CH 22

Berg easily overpowered his opponent.

His style of fighting was to use body enhancements and excellent swordplay.

Strictly speaking, body enhancement was not magic.

It was a technique that strengthens the body by circulating magic power at high speed within the body.

The concept that “magic is the realization of imagination” did not apply to this.

The strength of the body enhancement depended on how fast the magic power was circulated.

Although the principle was simple, body enhancement was one of the most difficult techniques.

It took a lot of concentration to move the magic power.

If you have any magical power, you know how difficult it is to fight while maintaining it at all times.

By the way, I could strengthen my body, but I couldn’t use it well in battle.

Berg is a genius for being able to use body strengthening as a child and overwhelm the upperclassmen.

“That was easy.”

“I can’t afford to lose at this point.”

Berg came back.

“It’s my turn now.”

“Don’t lose, Natalie.”

“Of course not.”

She nodded at my words and stepped onto the stage.

As soon as Natalie appeared in the audience, I could hear the wild cheering of the crowd, which had changed from earlier.

Natalie was a beautiful girl, so I could understand why they would want to cheer for her.

‘But cheering from a bunch of guys doesn’t make one happy, does it……?’

The game began with Natalie having the upper hand from start to finish.

The Alderaths are a family that specialized in lightning magic. Lightning was one of the most powerful elements.

In addition, she had an abundance of magic power and did not give her opponent time to attack.

And she won the battle easily.

Thus, the first round ended without my participation.

The second round was held after a break, and both Berg and Natalie won without any problems.

That was it for today’s matches. —All that remained was the final match.

We did it! We’re in the finals!…… But wait….

I didn’t do anything, did I?

If the two of them win the final as well, I will become the champion…… even though I didn’t fight.

That was…… a complicated feeling.

Of course, I did not want them to lose, but if I was participating in a martial arts tournament, I want to fight too.

“Can you put me in second position for the next match?”

“Sure. But… don’t lose.”

Natalie happily agreed. If I lost, I could still be proud of myself as a participant.

But if I lost, could I really be proud of……?

I think it would have been better to be the middleman who fought and lost than the general who never fought.

But…… if I was going to fight, I would want to win.

After that, we went on our own.

At that time, the middle school matches were being held.

But I was hungry, so Natalie and I decided to look around the stalls.

“Speaking of which, …… aren’t Natalie’s parents coming to watch?”

Since their daughter was going to compete in a martial arts tournament, it was only natural that her parents would be there.

—My parents didn’t come.

I didn’t even invite them, thinking that they wouldn’t come anyway.

“They’re not coming. Neither of my mother and father have that much time on their hands. ……”

“Hmmm, so that’s how it is.”

In a previous life, my parents had cheered me on at my annual athletic events.

I’m not athletic, and I didn’t want them to come when I was a kid,……, but now that I think back on it, it’s a good memory.

Speaking of which,…… I wonder how my parents are doing.

I feel like I died…… before they did.

I can’t remember the last memory of myself of my previous life … just before I died.

But somehow I remember that I died in a previous life.

I’m sure my parents are sad about it.

……I’m sorry I couldn’t be filial to my parents.

The reason I am here now is because of my parents of my previous life, not Owen’s parents.

If I could see them again, I would like to say “thank you” to them.

“What’s wrong with your sullen face, ……?”

Natalie looked at me with concern.

Oh, no, no, no. It’s no use thinking about my previous life.

I’m living in this world.

Let’s live in the present.

“I don’t have a sour look on my face. I’m perfectly fine!”

“Fine. I hope so….”

“Hey, are you hungry? Let’s get some food.”

“…… Yeah, sure.”

We looked for a place that served good food to eat for a while.

However, even though it was past lunch time, all the restaurants were overflowing with people.

“So many people.”

There were lines at every stall, and we had to wait in line for quite some time.

“Yeah, I guess so. It’s no use looking all the time, let’s just line up.”

I was starving to death.

I didn’t have a chance to be at the matches, but I had been getting hungry a lot lately.

We lined up in a relatively uncrowded line.

As we waited in line, we overheard a conversation between a couple in front of us.

“Hey, I heard that this year’s freshmen are great.”

“Oh, you know. The third prince and the duchess. Natalie was so cute.”

“What? What are you talking about? More importantly than the third prince! I love cute girls like her!”

I quietly listened to the couple’s conversation.

“They were both strong, though.”

“Yeah, that’s it!　That’s right! They beat a third year! They could win the championship!”

“I don’t know about that. You can’t beat the Student Council President.”

“But it’s possible that Berg-kun and Natalie-chan will win before the student council president does, and the match will be decided. The student council president was the general.”

“That’s probably not going to happen. The president of the student council will probably play in the next match as the spearhead or the center. After all, Owen is the general.”

“That’s true. It’s not surprising that he won if he went to the…… general match. I don’t know why they made Owen the general, but he’s obviously a waste.”

……Hey, Owen.

You were being made fun of.

You meant me?

“That’ s the thing, isn’t it? It’s just that the plan was to win with the spearhead and the center, and the last one could have been anyone.”

“Haha, that’s true!　If you can’t win no matter who you play, you should play the incompetent Owen!”

That was an awful thing to say.

I felt sorry for Owen, as expected.

No, they were talking about me.

Let’s not escape reality.

It seemed that my reputation was very low.

“Yeah, yeah. I feel sorry for Owen, too. For now, he’ll be able to stand proud as a general, but he’ll have to show his ugliness in front of many people.”

“I hope he doesn’t lose miserably, even if he loses anyway. It would ruin the whole martial arts competition.”

Stop it.

What was wrong with Owen?

He was just incompetent and selfish!

Yeah, that’s what was wrong with him, right?

There was nothing wrong with what they’re saying.

And that was when I was convinced.

“Hey, you guys. I’ve been listening to you. You’ve been saying whatever you want.”

Natalie was very angry.

“Who the hell are you, ……?”

The schoolgirl turned around and was shocked.

“I’m Natalie Alderath. What do you know about Owen?”

“What do I know about ……?”

“You just called him incompetent. Is that your impression of the real Owen?”

“Not really. …… But that’s the rumor. ……”

The girls flinched under Natalie’s pressure.

“Don’t judge a person by rumors. It is horrible.”

Natalie then took my hand and led me out of the line.

“Oh, eh, …….”

I left,  with her startled by the suddenness of the situation.

I walked on for a while.

“Why, someone else is picking on you! They don’t know anything about you!”

Natalie said with a furious expression on her face.

The Owen that the couple had been talking about was just as they had said.

In fact, he was an arrogant and incompetent child.

So the rumors themselves were true.

Besides, people liked bad rumors more.

There was a lot of news in modern Japan that said that someone had an affair or that someone was doing something bad behind the scenes.

That’s what got the best ratings.

In other words, people liked that kind of information.

“Aren’t you upset, Owen? After what they said?”

“It’s just a rumor……. Besides, Natalie understands me, so I’m fine.”

” You are so mature, ……. Ahhh! But it still pisses me off! I’ll get revenge on you in the next game!”

I didn’t mind so much, but Natalie is angry for me.

She’s a really sweet girl, isn’t she?

I didn’t care that much, but I didn’t want to lose for Natalie’s sake.

“It’s fine, so I’m going to do my best to win the next game.”

“Yeah, you have to win!”

“Absolutely.”

It’s not okay to be ridiculed all the time because of a bad rumor.

I was only human, you know.

And I was not the same Owen anymore.

I was who I am.

This was my chance to show them who I am now.

I will going to win, no matter who the opponent is