My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 80: The Difference in Ability

A strange scene was unfolding.

It was a food court in a corner of the shopping mall. In an open space created by moving four-person tables, two male students were confronting each other. The atmosphere was exactly like a fight.

One male student swung a mock sword wildly, while the other accepted the fierce attacks without even dodging. At a glance, it looked one-sided, but looking closely, the male student swinging the mock sword was the one out of breath and looking in pain. The one being cornered was clearly him.

“Haa… haa… why… why doesn’t it hit?”

Breathing heavily, the bowl-cut male student groaned.

That male student—Sōsetsu—glared at the confronting boy through the gap of his straight-cut bangs.

Since the battle started, the opposing boy had not moved even a step from his spot. Standing there with his hands thrust into his pockets, his appearance of biting back a yawn as if bored even carried the dignity of a strong person. However, that composure grated on Sōsetsu’s nerves.

“What a bold guy in the middle of a battle. Are you underestimating me?”

“Battle? It’s different, right? I’m a sandbag. Now, come hit me as much as you like.”

“Shit! Are you saying you don’t even recognize this as a battle!”

Originally, it was Sōsetsu who set the condition for the boy to become a sandbag, and the boy was simply following that condition. Therefore, Sōsetsu’s words were nothing but an unreasonable grudge, but with his pride hurt and lacking calmness, he charged with full power, letting out a high-pitched shout.

“Iyaaaaaaah!!!!”

A single flash of spirit.

A slash released from overhead swung down as if to split the defenseless boy’s skull. Just a few more centimeters. A timing that would definitely hit.

At the moment of impact—

!

Blocked by something invisible, the mock sword was repelled sharply upward. Due to the strong repulsive force, which wasn’t felt in normal strikes, Sōsetsu lost his balance and staggered backward.

“Tch! Again! Why, why is this? Why doesn’t it hit!?”

Before anyone realized it, students who heard the commotion had gathered little by little around them, forming a gallery. It seemed the commotion was becoming large.

If such disgraceful behavior spread, there was no doubt it would hinder his future Upper School life. Sōsetsu, who never dreamed that the condition proposed with the intention of a public execution would rebound on himself in such a form, was greatly shaken.

Should I settle this place with some appropriate reason—just then, Sōsetsu had a flash of inspiration.

“That’s right! It’s magic! You’re putting up an invisible magic barrier, aren’t you!”

Pointing his finger sharply, he appealed to the gallery that his inferiority was due to fraud. However, against that false accusation, the boy responded as if bored, not showing any particular concern.

“You know, there’s no way a half-dragon like me, with no aptitude attribute, can use magic, right?”

“No aptitude attribute is a self-declaration, isn’t it!”

“In that case, you can have a teacher confirm it later. If you want, you can even have the Headmaster confirm it. Right, Kōran?”

“That’s right. It is true that this man has no aptitude attribute. If he had, he might have been promoted to the Upper School much earlier.”

Kōran, who had kept a distance from both of them, was watching the course of events. Since she, who looked neutral at a glance, agreed, the gallery’s support tilted to that side, and conversely, suspicious gazes were directed at Sōsetsu.

At that disadvantageous situation, Sōsetsu panicked.

“But, everyone saw it too, right!? My attacks don’t reach! Something like this is absolutely not normal! There must be some trick!”

“Hee, a trick, huh. Not a bad idea.”

Saying that much, the boy curled up the corners of his mouth.

“Then, try seeing through that trick. That it is not a kind of magic or breath can be proven by the fact that I have no aptitude attribute, right?”

“Gu… Surely there’s a mechanism! A fully automatic mechanism using a magic formula, for example, on this floor!”

“Did you say Sōsetsu? I’m not such a good-natured person as to teach everything to you, who are an enemy, but I’ll teach you just one thing. Even if we change the location, the result will be the same.”

The unwavering straight gaze, and the powerful light that flickered in the depths of those eyes, made Sōsetsu intuit that his story was the truth.

“Gu… Shit!”

He regulated his breathing.

Since he received a strong repulsion every time he struck a blow, the fatigue in his right arm was already about to reach its limit. There was almost no sensation left in the arm gripping the handle. Being covered in wounds despite not receiving an attack—at that astonishing fact, Sōsetsu’s face turned pale.

Without removing his gaze for even a moment from Sōsetsu, who was in such a predicament, the boy tilted his head.

“Now is… let’s see, what number hit was it again?”

“With the current one, it’s the hundred fifty-sixth hit.”

“Ah, right, right. It doesn’t even amount to half a year yet, but if it’s painful, want to retire?”

Click, Sōsetsu’s back teeth ground together.

—As if I’ll let myself be underestimated by a commoner.

Supporting himself with just that one thought, Sōsetsu took a run-up and unleashed the next blow.

◇◇◇◇◇

Looking down at the loser, Kishō said.

“I’ll recognize just your guts.”

The remaining number of days until graduation from the academy. If he could endure a thousand of Sōsetsu’s attacks, the violence against the slave girl would stop. That agreement seemed to have become shackles for Sōsetsu himself.

Sōsetsu, who seemed unable to back down after proposing it himself, could not break his own proposal midway, and rode out the hellish thousand-knock practice with just spirit and guts. Towards the end, they were weak sword lines that couldn’t even be called swordsmanship, but even so, he accomplished it. Kishō’s evaluation for that effort was the opening line.

Wounded all over, Sōsetsu collapsed to his knees on the ground, and unable to support his upper body satisfactorily, put both hands on the marble floor. That figure was strangely the same as the posture he had forced on the slave girl. However, the current him had no composure to arrange his appearance, and seemed to have no energy to stand up either. The gathered galleries were buzzing restlessly at the unexpected upset.

A huge defeat under public scrutiny.

Sōsetsu’s lips were trembling in humiliation.

A purple aura hung over Kishō’s entire body as he looked down at that state with cold eyes. That was an existence forming a pair with Sword Aura. A lost secret art named Battle Aura, which could only be sensed by those who reached the same state.

Wrapping Ki around a sword and sublimating it was called Sword Aura, and wrapping Ki around the body and sublimating it was called Battle Aura to distinguish them. Both resembled each other but were different things, and even the Princess who could handle Sword Aura could not visually recognize Battle Aura. That was confirmed previously when the Princess visited the night practice.

In other words, to reveal the trick, against Sōsetsu’s Sword Aura, he intercepted with invisible Battle Aura. That was the whole story.

The purple aura wrapping his whole body disappeared.

Releasing Battle Aura, Kishō crouched down and met eyes with Sōsetsu, who was prostrate on the ground. Amber eyes peeked from the gap of the straight-cut bangs. While looking into his own figure reflected in that golden shine, Kishō asked.

“It was good you didn’t throw it out midway and break the promise. With this, you can no longer bully her while being a student. No mistake, right?”

Both parties exchanged straight gazes. Suddenly, Sōsetsu averted his gaze.

“It is a promise exchanged in front of Kōran-san and the girls who yearn for me. From the start, I have no intention of breaking it. Above all, if I do such a thing, I would be soiling the names of Father and Sōgetsu-niisan.”

“In that case, it’s fine.”

Kishō extended his hand.

Sōsetsu looked up at him with a surprised face.

“Dragonkin society has Dragonkin society rules. I understand that. But no matter what, I couldn’t overlook the violence toward a girl.”

“Stop it. You shouldn’t show mercy to a loser.”

“I’m not particularly showing mercy. Since there’s no reason to be hostile anymore, I’m just trying to help you up.”

“You really understand nothing, do you? If this were a wilderness, you would have to finish me off. And as a reward for victory, you could obtain the woman and enslave her. Fortunately, because we are students now, it ends at this level, but originally, extending a hand after superiority is decided is an impossible thing, you know.”

“But, we are students, right?”

“Even so. Now that victory and defeat are decided like this, the ranking is done.”

Sōsetsu stubbornly refused to yield. Parallel lines where both acted stubbornly. In such a situation, the face of his best friend, who slapped his back with a whack and cheered him up, floated in Kishō’s mind.

“I was at the very bottom in the Lower School. The only one who extended a hand to such a me was my best friend Ōka. I will absolutely not forget the grace I received from her, and I also think I want to emulate that attitude of hers. So, I have no intention of judging things by categories like winner or loser.”

That was also Kishō’s answer to the slavery system.

Clicking his tongue, Sōsetsu braced his unsteady legs and stood up by his own power.

“Tsukino!”

“Y-Yes!”

To Sōsetsu’s loud voice, the one who reacted with an upright posture was the slave girl. Toward her, who straightened her back in the front row of the crowd, Sōsetsu raised his right arm and gave an order.

“From this moment, I relieve you of the duty of my caretaker. The remaining two years and a bit. Enjoy your student life freely. That is all.”

“Eh, but Sōsetsu-sama. With that, I will be going against Danna-sama‘s orders.”

“The current master is me. You have no right of refusal.”

“C-Certainly.”

The girl called Tsukino bowed respectfully. And then,

“Kyaaa, Sōsetsu-sama!? Are you okay?”

“Ah, how pitiful.”

The surrounding female students rushed over and surrounded Sōsetsu in the blink of an eye. They scrambled to be first to support his staggering body. There were three surrounding female students. Only two people could support both shoulders. While being jostled in a fierce position battle, Sōsetsu, with a fed-up face, added.

“Since you probably have nowhere to go, have that man look after you.”

“—Ha?”

“Certainly.”

“No, don’t say certainly!?”

On the verge of leaving, the gentle man who dropped an outrageous bomb left the place, supported by the girls who yearned for him. Perhaps losing interest as the show ended, the galleries also dispersed on their own. And the slave girl left on the spot—Tsukino—bowed her head with a beaming smile.

“Please treat me well from now on, Master.”