CH 176

“The day you people came to apologize for the first time, I declared I didn’t need black star, but let me apologize and restate that. What I didn’t need wasn’t the black star, but you people. I have no need for you people who couldn’t even act worthy of the star you represent. After all, all of you had nothing that could beat me with the exception of the status of your family, right?”

The girl leaned forward as she smiled, which made Evert involuntarily take a step back. 

He felt like an herbivore being targeted by predators.

“But that said, isn’t it too cruel to be straight up abandoned? That’s why I prepared the pathway to raise your standards. I have a hard time actually doing this, you know? I had to convince all the instructors, after all. The things I said earlier were supposed to be things you should have come to notice on your own. It was to learn how immature you are that the academy chose not to teach everything on purpose. Only for your generation, a shortcut was made.”

“――gh. Well, that sounds really tough for you! But I think it’s an exaggeration to say we don’t have anything that is superior to you.

After being ridiculed as incompetent that much, he couldn’t afford to take a step back even if he had to be stubborn. Evert looked at the girl in front of him with the last of his pride.

“…Oh my, is that so? But be it knowledge.”

The girl took a step forward.

“Or experience.”

Yet another step.

The clacking of her heels as Sophie walked closer sounded like warning bells to Evert.

“I think regardless of which――――I am superior to you in either regard, though?”

They were separated by distance like when they danced waltz earlier and her dark emerald-colored eyes looked straight at him.

The strong gaze emitted from those eyes made one instinctively want to divert their eyes away. But if he did, all that would await him were sarcasm and mockery.

“I need to remind you… that you are a woman, so I think your strength is inferior.”

“You’re right. Perhaps I’m indeed inferior in terms of strength. However,”

The girl’s left hand extended to Evert’s cheek.

It moved with a slow gesture.

Did the girl intend to see him panicking or trying to flee out of instinct and ridicule him if he did?

In that case, I won’t be scared, thought Evert as his consciousness focused on her left hand.

However, Evert only noticed that it was a distraction when he could feel the heat of her fingertips.

Just as her fingers touched Evert’s cheek, her right hand had a short sword that was pointing at him.

“Hah…?”

“No matter how much strength you have, to have your weapon easily taken away, isn’t it a problem before strength even matters?”

“――――gh!!”

What she had in her hand was without a doubt the sword that was on his waist.

The object that was supposed to hang on his left waist was, like with Remiel yesterday, pointed at his throat, and such a fact made Evert break out in cold sweat.

Evert thought Keith was just clumsy and let his sword get stolen and thought he wouldn’t be as clumsy. He believed that would be the case.

In the first place, although Evert’s sword was on the thin side, it definitely wasn’t lightweight. Yet, he couldn’t even notice his sword was taken away even during the moment it occurred.

I got too focused on her left hand…

The reason Sophie approached slowly and made the heel noise on purpose was to arouse tension and anxiety. It was to make him think he would be delivered sarcasm if he looked away, intentionally shaking his pride and diverting his focus away from her right hand as she acted.

Even though the other party was a girl, Evert felt like it was psychological warfare during a duel against a knight.

Evert was confused as he began to doubt whether the girl in front of him was really a girl.

Remiel’s question that said, “Are you really a woman?” was something Evert was seriously thinking right now.

Is this girl――――really a woman?

Isn’t her movement when taking the sword away way too used to it…!?

The number of people who were skilled enough to steal his sword unnoticed up to the point it was pointed at his neck wasn’t many in this academy.

The girl, who gracefully held the sword and naturally pointed it at her opponent’s neck, was looking at Evert’s short sword and smiled as she said, “It sure is beautiful workmanship.”

She ignored the stiffened man in front of her and played around with the sword with her palm for a while, and then for some reason, threw it behind her this time.

Even if it was a thin sword, a sword would just fall to the ground if it wasn’t thrown properly, yet the supple handling made it fly straight to the place she was aiming for.

It was to the person who was waiting behind her: Gerald Forsius.

“!!”

The moment Evert noticed the sword that was taken away from him was thrown toward his friend, he unconsciously extended his right hand, but Gerald was as expressionless as usual and easily caught Sophie’s thrown sword with a single hand.

Both the one who threw it and the one who received it stayed silent during the course of the event.

Evert was so confused that he couldn’t understand her intention of doing so.

There was only one thing he knew, that the girl in front of him was definitely not normal.

“Well of course he could catch it.”

The words the girl said sounded sloppy as if it was something obvious. She was actually a little disappointed, but Evert didn’t notice that and shouted,

“Why are you saying things as if it was the most obvious thing to do, isn’t that dangerous!?”

“What are you talking about? You don’t need an escort who would get hit by things thrown by a girl.”

That might be true, but Evert was astonished at how she could still refer to herself as “a girl” after what she did.

Honestly, if someone told him the girl was the devil, he would nod in agreement.

Sophie didn’t pay attention to Evert, who shuddered in indignation, and asked the man whose expression didn’t change.

“Gerald Forsius. In yesterday’s incident, you could have stopped me if you wanted to from the beginning. Why didn’t you take action?”

Gerald’s eyes certainly followed Sophie’s movement back then. He also had the burst power and muscles necessary to react. However, until the sword was pointed at Remiel, Gerald’s body didn’t move.

“…I couldn’t abandon my preconception.”

There was no way a girl would wield a sword.

Even if the person was already demoted, there was no way a sword would be pointed at a former royal family.

There was no way the girl would be furious hearing the fiancée of the first prince being dishonored.

Such thoughts and beliefs dulled Gerald’s movement.

From his childhood, Gerald was taught, “You shouldn’t judge everything just by what you can see. You should think and act immediately once the brain recognizes the action. That’s why it’s not the reflexes that are more important; it’s about not being bound by any preconception in your mind and moving once needed to.” But in the end, he could only act if things that occurred were within his expectation, and the act of an aristocratic young lady skillfully wielding a weapon wasn’t included in his expectations.

“One can learn knowledge as long as they have the desire to learn. However, abandoning prejudice and preconception cultivated from younger days isn’t something easy to do. Same could be said for all of you.”

The girl looked at each student of the black star with her eyes.

“Abandon your misconception that people are definitely inferior because they have a lower family status and that you could easily win against women through power. If you continue to be bound by the fixed value and concept in your head, you will not be able to react appropriately when something unexpected happens. If such things end up endangering Christina onee-sama――――”

Her words didn’t continue.

However, her eyes showed the intention that her words wouldn’t.

She’ll kill us…

The black star students including Evert swallowed their breaths.

For the last few days, this girl had trampled over their pride. However, that was likely just the beginning. If their mistake truly ended up endangering the duke’s daughter, Christina, their life might be in danger.

“Ah, but don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I commanded you as a purple star for this. If you think your pride is worth enough to abandon the chance to learn how to be a proper black star and gentleman, you are free to do so. I’m not that brutal to enforce personal opinion, after all.”

The girl smiled after saying that.

Anyone who didn’t know the circumstances would see that as an innocent smile, but Evert could only see it as a devil sneering at them.

“Look who’s ta…”

“Hm? Did you say something?”

As Sophie brazenly tilted her head, Evert shouted,

“In the first place, you keep spouting gentleman over and over. Even though you have demanded a gentlemanly attitude from us, where has Miss Sophie’s ladylike attitude gone?!”

“My ladylike attitude is already sold out. You people are the ones who made it out of stock, so it can’t be helped, right?”

“I think most of it is Remiel-sama’s fault, though?!”

Even though Evert could admit their behavior was unfitting of the black star, he couldn’t be convinced to be included as part of Remiel’s behavior.

“Oh my, aren’t you the one who is spouting that the black star existed for the sake of protecting the royal family all this time? In that case, isn’t it your fault that you let that man roam free?”

“That person is already demoted from the royal family!”

“And what of it? Didn’t you keep asking me to behave since he was the second successor of the throne yesterday?! Don’t just exclude things only when it’s inconvenient. What a shame of a gentleman!”

“It’s impossible to remain a gentleman in front of you! One is not supposed to stay unarmed and challenge a wild bear barehanded!”

“Wha… What do you mean comparing a girl with a bear?!”

The moment Remiel’s name was mentioned, Sophie and Evert’s argument degraded to a children’s quarrel.

“You also keep referring to yourself as ‘a girl’ but would a normal girl steal other people’s swords?!”

“I just drew it out, I didn’t steal it!”

“How shameless of you to say you just drew it when you pointed it at other’s necks!”

“I just went to teach you how vulnerable you are. You ought to thank me instead!”

Gerald just silently stared at the change in the tones of their arguments and the appearances of two noisily quarreling.

Does that Evert fellow have this kind of personality?

Gerald couldn’t help but be puzzled over Evert for keeping his aggressive attitude despite constantly losing arguments.

When Gerald first met Evert, he could see that Evert somewhat saw women as pawns, but he outwardly treated them with goodwill.

[“Arguing with women is totally useless. Even if we defeated them with logic since they mostly use only emotional arguments, they wouldn’t be convinced anyway.”]

Whatever was said to women, they wouldn’t listen. Proper arguments couldn’t even be established. It was because women weren’t as intelligent.1

“If you want to prove you aren’t a miserable man who loses an argument with a girl, you should be able to carry out this curriculum perfectly! I’ll tell you first, but I could do all of this without voicing any complaints!”

“Aah, I’ll do it! I’ll show you how it is done! I just need to do it, right!? I didn’t say I couldn’t, after all!”2

Since the man declared so before, then what was happening in front of him?

For the time being, it didn’t seem to be an intellectual exchange.

Even the purple star girl seemed to be a little unbalanced by the end somehow.

Even though she already trampled over Evert and the other black star students through her arguments, why did it devolve into childish remarks by the end?

It was said that women had several faces, but was it because they were women or the girl was Sophie Linier? In any case, Gerald still couldn’t get used to the duality.

I guess I should stop it soon…

Sophie ordered Gerald to not interrupt her needlessly before it ended, but considering his status, he should stop them soon. That said, there was no guarantee it would be effective, but just as Gerald took a step forward, the door on the other side opened.

The person who entered the room as if it was the most obvious thing to do was the second successor of the throne, Remiel.

Author Note:

Sophie is still Sophie after all. (ヽ´ω`)

The title would continue, but for the time being, the black star topic would end by the next chapter. (=゜ω゜)ノ