Iris vs Art

He shook his head in disappointment. After all that, she had missed her throw.

Not just him, others had similar thoughts.

He took the sword from his lap and stretched it out to Charles. Charles was hesitant, staring at Iris, whose gaze was unwavering.

Looking back at Art, who still had the sword stretched out, he said, “As much as I would like to spar with her, I think she wants someone else.”

Art, a little confused, looked toward Iris. He glanced behind him to see no one before looking back at her with furrowed eyebrows. Without a doubt, she was staring at him.

‘What’s with her? Why me?’ He looked at the sword he was holding before closing his eyes to make a decision.

‘Hmmm. This might be a good opportunity. I’ll make them believe I’m still very weak, thereby raising the face-slapping to greater heights,’ he chuckled slightly, a small smile forming, which confused Charles.

When his eyes opened, they were burning with determination as he stood up and walked toward the arena.

“What the hell? Why did she choose him?”

“Tell me about it. She hasn’t sparred with anyone for over a month, and when she does, she chooses this guy.”

“True, he has improved beyond our expectations in physical appearance, but would it also be the case for his strength?”

“By the look in his eyes, it seems that way.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon.”

Different voices muttered as he walked into the arena. Charles believed there was more to this. Maybe she was seeing something he couldn’t. So he focused all his attention on what was about to happen, not planning to miss any detail.

Frigga was also here, and he just watched all this quietly.

Art arrived at the center of the arena, a few meters away from Iris, with the same determination in his eyes and an unwavering grip on the hilt of the sword.

With a deeper voice than usual, he spoke up.

“What is this about?”

After staying quiet for a few seconds, she moved her lips to speak, and this was the first time he was hearing her voice.

“You…”

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for what she wanted to say.

“Why did you barge into my room the other day? Do you know that it could’ve affected the true weapon I received?”

‘Barge into her… Oh! That time. Hell! She hasn’t forgotten about that. So she didn’t approach me about it all this time for fear of affecting what kind of true weapon she would’ve gotten. They must really take that crap seriously.’

He cleared his throat before speaking up. “Look, that was an accident. I believe I explained that earlier.”

“Explained? That never happened,” she frowned slightly.

“I didn’t?” He placed his hand on his jaw in thought.

Her mouth twitched slightly as she saw the casual expression on his face.

“But there’s one thing I do remember,” he said with a hint of disappointment on his face.

“And what is that?” she asked, feeling a little anxious.

“You should change your taste in design. That was a…” He was interrupted by the clutching sound of her sword.

“Come,” she said, taking a fighting stance with a tint of red on her face. Whether it was due to anger or embarrassment was unknown to him, but he cast it aside and also took a fighting stance.

Their voices were low, so the others didn’t hear what they discussed, and they were itching to find out.

Everyone watched as the two opponents stared intensely at each other. Surprisingly, even to themselves, they were looking forward to a fight by Art—someone who had been their weakest.

Well, that was what they could’ve said a few weeks ago, but now he felt different, and they wanted to see what he could do, especially against someone like Iris.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” Art let out a battle scream, something they didn’t expect, as he ran toward Iris.

He had his sword raised, leaving him wide open—something not even an amateur would do—and the way he ran was sloppy, with a silly expression on his face.

The way he charged in was ridiculous, but they didn’t judge yet—that was until he began to attack her.

Every slash he sent out wasn’t precise and barely had any strength. Even though his movements were sloppy, he was still impressed that she could dodge them all, barely moving from her spot.

Iris had no problem dodging every strike. This went on for some time before she slashed her sword, which he managed to block, but the sheer strength made him skid backward.

He gritted his teeth while running forward, of course, not forgetting another battle scream. This time, after dodging his attack, she kicked him in the back, causing him to stumble.

The people watching couldn’t help but stare at him in pity, wondering why they had even expected something from him in the first place.

Frigga was the one enjoying himself the most. He wished he was the one sparring with Art. Even though he had mocked and insulted him, he had avoided harming him physically in any way, as it wouldn’t be good for him if he were the cause of Art’s death.

Seeing Art recover had brought great annoyance to him, but now he realized that his thoughts had been in a box.

If Art got better, his dream of beating him up over and over again was becoming a reality. He couldn’t wait.

The excitement coursing through his veins caused him to lick his lips.

Before Art could charge forward this time, she was the one who advanced first. Before he could react, her sword was already pointing at his neck as he fell to the ground, sweat dripping from his face and his hands trembling as he stared at her like she was a monster.

She looked into his frightened eyes with a neutral expression before retracting her sword and walking away.

Art watched her walk away while wiping the sweat from his head with a relieved sigh. Some people stared at him in disgust. How could someone be so weak and cowardly?

A girl with long, straight silver hair—trimmed at the front—and sky-blue eyes walked toward him. As she reached where he sat, she stared at him for a few seconds before speaking up.

“Are you okay?”

Art nodded slightly, still seeming terrified by Iris’ last action.

The girl in front of him was Jasmine, and she was number 5 in the rankings, so she was obviously very strong.

She had always thought of Iris as a rival, even though the latter didn’t feel the same way. She had been trying to get Iris to fight her again after their last match, which had happened over a month ago and ended in her loss, but her efforts had been in vain.

She found it weird how Iris had just challenged him out of the blue like that and believed that something was up.

But even after watching their fight—if it could even be called that—she still decided to see him up close to see if she could figure something out. Now, she realized she might have been overthinking things.

After seeing him nod, she walked away. Art stood up and began to walk away. They didn’t hide their disappointment and mocking gazes.

On the outside, he seemed depressed and downcast, but internally, he had a big smile.

‘Step 1 completed.’