EP.37
KWA-ANG!
With a firm grip on Hugo’s face, Jin slammed it straight into the ground.
The sound resonating across the area was nearly unbelievable for a collision between a human head and the earth.
He struck so hard that cracks appeared on the training ground floor where Hugo’s head made contact.
For any ordinary person, the impact would have been enough to shatter their skull.
But Jin had no intention of stopping there.
In education, it’s all about repeated learning.
KWA-ANG!
“Ugh!”
KWA-ANG!
“Cough!”
KWA-ANG!
“Y-you bastard—”
“What was that? I can’t hear you.”
KWA-AANG!
Hugo tried to say something to Jin, but Jin paid him no mind, repeatedly smashing his head into the floor.
With each hit, Hugo’s body trembled like a gelatinous mass. Some female students couldn’t bear to watch and turned their heads away.
“Damn it!”
Meanwhile, Hugo couldn’t comprehend the situation of his head being continuously pounded into the ground.
“Why? Why is this happening?”
He struggled to escape. Deep down, he wanted to push away Jin’s hand that was holding his head and smash Jin’s face into the ground as he had just done to him.
That would be an easy task to accomplish. After all, in terms of strength and speed, he was overwhelmingly superior to Jin.
Yet… he couldn’t do it. His body refused to respond as he wished.
Every time he tried to break free from Jin’s grip or throw a punch at him, something felt off about his balance, and he couldn’t exert any strength.
Was this magic? Or a supernatural ability? Could it be that this guy had some means of interfering with his body?
Outside the training ground, Erekaya, silently observing their duel, already knew the answer.
“Is he utilizing synesthesia?”
Indeed. Jin was using synesthesia to extend his senses, reading Hugo’s physical movements and muscle patterns, and quickly synthesizing that information to anticipate Hugo’s actions.
If one can predict how the opponent will move, it becomes easy to disrupt their actions beforehand.
By anticipating Hugo’s moves and slightly throwing off his balance or missing his target, it was effortless for Jin to toy with him while keeping him pinned to the ground.
KWA-ANG!
Jin smashed Hugo’s head into the floor ten times. By this point, one would expect him to lose consciousness, yet aside from a bruise on his head, Hugo showed no signs of fainting.
“What a remarkably thick skull.”
Come to think of it, wasn’t Hugo’s supernatural ability toughness? At this point, it seemed that Jin’s stamina was starting to wear thin compared to the pounding Hugo was taking.
“Damn this body.”
Over the past month, he had trained exhaustively to prepare for today’s duel, yet here he was.
The miserable reality of not being able to handle a fool with no particular skills other than being reinforced felt pitiful, but Jin hid those thoughts as he lifted Hugo’s hair and made eye contact with him.
“I won’t say it twice. Surrender. Right now.”
“C-cough! You’re talking nonsense—”
KWA-ANG!
There was no need to say anything further. Jin poured all his remaining strength into smashing Hugo’s face into the ground once more.
Thud!
“Gah!”
Finally, a bone-cracking sound echoed from somewhere. After grabbing Hugo’s hair again and checking his face, Jin confirmed that his nose bone was broken.
The sight of blood dripping out from Hugo’s broken nose looked truly grotesque, causing Jin to let out an involuntary chuckle.
“Your face has become even more handsome. At this rate, you should thank me.”
“You, you—”
“You, what was your name again? Anyway, I distinctly said that day: let’s be friends. But here we are.”
KWA-ANG!
“Cough!”
“Why don’t you listen? I want to live kindly, but you’re not helping me at all. With you behaving like this, it makes me seem like the bad guy, huh?”
KWA-ANG!
“Ah, ah—”
After slamming his face into the ground about five more times, Hugo’s face finally became somewhat presentable.
“Ugh….”
Fear. At last, fear and dread began to surface in Hugo’s eyes as he looked at Jin.
Before the duel started, the superiority complex and disdain for the weak that had been present in his gaze had completely vanished.
Only now was he inwardly acknowledging a painful truth.
Even if he considered himself strong, in front of the man before him, he was, without a doubt, a weakling.
As Jin casually rolled his eyes to glance at the audience, he noticed that most of their faces had gone pale.
Well, considering that most of the spectators here were nobles raised in privilege, it was understandable that they would react this way.
In their minds, dueling meant a fair battle fought with honor, not a muddy brawl fought like wild dogs.
Thus, the cheerful school life in Nineveh had been completely ruined, but Jin had no regrets.
If he had to live being taken advantage of by such a fool, becoming an object of fear didn’t seem like a bad option either.
“Why is it so quiet? Ah, could it be that you still think you can hold on? Well, I guess there’s no helping that. Let’s take this all the way; at this rate, I think a few more hits will change your mind.”
As he said this, Jin raised his hand again, ready to slam Hugo’s face into the ground.
“Wait, I surrender.”
“What?”
“I… I’ll surrender. So please, just….”
With a dazed expression, Hugo murmured those words, and Ethan, who had been silently watching until now, nodded his head.
“I accept your declaration of surrender.”
“The loser is Hugo Bright.”
“The winner of today’s first duel evaluation is Jin.”
“…..”
“…..”
At the moment Ethan announced the result of the duel, the atmosphere turned to an indescribable silence.
What on earth had they just witnessed? Was it really true that what they had seen was a fact?
Hugo, one of the top students in the first year, and Jin, who had only been ridiculed as someone who only survived by being beaten up by orcs?
Most of the people gathered here were confident that the outcome of the duel would end in Hugo’s overwhelming victory.
But upon opening the lid, the result was the complete opposite. Rather than dominating the match, Hugo hadn’t even managed to graze Jin’s clothes.
Could it be that he had let his guard down? That too was false. There wasn’t a single person who hadn’t seen Hugo putting everything he had into attacking Jin with his fists and feet at the start.
Hugo had given it his all. He hadn’t let his guard down; he had done his very best. He poured everything he had to attack Jin.
It was just that his efforts hadn’t reached Jin at all.
In the silence that fell over the audience, Altina let out a slight sigh as she watched Jin slowly coming down from the training ground.
‘…This is too much.’
The match itself was undoubtedly excellent.
Altina von Rudel Seryas had been convinced from the beginning that Jin would emerge victorious.
His master was a being who had long surpassed the realm of mastery. She didn’t think for a second that he would lose to someone like Hugo.
However, the way the match unfolded was the problem. He was… too brutal.
Traditionally, a duel was a noble contest fought with pride, where both parties poured their all into it. At least, this was how Altina saw it.
Yet the ‘duel’ that Jin had demonstrated was vastly different from what she knew.
If she had to compare it, it looked more like wild dogs in a cage constantly biting at each other to death.
With such overwhelming skill, wouldn’t it have been acceptable to conduct the match with a bit more dignity? Did he really have to completely trample his opponent like that?
“No, that’s not it.”
At that moment, Erekaya, who was sitting beside Altina, threw her a mocking smile.
“As you know, Hugo Bright has always disregarded that man and has openly boasted about humiliating him. And now you expect him to show leniency? What a ridiculous thought. Do you really believe that this man’s mercy is that cheap?”
“…What?”
“Never mind. What am I even saying to you?”
To be honest, Erekaya didn’t particularly like his rough behavior either. For someone who was a descendant of Pendragon, he appeared remarkably lacking in dignity.
However, at the same time, the Pendragons were those who inherited the spirit of kings. Aside from the emperor, the master of the empire, no one should dare to lift their head in front of a Pendragon.
Considering this perspective, Erekaya was quite pleased with how Jin had thoroughly trampled Hugo today.
He had shown the mad dog, who might be of noble blood, his place.
She acknowledged that he had perhaps gone overboard, but that was largely due to the environment in which he had lived…
‘Environment.’
Thinking about the environment he had lived in up until now, his background, upbringing, and… family.
As these thoughts crossed her mind, Erekaya felt a pang in her chest once more.
She was dissatisfied. With these thoughts that filled her mind, with his past that bothered her so much, and—
“Ah, Jin!”
After Jin descended from the training ground, Altina and Claire waved energetically at him.
Jin nodded in response to their greeting, and everything seemed—
“…..”
At that sight, Erekaya’s heart, which had briefly lifted due to Jin’s victory, turned cold again.
She felt inexplicably unsettled. It was unpleasant. Frustrating.
She couldn’t greet him like they did. She couldn’t wave her hand. She couldn’t smile at him.
Because she was a sinner to him. She was practically his enemy. She was the one responsible for creating the circumstances that forced him to act that way.
Thus, her heart distorted even further.
If one were to think about it, she was the one who was closest to him here, yet she couldn’t do what those women were doing.
Altina von Rudel Seryas. And Claire Delphin Mascarena.
Originally, Erekaya hadn’t cared much for them. To be precise, she hadn’t shown any particular interest or intrigue.
But at this very moment, Erekaya’s heart pinpointed those two precisely. And she became aware of her own feelings.
Erekaya del Pendragon despised Altina von Rudel Seryas and Claire Delphin Mascarena.
Very much so.
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