Chapter 68

The battle turned bad into worse.

Ikki just couldn’t think of any way to defeat his opponent. His plan was to read the enemy’s tricks and steal his idiosyncrasies by sharpening his every sense, but Kirihara’s ability was stronger than he had thought.

Ikki couldn’t find Kirihara since whether it was his figure, smell, or even sound couldn’t be detected.

Many wounds had riddled his body, and there were holes in his arm, shoulder, thigh that were created by Kirihara’s invisible arrow.

Ikki knew that it wouldn’t be weird if he lost his blood and fell before being defeated by Kirihara.

The only thing that made Ikki stand up until now was his stubbornness to prove that he could become a mage-knight even if he was just the weakest one.

However, his will also started to waver, thinking whether he could really defeat Kirihara.

‘Am I going to lose?’

While Ikki started to doubt himself, the audience also started to feel uncomfortable to watch since Ikki’s wounds were so terrible, and some of them even though his struggle was ugly. They started to shout at Ikki, telling him it was better to give up, so there was no need for him to get hurt again.

After all, Ikki’s opponent was Kirihara, a C-rank Blazer who participated in last year’s Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Even though Kirihara didn’t win, for those normal students, they felt that his achievement was already amazing enough since there were thousands of Blazers in this country, but only a few people were selected to participate in such an event so they were amazed by him.

While some people tried to persuade Ikki to give up, others mocked him for doing an ugly struggle.

There were two groups among the audience: one felt sorry for Ikki, and the other mocked him.

However, one thing was for sure.

No one believed that Ikki would win this battle.

If this was an original story, then some people might believe that Ikki might win since he had defeated Stella, even though he defeated her because she underestimated him.

However, it was different now since Tsukasa defeated Stella, and no one knew Ikki’s real power.

Tsukasa could see that many of the audience started to walk out from the field since it was too painful to watch. He could also see that Stella, Kagami, and Alice were uncomfortable.

“…Onii-sama won’t lose,” Shizuku suddenly said while staring at Tsukasa.

Tsukasa looked at Shizuku for a moment and said, “If it’s right before the match starts, then I don’t think that he’ll lose.” He looked at Ikki and then explained what he had found out. “Even though I have never seen him fight, I can tell that he should be the type of fighter who is observing his opponent before he defeats them after finding their weakness.”

“…Th-That’s true…” Shizuku was dumbfounded by Tsukasa’s explanation since what he had said was right. Even though she might not have seen Ikki for four years, she kept following his news. She was a princess in the Kurogane family, and her selfishness would be followed no matter what. She observed how he had fought from a video she had gotten in the past, so she knew how Ikki fought.

“However, his opponent can’t be seen. If you can’t see your enemy, how can you observe him? If Ikki wants to win, he should strike his opponent first and defeat him before Kirihara can use his ability. It might be a suicide move, and he might lose an arm or two, but this is a normal thing if he wants to win this battle,” Tsukasa said calmly.

“……….”

Everyone was looking at Tsukasa and nodded, thinking that he was right.

However, how could Shizuku give up so easily?

Shizuku wanted to refute Tsukasa’s words, but Kirihara suddenly started his performance again.

“Hehehe, ahahahaha! So disgraceful and dirty! You have a miserable face on, don’t you, Kurogane-kun? Now now, keep fighting, keep fighting with a smile. You should have a reason to keep fighting, isn’t that right? After all, Kurogane-kun, you’re in this match because you want to graduate.”

“Eh?”

Everyone, who hadn’t left, was startled when they heard Kirihara’s words since they didn’t expect that if they wanted to graduate, they needed to join the selection for the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Kirihara also knew that everyone had misunderstood, so he corrected the misunderstanding.

“Ah, sorry, sorry, everyone. It looks like there’s a little misunderstanding. Calm down. The only one who wants to graduate is this guy. The F-Rank knight here, Ikki Kurogane-kun, has an ability so low-grade and ordinary it seems he can’t graduate. Because of that, the new board chairman created an exception that if he takes the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival’s championship and becomes the Seven Stars Sword King, he’ll be allowed to graduate.”

That truth was announced to the spectators. Their commotion suddenly stopped, and—

“…Bu-AHAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

The laughter that ebbed and flowed like the tide exploded from nearly every spectator in unison and filled the fourth training arena.

“He’ll graduate by becoming the Seven Stars Sword King!? Hey hey, you’re not serious!”

“There’s no way such a thing’s possible for an F-Rank! The new chairman has gotta be kidding!”

“Pff and that idiot accepted that promise!?”

“Hahaha, forgetting his place and coming all the way here is pitiful, ain’t it!?”

“There’s no way some guy getting wiped out at the first fight can become the Sword King, right!? Hahahahahaha!”

The Seven Stars Sword King was the summit for all student knights in Japan. Among the past generations of Kings, almost all of them were B-Rank, with the remainder being C-Rank.

As for A-Rank, there was hardly ever one in this country.

An F-Rank, a below-average failing student, crawling in the dirt, could not possibly take that summit. By common sense, it could only be a joke.

Shizuku wanted to refute and wanted them to shut up, but she lost her voice.

“Is your love only like this?” Tsukasa suddenly said.

“…What?” Shizuku looked at Tsukasa with a dumbfounded expression.

“I have often heard that you love your brother so much that you’ll love him as a mother, father, family, and even a lover, but if you can’t even trust him to win, and just lick his wounds when he’s losing, what’s the use of that love?” Tsukasa looked at Shizuku as he sighed and said, “You can’t believe him in this battle. You can’t even talk back to those extras around us. You just sit here and watch in silence, like everyone else, thinking that he’ll lose. If that’s what your love is, then I guess the word of love has turned something cheap now.” He had tried to support the forbidden love of brother and sister, but the sister was so disappointing, making him feel sad for Ikki.

Tsukasa could cheer Ikki, but he was afraid that Ikki might swing that way toward him. His beauty couldn’t be matched by any women in this world, and if he wanted to dress as a woman, he could become the most beautiful woman in this world, but even so, he still had his pride as a man and a scumbag, so it was simply impossible for him to do this.

However, when Tsukasa thought about how to make Ikki win, he heard an unexpected voice.

“…Shut up.”

“What?” Tsukasa looked at Shizuku as if he hadn’t heard anything.

“SHUUUUUUTTT THE HELLL UP!!!!”

Shizuku’s voice reverberated throughout the entire field, silencing everyone and causing everyone to look at her in surprise.

Shizuku didn’t care about everyone’s reaction and looked at Ikki while shouting with tears in her eyes, “Onii-sama, what’s with this pathetic performance?! Don’t you want to show everyone that you can become a mage-knight?! Isn’t that the reason why you haven’t been working so hard that you even escape from home?! Are you just going to give up like this?! Show everyone that you can win! Be the older brother that I love, and I can be proud of!”

Tsukasa let out a sigh of relief and knew that he had succeeded.

Tsukasa was right. Hearing Shizuku’s shout, Ikki seemed to regain his spirit. His eyes, which were dead, had regained their splendor. He stood up again and punched his face, thinking how stupid he was.

Ikki knew that there was someone who was waiting for his victory and believed that he could become a mage-knight!

‘There’s no way I’ll betray Shizuku’s trust!’

“Ittou Shura!”

Ikki shouted and a raging blue aura emitted from his body. He ignored the survival instincts of his body and amassed all his body’s vigor and stamina without hesitation!

Even if he died, he would win!

Then as expected, the battle turned into Ikki’s favor, and he could predict and find Kirihara’s location based on his understanding of Kihihara from the order of pains he received, direction, depth, angle, and everything!

Perfect vision!

Ikki used this technique and read everything about Kirihara, so even if he didn’t see him, he could see whether he would move, escape, and action that Kirihara would do!

Then…

“Okay. I can lose. I’ll admit that I have lost! I don’t like pain! Don’t hurt me!” Kirihara shouted before he passed out when Ikki’s sword was about to slash him in half.

“…..”

Everyone was silent and didn’t expect this result.

“Kirihara Shizuya is unable to fight! The winner is Ikki Kurogane!”

Ikki let out a soft breath as he stood up, looking at Shizuku with a gentle smile.

“Onii-sama…” Shizuku’s tears were already falling like a waterfall, and she just wanted to rush toward Ikki.

Everyone shouted in amazement since they didn’t expect Ikki to win, and the field became noisy because of the unexpected result.

“Did you do this deliberately?” Alice suddenly asked while looking at Tsukasa in amazement.

Tsukasa didn’t answer Alice’s question and said, “Ikki is in the end just a teenager. He has gotten used to being hurt, and even he, himself, might notice that he’s hurt right now. So, how do we solve this problem? The answer is simple, and that is to have someone believe him. In other words, love. As long as he can feel the love of someone, then I’m sure that he can regain his spirit and win this match.”

Alice looked at Tsukasa in amazement and said, “So you have been riling Shizuku up because you want Ikki to win?” Even he also understood that there was no way for Shizuku to do something like this if Tsukasa didn’t provoke her, and for a moment, he just couldn’t take away from Tsukasa.

While it was true, Tsukasa felt that Alice’s words might cause a misunderstanding. “Don’t misunderstand, I just feel that Ikki shouldn’t be someone that should fall in this place. I know that he’s strong, and I want to fight him. If he’s defeated here, it won’t be fun.” However, his words caused another misunderstanding.

“Tsukasa!” Stella couldn’t hold it any longer and hugged Tsukasa since he was just so cute!

They thought that Tsukasa tried to hide his embarrassment when the truth was that he just wanted to help Ikki.

“Tsukasa!” Kagami also took a chance and also hugged him together.

Stella and Kagami thought Tsukasa was so gentle and wanted to help his friend win, making their gaze warmer and loving him even more.

“Stop! Don’t look at me like that! I’m not such a gentle person as you have imagined! Also, don’t hug me so suddenly!” While Tsukasa was happy with their hug, he didn’t want them to hug him so openly since he was afraid Kanata and Touka might misunderstand what had happened. He could also see that Kurono and Nene were on the side too, and he could see that Nene’s expression turned frosty, which made him sigh.

If there wasn’t Kurono on the side, Tsukasa knew that Nene might rampage right away.

Tsukasa just wanted to stay alive now, but his words caused more misunderstanding, making them think he was embarrassed.

“I’m going to hug you too!” Alice took a chance and hugged Tsukasa with a happy smile. While Shizuku might be one of the people with the most beautiful heart he had seen, Tsukasa was the most beautiful one, whether it was his appearance or heart. If Tsukasa swung that way, he might directly propose him to marry without hesitation.

Unfortunately…

“Dammit, who is touching my ass?!” Tsukasa roared and escaped from everyone. He could feel that two people were touching his ass, which made him speechless.

Stella and Alice looked at their hands and thought they wouldn’t wash their hands until death.

Kagami looked at Stella and Alice enviously since she didn’t take a chance to touch his ass.

“……..”

Tsukasa let out a tired sigh and decided to go back. “I’m going back.”

“Wa-Wait, Tsukasa! Don’t leave me!” Stella quickly reacted and also followed Tsukasa.

Kagami didn’t follow them since she was an underground lover, but she must admit she felt quite jealous of Stella, who could openly chase after him.

“Kugayama!”

Tsukasa stopped and looked at Shizuku, who had called him.

“…Thank you,” Shizuku said after a moment of hesitation. Her face was red and shy at that moment, and if Tsukasa didn’t know that this girl had a brother complex, he thought that she might fall for him.

“If you want to thank me, then you should go all out tomorrow and forget about what I have done today, or else, you’ll lose,” Tsukasa said while looking at Shizuku.

His aura started to change, and Shizuku could feel that Tsukasa had become a sharp blade that could cut anything. But how could she forfeit so easily?

“I won’t lose! I will win tomorrow’s match!”

Tsukasa only smiled and left.

“Go all out, or else you won’t have a chance to show your power,” Stella said to Shizuku before she followed Tsukasa.

Shizuku looked at their backs and clenched her fists. Her older brother had shown such an amazing match, and there was no way for her to show a shameful match tomorrow.

‘I’ll wipe away that smug face of him tomorrow!’

Shizuku knew that Tsukasa might be only D-Rank Blazer, but she didn’t look down on him since, similar to her older brother, Tsukasa’s strength wasn’t something that could be seen with data of the current evaluation system.

However…

‘I’m going to win!’

If Tsukasa had asked her to forfeit before, Shizuku would have agreed without hesitation since he had helped her relationship with her older brother, but since he had asked her to go all out, then she would do what he was asked, and she was going to win!