Spar [1]

Bows, swords, maces, axes, shields, spears, javelins, and so forth. There were so many weapons in front of me on the rack and on the table that I had no idea where to even start.

All of the weapons were even made entirely out of wood, and the ones that weren't were clearly dulled to the point where it would be very difficult to kill someone with them, and even then, they still looked incredibly scary to me.

I had also done my time on Earth, but I had never been comfortable around weapons, no matter how small they were. Because life was precious but, more importantly, my life was precious.

"Mr. Winter! Hurry your ass up!"

Everyone else had already picked a weapon and was now waiting for me to pick something. Which I did.

When I turned around to meet my classmates and a teacher, I was now holding a simple, wooden dagger in my hand, as that was the weapon I felt was the easiest to wield. Judging by the looks I got from my classmates, a lot of them didn't seem to think that I had made a good choice.

Especially Mike, who I could see was hiding a nasty grin, most likely thinking something along the lines of 'As expected of a commoner'.

But I didn't care. Because no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't think of any value that this course might hold for me.

"Finally! Then, listen up! During this course, you are not allowed to use any kind of physical enhancements nor are you allowed to use skills. Even if you are a purebred mage, it is still essential for you to learn how to handle at least one weapon."

'Is it?'

"Of course, I am not expecting everyone to be able to use weapons on the same level as the martial students, but even a basic proficiency could someday serve to save your lives in a pinch. And so, I will now pair you up! After your name is called, you may enter any of the perimeters painted on the floor."

'Please don't put me against the monster...'

The reasonable thing for our teacher to do would naturally be to pair students of somewhat equal levels up against each other, meaning that it would end up with magical arts students sparring against other magical arts students, and the same for the martial students.

Unfortunately, I had a gut feeling that our teacher wasn't reasonable.

"Julia and Suzan."

'Shit...!'

It didn't even take a second before he confirmed my thoughts by pairing up the martial arts student and archer Julia with the magical arts student Suzan.

As they made their way into one of the circles with a bow and a small sword respectively as their weapons, our teacher continued.

"Mike and Robert."

The small man almost dropped the wooden sword that he had picked when he heard who he was going to go up against. In return, Mike put on a very fake smile as he turned his head toward Robert, holding the staff he had picked on top of his shoulder.

"Shall we go?"

"Y-yes..."

"Fred and George!"

A complete extra was going to go up against the hero of the story. It didn't take a genius to figure out how things were going to turn out. I did feel a bit sorry for the dark-haired extra though, because he had no idea what he was going up against.

"Eva and Stephen!"

The silver-haired Eva didn't hesitate for a second before she began walking forward, holding an ordinary sword in her hand, even though she was going to go up against the ginger spearman Stephen.

Even if he wasn't someone who would go on to make a large impact on the novel, it still didn't make sense for the petite girl to stand any sort of chance against him. But she didn't seem to care about that at all.

However, I couldn't help but feel slightly stressed now that there were only four students left.

There was me, Lya, Samantha and... Thomas.

'Please... please don't make me go up against that ox-like man...'

With a similar stature to our teacher, Thomas wore a face of disappointment as he now realized that all the 'good' opponents were out of the pool. To some degree, I could empathize with him, but I felt a lot more sorry for us who would have to go up against him.

Then, our teacher opened his mouth again, cementing all of our fates.

"For the last ones, we have Samantha going up against Alex and Thomas versus Lya!"

Holding back the impulse to yell out loud with joy, I threw my gaze toward the pink-haired princess to gauge how she felt about it. Sadly, she just turned her head away and started walking toward one of the white circles while tightly holding onto her wooden staff.

While I followed her, I could somewhat sense that Lya was currently on the verge of a small breakdown, although she didn't want it to show on her face. What was interesting, however, was that I could see her searching for comfort by looking at George, who in turn gave her a confident smile.

Thomas, on the other hand, just dragged his body forward with slumped shoulders, resembling a bear who had lost his honey.

"What are you looking at?"

Samantha's voice forced me out of my own thoughts as well as made me remember the fact that we were supposed to start fighting in just a moment's time.

"Ah, nothing important."

'She is still upset...'

Granted, it hadn't even been a full day since I made it clear that I didn't want anything to do with her, but it was still a bit strange to me as we had barely even talked to each other. Also, shouldn't she be able to understand better than anyone why it might end badly for me if someone got the wrong idea?

That didn't seem to be the case as she took a stand and pointed the wooden staff toward me, her face a bit colder than it usually was. Now, it wasn't as if she looked particularly intimidating but that still didn't mean that she wasn't more than capable of kicking my ass.

Thus, I also lifted my weapon, making it so that we were both simply waiting for our teacher's voice to start things off. The only saving grace in all of this was that there was nothing for me to lose...

*Bing!*

==========

[Act 1, chapter 3: Progress!]

New mission:

- Stay on your feet until the end of the lesson!

Reward:

- New skill.

Penalty:

- Mr. Froid will lose even more respect for you.

==========

Inspecting the light-blue panel floating in the air, I wasn't quite sure what I had expected. I had already had a full day yesterday without any new missions, so wasn't it natural that I should get one today?

'But a reward and a penalty? That's a first...'

It had to be said that this was most likely a mission where I was expected to fail. Why did I think that? Because the reward was great, but the penalty felt extremely lackluster. What did I care whether or not or teacher respected me?

Therefore, I still felt like I could spar with the same mentality as before, just that there was a very large carrot awaiting me if I managed to keep standing until the end.

"...again. You're doing it again..."

"Hmm?"

Although she was mumbling, I was still able to hear a bit of what the pink-haired girl said, though her face was now staring down at the floor. Even though she had put her hair up in a ponytail, there were still a few strands that managed to hide her face from me.

But, as fate would have it, I wasn't allowed to think much about it.

"Begin!"

Samantha didn't care to wait for even a second after our teacher's shout, dashing forward with her staff ready to attack. And somehow, I felt a similar sensation as I did when I had fought the wolf out in the forest.

Almost as if my heart slowed down, my body relaxed to the point where I was able to think with clarity, still capable of processing coherent thoughts despite the urgent situation. But the dagger that I held in my hand felt a lot heavier for some reason.

Then, the princess launched the first attack, thrusting her staff forward in an attempt to pierce my stomach. Her face also told the story of someone who knew she had already won, someone who simply wanted to get back a bit at me.

'But I can see it...'

A slight step back was all I needed to dodge the attack, making the flawless face in front of me light up with surprise. Somewhere deep inside, I was equally surprised, but due to the weird state of mind I was in, I knew that it didn't show on my face.

But then, Samantha's face got serious and my naivety was yet again punished as she quickly regained her posture.

Instead of a thrust, she swung her staff horizontally, making it so I had no choice but to face it directly with my dagger.

*Bam!*

'Heavy...'

Even a single strike was enough for my hands to start numbing a bit, but I had at least managed to block it.

Unfortunately, this was simply the start.