“My lady.”
Rin Edinburgh was what people commonly called a noble young lady.
An elite among elites, taught scholarship and etiquette from a young age.
“My lady.”
Because of that, to be honest, when the admission letter from Academia arrived, she had accepted it with a confident smile.
The idea of a noble like herself receiving an education alongside commoners was unfamiliar, but the honor of attending the finest educational institution in the Empire was not something easily obtained.
How many nobles had vanished after His Majesty the Emperor founded the Empire?
Rin Edinburgh, who had studied history, knew that fact well.
Before humanity was unified, anyone with a fair amount of power went around calling themselves nobles.
If they had even a little influence in a region, they called themselves the master of some county or the lord of some viscounty, styling themselves as counts or viscounts according to the size of the territory they ruled.
To people of the present day, it was truly a crude way of dividing ranks.
Whether one was a viscount or a count ought to be determined not by the size of the land one ruled, but by Imperial Law.
Among His Majesty the Emperor’s many achievements, was it not only the families written into Imperial Law—regarded as the most brilliant of them all—that could be called true nobles?
Just like her own family, the Viscount House of Edinburgh.
“My lady!”
“...Yes?”
But the pride Rin Edinburgh had carried had now been shattered to pieces.
“You were suddenly staring blankly at the ceiling, so I took the liberty of calling out loudly. My apologies, my lady.”
“N-no, it’s all right, Sir Sham Zabil.”
“...Is that so.”
Rin Edinburgh spoke to Sham Zabil, who was looking at her with worried eyes, and to Flu, who was likewise watching her quietly with anxious eyes, gauging her mood.
“I’m sorry for worrying you. It’s just that the class earlier was so difficult...”
“Was the reason you were dazed because of Professor Lagrit’s class earlier?”
“...Yes.”
Rin Edinburgh carefully rubbed her stiff neck, which had grown sore from staring at the ceiling for a while, and nodded.
“Since I was young, when I received lessons from the various tutors my family hired, I grew up hearing that I was clever and intelligent. So I thought the education at Academia would be carried out at a similar level...”
“I did not understand a single thing.”
“I-it was difficult, my lady.”
“Yes.”
Sham Zabil and Flu nodded in agreement with Rin Edinburgh’s words.
As if to say that she was not the only one who had failed to understand the contents of the lesson.
“...Are only the classes in the Faculty of Mysticism—among them, only the classes in the Department of Spellcraft—conducted this way? Or are classes in other departments and faculties the same?”
“I do not know in detail, but from what I overheard yesterday, they say the Faculty of Combat’s lectures are not given in such difficult terms. I was fortunate enough to overhear the chatter of second-year students from the Faculty of Combat.”
“I-I also overheard some second-year seniors from the Department of Theology talking... and that side seems similar to us. But they said it gradually becomes more difficult from the beginning, step by step. It doesn’t seem like they listen to classes like ours from the very start.”
“Fortunately, it seems only the Department of Spellcraft’s classes are difficult.”
Haa.
Even though there were people watching her, Rin Edinburgh could not hide it and let out a small sigh.
Originally, such behavior was something one should not do according to noble etiquette, but with a considerable portion of her mental strength already worn away, she could not bear to hold it in and had no choice but to sigh.
“If we could meet even the seniors of our Faculty of Mysticism, we could ask them. None of you have met any seniors from our faculty either, have you?”
“That is correct. I often encounter second- and third-year students from other faculties while walking, but strangely, I could not find even a trace of the upperclassmen from the Faculty of Mysticism.”
“...Th-they were like beings from rumors. I couldn’t find even a single hair.”
“Truly, nothing in this place goes the way I expected. Including that man.”
Rin Edinburgh did not refer to that man by name, but the three people here knew who she meant without her having to say it.
There was only one person whom Rin Edinburgh, who cared about noble etiquette, would speak of so harshly.
As Rin Edinburgh began to sink into thought for a different reason this time, Flu, who had been quietly watching her, turned her head to the side and opened her mouth toward Sham Zabil.
“Um, Sir Sham Zabil.”
“What is it?”
“D-didn’t you say you would have a match with Sir Jin Prah after the afternoon classes ended?”
“Yes. And it is not a match, but a duel. He and I are going to exercise our martial strength with an apology for his rudeness to my lady at stake, so it is different from some vulgar match.”
“I-I see.”
At Sham Zabil’s words, Flu did not know what the difference was, but for now she put on an expression of understanding and nodded.
Then, watching his reaction, she opened and closed her mouth, looking at him with an expression that made it obvious she had something to say.
“...If you have something to say, you may speak freely. Are you not someone who, like me, has chosen to serve my lady?”
“Y-yes. It’s nothing else, I was just wondering how confident you are in your duel with Sir Jin Prah. Ah! Um. It’s not that I don’t trust your skill, Sir Sham Zabil, I’m just, just worried...”
“You need not drag out your words like that. I do not think what you said is particularly rude. I have yet to show you my skill, so such concern is only natural.”
“Y-yes.”
“Hmm. How confident am I in the duel, you ask.”
Contrary to Flu’s expectation that he would declare he would win, Sham Zabil closed his mouth and pondered with a serious expression.
At his reaction, Rin Edinburgh, who had been lost in thought, also turned her gaze and asked Sham Zabil, who was deep in contemplation.
“Are you not confident, Sir Sham Zabil?”
“...It is not that I lack confidence. I have confidence in the skill I have built up. However, since I cannot gauge Sir Jin Prah’s ability, I was thinking carefully.”
“You cannot gauge that man’s ability?”
“That is correct.”
Sham Zabil spoke with a serious expression to the two women looking at him in puzzlement.
“When I imagined the body beneath Sir Jin Prah’s uniform, despite his thin-looking appearance, it must be packed with muscle inside. When he walks or moves his body, he carries out motions with a strength unlike that of a skinny person with no muscle.”
Unlike bookish nobles who only read and do no work, traces of training in how to move his body lethally were visible in his actions. After giving his impression of Jin Prah, Sham Zabil continued explaining.
“However, he seemed to have been away from training for quite some time. Judging from the state of the calluses on his hands—that is, from the way the calluses had fallen off and new skin had grown—I would say he has not held a sword for at least six months.”
“Th-then wouldn’t that make you more advantageous, Sir Sham Zabil? You have continued training steadily all this time.”
Flu asked that while thinking of Sham Zabil swinging his sword in the open space of the Twilight Hall from early morning.
She did not know Jin Prah’s skill, but if someone who had stopped training faced someone who had continued to train steadily, would the latter not be at an advantage?
She did not know much about swordsmanship, but was that not true for most things in the world?
However.
“...I cannot say that for certain.”
“Yes?”
At Flu’s question, Sham Zabil shook his head with a cautious attitude.
“If we speak of training in recent years, I have likely trained more diligently than Sir Jin Prah. But if we look at our entire lives?”
“Your entire lives?”
“Yes. I also began training as a knight at a younger age than most, but I did not grow up all that comfortably, so until I was ten, instead of entering full-fledged training, I lived helping with household chores. Before that, I could only do occasional physical training.”
With that, Sham Zabil explained that Jin Prah’s family, the Count House of Prah, was a rare orthodox knight family that had existed since before the Empire was founded, and said that Jin had likely begun training at a younger age than himself.
“...At minimum, he probably started training two years before me; broadly speaking, perhaps even four years earlier. Is he not the direct heir of a knight family? Surely he has trained steadily for a long time with the training methods passed down in his family.”
“Then do you think you cannot win?”
“...That remains unknown, my lady. If only I could see Sir Jin Prah fighting, I would be able to gauge his skill, but with his personality, he is extremely unlikely to swing his fists at others.”
Sham Zabil closed his mouth with a regretful expression.
At the very least, if he could see how Jin moved when facing a person, he would be able to gauge the difference in their skill, but given Jin’s easygoing personality, witnessing him fight someone would be truly difficult.
***
“Oh, good movement.”
Hwalyeong caught the fist I had thrust toward her face in her palm and gave a fierce smile.
“Is this your answer? If so, I shall confirm that skill of yours, Jin Prah. The weak have no right to refuse the questions of the strong, so prove that you are not weak.”
The moment Hwalyeong said those words, she released my hand and swung her leg at high speed to kick me.
Whoosh!
I twisted my body by a hair’s breadth, avoiding her leg as it moved cleanly from left to right.
Then, still in that dodging posture, I lowered my body and counterattacked by driving my fist upward.
Fwoom!
I thought it had been a fairly sharp counterattack, but Hwalyeong lightly avoided my uppercut and grinned.
“Good. As expected, when conversation fails, there is nothing like a spar.”
Smiling like that, she looked down at me with a purr, as if she found the current situation quite satisfying.
And I looked up at her with an expressionless face.
With Isil watching us anxiously, Hwalyeong and I clashed fists once more.
Thwack!