Sword Maiden, You Can't Rest Yet

"How many minutes has it been?"

"96 minutes. Did anyone count the swings?"

"I was the first to start counting. When I counted to 1,700, I happened to see her sword cut into the seventh ring and was stunned for a while. I only knew that it's about 2,400 strokes now."

When Celia opened the door of the training ground, she saw an incredible scene—the swordplay apprentices, who usually squandered their sweat and youth, had all thrown down their training swords and were clustered together, discussing something.

She thought that they were watching her boyfriend, Felix, and wondered if Felix had successfully summoned his "Wave Sword" spell spirit.

With that thought, she hurriedly took two steps forward, thinking about where to celebrate later.

At the Amber Original Club? Or the Golden Harbor Bar?

But Felix must be very tired now. Why not just go straight back to his house and "get some rest" with him? Felix had known her for so long, and yet he had been holding himself back from taking things to the next level all this while. Celia felt that she should take the initiative.

However, when Celia walked into the crowd, she realized that she was wrong—because she found that her arrogant and handsome boyfriend, Felix, was behaving just like any other ordinary bystander, staring blankly ahead with an expression of surprise on his face.

Following their line of sight, Celia realized that there was a girl even more beautiful than herself in the training ground. She had a casual ponytail, a fair and smooth neck, and a delicate face without makeup. Even the beads of sweat on it gave off a pearly luster.

They were enemies, and they were analogues. Celia sensed it at once, even without the girl saying a single word.

Although she appeared to be without makeup, she had actually used a lot of makeup skills to disguise her "first love" makeup. Although she looked casual in her clothes, it perfectly exposed her neck and wrists. It looked simple, but it perfectly embellished her beauty… If she had not specially researched and prepared it, how could she have disguised such a nearly perfect "dream goddess" image that struck all the men as pleasurable?

She was a hunter too!

At that thought, Celia's eyes narrowed. Ignoring Felix's sweat, she moved to take his arm.

In her opinion, there was no better prey than Felix in the entire training ground, or rather, the entire Sword Flower University.

Even if the Truth University was included, Felix was still one of the most valuable trophies. As long as she could get the surname Vosloda, it would bring endless benefits to Celia.

She had been planning for Felix for a long time. Despite knowing that Felix was a playboy, she was confident that she could rein this wild horse.

If used well, being unfaithful might not even be a bad thing—as long as she could attain the identity of his wife, Celia wouldn't mind if his cheating at all.

After all that work, harvest season had finally arrived. Felix was planning to introduce her to the Duke of Volosda during his birthday banquet. Now, someone suddenly wanted to intercept her prey? No way!

"Felix, what are you looking at?" Celia asked nonchalantly. "I didn't know there's such a beautiful junior in the School of Swordmastery."

"Senior, you're here." Only now did Felix realize that Celia had arrived, but he did not even look at her for a second, as if he could only see the girl who was training. "She's… she's not from the School of Swordmastery. She's a freshman from the School of Water Sorcery. Her name is Sonia Sevey."

He even knew her name and grade already… Celia felt a growing sense of danger. She wished she could drag Felix away at once, but she also knew the principle of playing hard to get. Pretending to be curious, she asked, "Why are you all watching her train? Because she's beautiful?"

"No… not just…" Felix shook his head. "You're not an apprentice in the School of Swordmastery. I don't know how to explain it to you."

"I minored in the School of Swordmastery for a few months in my first year. I only gave up because I was more talented in the School of Water Sorcery." Celia snorted. "Besides, you're a genius in the School of Swordmastery. With your explanation, how can I possibly not understand?"

"Well, then I'll give a simple explanation," Felix said. "An hour and a half ago, she was still a novice who couldn't even hold a sword properly. And now, she's already able to cut through the ninth ring of the armored dummy with one strike."

"She's probably pretending, right?" Celia didn't say this out of malice, but mainly because she had really practiced swordplay for a few months. She understood what this meant—even she could only reach the second circle, and her level was considered above average among the new students of the same batch.

"Although I thought so before… I'd even say that I would prefer to think so. That's why I watched her train. I was hoping to see her reach a bottleneck. I was expecting to see her make no further progress… But now, after an hour and a half, my petty jealousy has turned to full admiration."

It was hard for Celia to imagine that Felix could say such humble and sincere words. Even when talking about his father, the Star Casting Duke, and his elder brother, Disme, he always spoke in an indifferent, dismissive tone.

However, he was actually showing admiration and curiosity for a girl he barely knew. This was a very dangerous signal—curiosity was often the vanguard of falling in love.

And he actually watched a girl for one and a half hours… one and a half hours?

He had been watching for one and a half hours, so the female hunter named Sonia had been training for one and a half hours!?

It was only then that Celia carefully observed Sonia's training movements: slide forward, swing her sword, strike the face. Steady as a rock and as fast as lightning… Her every move was completely in accordance with the "Guide to Sword Drills". She did not slack off at all and gave her best with every strike!

A normal person would need to rest for every few minutes of training. Felix could only train for three hours at most, with one hour of rest and relaxation. However, according to them, this girl actually trained for more than an hour continuously, and she never stopped in between!?

This explained why they were all watching—compared to the beautiful girls, this group of strong men whose minds were filled with sword techniques were probably more curious about how they could possess such terrifying physical strength.

But after watching for a while, Celia melted into the crowd, unable to keep her eyes off Sonia's training posture.

Her movements were filled with the beauty of swordplay, the beauty of strength, and the beauty of a young girl. What was even more terrifying was that she seemed to be improving with every passing second. Every time she swung her sword, she would be stronger, more precise, and more skillful than before.

This was an art—an art of swordplay.

At that moment, Celia admitted defeat willingly.

If the girl named Sonia was really aiming for Felix, there was almost no chance she could win.

She was well aware of Felix's obsession with swordplay. If her "smart and beautiful senior" could score 80 points in Felix's heart, then Sonia's "swordplay genius beauty" would score 150 points.

Clang!

The moment Sonia's wooden sword slashed into the 10th ring of the armored dummy, everyone gasped. The temperature in the training ground almost dropped—they had witnessed a miracle!

After two hours of non-stop training, someone who entered the door as a swordplay apprentice successfully cut into the tenth ring!!

Even if she did not do anything after that, as long as the timing arrived, she would trigger the resonance of the knowledge of the Illusory Realm, summon the sword spell spirit, step into the Illusory Realm, and become an Illusory Wing Sorcerer! It could take as fast as a second, or as slow as several months!

Not everyone in Sword Flower University could become a Sorcerer. The graduation rate had always hovered around 50%. Every graduating Illusory Wing Sorcerer had a bright future!

In other words, from this moment onwards, Sonia had no need to worry about making a living for the rest of her life!

At the same time, Sonia also put away her wooden sword, allowing everyone to put down the heavy burden in their hearts—this monster wearing the skin of a beautiful girl was finally tired.

If Sonia were to continue training, they would really have to wonder if there was any physical enhancement to wearing a female outfit. Although it was already ridiculous now—a full two hours, an average of two seconds per strike, thirty sword strikes per minute, and three thousand six hundred sword strikes in two hours… The number alone made the swordplay apprentices' scalps tingle.

At this moment, Ingrit, who was in the crowd, hurried over to hand over towels and cups, ready to help Sonia back to her dormitory.

When Sonia swung her sword a thousand times, Ingrit was already impressed by her. For the first time, she wanted to get closer to Sonia—how could a sword practitioner possibly have ill intentions?

"Sonia, you must be tired. Shall we return together?"

Ingrit only knew one way of getting close to people: returning together, going to the restroom together, eating together…

Sonia, who wished she could just lie down on the floor and melt, took the towel and wiped her mouth. She took a sip of water and smiled at Ingrit with relief. Just as she was about to agree, she suddenly felt a surge of energy in her limbs, filling her with energy again.

And her face suddenly froze, her gaze fixed on Felix in the crowd.

It was as if a hunter had found their prey.

The other apprentices secretly sighed. Celia bit her lower lip, not quite ready to accept defeat. Felix slightly raised his chin and smiled confidently at Sonia.

The reasons for these changes were heartwarming.

Because in Sonia's line of sight, the Observer was standing behind Felix.

This damnable little loudspeaker shook his finger and said, "Sword Maiden, you can't rest yet."

"Next," he said, pointing at Felix, "you're going to beat this man."