently waited in her hands like a beast hiding its fangs.

She then barred her teeth and smiled, satisfied. This was her first time sparring in a long time. Her blood was boiling in her veins. Her eyes gave off a bloody glow as though her beating heart was squeezing blood up into them.

Ianna closed her eyes. Her opponent was not an enemy, so she needed to control her strength to refrain from seriously harming or accidentally killing him.

She stroked the blade of her sword with two slender fingers before opening her eyes again. She glanced at Eiji, who had concluded his own thinking and was looking back at her with a strange look on his face, and said,

“Let me ask you this before we begin. Are we sparring as though this was an actual fight, or are we only training?”

“It doesn’t really matter. We can pretend this is an actual fight. Let’s start. —Whoa!”

Claaang!

Ianna closed the distance between them the moment the words, “Let’s start,” had left Eiji’s mouth and swung her sword from high to low. Eiji was startled as he managed to catch her sword by crossing his daggers together, but he still found it a frightening blow nonetheless.

“How could you come at me like this as soon as we started? You scared me!”

Creak.

Ianna’s sword let out a metallic cry as it clashed against Eiji’s daggers, and she looked back at him like she was at a loss for words when he began grumbling.

“You said that we can pretend this is an actual fight. That means we can do whatever it takes to win as long as we keep our limbs and lives intact, no? Since we’ve started, it’s only natural that I’d try to catch you off guard.”

“I can’t refute you since you’re right. On a side note, I was thinking this earlier too, but your personality changed completely as soon as you drew your sword. You were so calm and composed before you took up your sword, but now it’s like you’ve been set ablaze.”

There was a cold light to Eiji’s eyes.

Clang!

Eiji pushed up against his crossed daggers and his hands began their elaborate dance. Ianna held her sword up straight and immediately blocked his dagger as it closed in on her vitals. But he wasn’t done yet. Eiji continued attacking in twisting trajectories and eccentric angles with the daggers in both of his hands.

Clang! Clang, Cla-clang claang!

Ianna calmly stopped Eiji’s attacks in their tracks by twisting her wrists to move her sword ever so slightly.

Eiji’s attacks were bizarre. One dagger aimed for her flank while the other went for her throat. Or, one dagger swiped at her stomach while the other was thrust forward —it was like she was facing two people at once.

Dual-wielding could easily backfire against the user if one wasn’t used to using both hands to attack, but Eiji was a master of the craft.

The daggers in Eiji’s hands were moving so fast that no ordinary person could see them, but Ianna never lost sight of their trajectory. She blocked any attacks coming to her unguarded left side by pulling up her scabbard with her left hand and stopped every onrush of Eiji’s daggers with perfect composure.

Eiji openly expressed his honest admiration.

“You’re amazing. Most people who favor rapiers also use a shield, but you’re able to both attack and defend with just your sword.”

Eiji bent forward and thrust his dagger at Ianna’s solar plexus.

Cliiing!

A clear sound resounded throughout the lot as the tip of the dagger hit directly against the flat of the rapier’s blade and bounced off.

“Whoa.”

Eiji marveled at how Ianna had blocked his trust perfectly with only the slender blade of her rapier.

“I don’t think you have the time to be impressed like that.”

Ianna slid her sword over the dagger and toward Eiji’s throat with terrifying speed. Eiji didn’t have enough time to block it, so he leapt back instead.

Ianna gave him no quarter. Eiji saw her sword closing in on his throat yet again as soon as he straightened back up and rolled on his heels jump back. He was startled by the force behind her thrust and touched his throat, which had almost been pierced.

“Did you seriously try to kill me just now?”

“I was planning to stop just before my sword touched your throat.”

Ianna stayed on the defense, but she thrust her rapier forward with unbelievable timing every time she saw an opening in Eiji’s attacks. Ianna had never missed a day of training her slashes and thrusts since she was about nine years old, and her efforts showed in how her sword readily twisted into eccentric directions with just a snap of her wrists.

This was originally a characteristic of daggers. Eiji could not help but chuckle when he saw Ianna cornering him by reenacting his bizarre angles with her sword.

“I might have died right off the bat if you’d used mana, Little Ianna.”

“You make too many unnecessary movements.”

Ianna stood upright and smiled with her teeth barred as she thrust at Eiji like a venomous snake going in for the kill.

Swiiish!

She attacked like a swarm of angry bees attacking an evil intruder that put their queen in danger. Eiji never took his eyes off her sword as her swarm of attacks continued. He dodged her attacks by a paper-thin margin. He turned his head when she struck at his face, he bent his back when she struck at his chest, and he turned his body when she struck at his stomach.

‘It’s true that I’m not attacking with the intent to kill, but…….’

Ianna’s eyes clouded over. She found that Eiji’s skills were passable, despite his frivolous small talk.

“I’m trying to make an opening by attacking you nonstop. But, you really aren’t making things easy for me, Little Ianna. I’ve tried to trick you so many times now, but you just won’t fall for them.”

“You’ll never get stronger if you only focus on deceit.”

Ianna purposefully gave him an opening. Eiji didn’t miss his chance and kicked Ianna’s rapier to the side before thrusting in with his dagger. Ianna, however, dodged him by twisting slightly to the side and tripped him.

Then, she thrust her sword at Eiji’s throat the moment that he stepped forward to keep his balance because her attack had caught him by surprise. Eiji’s eyes rolled back from the stinging pain. He was in the terrifying situation of having a sword poking at his throat.

“And we’re done.”

“Mm. I lost. But I don’t think my skills were too bad. So how was I? Do you think that using my daggers will cost me during the exams?”

Ianna sheathed her sword and slowly shook her head.

“I think your skills are excellent. Not to mention that you’ll have the additional element of surprise, since not many people taking the exams will have encountered daggers before.”

“Right? That puts my mind at ease for the exams, but…….”

The corners of Eiji’s lips curled up into a smile. He continued,

“Now I really want to fight with everything I’ve got instead of dueling out in the open. It’s really been a while since I’ve done this. I’m more used to actual combat. I’m the type of person who uses any means at my disposal in addition to my daggers. Fights that take place underground are essentially dogfights fought by cowards, and only an idiot would fight purely with their swordplay alone.”

So he was from the underworld. Ianna made sure to remember this information that Eiji had given her. Then, he said,

“Won’t you fight me? I feel like I could fight with everything I have if it’s against you, Little Ianna. You can refuse, though, since you might get hurt. I’m just being greedy.”

“So you weren’t giving it your all earlier?”

“Well, I wasn’t fighting with the intent to kill. It’s the same with you, right? Swords are tools meant for hacking away at things, but you couldn’t do that earlier.”

Eiji smirked as he finished speaking.

Ianna pondered for a moment before nodding. Eiji’s cerulean eyes sparkled with the light of satisfaction.

“Both your skills and your tactics score 100 points out of 100, Little Ianna. And you get another twenty bonus points because I like you.”

Just then, Ianna, who had been listening to Eiji drivel on uselessly about points, immediately drew her sword. Eiji’s hand disappeared into his bosom a moment later and drew out an endless stream of flashing light.

Swoosh! Swish! Swish! Swiish!

He had thrown over ten throwing knives. Ianna hadn’t been caught off guard, but she rolled to the ground because her intuition told her that blocking the knives —which had been thrown in different directions toward her head, shoulders, stomach, and legs— without using mana was a tall order.

Thud thud thud!

Ianna rolled back as soon as she heard the knives hit the ground and quickly got back up. Then, she kicked off and dashed toward Eiji.

Swish!

Eiji bent forward to dodge as Ianna ran up to him and swung her sword diagonally. Ianna, however, quickly stepped back inside his range and punched him with the hand she wasn’t using to hold her sword.

Smack!

Eiji fell backward when Ianna punched him squarely in the stomach.

“Ugh. You pack quite the punch for a lady.”

Ianna had given Eiji no quarter and twisted her hand half-around as she made to attack him again. She raised her sword up and immediately swung it back down at light speed.

Screech.

Ianna’s sword made a strange sound as it scraped against the ground. Simultaneously, Ianna closed her eyes in stinging pain because she had been unable to dodge the dirt that had come flying at her face. Eiji had thrown it as he fell. Merrily, he said,

“Not bad, right?”

Ianna swerved her head to the side as she sensed the throwing knives that accompanied his voice. A small cut opened up on her cheek as a knife grazed past it. But Eiji wasn’t done yet. He had walked up to her without a sound, like an assassin in the night, and kicked at her like a whip.

Ianna blocked him by holding her rapier upright, but Eiji was also skilled at martial arts. He kicked, brought down his daggers on her, and threw more throwing knives.

Ianna calmly blocked his fierce and unconventional attacks one by one, but she could not open her eyes properly because they stung. Ianna had failed to properly adjust the strength in her legs when she blocked Eiji’s powerful kick and, while she was successful, she was pushed back about a meter.

“Sorry. Does that hurt a lot?”

Calmly, Ianna replied,

“I am fine. There’s no need for you to be sorry. It was my fault for falling for such an underhanded attack.”

“It irritates me more because you’re so calm about it.”

The fact that she couldn’t see had no bearing in a fight. Ianna abandoned her vision and focused on her sixth sense, which only those who could feel the presence of mana possessed, to feel the flow of mana around her.

Mana was a special energy that filled the Age of Magic. It moved ever so slightly in accordance to the actions and will of the living, regardless of whether they meant to use it or not.

Eiji was no exception. Ianna could sense the flow of mana as it moved alongside his actions.

Claang!

Ianna swung her sword at Eiji, who had been aiming at her blind spots like a hyena.

“Hmm?”

Claang, clang! Cla-clang!

Ianna unleashed attack after attack at Eiji like a surging wave.

“Whaat?!”

Eiji cried out in shock. He continued,

“Are you sure you have your eyes closed? How can you still attack like this?”

“By using my senses.”

Just then, Ianna sensed from the flow of mana that something was rushing toward her stomach, so she reached out and grabbed it with her free hand. She had caught Eiji’s fist —perhaps he had been trying to return the favor from earlier.

Ianna let go of her sword, grabbed his wrist with both hands, and spun around as she twisted it.

Bam!

Ianna stomped her front foot on the ground in the blink of an eye and used the resulting momentum to throw Eiji around like a whip. Eiji’s body drew an arc in the air as he flew. Ianna then opened her eyes wide and slammed Eiji down against the wall.

Slaaaaaaam!

“…….”

Eiji was thrown to the wall audibly and with such force that he couldn’t even scream, and he crumpled back down to the ground. Ianna retrieved her fallen sword, rearranged her disheveled hair, and tied it back up again.

“My apologies. I’ve also seen my fair share of brawls, and I don’t show any mercy to anyone who uses dirty tricks against me.”

“Ugggh……. My back……. What kind of noble lady knows her way around a brawl……?”

Eiji clutched his back with an ashen look on his face and moaned in pain for a while before he flopped down on the ground face-up.

“Argh, whatever. You’re a monster, Little Ianna. What the hell? I challenged you and made a fool of myself. I lost, okay? I completely lost. Cough ahh, it hurts. Cough.”

“You won’t be able to use any of the techniques you just used during the exams.”

Ianna reached out to Eiji, who was lying down and coughing like he had choked on something. She continued,

“And, it wouldn’t have been easy for me either if you had been ready to kill me. We said that we’d spar as if this was a real fight, but there’s no lying about the fact that we had to control our power because we were still only sparring. That’s why you didn’t use the poison or artefacts hidden in your clothes, no? You used something crude like dirt instead.”

Eiji stared at Ianna’s hand with a strange light in his cerulean eyes before he took it and pulled himself up. He looked back at her as though he really couldn’t figure her out.

“There’s something I’ve been wondering about.”

“Ask away. I’ll answer anything unless I can’t if you’re the one asking, Little Ianna.”

“Why are you trying to get into the Institution? You don’t quite peg me as the type of person who wants to get ahead in life? Is it because you want to study?”

Eiji shrugged.

“Well, I can’t tell you the details, but I suppose it’s because I want to scout out individuals of unrecognized talent while under the guise of looking for a certain man? By the way, you’re on my list of talented individuals, Little Ianna. And you score 100 out of 100!”

Eiji had started speaking more casually at some point, but Ianna made no note of it since she didn’t find it particularly repulsive. Rather, she took more interest in the ambiguity of his words.

“A certain man? Under guise? List of talented individuals?”

Eiji smirked.

“He’s someone my damned masters are bending over backwards to find. I have to at least pretend I’m doing the same. And I suppose I’m putting together a list of talented individuals for a great work……? The Institution is a repository of talented individuals, so there should be at least a few amazing people there, no? I want to attend in person and sniff out the good from the bad.”

“I see you must work for a rather large organization.”

“Ah, but I can’t tell you any more about it. I have no comments to tell you regarding the organization, even if you’re the one asking, Little Ianna. ‘Cause if I disclose any more……”

A chilling light entered Eiji’s cerulean eyes. He continued,

“One of us will have to die unless you really intend to become one of us, Little Ianna.”

“I’m good. I was simply curious because it seemed like a large organization. I’m not so desperate to learn more about it that I want to kill you, Mr. Eiji, so there’s no need for you to say any more.”

“Bwahahaha! You’ve already decided that I’d be the one to die? Aren’t you being too calm about this? Bwahahaha!”

Eiji burst out in laughter when Ianna replied so nonchalantly. She stared at him like he was a madman as he laughed so hard he was doubling over and holding his stomach.

“Did I hit you somewhere I shouldn’t have?”

“Hahaha. It’s just because you’re so cool, Little Ianna……. I might just fall in love with you even though we’ve only met today. Pfft, oof, ow…….haha.”

Ianna decided to stop paying attention to Eiji, who looked like he was rather busy with himself. She walked over to the stack of crates where her bag was, took out a towel, and began cleaning her sword because it had gotten dirty when she had thrown Eiji against the wall earlier.

“Phew…….”

Eiji took in a deep breath and smiled wryly as he watched Ianna from behind. He couldn’t tell if he was smiling because of the pain or because of something else entirely. He lowered his head and, in a voice so quiet that Ianna couldn’t hear as she gave her sword her undivided attention, whispered,

“……How nice it would be if someone like you stood beside him……”

~~*~~

Part 3

“You still haven’t registered yet?”

Denma had returned. He had bowed to Ianna in gratitude and had offered to repay her kindness by cooking for her. Ianna usually ate at Elona’s Paradise, not only because the food there was good, but also because she was worried that the ruffians would come back to get revenge on Denma and Dante while she was away.

Thankfully, the ruffians had never come back despite having threatened, “You’ll pay for this!” as they fled.

It was Eiji who sought Ianna out instead. He had come looking for her several times while she was eating after having gone home while holding onto his aching back that first day and had shared some trivial gossip with her every time they met.

He was a nuisance, but Ianna entertained him nevertheless not only because she could glean what was going on in the world by listening to him, but also because he sometimes told her useful information.

Eiji got along well with Dante, who was always gingerly trying to get Ianna to speak. The conversation between them continued even when Ianna never chimed in. He was so outspoken that even Dante, who had been in the innkeeping business for some time now, said that she had ever met anyone who talked as smoothly as he did.

“What were you even doing? Why didn’t you get your number yet?”

“Is there are problem? I was planning to get it today.”

Today was the application deadline and Eiji had asked, “The exams start tomorrow. When’s your exam date, Little Ianna?” to which Ianna had replied, “I’m going to go register for my exam number today,” as he gave her a strange look.

Dante, who had been sitting at the table with them because business was slow at this hour, opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“Oh my, why did you wait so long? All of my other customers got theirs as quickly as they could.”

“I don’t think it matters that I get my number later. After all, I already knew that everyone else would be rushing over to get theirs because they were being competitive about it, no?”

“I don’t know much about it, but I’ve heard from past customers who were here to take the Swordsmanship Department exams that it was better to get your number earlier.”

“Ahem.”

Eiji cleared his throat and wagged his index finger with a crafty look on his face. He continued,

“I happen to know a lot about the exams. Should I tell you, or should I not?”

Eiji waited for a moment because he wanted to see Ianna grow flustered. Other examinees who were sitting near them overheard him and listened closer.

Realizing what Eiji was going for, Ianna brusquely responded,

“It’s too late even if you tell me now, and I’ll know soon enough regardless, so there’s no reason for me to play along with your expectations. Why don’t you go ahead and tell your secrets to those who are earnestly staring your way?”

“Jeez, Little Ianna. You’re so brusque about everything. I want to get to know you better, you know? Speak more casually with me! If you still want to be all nice and formal about it, you can address me as your dear older brother. Or, you can address me generally as a bro?”¹

“Are you being serious? I don’t usually speak casually to others unless they are either serving under me or younger than me.”

“You can always start practicing now?”

“Understood. I’ll start now. But know that I’m still going to call you by your name.”

Eiji stiffened up.

“Whoa. That’s so weird.”

“What’s weird?”

“It’s just really weird! It’s weird for a young lady like yourself to talk like that! I mean, are you supposed to be a middle-aged knight or something? Or, an elderly nobleman? Is this the army? Just speak the way you’re comfortable with. Just talk like a normal person!”

“My nanny gave up on correcting my manner of speech when I was young. It’s not that I can’t speak differently, but I find this more comfortable, so don’t get too hung up over it. And I’m not looking down on you because I’m speaking this way either, so don’t be offended.”

Eiji, who listened without a word as Ianna calmly explained herself, had a look of futility on his face.

“Wow, this girl’s really something else. How is it that you never back down about anything? You’re the type of person who’ll succeed no matter what you do, Little Ianna, seriously. But it’s not cute at all. The way you speak doesn’t match your appearance!”

“My, but what’s the problem? I think it very cool how she talks like a high-ranking knight. And doesn’t the fact that it doesn’t match her lovely looks make it seem even cuter?”

“C’mon, Madam. What do you mean it’s cute? There has to be a limit to how cute you think something is just because of the whole mismatched behavior thing.”

“Don’t talk about whether you find a girl balanced or cute or whatnot out in public. It’s rude.”

“Alright, I get it, I get it. But putting the cute thing aside, it makes me feel like she’s putting distance between us. Sob.”

Eiji buried his face in his hands and pretended to cry. He continued,

“I’m one thing, but most commoners will think that Little Ianna’s being difficult. Oh, Little Ianna, you’re like an untouchable flower sitting atop an unclimbable cliff. You’re so cruel —you won’t even give people a chance to get closer to you!”

“Shut up.”

Ianna paid no heed to Eiji’s antics because she knew that his pretend crying and the drivel coming from his mouth were both overly exaggerated, but she began to ponder at the thought that commoners might find her difficult.

She had been the supreme commander of an army in the past. She had also been the sole duchess of the kingdom in her own right who had fought savagely against the great nobles who seized on her flaws whenever they found an opening.

She had never once thought about doing anything for another’s sake, save for when she looked after her subordinates as their superior. It was only natural that her manner of speech had grown harsher, not softer.

She spoke this way with people she was comfortable with even after she was reborn. But Isphee had only said that she wasn’t being ladylike —she had never said that Ianna was being difficult. This was because Isphee knew that Ianna loved her dearly in her heart, despite the brusqueness of her words.

Karnitz regarded her as someone who was in the right no matter what she did and as someone whom he was to follow, so he had never said a word about how un-childlike her manner of speech had been.

This was why Ianna had never gone out of her way to correct the way she spoke. She spoke softly when speaking to children like Lily and Lito, of course, but there was no one else who had ever gotten close to her in the Roberstein manor, so she had never even felt the need to change.

But now, she couldn’t help but wonder if there really was a problem with the way she spoke, considering that Eiji was criticizing her so openly.

Now that she thought about it, was it a problem that she behaved so brusquely in everyday life when she wasn’t leading an army or facing off against other nobles? Her past life was one thing, but now she was nothing more than a normal nobleman’s daughter —no, she planned to win her independence and be a normal commoner until the day she dedicated herself to Arhad. And, she would be meeting a lot of new people going forward.

Ianna was obstinate and had a proclivity to push forward with her own opinions, but she was also the type of person who corrected bad habits if there wasn’t any particular reason why she had to stubbornly adhere to them or if they got in the way of her daily life.

And so, Ianna began worrying a little about her manner of speech and, though she found it incredibly awkward, decided to make an effort to speak more gently.

“I really don’t think my manner of speech is that big of a deal, but I suppose it can’t hurt to try and fix it if it’ll get in the way of everyday life. Though I doubt I’ll have too many opportunities to speak casually.”

Eiji was delighted.

“Oh? I feel like your tone’s gotten softer just now?”

“I might not be able to speak as freely as you seem to, but I have no qualms about talking the way I am now.”

“It’s much better. Keep it up. Alright, I’ll make an exception for you and tell you about the exam since you fixed your way of speaking for me, Little Ianna! Getting your registration number late for the Swordsmanship Department exams puts you at a disadvantage. It’s because of the way the exams are set up……. You know that we’ll be tested for stamina, concentration, strength, reaction, and swordsmanship, right?”

Ianna nodded. She knew the gist of how the exams were set up because Karnitz, who had passed them once, had told her.

The Swordsmanship Department exams were traditionally composed of five separate exams. Karnitz had been worried that the exams might have changed since he’d taken them, but, while the details about the exams may have changed over the years, the five criteria being tested would never change.

There were many examinees, so most were weeded out during the stamina and concentration exams before proceeding to the rest of the exams. Then, the remaining examinees were graded on an absolute scale for the strength and reaction exams; and finally, the examinees who passed the first four exams would then be pitted against each other during the swordsmanship exam. The final exam was always fierce and somewhat bloody because the examinees’ admission into the Institution depended on how well they did on it.

There were over 10,000 people who applied to the Institution because the only restriction the Institution imposed on the students it was willing to support was age.

It was actually a rather low number if you considered that the Institution enjoyed a good reputation, had no other requirements for application, and even had applicants from foreign countries. More people would have applied if only the entrance exams weren’t so infamously difficult that they were said to be almost impossible.

“Applicants are divided into teams, and each team is tested on a different day. Your exam date gets later the higher your registration number is. Traditionally, the first exam tests for stamina, but it usually isn’t that difficult of an exam. But everyone who passes takes the second exam the very next day after the first round of exams are over, and a lot of people drop out because they’re too sore. People want to rest up as much as they can before the second exam begins —and that’s why they want to take the first exam as early as possible.”

“Oh, so that’s why people try so hard to get their numbers as quickly as possible.”

Eiji was satisfied when Ianna nodded in surprise upon hearing his intel. But he could only wipe the satisfaction off his face when, after a moment, he heard her say,

“But I don’t mind having a penalty that trivial. I wouldn’t have wanted to dive into that chaos even if I had known about this beforehand.”

“Jeez. I can’t tell if you’re being confident or just conceited. I know that your swordplay’s amazing, Little Ianna, but isn’t stamina a whole other story?”

“I always weigh my words carefully. If I say I’ll be all right, then I mean that I’ll be all right.”

“Yeah, sure. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t say stuff like that, Little Ianna.”

“You’re so cool, Miss. I have complete faith that you’ll pass the exams as easily as drinking a glass of water!”

Dante, who didn’t have a sense for how difficult the infamous exams truly were but vividly remembered the way Ianna had one-sidedly beat up the ruffians from the Black Fox, thought that it was only natural that Ianna would pass. The people sitting around them were glaring daggers at her, but Dante remained blissfully ignorant of them.

After finishing her late and boisterous lunch, Ianna walked up to the Institution’s reception desk just as they were about to clean up as the sun passed lazily over the large royal palace. The haggardly female clerk sitting at the desk furrowed her brows upon seeing her.

“Are you here to receive your registration number?”

“Yes.”

The clerk checked the time irritably and sat down only after letting out a sigh.

“You have five minutes until the deadline. You must be here to apply to the School of Martial Arts, seeing as you came to this desk. Are you here to apply to the Archery Department?”

“No. I’m applying to the Swordsmanship Department.”

“……The Swordsmanship Department?”

The clerk stared at Ianna with a curious look in her eyes. It wasn’t that there weren’t any women who applied to the Swordsmanship Department per se, but it was rare enough that she was curious every time she came across a female applicant.

“And your name?”

“My name is Ianna Roberstein.”

The clerk started when she heard Ianna’s surname. After all, Roberstein was one of Roanne’s five founding houses.

A daughter of a prestigious noble house was applying to the Institution’s Swordsmanship Department. Was this some kind of game where some noble had thought so little of the Institution that they thought they could simply buy their way in? There were so many people who were so desperate just to take the exams.

The clerk’s mood soured, but she still kept up the pretense of courtesy. After all, she would only die in vain if she dared pick a fight with a noble.

“Ianna……. Ianna……… Found it. Your examination number is 14603, Lady Ianna Roberstein. I will issue your number and exam date once you’ve paid the five gold application fee.”

The application fee was expensive. Ianna could have ordered the recommended set at Elona’s Paradise fifty times over with that money. The fact that nearly 15,000 people had applied just to the Swordsmanship Department alone despite the fee showed just how fervent they were in their desire to get in.

Some of those people could have applied solely because of their scholarly ambition alone, of course, but not many people had absolutely no interest in getting ahead in life.

The clerk received Ianna’s fee with a practiced hand when the latter handed over her five gold. Then, she put on a pair of gloves, wrote the number 14603 on a blank white badge, and stamped it with the Institution’s seal. She carefully passed the completed badge back to Ianna as she said,

“This badge is a magical item manufactured by the students in the Magic Department. You can learn more about the specific magic used if you get in to the Institution, but to explain it simply, the badge will imprint on the first person that touches it. The badge will turn blue when it imprints, so please allow me to verify that you’ve imprinted with it.”

The badge turned blue, as if it had recognized her, the moment Ianna accepted it. The clerk then touched the badge after confirming that it had imprinted. The badge turned red. She continued explaining,

“The badge will turn red if it is touched by anyone other than you. Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to take the exams in your place. A proxy examinee can take the exams if the badge imprints on them to begin with, but it will be the proxy who qualifies if they pass the exams because you are required to submit the badges when you get your portrait done after qualifying. And, your portrait will also be stamped with a seal personally created by Lord Heinrich, a dean and a professor of the Magic Department, to prevent any fraud concerning the badges.”

The system was thorough and did not allow for any cheating.

The clerk informed Ianna that her exam date was January 22^nd at ten in the morning. Today was the 15^th, so she would have to wait seven more days. Ianna was aghast.

But time passed more quickly than she had originally thought, and it was now the date of her exam.

Ianna had passed the days by practicing her mana control and by meditating to keep herself collected. She had always done this on a daily basis, but she had recently begun spending more time training her mind because she had become rather curious about her own body after learning of Lebony’s secret.

That red aura that had gushed out to her like it was eager to return to its true owner……was divine power. It had felt so satisfying —like she had regained a missing fragment of herself, or like she had found a missing limb.

But she couldn’t feel the divine power anymore no matter how much she examined her body. Was it really something only the gods could feel?

And, she should have absorbed the divine power in the past, too, so why had she fainted without feeling anything back then? How had she been able to stay conscious when she received it this time, and how had she been able to feel that sense of satisfaction……?

Her questions were unanswerable. They were like an unsolvable riddle. She only had three clues. The Holy Book of Laos, Phaemdra, and the gravestone at the temple of Laos.

Recently, Ianna opened up the Holy Book of Laos whenever she had the chance, unlike before when it had disgusted her.

Sorrowfully, Laos spoke.

O Phaemdra, though your body has already withered away,

The promise of the gods is still in effect

And thus, your soul shall here remain.

So, may you be at peace where none shall seek you.

Laos turned his back on Phaemdra and left eternally.

So that he may raise the world back into the light.

Chapter 1 verse 4. It was the last verse in chapter 1. Neither Phaemdra nor the other gods were ever referenced again, and the rest of the Book was filled only with the myths of how Laos had created the world.

Ianna decided to keep reading the Holy Book even still. The Holy Book of Laos was the only thing that related to the Holy Age that was also commonplace.

She also decided to visit the heart of the Lotso Mountains one day in search of the original divine power. She wanted to know more about the secret of the gods that the dragon had mentioned. And, she was determined to see Laos’ gravestone, which was said to be imbued with an energy that wasn’t mana, with her own eyes no matter what she had to do to make it happen.

All of this was to uncover the secrets of the divine power that she felt belonged to her. She wanted to know what was happening to her body.

There were several things that she absolutely had to accomplish in this life.

She had to graduate from the Institution as quickly as possible, become independent from House Roberstein, meet Arhad in the Swordsmanship Tournament, and follow him to Bahamut. Then, she had to help him ascend to the throne, become his knight, and aid him in conquering the whole continent just as he had done in the past. She also had to uncover the secrets of the gods. Which meant she had to see Laos’ gravestone in person.

‘None of these things will be easy.’

Ianna smiled ever so briefly.

Eiji, whose exam date was two days earlier than Ianna’s, had passed his first exam. He had sat down with Ianna at Elona’s Paradise with his beer in hand and had boasted,

“It was extremely difficult. I felt like I was taking the stamina and concentration exam together at the same time. And I still passed……I’m so awesome.”

“My goodness, what kind of exam was it?”

“You’re basically just hitting a training dummy, but by the end of the exam it felt like contest of willpower to hold on just a little longer for as long as I could. I thought my arms would fall off. That’s how hard the exam was……”

“Welcome, examinees!”

Ianna was recalling what Eiji had told her earlier when a loud male voice resonated throughout the area and caused Ianna to look up.

“My name is Ryan; I am the teaching assistant from the Swordsmanship Department in charge of overseeing your exams, and I am an upcoming sixth-year student and the head of the department.”

Every examinee present, who all hoped to get into the Swordsmanship Department, looked at him in envy after hearing that he was the head of the department.

“You are the fifteenth and final group of examinees. Traditionally, we conduct the exams until two hundred out of a thousand examinees pass, but there are only 603 of you here today, so we will only conduct the exams until a hundred of you pass.”

“Wait, so is that a good thing or a bad thing for us?”

“The passing rate is still roughly the same……. But it makes me nervous because fewer people get to pass in total.”

“Damn, why did I register so late?”

Ianna nodded slowly. She was currently in the exam venue for the first exam. The examinees were lined up in rows of a hundred each, and Ianna was at the very end of the line with only three other examinees in her row because she had been the last to receive her number.

In front of each examinee was a dummy with a board with numbered sheets of paper attached to it and a wooden sword. Ryan walked up to a dummy and held up a wooden sword.

“The exam will proceed as follows. You all have a dummy in front of you, right? When you hit the dummy with a force that exceeds a certain threshold…….”

Pow.

Fwip.

“The pages on the board are set to flip over and the number increases.”

It was exactly as Eiji had told her. The paper had flipped over by one when Ryan had hit the dummy.

“Anyone who manages to reach the end of the numbers —9999— will pass immediately. If you finish early, you may sit down and rest until the exam concludes. Also, there are two grounds for disqualification you should be wary of. First, you will be disqualified for a lack of ability if you fail to flip the page over within five seconds of your last page flip. Second, you will be disqualified for cheating if you touch the papers on your board, and you will be thrown out of the exam venue immediately. If you wish to give up on the exam, you may leave your wooden sword next to your dummy and exit the venue. The exam will continue until there are only a hundred of you left. Are there any questions?”

Ianna raised her hand as the venue was filled with an air of anxiety. Ryan absentmindedly turned to look at where the hand had come from before opening his eyes wide. That was because Ianna was not only young for an applicant to the Swordsmanship Department, but was also a rare female applicant.

“Uh, yes, applicant number 14603. Go ahead.”

“Is it all right to use thrusts?”

“Yes, since thrusts are also a valid form of swordplay. You simply need to ensure that you meet the force threshold. But keep in mind that it’ll be difficult for you to attack quickly if the dummy is pushed back and starts swinging on its spring. There were other examinees before you who gave up on thrusting attacks and switched back to using slashes.”

“Thank you. Also, are we allowed to move if our dummy moves?”

Ryan was not able to answer immediately because he had not been asked many questions since becoming a teaching assistant. Not many examinees had asked him any questions because not many people could say what they wanted to say with confidence when they were frozen in anxiety.

And so, Ryan viewed Ianna favorably in that regard. Still, he predicted that she would fail the exam because she was a girl. Ryan smiled and nodded.

“Yes, you don’t need to worry about what kinds of attacks you use as long as your numbered papers continue to flip over.”

He thought that her question had been pointless, but he answered her gently as though he was replying to a delicate lady anyway. He continued,

“Are there any more questions?”

Ryan brought a horn-shaped whistle to his lips when no one else raised their hands.

“The exam will begin as soon as you hear my whistle.”

Fweeet—!

“Eyaaaah!”

“Uryaaah!”

“Yaaaah!”

The examinees cried out and began hitting at their dummies like they were trying to destroy them as soon as the whistle sounded. The numbered papers continued flipping over one after the other with each vigorous hit.

Unlike the others, however, Ianna gripped her wooden sword loosely and hit her dummy once very weakly. Naturally, the number next to her dummy did not go up.

“Pft.”

The examinee standing next to her, number 14602, could not help but snicker when he saw what she was doing. He was built like a macho, and he had been looking at Ianna in displeasure when she had asked Ryan questions earlier. He continued,

“That’s a little wench for you. All you know how to do is run your mouth. What’d you even pay five gold to be here for —you shouldn’t just gotten married and raised a kid.”

Ianna didn’t spare the examinee a second glace as he belittled her, however, and simply continued to hit the dummy with increasing amounts of force.

Pow.

Fwip.

She had finally figured out the minimal force she needed to use for the dummy to respond. After all, it was inefficient to simply hit it blindly and as hard as she could. All she had to do was hit it with just enough force to go over the threshold she had uncovered.

Ianna looked around. The smarter examinees were hitting their dummies at leisure. They planned on making this a prolonged effort. Ianna, however, did not plan to take her time.

“Phew…….”

Ianna took a deep breath and grasped her wooden sword harder. Then, she raised it above her head. Her eyes lit up, and her wooden sword began falling on her dummy like a violent storm.

Smack! Smaack! Pow! Bam! Smack! Po-pow! Bam! Smack! Pow! Pow! Baam!

Fwiiiiiiip.

Ianna hit her dummy ruthlessly on areas that would correlate with the head, neck, shoulders, stomach, and chest had it been a person, instead of focusing on just one spot. She showered both slashes and thrusts upon the dummy, and it jolted in every direction like it had been caught in a violent storm.

When the dummy was about to veer backward because it couldn’t withstand the dozens of thrusts that Ianna had aimed at it, she moved her wooden sword to the side and hit it diagonally upward from the waist area, and then she seamlessly switched back to using a string of continuous thrusting attacks as if she was facing a living person and not a dummy.

The other teaching assistants circling the exam venue and the examinees who had made light of Ianna earlier could not help but stare with their mouths agape at her superhuman display of skill —a stark difference from the other examinees who did not move from their spot as though they had been nailed down.

“Number 14602, what are you doing? Disqualified!”

“Huh? Ahh!”

Number 14602 was disqualified as he stared at Ianna dumbfoundedly with drool running down his face. Ianna stopped attacked for a moment and turned to him with a blank look on her face.

“Pft.”

“……!”

There was nothing that the examinee could do but grow bright red and leave the venue when Ianna turned to him and smirked scornfully as if to express that she seen every stupid little thing.

Time passed, and it had almost been two hours since the exam had begun. Ianna completed all 9999 strikes while the other examinees were still in their six-thousands.

“One person has passed!”

The loud voice of a teaching assistant who was pale with surprise resounded across the venue. The other examinees, who had not witnessed Ianna’s strange behavior, were astonished and picked up their pace.

Ianna collected her breath as she placed her wooden sword next to her dummy and stretched before sitting down. Sweat was dripping down her face. She stretched out her legs in front of her and massaged her tense muscles. Her muscles would have been terribly tense if she had maintained only one posture the entire time, but she felt pleasantly tired since she had used every muscle in her body.

Ianna smiled as her heart surged with pride. She remembered how she had felt when she had first begun training. Her muscles had gotten tense before she managed even a hundred swings, and her arms had been so sore that she couldn’t even pick a single flower.

But she found training enjoyable now. She had always regretted it when her body couldn’t keep up although her heart had wanted to swing her sword more and more. She commenced her difficult trainings with a joyful heart, knowing that it was a road she needed to take to reach the day when she would finally be able to swing her sword freely.

It had been seven years since she had begun devoting almost all of her time to training everyday with joy although she felt like her arms were ripping off afterward, three years since she had started training while slashing and thrusting ten thousand times a day, and now she could swing her sword one hundred thousand times. How could she possibly have as difficult a time as the others? Swinging her sword just ten thousand times was easy for her.

“Yah!”

The other examinee’s competitive spirits were set ablaze now that someone had passed. Some had barely reached the five-thousands, and they wanted so badly to give up because it was so hard, but they wondered if there were other students in the eight-thousands if one person had already passed.

They misunderstood the situation, but the sounds of wooden swords hitting the dummies in the venue grew fiercer. However, those who had lost their balance because their stamina had bottomed out were soon disqualified, and the sound of teaching assistants calling out disqualifications eventually became as a steady lull as the examinees began simply holding out until others had dropped out instead of trying to get in all 9999 hits.

“Three more disqualifications!”

“There are about two hundred examinees remaining in the venue!”

Ianna understood why Eiji had said that the exam tested both stamina and concentration. Every time the teaching assistants called out how many examinees were left, the utterly exhausted examinees thought, “A little more. Just a little more,” to themselves as they fought to squeeze out every last drop of focus they had.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

Someone was breathing heavily beside her. Ianna turned to the side as she sat comfortably on the ground. A boy who was examinee number 14601, standing next to where number 14602 had been, was ashen as he continued to hit away at his dummy. He was an effeminate boy whose facial structure, though attractive, was delicate and not manly at all and whose pale-yellow hair make him appear sickly.

The way his slender arms were trembling as he wielded his sword made it clear that he was at his limit. Ianna automatically assumed that he would collapse soon. But, contrary to her expectations, the boy, who looked like he would drop dead any minute now and was swinging his sword only with great difficulty, made it through to the bitter end.

“One more person has been disqualified! There are one hundred examinees remaining in the venue!”

“The exam has now concluded! Good work, everyone. The second exam will begin tomorrow morning at ten at the first building of the Magic Academy. You may come up and confirm your registration number if you need to leave, or, if you are exhausted, the teaching assistants will be walking around to confirm your numbers and you may rest where you are until they do.”

“Ahhhhh!”

“Ugh!”

Unlike the other examinees, who had collapsed to the ground as soon as the exam had concluded, Ianna stood up and pat the dust off herself. Then, she walked up to Ryan, who was watching her as he waited.

Ryan beamed and spoke first.

“Number 14603, right? What is your name?”

“My name is Ianna.”

“I was truly surprised, Little Ianna. Who would have thought that you would complete all 9999 hits in under two hours……? To be honest, I thought it’d be difficult for you to pass because you’re a woman although your questions impressed me, but it looks like I was completely wrong. I was truly amazed. So much so that I regret not being able to see more of your swordplay because I was busy watching over the other examinees.”

Ianna smiled a little as she saw the sparkle in Ryan’s eyes. He continued,

“It seems I have good cause to believe a member of the fairer sex might join the Swordsmanship Department. Please keep up the good work. I look forward to meeting you again as my junior in the Swordsmanship Department.”

“Thank you. Well then.”

After exchanging goodbyes with Ryan, Ianna walked past the other utterly exhausted examinees and opened the door to leave the venue.

“Hey, Little Ianna! Did you pass?”

She saw Eiji waving at her as soon as she left. Eiji wasn’t the only person who had been waiting for the exam to finish, and they all stared at her as she was the first to leave the venue as though nothing had happened.

“It was a piece of cake.”

“Yeah, that’s our Little Ianna for you.”

“W-wait! Huff, hack Miss…….”

Someone called out to Ianna even as they breathed with great difficulty. Ianna recognized her caller immediately when she turned around to see who it was. It was the slender boy whom she had thought would drop out earlier. The boy blushed red as Ianna stared back at him curiously and bowed deeply before her.

“Huff……! Huff! Thank……you. I passed thanks to you, Miss!”

“……?”

Ianna didn’t understand what the boy was saying.

“What’s this, Little Ianna? Did you give him advice or something?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Ianna shook her head and the boy followed suit.

“She didn’t give me advice, per se, but after she passed, I started thinking, ‘There’s no reason that I shouldn’t be able to pass if a delicate young lady with a similar build as me can.’ Miss, you had already passed and were resting while I was still in my four-thousands, so I thought that it’d be shameful if I dropped out from exhaustion……. I essentially only passed because of stubborn pride. So, thank you!”

“Oh…….”

Ianna nodded as she finally understood why the boy had continued hitting his dummy like his life had depended on it. Eiji digested the boy’s words for a moment before turning to Ianna in alarm.

“Wait, you hit it all ten thousand times? And you managed that while this kid was still in his four-thousands?”

“She was really amazing. I was probably paying the most attention to her sword strikes in the venue. She started later than everyone else, but then I started hearing her hit the dummy so continuously I thought I was listening to rain. I thought my jaw would drop to the floor when I turned around to see where the sound was coming from. I almost felt sorry for the dummy. She was hitting it so fast that it didn’t even have the time to get back into balance. The examinee next to me was disqualified because he was staring at her dumbfounded for too long.”

Eiji simply laughed because he was at a loss for words.

“Wish I could’ve seen it too. But seriously, are you some kind of monster, Little Ianna? Are you sure you’re only sixteen? You’re actually a dragon or something, aren’t you? You’re a dragon-turned-human like in the fairytales, right?”

“Nonsense. How I did on the exam was simply the result of my daily training.”

“And anyway, did you call Little Ianna ‘delicate’ just now, Young Master? You look more delicate than she does to me, you know. You look like you’d keel over dead if she hit you even once.”

The boy stole a glance at Ianna upon hearing Eiji’s ill-tempered addition and let out a deep sigh.

“I am a man. This has to do with a man’s pride.”

The boy rolled up his sleeve and stuck out his arm next to Ianna’s. Ianna looked between the boy’s arm and face as she wondered what on earth he was doing. The boy ignored her as he compared her arm with his with a sharp look in his eyes before he broke out into a sunny smile.

“See? My arm is still slightly thicker than hers. And I’m a little taller than her too. And I’m pretty sure I weigh more? So I’m correct in saying that she’s more delicate than I am.”

“Bwahahahaha! Look at this macho man here. And he’s such a pretty boy too! But he’s a total macho! A macho! Ahaha!”

“…….”

“Eiji, you’re being rude.”

Eiji was doubled over in a fit of laughter. The boy’s, who was already blushing to being with, face turned as scarlet as a tomato, perhaps because he was embarrassed by his own behavior.

“I-in any event, good luck on the next exam! I’ll see you then!”

“Young Master Herrace!”

“Oh, Butler!”

The boy named Herrace met up with an elderly man he seemed to know soon after leaving Ianna and Eiji behind.

“Did you pass, Young Master?”

“Yeah.”

“Congratulations, Young Master. There is nothing more you need to worry about now that you’ve passed the stamina exam. You simply need to continue as you have been.”

“Okay. I hope you’re right.”

The butler heaped more praise on Herrace for a while before suddenly looking at him with pity.

“And so, please reconsider giving up your right of succession, Young Master. You can never know what will happen in the future, no? Even your illness might…….”

“Enough.”

“But the other lacks both the character and the competence to manage House Bendham.”

“My brother is far more competent than I. He’s already gotten into the Swordsmanship Department, hasn’t he? What are you even talking about?”

“Young Master…….”

“I told you that’s enough. Let’s go.”

Ianna and Eiji watched as Herrace quickly left with his melancholy butler in tow. Then, Eiji broke the silence.

“So he was Herrace Bendham. The sickly and pitiful young master of House Bendham, a viscount’s house. It’s my first time seeing him in person. So that kid was Herrace…….”

Ianna stared at the back of Herrace’s head with a peculiar light in her eyes. Her brows were ever so slightly furrowed.

She had a sharp eye for things because had seen many throngs of people back when she had lived as a duchess, and so she had caught sight of Eiji’s strange but subtle reaction.

‘That has nothing to do with me.’

Ianna quickly shook her head and stopped thinking about the matter.

“By Bendham, you must be referring to the house that’s famous for the Bendham style of swordplay.”

“Yeah, that one. Things are a bit ugly in that household right now because of succession rights, and it looks like that kid’s caught up right in the middle of it. Wanna know more?”

Eiji turned to her with a rather dramatic look on his face that suggested he was willing to tell her if only she asked. Ianna almost wondered if it was really all right for someone who dealt with information like him to give it away so easily. Ianna shrugged.

“No, I’m good. I don’t want to hear about someone’s personal affairs from another’s mouth.”

“A lot of people already know, but……. Whatever, I’m cool with it if that’s your take on the matter, Little Ianna. Anyway, both of us passed the first exam, so let’s celebrate tonight with some alcohol!”

“Isn’t the second exam tomorrow?”

“Who cares?! It won’t be a problem for you, right, Little Ianna? Let’s go open up the bottles that Mrs. Dante prepared for us to celebrate the fact that we passed the first exam! C’mon, let’s go!”

Eiji did not hesitate to wrap his arm over Ianna’s shoulders as he beamed. Ianna flinched and stared at his arm.

“…….”

Had anyone ever wrapped their arm around her shoulder like this before? No, never. Ianna had always stood alone with nobody at her side —not family, colleagues, nor lovers. And yet, Eiji had done it with such ridiculous ease?

There was a complicated look on Ianna’s face, but her brow smoothened out a moment later—and she smiled. It wasn’t the smile she made every now and again where the corners of her lips would curl up, and neither was it the passionate smile she made when she held a sword. It was a pleasantly delighted smile that she seldom made on a regular basis. Though, her exasperation for Eiji’s antics was mixed into it, of course.

“……Not bad.”

“Hmm? What’s not bad?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

~~*~~

Part 4

“Little Ianna……. S-sorry……”

Eiji sounded like he was about to hurl and his hand trembled as he held up the object in his fingers. Ianna, too, was extremely pale in complexion as she silently went about her work.

“Hello, and congratulations for making it to the second exam.”

“Ugh, who’d have thought the second exam was something like this……. I was expecting something else since it’s being held at the Magic Department. I thought the they’d test us using magic or something and get it over with quickly.”

Damn, this was my fault for not digging up more information about the exam because I wanted to enjoy it, Eiji muttered to himself. He picked up a fistful of the round objects from the basket next to him and closed his eyes tightly.

“Did everyone receive a large basket when you came in? You can always ask a teaching assistant for more materials should you run out. You may rest whenever you wish, and you may even sleep if you’d like. You can eat in the restaurant next door. You will find toiletries prepared inside your baskets, which you may use to wash yourselves with in the bathrooms inside the department building. You are free to do whatever you wish! Now then, the exam will last over the course of five days!”

“Free to do whatever we want, my ass……. This is oppression under the pretext of freedom!”

“All you have to do is thread your beads.”

Eiji was ashen as he forced his thread through his beads while blinking his blurry eyes.

“Looking at anything round just makes me wanna puke. My ears are ringing. Damn it……. Ugh, what is this, an ant’s asshole? Just go in, damn it!”

The second exam was as follows. It was held over the course of five days. The examinees were to string tiny beads along a delicate thread during that time. Their threaded beads would be weighed on a scale on the last day, and only the five hundred examinees who had threaded the most beads would pass.

The exam had begun not too long ago, and the examinees’ souls seemed to have been set afire. They threaded their beads like crazy in silence, but, unfortunately, the men’s large and rough hands failed to thread their beads properly a lot of the time, contrarily to their fiery passion, and they ended up spilling their beads on the floor.

Ianna and Eiji were still feeling terrible from drinking the night before even though Dante had made them hangover soup in the morning.

Eiji felt so sorry he thought he could die from guilt. Ianna had not particularly wanted to drink, but Eiji had pestered her into downing bottles all night long.

Ianna had declined at first, but she was partly at fault as well because the wine, which she hadn’t tasted in a while, had gone down easily and she had later began drinking like a fish even without Eiji’s urging.

“I’m reaping what I myself sowed.”

“Little Ianna, I’m so sorry…”

“There’s no need for you to be sorry. It was mostly my fault for losing my self-restraint and drinking like a fish because I liked how the wine tasted.”

“Oh, so you have a taste for wine.”

Eiji gave her a thumbs-up and continued,

“You have a bright future ahead of you.”

“Thanks for the compliment. In any event, I think the best way to approach this exam is to take breaks every so often. It would be impossible to continue threading these tiny beads for five days nonstop even if we weren’t hungover.”

“I guess even you couldn’t do that, Little Ianna.”

It had only been a few hours since the exam had begun, but Eiji put his beads down because he could not bring himself to continue. His vision was spinning circles. Ianna ultimately followed suit because her thread kept slipping past the holes.

“Do you think it’ll get better if we go take a walk or something?”

“Agreed.”

Unlike the other examinees, who were too conscious of their rivals to take a break even if their visions were spinning, Ianna and Eiji picked up their baskets and left without any lingering regrets. They brought their baskets with them because a spiteful rival could undo their threads if they left them behind.

They ignored the odd looks the teaching assistants were giving them and left the Magic Academy building. They came back only after taking a long walk in the refreshing wind.

“Ah, I feel alive again.”

Then, they stopped chatting. They hadn’t been able to thread the beads well while they were still hungover, but both Ianna and Eiji were people of extraordinary skill with better concentration and dexterity than the average person to begin with. They quickly developed a knack for threading the beads in one go.

They displayed astonishing concentration and made up for the time they had lost while most other examinees had reached their limits and were struggling to thread even one more bead.

Still, it was inefficient to not rest at all, so they broke their concentration and made idle talk from time to time as they threaded their beads. Ianna was usually listening, since she was not talkative to begin with, but it didn’t detract from their conversation because Eiji was the type who talked a lot. Besides, Ianna enjoyed it because there was a lot that Eiji knew.

“Don’t a lot of noble girls do arts and crafts like embroidery or knitting? Have you never done either before? —you looked pretty unfamiliar with handling the thread at first.”

“I did learn how to do crafts, but I never made an effort to be good at them. They aren’t really to my preference. I’d rather roll around in the dirt with my sword in hand.”

“Wow, you must’ve been through a lot. I bet you were scolded a lot because girls aren’t supposed to be doing stuff like that.”

“Not really.”

“No? That’s strange. Hmm……it’s stranger still now that I think about it. Do most noble houses teach young girls swordplay? Did your household recognize your talent when you were young?”

“You’ve got the premise wrong. I taught myself swordplay and kept it a secret from my household.”

“What? You’re self-taught? That’s crazy! But you’re so good? Are you sure you’re seriously not some kind of monster?”

“I see you’re not asking why I was self-taught.”

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t answer even if I did. That, and because the fact that you’re self-taught is just that much more shocking. Just be honest. You’re actually a dragon, aren’t you, Little Ianna?”

“I’m not.”

“Then you’re at least a monster of the highest class, right? You’re pretty on the outside, but on the inside you’re actually scarier than an ogre, right? I should’ve figured it out when you nearly broke the spine of a nice, strong, good-looking guy like me and almost ruined my life. An amazing monster indeed……”

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“What are you talking about? —I’m complimenting you.”

Just then, a pallid boy walked up to Ianna and Eiji as they were chattering away.

“Hello……? Do you mind if I join in on your conversation?”

Eiji turned around in surprise. It was Herrace Bendham. Herrace continued,

“All I’ve been doing is threading beads and resting……. I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Oh, it’s Herrace Bendham. C’mon over.”

Eiji looked slightly disconcerted for a moment before he gleefully welcomed Herrace over. Herrace smiled like he had finally seen a bright ray of sunlight breaking through the darkness when they didn’t turn him away and sat down.

“Thank you. But how did you know my name?”

“We overheard the person who came to pick you up yesterday saying it.”

“Oh, the butler…….”

“Is a proper introduction in order? I’m Eiji. And I’m twenty. Oh, I’ve been speaking casually to you even though you’re a noble because you look younger than me… But I can address you formally if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Ianna smirked as she heard Eiji’s slyness sneaking into his words. Herrace opened his eyes wide and shook his head no.

“Not at all. I may be a noble, but social status won’t be important if we get into the Institution. And I’m seventeen, so I don’t mind if you speak casually to me at all. It’s nice to meet you. My name is Herrace Bendham.”

Then, Herrace turned to Ianna and said,

“And I take it that you’re a noble too, Miss? Oh, please don’t misunderstand. I overheard you talking on my way over.”

“Whoops. Me and my big mouth.”

“Oh, was it a secret? I’m sorry.”

Herrace was looking down apologetically when Ianna replied calmly, as though she couldn’t have cared less.

“I have no reason to hide it since it was something you would learn eventually anyway. I’m Ianna Roberstein. I am currently a member of House Roberstein.”

Herrace opened his eyes wide again.

“House Roberstein? So you were the lady of an incredibly prestigious house. How did you come to apply to the Institution? I know that your swordsmanship is more than good enough to get in, Miss, but most nobles ranked count or higher send their children to the Royal Academy.”

Herrace smiled brightly because he was unfamiliar with high society and was therefore unfamiliar with Ianna’s situation. Eiji gulped and stole a glance at Ianna. Ianna, however, shrugged as though nothing was wrong.

“Because I want to be independent.”

“Independent?”

Eiji was sure that Herrace was about to ask Ianna why the daughter of a count wanted to be independent from her household and wondered if he should change the topic. Herrace, however, suddenly looked to Ianna like he had been deeply moved.

“Oh, so you’re like me. I’m planning on being independent from my house as well. Would it be all right if I asked you what your plans for the future look like? I’d like to use yours as a reference for my own…….”

A question mark seemed to appear above Eiji’s head upon hearing Herrace’s unexpected declaration.

“You want to be independent of House Bendham?”

“Yes, though, it isn’t a very pleasant story. The retainers of my house are fighting amongst themselves right now due to the right of succession —whether my elder brother or I should succeed the house. But I don’t really want to fight over that. I don’t particularly want to be the head of the house either, so I’m planning to relinquish my right in favor of my brother.”

“Oh…….”

Eiji saw how a shadow had fallen over Herrace’s face even though he was still smiling and clicked his tongue. While it was true that Herrace probably didn’t want to fight among family, he probably also had little choice over the matter to begin with.

Herrace’s was a unique case in which two separate gifts of fortune had come together and become as a curse. Eiji already knew the gist of Herrace’s personal situation, but he pretended not to know nevertheless.

Then, in an effort to brighten up the mood, Eiji said,

“Aren’t you being a little to unambitious?”

“Am I? Haha. Personally, I’d be satisfied as long as I’m able to provide for my wife in the future.”

“Look at this guy —he already has the temperament of a henpecked husband.”

“Being a henpecked husband doesn’t sound bad at all. I’m going to treat my wife really well when I get married. I’d never cheat on her. And I’d never worry myself over trouble with women. I’d do all the heavy lifting so my wife won’t hurt herself. And it’d be nice if we had lots of children, like a pack of rabbits. I’d be an amazing man by then, right?”

“Pfft!”

Eiji couldn’t help himself and had to put his hands over his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud when Herrace smiled sunnily again after saying his piece.

“This kid’s so darn cute.”

“Huh? What’s there to be cute about? All I did was tell you my dreams.”

“Haha!”

Herrace and Eiji both turned around in surprise when they heard a sudden laugh escape from Ianna’s lips. Eiji was surprised because Ianna, who usually wore a stiff expression on her face, was laughing, and Herrace’s heart was stolen away when he saw how beautiful Ianna was when she laughed with her teeth peeking out from the arc of her lips before he wondered if Ianna was laughing because she found his dream ridiculous and blushed bright red.

Ianna quickly stopped laughing and lowered her eyes as her lips curled into a smile.

“Oh, my apologies. It was such a nice dream. You will make a fine breadwinner, Herrace. Make sure you see your dreams through. ……I’m sure your future family will truly be happy.”

“Oh, thank you! I’ll do my best!”

Herrace recovered himself when Ianna complimented him and nodded vigorously. A crafty smile filled Eiji’s countenance as he sidled closer to Ianna.

“Man, you’re so pretty when you smile like that, Little Ianna. Wouldn’t it be nice if you smiled like that more often?”

“Shut up and thread your beads. And while we’re at it, you’d do well to learn from Herrace’s example yourself. I get goosebumps when you smile so slyly with that slick face of yours.”

“……Aw, don’t be like that. I’m just being honest.”

And just as a cordial atmosphere had settled in around them.

“Hey, you guys are so loud! Are you guys here to gossip or something?”

An examinee with a sharp look on his face turned around and yelled at Ianna’s group. He was a large man with bright orange hair and a wild look about him, but he looked like a vicious criminal when he scowled. Eiji opened his eyes wide.

“What?”

“Shut it! You guys just keep blabbering on and on and on and on and on and on!”

“Why are you only yelling at us? Other people are talking too. Can’t we talk amongst ourselves while we’re doing such tedious work?”

Eiji frowned as he wondered if the examinee was picking a fight on purpose.

Eiji was right. Other examinees had begun talking amongst themselves as well because they figured it was absurd to keep threading beads in silence. The orange-haired man, however, had quite the temper.

“You lot are the loudest group behind me!”

“U-um, please don’t fight!”

Herrace nervously put his beads down and tried to step in between them, but Ianna pulled him back down by the arm.

“L-Little Ianna?”

“Stay put, Herrace. It’s always fun to watch others fight.”

Herrace looked dumbstruck, but Ianna was watching over Eiji and the other man’s quarrel with intrigue.

Eiji looked back at the orange-haired man in disbelief.

“Then why don’t you talk with the people around you too? Or are they bullying you?”

“What did you say? —damn you!”

Eiji wagged a finger at the other man, who looked like he was ready to lash out any second now.

“Alright, I get it. You don’t need to get so angry. You can just move if we’re being too loud for you, you know? I mean, there’s three of us and only one of you. And this is just friendly advice, but life’s not gonna be fun if you keep acting like that. Our two angels Little Ianna and Little Herrace here are being quiet and are just listening to what I have to say, see? If you’re damned either way, then you might as well enjoy yourself, you know?”

“Aaaaargh! You @##$&@! @#$%$##!”

The man strangely began fuming and cursing when he couldn’t win a war of words against Eiji. Then, he pulled at his short hair, took his beads, and cooped himself in another corner of the room.

Ianna lost interest and went back to work with her beads when Eiji, whom she had thought would be exchanging blows with the other man, chased the other man away with only his glib tongue and preaching while Herrace dropped his jaw. Eiji, who had been watching as the other man was just a step away from completely going mad, smiled dumbfoundedly before breaking out into a snicker.

“I feel like I should never pick a verbal fight with Mr. Eiji.”

“Snicker. I’m no match for Little Ianna, though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“But it’s true. I could say a hundred things at you, but you only need to say one word back at me to render me mute.”

“Isn’t it just the difference in how we speak? You like to speak at length while I prefer to say only just enough to get my point across. My mouth hurts if I speak for too long.”

“But that makes you seem so cold~. You come across as too brusque. You’re like a lump of ice.”

“You, on the other hand, are a scatterbrain whose only merit is your silver tongue.”

Herrace’s hands slowed down as he watched Ianna and Eiji exchange biting remarks.

“I’m not very good at talking……. So I’m actually quite envious of the two of you. My mind goes blank whenever I get into an argument, and I can never speak right.”

“Hmm? But you’re speaking just fine? All you need to do to be able to speak well is to express your opinions successfully. And as for conversation? All you need to do in a conversation is to listen to the other party and respond properly. I find talking to you pretty fun, Little Herrace, so you don’t need to say stuff like that.”

Herrace brightened up. Eiji continued,

“Besides, arguing is a different story from conversing, Little Herrace. All you have to do is push for your own opinions regardless of whether or not the other party’s logic makes sense. A verbal argument’s still just another fight of sorts, so the important thing is to have spirit.”

“So having spirit is important!”

Eiji smiled like a delighted older brother watching his younger sibling mature as Herrace quietly nodded to himself in understanding.

“Yeah, exactly. Anyway, what was up with that crazy bastard? He was such a weirdo.”

“I feel like I might end up acting like him too if I keep threading beads like this without sleeping properly.”

“Don’t you dare, Little Herrace. I’ll chase you away if you do.”

“Ack……okay, I won’t!”

Ianna stared silently at the haggard orange-haired man who threaded his beads while looking like he had been reduced to a shell of himself.

‘I keep thinking I’ve seen him before somewhere.’

Bronze skin and orange hair. Sharp eyes and a fierce impression. As far as Ianna could tell from when the man had stood up after arguing with Eiji, he was incredibly tall and every line of his body was bold and broad. Those were characteristics he had been born with, and not the results of his training. He had distinct features that were difficult to find in the region.

Ianna recognized the man even though she had never seen his features before, as she had only lived in the Roberstein lands during her current life.

‘Have I met him before in my past life?’

She had a difficult time remembering people from her past life unless she had spent a long time with them, or they had carried some sort of great influence on her, or they had been in some kind of important station.

In her past life, she had died after waging wars of slaughter for years upon years instead of meeting with people face to face for a more diplomatic resolution. It had been sixteen years since she had been reborn, so it was only natural that her memories were distant now.

Ianna’s eyes suddenly met with the man’s while she stared back at him as she fumbled around her hazy memories. She wondered if he was going to pick a fight with her, too, when he began glaring the way he had been glaring at Eiji earlier. But then, Ianna found herself dumbfounded when his mouth suddenly fell agape and stretched into a big smile.

The man smiled like a fool, and Ianna found it so funny that she forgot herself and smirked back before returning her attention to her beads. Eiji looked between her and the man in turns.

“What’s this now? Is he your type, Little Ianna?”

Eiji was smiling imprudently.

“My type? What nonsense is this?”

“You and that crazy guy just looked at each other and smiled tenderly just now. You’re interested in him, aren’t you?”

“……Huh……?”

Ianna intoned dumbfoundedly when Eiji nodded to himself in some kind of understanding.

“So you’re into the wild type, Little Ianna. Alright, intel obtained. If you need me, I can dig up information about him for you.”

“What even made you consider this? I almost want to break open your skull to see how your brain comes up with such original ideas.”

“My brain works fast and specializes in organizing information.”

“Do you work, Sir Eiji? Like in a clerical position, perhaps?”

Herrace had begun regarding Eiji as an older brother figure of sorts while Ianna had been busy staring at the orange-haired man, and he opened his eyes wide as he asked, prompting Eiji to intone, Hmm—, before frowning. Herrace had not been thinking too deeply into the question he had posed, but it put Eiji in a bit of an awkward situation.

“I’d rather that my grandson knows nothing about our line of work. I don’t ever want him to get involved. So do me a favor and don’t take an interest in him. Don’t even get close to him.”

Eiji hadn’t forgotten what his colleague had asked of him. And so, he playfully replied that it was a secret and left the matter at that. Lying came to him as easily as pie, and toying with people was his specialty.

But whatever innocence there was left in his heart, which he had thought had long since vanished, flared up upon seeing the first naïve face without any trace of malice in it he had seen in a long while. There was a part of him that wanted to be amicable with those who were not involved with the underworld. And also a part of him that wanted to be honest for once because he was already telling so many lies…….

Eiji felt like he was suffocating. Where was that suffocation coming from? Eiji, who had a good head on his shoulders and habitually pried into the thoughts and feelings of others, was quick to figure out why he was feeling this way.

The suffocation stemmed from the dark and damp secret he carried. He was suffocating because he wouldn’t stop being Eiji just because he had entered the Institution, and yet there was a part of him that wanted to get closer to the people around him like a normal person without any underlying motives.

He couldn’t ever be normal, but he wanted to —perhaps he was being sentimental. He knew that there would come a day when he would have to part with them forever; and yet, he uncharacteristically wanted to enjoy their time together without the pretense of deceit. Though there was no way that he ever could.

It had begun after he had met Ianna. Eiji cast a sidelong glance at Ianna only for their eyes to meet. She was staring at him, and Eiji could not help but smile ruefully in return because her eyes did not waver in the slightest.

Ianna was strange. She was not curious about anything. Some could say that she was simply indifferent, but it made Eiji feel more comfortable around her. He had no need to lie to her. Her pure eyes, which were so packed with the strength of her convictions, made him feel ashamed at himself for lying and made him want to be closer to her.

If he hadn’t met Ianna, he would have never even considered forming any friendships because he knew he would have to cut all ties one day. He had been planning to keep a low profile in the Institution and watch over that man while keeping on the lookout for talented people, but…….

Ianna and Herrace —it looked like he had grown restless after meeting such brilliant people of the world who would never be suited for him.

‘Is that why I want to be normal friends with them? But I know best that it’s just not possible…….’

Herrace was startled by how uncomfortable Eiji looked and hunched into himself.

“Oh, should I not have asked? It’s all right. You don’t need to tell me.”

“No, it’s not that……”

Eiji, who had been agonizing over his decision for a while, nodded as if it didn’t matter anymore. It didn’t matter even if he told Herrace a portion of the truth.

He looked around to find that everyone else was either busy chatting in their own little groups, focused on threading their beads, or on pins and needles being wary about anyone who approached them because they were afraid that a rival might sabotage their progress. No one was paying any attention to what he might say next.

“Well, Little Ianna already knows the gist of it, and you aren’t the type to go running your mouth either, Herrace. Don’t tell anyone else.”

“O-of course.”

Herrace gulped nervously. Eiji, who had only been playful until now, was about to tell him his secret. Eiji opened his mouth as he picked up a bead and threaded it.

“I do a lot of odd jobs, but my main line of work is as an informant.”

“An informant?”

“I trade and process information, and you could also say that I’m someone who has all kinds of intelligence right in the palm of my hand. If there’s anything you’re curious about, just ask away. I can answer you anything, so long as it isn’t too random or trivial.”

Herrace nodded with a blank look on his face.

“W-whoa. That sounds amazing. But, is that really something you need to hide?”

“It’s like this.”

Eiji picked up another bead with two fingers and held it in front of Ianna and Herrace’s eyes. The bead was small and translucent, and they could not see it well though they could see Eiji’s cerulean eyes behind it clearly. Eiji continued,

“Say that there’s a certain secret that outsiders aren’t very aware of.”

Eiji lowered the bead slightly and pushed his thread through it. His thread was sharp and passed through the bead in such a scarily straight line that he could have been using a needle.

“My job is to see through the truth and run my dagger through its owner.”

Eiji shook his thread to send the bead down and continued after it had hit against the others beneath it with a clear sound.

“It’s a rather dangerous job. An informant knows many secrets, like the many beads here, that someone might want to hide because it could turn into a dagger pressed against their throat, so we have a lot of enemies who are wary of us.”

“Oh…….”

“Shall I give you an example of such a dangerous secret, Herrace?”

Herrace, who had been holding his breath, gulped. Ianna’s hands stopped moving as she, too, leaned in to listen. Eiji’s face stiffened as he earnestly whispered,

“Little Ianna’s measurements are 34-24-35.”

Pooow!

“Ack!”

“Wah!”

Ianna threw a truly powerful punch and Eiji, whom she had punched in the face, fell over to his side and rolled a few times. Herrace had blushed when Eiji had spoken, but the blood immediately drained from his face when Eiji was sent flying.

“Watch it, you crazy bastard!”

People were startled by how Eiji had audibly fallen over and they moved out of his way as he rolled. When he finally managed to stop rolling, Eiji staggered up with unfocused eyes because his brain hurt and he held his cheek as he said,

“T-that hurts……. Wow, that was so heavy…….”

“You were doing so well but you failed to finish strong. How did you even find that out?”

Ianna glared down at Eiji while twisting her wrist as she considered punching him again. Eiji returned to his senses and smiled awkwardly as he crawled back over.

“I-I only needed one good look.”

“…….”

“I’m being serious! I have good eyes, so I can figure out someone’s three sizes just by looking at them! A-anyway, let’s get back to that guy! That guy over there!”

The man with the orange hair startled when Eiji pointed at him, perhaps because he had been looking in Eiji’s direction. Eiji, however, paid him no heed. He was too busy making excuses as Ianna slowly raised her fist again.

“I was joking about what type of guys you like, but you’re still curious about him, right? Want me to find out for you? Hmm?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Don’t be like that. What about that man could have caught Little Ianna’s attention……?”

Eiji had initially only been trying to change the topic, but he was genuinely curious as he began to scrutinize the man. Eiji smiled refreshingly and waved back when their eyes met and the man scowled heavily. Ianna let out a deep breath and nervously looked between Eiji and the orange haired man.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m just waving to say hello? ……O-ow…”

Eiji winced mid-smirk and placed a hand over his swelling cheek.

~~*~~

Part 5

“Damnit you bastard, let’s take this outside!”

The orange haired man, who had been enduring Eiji’s antics all this time, finally exploded and stood up. But nobody turned to look at him even when he shouted. It had already been a few days since Eiji had started fooling around, and the man had exploded and stood up in a similar manner several times each day. Everyone also knew what came next.

Eiji opened his eyes wide and waved his hand.

“Oh. Let’s not. We only have a few more hours left until the exam ends. I don’t think you’ve threaded that many beads yet, Taro —do you have time to throw a tantrum like that?”

“……!”

The man, Taro, grew restless upon hearing Eiji’s words and sat back down to thread more beads.

“T-that’s why I’m tellin’ ya……I mean, I’m telling you to shut yer trap……I mean, to shut up and leave me the hell alone. Ahhhh, stop talking to me, just stop talking to me! Why are you like this?!”

“I just wanted to talk. Let’s be friends.”

“Well I don’t want to talk to someone like you. Can you please just shut up?!”

Taro continued to avoid talking to Eiji, whereas Eiji took great joy in messing with him.

Eiji left Taro alone while the latter floundered, and he turned back around while snickering. Ianna and Herrace looked back at him in exasperation when Eiji plopped back down next to them.

“You’re being quite mean, Sir Eiji.”

“I see you’re a bit of a sadist.”

“Aww, c’mon, don’t be like that. That Taro guy’s the type of guy who’s quite fun to tease when you start talking to him.”

The orange haired man hadn’t initially wanted to talk, but he had caved to Eiji’s persistence and introduced himself. His name was Taro, and, like Eiji, he was twenty. Eiji shrugged.

“And besides, the way he keeps fumbling around with his words is kinda suspicious, though I don’t know if it’s because he’s just a slow speaker or if he’s from another region. I can’t really tell where he’s from, either, since he keeps refusing to talk to me. But jeez, why’s he trying so hard to hide it? ……It makes me want to uncover it all the more because he trying so hard.”

Herrace looked terrified and backed away when Eiji licked his lips with a peculiar expression on his face.

“Sir, please don’t come any closer.”

“Huh?”

“You feel somewhat dangerous right now.”

They were only able to continue fooling around for a little longer before a loud alarm rang across the first Magic Department building. The teaching assistant in charge of overseeing the second exam walked up to the highest platform and grabbed a mic.

“We will now conclude the exam. Please stop moving and put your hands on your head! Anyone who moves their hands starting now will be disqualified for cheating. The helpers will begin weighing the beads you’ve threaded with magic scales. Please remember how heavy your beads are! And…….”

The teaching assistant pulled down a large blackboard as several dozen helpers busily poured into the room with circular scales in hand. He continued,

“You will be ranked in accordance to the weight of your beads and your registration numbers will begin appearing from the top on this board. The exam will be over after I’ve announced who has passed and informed you when the next exam is scheduled to take place. I will tell you what the cutoff is when we’ve finished weighing everyone’s beads —you only need to check the board if you wish to know how you ranked, and if you’re not curious, you may simply use the cutoff to judge whether you’ve passed the exam or not. Those who’ve passed will need to arrive on time for the third exam.”

This was apparently the reason why the exam had taken place at the Magic Department.

Magic was based off of mana, and it was the study that dominated the Age of Magic. Mana filled the entire world, and its applications were endless. It could be layered on top of weapons or the body to fortify or reinforce, or it could be rearranged to cast a variety of magic. Both the dummies from the first exam and the large blackboard were artefacts —products that had been imbued with mana.

It wasn’t long before a helper reached Ianna’s group. He placed his scale down in a hurry.

“Hello. I’ll be weighing your beads. I’ll try to be as quick as I can. Let’s start with number 8544.”

The helper confirmed Eiji’s registration number and typed it into the scale before extending his hand. Eiji picked up his threaded beads from his basket. The helper was a bit surprised before smiling slightly and placing Eiji’s beads on the scale.

“13.48295 kilograms.”

The helper made a fuss and congratulated Eiji by saying that his beads were the heaviest that the helper had weighed so far and that Eiji would definitely make it to the top 500. Then, the helper was rendered speechless when he saw Ianna’s beads.

“14.20859 kilograms.”

Finally, the helper was no longer able to hold back his surprise after he had finished weighing Herrace’s beads.

“Number 14601……. T-this is amazing. 14.82931 kilograms!”

“Whoa, Herrace, when did you thread all of these?”

Eiji asked in wonder. Herrace looked rather stunned himself.

“Oh……. I guess it just kind of happened. It’s all thanks to you guys. I wouldn’t gotten exhausted and collapsed half-way through if I wasn’t having fun.”

Herrace looked abashed as he scratched his head.

“No, you were truly amazing. You have outstanding concentration skills.”

Ianna, too, complimented Herrace with admiration in her voice. She had been fooling around while threading her beads, but she had worked rather hard when she was focused, and yet even she hadn’t been able to match his weight.

“All I did was work hard…….”

Herrace smiled shyly at Ianna’s sincere compliment. But then Eiji came and burst his bubble.

“Look at you being humble. But you’re quite skilled, you know? It makes the more delicate side of you stand out. You’re pretty effeminate.”

“……It’s not that I’m effeminate, but that I have good ‘concentration skills,’ as Little Ianna put it, right? ‘Concentration skills.’ And it looks like you were a bit too busy torturing Mr. Taro, Sir.”

“Hey, you picking a fight? Let’s hear it.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Herrace’s rebellious spirit was immediately quelled as soon as Eiji glared at him and he apologized like a sad dog with his ears drooping low.

Eiji let out a deep sigh.

“I’ve been meaning to say this earlier. Look, Herrace. Why are you so concerned about being manly? You’re supposed to curse at me and say that being delicate isn’t effeminate instead of making excuses about not being too feminine. Men can be delicate too, you know? You’re being prejudiced.”

“Oh…….”

“Are you trying to say that you have to be tough and strong to be manly, and you’re effeminate if you’re soft and weak? That’s ridiculous. This world is full of lousy men and powerful women. Girls can be strong too, you know. I mean, just look at our monster over here.”

Eiji pointed at Ianna while clicking his tongue as he drew closer to Herrace. Then, Eiji whispered in his ear,

“Don’t go on about how guys and girls should act if you want to keep being friends with Little Ianna. Our monster’s gonna have to fight those biases all the time from here on out, so don’t you go making things harder for her.”

Herrace understood and nodded deeply with an ashen visage.

“You’re right. I was being thoughtless. Thanks for telling me, Sir. I’m sorry, Little Ianna.”

Ianna abruptly turned to Eiji, who had made Herrace apologize, before gently lowering her eyes.

“It’s all right —I’m quite used to it.”

Herrace was nervous about accidentally being rude to her and ended up spilling his heart out before he knew what he was doing.

“I, it’s just that I hate being treated like I’m weak. But I misspoke.”

“That’s right. You gotta say things properly. Behold, all ye prejudices in the world, take a page out of our delicate and lousy young master here and apologize to the monster!”

“Wait, I’m neither delicate nor lousy!”

Herrace flushed again when Eiji stopped being serious and started fooling around again. He still looked somewhat discontent, though.

Ianna, who had been observing as Herrace voiced his distaste and remembered the conversation they had shared after the stamina exam, thought that he was being extraordinarily sensitive about being treated like he was weak.

She did not think Herrace, who had persevered and continued wielding his wooden sword until the very end even though more muscular examinees had dropped out, was weak —so why was he so adamant?

Also, Herrace did not act like a noble. Most nobles, who grew up only caring about honor, would have found Eiji’s behavior disagreeable, but Herrace accepted Eiji naturally like he was Eiji’s younger brother.

House Bendham was a rather famous house. After all, even Ianna, who couldn’t have cared less about the nobility, knew of them.

The Bendham style of the sword, the Bendham Knight Order —the house was related to the sword and she had heard of it before. She had also heard about how the heads of House Bendham had, for generations, chosen to serve an important post in the Royal Knight Order instead of governing their own lands because they held great importance in the vain honor of protecting the Kingdom of Roanne.

Upon listening to Eiji and Herrace, however, Ianna realized that the next head of House Bendham might be different. After all, the house was currently in a dispute over its heir.

Yet another loud alarm sounded a while after the helper had quickly moved on from their group. Ianna, Eiji, and Herrace looked up at the brightly lit blackboard. A subtle light moved down the blackboard from the top. Cramped golden letters shone brilliantly as the light passed them.

“Well done! You may lower your hands! The third exam will be held in the public gymnasium in front of the first Swordsmanship Department building, and it will take place three days from now! The exam will begin at ten on the first of February. I will now announce the cutoff. The weight of the examinee who ranked 500^th’s beads is…….”

The examinees gulped as they watched the teaching assistant fumble around with the blackboard as he confirmed the number.

“7.24338 kilograms.”

“Arrrrgh!”

“Sob sob sob…….”

“Alright!”

A few people burst into tears, a few people hollered, and there were even a few people who cheered and jumped for joy. A lot of people ran up to the blackboard to see how they had ranked. Herrace was one of them. Ianna and Eiji watched calmly from behind as people were in either joy or tears in front of them.

“We passed pretty easily.”

“That we did.”

“Wahahahahahahaha!”

Then, a loud voice that they had become familiar with because of Eiji echoed sonorously through the exam venue. The large-framed Taro was laughing as he jumped for joy. Eiji, who had been pestering him all throughout the second exam, snuck up on him.

“What’s this, Taro? You passed too?”

“Hmph! Damn you……hahahaha!”

Taro’s eyes narrowed when he saw Eiji, but the furrows vanished from his brow and he began laughing again soon enough.

“I’m ranked exactly 500^th! Hahahaha! Anyway, you —Eiji or Eibi, or Eishi, whatever your name is— damn you. Do you have any idea how much I had to suffer because of you?! I was planning to beat you into a pulp as soon as the exam was over, but hahaha. I’ll let you off this time since I passed and I’m in a good mood, ya bastard…….”

Slap. Taro covered up his own mouth. He saw Ianna standing around blankly while rolling her eyes and had immediately fled with his tail tucked between his legs. Eiji watched him flee with a questioning look on his face, as the way Taro was running so quickly was not befitting of his large frame.

“The hell? How lame. Did he fall for you or something, Little Ianna? Why’s he acting like that?”

“I have no idea.”

Ianna simply shrugged because, while it was odd, she didn’t particularly care about Taro’s behavior.

“I’m in first place!”

Herrace, who had been checking how he had ranked in the meanwhile, returned with a sunny smile on his face. He had ranked first place in the second exam.

“That’s awesome.”

“Congratulations, Herrace.”

“I’m so happy.”

Tears suddenly formed in Herrace’s eyes. Ianna and Eiji looked back at him in alarm. Herrace was squinting as if he was trying his best not to cry. Despite his efforts, however, a tear ultimately made its way down his cheek.

“Are you crying right now? Are you really that happy?”

“That’s not it. I met good friends like Little Ianna and you, Sir Eiji……. And I made it to first place on one of the Swordsmanship Department exams, even if it was only for threading beads……. I’m so glad I stubbornly insisted on taking the exams this year.”

“Hey, you sure you’re a man?”

“I’m a man.”

Herrace sniffled as he beamed. Eiji sighed and said something about how pretty boys looked good no matter what they do as he pulled Herrace closer. He and Ianna escorted Herrace outside to where Herrace’s butler was waiting before they all returned to Elona’s Paradise, where Dante was anxiously waiting for them.

Herrace’s face brightened up as he looked around because it was his first time being inside an inn, and Dante made a cheerful fuss about Ianna and Eiji coming back with an adorable young master. Then, upon hearing that Herrace had placed first in the second exam, Dante noted that they were the top examinees from the exam and joked about how they were making a terrifying group.

This time around, Herrace joined in their number as they started drinking although it was still daytime. After all, they had been given two days to rest.

Herrace was initially hesitant because it was his first time drinking and his butler was trying to hold him back, but he stiffened up when Eiji asked if he was really a man if he couldn’t even drink and downed multiple glasses of alcohol that were filled to the brim. And then, he got drunk.

“Dang it! Hey! Do, do you really think I’m like this ‘cause I wanted to be?!”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. So why don’t you calm down a……”

“Calm down —what do you mean calm down?! Dang it all!”

Eiji found himself at a loss when Herrace slammed his drink down on the table. There were tears in Herrace’s eyes. He continued,

“I……do you think I wanted to be born with a body this?!”

“…….”

“I can’t do anything with this stupid body of mine no matter how hard I try and try, sniff……. I’m just deadweight —deadweight! My whole family, no, the whoole world think’s I’m just deadweight! Sob, Father…….”

Herrace burst out in tears as he drank. Eiji and Ianna exchanged looks when they heard what Herrace said as he bawled.

Herrace lamented over his personal circumstances, and Eiji listened to his lamenting. Ianna listened quietly from the side as they spoke. Herrace’s situation was as follows.

Before Herrace had been born, the current head of House Bendham had been left with little other choice but to take a common woman as his mistress because his beloved wife hadn’t been able to conceive a child for several years. The mistress became pregnant almost as soon as she was taken in and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, who immediately became the house’s heir. But then, the household found yet another reason to celebrate when the lady of the house became pregnant a year later.

However, the lady of the house had passed away when Herrace was born, and Herrace had been weak and sickly ever since he was young. House Bendham was famous for its strong and healthy bloodline, so Herrace may as well have been a disabled child according to the household.

The butler, who had been standing restlessly at Herrace’s side as the latter cried his heart out for a while, carried him back to their manor in the capital when Herrace finally fell asleep. It was Eiji who eventually broke the silence between himself and Ianna as they continued drinking.

“It’s a pretty well-known story in the capital. They say that Herrace’s been weak ever since he was young……but, you know?”

Eiji tapped his finger against the table as he pondered intently about something before he let out a deep sigh. He continued,

“Herrace has never seemed particularly weak to me. He passed the first exam, and he even placed first in the second exam when we threaded beads.”

“I concur. Herrace isn’t weak. And the problem isn’t that his body’s weak, either. It always comes down to damned family politics.”

Eiji, who knew about Ianna’s personal situation, decided not to talk any more about Herrace’s family situation when he heard the displeasure smeared into Ianna’s voice. Instead, he lowered his chin against the table and smirked.

“Don’t you wanna hear more about Herrace? That child carries a huge secret with him.”

Ianna shook her head no as Eiji snickered, perhaps because he was drunk.

“I told you before, but I don’t want to hear the secrets of someone whom I’m friendly with from another’s mouth.”

“Hmm? Someone you’re friendly with? Then, do you already consider Herrace your ally, Little Ianna?”

Ally? Ianna stared back at Eiji as she wondered what he was talking about before she remembered what she had said during their exchange at the back alleys. Ianna took a swing of her beer.

“I don’t dislike Herrace since he’s someone who works hard. But I don’t consider someone who’ve I’ve only known for a few days to be an ally.”

“I see. So, though he’s not an ally, you would consider him closer to an ally than just an unrelated third party? Then, what about me? Aren’t you curious about me? I’m a man with more secrets than Herrace, you know? It seems to me that you’re not particularly interested in asking me about anything regarding my secrets, Little Ianna.”

“Will you tell me if I ask?”

Eiji closed his mouth and shook his head no at her question.

“No. I won’t.”

“Then that’s fine.”

“I knew you’d say that. But, doesn’t it make you uncomfortable to know that I’m hiding something from you?”

“Not really. After all, you don’t stop being Eiji just because I don’t know your secrets.”

“Huh?”

Eiji said unintentionally when Ianna’s unexpected reply caught him by surprise. Eiji was feeling suffocated because the fact that he carried a countless number of secrets make him feel like he was a liar in their eyes. And yet, Ianna had just said something completely strange.

“Is the petty man sitting before me not Eiji?”

“…….”

“Ill-natured and somewhat perverted Eiji. And yet, you’re also honest and quite fun to be around. I believe that there is no falsehood in the you that I see right now. You hide many secrets —like your identity, for one—, but there is nothing hypocritical about you. So what if you have a lot of secrets?”

Eiji stared blankly at Ianna. She continued,

“Even I have a side to me that I don’t show others and secrets that I don’t speak of. And that much is true of anyone.”

Eiji felt like his head had cleared in an instant. Slowly, he closed his eyes. Ianna continued,

“To me, you are Eiji just as you are right now. And you will always be Eiji to me, no matter what additional things I may learn about you. The secrets you carry are simply things that happen to belong to the person named Eiji. A part will never take the place of the whole.”

“…….”

“I’ve gone on for a while now, but to sum it up, but I believe that looking the other way when someone you’ve taken a liking to is trying to hide something is a virtue. I won’t care even if I learn their secrets one day, so long as it isn’t something that harms me. And, even if that secret is something that could be dangerous to me, if that person happens to be a trusted ally…….”

“What happens then?”

“I will accept the risks.”

Ianna lowered her eyes. She didn’t let people in her heart very easily, so she was sure that anyone whom she accepted as an ally would be someone truly precious to her. She did not want to abandon such people.

“Bwahahahahaha!”

Eiji laughed loudly and buried his head against the table.

“Ahahaha!”

Gradually, Eiji’s burst of laughter began to die down.

“Hahaha……. You’re incredible. How do you say stuff like that? You said something about wanting to see how my brain worked before, right? Well, I’m curious about yours, too, Little Ianna. And besides…….”

Eiji stopped talking after that. Ianna stared down quietly at the back of his head. She figured that he must have fallen asleep because he didn’t move and downed the rest of her beer.

Confusion was written across Eiji’s face as he kept his forehead on the cool table with his eyes closed.

‘How did you manage to unsettle the heart of a man as rotten to the core as I am in under a month……?’

~~*~~

The Swordsmanship Department at Valgenta Institution was famous, and over fifteen thousand people had applied to take the exams. And yet, the first exam had cut down the number of applicants from 14,603 to 2,900. Then, the second exam had further decreased the number to five hundred.

Unlike the first and second exams, the third and fourth exams, the strength and reaction exams respectively, were to take place together over the course of two days. The exams didn’t take very long because strength and reaction could be measured instantaneously, and examinees would pass or fail according to their absolute grade instead of in accordance to their relative rank on a curve.

“Argh!”

A resonant shout sounded from afar and echoed up to the heavens. The exam was being carried out in accordance to registration number, so Ianna and Herrace, who were at the very end of the line, were sitting on the nearby grass as they waited their turn.

“To think that you were younger than me, Little Ianna. Though I did think you might be, since you look so young…….”

“Oh, my apologies. I grew used to speaking casually because of Eiji. But if you’d like me to address you more formally…….”

Herrace stuck out his hands because Ianna seemed like she would change her manner of speech immediately.

“Oh no. I can’t even imagine asking you to treat me formally, Little Ianna. Please feel free to address me in whatever way you’re comfortable with.”

“You……. Oh, excuse me. I didn’t even realize how rude I was being until now. Do you not find this unpleasant?”

“Not really. You’re so mature that I wondered if this is what it felt like to have an older sister, so it wasn’t awkward for me at all. It felt like I had gained a wonderful older sister and brother in you and Sir Eiji…….haha.”

Herrace floundered a bit when Ianna cast him a sidelong glance before he ended up smiling awkwardly. Ianna could not see any trace of the hurt that Herrace had cried about when he had been a wreck from drinking just a few days earlier. Apparently, he was the type of person who blacked out completely and didn’t remember what happened when he was drunk.

His sobbing from before overlapped with the way Ianna saw him now.

Ianna was staring at him silently with her chin resting in her hand, and Herrace misunderstood her silence as offense and bowed his head low.

“I’m so sorry! I forgot that ladies don’t like it when you say they’re older than they actually are —it was my mistake.”

In nine cases out of ten, those who only wanted to be loved by others and were attached to their parents in their childhood only to be utterly rejected by everyone they reached out to became warped in personality.

Was that why? Ianna didn’t know how Herrace was treated in his household, but he was extraordinarily sensitive to others’ feelings and he was quick to lower his head and apologize because he was afraid that the relationship would turn sour. Dare she say that he lowered himself too much? It wasn’t a bad attitude per se, but his self-esteem would suffer if he took it too far.

“It’s not like that. I don’t mind at all.”

“Thank goodness.”

Herrace, who had been nervous, sighed in relief upon hearing Ianna’s denial and went back to smiling. Ianna watched him and thought that he wasn’t bad. He smiled often, he was kind and made the people around him comfortable, and he was warm in character. His merits vastly overshadowed what weaknesses he had in his lack of self-assertion and self-esteem.

Ianna did not know Herrace very well. That being said, she did not intend to interrogate him for information either. After all, they weren’t close enough to pour their hearts out to each other.

Just then, Herrace suddenly flushed red and squirmed while wriggling his fingers.

“I think that a one year difference is no different than being the same age. So please just address me as you have been. I want to be friends with you, Little Ianna.”

Ianna quietly tapped her finger against her cheek. Her current life was strange. Isphee, Karnitz, Sarachè, Harchen, Eiji, Dante, and even Herrace……. She began to wonder if it was really this easy to earn goodwill from others. All the things she couldn’t have in the past when she had craved for them came to her so readily now that she was simply looking after herself and living in accordance to her own convictions instead of clinging to others.

“Is there any particular reason why you want to be friends?”

“A-a reason?”

And that was why she asked. Herrace was bewildered by her frank question at first, but then he enthusiastically began looking for a reason.

“Hmm……. W-who could say? Because it feels like you light up like you have a halo around you whenever I look at you, Little Ianna?”

Ianna cracked a smile at his unexpected reply. A light, was it? Ianna thought that this was the one word that didn’t suit her at all. She didn’t smile often, she was brusque, and she was stubborn and egotistical and only knew how to care about herself —and yet he was likening her to light?

“It’s you who seems to light up, not me.”

“Pardon? Please don’t make fun of me.”

“Then you shouldn’t say such strange things either. What nonsense…….”

“You’re wrong!”

Herrace grabbed Ianna by the arm and shook his head furiously when she replied back jokingly. He continued,

“It’s not strange at all —I meant that you’re really cool for always being composed and being so skilled, Little Ianna! You’re so cool that someone as timid as I chased after you and greeted you first even though I felt like I was dying of exhaustion!”

Ianna stared at him silently as Herrace realized what he had just said and did and opened and closed his mouth repeatedly. He eventually grew embarrassed and bowed his head down low.

“I’m…….”

“There’s no need for you to apologize. Why are you apologizing after giving a compliment?”

“Oh…….”

Ianna extended a hand toward him as a dumb look stretched across his face.

“I didn’t dislike it when you said you wanted to be friends with me. Let’s pass all five exams together and continue on as friends in the Institution, Herrace.”

“Oh……of course!”

Herrace forgot his embarrassment and he beamed as he clasped his hands around Ianna’s and shook it with everything he had.

Ianna realized that she had grown fond of Herrace and was hoping that he’d make it into the Institution with her.

They’d be able to spend a lot of time together if Herrace made it in. She was simply fond of him for now, but she could not know what she would come to think of him after a long time had passed. Still, Ianna had a premonition that their relationship could continue for a long while —and not just this brief moment— as Herrace laughed by her side.

“Damnit! I ain’t gonna hold back no longer!”

Crash!

A sudden shout and the sound of something breaking interrupted the peaceful atmosphere around them. It was a voice that they had gotten used to hearing in the second exam. Ianna and Herrace thought they had heard wrong, however, because the inflection in the voice was very different from what they were familiar with.

“Wasn’t that Mr. Taro’s voice just now? Did he always speak like that?”

“Shall we go and take a look?”

The two got up and returned to the noisy exam venue to see what was going on.

“T-the strength measuring machine broke!”

“He’s a monster!”

Ianna figured out the gist of what had happened when she heard the whispers spreading out from the center of the venue. She could easily imagine someone as large as Taro breaking the strength measuring machine with brute strength.

But why had he broken it in the first place? And what was with his strange manner of speech just now?

“Excuse me.”

Ianna pushed her way through the crowd and arrived at a circular clearing to find Taro glaring angrily at an ashen Eiji. On the ground was the remains of what had once been the strength measuring machine.

“T-the hell?! You scared me, damn it! I was just cheering you on from the sidelines —what’d you break the machine for? You’ve got quite the temper, don’t you!?”

“I’m telling you to quit blabbering around with those dainty words of yours, damn you! Damnit, just listenin’ to ya talk’s makin’ me itch all over and it’s drivin’ me bonkers!”

Eiji mouth dropped open as soon as he heard Taro’s incredibly thick accent. Taro continued,

“I was already goin’ nuts ‘cause I felt like my accent’d come out as soon as I opened my mouth, but then this lil’ bastard keeps on talkin’ to me!”

“…….”

“Do ya know how much it stressed me out tryin’ to talk like how ya city folk talk?! But then this lil’ bastard comes right on over and won’t shut up! Fuck, I ain’t gonna hold back no longer! Fine, su—re. I’m sayin’ I’ve had enough! Why the hell do I hafta talk the same as these city slicker’s do anyway? It feels so great to just talk the way I normally do! Ahahahahaha!”

Taro was roaring with laughter, but nobody was laughing with him. A lot of people were staring at him, but he felt Eiji’s eyes on him in particular and he furrowed his brows heavily. Taro continued,

“What do ya want?! Why the fuck are ya starin’ at me like that?!”

“Oh. It’s nothing……. I mean, I expected it, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad……”

Eiji was bewildered and tripped over his words.

“Damn it. Just wail ‘til I find one of ya smartasses makin’ a fool of me for bein’ a country bumpkin with an accent. I’ll smash ya into fish paste with this thi—ck sword of mine.”

“Applicant number 11523! You’ve passed, so you may leave!”

“Huh? Woohoo!”

“What are you all doing! Please wait elsewhere until it’s your turn!”

Though he was also surprised by Taro’s brute strength, the teaching assistant supervising the exam was in a sour mood because Taro had broken the Institution’s expensive equipment. He chased Taro and the other examinees away in irritation when Taro stirred up a fuss and hindered the exams progress on top of that.

Still, Taro was in a good cheer and was smiling broadly because he had passed while the other examinees were staring at him like he was a monster. Eiji, who had been standing with his mouth agape in dumb amazement waved when he spotted Ianna and herrace.

“Oh, Little Ianna, Herrace!”

Taro inadvertently turned when Eiji called out to them and his eyes met with Ianna’s, who had been staring at him. His blushed as brightly as a carrot.

Ianna furrowed her brows because something kept tugging on her mind.

‘I’m fairly certain I’ve seen him before.’

Ianna turned away from Taro to look at Eiji, who had run over to where she and Herrace were.

“Did you pass, Eiji?”

“Of course. The third and fourth exams are a piece of cake. It’s the fifth exam that’s the real deal.”

“Wow, as expected of you, Sir Eiji.”

Taro hesitantly made his way over to them. All three of them turned to look at him.

“Uh, ahem. Miss! I ain’t some country bumkin —this just happens to be how we speak back where I’m from…….”

Ianna looked back at Taro quizzically when he grew flustered as he attempted to explain himself.

“I never thought of you as a country bumkin.”

“……Huh, ya don’t think I’m a bumkin? Ya weren’t gonna look down on me for actin’ like one?”

Ianna replied with cool composure when Taro opened his eyes wide in surprise.

“I know you’re from the countryside, but I don’t look down at you because of it. Still, I’d like to let you know that it was absurd of you not to speak all this time just because of your accent.”

“I can’t help it —I couldn’t talk normally ‘cause I stand out when I talk like this since the city folk here at the capital talk all awfully nice and stuff, and I got drunk outa my mind once and started talkin’ with my accent and people laughed at me for it……. And…….”

“And…? There’s more?”

Taro trailed off, but Eiji was piping with curiosity as he urged him to continue. Taro furrowed his brow.

“Just listen to this.”

Taro looked like he was about to throw a tantrum again, but that wasn’t the case. He continued,

“I’m the kinda dunce who can’t even talk to a pretty lady properly even if I like her, but then I fell for this beautiful lady I met when I came here to the capital, yeah? I pursued her, and then she turned me down hard. But do ya know what she said to me? She told me to get lost ‘cause she didn’t want nothin’ to do with a country bumkin! Shit! I was so ashamed when she huffed and walked away without sparin’ me a second glance. Argh…….”

Just thinking about the ordeal made Taro sad and he looked down with his wild eyes as he closed his mouth. Eiji clicked his tongue and pat him on the shoulder.

“Hey, don’t cry. It’s unsightly when someone as large as you turns on the waterworks.”

“Look here, Eiji, ya damn bastard —I got all stressed out and took it out on ya ‘cause I had a lot to say but can’t talk properly. I didn’t do nothin’ wrong.”

“Yeah, sure. I get it. Snicker.”

Taro looked exhausted when Eiji broke out into a flippant chuckle.

“Then why are ya laughin’ if ya get it?”

“Because it’s funny. Snicker. Who would’ve thought that there’d be a secret this big behind the reason why you weren’t talking? Alright, I get it. Put down your lethal fists already. How’d you even manage to break the machine anyway?”

“I’ve broken a bunch of flimsy pieces of wood like that before. Anyhow, are y’all sayin’ that ya don’t care even if I talk with an accent?”

Ianna shrugged and Herrace nodded furiously next to her. Taro, who had been waiting anxiously for their response, smiled in content. Taro continued,

“Then again, I’d figured ya both had hearts like pretty silk since ya put up with someone who fools around as much as Eiji —anyhow, my name’s Taro. I turned twenty this year, and let’s be good friends! Hahaha!”

Taro was in a good mood and roared with laughter. He was much nicer to look at now that he wasn’t always on edge or acting like he was always holding something back. Herrace bowed to him gingerly.

“Hello, I’ve heard a lot about you from Sir Eiji, Mr. Taro. I’m seventeen, and my name is Herrace Bendham.”

Taro was shocked when he heard Herrace’s surname.

“Whoa, yer a young noble lord? But that Eiji bastard was talking casually to ya?”

“You can talk to me casually too, Mr. Taro. I don’t plan to live like a noble while attending the Institution.”

“Cool, ya might be small, but ya have a pretty broad mind for a noble, yeah?!”

Pow! Pow!

“Ack!”

Herrace cried out in genuine pain when Taro smacked him across the back while smiling. Taro realized that he had been a little too rough and let go with an apologetic look on his face.

“Whoops, my bad. That was outa habit ‘cause I normally deal with guys with a lot of muscle to ‘em…… Ya look pretty flimsy to begin with —are ya hurt?”

“No. I-I’m not.”

Herrace forced himself to smile even as he quivered. Ianna and Eiji clicked their tongues at how stubborn he was being as they watched.

“O yeah? Yer sturdier than I thought. Ya can treat me like an older brother like ya do with Eiji!”

“Sure, Sir Taro.”

“I feel like I got myself a good little brother —it’s pretty nice!”

Taro’s white teeth stood out more when he smiled because his skin was a tan bronze. He ruffled up Herrace’s hair with his large hand before turning to Ianna and carefully saying,

“Oh, and what’s yer name, Miss?”

“I’m sixteen, and my name is Ianna Roberstein. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Taro.”

“Whoa, yer a noble too, Miss?”

“I am, but I’m also of the same mind as Herrace. I don’t intend to assert my noble status.”

“Wait, yer already a pretty little lady, but now yer a noble lady too…….but how did ya end up in the Swordsmanship Department instead of the other departments, Miss……?”

Eiji clasped a hand over Taro’s shoulder.

“Hey, Little Ianna’s gonna throw you down if you keep making light of her like that.”

“What?”

“You may even end up as Little Ianna’s training dummy too.”

Herrace recalled the swordsmanship Ianna had displayed during the first exam and shuddered. Taro, who knew nothing about Ianna yet, furrowed his brow as Eiji and Herrace imagined him suffering a complete defeat at Ianna’s hands.

“The fuck, are ya looking down on me or something?”

“No, we’re just trying to say that Little Ianna’s just that awesome.”

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you try sparring with her later and see for yourself?”

“With the little miss standing here? Look here, ya bastard. How could ya be so rude to a lady when ya look all slick like a squirming little loach?!”

“A loach, he says!”

Taro ignored Eiji’s reaction and pointed at the strength measuring machine he had broken with a raised eyebrow.

“Are ya really sayin’ that after watchin’ me break that thing? Forget about breakin’ her bones, I might even put her life in danger if I hit her by mistake!”

Then, he turned to Ianna all worried as continued,

“Look, Lil’ Ianna. The thing about weapons is that they’re designed to be wielded by men. I ain’t tryin’ to put ya down or anything —but it’s just a fact that women can’t win against men. Ya might’ve made it this far on determination alone, but the fifth exam’ll be a whole ‘nother story. Don’t ya think ya should quit before the fifth exam starts, or even right now? Ya might get seriously injured!”

“Whoa, we’ve got ourselves a stubborn macho here…….”

“Shut yer trap, yeah?”

“Might…”

Ianna, who had been listening without saying a word, started. There was nothing in her calm complexion that suggested she harbored any rage at being looked down on or the inferiority complex that most swordswomen suffered from. Taro’s words reflected the customary views on women of their time, and she understood that he had not said them with any ill intent.

“…‘Makes right,’ —that’s what many swordsmen believe, but it is only just a single branch of a greater tree for those who have surpassed the limits of their blades. If you wish keep growing in the sword without end, Mr. Taro, then it would be best that you stop believing that strength is everything.”

Taro opened his eyes wide in surprise upon hearing what Ianna had to say.

“Yer a bit more difficult to understand, but how come yer saying the same things my old man does, Miss? He used to always tell me, “Ya stupidly strong brute! Strength ain’t everything!” I got the gist of what he was sayin’ ‘cause I was always gettin’ beat up by my older brothers, but yer a girl, Lil’ Ianna, so how did ya know?”

Taro scratched his forehead. Ianna was barely half his size. Taro was worried for Ianna because he had always been strictly taught that, ‘Women are weaker than men. Men are to protect them!’

“There is no reason to differentiate between gender when it comes to wielding the sword.”

“Hmm…”

Taro could see the sturdy figure of someone truly skilled in Ianna’s calm composure. His next words grew more ambiguous when he saw how Eiji and Herrace simply stood there and nodded instead of refuting her.

“Well, I guess some strong women out there are an exception to the rule…”

Everyone tilted their head to the side at how surprisingly quickly he had accepted it, before Taro then said something completely out of the ordinary. He continued,

“But yer a human, aren’t ya, Miss?”

“Of course she’s human —what else would she be, a monster?”

“But human women are incredibly weak, yeah?”

“The hell? You’re saying that like you’re a monster or something.”

Taro shrugged.

“Well, if the Miss says she wants to keep at it anyway, then it ain’t my place to stop her. Do yer best, yeah? But even still…”

A glint of light appeared in Taro’s eyes as he made a tight fist. He continued,

“I won’t ever let those smelly bastards who dare to hit a woman get away with it! I’m gonna remember all the bastards that dare to hit Lil’ Ianna and I’m gonna beat ‘em all to death for it after!”

“I don’t believe that will be necessary. Little Ianna might beat them to death first.”

“What? Look here, damnit.”

“Haha!”

Ianna burst out in laughter before she could stop herself as she listened in on their conversation. The laugh was quickly wiped off her face when all three of them turned to her, but there was still a small trace of a smile left behind.

She had laughed for but a simple reason. She had simply found it pleasant. She had laughed in delight. It was an incredibly simple reason, but it was not so simple for her. After all, she had hardly ever been delighted in her life —past or present.

She always felt strange whenever she laughed while she wasn’t holding a sword. Ianna pursed her lips as she looked up to Eiji’s, Herrace’s, and Taro’s unshakable gazes.

“What are you looking at?”

“Oh, it’s because you hardly ever smile, Little Ianna. It automatically draws my attention when you do.”

“He’s right.”

“Well, I was just lookin’ at ya ‘cause yer hot. I couldn’t care less when other dudes or whatever smile, but a lady’s smile’s always pretty to look at.”

Eiji and Herrace were taken aback by what Taro had said while scratching his head with a blush on his face as even Ianna started to grow a little warm from all the compliments she was receiving.

“You called yourself a fool for it earlier, and yet here you are running your mouth!”

“Huh?”

“Saying something like that to Little Ianna……that’s a bit…”

“Oops!”

Taro paled as he carefully went over what he had just said and clamped his mouth shut. He then flushed scarlet as he stole a glance at Ianna. Ianna, however, simply shrugged as if nothing was wrong.

“It doesn’t matter. Don’t men always say things like that? What is there for me to be ashamed about?”

The three men were struck dumb by how unembarrassed she was. They all simultaneously wondered if the girl before them was actually a man wearing a woman’s skin.

Ianna, however, was used to hearing dirty talk, though she still found it uncomfortable. She had often overhead the soldiers say lewd things behind her back during the years-long war. She was also very used to disposing of them.

“I’ll simply get rid of anything as worthless and as a dirty man’s family jewels. But they’re disgusting, so perhaps it would be better to shred apart their windpipes instead.”

“……!”

Ianna’s merciless words were so unconventional that they were shocking. A heavy silence fell between the three men.

“Examinees with registration numbers higher than 14000 —please stand by!”

“N-n-n-now that I think about it, it’s already almost your turns, Little Ianna and Herrace! Ha…ha. Taro……. Watch your mouth going forward.”

“Ha…ha…haha. Yeah…”

Eiji had spoken while laughing awkwardly, and Taro had laughed back just as awkwardly in turn.

“Hm? Didn’t I just say that he didn’t need to watch his words? So long as he doesn’t act like trash…….”

“Argh! Jeez, Little Ianna! You might say that, but that’s not what it sounds like from a man’s point of view!”

Eiji forced himself to ignore the goosebumps that had risen all over his body and turned to look at Herrace, who was still ashen.

“The strength exam……. Hey, are you going to be okay?”

Herrace broke out of his trance and regained his senses at Eiji’s question. He understood what Eiji was really trying to ask and grumbled,

“You don’t need to worry. I can pass just fine.”

Eiji made a strange, Huh? when he heard Herrace’s reply.

“You sure?”

“It might be hard, but I can still pass just fine,”

Herrace grumbled as he suddenly went limp. The others didn’t understand why he was grumbling and found it strange.

Part 6

It was Herrace’s and Ianna’s turn soon. Herrace walked up to take the exam, and Ianna watched over him from behind.

The strength measuring machine was simple in design. All you had to do was punch the round target that was fixed to a pillar. The target would beep if it was hit with enough force to activate the magic inside it, and the examinee would pass.

Each examinee was given two chances, in case they messed up the first time. Most of the examinees so far had passed, save for those who had messed up both times or those who were too weak to pass. Out of consideration for those who relied on speed and technique, the third exam only tested whether examinees could bring out enough force to break a bone with one hit.

Herrace and Ianna, however, were far skinnier than the other examinees, and it looked like they would find it difficult to pass.

“Whew.”

Herrace let out a deep breath as he readied himself in front of the machine. Ianna opened her eyes wide in surprise as a wave of mana poured out from him a moment later. All of the mana around him was fluctuating viciously. An immense flood of mana was absorbed into him like a surging tide.

Buzz— Buzz—

‘He can already draw in that much mana to himself?’

It was a surprise. Mana perception and mana control were two separate things. There were many people who could sense mana, but there were only a few who could control it. Statistically, it was said that about 8% of the population could sense mana, but only about 5% could control it.

That was why the few who could control mana as they pleased became great warriors or respected mages.

And yet, though he was a bit clumsy with it, Herrace was clearly commanding an enormous quantity of mana at his will. So enormous, in fact, that Ianna had only ever seen the best of the best knights control as much mana in her past life.

Ianna quietly recalled the four talents one needed to be able to control mana.

Affinity, receptivity, willpower, and volatility.

First, affinity was the innate ability to draw in mana from the surrounding atmosphere. The other talents could be acquired and trained, but this was not the case for affinity. It was an innate ability that one needed to be born with.

What was it that determined this innate ability? Why was there such a disparity among people? There were many theories as for why. Some said that Laos, who had created mankind, gave the gift to those living beings he liked, and some said it was determined by a person’s past life. But no one knew the truth.

Second, receptivity determined the body’s ability to receive mana.

Receptivity could be trained little by little by slowly drawing in slightly more mana than one’s limits and maintaining it.

If you drew in vastly more mana than you could handle, it would place a strain on your body because mana began flooding into the body like mad after a certain threshold. You would then fall into a state of mana overload, which would lead to death. It was important to know the limits of how much mana you could handle.

Third, willpower was the talent required to reign mana in, maintain it, and later release and liberate it from the body.

If affinity was said to be an innate talent, then willpower could be said to be an acquired one. Most people had to train their willpower and expend great effort to force mana under their control.

But training one’s willpower was no easy feat. To put in into perspective, training one’s willpower was like willing yourself not to sleep with a comfortable bed right by your side after staying up for several consecutive days. It was what determined whether a rank and file soldier could stand before his king and assert his own opinions or even correct the king if the king had said something wrong. It was the standard that determined what one would be willing to sacrifice in order to achieve their goals.

The power to control the self, the power to fulfill one’s will, the powerful desires and obsessions deep within the heart, an adamant ego……that was willpower. It could even be called malice, and it was very difficult to improve upon. Especially for those who were kind or unambitious.

And lastly, volatility was that talent that enabled one to move the mana they had gathered in accordance to their wishes, as if they were changing the shape of the mana itself.

Volatility could be trained by practicing transforming mana. Transforming mana meant that you were able to apply mana however you wanted. The three main ways that mana was transformed was through reinforcement, fortification, and magic. It took excruciating effort to train volatility.

One had the ability to control mana only if these four talents came together in harmony.

‘He has amazing affinity and willpower for someone so young.’

Ianna scratched at her lips with her thumb as she watched Herrace gather mana into his fist like he was reigning in a rampaging herd of bulls into a single pen. Herrace could even be called a genius who actually put in the effort. He had amazing perseverance and focus, he worked hard and didn’t know when to give up, and he was even able to control such an incredible amount of mana…….

So why had his house turned its back on someone as amazing as him just for being a little physically weak?

But then, yet another question had popped into Ianna’s mind.

‘Why is he using so much mana just for a mere exam? He doesn’t have to use nearly that much. And, I’d never heard of Herrace in my past life. But someone as talented as him would have definitely become famous…’

Then, she recalled what Eiji had told her before.

“Don’t you wanna hear more about Herrace? That child carries a huge secret with him.”

Herrace clenched his trembling fist tight as Ianna was deep in thought.

“Hah!”

Baaaam!

There was a deafening crash when Herrace hit the target, and the machine broke like it had when Taro had hit it. The teaching assistant, who had failed to hide his astonishment as he watched Herrace’s every move, held up a piece of paper with a circle on it with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Pass!”

“Cough, hack!”

Herrace had grabbed his clothes just above his heart with a pained look on his face just as the teaching assistant had announced he had passed. The teaching assistant had turned away and walked off to somewhere to realign the broken machine, and most of the other examinees had already returned to their lodgings.

“Huff……huff…….”

Herrace was ashen and his shoulders heaved as he breathed raggedly. Ianna was about to draw closer to him but she stopped in her tracks when she noticed how strangely the mana was behaving. The mana was running wild as it tried to split Herrace open and make its way inside.

‘What?’

Just then, Herrace pulled out a small vial from his pocket and drank its contents whole. He shut his eyes tightly, still looking pained, as the liquid from the vial passed down his throat.

The vitality quickly returned to his blue countenance. Herrace began breathing regularly again. Having lost its destination, the dense mana around him began to dissipate.

‘That medicine…….’

A cold light entered Ianna’s eyes as she witnessed the entire ordeal. She walked briskly up to Herrace as he was still catching his breath and grabbed him by the arm.

“Huh?!”

“Are you all right?”

Herrace was surprised by Ianna’s presence and pushed the vial back into his pocket in a hurry like he was trying to hide it.

“W-what do you mean? Of course I’m all right. I passed, remember? Hehe.”

It was obvious that he was trying to hide something. Ianna grabbed him by the wrist as his eyes swam around nervously and pulled him beneath a secluded tree.

“H-huh?”

Herrace was bewildered and failed to say a word as she dragged him away. Ianna grabbed his wrist tighter and stared at him from under the shade.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Are you talking about my hand? Of course I’m all right. Thank you for asking. But why did you bring me here?”

Ianna let go of Herrace’s wrist and slowly reached out to place her hand above his heart. Herrace blushed at Ianna’s bizarre actions. Ianna furrowed her brows when she felt his heart beating beneath her hand. His heartbeat was awfully weak.

“Your heart doesn’t seem all right.”

“What are you……oh.”

Herrace was bewildered for a moment longer before he eventually gave her a weak smile. He continued,

“You saw how I was acting earlier.”

Herrace gently took hold of the hand Ianna had placed over his heart and pulled it away.

“You don’t need to worry. It’s not life-threatening. My condition makes my body weak, but it doesn’t pose a hindrance to everyday life. I’m really grateful you were so worried for me. But I’d like to ask you not to tell anyone else about this.”

“Is the mana tormenting you?”

Herrace stiffened up. Coldly, Ianna continued,

“It’s not life-threatening, you say? I would say that it would be better for you not to use mana at all if using it means you’ll drink that dreadful medicine that stops your heart for a moment and puts you in a state of temporary death without a moment’s hesitation.”

“H-how did you…?”

“The mana was running wild trying to get inside your body. But it gave up and all of it dissipated as soon as you drank that medicine. That means you died for a moment.”

“I see. You can sense mana. As expected of you, Little Ianna. Hmm…….”

Herrace voice broke off here and there from embarrassment and anxiety. His hand was trembling as he held to Ianna’s. In a quiet, wintry voice, Ianna said,

“I’m sure you know best that, while it may be able to cure you temporarily, that damned medicine can also be a poison to you. You gathered the mana because you needed it, but you had to trick it into thinking that you were dead to force it to dissipate since it wouldn’t leave you on its own —doing this will gradually lead you to your death. Your body is probably so weak because you overused this.”

Ianna saw the tears forming in Herrace’s eyes, but she coldly drew a line and continued,

“Don’t use mana at all if you can’t handle it. I’m saying this for your own sake.”

Herrace moved his mouth as he lowered his eyes.

“I can’t do that.”

“What reason do you have to chip away at your own life like that?”

It didn’t sit well with Ianna that Herrace was willing to chip away at his life just to use mana. She thought that he was eating away at his own body just to satisfy his family’s expectations. Ianna continued,

“I don’t want to watch a friend of mine die like an invalid, Herrace. What about that dream of yours about having a family and loving them for the rest of your life? Was that a lie?”

Ianna had become openly fond of Herrace after hearing about his dream while they were taking the second exam. And yet, weren’t his current actions running completely contrary to his dream?

Ianna detested people who were influenced by others to shave away at their own lives. Had Herrace’s dream simply been his best option remaining after he had failed to satisfy the needs of others, resigned himself, and made a compromise?

She felt like she would be truly disappointed in Herrace if that was the case.

“A lie?”

Herrace muttered weakly as he dropped his head. He continued,

“There’s no way it was a lie. It was never a lie. But…”

“But?”

Herrace held his head down for a moment longer before he slowly looked up. His pale eyes were filled with tears and a strong obsession, as well as the dense color of despair. Tears fell across his pale cheeks.

“I still have a swordsman’s greed.”

Ianna was startled. Herrace continued,

“As you probably know, Little Ianna, swordsmen in the Age of Magic who can’t use mana are essentially deadweight and they’re used as cannon fodder at best. When I try to use mana, though, it rushes at me at once like it was waiting for me. It comes to me of its own accord even if I don’t draw it in on purpose. You should know that this is incredible for those who can control mana, right, Little Ianna?”

“……”

“Mana pours into me to obey my will as soon as I want it to —if it was you, do you think you could overcome the temptation to use the mana that obeys you more obediently than anything else in the world when you control it? Could you?!”

Herrace flew into a rage as he wiped away his tears.

“It’s been seven years since the mana started trying to eat me alive whenever I try to liberate it. I know I’m being a fool for not being able to give up on it and weakening my body with my medicine. I mean, that’s just the kind of illness this is. Why can’t my body just do what I want it to?”

Resignation began coloring his voice.

“Taking my medicine comes naturally to me now. I don’t want to give up on my ability to control mana, but I’ve given up on being able to liberate mana on my own. I’m pathetic, aren’t I? I should’ve just made a choice and stuck with it.”

Ianna looked back at him with a peculiar light in her eyes. Herrace failed to notice the odd glint in her eyes because he was too busy crying. Ianna slowly opened her crimson lips.

“Herrace, you have the courage to put your life on the line and the perseverance to keep you from giving up, and if you also have faith in your own talent on top of that……then you can be the strongest swordsman in the world someday.”

Why was it? Ianna tilted her head to the side. She felt like this was a problem that could be solved.

“Pardon?”

Herrace’s unfocused eyes wavered.

“I don’t know how yet. But, won’t you at least try with me? Perhaps your problem can be solved if you work hard and study it.”

Ianna found herself dumbfounded by her own words. To think that she would say something like this when she didn’t know how to solve the problem yet, even if she felt like it could be solved.

And yet, she trusted her intuition.

“Work hard……you say? Little Ianna, do you even understand what kind of illness this is?”

“I can tell that just by looking at your condition.”

“So you’re saying that you understand?”

Herrace shouted. He continued,

“You say that like it’s simple. The curse of mana —that’s what my illness is called. It’s a dreadful illness where mana comes to me on a whim like it’s about to give me the world but then floods into my heart as soon as I try to control it!”

Herrace grasped tightly to the clothes above his heart.

“It’s a miracle that I’m still even alive after using mana. I would have already been dead and buried by now if it weren’t for my maternal grandfather’s help. And yet you’re saying that I can become a strong swordsman? The curse of mana is an illness that only crops up once every decade or so —it’s so rare that there isn’t much information written about it even in the books, so how can you say things like that like it’s so simple?”

“…….”

“I did work hard. I worked hard, but the mana always runs wild anyway. Don’t say things like that so lightly when you don’t know me or my circumstances that well. No one knows how painful it is unless they’ve suffered from it too!”

“And?”

“And don’t tell Sir Eiji or Sir Taro or anyone else about this. I hate being looked at with pity, and I hate being looked at like I’m some weak creature who could drop dead at any minute. I feel so powerless —like I’ve become utterly useless— whenever people look at me that way. I don’t want people to look at me that way even here too!”

His eyes were completely wet with tears. Herrace had been under constant stress for many long years. Shame beat down at his entire being, and he finally felt like he had hit rock bottom.

The knowledge that he would never be able to handle mana freely, when it fawned over him just begging to be used, drove Herrace crazy.

His rage, which he had locked so deeply inside, gushed out at Ianna when she completely uncovered the wounds in his heart. Ianna understood how he was feeling.

‘So that’s why he hates being called delicate so much.’

“So please, don’t say anything. Please just forget everything you saw today and pretend you didn’t know this about me. Don’t interfere. Just give up on me. I’m trying so hard to give up on myself!”

Ianna calmly watched over Herrace in his agitation. He fumed for a little while longer before he returned to his senses. He paled when he realized what he had done. He had gotten angry and yelled at Ianna for worrying over him.

“I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“There’s no need for you to apologize. It was 100% my fault for speaking rashly without knowing how you felt. I am sorry.”

Herrace grew even more embarrassed and disgusted with himself when Ianna readily apologized, and he pressed down against his pounding temple as he shut his eyes tight.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Didn’t I tell you there was no need for you to apologize? You always have to release what you’ve pent up inside at some point. Also, I suggested that we should work hard because it’s you. It would have been out of the question had I been talking to anyone else.”

“Pardon?”

“Last examinee! Number 14603, please get ready!”

Ianna took one last glance at the dumbfounded expression on Herrace’s face before she turned around as the teaching assistant called for her. The wind blew, and her crimson hair flowed behind her.

Herrace had not been able to understand what Ianna had been saying. That he could become a strong swordsman someday if he worked hard, that she was willing to work hard with him, that they might be able to solve his illness —Ianna was cruel for opening up his wounds with words filled with baseless hope after he’d let go of the painful expectations and started to resign himself to his fate.

But then, why were his eyes drawn to her crimson colors, why was his once dead desire to rely on someone revived by her steadfast figure and the peculiar air about her……?

Herrace chased after Ianna and asked,

“What do you mean by that?”

“I thought you wanted to keep this a secret? I have nothing more to say to you on this topic. Just know that the first things you should do are to steel yourself to start working your way up from the very bottom and to take yourself off your medicine.”

“…….”

“Do you not trust me because I can’t give you a solution that’s sure to work? But I’m not simply sprouting nonsense to get your hopes up. I say this because I saw similarities between us.”

“Similarities?”

Ianna left Herrace behind as he stayed rooted to the spot and walked up to the strength measuring machine. Ianna opened and closed her fist repeatedly as she closed her eyes and gently drew in the mana from her surroundings.

The surrounding mana was immediately sucked into her, as though it had been eagerly awaiting her call, as soon as she took a deep breath and began focusing.

Buzzzz……

Like her sword, mana, too, followed her will unconditionally. It obeyed her so vehemently that it might have said, “I love you so much. Use me,” or, “Please use me. I can do anything if it’s for you,” had it been human.

Ianna opened her glowing eyes once she had absorbed as much of the mana that was adhering to her so frantically as she could. She opened and closed her fist a few more times, as if she was telling Herrace to watch carefully, when he was so alarmed by her gaze that he stepped back.

Ianna punched hard as her eyes gleamed with light.

Craaaaaaash!

Not only had Ianna’s punch splintered the pillar holding up the target, but she had hit the target so hard that it shot out like an explosive cannon and flew far away, hit against a wall, and shattered.

Thump, thump.

The target’s fragments fell sharply to the ground. The parts of it that had been pulverized into powder were carried away by the wind.

“Eek.”

“What a monster!”

The teaching assistant who had witnessed the spectacle was rendered speechless, and those who had been killing time and watching Ianna to see just how well a woman could do rubbed their eyes in disbelief.

Ianna gently unclenched her fist as though nothing had happened and asked the teaching assistant,

“Do I pass?”

“Y-yes, you do.”

Ianna turned around after confirming that she had passed and went back to where Herrace was.

“What do you think?”

Herrace fumbled around for a bit before answering because he didn’t understand the reason behind her question before he stiffened up from feeling the mana that still clung to Ianna’s body.

“No way —do you have the curse of mana too, Little Ianna?”

“No. It’s not a curse. People may call this condition a curse because they can’t control the mana when it draws to them so violently, but I’d say otherwise.”

Ianna sent away the mana that clung to her persistently with a gentle whisk of her hand before she smiled with her eyes. She continued,

“This is a blessing.”

Ianna’s saccharine smile as she readily controlled the mana while calling it a blessing made Herrace tremble.

“A blessing? It puts me through such terrible agony. It makes me feel like my body’s being ripped apart. How are you able to handle mana so easily, Little Ianna?”

“It’s the difference between our respective talents and our resolve. And let me just say this for reference…”

Ianna raised her hand again and gathered mana in her palm. Mana poured to her ferociously. It was so overwhelmingly vigorous that Herrace could not help but falter. Ianna continued,

“Mana surges toward me more violently than it does toward you. The amount that adheres to you is barely anything at all.”

“But that’s…….”

Ianna smirked when Herrace failed to continue.

“I told you before. If you have courage and perseverance, and if you have faith in your own talents on top of that, then you might be able to become an incredibly strong swordsman someday. I might even be able to help you. After all, mana may flood into me more violently, but I also have an easier time handling it than you do.”

Ianna shook her head when she saw how widely Herrace opened his eyes. She continued,

“It’ll be impossible if you’re not up for trying, of course……but I believe that you have the talent. Don’t you think it might be worth trying to find a solution with me? I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try if you still want to be a strong swordsman.”

“…….”

“Well, I suppose it’ll be a curse to you forever if you keep taking the medicine and refuse my proposal to try our best because you’re too busy hiding away your illness like a coward without searching for an alternative.”

“……Why?”

Ianna tilted her head because she didn’t comprehend his question. Herrace asked again,

“Why are you trying to help me……? Because you pity me?”

Ianna clicked her tongue.

“Pity you? I was never one for sympathy. I’m only saying this because I’ve taken a liking to you. Didn’t we just shake hands and decide to be friends just a few dozen minutes ago? I wouldn’t say something like this to anyone else when I don’t know if this will even work, and I certainly wouldn’t go this far for them. I’d simply let them be.”

Ianna walked past Herrace, who was frozen to the spot, once she had said her piece.

“……Oh…….”

Herrace had felt like he was always being driven to a corner, but anticipation began lighting up his dark eyes as he chased after Ianna’s crimson colors.

~~*~~

Part 7

The fourth exam, the reaction exam, began the next day.

Eiji and Taro were cautious around Ianna because they had parted while discussing a rather delicate subject the other day, and even Herrace found it difficult to talk to her naturally.

Ianna, however, regarded them as normal. She regarded Herrace normally as well. Nothing had changed about her composed behavior. It was almost like her words and actions from the other day had been but a dream. Herrace looked depressed as he chewed over Ianna’s every word.

‘Everything she said is correct.’

To be completely honest, Herrace wasn’t confident at all. He was tempted by the sudden hope he had found in Ianna’s proposal.

He had already been tormented by the curse of mana for seven years. Even his maternal grandfather, an archmage, had only been able to grant him a temporary solution in the form of his medicine.

So how could Ianna, whom he had only met a few days ago, possibly help him? ……he thought, and yet his heart was trembling from his bubbling anticipation.

“This is a blessing.”

His inability to control mana was but a curse that presented him with false hopes. But, was it possible to turn it into a blessing?

Herrace’s mother had been physically frail, and he had been born with a weak body. Nobody had blamed Herrace because his mother had died while giving birth to him, but rather, they reminisced about the late lady of the house whom the kindhearted Herrace had taken after as they took care of him.

His father, who had loved his mother dearly, never hated Herrace, though he grieved heavily, and supported Herrace in becoming the legitimate heir of the household. And that was how Herrace, who had a brother a year older than him from a different mother, had become the heir apparent.

Herrace’s body had lacked vitality ever since he had been born, but he had inherited the outstanding physique and incredible focus passed down through the Bendham’s male lineage, and he had grown up with his house’s expectations being showered upon him.

Herrace had wanted to answer to those expectations. No —while he did want to answer to those expectations, he also wanted to become a great swordsman simply because he found swordplay incredibly fun. He shoved food in his mouth to get stronger even when he felt like he would explode, he ran around with all his might, and he put his everything into his training.

It had been around then that he had developed his dream. He wanted to become a great swordsman, marry a healthy wife, have adorable children as cute as little bunnies, and live a long life with them. There was always just one thing he was always envious of when he looked at his elder half-brother, and that was the fact that his brother had a mother.

His nanny had always embraced him warmly, but she always spoke formally to him —perhaps because of the difference in their respective status. His father was strict and only spoke to Herrace about his expectations —he was never warm or tender. And so, the young boy had always dreamed of having his own warm family.

But then, his absolute incompetence had been revealed while he had been learning how to control mana from his maternal grandfather when he was ten.

“Excellent, Herrace! You’re doing splendid!”

Herrace’s heart had been fluttering as he tried to shake the mana off while his maternal grandfather had been impressed and was praising him for his yet clumsy control over mana. But then, he had fainted as the praises turned into shouting. He had nearly died from the mana that had flooded into his heart and had only survived thanks to his maternal grandfather’s quick intervention.

The curse of mana.

It was a dreadful and incurable illness where people died from shock when mana flooded into the body after they were done controlling it and tried to liberate it. Someone with the curse of mana could not use mana unless they wanted to die, and it was essentially a death sentence for Herrace’s dreams of becoming a swordsman.

Herrace, however, hadn’t been able to understand this when he was young, and had only survived thanks to his maternal grandfather after several brushes with death as he continued to try and handle mana.

He could not believe his circumstances when he was old enough to understand what was going on. He could sense mana, and he could control it. Mana lingered around him as if it was just begging to be used. So, how could it possibly be a curse? He believed that he would be able to control mana one day if he kept trying. And yet, the mana suddenly became as an evil spirit and flooded into him as soon as he tried to stop controlling it. It was a curse.

Eventually, Herrace began to regard mana as a madness……one that always demanded that he dance to its tune or die. He saw it as a murderer that would gouge out his heart if he gave it even the smallest of openings.

But Herrace still had a reason why he couldn’t give up on becoming able to control mana —the cold treatment he received from his father who had once held full faith in him, the pity he felt from the people who had once only given him love……and the fading of his self-confidence and his dreams.

“No, you’re wrong!”

The boy had been thrown into a mire of shame when he had been forcefully robbed of his ambitions. Herrace had grit his teeth and done his best to learn how to control mana from his maternal grandfather.

“I can do this!”

But all he could do when the mana flooded into him was take the medicine because it hurt so much. He felt like his heart would pop like a balloon and explode if he didn’t. He was able to trick the mana into dispersing by temporarily stopping his heart, but it only made his already frail body grow weaker. Then, before he realized it, he was always taking the medicine after controlling mana like it was natural. He was essentially like cattle being led to slaughter.

“Serves you right. Why don’t you just give up already? You’re so pathetic it’s unsightly. You’re just deadweight. Just what can deadweight possibly achieve, even if it tries its best?”

“……01!”

“……ace!”

“Examinee number 14601! Are you here?!”

“Hey, Herrace. You okay?”

“Oh.”

Herrace returned to his senses when Eiji grabbed him by the arm and shook him. His face flushed when he felt everyone’s eyes, particularly Ianna’s, on him. He wiped away a bead of sweat that had dripped down his forehead and jumped up.

“What are you in such a cold sweat for?”

“It’s nothing. I fell asleep and ended up having a nightmare…….”

Herrace got up in a hurry and ran to the exam venue. The teaching assistant saw him running over and nodded.

“We’ll begin your exam.”

“Yes.”

The reaction test involved having balls thrown at you from every direction and not getting hit more than five times within the time limit. Most people were disqualified from the exam if they were sluggish, but Herrace evaded the balls nimbly. The exam was so easy that he was daydreaming before he knew it.

The mana had been like a great dragon with its mouth open wide trying to devour Ianna whole. And yet, the very same mana, which had charged at her, had become as a docile lamb when she had willed it. It was like it had been bowing before a queen’s feet.

‘Can I be like that too? Will I be able to control and liberate mana as I wish?’

Just imagining it made him ecstatic.

‘But how?’

Herrace lost his nerve. Talent? Did he really have the talent? His older brother had always called him deadweight. He was deadweight. So, how could Ianna possibly help him?

Herrace was disheartened. Just what had she seen in him that it made her give him hope like this? He bit down hard at his lip. He was afraid of getting his hopes up and rising to the challenge. The act of rising up to the challenge could easily become a despair that ate away at his very flesh instead of hope.

Herrace stole a glace at Ianna, who was waiting for her turn behind him. She had probably called him a coward because she had understood the state of his heart. But even still, he was so scared of stepping foot toward the foreboding future with only blind trust in the hope she presented before him that it drove him mad.

“Number 14601, pass!”

“Whew…….”

“Good job. You dodged like a champ even while you were daydreaming.”

Herrace, who was collecting his breath, flushed red when Ianna teased him. Did she know what he had been thinking about just now? Embarrassed, Herrace lowered his head as he stepped back.

“Number 14603, we’ll begin your exam.”

“Yes.”

Ianna’s exam went just as smoothly. She dodged with leisure, as though she had extra eyes on the sides and back of her head. Herrace wiped away his sweat as he stared blankly at her hair, which was tied up tightly, fluttering in the wind.

Herrace felt like he understood just how cool of a person she was even though he had only known her for a few days. Ianna was conspicuous, as though her each and every word and action shone with a brilliant light.

She was someone who, beneath her firm convictions, had faith in her own abilities and acted while deciding everything for herself.

Just what kind of life had she lived that she was as upright as a tree in character?

‘Is it because she’s a high ranking noble?’

Herrace, who lived in the capital and had already met many noble girls, immediately shook his head no. Ianna was on a completely different level from those girls. Ianna was like a cool knight straight from children’s storybooks. And yet, someone like her had offered to help him find a solution if he so wished.

Ianna completed her exam easily and walked out of the exam venue. Herrace smiled.

“You’re amazing, Little Ianna.”

“What are you talking about? —you passed the exam just as easily.”

“But you haven’t even broken out into a sweat, Little Ianna? I’m already drenched.”

Ianna reigned in her laughter at how Herrace, who had been so flustered earlier that he couldn’t even talk properly because he was feeling too sorry for himself, was now speaking so assertively.

Ianna walked past him, and Herrace followed behind while smiling.

He couldn’t be courageous quite yet because he was a coward. He didn’t know Ianna very well yet, and his self-confidence had bottomed out. And yet, he had a feeling that his hesitation would not last too long.

The fourth exam was over now that Ianna had completed hers. The teaching assistant stood before the lot where all those who had passed had gathered and cleared his throat before shouting,

“Good work. There are 312 of you who will take the final exam!”

“Man, that’s still a lot. Since there are only eighty students per grade, that means only a fourth of us here will get in.”

Eiji placed a hand on his forehead and looked around. The anxiety was obvious on the examinees’ faces as they watched the teaching assistants flip through the exam schedule papers. The fifth exam was the final exam that would determine whether they made it into the Institution. As Eiji had said, a fourth of them would pass, and the remaining three-fourths would fail. Most of the examinees present would be faced with bitter feelings. Rather, it was Eiji, who was as relaxed as if he was only here for a walk, who was the odd man out in the situation.

“But it’s still a lot fewer people than before. And I’m so glad that I’m still here.”

Eiji clicked his tongue when Herrace, who had been on the verge of tears, finally began crying with tears streaming down his face.

“Hey, you’re way too timid. You’re basically a genius, you know? Have some more confidence in yourself.”

“What do you mean I’m a genius? I failed the first exam when I was sixteen.”

Herrace smiled wryly.

“Wait, you’re a repeater?”

Eiji opened his eyes wide in surprise. Even Ianna, who had been facing forward, turned to look at Herrace.

“Yes. That’s why I’m so grateful to Little Ianna. I only just managed to pass the first exam by giving it my all. And I would have failed the second exam pretty quickly if it weren’t for you and Little Ianna, Sir Eiji.”

“…….”

“I tend to give up pretty quickly when I’m alone. So really, thank you.”

Herrace was being sincere as he bowed his head low before the two of them. Eiji scratched his head as if Herrace had said something preposterous, and Ianna simply shrugged and turned back to the teaching assistant.

Herrace had been hesitant with anxiety written plainly on his face until the fourth exam had begun, but he was now back to normal before anyone had realized it. Ianna had thought that he would begin acting differently after she had poked around his affairs during the third exam, but he was speaking to them like normal without any other particular reaction.

He had said that he was afflicted with a rare illness called the curse of mana. In Herrace’s case, he seemed to have no problems with his volatility, seeing that he could control mana just fine, but it looked like his affinity vastly exceeded his receptivity and willpower.

At first, Ianna had thought that there was nothing he could do about it. It was no easy feat to train one’s willpower if their affinity was too high. You needed enough spite and maturity to drown out your affinity for that, but it wasn’t something that could be done just because you set your heart to it. The best way to go about it was to either train persistently or to give up altogether. Taking medicine for it was the worst thing anyone could do in that situation.

But her thoughts had changed when she heard that Herrace had not given up on becoming a great swordsman even though he had suffered under his circumstances for seven long years. Herrace had a strong will. It had simply chipped away bit by bit as time had passed.

‘Now that I think about it carefully, the mana was definitely obedient while he was controlling it.’

The problem lay in what came next. Just as Herrace had said, the mana ignored his control and flooded into him like it was trying to eat him alive when he tried to liberate it. It wasn’t his willpower that was the problem —it had to be something else.

She felt like she needed to discuss with Herrace more. She didn’t know of a solution quite yet, but Ianna was convinced that there was something she could do to help.

Their circumstances were similar. Both Ianna and Herrace had extremely high affinity —which gave them access to an abundant amount of mana. And yet, Herrace’s high affinity was as a curse to him, whereas Ianna found hers a blessing. Mana always gathered to her like crazy, and she received and used it without any resistance.

So, what was the difference between her and Herrace? Ianna felt like she could help him if only she knew. At the very least, she could help him so that he would no longer need to risk his life so recklessly.

If it was possible to eliminate the cause, then Herrace could become an incredible swordsman in the future, and Ianna figured it wouldn’t be too terrible either even if they couldn’t eliminate the cause. It was cold-hearted of her to think this, but Herrace could stop hoping in vain and focus on the rest of his life if that was to be the case.

Ianna only intended to give him advice —she would never meddle in his affairs and bully him into anything or influence his decisions otherwise. Ianna respected people’s wills more than anything else. That was why she had decided to let Herrace be.

Still, it was clear to her that she would only be disappointed in him if Herrace continued to take the medicine like a coward, if he continued to stay in a limbo without ever rising up to the challenge.

“Ahem, I will now explain the fifth exam that will begin tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the last day of the Institution’s Swordsmanship Department exams. You will be divided into groups of thirty-seven —ten examinees will pass from each group, and eighty examinees from the 312 currently present will be admitted into the Swordsmanship Department.”

The remaining examinees grew excited at the teaching assistant’s words. The teaching assistant smiled at the competitive atmosphere around his future juniors as he unfolded a large poster and placed it up on the blackboard.

“The groups will be assigned at random. Check your group assignments on the poster and come to the Institution’s large arena by ten in the morning tomorrow. That is all!”

The teaching assistant left the exam venue first, and the examinees began flocking to the blackboard soon afterward. Ianna, Eiji, and Herrace hung around at the back until things had quieted down before checking their group assignments. Eiji, who had checked for Taro’s number as well although the latter wasn’t present, marveled,

“Ooh, Taro and Little Ianna are both in group 4.”

“Is that so? Speaking of which, where is Mr. Taro now?”

Ianna askied, finding it odd that they had not seen Taro for a while now. Eiji shrugged.

“I don’t know either. He suddenly got up and ran somewhere like a charging bull while you and Herrace were taking your exams, Little Ianna.”

“I’m here.”

Speaking of the devil, Taro suddenly appeared behind Eiji.

“Where’ve you been?”

Taro was standing limply. Eiji was rather disconcerted by how different Taro was acting from when he had been enjoying himself during the reaction exam. Taro threw a glance at Eiji before letting out a long sigh.

“I saw my Goddess walkin’ by. So I immediately ran over to where she was.”

“Your goddess? You don’t mean the girl you fell at first sight for, do you? The girl who said she didn’t want anything to do with a country bumkin?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. She said that today too. But man, how can a woman be so gorgeous?”

Silence fell heavily upon them. Taro’s face was flushed a fiery red, and he was the very picture of a boy in love. Eiji could not help but wonder how gorgeous the woman in question must have been that the country boy in front of him couldn’t even get his act together. Piping with curiosity, Eiji sneaked closer and asked,

“What did she look like?”

“She was white, and slender……. Hold on, why the hell do I hafta tell ya about my Goddess?”

“Because I’m curious. It’s only natural, since you were smitten by another girl when there’s a girl as lovely as our Little Ianna right here.”

Ianna furrowed her brows.

“What does this have anything to do with me?”

“Wait, aren’t you even a little annoyed, Little Ianna? Girls generally don’t like it when you compliment another girl’s looks to their face.”

“It doesn’t apply to me, so stop it with your strange assumptions about women. You’re being prejudicial.”

“You’re right, it’s a prejudice.”

Taro scratched his head and opened his mouth as Ianna cut Eiji off.

“I mean, yer pretty too, Lil’ Ianna, but yer more like a tiger or a lion than a delicate little deer —which is more of my type? Back when ya broke that round thing with that outrageous strength of yers during the third exam, I started thinking that ya may be a lady, but ya also ain’t one.”

“Pft……hahaha, that’s just called being straight up manly……a-ack!”

Ianna had used mana, not her physical strength, when she had hit the target, but it looked like Taro hadn’t noticed. Still, Ianna had rather liked what Taro had to say about her, so she decided against correcting him. She simply pinched Eiji’s side hard and twisted while he was doubling over in laughter.

Herrace, who had been quietly listening to Taro as he spoke, tilted his head to the side.

“But why was she here at the Institution?”

“So that’s the thing —my Goddess was a student here. Yeah!”

Taro made a fist. He continued,

“And now, I got another reason why I hafta get into the Institution!”

“What a snob…….”

Eiji clicked his tongue.

“So what’s the next exam?! And what’s with this giant piece of paper here?!”

“Looks like it’s a group exam.”

Eiji had been right.

“Group 4, get ready!”

Ianna and Taro were standing in the middle of a vast arena with forty other people with one wooden sword in their hands each. Taro looked pretty dissatisfied that he couldn’t use his own giant sword.

“Examinees were allowed to use their personal swords in previous exams, but we will be using wooden swords for the exam this year and going forward due to the high number of casualties. I will go over the rules one more time! You will be disqualified from the match as follows.”

First, an examinee would be disqualified if they yielded. Second, if they were unable to continue fighting; third, if any part of their body other than their hands or feet touched the ground; fourth, if they went out of bounds. And fifth, if they used mana.

“All you have to do is to disqualify your opponents using the wooden swords you were provided or by hand-to-hand combat. The teaching assistants supervising the exam will determine when you are unable to continue fighting. The exam will continue until ten examinees are left standing!”

Ianna stretched as she familiarized herself with the rules.

It was only possible to force your opponent to yield or disqualify them for being unable to continue fighting if you overwhelmed them and brought them to their knees. No one was likely to yield, so they would have to disqualify each other through the other rules.

It was in the third and fourth provisions where one could slip up regardless of their skill. The examines clenched tightly to their wooden swords as they inched closer to the center of the crowded arena. They tensed the lower halves of their bodies to ensure that they wouldn’t lose their footing.

Beeeep—!

The teaching assistant’s whistle pierced through the tension in the air and prickled the skies. Taro stood in front of Ianna as soon as the match started. Ianna, who had been about to make her way to crush the other examinees, stopped in her tracks.

‘He doesn’t mean to fight me, does he?’

Ianna stood in place as she failed to understand the situation until Taro pat at his own chest.

“Stick right close behind me.”

“What?”

“Even if ya ain’t really one, there’ll be tons of other guys who look down on ya for being a lady, yeah? Let’s do this the easy way. Fewer people’ll come at me since I’m pretty big. All ya gotta do, Lil’ Ianna, is to get the bastards who try n’ sneak up on me from behind.”

Just as Taro had said, there were many examinees who were drawing closer to get Ianna, who looked the weakest in the group, disqualified first. However, they were all small fry whom Ianna didn’t even consider worth fighting. Ianna tried to tell Taro that she didn’t need his consideration, though she was grateful for it. But then, Taro did something completely baffling. He threw his wooden sword down to the ground.

“I don’t need a wimpy lil’ stick like this. It’ll just get in my way ‘cause they break so damn easily.”

Taro looked arrogant for throwing away his wooden sword while everyone else was still armed with theirs. Was he an idiot, or did he simply trust his own strength that much? That being said, he had been strong enough to break the strength measuring machine with brute strength alone.

‘But then he’ll have to face the brunt of the other examinee’s attacks. Am I supposed to help him if he’s in danger?’

But just as Ianna was keeping an eye on the wooden sword he had dropped.

“Eyah!”

One examinee decided to strike at Taro’s head when he turned to face Ianna and talk to her even though the exam had started and had even thrown down his wooden sword.

The expression on Taro’s face turned ugly when he felt the examinee’s presence.

“Screw ya!”

Pow!

“Gack!”

Taro evaded the examinee’s sword with ease and hit him hard on the face with the palm of his hand, causing the examinee’s eyes to roll back as he was sent flying with incredible force.

‘I see. His strength his monstrous, so he’s able to fight barehanded so long as we aren’t using real blades.’

If the match had allowed the use of real swords, he wouldn’t have been able to cast his aside because it would have also doubled as his means of defense. But it didn’t matter if he cast his sword aside when sparring with wooden swords if he had faith in his physical strength and martial arts ability, since all he would suffer even if he was hit were a few bruises.

The examinee flew out of bounds. Ianna and Taro were not standing at the edge of the ring. And yet, Taro had managed to send the examinee flying all the way out of bounds with brute strength alone and without using mana.

Afterword, examinees stopped trying to approach Taro at all, much less actually try to attack him; and they likewise didn’t approach Ianna, who was standing behind him, either.

Ianna simply stood behind Taro as he began charging out like a bear because no one was drawing closer to him. He even beat away the examinees who were going for Ianna one after another. He had said that he wouldn’t treat her like a girl, but Taro was actually extremely worried that she might get hurt.

‘There’s really no need for him to do this.’

Ianna didn’t feel particularly inclined to attack other examinees from behind while they fought someone else, so she simply looked up to the blue skies above and closed her eyes. She alone was at peace amidst the arena that was filled with dust, shouting, and the sound of wooden swords hitting against each other.

Then, Ianna felt the presence of an examinee who had snuck around Taro’s line of sight and was approaching her from behind. Ianna simply stood there and pretended that she hadn’t noticed. Emboldened, the examinee brought up his wooden sword to hit her from behind. Ianna muttered,

“It’s poor manners to attack someone from behind, bastard.”

Her crimson eyes opened and flashed just as the examinee brought down his sword. She maintained her posture as she used footwork to dodge to the side and rushed at the examinee, whose posture had broken because he had just brought down his sword. The sword she had swung as she shot out like an arrow hit him squarely in the Adam’s apple, and the examinee fainted while frothing at the mouth from the impact.

There was yet another examinee who had been waiting for an opening. Ianna lightly blocked the oncoming tip of his sword with the flat of her blade. She twisted his sword as it slipped past and kicked up at it. The impact of her kick caused the examinee to let go of his sword.

Ianna quickly went under the examinee’s arms, which had followed his sword up, while he was distracted by the fact that his sword had been kicked into the air, stepped inside his range, and punched him in the face.

Baaaaam!

“Ack!”

The examinee’s nose broke and he landed heavily on his rear.

Ianna felt more people sneaking up on her from behind. Once examinee tried to force her to the ground or push her out of bounds. Contrary to his efforts, however, Ianna elbowed him hard in the stomach the moment he grabbed her. The examinee, who hadn’t even had the time to react, doubled over after she had hit him squarely on the solar plexus. Ianna spun around and punched him on the side of his neck with her free hand.

“Aaaack…….”

He fell over sideways, but then another examinee tried to do the same exact thing the first had attempted. Ianna dodged the arms that had reached out for her without so much as looking back and pivoted on her left leg to kick the examinee behind her in the face.

Crunch!

“Aaah!”

Crash!

“Cough! Cough!”

The examinee, who had fallen to the floor after Ianna’s hard boot had collided with his face, struggled as Ianna stepped over his throat.

“Wow.”

Ianna removed her foot from the examinee’s throat and turned to where the voice of wonder had come from. Taro, who had been wondering why examinees had suddenly approached him in droves, stopped going after them himself and had been watching Ianna fight with his mouth agape. He continued,

“I guess I didn’t hafta worry at all? Yer martial arts is quite a piece of work, yeah?”

“It’s more effective to use martial arts since we aren’t allowed to actually cut down our opponents. You threw away your sword for the same reason, no?”

“I think I finally get what Eiji and Herrace were sayin’. It’s like a bunch of rabbits were tryin’ to jump ya when yer the tiger…….”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Taro burst out in laughter when Ianna accepted the compliment like it was only natural instead of growing embarrassed.

“Haha! Yer the man! And ya can talk more casually to me too. Talking all formal like don’t suit you at all, Lil’ Ianna.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Spirited, ain’t ya……? Mmm! Yer much better than the other dudes. Let’s be friends, yeah?! Hehe, now I can say that I’m friends with a lady. My older brothers are gonna die of envy!”

Taro extended a hand toward Ianna while laughing wickedly, and Ianna took it with a light smile on her lips. They shook hands amid the screaming and violence around them.

The other examinees could not find it in themselves to intrude on the unusual scene as Ianna and Taro leisurely shook hands, as though they were unrelated to the tension surrounding them. The other examinees were terrified by the sight of the unconscious people strewn around them like corpses.

Eventually, only the truly desperate remained by the time the exam neared to a close. They forgot about how terrified they were of Ianna, a girl, and Taro, who was unarmed, and rushed at them indiscriminately. And they were all beaten soundly.

“Number 2053, disqualified! The exam is over! The ten people still standing have passed in group 4!”

“Ahhhh! It’s finally over!”

“Hurray!”

The exam was over. Everyone still standing cheered. There were even a few who hugged each other and burst into tears. Ianna stood around blankly because she didn’t have any strong feelings in particular about passing, but she forced an awkward smile when Taro roared in laughter and pat her hard across the back.

“Feels great to pass! Let’s keep up the good work, partner!”

“Sure.”

It looked like Taro had stopped seeing Ianna as a girl altogether. Her back throbbed.

Eiji was a part of the next group, group 5. He nimbly dodged this way and that and eventually ended up among the last ten standing. The others glared at him with censure as he descended from the arena, as he had tripped people over from behind while they had been busy fighting properly with their swords.

Eiji made excuses to Ianna and Taro once he had caught up to them.

“I suck at using longswords. I messed up. Who’d have thought they were gonna make us use wooden swords? Damn it, there was no point in me getting thrown at a wall at Little Ianna’s courtesy, was there?”

Herrace, in group 8, had only just managed to pass. There were a lot of examinees who jumped him because he was frail, but Herrace had calmly managed to fight all of them back. His basic skills were polished —as they should be, considering that he was from a house of famous warriors. Thing had started to get a little dicey toward the end because he was running low on stamina, but he had managed to make it within the last ten standing and passed the exam without incident.

“The remaining eighty applicants have successfully made it into the Swordsmanship Department!”

“Uwaaaaa!”

“M-Mom. Sob sob. I passed. Sob.”

The Swordsmanship Department exams concluded after Herrace’s group’s match. Ianna, Eiji, Herrace, and Taro had all passed.

The prospective students gathered in the first Swordsmanship Department building. They were so overjoyed that they were talking amongst themselves even if they had never met each other before.

“All of us passed in the end.”

“We did. I knew that you guys would pass, but I’m so touched to see it actually happen,”

Herrace, who was overjoyed, replied cheerfully when Ianna broke the ice. Eiji flippantly glanced around at his surroundings before covering his mouth and chuckling mischievously.

“Little Ianna, you’re both the top of the class and the only woman. I mean, do you think there are any women among our upperclassmen? Probably not. Hahaha. There’ll probably be a lot of guys pestering you just because of your appearance. You might go through a bit of trouble.”

“I don’t particularly care. I’ll simply knock out the bastards with my sword if they try anything funny.”

“You always get in the last word, don’t you?”

“It’s cool,”

Herrace muttered vaguely with a sparkle in his eyes. Not only that, but his cheeks were flushed red too, which startled Eiji standing next to him.

“Herrace, don’t tell me you…?”

“Hmm? N-no, I don’t!”

“What do you mean you don’t? Herrace and Ianna sitting in a tree…”

“I’m telling you that’s not how it is. I just think that Little Ianna’s so cool…….”

“Oh, my Goddess. Just ya wait for me……. Ehe.”

Eiji was teasing Herrace, Herrace was vehemently denying his claims, and Taro was laughing with his mouth wide open as he fantasized about his goddess. Ianna sighed.

Just then, Ryan, the department head, walked up before the excited prospective students as the representative of all of the teaching assistants present.

“I’m glad to see you all here. I congratulate you for qualifying into the Swordsmanship Department! I will have the honor of being your senior moving forward. Please be sure to say hello when you happen to see me around. I might have to discipline you if you don’t.”

The entire hall burst out in laughter at Ryan’s joke. He continued,

“Before I tell you about what happens next, I’d like to first introduce a professor whom you’ll be seeing often in the near future.”

“Ahem.”

Standing beside Ryan was a middle-aged man with sharp looks and an air about him that was reminiscent of a lion. His sturdy frame was well-trained and looked as solid and a hard rock wall, and his posture was so straight that he seemed like a lone tree standing above the peak of a rugged mountain.

“This is Professor Filliger Ashltondt, a retired general of the royal guard who agreed to offer us here at the Swordsmanship Department his guidance at the Institution’s request. You may address him as Professor Filliger, as he puts more emphasis on his relationship with his students as a teacher than he does to the distinction between the nobility and commoners.”

The people in the hall stiffened up before they knew what they were doing. Everyone present knew who Filliger Ashltondt was. He was a count and the previous head of House Ashltondt who had won the king’s trust, and he was a great figure who was also known as the kingdom’s shield.

Filliger introduced himself with a powerful voice.

“It’s good to be here. I am a rather poor speaker, so I won’t keep you for long. First, good work making it through your exams, and I offer you my sincere congratulations for passing them.”

“Thank you!”

those who with prior military training answered loudly.

“I see there are a few of you who will do well out in society. The greatest piece of advice I can give you all is that you don’t allow yourselves to get too relaxed just because you made it in to the Institution, for you will have a hectic schedule here. I say this because there are always a few people who delude themselves into thinking that getting admitted to the Institution was the difficult part and flunked out at the very first exam.”

The prospective students broke out into a cold sweat at Filliger’s wintry words as they grew nervous and worried about their upcoming school days. Filliger continued,

“But, if you continue to do your best even after getting admitted into the Swordsmanship Department, you will meet precious comrades, become outstanding swordsmen, and have guarantee of a bright future to look forward to. So, keep up the good work. That is all.”

“Thank you, Professor Filliger!”

“Thank you!”

“T-thank you!”

The other teaching assistants followed suit when Ryan loudly thanked the professor, and the shrewder of the prospective students stooped forward and bowed in gratitude.

“He may be strict, but Professor Filliger puts his students before all else. He is the type of person who evaluates everyone in accordance to their skill, so make sure to do your best!”

“Yes!”

“Good. And now, I have a few important announcements. First, please remember to finish registering to the department by February 15^th. You will receive a sheet of paper with details as you leave —please read through it carefully, and you may complete your registration at the Institution’s head office. Second, orientation will be held on February 20^th. The induction ceremony will take place on February 22^nd. Also on the 22^nd, the Swordsmanship Department will hold its own orientation and you will be able to register for classes. And finally, here’s the announcement that I’ve been waiting to share!”

Ryan’s eyes sparkled as he loudly proclaimed,

“The New Students’ Swordsmanship Competition!”

“Alright!”

“This is what I was waiting for!”

People started talking excitedly amongst themselves. Everyone else was flushed with anticipation, save for Eiji, who looked like he had known about the competition but didn’t care, so Ianna figured that they had been waiting to hear about it. She wondered if it was a large event as she listened to Ryan continue without much interest.

Ryan nodded with a pleased look on his face.

“The preliminaries for the New Students’ Swordsmanship Competition will begin on the 20^th, which is also your first day of orientation. While I’m sure many of you are already aware, you can also receive a scholarship to cover tuition for your first semester depending on how well you do at the competition. That’s why some students also call it the Scholarship Competition. It won’t matter much even if you drop out, but it’s an important competition for students in the Swordsmanship Department nonetheless because this will be your first chance to make a strong impression. The professors, who have many expectations for their new students, are planning to watch the competition, and it’s a large event with many spectators, so it’d be embarrassing if you dropped out too early, no? And so, I look forward to seeing you all put your best foot forward.”

Ryan took a deep breath before he loudly concluded,

“And finally, my sincere congratulations for making it in to the Swordsmanship Department!”

—“Exams” End

↑ Eiji asks Ianna if she wants to call him either 오라버니 (orabeoni) or 오빠 (oppa). Both refer to an older brother/a guy generally older than a girl, with 오라버니 being the more archaic and formal of the two. Also, the whole Asian formal vs. casual speech thing doesn’t really translate that well into English (since it doesn’t really exist), so just bear with me.