CH 62

Chapter 62: The Second Battle Fiesta Part 5

After the match with Ian, the members that still remained in the tournament were Razé, Claude, Adis, and Ruben. Razé and Claude were in the same group, while Addis and Ruben were in the other group. This meant that she still had two more matches against the love interests’ cast.

Hmm. My final match is either with the Crown Prince or the son of the Prime Minister. Well, Adis-sama has always hold back when fighting against Prince Ruben. And based on how the otome game progressed so far, Prince Ruben will likely go to the final.

Razé made some mental calculations for the final match while looking at the tournament chart. Since Principial Harlens had told her to win, then she didn’t plan to lose either.

After winning a match against a 3rd Year student, her next opponent in the semi-final match was Claude. At the same time, Ruben and Adis had also proceed to their semi-final match.

* * *

Sitting among the audiences, Ducard turned to Bonalt and said, “It’s semi-finals already. I thought it would take longer because all students participate in the tournament. Surprisingly, it’s quite fast.”

Bonalt: “Yeah. But it’s not boring since Leader still remain in the tournament.”

Ducard laughed after hearing Bonalt’s reply. “But she kept winning using the ‘good-kid-should-go-to-sleep-lariat’.”

Bonalt: “Before this, yes. But the last match was different, right? Since it’s already the semi-final, we might get to see different fighting style.”

Bonalt looked at Razé on the stage. On the battlefield, Lieutenant Colonel Razé Orphan always looked serious as she fought to make sure none of her comrade would die. But here in this academy, she was just a 17 years old girl who was studying diligently.

He wondered how many people here knew that she was a soldier strong enough to represent this country military. Even if they knew the existence of Wolf Fang, he was confident that they couldn’t imagine that she was related to the title. That was one of her strengths. But Bonalt was annoyed by the talent scouts that had come to watch the tournament and had been eyeing Razé. He couldn’t help but to mumble to himself, “Leader… I hope you will come back after graduating from the academy.”

Looking at Ducard’s stunned face, Bonalt realized he had said that out loud. “Oh, nothing…” He tried to come up with some excuses but couldn’t think of any. Although his words weren’t something outrageous, he was flustered because he felt it was wrong somehow.

Ducard: “Hmm. It’s not something that we can be sure of. She looks happy here. Even if she won’t come back, then there’s nothing we can do. No one can replace her position anyway.”

Even though he sounded indifferent, he looked a bit sad as he stared at the screen.

On the screen, Razé greeted Claude, saying, “Go easy on me,” to which he replied, “Same to you.” They both put on a fake smile and went into position. It seemed they already got used to it after so many rounds.

Ducard: “Seems like this round won’t have the go-to-sleep trick either.”

Bonalt turned his attention to the screen after hearing his words.

Bonalt: “… It seems the tournament rules has many flaws.”

Both of them kept a close eye on the screen and focused at Claude Orr Lesir’s feet.

Ducard: “It’s because before this no one had won using trick like what Leader did. Maybe after this, lots of players will use the strategy like that kid.”

Bonalt: “That’s cool. Maybe they’ll name it anti-Granoli style.”

Ducard: “Your naming sense is so awful. How dare you complaint about me?”

Bonalt was unable to deny it so he just kept silent.

Ducard: “Haha. Anyway, she’s someone who will create legend regardless of where she is.”

Bonalt: “Hmm. A shadow manipulator. He’s the son of Chief Steward, so he must be doing those behind the scene job. I think this is going to be an exciting match.”

Ducard: “No matter what, Leader is still number one.”

Bonalt was surprised hearing his words.

Ducard proudly said, “No matter what everyone else says, that person is our Leader.”

Bonalt smiled back at him, saying, “Yeah. You’re right.”

* * *

The referee raised his hand to signal that the semi-final stage was ready. The arena had calmed down as the tournament was near the end. Everyone was paying close attention to the match.

No one had expected that the remaining players were all 2nd Year students. It didn’t mean that the 3rd Year students were weak. It was just that these 2nd year students were extraordinarily strong. Although no one could guarantee the prophecy was accurate, they couldn’t help but feel envious of those born in the Year of Seira.

Everyone was particularly interested in Razé Granoli, a commoner who was enrolled as a scholarship student. One of the reasons was her fighting style which was based on ‘you snooze you lose, one shot one kill’. They would miss it if they blinked. They wondered how far would this student go. Everyone was watching over her future.

Among them, the high-ranking talent scouts were keeping an eye out for her so that they could approach her next year. A commoner with an excellent talent was the best target for new recruitment. Unlike aristocrats, they didn’t need extra care. To these talent scouts, these types of students were priceless.

After this will be the final.

Razé had gradually become accustomed to be the center of attention. She glanced at the next stage and saw Ruben and Adis.

I might not have another chance to defeat the Crown Prince.

She felt it was such a pity that she couldn’t defeat her superior’s son, considering the Prime Minister had taken good care of her. But she also felt honored to fight the Crown Prince, her future top superior.

She reminded herself again of her goal which was not to injure her opponent in the tournament. Her next opponent was one of the love interests in the otome game, a personal attendant to Prince Ruben and also an assassin.

Shadow magic. This is going to be troublesome…

Even Bonalt and Ducard had noticed it, so of course Razé would notice it too. She looked up through the glass ceiling and confirmed that the weather today was good with clouds floating in the sky.

Nice weather today～

She was distracted by the weather and kept looking upwards until she heard the bell rang. “Oops. That was close.”

This time she didn’t attack Claude with lariat. Instead, Claude suddenly appeared behind her back and was about to knock her with knifehand strike. She lightly avoided him.

“Hmm. I know you’d notice it,” Claude said to her.

―　―　―

Commentator A: “Woah! What had happened? Before this Granoli was always the one to attack first. But this time, Lesir was the one who made the first move!”

Commentator B: “That was the famous ‘Shadow Jump’, a skill used by a person whose specialty is shadow magic. It’s a very high-level magic. The user could move from one shadow to another. It’s amazing that he could master it at such a young age.”

Commentator A: “Oh, the Shadow Jump. He hasn’t used the skill in any of his previous matches. I didn’t expect that he could close the distance faster than Granoli.”

The audiences finally understood what Claude had done after listening to the live commentary. Among them, Carna, Folia, Luca and Ian were stunned when they realized that Claude was serious in this match.

Ian: “Claude, nice!”

He looked so excited. He seemed like he might go look for Claude later to ask for a match.

Carna: “Isn’t this the first time that Razé didn’t make the first move?”

Folia: “Yeah!”

Luca was watching the replay on the screen while thinking about something. Then he suddenly said, “That’s it! I knew it was weird.”

Folia was puzzled by his words. “Is something wrong?”

Luca: “I know how Claude managed to activate his magic before Granoli.”

Folia: “Huh? Isn’t it simply because Claude-sama was faster than Razé-chan this time?”

Luca: “No. None of the students here can beat Granoli at magic activation speed. Her initial velocity is too fast.”

Ian: “Now that you mention it, I think so too.”

Ian also had experienced himself her high-speed movement. He knew that he couldn’t avoid it even if he wanted to. He didn’t even had time to activate his magic stone for defense.

Ian: “Then how did Claude managed to use Shadow Jump before Razé-san could make the first move?”

Luca: “It’s simple. He activated his magic before the match started.”

“What?!” The members were shocked.

Ian: “Is that allowed?”

Luca: “Should be. The rules said that you can only attack after the referee signal for match start. You can think of it as if the referee said “On your mark, get set, go!”, the match started from “on your mark”. Besides, there’s no rule that said you can’t activate your magic stone while getting ready.”

Ian: “… That’s an unconventional idea.”

Luca: “Look who’s talking!”

Perhaps, Claude had come up with this idea after watching Ian’s match. In other words, Claude had been inspired by Ian.

Luca: “If you prepared beforehand, you won’t have any time lag for activating the magic. I think it’s a good idea when fighting against Granoli. I mean, she’s too fast, so you’d need this trick.”

By right, this tactic shouldn’t be necessary in a match between students. That was why no one thought about it before.

Luca’s point was understandable. There should had been no difference in the fundamental basic ability of activating magic stones to launch a magic. This happened because Razé Granoli had accumulated experience leading the battalion fighting against Baruda’s monsters that didn’t exist in Ordiana.

Welrian, who was watching the game from the VIP seats, gave a dry laugh, while Principal Harlens scratched his head after noticing that they need to revise the rules in the future tournament.

―　―　―

Claude: “You look so relax. When I was doing my other job, not many people had managed to avoid this attack.”

Razé frowned when she realized he was talking about his assassin’s job.

He made it sounds like he was trying to kill me…

Actually, she could catch his attack instead of avoiding it. In addition, she was confident that she could teleport faster than his Shadow Jump. However, she felt that it was not good to overdo it. And most importantly, it would make the match boring.

“Just nice. This is getting interesting,” Razé said with a smile.

Her words made Claude shuddered. He immediately jumped away from her but she gave a chase right away.

“Oh, right. Let me borrow this,” Razé said as she wielded a blunt knife. Claude was horrified when he realized that it was his hidden weapon that he kept under his clothes. She must had stolen it when he tried to attack her with the knifehand strike. He was certain about it.

He was agitated for not noticing until she had told him about it, but he maintained his poker face. He threw a bunch of small knives hidden in his sleeve in all directions while avoiding her attack.

Although the knives didn’t hit Razé, it was within his expectations. Shadow Jump was a convenient skill because he could move to any shadow even if it was small in size. Claude jumped to the shadow created by the knife sticking into the ground.

Watching him jumping from a shadow to shadow, Razé thought that it was such a shame that she couldn’t register a patent right for movement magic.

Wherever he jumped, Claude would pull out the knife from the ground and threw it at Razé. Razé couldn’t help but sighed while avoiding it. She felt disappointed by her plain specialty.

Not good. This is going to make me look bad.

She was unhappy because Claude movement skill looked much cooler than hers.

Maybe I should show off a bit.

She made a counter attack while avoiding the knives that was flying from all directions. Whenever Claude began to sprang out from a shadow, she would try to knock him like playing whac-a-mole.

“What the-!” Claude was surprised to see Razé the moment he came out of the shadow. He instantly jumped to another one. However, Razé was also there with a knife in her hand.

She kept chasing him everywhere, so he temporarily hid inside a shadow. He would receive a damage if Razé attacked the shadow he was in, but he assumed she wouldn’t be able to guess his location.

At that moment, Razé threw a knife exactly to the shadow he was in as if she had read his thought. He hastily jumped to the shadow right in front of his eyes.

“It’s over,” Razé said as she walked up to the shadow he was in.

Claude wanted to jump to another shadow but he was stunned. “The knives…”

The knives were gone. The bunch of knives that he had thrown all over the place were gone. Razé smiled as she showed him the knives in her hands.

Claude wondered when did she collected them. He was busy jumping from a shadow to another, so he didn’t notice it. He realized there was no trick left. He made a final desperate attempt and jumped to her shadow. But she was one step ahead of him. Before he knew it, she had pressed his hidden weapon against his neck.

Referee: “Match end!”

Razé lowered the knife as the referee announced her victory.

“I’ve fought seriously,” Claude said while frowning.

“If this happen on a normal daily life, I’d be caught off guard and won’t be able to put up a fight,” Razé replied frankly.

Suddenly, the audiences went up in a roar. Razé turned to look and found out that the match on the next stage had ended too.

Commentator A: “The winners for the semi-final matches are both from 2nd Year Class A, Razé Granoli and Adis Lag Zars!!”

Razé read the names written on the screen and was stunned speechless.

It goes without saying that she had a stupid look on her face when she learned about the unexpected opponent.