Chapter 60 - It Seems Everyone Wants Yours Truly to Win

The semifinalists were Laward, Hakan, Rebecca, and Lucia.

This year, the academy had achieved the remarkable feat of sending three students to the semifinals.

“Lord Daywin, is this really... happening...?”

The chairman’s expression kept shifting.

“Three students. Three! Three out of four! At least try to look happy! Three of them are your students, Lord Daywin! Am I the strange one here?”

Of course I was happy, but with him making such a huge fuss beside me, I had no desire to join in.

It was embarrassing. I didn’t want people lumping us together...

“This is the first time in academy history that we’ve sent three students to the semifinals! I think I finally understand why people watch sports... At this rate, the academy’s dream, after thirty-three years without a championship...”

That was the one thing I couldn’t listen to in silence. I finally clamped a hand over his mouth.

“That’s enough. Not another word.”

We were inside a dating sim, for crying out loud. There was no better place to set off a flag.

But shutting the chairman up wasn’t enough.

“Woooooo!”

The academy stands erupted as if we had already won. The students surrounded the three semifinalists and began singing the school song in unison.

The chairman instantly reacted to the familiar melody, mumbling along with his lips moving beneath my hand.

They were really determined to raise that flag.

The whole lot of them must be desperate to lose.

The academy students even made a point of consoling Veronica over her unfortunate elimination.

Veronica herself didn’t look particularly bothered. She simply kept saying she hadn’t expected to lose after spending her entire budget, and what a waste of money it had been.

But based on my analysis of Veronica so far, she was changing the subject because she was even more embarrassed by their sympathy than by their usual whispers about her being a returning student.

They said a mage could never be one hundred percent certain, but I was one hundred percent certain about this.

Trust me.

To be honest, even I found it reassuring to see three of our students in the semifinals. We even had an even spread: one first-year, one second-year, and one third-year.

Laward was facing Hakan, the military academy’s ace, in the semifinals. If he won here, we could end up with an all-academy final.

Our own private celebration on another school’s grounds.

We might turn the military academy into a library.

But no one knew how it would turn out.

Laward was the protagonist of this world, but Hakan might be the protagonist of this year’s Peach Garden Festival. There was still a chance this would become the story of him defeating the academy’s rising stars arrayed around him and reaching the summit once again.

A narrative where Hakan was the hero, and we were the villains.

Rather than unscripted drama, this might have been a script written for that very ending from the start.

I couldn’t relax until it was over.

Soon, Laward and Hakan made their way into the arena in that order.

Around the time Laward, then Hakan, stepped onto the stairs—

BOOM, BOOM!

Drumbeats rolled out from the military academy stands.

Drums and pipes.

“Hakan! Hakan! Hakan!”

The entire student body chanted his name as one.

“Heh heh heh...”

Ximena, too, gazed at her students with satisfaction.

“Urgh.”

It was enough to intimidate the academy students, who didn’t have so much as a recorder, let alone drums.

Even the chairman, who had been beaming all this time, furrowed his brows as he looked around at the military academy students.

“That’s some... cheering.”

“What was that?”

“I said my heart’s pounding!”

The chairman had to shout at the top of his lungs just for his voice to reach my ears.

Even the seminary students who had stayed in the stands were chanting Hakan’s name.

With none of their contestants left, they could have rooted for either side. But Hakan’s opponent was Laward.

Laward, who had beaten Chris—their unquestioned ace—without even drawing his sword.

Laward, who had ensured that the seminary’s best finish at this year’s Peach Garden Festival was the round of sixteen.

Even if the seminary couldn’t produce a champion, they weren’t about to let Laward win.

I could tell just from the way they looked at him.

And Chris was cheering harder than any of them.

He really was... transparent.

I would have kept quiet out of sheer embarrassment.

“Sorry about this.”

Hakan glanced sideways at Laward.

“It seems everyone! Wants yours truly to win!”

“How are you louder than the drums?”

“Laward, was it! With all eyes on me, the perfect battlefield is set! Let’s have a good match!”

“What good does everyone watching you do?”

Slowly, Laward turned his head toward me. At this distance, I couldn’t tell whether our eyes met, but he seemed to be looking for me.

“I only need one person.”

SHING!

Laward drew Holiday and laid the scabbard neatly beside his feet.

“Excellent! Those are the eyes of a man!”

Hakan, by contrast, drew his sword with a delighted expression and tossed his scabbard out of the arena.

“So you’re using your sword. You didn’t against Veronica.”

“You’re not a lady, are you! Sorry, but yours truly is only gentle with ladies!”

“Not even ashamed to flaunt your lust.”

“Hm?”

“Vulgar bastard.”

TICK!

Laward angled his sword and settled into his stance. The movement brought his golden eyes, reflected in the blade, clearly into view.

BOOM!

Laward shot forward with his halos.

This wasn’t like his fight against Chris. With a sword in hand this time, his reach was even longer.

The gleaming blade streaked toward Hakan’s abdomen.

CLANG!

But Hakan deflected it with his own sword as though he had expected it.

“What just happened...?”

An ordinary man like the chairman would have struggled even to follow the attack with his eyes, yet Hakan smoothly redirected it, seemingly turning Laward’s own speed against him.

Just as Hakan gave a nasty grin and shot Laward a conspicuously smarmy look—

CLANK!

One of Laward’s halos changed direction and aimed at Hakan’s face.

Laward had intended from the outset to attack first with his sword, then follow up with a shock wave from his halo.

“Oh.”

Hakan let out a brief sound.

KABOOM!

The reversed halo unleashed a fierce beam of light.

Hakan took a direct hit from a beam of Laward’s condensed S-rank divine power.

And it was just like his match against Veronica.

Moving as though nothing had happened, he kicked Laward in the abdomen to put some distance between them.

“...”

Driven backward by the blow, Laward slowly lowered his head. He stared blankly down at his dirt-stained uniform.

“Ghk...”

Then he coughed up blood.

Hakan hadn’t even been trying to land a finishing blow. He had merely kicked out to keep Laward at bay.

Yet that single blow made him vomit blood.

At the sight, Ximena clenched her fist triumphantly.

“... You seem awfully pleased to see my student coughing up blood.”

“Oh, my apologies.”

She didn’t sound remotely apologetic.

“I understand Hakan’s ability now. It selectively absorbs unique magic. That defense itself is Hakan’s original magic, isn’t it?”

“Hehe, you noticed, just as I expected.”

“Unique magic that renders unique magic ineffective. What a bizarre spell.”

As peculiar as Hakan’s words and behavior.

“The powerful people of this world all have their own unique magic or spirits, don’t they?”

Ximena turned to me as if seeking agreement.

She was mostly right.

In the game, in my previous life, and now, too, those who developed and researched their own magic and fighting styles were the ones granted something special.

All the more so because this world was a game.

They became named characters and bosses because they were different from the copy-and-paste NPCs.

Only when there was at least one different line in their description did they finally earn a name.

Hakan fed on that specialness.

The more special you were, the stronger you were, the smaller you became before Hakan.

Strong against the strong, weak against the weak.

Hakan was a genius with no gravitas.

A vulgar genius.

A genius who devoured geniuses.

“He can’t use that ability against someone without unique magic, but, well. As you can see...”

Ximena pointed at Laward’s mouth.

“When he can produce that kind of strength without it, what can anyone do?”

I certainly hadn’t expected such overwhelming physical superiority.

As I’d told Laward earlier, I had assumed Hakan knew his own weakness and had trained all the harder to compensate.

But Laward had been training every day, too. There should only have been two or three years between them.

Yet Hakan’s physical abilities towered over Laward’s.

I turned on the Scouter and checked Hakan’s stats.

Perhaps because I hadn’t finished all the upgrades yet, I couldn’t see the trait Ximena had described.

But his [Stamina], [Strength], and [Agility] stats were all S.

Use the unique magic you’d developed, and he blocked it. Fight without magic, and he still crushed you.

His body alone was monstrous.

On top of that, though he certainly didn’t look it, even Hakan’s [Intelligence] was S.

I was a little jealous of that.

My boy didn’t have much of a head for studying.

Just then, Laward spat.

“I thought there’d be a lot I could learn from you.”

“Ha ha! Really! I think you and I could be friends!”

“But there’s nothing much to learn.”

“Hm?”

“I think I can catch up in just a year.”

“Hmmm?”

Hakan’s lips stretched into a broad, mocking grin.

“Then why don’t you beat me now?”

“That’s the plan.”

Laward wiped his mouth on his uniform sleeve and gently closed his eyes.

HUMMM!

I could feel divine power gathering in his body.

As I’d said, apart from buff magic, I had only learned the fundamentals. What I had taught Laward this time was one of those fundamentals.

And, as it happened, basic magic that wasn’t unique magic would work on Hakan.

Ximena had spoken as though F-rank magic would only show its limitations against Hakan’s physique, but I disagreed.

A protagonist was different.

[“Mana release... you said?”]

[“Yes. It’s a simple spell that releases the divine power stored inside your body.”]

The very spell I had used in front of Veronica at the magic-tool shop.

[Divine Power Release], a name so simple it was downright humble.

Naturally, it was F-rank.

The sort of spell that would probably be added to your skill window the moment you changed classes on Laward’s paladin route in the game.

A garbage spell you’d discard as soon as you learned anything else.

[“Oh... Wonderful! I can’t wait to learn it!”]

Even so, Laward had clenched both fists and cheered.

Apparently, even learning it was easy for him. He picked up [Divine Power Release] in just fifteen minutes.

But learning something and mastering it were entirely different matters.

With countless A-rank and S-rank spells still waiting to be learned, only a freak would bother mastering the fundamentals.

There was one slight difference from the game, however: mastering magic didn’t require skill points.

When skill points were limited, mastering the fundamentals was a waste of resources.

Here, on the other hand, you needed time rather than skill points.

Time and talent.

And Laward had both.

“I get that you’re a little different.”

He muttered as he looked at Hakan.

“But honestly, I don’t really know how I’m supposed to fight you.”

“Is... that so. I suppose you’re not that type...”

Laward’s blunt admission that thinking wasn’t his strong suit actually left Hakan looking flustered.

“Well, you’ll still bleed if I beat the shit out of you, and die if you bleed enough, right?”

“You’re the one bleeding!”

“True.”

Laward raised a finger stained when he had coughed up blood and inspected it.

Then divine power gathered in that finger.

HUMMM!

Laward dismissed the two halos floating behind his back and concentrated.

Soon, the divine power stored in his body condensed into a single point the size of a fingernail. Just one point.

He slowly raised that finger and pointed at Hakan.

Laward was moving so slowly that Hakan must have realized he was preparing something, but he watched calmly, as though it made no difference.

“... Divine Power Release.”

PEW!

The divine power condensed into that single point flew like a bullet and pierced Hakan’s shoulder.

A thread-thin beam passed straight through his body, then gradually faded away.

“G-gh...?”

“Now you’re bleeding.”

HUMMM!

Laward gathered light in his finger once more.