***
A small voice slipped from between Ronari’s lips as she watched the match come to an end.
“Wow! He won……! Hup…!”
Realizing she had let that out without thinking, Ronari hurriedly covered her mouth.
Then, pretending nothing had happened, she quickly looked around.
Fortunately, no one was looking her way.
And that was because of none other than Ilsea.
Since Ilsea had beaten Lorband down only a few seconds after switching to the offensive, a commotion had erupted in the audience seats.
But what poured down on Ilsea was jeering.
—You cowardly bastard!
—Winning with a cheap trick like that!
Ronari thought as she looked at them.
‘No, in the world of competition, what does it matter if it’s a cheap trick or whatever?’
Besides, from what Ronari could see, Ilsea’s movements had been quite precise.
Just like the other day, when he had tripped Ronari in front of the entrance.
It was as if there wasn’t a single wasted motion.
That must have made it hard for his opponent to react.
Come to think of it, that guy Lorband had seemed to have pretty good results in the ranking matches too… What place was he again?
Ronari fidgeted as she unfolded the tournament bracket she had brought with her.
The rank she confirmed there for Lorband wasn’t merely “fairly high.”
“Seventh place!?”
Ronari ended up shouting again.
“Hup!” She hurriedly covered her mouth once more, but this time the gazes around her were directed her way.
“Ahaha…”
Ronari smoothed over those stares with a laugh and turned her gaze back to the bracket.
He really was seventh in the year.
Seventh out of all 262 second-year students.
By contrast, Ilsea was 131st. Exactly in the middle.
Even if his opponent had let his guard down, was this really a matchup that could be won by luck?
Ronari looked back and forth between Ilsea, who was stepping down from the training platform without much of a reaction, and the bracket.
‘What is with that guy… Is he actually pretty skilled, unexpectedly?’
Ronari narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin.
She did know that Ilsea was a magic swordsman, but…
If things were like this, did it give a little weight to the theory that Ilsea had been training every night instead of committing delinquent acts…?
And for Ronari’s sake, at that…
‘Come to think of it, didn’t it kind of seem like he got angry for me right before the match?’
Madness, of course.
“Pfft. As if I’m an idiot~”
There was no way. Absolutely no way.
What training would that bum of a guy ever do?
‘Good grief, I really have been spouting more nonsense inside my own head lately~’
Whether it was practice or training, he could just do it openly during the day.
What else would there be to do late at night besides bad things?
And even if that guy really did have hidden skills, he still wouldn’t be a match for Ronari.
It wasn’t as if that would be a reason to forgive some punk who went around breaking curfew either.
As if driving away the nonsense filling her head, Ronari fluttered a hand in front of her face like a fan and left the training ground.
“Just try coming in late again. I’ll smash you to pieces! You bum!”
However, over the next few days, Ilsea did not break curfew.
‘What is this.’
Seriously, what was it?
Ronari frowned as she stared at Ilsea’s empty seat.
Even now, he still skipped classes often, but strangely enough, he was keeping curfew.
He came back to the room properly at dinnertime…
He didn’t sneak out of the dormitory at night…
Had there been some kind of change of heart?
Had he decided to escape his delinquent life and become a new person?
“There’s no way…”
Just as she muttered that, the classroom door flew open.
The one who appeared was Ruda, the homeroom professor of the class section Ronari belonged to.
“Sit down, you lot. I have an important announcement.”
Ruda banged on the blackboard to draw their attention.
What Ruda took out of her pocket was a small slip of paper.
The students who guessed what it was groaned.
—Uaaaah.
—What was coming has come.
“That’s right. What was coming has arrived. It’s the results of the pop quiz from last time. I even went out of my way to record your ranks. Wear them proudly on your foreheads.”
—We’d only wear them if they were scores worth being proud of.
—Hahaha.
“Quiet. Come up and take yours when I call your name.”
The students came up one by one and received their report cards from Ruda.
Soon, Ronari was called as well.
“Ronari Sharino.”
“Yes.”
Ronari stood and approached Ruda.
But the report card Ruda handed her was two sheets thick.
“Professor, this is…”
“Shh.”
Ruda grabbed Ronari by the shoulder and whispered quietly.
“Take it to that guy.”
Then she raised her voice again to everyone.
“Congratulations on first place. The rest of you should try studying even half as much as Ronari.”
—Impossible.
—How are we supposed to beat that bookworm?
As Ronari returned to her seat, she looked at the second sheet of the report card.
Another person’s name was written on it.
Naturally, it was Ilsea’s name.
If she looked at the back, she would be able to see his grades too…
Well, there was no need to look. They were obviously a disaster.
The academy was a gathering place for selected students.
It was impossible to take the top scores with ordinary effort.
There was no way a guy who didn’t even attend classes properly would have good grades.
Just then, Ilsea belatedly entered through the back door.
Ronari called him to a halt.
“Hey. You. I’m talking to you, delinquent student Ilsea Alejar.”
“?”
“What were you doing, coming in now? Afternoon classes are almost over.”
Saying that, Ronari strode over to him and handed him the report card.
“Here.”
“What is it?”
“Your report card for the pop quiz. Study harder.”
“Did you look?”
“No. I don’t have to look to know what state your report card is in.”
“I see.”
Ilsea said only that, then shoved the report card into his pocket without even looking at it and went to his seat.
He still has a long, long way to go before he’s reformed.
Ronari shook her head.
***
After school, I was in the academy library.
It was one of the few spaces I liked, along with the practice room in the old lecture building.
Packed bookshelves.
And the faint scent of wood and books.
When I sat among them reading or studying, it felt as though this quiet atmosphere was binding me together firmly.
As expected, libraries were nice. However,
‘…It would be even better if only this one weren’t here.’
“Wow~ It really, horribly doesn’t suit you. Ilsea Alejar studying in the library? It’s like a piece of sham art expressing contradiction and absurdity.”
Bellika had been sitting right beside me for several minutes now, doing nothing but making sarcastic remarks like that.
“Shut up. If you came to the library, then study.”
“Says the guy who doesn’t even attend class?”
“If I want to get back to the dormitory by curfew, I have to finish my work during the day. So I can’t help it.”
“Heeeng~ Is that so? Must be tough, worrying about the lovely Lady Ronari back at the dormitory~”
“Don’t be sarcastic. And I don’t attend because I don’t need to. An idiot like you is guaranteed to fail and repeat the year if you don’t study at times like this.”
“Come on~ I’m not that bad.”
“No, you are that bad…”
“Shut your mouth!”
Bellika bumped her shoulder into me.
She leaned against me like that and thrust her head in close.
“Hehe. There’s something way more fun than class right here, so how could I sit there listening to some boring professor’s voice? That would be disrespectful to fun.”
“I think you’d better start by being respectful to your professors.”
“I don’t want to hear that from a habitual class refuser. Bleh.”
—Grit.
I clenched my molars hard.
This girl, despite being an idiot, had one outstanding talent for getting on people’s nerves.
Suppressing my anger, I said,
“If you’re not going to study, leave.”
“Whose notes are you copying right now?”
I simply pushed the notes I was copying back toward Bellika.
“Damn it, then just take them back.”
“No, I’m not saying you have to give them back~ You’re so inflexible.”
As she said that, Bellika pushed her notes back toward me.
Damn it. If she had been a guy, I would have smacked her.
I found myself resenting the fact that I had to borrow even this girl’s notes.
I decided to focus on writing again.
No matter what attack came my way, I would ignore it all.
“Hehe, look. In the end, it’s your fate to have to copy my notes.”
“…”
“You said you didn’t want to owe me anything before. This counts as a debt too, you know?”
“…”
“And you see, now that it’s come to this, the hierarchy between you and me has been decided. Don’t you dare doubt Lady Bellika’s superiority. Not when you’re just Ilsea.”
“…”
“You’re just a clueless little innocent who gets pushed around by a young lady like Ronari, just a dummy, just Ilsea~”
“I’m really going to hit you.”
At that, Bellika put distance between us at lightning speed.
Then she naturally moved to the seat across from me.
She propped her chin up with both hands and grinned.
“Heheh. You can’t beat me.”
—Grind.
I clenched my molars again.
At this rate, I wouldn’t have any teeth left.
“Then let’s reveal them.”
“Reveal them? Reveal what?”
Bellika blinked and asked.
“Our report cards. You got yours too, didn’t you?”
“Ah~ that thing? Obviously, the moment I received it, I erased it from my memory.”
Bellika gave a thumbs-up and smiled brightly.
It was truly so like her. To an absurd degree.
“Is that something to say proudly?”
“What about you? How well did you do? You reveal yours~ Your report card!”
I took the crumpled report card I had stuffed roughly into my pocket and dropped it onto the desk.
Bellika excitedly picked it up and unfolded it, then soon scrunched up her face as if deeply displeased.
“Ugh… Isn’t this forged?”
Saying that, Bellika spread the report card out in front of me.
[ Class Section Rank: 4 / 43 ]
“As if it would be.”
“Uegh, when you’re just Ilsea… when you don’t even attend classes properly…”
I picked up Bellika’s open notebook, closed it, and waved it in front of her.
“I’m borrowing this.”
“What are you talking about? You’re already borrowing it.”
“I mean I’m taking it with me. I’m going back and studying.”
Saying that, I put the notebook into my bag.
Bellika shot to her feet and slammed the desk.
“Why! You always stayed until the library closed! Where did the Ilsea Alejar full of that grit, perseverance, dreams, and hope go?! You monster! You ate my friend and are pretending to be Ilsea! Receive the strike of justice!”
And I lightly blocked Bellika’s incoming knife-hand chop.
“You’re being so loud in the library that it’s too embarrassing to stay with you.”
“I’ll be quiet now!”
“Too late, man.”
“Uwaaang.”
I gathered my things and stood up.
Bellika kept following me and trying to beat me with her fists, but I didn’t deal with her.
In any case, even if I went back to the room, the person tormenting me would only change from Bellika to Ronari…
Still, if I went in and quietly studied, Ronari would probably stay quiet too.
And if I showed her that I was studying and scored some points with her, maybe in the long term I wouldn’t have to suffer because of her as much.
Mm. Even if I said so myself, it was a perfect plan.
At that moment, Bellika, who had kept following me, said,
“Ah! I just thought of something good!”
Knowing that a “good idea” from her could never possibly be anything normal, I walked even faster.
But in the end, those words left her mouth.
“I can just study with you in your room!”
Overcome with a feeling of despair, I ended up squeezing my eyes shut.