I said, looking at her like I was looking at a bug.
“What the hell kind of bullshit is that?”
“I thought really hard and gave you an answer, and you call it bullshit? That’s so mean! And with that look on your face, like you’re staring at a bug!”
“Maybe that’s because you’re saying things that don’t even make sense.”
“Hmph. But you rejected Plan A, didn’t you? I said I’d switch rooms with her, didn’t I? And you said you didn’t want that, right? Right?”
Bellika puffed out her cheeks in a sulk and thumped me with her fists.
And it actually hurt.
I quietly shifted away from her and sat down.
“…About that.”
“What about that? What?”
I let out another deep sigh.
“I’m already a man with plenty of debts. I don’t want to owe even more to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Exactly what it sounded like.
For various reasons, my reputation at the academy wasn’t particularly good.
Ronari Sharino was merely one result of that problem.
No one had anything to gain by getting close to me, and that went for Bellika too.
Childhood friend or not, the distance between her and me was already excessively close.
There was always the possibility of ridiculous gossip springing up about my relationship with Bellika.
The only reason it hadn’t happened yet was because Bellika had a wide and amicable circle of friends.
But if, in this situation, Bellika suddenly became my roommate in Ronari’s place…
‘…At that point, it absolutely wouldn’t end as mere gossip.’
If that happened, suspicion about my relationship with Bellika would grow out of control.
By then, no one would believe us even if we said we were just friends.
In the end, even the academy wouldn’t be able to stand by, and it would be fatal to Bellika’s reputation as well.
I wanted to avoid that.
Since I couldn’t exactly say all that as it was, I simply made up an excuse.
“And if you became my roommate, you’d be several times more annoying than Ronari.”
“Heh. That’s true.”
I got to my feet.
I had just finished wrapping the bandage around my hand.
“Right. Anyway, I’ll find a way to solve it myself. Asking you in the first place was my mistake.”
As I said that, I handed Bellika two wooden swords.
She caught the swords with a lively motion and spun around once.
“Hmph. So in the end, your heart-pounding cohabitation with Miss Ronari, the beautiful idol of the academy, will continue? Good for you.”
I also gripped the remaining wooden sword and pointed it at Bellika.
“Don’t put it like that.”
“Then how should I put it?”
With that question, Bellika gestured as if to let me make the first move.
“I don’t know. Just watch your choice of words!”
I gladly complied and lightly thrust my sword toward her.
I had a ranking match in the afternoon too, so I had no intention of exhausting myself too much.
***
Before class began, Ronari stopped by the faculty office for a moment.
It was to check the ranking match bracket.
In any case, she too was a student of the academy.
Like all the other students, she had to participate in the ranking matches.
The ranking matches were one of the two criteria that split the academy’s grade evaluations.
One was the regular exams, which evaluated achievement in major classes.
And the other was the ranking matches, which evaluated achievement in practical skills.
As the name implied, a ranking match was a one-on-one duel held with the students’ rankings at stake.
If one’s rank was high, one naturally received good grades, and if one’s performance was poor, one could receive penalty points or, in severe cases, suffer disadvantages to one’s academic standing.
Ronari had at least wondered whether Ilsea’s ranking match results were fairly decent.
After all, despite skipping class like that, she hadn’t heard anything about him receiving penalty points or disadvantages.
‘Ilsea, Ilsea Alezar…’
Before she knew it, Ronari found herself searching for Ilsea’s match information.
She thought she should stop, but she couldn’t keep herself from turning the pages of the bracket.
She also felt like this much was probably fine.
More than anything, she was too curious to bear it.
As his roommate, she had a need to find out what that good-for-nothing was up to.
Soon, Ronari succeeded in finding Ilsea on the bracket.
The match was scheduled for today.
His opponent was…
A moment later, Ronari’s eyes widened.
‘Lorvand… Arni.’
That name was definitely the boy who had gotten into an argument with Ilsea over Ronari yesterday.
At that moment, a strange possibility began to sprout in Ronari’s mind.
Maybe the reason Ilsea had come in late or secretly gone out at night was because of this.
He had been training alone until late at night.
Q. What for?
A. To defeat this insolent guy who had his eye on Ronari!
What a crazy thought.
“Pfft.”
Ronari laughed without realizing it.
Then she put the bracket back where it had been.
Whether Ilsea’s opponent was Lorvand or someone else wasn’t any of Ronari’s business.
It might be fine if Ilsea got utterly crushed this time.
Thanks to that, maybe he’d receive some stimulation and reform himself, wouldn’t he?
From the looks of it, that Lorvand guy seemed to have a fairly high ranking too.
And if that Lorvand guy won and tried to hit on her again, Ronari could just beat him up herself.
Let anyone win.
…That was what she had said, and yet.
‘Why am I still here…’
In the afternoon, after easily wiping the floor with her own ranking match, Ronari was still in the grand training hall.
She had never been particularly interested in watching other matches to begin with.
Her match had been almost the first one too, so it had been over for quite some time already.
‘…For some strange reason, it’s hard to get up.’
Still, since she was already sitting here, maybe she should watch that guy’s match before leaving.
She could watch it once out of loyalty, couldn’t she? Since he was her roommate.
Right. Even if that delinquent Ilsea was a bit hateful, he was still her roommate.
***
-Haaahm.
I yawned wide as I stepped into the large building before me.
At a glance, the building resembled a gymnasium or a large assembly hall, but it was the academy’s grand training hall.
When I opened the door, the inside was absurdly noisy.
The cheers of people supporting someone. And the ringing clash of metal.
On the six training stages in total, students were competing against one another in skill.
What they were participating in was the first ranking match of the semester.
That was the only reason I had come too.
I was basically the sort of person who liked things quiet.
The thing I could understand least was collective ecstasy.
People gathering together in the stands and yelling and all that.
If it weren’t under the pretext of a ranking match, I would have had no reason to come looking for such a noisy place of my own accord.
Just then, the faculty called my name.
-Second year of the main course, Department of Swordsmanship, combined major, Ilsea Alezar. To training stage four.
Dragging my strangely heavy body along, I went up onto the training stage.
Yesterday in the dungeon, I had let my guard down and gotten scraped up here and there, and it seemed the cuts had opened again while I was playing along with Bellika this morning.
…It itches.
Whenever I spar with Bellika, it always ends up like this.
That girl has no restraint.
Even if we say we’ll take it lightly, it always ends up getting intense.
“I really should cut back a bit…”
As I was muttering to myself and scratching, my opponent was soon called.
-Second year of the main course, Department of Swordsmanship, knight major, Lorvand Arni. To training stage four.
Lorvand? It sounded like a name I had heard somewhere.
But I couldn’t remember.
Honestly, it didn’t matter who it was. I was tired.
My ranking match results were in a safe zone for now.
If I rose any higher from here, I might end up drawing attention from outside.
I didn’t want that to interfere with my work.
I was thinking I’d roughly throw the match, go back quickly, and lie down.
Soon, when my opponent climbed onto the training stage, only then did I remember him.
It was that bastard who had talked nonsense yesterday about switching dorm rooms.
As if he recognized me too, he greeted me first.
“Good to see you, friend. We meet again.”
Who’s your friend?
I simply ignored his greeting.
“When a person greets you, you should answer.”
Just like the lowlife he was, he was persistent in strange places.
I spat out whatever came to mind.
“…Fine. Let’s have a good fight.”
At that, he smirked.
“A good fight? You? Against me?”
I had scraped together words I didn’t mean and shown him courtesy, and yet.
It seemed the other party had not the slightest intention of doing the same.
“Friend, do you know what rank I am? Someone like you isn’t fit to even stand against me. Know your place.”
He tapped his own forehead and sneered.
“I’ve thought this since last time, but aren’t you a little lacking up here?”
While he prattled on, I was giving him a rough once-over.
He was armed with a one-handed sword and shield.
As expected of a knight major, it was an orthodox setup.
His mouth was loose, but he seemed to have a decent amount of skill.
Well, if he was going to drag a pack of mutts around with him, he’d at least need the qualifications to play leader.
‘Anyway, hurry up and hit the gong already. Let’s get this over with so I can leave.’
Thinking that, I looked toward where the faculty members were.
Then Lorvand started flapping his mouth again.
“Friend. Want to make a bet with me?”
I said, who the hell is your friend?
“The loser drops out. How about it?”
I wondered what kind of bullshit he was going on about now.
“I just can’t stand seeing some trash like you share a room with Ronari. Just leave the academy, will you?”
I rubbed my brow and asked him back.
“Me?”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t Ronari Sharino be much happier sharing a room with me?”
I could have dismissed it as nonsense and let it pass.
It was true that Ronari found Ilsea unpleasant.
But for some reason, those words irritated me.
“Ronari, Ronari, over and over… Stop bringing up her name. It’s annoying.”
“Ha. What, you’re the same as me.”
What’s the same? Me and a pervert like you?
As the idle talk dragged on, the faculty member overseeing the match gave us a look.
I stepped forward without delay.
Lorvand likewise came to stand opposite me.
He glanced at my empty hands and said,
“Why are you empty-handed? Aren’t you in the Swordsmanship Department too? Were you so scared you forgot your sword?”
Instead of answering, I shoved a hand into my pocket.
What I took out was a short wand.
It was barely a handspan long.
It had a grip shaped like a sword hilt, and at its head, a simple metal ornament was fashioned like the guard of a longsword.
“…A mage?”
At that moment, the faculty member spoke.
-Both sides, take your positions.
Lorvand and I each took our stances at a distance of about five steps.
Though in my case, my stance was nothing more than standing there with the wand held slightly forward.
After a brief silence.
-3…
-2, 1…
And finally, the signal fell.
-Begin!
At the signal, Lorvand charged with his shield in front.
I swung the wand in a short motion.
Then a blade emitting a blue radiance sprang from the tip of the wand.
Mana Saber. A beginner spell that created a blade of magical power.
With that sword, I struck down at the rushing Lorvand.
-Clang!
Having blocked the blade with his shield, he spoke triumphantly.
“Too light, you weak little shit!”
Indeed, it seemed he hadn’t gotten into the academy through some trick; his strength carried quite a bit of pressure.
After pushing me back, he rushed in again.
He attacked irregularly, using not only his sword but even his shield as a weapon.
As I kept retreating several steps under the continued offensive, I was driven almost to the verge of losing by ring-out.
It seemed he intended to finish me with this next strike.
Well, in that case…
I cut off the mana I was supplying to the wand, took half a step back, and twisted my body.
Then the balance of the guy, who had been stupidly focusing all his strength forward, collapsed.
I kicked his exposed abdomen with my knee and, at the same time, struck the back of his head with the wand.
And lastly, I kicked the head of the fallen bastard.
-Crack!
“Guh……!”
I slowly approached, stepped on his neck, and looked down at his face.
The emotion on his face, which had been bewilderment, was gradually turning into fear.
Well, not that I cared about that.
“Guh… ggh…”
Looking at him on the verge of suffocating, I said,
“You don’t have to drop out.”