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Chapter 34 – Entrance Examination – part 4

「What?」

「I am a magic swordsman.」

「I can tell just by looking. Even though it’s not heavy battlefield gear, your shoulder pads, chest armor, and swords…are all first-class magic equipment. Plus, the quality of the magic supplied by the caster exceeds what the equipment requires. Well, looks like you can use fire and ice freely.」

「Hou, you can tell what kind of equipment I’m wearing? You’re knowledgeable for a villager.」

Well, he probably doesn’t know anything about the item I’m equipped with.
If you put a price on these shabby-looking clothes, it alone could fetch several year’s worth of a large country… but well, it’s fine.

「So, what’s the deal?」

「I placed in the top three of the swordsmanship tournament in the capital. Not as a magic swordsman, but as a pure swordsman.」

After all is said and done, this is a prestigious school.
Well, it is a matter of course since this school is chosen as the educational institution for Cordelia, the Hero of the North.

Therefore, if someone has passed the scholarship course, then… it’s only natural that this BonBon has some degree of skill.

「…You are beating around the bush. So, what your point?」

「I’ll give you a handicap.」

「…Handicap?」

「I won’t use magic. I’ll only use my swordsmanship. And you, Villager… you can do whatever you want. You can try and the just lose to me embarrassingly.」

Then the magic swordsman winked at Lilith.

「So…Lilith-chan should just forget about the Villager and fall in love with me.」
Lilith’s blood ran cold.

「…I’m getting goosebumps.」

Lilith slumped down where she was, showing her deep disgust.

Well, anyway…

「I see. A handicap… then, I’ll give you some mercy, too.」

「Mercy?」

I nodded slowly to the magic swordsman, who looked bewildered.
I raised one finger from my right hand.

「Ahh. It’s mercy. I won’t use any weapons… I’ll finish it with this.」

「… What do you mean by that?」

「You’ll see soon enough.」

Then, the examiner standing outside the circle takes a deep breath.
The distance between me and the magic swordsman holding a wooden training sword is about three meters.
And then, the examiner shouts out loudly.

「Begin!」

At the same time with the examiner’s voice, the nobleman raises his training sword up.
The training sword is made out of wood covered with shock-absorbing material like a sponge.
And even though safety measures are taken, it is not uncommon to have bone fractures even in a somewhat moderated swordsmanship match.

The nobleman mercilessly strikes down with his sword towards the top of my head without holding back.

To be fair, this guy’s sword skills are on par with a skilled swordsman in general.
And he is handling his sword better than I did when I was twelve.

The training sword is also reasonably hard since it’s made out of wood.
It’s like hitting someone’s head with a wooden bat wrapped in sponges at full speed.
If an ordinary person were hit by such an attack, they would likely die.

Well. for me, it’s more like a yawn.

「Here we go.」

Shifting my body, I easily avoided the attack. And my opponent’s face is filled with astonishment at the same time.
In contrast, I smile and place my right middle finger and thumb together.

ーthe target is BonBon’s chin.

Without using any physical enhancement technique, I flick using my right hand with my stats in their natural state.
With a snap, my dekopin lands on BonBon’s chin.

He seems to be completely unable to react to my speed.
He probably can’t even see the shadow of my dekopin.

As I didn’t use any physical enhancement technique and didn’t break the sound barrier, Cordelia probably could have easily dodged it.

「On a scale of 1 to 100… I’d give you a 15. In the Dragon Village, you’d be lucky to get one or maybe two golden threads. You’re not even at the level where I would speak to you.」

「What?」

The magic swordsman has a bewildered expression.
Without even knowing what had happened, Bonbonーshowed the whites of his eyes while standing.

It’s a concussion.

His chin is probably shaken by my flick in a bad way, and looks like his brain got shaked inside his skull.
Naturally, the rich kid fell to the ground like a cut puppet.

A commotion arose.
It’s no wonder though, since a candidate had actually defeated a scholarship student… or so I thought.

I soon realized that I wasn’t the cause of the commotion.

In one corner of the crowd that had surrounded me until a moment ago, a path opened up like in the legend of Moses parting the Red Sea.

「I finally found youuuuuuuu!」

With a tremendous amount of energy and a scream, a red-haired girl ran straight toward me along the path.

Her hair was still as beautiful as ever. My cheeks relaxed at the sight of my childhood friend, Cordelia Allston, whose hair fluttered all the way down to her waist.

She braked on her full-speed dash while flinging her red hair, and with a demonic expression, she opened her mouth and said,

「Where have you been wandering around for all these years?! Stupid Lute!」

Her skin is pure white.
Her hair, shining in the sunlight, is a deep crimson.
Her deep-blue eyes are deeper than the see, and far bluer than any clear sky.

She was far more artfully complete than any painting displayed in an art museum.

ーThe girl I was before returning from death was 15 years old, but the girl now is 16.

She is an unfinished blue fruit, but she definitely matured into a mature adult for a year since then.
She is so beautiful that I let out a sigh of admiration.

「How many years has it been? You’ve become so beautiful, Cordelia.」

「… Eh?」

The distance between me and Cordelia is about one meter.
After gazing at each other for a while, her fierce expression disappeared, and Cordelia blushed with her snow white cheeks covered in bright red.

「… Eh? Just now… You… said that I’m beautiful…?」

Cordelia asked me that, and I nodded in agreement.

「Ahh, you’ve become beautiful. Really.」

Cordelia’s cheeks loosened and her eyes became watery. Then, she shook her head from side to side.

「…. That-」

「Hm?」

「… Like that… I’m not easily fooled… Nn… like that!」

*ZukaZuka* Cordelia started walking towards me.
She stands before me and thenー

ーA sharp, dry sound echoes.

A clean slap lands on my cheek. While I’m dumbfounded, wondering what’s going on, Cordelia, as she holds back tears, said,

「How many years has it been? Since the Evil Dragon? You left the village on your own without a word… Do you have any idea how worried I was? Do you know how lonely I was!?」

That hurts… I rub my cheek. She used all her physical strengthening skills, so it was a full power slap…
Seriously, it hurts… She should have held back a bit.

If I was an ordinary person, my head would have come off. Well, Cordelia probably did that because it’s me.

「…I know. Well, how to say it… It’s been a while.」

A blue streak ran through Cordelia’s forehead. Then she slaps me again.

「You don’t know! You definitely don’t know!」

No, even if you say that I don’t know…

Cordelia’s words continued, half crying.

「How much I wanted to see you… How lonely I was…」

At that moment, LIlith intervenes between Cordelia and me.
To Cordelia who is still confused, Lilith asks,

「… You are Lute’s childhood friend… is that correct?」

As expected, Cordelia still couldn’t hide her confusion.