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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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How could I make Madam Lichtenburg, who had turned hostile, submit?
It was simple.
I just had to use Erica, the daughter she cherished.
But how should I use her?
Several answers came to mind for this question.
First. Make Erica fall for me.
‘… Rejected.’
No matter how I thought about it, that wasn’t it.
Wasn’t it a cliché of common romance fantasies?
The kind where you try to make the other person fall for you but end up falling for them instead.
Moreover, Schlus wasn’t exceptionally handsome, so I decided to discard this idea.
Then the remaining option was…
“Your movements are too big!”
“Ugh?!”
The moment I was thinking, the tip of Trie’s sword flew like an arrow and stabbed my solar plexus.
I dropped my sword and had to cough and wheeze for a while, lying face down.
Even though it was a blunt sword, I almost died from momentary suffocation…
“Tsk tsk. Getting a bit cocky? Even thinking about other things during a duel.”
“Cough, hack… How did you know? That I was thinking about something else.”
“It’s obvious. I can clearly see you’re not concentrating. If you keep doing that, you might get seriously hurt?”
“I got it. I’ll focus from now on.”
I stood up, grabbing my sword.
My solar plexus still ached, but it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t move.
“Come to think of it, the midterm exams are in 2 weeks?”
“… I see.”
Crazy.
Already?
After the midterm exams end, I have to immediately start Trie’s magic lessons…
I haven’t even finished studying the major books.
I’m barely keeping up with classes, so what should I do then?
I’m quite worried.
“This time, I’ll remove all the restrictions.”
“All of them? Really?”
“Yeah… Is there a problem?”
“No. There isn’t.”
Removing the restrictions.
From Trie’s perspective, she probably meant I could use internal circuits.
However, there was a loophole in those words, so I had to try my best to hold back the corners of my mouth from rising.
It could also be interpreted as lifting the basic restriction on sword duels, the prohibition of magic.
‘Selection and Concentration. 1 second on mana sensitivity.’
The moment my mana sensitivity stat reached 100, I fully activated my internal circuits.
The mana energy generated in that process was converted into mana for 1 second and accumulated throughout my body.
If I used that mana, I could run wild as much as I wanted for about 1 minute.
“Then… start!”
Even at Trie’s signal, I just stood there, raising my sword and waiting.
Trie also stood still, watching my sword with a posture ready to lunge.
“Are you just going to keep watching? Then I’ll go first…”
‘Selection and Concentration. 1 second on magic power.’
Instantly, Trie’s posture greatly collapsed and her expression crumpled.
It was the effect of the gravity magic pressing down on her whole body.
The gravity magic with a whopping 100,000 magic power infused would be pressing down on Trie with a force of about 1 ton.
Despite investing 100,000, the output was only this much because most of the magic power was spent on concealing the spell.
It was truly a critical strike.
Even while barely enduring and standing, Trie raised her head and glared at me.
I think she’s quite pissed.
“What are you doing?”
“You said all restrictions are off.”
“Ha… So this is how it is?”
Yeah. It’s despicable and petty, but I have to do it like this.
I get beaten up almost every day, so I should win at least one round, right?
“You think I can’t use magic either!”
At that moment, unfamiliar spells began to unfold from all directions.
Mana emission magic.
It was magic with a force that would crush me.
Even though Trie was really bad at magic, she seemed to have a lot of magic power, so the output was tremendous as expected.
‘That’s only if you can shoot it though.’
I immediately interfered with the spells and dismantled the core parts as quickly as possible.
Then, all 10 or so spells were shattered.
Everything happened in less than 0.5 seconds.
“What?!”
Perhaps surprised, Trie’s eyes widened.
Subsequently, spells unfolded several times, but they all melted away before being cast.
As expected, with a computational power stat of around 48, it was easy to dismantle Trie’s shoddy magic.
The only flaw was that my head hurt like it was going to split after doing this nonsense.
Trie’s magic power must be quite depleted by now too.
Should I go in slowly?
“You think you can win like this?”
“Of course.”
It seemed like even standing was barely possible.
Bluffing, are you?
I rushed to Trie’s location in one breath and swung my sword down.
Unable to dodge, Trie had no choice but to block with her sword.
“Ugh!”
“Oh.”
Even with the gravity magic and me pressing down with all my strength using my sword, Trie endured, trembling with her arms.
What the hell is this monstrous strength…?
I had been facing this monster without magic until now.
It was absurd.
“Aaargh!”
“No way, this is crazy.”
Trie let out a roar and started to push me back.
As I tried to step back and lunge again, this time Trie counterattacked.
It was at half the speed of her usual self, so I ignored it and tried to turn to the side-
Whoosh…!
“Huh.”
The blade flew at an unbelievable speed, aiming for my head.
She had used the fact that the gravity magic acts vertically downward to her advantage and gained acceleration when swinging her sword down.
It was so fast that I didn’t even have time to activate ‘Selection and Concentration’.
My arm, accustomed to similar attacks through multiple duels, moved on its own and barely deflected Trie’s downward slash.
Not missing that opening, I quickly penetrated Trie’s inside and-
“Got you.”
“…”
I brought the blade to Trie’s neck.
“Phew…”
Trie raised both hands.
It was a gesture acknowledging defeat, so I immediately deactivated the spell.
Then, as if the tension had left her body, Trie’s body collapsed powerlessly.
Startled, I dropped my sword and supported Trie in my arms.
“Did your strength give out?”
“Idiot.”
“What did you just-”
“I won, you idiot.”
“You bitc-”
I let my guard down.
It was the moment I tried to push Trie away with that thought.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
The blunt tip of the sword pierced my abdomen.
Once again, I had to lie down, clutching my stomach, and tremble for a while.
Come to think of it, she didn’t say she surrendered… She’s even more despicable than me.
I never imagined this.
“You should have incapacitated me so I couldn’t get up.”
“I considered doing that… But I couldn’t bring myself to leave a scar on a lady’s body.”
“Y-You’re really an idiot! Where’s the lady during a duel! Geez, seriously!”
Trie laughed as if dumbfounded, fanning her face with her hand.
I know I’m an idiot too.
I definitely had the intention to stab her solar plexus with all my might, just like she did to me…
But the moment I saw her chest, I couldn’t do it due to psychological resistance. What man could stab that?
It seems my desire to hit Trie wasn’t as strong as I thought.
If I get beaten up a bit more, maybe then I can hit her without hesitation.
“We’ll end here for today!”
“Isn’t it too early to end?”
“Even though you’re in the position of learning, you’re already using such cowardly tricks! Reflect on it today!”
“…”
With that, Trie took the training sword and hurriedly left the underground training room.
Is she very angry?
“I still can’t win even like this…”
A hollow laugh escaped my mouth as I lay sprawled.
I can’t win even like this.
The wall called Trie was way too high.
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“Lady Trie.”
“Yes?”
“Before you leave, you may use the bathroom.”
“Ah…”
Trie, stopped by Schlus’ attendant, finally realized.
That her whole body was drenched in sweat.
This was the first time she had been soaked like this while teaching swordsmanship to Schlus.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll just go.”
“Yes. Take care on your way.”
Leaving behind the attendant who politely clasped her hands and bowed, Trie left the mansion.
Looking back after coming out, it indeed wasn’t an ordinary huge mansion.
It was incomparably larger than her house on the island.
It was roughly the same size when compared to the Edengard main mansion.
It was said to be the chairwoman’s residence, so how did Schlus end up moving to a place like this…?
She meant to ask about this too, but she forgot.
Trie contemplated going back and asking, but she decided to save it for next time and continued walking.
It was after Trie left through the main gate and confirmed there was no one around.
“Ugh…!”
Trie clenched her fists and trembled with anger.
Since Schlus had learned the sword for less than a month, it was difficult to call him a swordsman.
In other words, Trie had been defeated by a magician in close combat of less than 10 meters.
Considering that in a fight between a knight and a magician, up to 50 meters was considered the knight’s overwhelming advantage, it was no ordinary humiliation.
She, who already beat most advanced knights, why did she…?
Although she didn’t expect the opponent to use magic, that wasn’t actually important.
Because a skilled swordsman would normally be faster at rushing in and slashing the opponent’s neck than the deployment of a spell.
Originally, she should have reacted before Schlus’ gravity magic was cast.
However, the spell was quite cleverly concealed, so she couldn’t notice it quickly.
The basic principle of spell concealment was to cancel out the mana waves generated by the spell by emitting waves with the exact opposite phase.
In other words, two computations have to be performed simultaneously.
That’s why spell concealment typically requires at least two people, the spell deployer and the concealer.
But Schlus was doing the two computations separately, by himself.
The fact that she didn’t notice the magic approaching could be pointed out as a contributing factor, but that was just an excuse.
In the end, the fact remained that she was defeated by a magician at close range without being able to do anything, not even casting magic.
“But still… What the hell was that…?”
What was even more shocking was what happened afterwards.
Although Trie became famous for wielding the sword, the years she had spent honing magic were by no means short either.
Even if she was regarded as lacking talent, being able to enter the Imperial Academy meant she was still considered excellent among the nobles.
But her opponent was Schlus Hainkel, a master of magic.
There was no way she could handle him with magic, so she didn’t even try to be greedy.
Instead of sophisticated magic, she tried to cast the fastest magic by shooting out magic power with all her might.
… No, she tried to cast it.
Trie’s magic was intercepted one after another before the spells were even fully deployed.
Even deploying simultaneously from both sides yielded the same result.
From the deployer’s perspective, the computational load only doubled, but from the dismantler’s perspective, the computational load would have increased to squared or more…
Trie couldn’t help but be astonished by that immeasurable gap.
‘I never even imagined winning with magic in the first place.’
She felt a bit of despair at that endless wall, but it was fine.
Even if she couldn’t win with magic, she could just defeat him with swordsmanship.
Even with the small penalty of gravity magic, her skills were enough to easily overwhelm a low-level knight, so she thought she could sufficiently win.
Until she directly clashed swords with Schlus.
There was no longer any excess in his movements.
Every action had its own basis and was executed quickly and boldly.
When the sword was thrust at her neck, even Trie had to admit it.
Schlus had already approached the level of an advanced knight…
Going from a beginner level to an advanced knight level in just 1 month.
It was an astonishing growth rate, so much so that it wouldn’t be surprising if he surpassed Trie in a few years.
“Did I finally lose a round…?”
Trie smiled bitterly and acknowledged it.
Although she won in the end by using a despicable trick, she knew well that it was just by force.
In the end, when using all means including magic, she had only confirmed that she was far inferior to Schlus in terms of combat ability.
Would he also impart tips on this kind of battle magic after the midterm exams?
Trie felt her heart pounding.
“By the way, a lady…?”
Trie suddenly stopped, recalling Schlus’ words from earlier.
Until now, no one who saw Trie wielding a sword had called her a lady.
Everyone only saw her as a knight. There was no lady there.
She thought Schlus would think the same way.
That made sense because hadn’t she mercilessly beaten him up?
Even if he was in the position of learning, there was no way he didn’t harbor any resentment after being beaten up like that.
So this time, she thought she would get hit hard at least once, but…
-I couldn’t bring myself to leave a scar on a lady’s body.
It was a reaction she never expected.
“Who would be happy with that? Ha, seriously… It’s absurd…”
Seeing the opponent as a woman during a duel.
She should feel offended.
No, beyond that, she should be annoyed.
Strangely, Trie’s face was flushed red and the corners of her mouth were twitching.
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one heroine have a crush on MC
I felt this infatuation was clean, I would love it but I know that a couple between the two of them would be difficult
One who has a crush on him, one who’s very rapidly developing a crush, one who’s ??????, and one who’s going to kill him (by old age).
I’m liking this lineup so far
Thanks for the chapter 😁