All the knives he’d thrown onto the ground had vanished without a trace.
Raze smiled sweetly, fanning out the small knives in both hands like playing cards.
When had she retrieved them?
Claude, who’d been leaping between shadows, hadn’t noticed a thing.
All he knew now was that tricks wouldn’t work anymore.
In a final desperate move, he leapt toward Raze’s own shadow—but she was one step ahead.
Before he knew it, his own hidden blade was pressed against his throat.
“That’s enough!!”
The referee’s call confirmed Raze’s advancement to the finals.
She pulled the knife away from Claude.
“…I was actually pretty serious back there…”
Twirling the knife effortlessly in her practiced hand, she watched as Claude frowned, clearly troubled.
“If someone pulled that on me in daily life, I’d be done for.”
As someone who also specialized in surprise attacks, Raze understood the danger of Claude’s fighting style.
No matter how strong your opponent, catching them off-guard could end it instantly. If judged purely by assassination capability, Claude could probably achieve just as many feats as she had.
Watching him, she was reminded of her own early days in the military.
Though their paths differed, she felt a strange kinship with Claude—and hoped he’d keep thriving by Ruben’s side.
“You’re strong, Claude-kun. In a night-time urban battle, even I might’ve struggled. No wonder you’re His Highness’s right hand.”
Raze held out his knife to him.
Claude stared at her in astonishment, then fixed his gaze on the worn-out practice blade.
“…This is the first time anyone’s ever complimented my fighting style… and I actually felt happy about it…”
He spoke with deep emotion. While knights like Ian received praise for their honorable duels, Claude’s shadow-based tactics were usually met with disdain—called “slimy as a snake” or worse.
“Really? You should have more confidence!”
Unaware of the criticism he’d endured, Raze blinked in surprise.
Realizing assassins rarely got recognition, she smiled warmly.
“I also rely on movement magic for instant kills, so I really like your style, Claude-kun. Let’s fight again sometime.”
“…! Yes! Next time, I’ll corner you even better!”
They’d surely cross blades again while still at the academy.
Raze gave a shy, cheerful smile—and though he’d just lost, Claude returned it with a challenging glint in his eyes.
Minutes later, all expression drained from Raze’s face.
After her match with Claude came the other semifinal.
[Whoa! And that’s the end of the match!! Advancing to the finals is—Addis Larg Zarth!!]
[This year’s Battle Festa final will feature two second-years! The tournament’s biggest dark horse, movement-magic specialist Raze Granoli, versus the Azure Nobleman clad in wind armor, Addis Larg Zarth!]
Raze stared blankly at the screen, her name and her opponent’s displayed side by side.
“…Huh?”
Needless to say, her face was utterly dumbfounded at this unexpected matchup.
“…I hit you too hard. Sorry…”
Despite his victory, Addis offered Ruben a hand with an awkward, guilty expression.
After defeating Ruben in an intense sword duel—something he’d avoided for years—he now faced the uncomfortable reality of having beaten someone he’d always sidestepped. Though he’d entered the match determined to win, actually doing so left him tangled in conflicted feelings.
Ruben, who’d played with Addis since childhood, seemed to understand his turmoil. Grasping Addis’s outstretched hand firmly, he sprang to his feet with vigor.
“Finally fought you for real, huh?”
“!”
Ruben’s expression was surprisingly clear and bright for someone who’d just lost.
That single line carried more joy in having fought wholeheartedly than any concern over victory or defeat.
Only then did Addis realize he’d been the one unilaterally distancing himself from his friend—and fell speechless.
“That was fun. Next time, I won’t lose.”
How long had it been since Ruben last told him something was “fun”?
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
He was the Crown Prince of this nation; he was the Prime Minister’s son. But before all that—they’d been friends. Had he, in his eagerness to look ahead, ignored the friendship their student lives still permitted?
After a moment’s thought, Addis let a smile soften his previously troubled expression.
“I’ll win next time too.”
and replied,
Ruben’s eyes widened briefly—then he laughed, seeing the weight lifted from Addis’s shoulders.
“But first, you’ve got to deal with Granoli. Got any plans?”
“I’ve got a few.”
“She’s clearly been holding back all this time, huh?”
“But the scholarship student probably hasn’t even shown half her strength. I haven’t forgotten—she teleported two people all the way from the Emerald Palace to Beeham.”
Ruben, who’d been distracted by Carne at the time, now gaped at Addis’s reminder.
Right. That girl, despite being physically weaker, possessed enough power in her movement specialty to teleport vast distances effortlessly. If she wanted, she could appear behind an opponent without leaving a trace.
In other words—with her unmatched magic stone activation speed and instant-teleport finishers, she could end matches even more easily. In this Battle Festa, there might truly be no one who could beat her.
“…Just who is she, really?”
“Who knows? Though, the fact that a commoner got a scholarship to Centriol should’ve told us she wasn’t ordinary.”
“True enough.”
Their eyes drifted to the small girl in the next room.
The one who’d just defeated Claude—the assassin working in secret for the royal family—was anything but normal.
Addis recalled their first sparring match. It was the first time he’d ever been utterly overwhelmed by a same-age girl, physically weaker though she was.
He’d learned she’d been an adventurer—but her strength felt far beyond what that title alone could explain.
He also remembered Headmaster Harrens mentioning he’d personally recruited her after their first mock duel. That detail still nagged at him.
“It’s kinda late to ask this, but… His Highness, you haven’t heard anything about her background, right?”
“Nope. Claude’s handling guard duty. …Don’t overthink it—you always build walls the moment you get suspicious. Lady Folia’s a commoner too. There are just people like that.”
“People like that” meant commoners with exceptional talent.
Since joining the Adventurer’s Guild, Addis had been shocked to see children younger than himself making a living through combat. As a noble, he’d enjoyed the privilege of scholarly education—but others had to monetize their bodies from a frighteningly young age.
Raze Granoli, who never showed a hint of her origins, might have risen from such circumstances.
In fact, she’d never once brought a guardian figure to the academy. The few adults seen with her all seemed like professional contacts—lacking any real sense of personal life, for better or worse.
Addis remembered the genuine, heartwarming smile Raze had shown when Cross and Harul appeared.
Why did seeing just one unknown side of her stir such unease in his chest?
He still didn’t understand his own feelings—or her past.
(Whaaat?! How are YOU the one who won?!)
Though she kept it to herself, Raze was utterly shocked to hear of Addis’s victory.
(That’s it! My mission’s over!)
Because of that damn “Seeress of Foresight,” Raze had been forced into climbing the tournament ladder—but if Ruben hadn’t won, she wouldn’t have needed to exert herself at all.
(Your Excellency… thanks to your son’s outstanding performance, the deal with the Empire has been nullified.)
She glanced up toward the VIP seating and spotted Wellrain, gazing at his son with evident satisfaction.
(And what about all my hard work to get this far?!)
If she’d known it would turn out like this, she never would’ve pushed herself all the way to this stage…
Everything she’d painstakingly built up until now had just popped like a soap bubble, leaving Raze steeped in a profound sense of loss. Now, her earlier enthusiasm—racing to retrieve Claude’s scattered knives at 120% speed—felt utterly foolish.
To have gotten so excited like a child, only to have her mission snatched right out from under her… how utterly humiliating. And to top it off, both her superiors and subordinates had witnessed the whole embarrassing spectacle.
(I’m so ashamed… I wish I could just crawl into a hole and disappear.)
This was the first time she’d ever felt this way.
As soon as Raze left the arena with Claude, she quickly parted ways with him and hurried straight into the waiting room.
“Aaah…”
She plopped down onto a bench and immediately buried her face in her hands.
Technically, since the outcome of the earlier matches had been uncertain, it was unavoidable that Raze had to advance all the way to the finals. Still, she really should’ve requested to have her match order changed—so she could fight only after seeing whether Ruben or Addis emerged victorious.
She’d heard rumors about Addis’s strength; it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d beaten Ruben. Yet she’d completely misjudged his character. She never imagined he’d actually defeat Ruben.
“Was he always this type? Even last year’s tournament, he was clearly holding back…”
She grumbled to herself—but honestly, she wasn’t exactly in a position to complain.
She hadn’t noticed even a shred of resentment lingering from that time he’d lost to her back in his first year. And she’d never realize that his dramatic improvement over the past year—thanks to seeking personal training from his own mother—was entirely her fault.
[Uh… Uh. Can you hear me?]
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