66 Mable's Protector

"Jin!"

"It's impossible! How did he hit!"

The group of challengers refused to believe that Jin had really been hit. All of them were shouting questions and their disbelief was shared across most of the seating areas.

Even himself had a hard time believing that even though he had attacked the shield on purpose, he still broke the arm of the poor guy. That wasn't what he had meant to do at all.

Exclamations kept fusing from all sides.

"Emp! How did you do that!"

"What was that?"

"What a great hit!!"

Only on Emp's side people were cheering. Opposite to them, a tiny girl with huge furry ears jumped from her seat and screamed "Master!" with all the strength her small voice could muster. She was obviously a cursed-blood and had been sitting at the very edge of the bench with the other few cursed servants present, removed from the students and even the human slaves.

The girl seemed genuinely concerned for Jin who Emp assumed was her master. The other servants around brought her back down on the bench to stop her from gathering attention.

Emp didn't want to worry her too much so he had to send Jin back to her quick. But, wasn't he in the gang that hated him because he carried Celtine on his shoulder? How come a cursed-blood enslaved to him was so concerned for his well-being?

Jin was currently writhing in pain on the ground, clutching his arm with clenched teeth.

"Emp wins again, healers, go do your job quick."

While the healers were rushing up to them Emp ignored the words of everyone around them and crouched next to him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you so hard, you were just too fast for me to do otherwise."

He only managed a groan as an answer.

"You could have won that fight easy with your speed, why didn't you?"

No answer still.

"The girl up there is really worried about you, she cares a lot."

That stirred a reaction, despite the pain, a smile crept up his face. He painstakingly replied.

"Mice- are cute... Aren't they?"

So this was some sort of mouse girl? A mouse girl loving a freakishly fast man. It wasn't the first time he was told that mice are cute.

"Mice are known to be fast too I heard."

The eyes of Jin locked onto Emp's pupils.

"Knew it. My dad- couldn't win- no way I could."

Each word was hard to utter through the pain of his broken arm. This wasn't really the place to talk was it? Still...

"I do not understand what's in your heads."

"Hard to keep face. No choice."

The healers arrived at their side and pushed Emp a few step back to surround the injured. It seemed that their talk had come to an end.

"Fix the arm of my friend with magic, I'll pay the fee if I have to, just make it quick." Emp told the healers.

"Got it." They replied while dragging Jin away and feeding him some potion.

No one heard their small exchange because of how loud everyone else was being. Emp saw the mouse girl run off sneakily from the benches in order to meet up with her master a bit further. Her long tail held straight up by her worries.

Emp was certain that Jin Josephal was his full name, he was obviously related to the mouse, not the girl but the man who fought him in the streets soon after he came to this city.

Were Jin and his father really only pretending to hate cursed-bloods? But baron Josephal the mouse fought so hard against him and seemed to really want to punish him and Celtine.

On the other hand, Emp had never understood why he had not just fought them the first time they came across and just threw them a bunch of nonsensical threats instead. Was he just trying to let them escape from his weird masquerade?

He still didn't understand what was the cause of this but at least he knew that Jin cared for the mouse-girl just as much as she cared for him. That was enough for him to roughly understand that Jin wasn't a bad guy.

While he was wondering about all that, the teacher spoke again.

"Emp, are you listening at all? I just told you to not hit that hard! Seriously. *sigh* Anyway, you're bad a retreating, we'll work on that. Also, stop relying so much on your armor. I know it's tempting but you never know when something will manage to go through."

Emp nodded to tell him he understood. It was true that he had won only by hoping his armor would hold this time. He needed some tricks to deal with speed it seemed, this was the main thing he learned here.

"Does anyone else want a go against him?" The teacher followed.

The guys on the other side were still trying to figure out what they had just witnessed, was it magic? They would never guess how he had managed to reach Jin with his hammer.

While they decided on what they wanted to do next, Emp retreated to the bench section claimed by group C. Ivar was the first to talk when he got there.

"Emp, that was great, I really thought you'd lose for a second there but you pulled it off in the end."

"It's not over though, they clearly haven't given up yet and from what they said, that guy wasn't their best." Brenia added.

"As long as they aren't as fast, I don't think I'll get in real trouble again."

"Hehe, that's great. Still, what was that move? The one you just used to end the fight." Asked Oliver.

"I just did the same I do when I use a bow. The thing Celtine helped me with."

"Now that I know you can do that, you won't take me by surprise with it later."

Brenia gave him a grin to accompany her words, she was convinced she would win. It was true that he was more interested in his fight with Brenia than he was in his fight with the guys on the other side. He wished they would just give up already, this whole thing wasn't worth the trouble for either him or them.

The guys on the other side finally made their decision and their strongest stepped forward.

"I'll do it, I'm the next one to challenge him."

If Emp had heard correctly earlier, his name was Noirantel. He wore a silver lined plate armor and a helm. On the benches behind them, a bunch of girls supported their classmate.

"Yeah! You're done for now you savage!"

"Noirantel can't possibly lose!"

"Show him what's what!"

Emp walked back to the center too, happy to hear his own group encourage him.

"You can do it Emp!"

"Be careful, that guy is probably way older than you too."

"It's for the whole class so you can't lose!"

The two guys walked to their respecting starting points and readied their weapons. Noirantel brought up a large sword he held up with two hands. The blade was straight and long, almost equaling the reach of Jin's spear. He held it firmly in front of him at the vertical.

"Are you both ready?" The teacher asked.

"Yes." They both said.

"Then go!"

Emp expected him to charge forward once the spar started but instead, he chose to stand his ground and wait for him to move. He probably felt it was pointless to rush forward if he could just instantly close the distance, just like Jin.

Emp had no desire to stretch the fight unnecessarily but the last time he stepped up to his opponent, Jin had managed to dodge it easily. According to those on the other side, that man was stronger than Jin. Then, he must have had a special trick to beat his speed. What was the trick though? Would it work on him too?

By letting Jin fight him before this, he had gained the advantage of knowing what Emp could do while still keeping all his abilities hidden. Emp didn't have that many tricks to begin with so they where all exposed already.

Noirantel, must be feeling confident that he wouldn't be surprised by his opponent moves and he would be right to do so.

Emp on the other hand, had no idea what the man in front of him could or could not do. How could he probe his abilities?

Since he seemed confident in his ability to stop his initial charge, there was no point in doing it at all. Emp chose to instead step up to half the distance between them to see how he would react.

Noirantel predicted the step and swung his sword the moment Emp's feet left the ground but since he didn't go all the way to him, the blade only sliced empty air in front of him.

Was this the only thing he planned to do to counter his advance? Emp was tempted to step in after the sword passed but he feared the guy would bring it back the other way around.

Instead, he stepped past Noirantel and attempted to hit him with an horizontal smash as he turned around to face him again.

When he disappeared from his view, Noirantel decided to continue his swing all the way to his back and his sword barely intercepted Emp's hammer in time.

The two weapon loudly clashed against each other and the sword was bounced away by the strength and weight behind the hammer. It did not give victory to Emp however as the instant the weapons hit each other was enough for Noirantel to dodge the attack entirely.

He recovered quickly and sent another attack immediately. The hammer clashed with the sword again and the story repeated itself. After those first few exchanges, the fight evolved into something that forced Emp to use everything he knew about swords techniques and the many combat rules Heinrich taught them.

If nothing else, Noirantel knew how to use his sword very effectively. He might not have been as strong as Emp or as fast as Jin but after that first simple strike, each and every move became a cunning trick or an elegant counter.

The only reason Emp wasn't instantly defeated was that he was strong enough to withstand the assault and bat the sword away with his hammer. He had the advantage of a greater stamina and muscular strength but he was denied their use for anything else other than defense.

A swing came from the right, he deviated it away from his chest. Then, a return attack from the left, he hit it with the hammer head, curved it upwards and countered.

A step back to dodge followed by a lunge forwards.

A clash from above to pin the sword into the ground. The blade slipped to the left and went for his leg. He stepped up to use the hammer's haft as a shield and swung it from the ground into his knees, the hammer got pushed to the right by the cross guard.

The crowd around them was throwing loud encouragements to either of them the whole time. Sometimes they were impressed at how Emp could keep up and sometimes they were awed by Noirantel's technique. After the first few strikes, Emp had not managed to bounce his sword away as cleanly as he did the first time, it was always slipping away towards him.

From up close, Emp was unable to see any opening and he felt distracted by how Noirantel kept mumbling. He would never cease to talk but it was all barely audible nonsense. After a while, he finally understood that it was some sort of spell but since his knowledge in magic was vastly inferior to Noirantel's, he couldn't figure out what it was that the spell was doing.

He couldn't see any obvious effect, he couldn't see material sacrifice or catalyst, there were no apparent gestures and he didn't recognize any of the words. He couldn't even figure out when he had started casting the spell or what sort of element it was appealing to.

Was it a continuous thing or was it just very long to cast? There was no way to know. How frustrating.

"Emp, finish him already, what are you waiting for!"

Mable was impatient and wanted him to win already but he just couldn't find out how. Neither of them felt tired at all but neither could break past the other's defense.

"He should give up already! There's no way he can break past the deep river style."

What was the deep river style? Was it the spell Noirantel was sustaining? It was likely that the other boy was right. Without knowing what it was, his chance of breaking it were slim. It would all be down to luck and endurance.

The best he could do was pay attention to the feet and hands of Noirantel. After all, he had called this a style. Weren't combat styles all about movements? If this was all a single incredible technique, there must be a way to link together all those movements and strikes into something coherent. There should be a pattern somewhere in there.

He shut off any external sounds from disturbing him, he made a small world only containing him and Noirantel. He continued to exchange blows with him again and again. He watched his movements ever more intently.

His opponent did his best to defeat Emp, feinting even his feints themselves and slipping his blade all around in order to score a hit. Emp did not let himself be defeated easily, with how much his strength had improved, he could wield the heavy hammer as if it was a stick, brushing off every attacks the moments they were about to hit.

Noirantel was simply not fast enough to hit him and Emp was too smart on things related to a fight to get outplayed. Still, Noirantel's technique was just too much and he seemed to literally flow around each strikes Emp attempted, using them instead to his own advantage.

There was no room to use the trick he had used against Jin either. Here it seemed, in that small world of hammer and sword, only pure skill would choose the winner.

Clash after clash, his eyes darted all over the man in front of him, trying to figure out what was happening. He was starting to feel heated, his armor was stuffy, his muscles were fine but he felt like a fire was spreading through him none the less. The other must be feeling the same way.

The more the fight dragged on, the more the two would feel exhausted afterward. Neither had expected this spar to last for so long. Instants felt like hours, both exerting themselves to overcome their opponent.

Finally, Emp saw it. His sword bent itself around the hammer. His sword was acting like water! It was so subtle that Emp could barely see it even after focusing on the impact point between their two weapons.

Every time they would hit each other, the sword would make way for the hammer and absorb the shock into almost nothing. This was why his sword wasn't flying away every time he smashed it aside. The man could just ignore all of his blows. That was the link with water, the movement of his body suddenly made much more sense as well. He just twisted and flowed around the stiff arcs made by his hammer. Aided by the spell, he could maybe even see the path of the hammer in advance, slow it down and absorb part of its strength with the long sword and then bend his body around the path the hammer would take well before it could connect.

What an impressive ability! Even when attacking, the steel would just give way in front of the hammer like a river against a boulder before reforming on the other side of it. It would always give just enough resistance to make him feel the hit connect through the hammer. This was brilliant, he was very impressed. He wished he knew a similar form of combat.

This all meant that none of his attacks up to now had any effects on him, he didn't even need to spend energy in really blocking them. He only pretended to.

Now that he knew that, he had to find a way to turn it all around. The first thing that came to his mind was to hit harder. Up until now, most of the power behind his attacks were negated but if he hit hard enough, would his trick manage to take all of it away? Then, he remembered that he was just in a spar. If he put all his strength in an attack and managed to hit Noirantel, the results could be bad.

Then, what was the best way to achieve victory? Feints didn't work, strength wasn't a real option and the guy would not tire anytime soon because of how the spell absorbed his blows. If only he was able to do those crazy things Jaska showed him the day before, he would be able to strike from all sides at once.

What he needed to do was something so unexpected and outlandish that it would never cross the mind of Noirantel even with the help of the spell.

He tried his luck with a feint followed by him pushing the blade away and attempting a kick but his waist and armor just bent around his foot and he almost got hit in return. This wasn't the way to go.

He jumped to the side to avoid the blade coming back, crouched under it, protected his face from the knee of his opponent with his hammer and wracked his brain for a new idea.

As a consequence of him thinking about Jaska, he was reminded of the spell he was practicing, hold together solid. Could it be used to hold the blade of Noirantel in a state solid enough for him to really hit it away from him? Would it even work through the other spell? Was steel part of the earth element? It came from there too after all.

He felt it was worth a try. He wasn't confident in his ability to hold the spell at all but if the blade became truly solid for even an instant, he would be able to strike it heavily. If he put a lot of strength in the hammer and Noirantel expected it to bend like always, he would maybe lose his grip on it because of the unexpected shock.

Emp changed his grip over the hammer to hold it using only his right hand and fetched the small rock in his left. Solidify was the only spell he knew and he practiced it a whole lot. Casting it in the middle of a fight wasn't that much harder. All he had to do was focus on the enemy blade instead of a bit of dirt. Since he was already wholly focused on it so that he would not get cut, it was pretty easy.

He recited the words he knew by heart holding the rock towards the blade while he swung the hammer from left to right. The air groaned in front of the hammer and Noirantel prepared his blade to parry it like every other time he attacked.

This time however, the sound of steel rang louder than ever.

It worked!

The spell had activated just before they got in contact. The blade slipped out of his fingers turning both of his thumbs backwards.

His body dodged the hammer just as a groan of pain and surprise disrupted the spell and the blade bounced against his shoulder hard before spinning away and falling in the dirt a few feet at their sides.

It was now awkwardly bent, it had not liked the dual spells cast on it and the following shock apparently.

Noirantel had been disarmed, the fight was over.

Heinrich didn't have the time to declare the victor before Mable exploded in joy.

"Emp won again! Take that you bunch of villain! My champion's the best!"

She held the hand of both Celtine and Aglaya and raised them both above her head in a victory pose. A smug victory smile on her face.

The rest of group C clamored and clapped to celebrate the victory of their group over the other one. Those were all meaningless spars but they felt a sense of superiority none the less.

Those on the opposing benches were speechless, they couldn't believe their best hope had been defeated.

Noirantel was more than a little surprised about how the fight had ended as well.

"How!"

"Earth spell solidify." Emp answered simply.

The guy attempted to remove his helmet to show his sweating face but had a hard time of it because of how numb his thumbs felt.

Finally, he got rid of it and scowled at Emp pointing a resentful finger at him.

"If it had been a true fight, I would have skewered you ten thousand times before you figured out the deep river style!"

"If it had been a true fight, I would have won in that first strike because I wouldn't have held back."

"Ah! You're dreaming on your feet if you believe that!"

"Boo, what a sore loser!" Called Mable.

"And you, what a sore winner! Can't you stop insulting us for a second?"

"Why? You were the ones looking for trouble, I don't have to be considerate for you!"

"Mable, that's enough, you're just bullying them now." Aglaya told her before forcing her to sit back down.

She crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks to express her discontent but otherwise stayed silent after that.

Heinrich chose that moment to step in.

"Alright, Noirantel, obviously, you lost. You did pretty well and your form was as good as ever but you made two obvious mistake. First of all, when Emp started casting a spell, you should have backed off if you didn't know what he was trying to do. Instead, you blindly believed in your deep river style and continued on as if nothing was happening. It is very strong but nothing is unbeatable and like you just saw, betting everything on it could end your life on a battlefield.

The other thing is much worse. That attack should not have knocked your sword out of your hand, you were overconfident and relaxed your grip on it in the middle of a fight. That is unacceptable. Once you enter combat, never loosen your fingers from your weapon until the victory has been achieved.

Never, under any circumstances should you let go of your weapon so easily. Even if everything seems to go swimmingly, a turnaround is always possible.

Now you Emp. Great job too. This time you didn't injure your opponent, you didn't rely on your armor and still kept things under control until you found your opponent weakness. Overall, it was a great improvement.

I still believe your technique isn't up to my standards yet so I will have you work on that. In addition, you need a real hammer style rather than just using your high reflexes to stay in control. If you plan to keep using hammers, I will find you a specialist soon and you'll follow lessons with him on top of the fencing lessons."

That would probably be very helpful to him. He really liked the weight behind the hammers and used them a lot.

Noirantel shot him and Mable and heinous look, snatched his weapon and started leaving. Not merely the sparring space but the field itself.

"We lost I'm leaving."

Everyone from his group seemed unhappy and obviously dissatisfied but there was nothing else they could do. They all rose from their seats, intent on following him away. Unfortunately for them, Mable called them back.

"Hey wait up!"

Most turned around to look her way as she exposed her thoughts.

"You all told me I would regret it if Emp lost but he's the one who won in the end, shouldn't we be getting something in return?"

That seemed a bit excessive to Emp but Aglaya agreed with her.

"Mable is right. You can't just threaten her and then leave as if nothing happened. That is both disrespectful and unfair for us."

Those guys seemed so angry hearing this that Emp thought they would change their minds and all assault him together. They managed to keep their calm and Noirantel had no choice but to walk up to them to talk.

Emp followed after him and only the clanking of their armors was heard as they made their way to the bottom of the benches. Because of where Mable and Aglaya were sitting, Noirantel had no choice but to look up to meet her eyes even though she was much smaller than him. Did Aglaya plan this from the beginning? He seemed to find this very annoying as well.

Meanwhile, on the side, the teacher seemed to find this whole thing tedious and uninteresting. All of those nonsensical arguments were just stealing time from his class and that was very inappropriate in his viewpoint. However, he still felt it was better to let them reach some form of conclusion so that he wouldn't have to endure another thing like this for a while. He liked spars but they were usually done to practice with companions, not challenge a rival.

"What do you want?"

Noirantel went straight to the point which was convenient since Mable was a very direct person.

"I want you guys to promise you won't bother us again and offer us a strawberry cake as an apology."

The reactions to her words were mixed but mostly consisted of incredulity.

"You want a cake?"

"Yes, a strawberry flavored one."

Noirantel didn't know what he should think about this. What sort of nonsensical demand was this!

He could only sigh and give her his word.

"Fine, I promise in the name of my group that we won't bother group C and I'll have a cake sent to you later."

"A strawberry one, this is important."

"Yes, a strawberry one."

"Great, you can leave now."

The guy frowned at how he was dismissed like a lowly commoner but left anyway, holding his annoyance to himself.

"Shouldn't you have asked for something more worthwhile? They were completely defeated after all." Asked Juniper.

"If it had been me, I would have forced them to apologize in front of everyone one by one and offer me some valuable compensation." Heida added in.

Mable was about to defend her choice of demands but Aglaya came to her rescue before she could.

"Isn't that a good thing? If she had asked for too much, they would have been even more angry at us. Asking for something as simple as a cake is much better than being unreasonable."

Emp felt that a cake was already unreasonable for most common people but he decided to keep his thoughts for himself. In the end, it was still better than to ask for some valuable.

"That's right, it's exactly for that! It's not at all because I really wanted some cake. Nothing to do with that." Mable affirmed with a few nods and a proud stance.

The rest smiled knowingly at how she betrayed her true intentions through her words. She really was just interested in the cake after all.

"That's why you'll share it with everyone right?"

"Ehhh?"

Gytha gave her a mischievous smile and Mable could only lower her head in defeat.

"Mhhh, I should have specified it needed to be a large cake."

While everyone was laughing, Aglaya told her what she needed to do next.

"Now, you need to reward Emp."

"Eh? I thought a piece of the cake was enough."

"Yeah, I don't really need a reward or anything." Emp agreed with her.

"Nono, that won't do. Mable, Emp fought in your name as your champion, he needs to be rewarded properly for his hard work."

Mable had not expected that turn of event so she was put in a hard spot by her friend.

"But, I didn't think about this before, I have nothing to give him."

Aglaya made a show of seriously thinking about it but Emp felt she probably already knew all of this would happen. Even Mable told him beforehand that she was planning something.

She kept her legs crossed and had a finger pensively tapping her shin until she finally "found" a suitable answer.

"How about you hire him then? Make him your personal guard so that his title of champion becomes permanent."

Was that really a reward? What was her intention behind this? Emp was just confused.

Mable felt the same and her face just showed skepticism.

"I don't understand. How could work be a reward?"

The others were all frowning too, nobody had any clue of what she was going for.

"But it is a reward, it's all about the title of protector. A personal guard that also happens to be the champion of the one he or she's protecting has the title of lord protector. The higher the status of the person they are protecting is, the higher the renown and prestige they gain. Not only that but as a guard, he would get paid to just stand around with us. Everyone gets to continue to act as normal but he gets a title and some money for at least until we all leave this school. Even a prince would find the title of protector attractive if he was in charge of a member of the imperial family for example."

Mable's face lit up.

"Ehhhh? Is that true? All I have to do is hire him?"

"Yes, that's all. I think it's actually the best thing you can give him for is trouble too."

"So that guy would now be Emp, lord protector of Mable? I can't even say he doesn't deserve it, I don't think anyone from the other groups could beat him. Aside from those in this group, he's probably unbeatable, it's the perfect guard for our time in the school."

All of that sounded like a compliment but Gervaise seemed really annoyed as she said all that. Nessa on the other hand, giggled happily and gave a positive opinion instead.

"That's so clever Aglaya, I see where you are going with all this now. I think it's great."

Emp still couldn't find what her overall goal was but apparently, Nessa found it obvious.

Mable seemed convinced by their words. She turned her head back towards him with a smile showing she was having fun.

"Yeah, alright then Emp, be my guard protector thing please."

What should he do? That seemed a bit more complicated than what was said and he had no idea what Aglaya really wanted. He would ask for Celtine's opinion but she was stuck at Mable's side, unable to write him some counsel. He had thought they had brought her there to be friendly but was she just up there to stop her from giving him an advice?

He looked at the faces of the others instead.

Most of the guys were giving him the look of "don't do it."

"It's too bothersome, find a way out!" Kenneth whispered in a barely audible voice.

Was it really that bothersome? All he had to do was to keep her from getting injured by someone else no? He could hardly see how such a thing could happen inside the school. Nobody really disliked her either aside from the earlier group. This seemed like the easiest thing to do. Since the other guys all felt it was a bad idea however, they must have known something he didn't. He should be cautious.

"I don't really need the money though."

"Oh? So you would do it for free too? How gallant of you! But sorry, we cannot accept this, you must be paid for your help." Aglaya answered instantly.

What a way to turn his words around. Should he insist? If he hesitated for much longer he felt he would disappoint Mable. She seemed super happy about the idea too. He didn't want to make her sad. Refusing to get rewarded would be rude too would it not? He felt he heard such a thing from madam Blackbull at some point.

He looked again towards the other guys and all their faces were the very picture of resignation. In contrast, most of the girls showed knowing smiles. What was happening really?

Celtine was just making a frown and he wasn't sure if it meant she was against the idea or just thinking about what Aglaya really meant to do so it wasn't helping his decision either.

In the end, he didn't really have a choice did he?

"Then I guess I will have to accept."

The smiles on the girls faces deepened as if they were spiders looking at a fly that fell for their trap. Mable raised her arms in the air with a loud "Yeah!" as if she had won a new battle and pointed his way.

"Alright! You're now my champion protector! With you around, I'm sure to win all the cakes! Mwahahaha."

Emp understood by now that the winning and savoring cakes was an important part of what made Mable who she was.

He didn't know if she was more happy about having him as a protector or about the opportunity to win herself more cakes from now on.

Seeing her giddy like that, he felt warmth spread through him, a feeling he recognized as him having done the right thing.

Now that all of this was done, the only thing left was for them to finally see, who was the strongest here. It was time to fulfill the demand of Brenia.

***

"You've come to like that drink haven't you? I'm glad. It's important to me that you in particular come to appreciate it."

"..."

"Yes, I heard about this, it made quite a ruckus through the school. I heard one of them was made into a lord protector."

"..."

"Really? That's interesting. It would be more impressive if we knew all the names here. I'm not a fan of all the mystery added in this time around."

"..."

"Well, would it not be a shame if your friend was of such a low rank that becoming her protector dishonored that boy? I'm just saying that hiding all the names makes everything difficult. I wonder if you could help me find out more about all those names."

"..."

"I understand, it makes you a bit uncomfortable. Here, maybe you should have another cup of this my sweet lover."