Yuna didn’t forgive me over just a few words.
At first I wondered if it was really that big of a deal, but then I remembered this wasn’t the first or second time I’d made her handle things for me like this.
Honestly, it didn’t seem like she was still angry. But it also didn’t seem like she planned to just let it slide.
“Want to go on a date?”
“……”
Yuna shook her head.
What, even a date won’t work? Then what exactly does she want from me?
“I’ve realized something. What Johan needs right now is punishment.”
You’re building it up that much?
No, there’s probably nothing to worry about.
“So today, you’re not allowed to talk back to me, and you have to do whatever I tell you. Got it?”
“But Yuna—”
“You’re supposed to say yes.”
“Yes…….”
With that expressionless face of hers, I had no choice but to nod obediently.
“Alright then, shall we head out?”
“I just got back and I’m tired—”
“What were you supposed to say?”
“Yes…….”
“Good. Good boy.”
Yuna smiled brightly and patted my head. In that moment, I realized she truly saw me as something on the level of a pet dog.
I never imagined I’d dropped to animal status in her internal evaluation……
Well, I guess I’ll just go along with it for today.
“So that’s what charisma looks like?!”
“Stay still, World Tree. Moments like this are more fun to watch when you blend in like air.”
“I see! I understand!”
What am I supposed to do with those brats? I shot Mephi and the World Tree a glare to warn them.
“Yes! We’re behaving over here.”
“What are you staring at?”
“…….”
I want to punch them right now, but Yuna comes first.
If I don’t focus on her, she’ll just scold me again for not paying attention.
“But Yuna, where are we going?”
“To the training grounds, Johan.”
“Training… oh.”
So she’s seriously planning to beat me up?
A chill ran down my spine.
I still don’t fully understand the performance Yuna showed in that duel last semester.
If she really sets her mind to beating me down, I won’t last.
“Hey, Yuna. I’m really not feeling well today—”
“Talking back?”
I quietly shut my mouth.
The World Tree was right.
This is what you call charisma.
***
Holding hands with Yuna, I headed toward the arena.
Her hand was soft, probably because she takes good care of it, but the expression on her face as she dragged me along was anything but soft.
Wait. Am I really going to get hit?
Did I mess up that badly?
For a moment, I felt wronged, but I shook my head.
Considering everything I’ve done to Yuna and everything she’s done for me, this is nothing.
Even if I end up breaking a few bones today, I’ll just have to accept it.
“We’re here!”
“Huh? Yuna and Johan? Long time no see, you guys.”
“Hi!”
There were quite a few other students at the training grounds when we arrived.
Look at these diligent bastards.
The semester hasn’t even started yet, and they’re already training?
“Bayron! If you’ve got time, could you spar with Johan for a bit?”
“Huh? Me, with Johan?”
What is she planning?
Well, it’s better than getting beaten up by Yuna…
“Sure! Sounds good.”
Bayron agreed without hesitation.
***
Bayron was a classmate of mine last year.
That means, unlike transfer students like Olina or Raven, he’s the real deal.
Last year, I wasn’t even close to being his match.
No, it went beyond that. He toyed with me.
Honestly, I’m still not confident.
Can I really expect to win against a fellow student from the Cradle?
“Johan, draw your sword.”
“…Alright.”
Up until recently, I had confidence. I could personally feel how much stronger I’d become, and I even had a weapon that surpassed my actual skill.
But things are different now.
I lost all the gears that had been embedded in my right arm.
To be honest, I’d always wanted to get rid of them, but now that they’re gone, I can’t believe how much I miss them.
Well, it was never truly my power to begin with, so there’s no point dwelling on it.
I’ve just returned to where I belong.
“Johan.”
“What?”
“Not that sword.”
“……”
Bayron pointed to the other sword hanging at my waist.
The demonic sword. I’ve never drawn it in front of my classmates before.
“Hah.”
But even without saying it outright, he must have known.
I only realized it now myself, but I could tell that the demonic sword holds considerable power.
It feels like I can finally see it properly now that I’ve reached this level.
Maybe everyone noticed before and just pretended not to.
I’m grateful for that consideration, but at the same time, it stings a little to admit that I can’t face Bayron without drawing this sword.
“Fine. Let’s do this.”
I pulled out the demonic sword.
How strong is Bayron now?
Honestly, the fact that he was in Class D last year doesn’t matter.
In terms of fighting power, the students from A to D were all similar.
What really separated the rankings were the written exams, not fighting skill.
Well, I did get a D in pure ability evaluation, though.
“Whew……”
I don’t know what Yuna was thinking when she told me to spar.
Maybe she just wanted to watch me get beaten up.
Or maybe she didn’t feel like hitting me herself.
Well, I’ll find out once we start.
“I’m coming.”
“Alright.”
I charged at Bayron.
The demonic sword released a full, unrestrained sword energy.
“Hah!”
Bayron twisted his waist and dodged my exaggeratedly wide swing.
That confirmed it.
Bayron has no means of blocking the demonic sword head-on when it’s fully wrapped in sword energy.
In terms of firepower, I have the advantage.
But I know better.
“…….”
With an expressionless face, Bayron thrust his sword. The reach was short, and the blade itself was on the thinner side.
His style is to slip in at high speed and aim for vital points. That’s why he chose to evade my frontal strike instead of meeting it head-on.
Before even getting into a contest of strength, the durability of his sword would have been an issue.
It’s not that Bayron couldn’t block. He simply doesn’t fight that way.
I need to keep that in mind.
“I’ve been thinking this for a while.”
I grabbed Bayron’s wrist and twisted, stopping his attack.
Since his sword is relatively short to begin with, it wasn’t hard to restrain him without even touching the blade.
For a split second, it looked like Bayron was about to smile at my response, but then he returned to his blank expression and muttered,
“Johan, you think too much.”
Using his other hand, Bayron grabbed me by the collar.
It seemed like he intended to slam me, because the force pulling me in was considerable.
“Ghk!”
In an instant, my body lifted off the ground.
After spinning once in midair, I barely managed to regain my balance and steady myself as I landed.
“Just now, too. The moment I grabbed your collar, if you’d let go of my wrist, your decision would’ve been faster.”
“……”
He’s not wrong.
The reason he was able to throw me was because I had been gripping his arm too tightly. He used that very restraint against me, managing to throw me even from an unstable stance.
“Johan, I’ll give you one warning.”
“Not advice?”
“Yeah. Not advice. A warning.”
Bayron flipped his sword into a reverse grip. In that instant, I could feel a thick killing intent emanating from him.
“Do it properly. No matter what it takes. Don’t treat this like sparring. Come at me like you mean to kill.”
“…That’s pretty brutal.”
It was sudden, but surprisingly, it didn’t shake me.
I just accepted it without much question.
That alone told me how much my way of thinking had changed.
“I think I get the reason now.”
Why Yuna dragged me to the training grounds, and why Bayron was facing me while releasing killing intent.
“Heh…”
I glanced sideways at Yuna for a moment. She was watching the match with anxious eyes.
Even though she was the one who set this up, it was almost laughable.
“You called it a punishment.”
“A punishment? Wait, did you do something to Yuna? Hey. Seriously, you shouldn’t. Do you even realize how much she usually does for you?”
“Yeah…”
I gave a bitter smile.
The fact that we could have this kind of conversation while he was radiating killing intent meant I was starting to adapt to the cradle-like mindset myself.
“Well then, I guess I can face you more confidently.”
“But why are you talking like you’re definitely going to win?”
You told me to get serious.
And you’re still that sure?
“I think that’s a bit of a miscalculation.”
***
The fight with Bayron dragged on.
What had already gone beyond the bounds of a simple spar felt like the duels between upper-year students last year.
Minor wounds wouldn’t stop us. Being short of breath wasn’t enough to pause.
Not for a single moment did we let our guard down, not until we were certain the other had been completely neutralized.
Now that I think about it, it’s strange to say.
I had never fought purely to defeat my opponent.
A fight had always been a secondary element.
This was the first time that victory itself was the sole objective.
But now, it was different.
Right now, I genuinely want to defeat him.
“Ha!”
Crack!
The moment that decided the match was when Bayron’s weapon shattered.
As the fight dragged on, even Bayron couldn’t dodge every single attack.
Of course, I couldn’t maintain a perfect sword energy at every moment either.
Since it was an aura formed through the power of the demonic sword, I mixed in a few feints while using it.
And in the end, he fell for one of them. His blade snapped in two.
Bang!
But I know this.
A broken sword only secures the advantage. It doesn’t mean victory.
So now.
The very instant his blade shattered, I stepped in with all my strength and delivered a decisive blow to Bayron.
Of course, I have no intention of killing him.
Twisted as the approach may be, this is still just a spar.
Thud!
My fist, thrown with full force, slammed square into the center of Bayron’s face.
“Urk!”
Taking the hit head-on, Bayron was practically thrown halfway to the ground as the air burst from his lungs and he collapsed.
“You talked all that trash. You know it’d be seriously embarrassing if you lost, right?”
I tossed in a bit of trash talk for good measure.
“Wow… this is seriously humiliating…”
And just like that, I won.
We fought like it was life or death, but there’s no bad blood between us.
“Johan, so you ended up like this too. Honestly, that’s a little disappointing.”
“……”
This isn’t a punishment.
If anything, it’s more like a diagnosis.
Not that it’s surprising, but Yuna really did see straight through me.
“Johan, do you realize you’ve become just like we were last year?”
“……”
I know. And because I know, I can finally understand them.
Not as something I grasped with my head, but something I felt through their state of mind.
“Johan, this is what I did.”
“….…”
“If you just fight it out until you’re exhausted and collapse, you don’t even have time to think, right?”
Bayron lost a friend. Back in the Cradle two years ago, that wasn’t uncommon.
“And you can get stronger too. You can think of it as training yourself so nothing like that happens again.”
“And what does that change?”
Leaning slightly sideways with my sword stabbed into the ground, I asked the question.
No, I wasn’t trying to pick a fight. I was just exhausted myself.
“Nothing changes. No matter how hard I try, it doesn’t erase the past… And it’s not like I’ll get some miracle chance to prove that I’ve changed.”
Last year was even more so.
Things were chaotic outside, but the Cradle itself was relatively calm.
“But Johan, there’s nothing in this world you can’t eventually get used to.”
“……”
“You’ll come to accept it someday too. That’s about the only advice I can give you. Live hard enough that pointless thoughts don’t have room to creep in.”
“And if I live like that?”
“One day, instead of thinking about the past, the things you need to do right now will come to mind first. Well… for example, right now I’m thinking I should splurge on a better weapon next time.”
For someone speaking so lightly, he must have been more upset than he let on.
“That’s the point. Whatever it is, there’ll come a day when you naturally get used to it. So stop thinking you have to ‘be okay’.”
“……”
“That’s all I’ve got to say. Yuna, come take Johan.”
With that, Bayron groaned as he pushed himself up from the floor.
His recovery really is on another level.
“Yuna.”
“Puhihihi, Johan, how do you feel? Are your thoughts a little more sorted out now?”
“Thanks to him.”
Bayron saw straight through what was going on in my head. I’d been carrying guilt over Immun’s death.
But at the time, I’d also told myself it was the best choice.
All of it stemmed from the thought that I had to “be okay”. And that thought was what ended up making me sick.
“My situation’s a little different from yours. I figured the others would explain it to you well.”
“I see.”
“All right, that’s it for training!”
“Is there something else?”
“Of course. You agreed to follow my orders for the whole day.”
What else is there to do now?
“The next item on the schedule is getting into bed with me and having a good rest.”
Yuna smiled shyly.
With her cheeks slightly flushed, her expression looked a little embarrassed, a little bashful…
“Brace yourself, Johan. I’m going to stick to your side and bother you all day.”
More than anything, she looked delighted.
Leave a Reply