Lea’s eccentric behavior left not only the students of the social arena bewildered, but even the faculty.
“She is scheming something. But it is an amusing variable. I never imagined she would build her reputation in this way.”
“It’s difficult to tell whether this is resentment at not being chosen, or a strategy to draw attention to herself even now.”
Such were Paranglin and Lotte’s assessments.
Lotte, in particular, added this:
“I hear that aside from what is necessary for class, she is not on friendly terms with any faction… Hm. In any case, when will this student come to offer me the courtesy due a teacher?”
It was a pointed remark about the fact that Lea had not come to present a bribe.
For reference, Lotte had received an oversized bearskin from Ortega, a high-class chessboard from Robian, and a jewel box from Ursel.
As for Shuren, she had not even demanded a bribe from him, saying it was beneath her dignity.
Beyond them, the other unaffiliated students came bringing the bribes they had prepared almost every day, so Lotte’s office was always crowded with people.
“I cannot fathom what she is thinking at all.”
Nerasmun, in her own way, felt as though she were dying.
No, the one who was actually going through that agony was Lea, and that made Nerasmun grow more anxious by the day.
“She keeps using techniques from her Earei days, and every time she does, she bleeds from her eyes, nose, and mouth. I treat her every day, but she refuses to restrain herself, so her body is already in tatters, and she is barely keeping herself breathing by sheer will.”
At the viscountess’s lament, Yurien pressed his fingers to his temple as well.
“Is her will toward death, on the contrary, holding her in this world…?”
“When she returns to the dormitory until she leaves for class, she keeps bandages wrapped tightly around her eyes, and even those bandages are soaked with blood when she wakes. We cannot leave her like this. Your Highness!”
“Have you looked into Virensha’s intentions?”
“I have already asked her several times, but she only answers in riddles.”
“Riddles?”
Nerasmun relayed to Yurien the answer Lea had calmly given her when she had lost her temper and demanded to know why she was doing this.
“Curiosity and strangeness are better than infamy.”
“She is trying to dilute the infamy of Vashport with eccentricity. And not just any eccentricity—she is trying to impress herself upon them through the intuitive field of martial force, where results are unmistakable.”
“But that is also the method that places the greatest burden on her.”
“It is a circular argument, but that is why it is so certain. You would not know because you are teaching classes, but have you by any chance seen Learie Virensha’s swordsmanship in the martial course?”
Of course she had not.
When Nerasmun shook her head, Yurien stroked his chin meaningfully and said,
“That is the swordsmanship Elaion Vashport used. One could call it his own secret art, developed from the Vashport family’s dagger techniques into a formal sword style.”
“Then… surely she cannot be refining a school of swordsmanship against Professor Su…?”
Nerasmun’s face went pale.
Yurien, too, let out a sigh.
The swordsmanship he had seen when, as an unaffiliated party, he attended the martial class together with Robian’s faction was unmistakably Elaion’s.
“I will take measures.”
“Please do. Virensha is no different from a key to us. If she dies a meaningless death, then what did we gather for?”
“I will meet with Professor Su directly, so you should ease your mind as well. It will not take long.”
It was a conversation held on the day that marked exactly one week since Lea had begun attending only martial classes.
That evening, the king’s younger brother, Yurien, visited Professor Meria Su’s office, and the two of them had a meaningful conversation.
--
The next day.
After the rotation came around again, it was once more the day Shuren’s group attended martial class.
The lesson’s content was still resistance against overwhelming disadvantage.
“Scatter!”
However, Shuren’s method of attack had changed.
Previously, they had defended by clustering together like cells in an organization, but this time the men spread out widely to form two lines of resistance, while behind them Shuren and the leadership became the final defensive line protecting the women.
Even so, an unspoken perception had spread among the students that the final line of defense protecting the women was Lea.
“Please don’t overdo it, Lady Lea.”
“Do not worry, Lady Meranko.”
Lea answered Lady Meranko’s concern with a bright smile.
She was still lacking, but Elaion’s Vashport swordsmanship was gradually becoming familiar in her hands.
At the same time, the swordsmanship itself was slowly increasing in perfection.
Lea gripped her wooden sword with both hands and stared straight ahead.
Sure enough, the men of Shuren’s group were flying through the air.
Kwaaaaang!
“Damn it, why isn’t this working!”
They had prepared as thoroughly as they could, but when they were pushed back helplessly, Shuren burst out in frustration.
On the other hand, Lea, who had already crossed blades with her seven times, was tense, but she did not lose her mental composure.
“Young Master! At this rate, the defense line will collapse completely!”
“I know!”
Once again finding himself in a position where he was being toyed with by someone stronger, Shuren’s temper soured.
As he racked his brain for a solution and looked around, Lea, holding a wooden sword, entered his field of vision.
During the time he had joined the Northern Army and lived as a rebel, he had personally experienced the horrors of war.
At the same time, he had learned what pride had to be discarded and what selfishness had to be possessed in order to survive in war.
Shuren roughly seized Lea by the shoulder.
“Why are you behind our defense line?”
“…What do you mean?”
“I’m asking why an unaffiliated bitch like you is inside the formation our faction built.”
“I have a record of nullifying Professor Su’s attack. You can use me as a meaningful card…”
“You only succeeded once, in the very first class. And that was together with Sir Tortmund.”
Shuren was right.
After that, Lea had opposed Meria Su with Vashport swordsmanship, but she had only ever been beaten black and blue.
To make matters worse, Charten, believing that his presence angered Meria, had stopped coming to martial class.
Thanks to that, Meria had begun venting her anger by using Lea as a punching bag.
“You are unnecessary. If you want to curry favor with me, go and challenge Professor Su to single combat.”
“If I’m not here, there will be no one to stop the professor…!”
“How impudent, Vashport.”
Shuren finally grabbed Lea by the collar.
The front of her clothes stretched open, revealing her cleavage.
Lea felt humiliated.
“You wear mourning clothes every day anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you die, does it?”
“If I am not here, the ladies behind us…”
“Aha?”
Seizing on her words, Shuren sneered.
“So you have finally admitted that you are not a lady?”
“You are still doing something so childish…! Think about how to win!”
“This is the answer I came up with.”
Shuren flung Lea by the collar he was holding as though throwing her over his shoulder.
Not having expected him to throw her, she flew helplessly into the middle of the battlefield where Meria was rampaging.
“What is that?”
Meria and the training instructors all stopped moving at once.
Shuren’s group, whom they had been beating down, also paused and looked up at the sky.
“Young Master! What are you doing?! You threw a lady?!”
“I told you, she’s not a lady.”
“Whether she is or not, throwing a woman at the enemy commander is going too far!”
“You saw how that one moves, didn’t you? Her limbs bend in strange ways while she attacks relentlessly. If she’s that skilled, she’ll obviously right herself and face the professor.”
“I-Is that so?”
“I said it is.”
Shuren pointed at Lea, who was still flying through the air.
“She’ll spin around over there, take her stance, and then do a downward strike or thrust at Professor Su.”
However, Lea was flailing her arms and legs in the sensation of floating.
Only after belatedly noticing her blue-white face did Shuren feel a chill of unease.
“Huh?”
If this had been back in her Earei days, things would have gone as Shuren imagined.
But Lea, who had been burning away her lifespan with every attack she made, suddenly being thrown and then taking a stance or launching a counterattack was nothing more than a delusion inside his head.
“……”
Meria Su looked emotionlessly at Lea as she flew toward her.
Everyone was watching her.
She had already lost her wooden sword and was floundering with her arms and legs in the air.
Lea, having reached the highest point in the air, drew a gentle arc as she fell toward the ground.
Her body had no strength, so she could not even keep flailing for long.
Lea fell directly toward Meria.
The martial professor moved one step to the side.
Just one step.
Thwack!
And Lea fell right where she had stepped away from.
There was not even the weight of a heavy thud.
It was simply the dreadful sound of flesh slamming into something.
Lea landed shoulder-first.
Blood flowing from her nose, she barely turned onto her side.
The arm that had been crushed lay still, while the rest of her body twitched intermittently.
“Tsk.”
Meria clicked her tongue.
“I was going to warn you anyway, but I was too late.”
Meria planted her halberd in the ground and stood it upright.
Instead, she picked up a wooden sword.
“I had intended to discipline you severely for daring to hone your swordsmanship against me, but the matter has already come to pass.”
She bent at the waist and checked Lea’s pupils.
She was still alive.
“Do not feel wronged. Were you not the one who showed off without any consultation? In the end, this is the fate of an outsider.”
She took a pill from her pocket and placed it in Lea’s mouth.
It was a special pill of the Su family, mixed with fairy blood.
“If by any chance this body’s beloved disciple Charten comes to visit you in your sickbed, tell him to come see me. Tell him this body is at her limit, so heartsick she could die.”
If Lea had attacked her in a normal state as usual, she had intended to beat her half to death, but with her in such a state, even though Meria hated Lea, she felt at least a little pity.
“Learie Vashport. Until I give permission, you are forbidden from participating in martial class. Heal your body first before you move.”
When she gestured with her chin to the training instructors, all of them came over, supported Lea, and took her to the infirmary.
Only Shuren’s group and Meria Su remained in the training yard.
Meria slowly raised the wooden sword and pointed it at Shuren.
“I have lived for roughly a hundred and fifty years and seen all sorts of human beings, but this is the first time I have seen trash like you.”
A storm erupted.
With hatred for trash in her heart, Meria carried out a merciless beating upon Shuren.
That day, Shuren came to lie in the bed opposite Lea’s.