Chapter 49

How can he be so cruel about something I’ve been working on for so long? Is he saying that I shouldn’t even think of responding to my enemies with violence since I’m weak?

I’ve already been beaten by them over and over again!

He’s saying this because he doesn’t know Io is in my hand.

Soon, I shot him back with a fierce look that he had never seen before.

“All right. Let’s have a duel right now. Instead, you and I are under the same conditions.”

“Yes? B-But—”

“If I lose, I will consider your words.”

Step, step.

I took a couple of steps before him and lifted my gaze upward. There was Carl Andras, who was very tall in the meantime. He stiffened his body unbelievably.

“But if I win this duel, don’t criticize my choice again.”

“…!”

I spoke strongly, and Carl put on a gloomy expression like a dog in the rain. But even with such a gentle appearance, the blood of the Andras family eventually flowed into his body.

“Okay, then we will have a duel just once.”

It is not long before his true nature is revealed.

“Let’s set the rules. Let’s say we’re both bare-handed, and since Lady Vanora is still a beginner, if you hit me effectively enough to hurt me, I will say you won.”

“Is it really okay to have such rules?”

We wore very simple clothes from the moment we entered this warehouse, so it was enough to prepare by taking off the cloak we had worn to avoid the cold.

It’s rather good. Because I wanted to have a duel with people at least once.

It wasn’t difficult to prepare my mind either. Although it was the first duel in my life, I wasn’t nervous. Unlike in the past, when I spent my entire life as a weakling, my physical strength and skill improved significantly during this time period through hard work. Besides, it’s not that I’m going to knock down Carl. I will win if I give him one effective blow. If so, I thought there was no need to borrow Io’s power.

He’s arrogant because he’s still young.

After all, Carl in the future and Carl in this time cannot be the same.

I thought briefly as I looked at Carl’s young face, and soon the signal that the two of us had started a duel rang out.

“Then, shall we begin?”

But a few minutes later.

I realized who was really arrogant.

“!”

A panting breath. The sound of blood rushing around and the voice of the boy in front of me muttering. I felt all the sounds were distant, even though my ears weren’t hurt.

It was due to the beating of my stomach. As a result, I felt suffocated, and physiological tears filled my vision instantly.

It’s only been a few seconds since the duel started.

Less than two minutes.

Nevertheless, I was already gasping for breath. It contrasted with the boy who had not even a single strand of hair disheveled.

I can’t beat him.

I admitted right away, though we only dueled for a few moves.

Carl was different. Standing before Carl, I was like a chick in front of a fox.

I’m only at this level, but I’m screaming like I’m going to kill someone.

There was someone more heartbroken than me who had learned my weakness with my own body. Carl stopped the attack and thought when his opponent couldn’t straighten up due to pain.

‘If I let Lady Vanora wield what she has learned in this insufficient state, she will face great trouble later.’

Carl was the type who usually enjoyed fighting with others. After fighting all over, his whole body was excited, and his heart was happy to the extent that he felt alive because of this. But it’s been a long time since he had such an unpleasant duel. A duel must be established to some extent to be enjoyable. It was not his temper to bully a weak person for nothing.

‘Lady Vanora has a reason to desperately want strength. I wonder if she will give up with only one duel…’

Carl Andras is soon in agony.

And it was then.

“!”

While Carl was distracted by other thoughts, I narrowed the distance, grabbed him by the collar so he wouldn’t run away, and targeted his vital point. Carl twisted my arms with force and pulled himself out, but he was surprised that I had not yet given up.

But how can I give up?

I already know that I’m weak…

I was born weak from the beginning. Because I don’t have more strength than them.

That’s right, I’m a nobody.

I lived my entire life acclimatizing to the fact that I was not born with it. However, I believed it was the right life if I lived with a good heart, even if I had no power. As a result, I’ve been driven to the cliff. How can I be convinced of my shortcomings twice?

“Aargh!”

“!”

I couldn’t live like that anymore. I wanted to prove that my efforts to get revenge were not vain by winning this duel.

“Uh?”

Soon afterwards, I clenched my teeth and rushed, and Carl took my fist straight into his grasp. A different heavy sensation from before made my wrist bones tremble.

“I’m sure…”

Carl Andras.

He wasn’t the type to hesitate to hit his opponent, whether they were old or weak. There are even rumors that he broke his engagement by assaulting his fiancée.

“I thought it’s been a while since I had such a boring duel.”

However, no matter how many times he looked after me, I was still standing strong no matter how many times he hit me. In addition, this duel wasn’t even with Andras’s family but Celcius, who grew like a flower in the greenhouse.

“It’s starting to get a lot better.”

Carl’s cheek began to flush at this situation. To him, my growth was amazing. A person who didn’t even know to hold a dagger until a while ago has now stimulated pain quite a bit. Carl’s heart gradually fluttered as he did when he was enjoying a duel, and he soon burst into laughter with a flushed face.

“…”

When Andras’s family fights, they laugh so happy like that. That’s why their family got called as monsters. So how do I stop this laughter? I, who was thinking about it, came up with a simple method.

“Aren’t you going to surrender now?”

Pow!

I fell backwards with a blunt sound of a fist hitting a human’s chest bones. I woke up in a hurry, but the shock seemed great. Carl, who saw my tied hair in an ugly mess, asked that question. But what came was not my voice but my right fist.

‘Does she want to suffer like that again?’

For Carl, the repetition of an attack that didn’t give a valid hit was questionable, but in fact, the target was his left hand.

“Huh!?”

Suddenly there was something like power in front of Carl’s eyes. My left hand held the dust on the warehouse floor when I fell.

‘She’s really good at using the contents from the book!’

Even if it’s a street fight or a duel, it’s enough to help you win. Of course, Carl protected his eyes because of his reflexes. It was a situation in which he stopped moving for at most one second. But it was the moment that decided who won the duel.

‘…Oh god.’

Tuk.

I dug into the gap without missing a beat, grabbed Carl, and pulled him. I was trying to hit the floor like a knight wearing armor would normally do.

Give me strength!

In order to do that move, it was enough to borrow a little bit of holy relic power.

“Huh?!”

Soon afterwards, with a huge fricative sound entering the old warehouse, Carl banged his back on the floor. It’s a shame that there’s straw on the floor. If he was thrown straight on the hard floor, he couldn’t be safe no matter how strong he was.

“…!”

Shocked, he blinked and couldn’t get up from his seat. His whole body was startled, and he didn’t even think of fighting back.

“…Gasp, gasp…”

I looked at him as he collapsed and took a rough breath.

Is it finished?

With the power of the holy relic, I was able to bring Andras, who was also called the monster of the kingdom.

“…”

But should this really be considered as a victory?

I immediately lowered my gaze and examined myself. The ends of my dress were torn, and the skin except for my face was on the verge of bruising. Moreover, the string that tied my hair is nowhere to be seen.

“…Would I get caught even if I wear… the cloak well?”

When I was muttering with an unsure voice, the boy who had been lying there soon burst into laughter.

“Haha… Ha…”

He began to laugh in disbelief. The pain rising from his back had blood vessels lined up on the nape of his neck, but his expression was bright.

“Wow!”

“!?”

“Oh my God, really…”

Then Carl leapt up his upper body. With an excited face, he clasped my hands tightly and spoke softly,

“It’s the first time I’ve lost to someone other than my sister!”

“No, it’s just that you’ve been generous with the rules…”

“I lost this! I couldn’t even move for a long time! If this was a real duel, I would be dead!”

I’m sure it still hurts because I used Io’s strength to knock him down.

When Carl smiled brightly with his eyes twinkling like that, I just nodded with a puzzled face.

“Oh my God. Wow.”

“…”

“Can’t we have a duel one more time?”

“No way.”

“Just one more time! It was so good!”

But he can’t even get up for a while. Perhaps it was so impressive to be beaten by me that Carl asked for a rematch while I thought about it coldly.

Come to think of it, when it was my birthday. Carl asked for a duel at that time, but Aloken expressed his displeasure. I think I know the reason…

If Aloken had a duel with such a fighter, his limbs would not be fine, so wouldn’t everyone say Aloken is being out of his mind again?

I talk to Carl in a calm voice, “You know when I say no, it’s remained no.”

“But.”

“Are you now refuting my answer again…?”

“Ah, n-no.”

Fortunately, Carl didn’t forget the memory what he had promised before the duel. He looked at me as if he would no longer fight. What’s wrong with him making me feel guilty for nothing?

“Then, what about my assessment now?”

“Yes?”

“I was asking if today could be my last class.”

“Um… Of course…”

After that, it was already the moment when the two of us were ready to leave the hut.  When I asked that question before, Carl smiled more sincerely than anyone else and said,

“Congratulations on your graduation, Lady Vanora!”

Graduation.

From my POV, it was a word I had never heard before because I had never attended an academy, but it didn’t make me feel so bad.

* * *

A few minutes later.

“Then I will be on my way. Goodbye~”

“All right. For the time being, I’m busy preparing for my debutante, so I won’t have a chance to contact you. Still, if I need help again later, I will send you a letter.”

“Yes!”

We said goodbye in the middle of the forest road where we always parted. I went straight down the road and returned to godmother’s mansion, and Carl went out over the bushes and set off to find the carriage.

‘Today was really fun.’

Carl, who came out alone, though. Except for his family, there were a few people with the same hobbies as him in the social world, so he was a loner wherever he went. The meeting with Vanora, where you can freely talk about your interest, was fun.

‘She’s a good person.’

Carl had always been good-natured, so it had been a long time since he realized that her nature was good. Vanora didn’t look at him strangely no matter what he said, so he was naturally comfortable with her.  

‘And today was amazing! I really want to serve Lady Vanora!’

It was a pity that he couldn’t meet Vanora for a while from tomorrow.

“Wow, how did she hide that power?”

Besides, today’s duel was fun enough to make his hair stand still. Carl recalls when he was severely beaten again, but his footsteps stopped at that moment.