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Among the subjects we took as part of our classes, there were also basic liberal arts studies, and history was one of them.

“About 30 years ago, along with the birth of the Demon King, the demons of Altera launched a large-scale invasion.”

I rested my chin on my desk and listened to the assistant professor in charge of the class.

The topic of this history class was none other than the demons.

“The demons’ first target was the Santea Empire Union, which is directly adjacent to their territory. Humanity quickly fell into a dire situation before the wicked and powerful forces of the demons. However, there was a person who saved humanity from this unprecedented crisis. Who was it?”

It was a question that even a young child could answer. Some students responded.

“Yes, it was the hero, Aindel. With the power of the Holy Sword bestowed by the gods, the hero annihilated the demons who invaded Santea and ultimately succeeded in sealing the Demon King, the demons’ leader. After the war ended, the power structure of the continent quickly changed…”

As someone who was already well-versed in the world of RaSa, the contents were not particularly interesting to me.

Perhaps due to the nature of liberal arts education, they taught only the major events without going into detail.

“Esca, have you ever actually met the hero?”

“What? Of course not.”

“Ran, what about you?”

At Kaen’s question, I shook my head.

“I haven’t either.”

“Really? I’d like to meet her once. I’m curious about what kind of person she is.”

I smirked at that.

I wondered what her reaction would be once the hero revealed her identity to her?

It’s probably not a good idea to talk uselessly, but I was suddenly curious, so I asked.

“Kaen.”

“Yeah?”

“If, let’s say, you were born with the destiny to save the world like the hero, what would you do?”

Kaen and Esca looked at me with eyes that seemed to say, ‘What random talk is this?’

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I’m just imagining. I was wondering what you would do if you had to sacrifice everything to save the world.”

“Ran, you have some unique thoughts…”

Esca’s reaction seemed somewhat positive, while Kaen appeared surprisingly serious, considering the question.

After contemplating for a while, she answered.

“I don’t really know. I can’t figure it out. I guess I won’t know until I actually face that situation.”

“…”

“So, Ran, what about you?”

I shrugged my shoulders and replied.

“Well, I don’t want to be a hero at the expense of my own life. What’s the point if I die?”

***

Class Henrietta’s second hand-to-hand combat class was no different from the first.

“Now, students, step forward.”

In response to Professor Gaon’s words, a student immediately walked to the center of the training ground.

Vaion Lexio, representing the newly enrolled students in the Swordsmanship Department.

When he stepped forward, no other students followed suit.

Professor Gaon glanced around with a look of disappointment at the students, who only watched and hesitated.

She was about to choose his opponent when Vaion spoke up.

“Professor, may I choose my opponent?”

“Hmm?”

The direction Vaion’s gaze turned to was right where Rigon stood.

In response, Professor Gaon gave him an intrigued look.

Had he already anticipated this outcome? Even if not, she had been thinking of pairing the two up soon.

It’s obvious which side will win…

Professor Gaon smirked and nodded.

“Alright. Whom should we nominate?”

“Rigon, please.”

“Rigon, come forward.”

Rigon scratched the back of his head and walked towards Vaion from the opposite side.

Before the duel began, Vaion spoke to him.

“Give it your all from the beginning, Rigon.”

“Huh?”

“I hope you don’t let your guard down and make the duel end up being trivial.”

Vaion gripped his sword with a serious demeanor that didn’t match his age.

Rigon also smiled lightly, took his stance, and replied.

“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”

As soon as the duel started, Vaion charged fiercely.

Rigon hesitated whether to dodge or block the attacking strikes that seemed like they would split his forehead, but he chose to block.

Vaion’s eyes twitched at Rigon’s gesture of raising the sword with one hand. Even after witnessing his own power in the previous class, he still approached the situation in this manner.

“I told you not to let your guard down!”

With the intention of completely breaking down his opponent’s stance, Vaion put all his strength into his downward strike.

Clang!

With a loud noise, Vaion’s sword came to a sudden stop.

“…!”

Vaion stared at the interlocked blades in disbelief.

Instead of crumbling, Rigon flawlessly blocked the full-force attack without any signs of movement.

No matter how hard he tried, Rigon’s one-handed blade didn’t budge.

For Vaion, who had never been pushed back by a peer through sheer strength alone, it was a great shock.

“Your strength is no joke. My hand is completely numb.”

After deflecting the sword, Rigon began his counterattack.

Vaion immediately assumed a defensive stance against the sword strikes aimed at his legs.

The blades met again at the bottom. Rigon took a step forward, attempting to pull the interlocked blades toward him.

Vaion, who almost lost his grip on the sword, withdrew while retrieving it.

The initiative instantly shifted to Rigon.

Even after that, Vaion continuously retreated while blocking the fierce sword strikes.

He couldn’t understand. Why were the seemingly light sword strikes so heavy?

It’s strong.

When Vaion first witnessed Rigon’s sparring, that’s what he first thought.

Perhaps among the first-year students, only this guy could be his match.

But it was a misconception.

His opponent was stronger than him. Vaion had no choice but to acknowledge that fact.

Even now, though the other had enough strength to overpower him, Vaion knew that Rigon was only relying on his swordsmanship for the battle. He didn’t even seem to be exerting his full power.

The outcome was obvious at this rate.

Vaion clenched his teeth and concentrated his mana on the blade of his sword.

The victory or defeat didn’t matter anymore. He wanted to collide with this guy with all his might.

“…?”

Rigon took a step back when he saw the sword energy pulsating in Vaion’s blade. The watching students also murmured in awe.

For ordinary students, witnessing sword techniques used by knights was a rare sight.

Rigon looked towards Professor Gaon, who was standing nearby.

He looked to see if it was okay to use the sword technique, but she didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping the duel.

“You should use sword techniques too, Rigon!”

Vaion swung the sword adorned with sword energy. If he tried to block the sword wrapped with sword energy with an ordinary sword, it would break.

However, Rigon did not use sword techniques. He did not evade the attack either.

The moment the two blades met, Rigon skillfully deflected Vaion’s sword by tilting his own blade.

Vaion’s sword struck the ground in vain, while Rigon’s sword rested against his neck.

“Ah, what a pity. It’s a half-success, I suppose.”

Vaion, lost in thought, gazed at Rigon’s sword.

The impact had damaged the edge of the blade, and there were scratches and wear.

“Huh…”

Professor Gaon, who had her hand on the sword hilt, also looked at Rigon with an incredulous expression.

When Rigon attempted to block Vaion’s attack head-on, she had been surprised and tried to step forward.

Even so, attempting to deflect a sword adorned with sword energy using a regular sword was absurd. More incredulous than that, he had succeeded.

If the sword he’s using had been a more durable sword instead of a training sword, it would have probably remained intact.

What a ridiculous fellow.

Professor Gaon declared with a smirk.

“The duel is over. Rigon won.”

“Professor, but my sword is on the verge of breaking…”

“Don’t worry about it. The student is not responsible for any accidents during the training.”

Rigon let out a sigh of relief in his mind, thinking that he didn’t have to pay for compensation.

Before returning to his seat, Vaion asked Rigon.

“Why did you block it instead of using your sword technique?”

“Huh?”

“With your skills, you could have overwhelmed me easily. Did you want to insult me?”

Rigon tilted his head to the side.

“What are you talking about? I just thought I could do it, so I gave it a try.”

“…Did you forget that the results of the training are included in your grades? Did you gamble just for that reason?”

“I don’t really care about grades. Dueling with you was quite enjoyable. That’s all.”

Upon hearing his words, Vaion stared at Rigon and slowly approached, extending his hand.

“I’m Vaion Lexio.”

“Yeah, I know…”

“I also know your name, Rigon.”

Thinking that he was an unusual guy, Rigon shook his hand.

***

After morning classes, I headed to the cafeteria and found Rigon with someone.

Somehow, I could quickly recall who the person was by his familiar face and imposing physique.

He must have been the other freshman representative…

I had never seen Rigon hanging out with others.

Kaen and Esca looked at each other in confusion.

“What’s with that huge guy? He’s wearing a school uniform, so he must be a student, right?”

Rigon waved at us when he discovered us.

“Who is this, Rigon?”

“He’s a classmate. He wants to have lunch with us, don’t you mind?”

Kaen let out an exclamation.

“Of course I don’t mind, but more than that, does this mean Rigon finally has a friend?”

The male student looked us over and spoke.

“It’s Vaion Lexio. Are you all students of the Magic Department?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“That’s surprising.”

It’s probably surprising that all the friends of a student from the Swordsmanship Department were from the Magic Department.

Anyway, just like that, we had a new addition to our table.

We sat down and had a meal while exchanging stories with Vaion.

“…And that’s how I lost to Rigon. I thought it would be a good target point, so I wanted to become friends with Rigon.”

“Hmm, I see. But aren’t you wary of Rigon? You do know Rigon is from the Calderic, right?”

“What does his background have to do with anything? I don’t mind that kind of thing.”

“Thanks, but you know that the other students avoid me, right? If you hang out with me, they might avoid you too, Vaion.”

Vaion blinked at that.

“It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t have any other friends besides Rigon. Everyone else is just boring.”

Kaen burst into laughter at his words.

“Hey, I like you. Let’s be close from now on.”

As we were having this conversation, suddenly everyone’s gaze turned to one side.

Some students were causing a commotion in a corner of the restaurant, and among them, I saw a familiar face. It was Lea.

“Hey, aren’t you going to apologize? You made food splatter all over my clothes!”

The person Lea was having a conflict with turned out to be an upperclassman, not a first-year student.

At a glance, it seemed that they got into an argument because the upperclassman bumped into Lea and food splattered onto her clothes.

Lea didn’t seem concerned about confronting the two upperclassmen.

“I was just standing still, and it was the seniors who bumped into me. Do I have a reason to apologize?”

“This arrogant girl is really…”

Unable to say anything more in the face of her cold gaze, the upperclassmen muttered a few more curses and backed off.

The surrounding students observed the scene and started whispering.

“Isn’t she a new student? Why are the third-year students so afraid of her and backing off?”

“Don’t you know who she is? It’s Lea Herwyn.”

Esca asked Vaion quietly.

“Hey, Vaion. You’re the freshman representative of the Swordsmanship Department, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then you know Lea too, right? You stood together on the podium during the entrance ceremony.”

“We know each other to some extent. Our families have some connections. But we’re not particularly close.”

Vaion added a remark.

“She’s also my target. Besides Rigon, she’s the only one around my age whom I’ve lost to.”

Kaen chimed in with interest.

“Oh, really? She’s in the same class as us. I saw her during the classes, and she seemed strong.”

“She is.”

While having our meal, we continued such casual conversations.

I thought it would be just the four of us throughout my academy life here, but it seemed that one more member had been added.