4.6.

Swipe, strike, parry, pierce, sweep–

Exchanging dozen of these contacts with a narrow margin, Sequencee was thrown a few meters back by the frontal confrontation. Without a doubt, she had the upper hand here.

Another diagonal swipe tracing his torso followed, Sequencee used the shaft to redirect the flow of the attack, however, she quickly adjusted and used the angular momentum to perform a quick pierce.

Sequencee tilted his head and spun his spear blurred in for a strike.

The holy shield moved in the way and blocked.. a feint done by illusion magic.

The spear shaft struck her side, lightning coursed through the spear, she forcefully kicked the ground to move away, countering with a rain of light shards. Sequencee retreated, pulling up a reflective barrier.

Risa held her side, feeling the numbness. She ignored the pain and went for a charged strike. Her bluish sword was imbued with a gold tint– holy magic.

Thinking that she would do a pierce before following up with her true move, Sequencee took a few steps back–

What he didn't expect was that she would swing her sword out even before reaching him.

Holy Edge. A system unassisted version of [Blessing: Holy Severance] which combined some of the characteristics found in the light arc. While less powerful, it had a lower mana cost and was incredibly fast.

Taken by surprise, the reflective barrier Sequencee broke at contact and struck his crudely constructed second barrier– which only mitigated the damage before hitting his spear.

A line of red drawn across his chest, sleeves torn.

[Blessing: Holy Severance]

Without further ado, Risa wanted to finish him.

But before the system ability could finish activating, she was teleported away.

"Haaah…"

Sequencee on the ground.

The searing heat on his chest, the pain that came with each breath.

'She got me good.'

Beyond the large wound, Sequencee also had many small cuts from the short close quarters exchange.

'Even though it had only been four months since they began fighting like this..'

Though he may be able to beat her now, Sequencee knew that eventually, she will outgrown him. The fact that she was able to give him this wound was proof of it.

He waited for the wound to close, which was around a minute. It was a shallow cut, so perhaps the emergency protocol did not activate? How it judges a dangerous wound is a mystery. Though, a little more and likely Sequencee would've been the one to be sent to the infirmary before Risa.

Standing back up, Sequencee cleared the field before moving to the infirmary. Of course, with all that blood on his clothes, it attracted a lot of attention from the people in the surroundings.

"My clothes.."

Clothes being destroyed is a common thing. While there was a set limit to how many times a student can exchange his or her broken training clothing for new ones, it was included in part of the course fee to begin with.

Whenever he sparred with Iona, his loss came swift– right at the neck. So he had never had his clothes torn like this.

The infirmary was not as quiet as it would be on the usual days. There were more priests and priestesses around tending to patients who were injured. When one of the priests saw Sequencee, he quickly ushered him in to treat his wounds.

Of course, he became confused when he realized that there was no open wound.

Risa sat at one of the corner beds looking dazed. It was the same bed he would usually wake up to whenever he 'died' by Iona's hands.

"Nice one," Sequencee said, he pulled over a chair and sat down.

"What did you do?" Risa turned to him with a pout.

"You walked right into a spatial tear."

"???"

"I could've bisected you into two halves."

"You horrible demon," Risa grimaced.

"Half."

"Ah.. right. How could I have forgotten? No wonder you're like the last boss character.." Risa muttered to herself.

'Demon lord.'

The priestess came to check on Risa once more, saying that she was free to leave in another half an hour if everything was stable. As for Sequencee.. the priestess again misunderstood. Sequencee was fine– the wound had closed after all.

".. How do you reconcile with someone.." Risa asked.

"So you two fought after all."

"Obviously. So what do I tell him? I'll be seeing him again later in the morning. Even if I eat at your place, we'll still be in the same class later."

"Hey.. you're still going to barge in my apartment like that?"

"Yea," Risa showed a smug smile. Only for a bit before her expression returned to one of concern.

"Regarding reconciling.. I don't know, really. Since it's something small, I suppose just apologize?"

"I did. Didn't do anything except make it worse."

"Then the way you say it? And the timing too."

"I know that too.. what I'm saying is, how do I like, fix our relationship? That damn slave is going to eat him alive one day," she fummed.

'Sounds dangerous..'

"Or is fixing our relationship not possible? After all, this is a world where harems exist. It's not surprising my brother would fall in love with many women. True right?" Risa said with a lonely smile.

"Is this incest?"

"Go to hell!"

"Please keep your tone done," a priest warned.

"S-Sorry."

"I mean, Schwii is actually my cousin, you know? So you're not the only weird one.." Sequencee scratched his hair.

'Why am I even saying this..'

"Did you really think I was his actual sister?" Risa tilted her head.

"???"

"Tsk. Tsk. The people of this world are really.. hm? Actually, isn't it a normal thing to marry your own family? Like, to keep royal blood flowing, or something like that. Not sure how it works for you."

"Hah?"

"Oh right, you don't know. I'm adopted."

"Adopted? But your hair and eyes…"

"Back to the question. If you and Schwii argued, how would you reconcile?"

"Hold on, hold on. One topic at a time. So you're not his sister?"

"I am– just not blood related."

"Seriously…"

'And here I thought that I had a comrade.. what a betrayal..'

"Come on, answer me already! If you and Schwii argued, what will you do after that?"

"I think I'd ask Iona for help?" Sequencee said.

Clap. A lightbulb exploded in Risa's mind.

"That's it!"

"What's it?"

"I'll just tell Miss Iona to be my wingman!"

"..."

'What goes through the mind of this girl.. you know, she's just muddling through her own feelings by talking. Yeah.'

The next 20 minutes passed with the two talking about nonsensical stuff. Reviewing their plans again for later today, the two of them parted ways.

===

Twitch, twitch.

Between the smell of the fresh morning dew, Linton smelled something different. He looked around for the source.

"Melty, do you want some of that? Smells delicious.." he asked, pointing to an open stall in the middle of the park.

The smell of smoke and meat tickled his senses, his tail began to wag unconsciously.

Melty, a silent bookworm who always had a book in hand raised her head slightly and looked over. Her glasses reflected Linton's figure and the food.

Without saying a word, she shook her head.

"Oh, that's too bad. I'm going to go get it though."

Without showing any resistance, the girl Melty followed Linton to the yakitori stall. Thick sweet sauce over grilled meat, the mouthwatering smell prodded Linton to order a dozen skewers.

"Open your mouth."

"Ah," Melty simply did as was instructed. She flipped to the next page of the book.

Linton carefully placed the yakitori into her mouth, she bit down, he pulled the remainder out.

"How is it?" his tail wagging furiously in expectation.

Melty nodded.

"Nice right? You want to finish the rest of this?"

Melty opened her mouth again in response.

Magic concert representatives of the Covenant's Academy were free to explore Riestallia Academy. The main reason being that the head conductors of their ensemble would have to, together with the other conductors, come up with an itinerary to allow the students to practice their grand magic at Alator's Grand Chamber of Magic.

While they were advised to practice in their free time, most were more interested in discovering the services this amazing academy has to offer.

"Isn't that cool. I've never seen something like that. I wonder if it'll topple if we blow a hole in it, it doesn't look all that stable," Linton said, looking at the pagoda.

Melty flipped to another page.

"Where else have we not gone too.. are you still hungry? How about we go get something filling?"

Melty nodded.

"My instincts say that there's good food that way, let's go!"

If one were to describe Linton, he was an attractive beastkin beastkin with a rare hair colour, snow-white. Melty, on the other hand, was a plain girl with a scholarly vibe. Her peach coloured hair was tied into a braid, green eyes were tiny.

The reason why she stuck to him despite her wish to make a beeline to the library stemmed from that incident from a few weeks ago. Linton was attacked by an alpha of his race. Melty, being one of his close friends, wasn't keen on seeing him hurt.

So out of concern, she stuck close to him at all times. Almost.

They made it to a ramen stall. The two of them sat at the counter and selected something from the menu. Of course, Linton was the one who ordered for Melty. As for drinks, they would try cold traditional tea.

"Library, later, please," Melty puerile voice rang.

"Sure thing. I'm not sure where it is, might have to ask around.."

Out of the blue, Linton felt a chill. Following his instincts, he turned to the right where a maid with maroon coloured hair sat. She too, like himself, was waiting for her ramen.

'W-Why is there a maid at this sort of place?!'

He thought about making a run for it. But noticing how this maid wasn't paying any mind to him, he thought that it may be a false alarm. Moreover, she was an elf.. was she? She didn't feel like an elf though. Wherever it was, the point here was that this wasn't that maidservant beastkin who tried to drag him back home.

Melty, noticing Linton's panic, gave the maid a furtive glance. She raised her vigilance silently.

Their bowls of ramen came at the same time.

Piping hot with white steam, the noodles sat under the clear broth, two pieces of char siew meat, half a boiled egg and a sheet of dried seaweed.

While the rest of the customers ate with slurping sounds, Melty included; only Linton and the maid seemed to keep their mannerism in check. Well, more like Linton was too anxious to truly savor the food.

The maid grabbed the red seasoning with sesame seeds and gave it a few shakes. She also added some of the dried seaweed flakes. Small condiments were complimentary.

Melty, seeing that, wanted to try to. However, Linton was the closest one to the maid. She tugged at Linton's clothes.

"You want.. that?"

Melty nodded.

An inner war was going on within himself.

Melty's eyes sparkled. At times like these, her cuteness was a deadly poison.

"Excuse me.. could you pass that over.." Linton asked the maid.

The maid nodded silently, pushing the two small bottles over to their side.

'Oh. So it really is a false alarm..'

Still, Linton couldn't stop the chills from coming. He didn't understand why.

Melty lips blossomed into a smile, she quickly added some of the spice seasonings into her bowl. Linton smiled wryly at the sight.

Iona carefully observed the two as she ate her ramen.