17 A Boring Fight

Emerlia, like her sister, had a freckled face and blonde hair. She was taller and more developed, but she reeked of immaturity. I'd seen expressions like hers before. I could already tell that, if this fight started, something bad would happen. There was no reason for these sisters to fight.

I started to make my way through the crowd of "passing" students towards the stage. Most of the students around me seemed extremely wary and quickly got out of my path. Normally I'd be upset but at this point I was considering it a good thing. If I bumped someone wrong or I ended up sneezing there was no telling what would happen. It was like their bodies were all made of glass. I think Superman once made a speech about living in a cardboard world… I always remembered thinking that speech was badass, but I never truly thought about how sad it was. Perhaps, in that world, the justice league was formed not for the good of mankind but so those at the top could finally be at ease and enjoy genuine friendships without worry of snapping someone in two.

The only way I could ever be comfortable around James or Lily is if I made them strong enough to stand at my level, or at least near my level… But wouldn't that just be isolating them from this world too? Did I really have a right to be that selfish? I couldn't just level them up, then. I needed to make an entire League of the Leveled. Honestly, it sounded tiresome but the thought excited me a bit. I should genuinely ask the two for their opinions, sometime later.

The first step, though, was definitely making it into this Academy to better learn my own strength… But if Lily -my only friend in this world right now- couldn't come with me, I'd rather just go off and learn on my own. I didn't want to isolate myself from society again, though. As I discovered over the last two days, without the internet, being alone really sucked. I'd probably go crazy holed up in a mountain somewhere. Especially now that I didn't have RED.

I arrived at the side of the stage around the same time as Lily. Her face wasn't pale anymore, though. In fact, she looked rather determined. I was a bit surprised by that. Was she acting or had she genuinely psyched herself up?

My train of thought was interrupted by a hand landing on my shoulder. My entire body screamed at me, but I stopped myself from flinching or lashing out. I could still clearly see the images of a man's body being ripped in two. I almost gagged.

"Let her go. She's been preparing for this," said James.

"James," I said in a quiet tone, "The last man who put his hand on me from behind is dead now."

The hand on my shoulder was immediately retracted.

"Oh shit… I'm sorry, Calliope," said James in a rushed voice. "I didn't mean to remind you of… Thank you for not hitting me."

This was the epitome of this world's youth. This brainless boy with curly brown hair and his father's chin was the highest leveled human here, barring Endyrion. This world was doomed.

"It's okay, James. Please, just tell me what's going on here between these two."

"Okay. Well, I don't know everything myself. Lily talked to me a bit yesterday. She said that Endyrion was probably going to pull something to test her. He was her master. She didn't know what kind of tricks the old fogey would use, but she was certain it'd be nasty."

"So Emerlia is here to test her sister?"

"I think Emerlia is here to hurt her sister judging by her expression. I think Endyrion allowed her to be here to test her sister," replied James.

Things were coming together then. The reason Lily was pale earlier probably had to do with the fact that she recognized what Endyrion's test was. I wonder what kind of relationship these sisters had. Either way, test or no test I wasn't going to let Lily get hurt.

"If this fight looks like it's going badly, I will stop it," I said to James.

"Calliope, please. Lily isn't as weak as you think she is. If you're really her friend, can you just put your trust in her? Don't interfere with this match. Did you see her expression, just now? That girl is pragmatic, I don't think she'd step onto that stage unless she had a plan to win."

Uhhg. Why was James so good at saying things that directly contradicted me in ways I agreed with? He was supposed to be the dumb farm boy from Eastrock. Don't tell me there was an actual brain underneath his skull? I could only take so many surprises in one day.

Endyrion cleared his throat.

"You may begin."

At the principal's words, the two princesses charged. They were both armed with a simple wooden sword and they met in the middle. I couldn't hear it, but it looked like they were saying something to each other.

Now that I thought about it, didn't most super powerful people get enhanced senses to go along with their bullshit powers? How come I didn't get any? If RED was here I'm certain he could tell me a way to get them. It was probably something as simple as directing mana to my eyes and ears… But I was a bit afraid to test it. The last thing I needed to do was detonate my eyeballs in the middle of a crowd. I was certain they'd heal back quickly due to my constitution stat, but it still sounded painful… And a bit nasty.

The fight continued in a rather boring fashion. There was only a single level difference between the two, so neither held too big of an advantage. I thought the entire crowd was waiting for their skills to begin showing up. I didn't know how [Analysis] could be useful in a fight like this, though. If Emerlia had a single combat oriented skill she'd probably beat Lily with ease… She might even do worse than just beat her. I really wanted to agree with what James said earlier, but if I thought the situation on stage was getting too dangerous I would step in.

I couldn't help but glance over at the old kook behind the podium. His expression was disgusting. He looked happy about watching children fight desperately over a slot to enter his Academy. Though, maybe I was just too ingrained in my old way of thinking. This world was a land of magic and battle. I needed to start coming to terms with it, but it was hard. I didn't even take the life of an assassin after he stabbed me through the throat. I just couldn't bring myself to do it consciously. If RED was still around he'd have eliminated that assassin before I could even wake up…

Did I really have to give up my sense of morality just because I was in a new world? I still thought, deep in my soul, that it was wrong to kill people. I wasn't a soldier. I wasn't a fighter in any sense. I never really put much thought into the death sentence in my last life either, but I could see the logic behind killing the killers. I could also see the argument against it, too. I supposed, until I came to this world, I was numb to it all. It wasn't a part of my life so I didn't care strongly one way or the other.

I couldn't afford to not care anymore. If I thought about it, the assassin who attacked me did it without any remorse. He had probably taken innocent lives before. Should I have killed him? The families of his previous victims would probably say yes. To be honest, I didn't really know how this country handled criminals either. They might just hang him anyway. If they did, then wouldn't I technically be responsible since I brought him in? … The whole topic just hurt me. I didn't want to kill anyone but I didn't think I'd mind if the country hanged murderers. Did that mean I was simply running away from my problems? Gaaaah! I shouldn't be worried about this right now. Still, I wished this princess duel wasn't so boring.

"They're both so strong," remarked one boy from the crowd. I wanted to laugh.

The two sisters still had yet to use anything Skill related, but it didn't look like anyone in the audience minded. They all seemed overawed by the two girls' swordsmanship. I didn't really care about it, though. They were just swinging sticks at each other. I wanted to know what Emerlia's skills were.

As if she heard my thoughts, Emerlia jumped back and finally used one of her two skills.

A wave of cold air spread out from the stage in all directions. Her wooden sword quickly frosted over into a blade of ice.

It looked like the Journeyman Skill: [Ice Blade]. It imbued weapons or limbs with ice elemental power, increasing damage and slowing enemies hit. The biggest weakness of this type of skill, though, was that it ruined weapon durability. You'd never see ice-themed swordsmen in SHO because having to buy top quality swords over and over crippled them.

Most ice-themed fighters were monks or mages. Mages particularly loved ice spells because they could be used to control and slow the charging fighter line in bigger battlefields. For a mage, the longer you kept your enemies away from you the stronger you become.

Lily didn't seem too deterred by the sudden appearance of the skill, but she was starting to get pressured by the powerful slow effect.

Soon enough, every now and then, Lily would take a direct hit. Bruises were starting to show and her clothes were getting torn up. She was probably going to lose. Her skill just didn't seem all that useful in a combat situation. She had to touch someone to use it, and there was no way she could touch her sister.

I was getting ready to go on stage and stop the fight when something unexpected happened. Lily swung her wooden sword, meeting her sister's ice blade, and the weapon of ice shattered.

It was only now that I realized what had happened. Yes, Lily couldn't touch her sister to use analyze on her… But by letting her sister land a blow or two on her body she could analyze the sword itself. I hadn't realized it watching the fight, but Lily continually attacked the same spot over and over on her sister's weapon.

"... Wow. You really have improved, Lily... I surrender," said Emerlia as she walked off the stage without a fuss. I was confused. Wasn't she supposed to be the arrogant mean girl here only to beat up her sister? Why was she acting so amicable and friendly? She even admitted her defeat when she was clearly stronger than her foe. Wasn't that the point where she was supposed to say something like 'you got lucky' or 'you won't win next time'?

"The winner is Lily Grphyn Gransus. Emerlia is no longer qualified to enter the Academy," announced Endyrion.

Everyone was watching the departing princess's back, but then she stopped suddenly. It was as if she remembered something important.

"Oh, sis," called Emerlia, "You should know that brother Thomas hired 'The Oni' about two days ago to assassinate your demon friend there. But, judging by the fact that she's still alive, you probably already knew that."

With those words said, out loud in front of all the people here as if they didn't matter I might add, Emerlia finally left through the Academy gates. For some reason everyone was staring at me now with strange and shocked expressions. Even James looked a bit awed. Everyone was silent, except the principal. Throughout the courtyard, you could only hear his terrible laughter echoing.