17 Arcadien (2)

Gasps echoed from all around after I requested a duel with Hissen. He now had no way to back out or he would humiliate himself.

Perfect.

"I..I accept!"

Hissen narrowed his eyes before grabbing the sword on his hip with trembling hands.

"..Don't think you w..ill get away just be..because you're an Azelio! Everyone is equal in this academy."

I raised an eyebrow at his ridiculous remark, questioning whether he was trying to do a job or if he was just delusional.

"Are you an idiot? You just bullied a beast-human and called her 'filth', you moron."

"That doesn't have anything to do with my status!"

"Yeah, yeah."

I rolled my eyes, giving up talking to him.

"Let's just start this duel."

Immediately, he took the chance and lunged at me, extending his sword to strike at me.

CLING—!

"Pathetic."

His attack felt sloppy at best. Almost like he had only picked up the sword just some time ago.

Hissen grit his teeth before pulling his sword back, unleashing a barrage of uncalculated attacks.

However, although it was a nice try, he just sucked way too much.

Even without [Reading], I could see tons of gaps in his form and quickly took advantage of it, parrying his sword.

Staggering, he took a few steps back, but I didn't let him take any rest.

With my free right hand, I jolted forward, grabbing him by the face before slamming him to the ground.

SLAM—!

Cracks appeared on the ground as he spat out his saliva.

"Disgusting."

Just like his saliva, his face, which I still grabbed, froze.

I released my grip on his face and grabbed him by his collar instead. Kneeling down beside him, I pulled him toward me.

"Don't talk like you're big if you're nothing more than trash."

"..."

Freeze—

Instead of answering, I could hear something freezing beneath my feet. Looking down, there was a puddle of yellow liquid, which emitted a disgusting stench.

Laughter broke out among the crowds as they saw what I did.

"D..Did you just wet yourself...?"

Immediately, I let him go, jumping back to evade that puddle of piss.

"You dirtied my shoes. How gross..."

For a while I watched Hissen, waiting for him to respond or even retaliate, but instead, he buried his face in his hands, sitting in his piss, as he trembled in shame.

Not very surprising, to be honest.

I would've reacted that way too if I embarrassed myself like that in front of a crowd.

"I really use grabs way too often.."

Whispering to myself, I stepped back, vanishing into the crowd after I'd done my work.

There was no need to gather any more attention.

Dissolving my ice rapier, I proceeded to walk up the hill to the Arcadien academy, reflecting on the realization I had a while ago.

The way I fought seemed to be different from the Imperial style I'd learned. In addition to that, I gradually began to realize that the Imperial style just felt way too clunky for me, as it was an art solely focused on basic swords.

I've switched to the rapier a while ago, after realizing that they just felt more comfortable and 'right' in my hands.

Maybe I should try to learn a new art sometime?

Although that would surely be a hassle.

"Uhm..."

A voice from behind snapped me out of my thoughts, causing me to turn around to see whose voice it was.

It was the girl I'd saved just a moment ago.

"...I.I wanted to thank you for saving me.."

She fiddled around with her fingers, averting her gaze, as she was not able to look me in the eye.

It seemed like she was the shy type of person.

"I didn't do it for you."

I said in a cold voice, before turning around again and proceeding to keep walking.

"..Still! Thank you!"

I could still hear her voice faintly in the background, before that too, drowned into nothingness with increasing distance.

***

***

I was now sitting on a bank somewhere on the campus of Arcadien.

The theoretical part of the exam would begin soon in only about half an hour and I had nothing to do, so I just sat down somewhere, waiting until the exam finally began.

The school campus really was huge and there was everything you needed there.

From cafes to shops, and even a whole forest to hunt.

My expectations were blown away by the variety. I had expected it to be huge, but not this huge.

It was even larger than the land of the Azelio, which was quite an impressive feat if I must say so myself.

Speaking of expectations, there was something that certainly didn't meet them.

Namely. my current combat skills.

I had already guessed that I would become a bit rusty after not picking up a sword for 3 years, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.

In my first and only year as an adventurer, I quickly switched my weapon to a rapier, but I had never thought about learning another sword art, as my current one sufficed just fine.

However, after that long pause in which I spent all my time with educating myself with political, historical, and other aristocratic stuff, I barely had any time to pick up my sword, let alone train.

The Imperial arts just felt wrong in my hands...

No, rather than wrong...it was lackluster.

After not swinging my sword for a long while, I realized that it felt unnecessarily hard for me to fight.

The movements just felt clunky, even though I executed them perfectly.

Should I learn other arts?

That would be a hassle, though.

Most people barely master even one weapon art they have, and the only reason why I could master the Imperial arts in only 4 years was because of a combination of [Reading] and [Studying].

What if I spend all my time learning another art, only to realize it wasn't the right one for me?

Massaging my temples, I released a sigh, feeling the arrival of an incoming headache.

I probably shouldn't worry about such things right now, as my skills were certainly above the average of the students, but I just couldn't help but feel anxious about not exploiting my full potential.

"Are you the Azelio girl?"

A rough male voice snapped me out of my thoughts, causing me to turn my head to its owner.

A tool boy was towering over me, casting a shadow on me.

"Yes, I am. Is there any reason why you're asking?"

"The girl you saved earlier."

He stopped for a second while his firm eyes lingered on me.

I would have suspected he was about to attack me if there hadn't been a single sign of aggression in his body language.

Still, his serious expression, combined with his deep voice, seemed slightly intimidating to me.

However, contrary to my expectations, he bowed down at a 90-degree angle.

"Thank you for saving my little sister, Lady Azelio."

Oh, that was the reason why he looked so familiar to me.

Dark, tanned skin and deep black hair. Sharp yellow eyes that looked like they belong to a predator and black cat ears.

They really looked like siblings.

Judging from his clothing, he seemed to be a student at the academy, as he wore the academy uniform.

A second year, perhaps?

I probably should make a good impression on my seniors, as they could be useful to me in the future.

"Don't worry about that. I primarily did it to teach the Steiner heir a lesson."

Smiling, I slightly tilted my head.

The perfect smile that I had spent months practicing created a sense of approachableness and distance at the same time.

All my hard work was paying off now.

"A lesson?"

I nodded before releasing a deep sigh.

"Yes, due to such idiotic aristocrats, our whole reputation gets ruined. You also have prejudices against the aristocrat, don't you?"

"...I wouldn't formulate it like that..."

The guy averted his gaze before speaking in a slightly awkward tone.

"You don't have to be so stiff with me."

I laughed at his behavior, finding it to be weirdly cute.

Everybody who crossed part with aristocrats possessed at least any kind of bias against them. However, nobody ever dares to say that to them in their face, as they feared getting punished.

Cornering people to tell me about their true thoughts and forcing them to tell me, one of the highest ranking aristocrats, their true opinion about us was always a fun thing to do.

They reminded me of panicked bunnies whenever they were confronted with my questions, which I found very endearing.

It just made me want to tease and bully them.

"...truthfully, I think that all aristocrats are disgusting pigs and assholes."

"That's understandable."

I had expected something like that answer, as beast-humans were the ones who have it the worst when it comes to aristocrats.

The bad ones don't even see them as humans and as such, enslave, kill, or even sexually abuse them as much as they liked.

What primitive behavior.

"It is?"

The boy widened his eyes, looking at me with a surprised expression.

I nodded in response.

"Not really surprising. The bad ones will always stick out, so it is our own duty to stop them."

"And how will you do that?"

Releasing a light chuckle, I let out some pressure, lowering the temperature of my surrounding area by a few degrees.

"By eradicating them, of course."

"Wha— ?"

"Just joking."

I quickly dissolved my mana while giggling softly.

"Seriously, you should've seen your face."

DING-DONG—

Our short conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the bell, signaling the start of the first part of the exam.

"Oh, I have to go now. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"..It was a pleasure to meet you too."

Saying our goodbyes, I quickly ran off to the main building of the academy, where the theoretical exam will be held.

The bell came quite in clutch, as I could already feel how my social energy was getting drained by that quick conversation.

I was sure that if I had a display of social energy, it would look like this: 'social energy: 0/5'.

Although I had learned how to converse with other people and improve my social skills by leap, it was still way too taxing to actually talk with people.

Well, at least I had built up some connections before even entering the academy, so that was a big plus, I guess.

Still, for some reason, it felt like I had forgotten to do something.

Something very crucial....

Wait.

....

My eyes widened at the realization of what I had forgotten to do.

"I didn't ask for his name, did I?"