CH 17

Outcome

“――O Spirit of the Wind.”

Sheila was muttering in her mouth at the moment the tornado engulfed her.

In the torrent that was rushing past her left and right, she managed to keep breathing because the spirits were wrapped around Sheila’s entire body like a thin film of wind. Thanks to this, her body wasn’t torn into a thousand pieces.

However, the fact that there was no ground under her feet was quite alarming. She didn’t even know how high she was flying.

‘If I went out of the field like this, I would lose.’

She had a firm grip on her sword. She had the determination. All that remained was to put it into action.

With a snap, she opened her eyes. Thanks to the wind spirit, her vision was clear. Beyond the grass and pebbles dancing in the wind, she could see the head of Leidyrune. It was far, far below.

She turned her body around and leaped forward. There, beyond the wall of wind.

Suddenly, gravity returned to her body. She was rapidly moving toward the ground. Falling.

Leidyrune looked up. His eyes widened in astonishment. She could tell by the movement of his mouth that he was in a hurry to make the tornado disappear and cast some other spell.

The wind rumbled and roared in her ears. Sheila just kept on falling toward Leidyrune. She held her sword at the ready.

A startled Leidyrune suddenly readjusted his sword, but it was too late. Sheila swung a blow that increased in power at an accelerated rate.

A high-pitched metallic sound echoed through the training hall.

“……..!!!”

She stared head-on at Leidyrune. He successfully parried the blow with all his might. Sheila’s face contorted.

But suddenly a disturbing sound came from his hand.

There was a faint crack at the base of Leidyrune’s sword. Little by little, it spread like a spider web and finally shattered. The sword, no longer able to bear its own weight, breaks from the base and crumbled with a rattling sound.

“…. I give up.”

It was Leidyrune who declared so.

“Without the sword, I am not a knight. I still have some magic left in me, but unfortunately, I don’t want to be a sorcerer.”

Immediately, the crowd erupted in an explosion of cheers.

The knights surrounding the field shouted, their eyes shining.

“That’s awesome, little guy!”

“I can’t believe it! I can’t believe you beat Leidyrune!”

“That was a great match!”

“The Muscle League will be immortalized forever!”

“He’s a monkey! That guy is a real monkey to position himself in the middle of a tornado!”

There were some funny words mixed in, but it was clear that everyone was congratulating her on a good fight. Praise and smiles were directed at Sheila.

Her shoulders relaxed. Suddenly she remembered the pain in her leg and lost her balance with a jerk. Sheila almost fell, but to her surprise, Leidyrune was there to support her.

“Um, thank you.”

“――I’m amazed you made it through that tornado.”

Leidyrune opened his mouth with his face averted.

Sheila smiled dryly as she recalled that.

She couldn’t say that she relied on the spiritual arts. Taking advantage of that, it wasn’t surprising that the last blow also strengthened the sword.

Instead, she told him what she was thinking.

“I knew that Leidyrune-senpai would never intend to kill me or seriously injure me. It’s because you know the pride of a knight.”

Regardless of the warnings that Claushezade had put in place beforehand, she knew that he wouldn’t unreasonably hurt whoever he was dealing with. His disdain for commoners was absolutely irreconcilable, but he was a reasonable man who seeks the integrity of a knight. She could trust him on that.

The last spell he was chanting was probably not for an attack, but must have been to protect Sheila from being knocked to the ground. The fact that he hurriedly regained his grip on his sword at Sheila’s posture was good evidence.

“You won because you were a knight to the end and didn’t give up the fight.”

“I think that Leidyrune-senpai, who tried to save his junior as fast as he could, is much more of a knight than I am.”

When she smiled fearlessly, Leidyrune let out a wry smile. Perhaps it was because they had been fighting with each other with all their might, but she felt a strange sense of solidarity had developed between the two of them. To put it in embarrassing terms, it was like we were comrades-in-arms.

She wondered if he felt the same way. Was that why he supported her like this, even though she was a commoner?

“Certainly, I cannot be defeated by a wild monkey like you in terms of being a knight, can I?”

“Ah, you said it. Even though you were defeated by that monkey.”

When Sheila spoke hatefully, Leidyrune smiled at her.

It was a gentle smile that seemed to melt away the cool-headed atmosphere. She had never imagined that his purple eyes, which had never thought of commoners as human beings, would soften so gently. She had thought they would never be compatible with each other, but it was somehow strange.

While she was lost in deep emotion, unaware that the people around her were disturbed by Leidyrune’s smile, she felt a tingle of pain in her neck. Sensing the danger that her instincts were telling her, Sheila quickly turned around.

There was no hatred or any other ill feeling. But she felt a strong gaze that seemed to entangle her. It wasn’t within her vicinity. Where on earth were they watching her from?

“――!!”

It was probably the common room on the first floor of the main building. There was a figure at the window. With bluish-gray hair and a bewitching smile――

‘Jorn Werner-sensei…..’

He was far away, but somehow she thought their eyes met. He waved his hand and then disappeared.

She would like to think that their eyes just met by chance. But if that was the case, why did she have such a bad feeling about it?

Leidyrune spoke to Sheila, who was staring at the main building with a bad aftertaste.

“Speaking of which, how are your injuries?”

She came to herself and looked down at her right thigh. She had stopped the bleeding appropriately over the black undergarments used for gymnastics classes. However, the bleeding hadn’t stopped, and the piece of shirt she had used to stop the bleeding was soaking wet and red.

“I cut myself pretty deeply, but it was a match after all. Besides, you’re a senior player, so you must be taking it easy on me to some extent, right?”

“That’s right. If it had been serious, your leg would have been severed right there.”

“Wow. So, the reason I won today was because you were holding back, right?”

It was something she had imagined, but still frustrating. Even though Sheila risked her life to do her best, she wasn’t taken seriously.

“Well then, I’ll train harder and become so strong that you can’t hold back.”

“Don’t you want to win…?”

“’No, because it’s impossible right away. But the ultimate goal, of course, is to win.”

When she clenched her fists with both hands and tried to make a strong point, Leidyrune smiled again. Maybe he was the kind of guy who laughed easily.

“The only problem is that with this injury, low-level healing magic may not be enough to heal it. Today in the healing room, there’re only people who could use low-level healing magic.”

Even if she could endure the pain somehow, it would interfere with tomorrow’s schedule. Tomorrow’s a lunar day, so the academy would be closed. It was also the day to give Felix a status report. If he saw this injury, he would probably be overreacting and worrying.

As she was planning to pretend that she had plans for that day, Leidyrune opened his mouth.

“If it’s intermediate-level healing magic, I have some knowledge. I don’t mind if I do it.”

“Eh, it’s amazing that you can even use healing magic. I’m very grateful for that, but I’d feel bad to ask you to do that much for me, Leidyrune-senpai.”

“I said I don’t mind. It’s troublesome to do it here, so I’ll carry you to my room.”

She was scooped up carelessly by the back of her knees and her body floated in the air. Before she knew it, she was being carried like a child by Leidyrune.

The instability of having no ground under her feet was like being in a tornado, but she wasn’t worried because she was now strongly supported by his strong, unshakable arms.

Sheila looked into the purple eyes that were so close to hers.

“Um, I think it’s a bad idea.’

“I said it’s fine, so be quiet.”

It was hard to firmly refuse his offer because she was sure that she felt bad but also felt that it would help. Instead, she wondered if it would be better to put her arm around his neck to make it easier for Leidyrune to carry her.

As she was quivering between feeling sorry and feeling that it was inevitable because Felix would sulk if she failed to report every week, a chilling voice suddenly called out.

“――Let me handle Sheila Danau.”

When she turned around over Leidyrune, she saw Claushezade standing there, looking extremely unhappy with a wrinkle between his brows.

…. The only one who was still oblivious to the fact that the people around her were frozen in silence was Sheila.