Recently, I picked up another goal.
Now, it was more like half-heartedly enjoying my sparring with Rina, akin to a workout, but there was still a hint of seriousness left. Rina probably felt the same.
Our sparring began when our homeroom teacher discovered that we had started picking fights with each other. She purposely paired us up as sparring partners, but the match ended without either of us really taking the lead due to our skill deficiencies. That was how our sparring sessions, which had become almost routine by now, started.
Naturally, the reason we were sparring was to see the outcome of these matches. At the start of the semester, to be more precise, before I went out to the battlefield, we fought with all our might, as if we were trying to kill each other. However, after we formed a bit of a bond, it turned into a friendly competition.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we were slacking off.
The emotion shifted from “I will kill that guy!” to “How can I win against them?”
We no longer thrashed about to the point of exhaustion; we had entered a stage where we could reassess each other’s skills and strategize our next moves.
It seemed like we could fight and win at any time, but there was this existence we couldn’t defeat no matter how much we fought.
That created a sort of rivalry between Rina and me.
This was my first goal.
The other goal that I’ve recently acquired—
“Haah, damn.”
Rina, sprawled out on the ground, muttered this. The sight of her spreading out on the floor almost looked refreshing.
It was an undeniable defeat due to overwhelming differences in skill.
Recently, a new member joined our so-called ‘Duel Club’—we never intended to name it that or even engage in any club activities, but somehow it had formed on its own, with a teacher even being assigned to it.
Of course, the club consisted entirely of kids from the same class, all of the same age, so there was no need to use honorifics or assign positions based on seniority. However, a new member was still a new member. This kid had barely been here for a week.
When Ramihi first said they wanted to join, I was momentarily dazed. That made sense since we had unknowingly become members of a club. Although we found that out later, it didn’t change the fact that our activities wouldn’t change, so no one really paid any attention to it—
“Do you happen to know who the president is?”
When an unexpected applicant asked about the president, I had nothing to say.
Come to think of it, who was the president?
I at least knew who the teacher overseeing us was: our class homeroom teacher, Seo-A. She doesn’t seem like it, but she enjoys looking after her students behind the scenes and has never participated in our club activities despite being registered as our advisor.
Sometimes it may seem like she leaves her students unattended, but still, she’s a pretty nice person in her own way as she tries to help as much as she can.
Though I received very little of that help.
My escapades need to be on a much larger scale.
Even though she’s the homeroom teacher with a duty to take care of her students, she ends up powerless when the entities assigning that duty—like the government or the church, a massive authority in many ways—intervene.
You might wonder why I’m excluding the government, but—
As I’ve mentioned before, I have no family in this world. As an orphan, the church is my legal protector, and until I step out from beneath their protection upon reaching adulthood, the church is as good as my parents and siblings.
To put it bluntly, if a parent has to move because of their job, the teacher has no right to stop them.
…Anyway, returning to the main topic.
So, we had no fitting response to that inquiry. It’s a club we didn’t even recognize as a club, so there was no president. If we had to put it technically, Rina and I started this duel, so one of us could technically be the president, but—
…Do you know what that means?
If you were to look at me now, engaging in all sorts of shenanigans, you might never guess that I actually dislike standing out.
In school, work, or the military, I thought I’d rather blend in than be the one who is noticeably not excelling, keeping my presence low-key. If someone asked me if I wanted to take on the president’s role, I would have naturally declined.
But—
The moment I heard Ramihi’s comment, I realized one thing.
Rina and I still hadn’t figured out how to counter each other effectively. Every time I grew stronger from our daily sparring, Rina grew just as much.
However, as mentioned before, the origin of this club is rooted in our sparring sessions. Therefore, if I were to identify “the longest-standing member” of this club, it would definitely be the two of us.
Other members seem to share this thought, too, as they all looked at us.
That’s right. Giving up the president position in this situation would—
Mean acknowledging defeat to the opponent.
Ah, I can’t let that happen.
If it were Selena, Satsuki, Linea, or Aurora, I could willingly concede. If it were Jian, I wouldn’t need to say a word. Jian had the best combat skills among us.
But if it were Rina?
Let me say it again: I can’t let that happen!
Crack!
I turned my head at a sound beside me, only to find Rina crushing an aluminum can with a fearsome expression.
It seemed she had unconsciously gripped the can tightly, imagining the scenario of handing over the president position to me.
And, apparently, she seemed to be having the same thoughts as I did.
“President, huh.”
Rina took a deep breath and set the now completely flattened can aside before slowly standing up.
“Well, a club needs at least one president to lead it.”
“That’s right.”
I followed Rina’s lead and got up as well.
“But we haven’t actually decided on a president yet. Of course, if a new member joins, we would need someone to accept them and report to the teacher.”
Neither Rina, who hates troublesome things, nor I, who wanted no more responsibilities, were enthusiastic about it, but—
Both of us absolutely hated the thought of losing to each other.
Just like that, rivalry boiled over again.
*
And to cut to the chase,
I lost.
But that didn’t mean Rina won.
She lost, too.
“If there’s no president, can I volunteer to be a candidate?”
The ‘new member’ who just joined spoke up like that before I could even react.
Before I could respond with a huh?, Ramihi explained.
“Well, the absence of a president means there’s no one to stop a new student from joining, right? If the teacher isn’t anyone here, that means they don’t care whether more students join or not.”
To be honest, that wasn’t incorrect at all.
“I won’t join if you all object to it.”
However, no one had any objections.
In truth, it wasn’t uncommon for other students to join us in sparring. They seldom came regularly, and there weren’t many cases where someone directly expressed their intent to join.
If you think about it, Lynn, the student council president from the officer school, trained with us while we were doing joint training in May.
Now, opposing someone joining would only imply ‘I don’t like you.’
And I didn’t dislike Ramihi.
They just made me quite uncomfortable.
It hadn’t even been a month since I wrecked their house.
We couldn’t stop them from joining. Thus, the moment they expressed their intent to join, they were members. At the same time, they held the right to be president.
Indeed, Ramihi was declaring their intention to take on the president role.
And naturally—
Rina and I lost decisively.
To be honest, I didn’t even grasp how Ramihi was moving. The next thing I knew, I was sprawled out on the floor.
When Lin was able to deflect even a single attack from Ramihi, it was thanks to her extraordinary skills. She was, after all, the student council president of a school that could be considered a representation of the nation.
However, Ramihi didn’t actually become the president.
Because the other club members were not particularly pleased about an unexpected newcomer hopping into the president position.
First of all, Linea.
She belonged to the Inquisition. Still not an official knight or inquisitor, but she had a decent sense of pride in her affiliation, and she didn’t like elves, who don’t believe in goddesses and call sacred power ‘sexual power.’
Secondly, Aurora.
She had been left behind during a visit to the elf village alongside me. However, she seemed to have issues from the comments made by the elders during their first meeting rather than the mishap itself. Furthermore, Ramihi was the granddaughter of the elder. No matter the case, she didn’t want to end up as one of Kihmuhir’s subordinates, which was Aurora’s stance.
Thirdly, Satsuki.
Satsuki was of the Rechmir bloodline but had to live among humans due to bullying from the elves. She didn’t mind living among humans, but on another level, she didn’t like pure-blooded elves much.
I was an outsider to begin with, and since I had come to save Arlil, I only had to endure a minority of the elves’ rudeness, but Satsuki probably had numerous memories of being discriminated against by almost all elves.
That said, “elves discriminate against half-breeds” was an official setting I had written myself.
These three challenged Ramihi.
And, of course, they lost cleanly.
Well, Satsuki held out the longest.
Knowing how the elves fought, she exchanged blows with Ramihi for a decent period, but ultimately, Ramihi’s physical prowess surpassed hers.
…By the way, how in the world does this kid manage to keep fighting for so long?
Including Rina and me, there were five of us who engaged in sparring. Even if most matches ended quickly, considering Ramihi’s speed, they should have been exhausted. Yet, during the match against Satsuki, they didn’t seem to take a single break.
Did the setting stating elves had less endurance than humans get torn to shreds?
Or perhaps they’ve somehow overcome that limited endurance through relentless training?
Still, considering they were sweating after the match with Satsuki, it couldn’t be infinite stamina.
Selena, who had no issues with the elves, didn’t seem keen to join in the sparring. Initially, her purpose for participating was to do something about how close Rina and Jian were growing.
As for the current state, Rina and Jian hadn’t developed beyond being fierce companions. They sometimes bicker, but since Jian just laughs it off, it still makes their relationship more one-sided.
In the original story, Rina would have fallen for Jian to the point of risking her life to protect him, but—
…Now that I think about it, she usually spends more time with me. Even during club activities, she often sits next to me rather than Jian.
Could it be that, as a demon living in a convent, she feels some sort of kinship with me?
Well, I’ll think about that later.
“I was thinking about running as a candidate too, but I guess fighting like this is a bit much?”
Jian mumbled while scratching his cheek with a somewhat awkward look, his face showing that typical harem protagonist vibe that made me envious.
If only I had reincarnated with a face like that.
As I mulled over this in admiration, Ramihi soon replied.
“…What does that mean?”
Her voice was remarkably devoid of emotion, sending a chill down my spine.
Ramihi’s face bore a complete lack of feeling. Looking closely, her brows were slightly narrowed, suggesting she was irked by Jian’s words.
“Well, you look a bit worn out. You did fight five opponents, after all. I heard elves have less endurance than humans, so—shouldn’t it be better to rest today and continue tomorrow?”
Jian’s expression showed genuine care for Ramihi. I thought it wouldn’t be unusual for any ordinary girl to react with, “Oh, I’ll certainly do that!” after seeing that face. Of course, it might be a different story for a lesbian or someone with particularly unique tastes.
In that regard, Ramihi wasn’t a typical woman for a different reason.
Ramihi is a pure-blood elf.
Specifically, she’s the granddaughter of Krah Kihmuhir, who is currently the elder.
The pride of an elf and the sense of identity could reach for the sky if one were to truly excel.
In the ideology of the ‘elves,’ they see themselves as a perfect race. Even if their stamina isn’t as great as that of humans, they don’t consider it a shortcoming since they can win before that flaw comes into play.
Well, while Ramihi, who recognizes humans around her in her own way, might be a bit more progressive, it’s impossible to completely break away from that ingrained mindset from childhood.
With that in mind, Jian’s comment struck at Ramihi’s—no, the elves’ weak point.
‘You lack stamina, right? So you can’t win against me, can you?’
That had to be how it sounded to Ramihi.
Ah, what a mess.
I subtly shifted my gaze to Selena. A sense of pride filled Selena’s expression as if she were thinking, ‘No matter what, Jian will win.’
Hmm.
I felt a little sorry for Selena.
Recently, she’d started to realize that the girls around Jian had little interest in him and was rejoicing about it.
So far, Selena was the only one with a certain level of attraction toward Jian. Satsuki also had feelings for him, but probably not as strong as Selena’s. Rina’s chances of developing affection for Jian were shattered due to my blunders.
In that sense, today’s situation felt like the event I intended to use in the original work, where one of the heroines increased.
“What kind of confidence leads you to say that?”
Ramihi scrutinized Jian from head to toe as if she were judging him. Anyone else would’ve found this blatantly rude, but it had no effect on Jian.
“Are you sure about that?”
The tips of Ramihi’s ears twitched.
“I know you’re better than the other kids.”
Ramihi looked down at Jian with cold eyes.
“Still, I don’t think that I will lose to you. This isn’t even a penalty.”
Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong there. She had never seen a human who could best her up till now.
Moreover, I genuinely questioned whether Jian’s fighting capabilities could even be considered ‘human.’
*
The match concluded flawlessly.
Naturally, Jian emerged victorious.
“Huh…?”
Rami lying flat on the ground looked utterly bewildered as if she couldn’t comprehend what just happened.
Given that it was the first time I had seen the proud Ramihi ever make such a foolish sound, it was certainly quite a sight.
Yet, why did it seem like no one else was particularly surprised?
…Well, to be fair, I had also thought Jian would win.
To be honest, I couldn’t tell how their match had played out. Jian moved incredibly fast, while Ramihi just fell back, sprawling onto the ground. It could be believed that he employed some high-level martial arts techniques, or it could just be taken as a reckless dash forward.
Since I hadn’t been paying proper attention, I had no basis to rebut anything that happened.
“Well then…”
Jian extended his hand to Ramihi, looking down at her.
“So, am I the president from today?”
Ramihi’s dazed expression caused her to grasp Jian’s hand. Upon Jian exerting strength in his arms, she was yanked up alongside him. It didn’t seem like she was putting in any effort herself.
“Uh… yeah…”
The slight flush on Ramihi’s face while replying to Jian probably wasn’t a mere illusion.
Indeed.
The fact that Ramihi remained an easy girl for Lee Jian indicated she was still very much available.
*
“…”
On the way home.
For some reason, the newly appointed member Ramihi suddenly looked startled and insisted she had something she had to do first before dashing away, leaving us behind to settle down in the usual café with the usual group.
The menu was almost always the same.
However, unlike usual, there was no lively chatter among the group.
Everyone except Jian had sunk deeply into thought.
“…”
Linea and Aurora were likely stuck on their earlier defeat against Ramihi. They were probably feeling a mix of frustration. It wasn’t a rivalry’s sports spirit—rather, it was emotionally driven, and they had lost. They had much to mull over regarding that loss. Satsuki, quietly sipping her drink with a straw, was likely in a similar situation.
Selena was probably contemplating Ramihi’s last reaction. She must have sensed something amiss when she saw Jian look surprised and then swiftly reject the offer to join him, her mind perhaps racing through possibilities.
Sighing repeatedly, she may have been reflecting on how formidable an opponent she faced.
Jian likely had similar thoughts; perhaps pondering if it was true that Selena was repulsed by him in a completely opposite direction than what she assumed. It’s surprisingly better for Jian to hold that perspective. Knowing he was popular would likely put undue stress on his personality.
And Rina—
“I’m so annoyed.”
…She was chewing on her straw angrily.
“I roll around like this daily, yet it feels worse to lose to a newcomer. It’s disgusting.”
Indeed, that was a classic Rina remark.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
I was startled and replied instinctively when she suddenly called for me.
“From tomorrow, we’ll train twice as hard. This won’t do; I need to beat them before graduation.”
It seems she decided on a future plan fueled by her boiling anger.
“So, that means we’ll still be sparring together—”
“Of course. Didn’t you hear what I just said? We’re going twice as hard!”
Ah, that was what she meant?
“And besides, if you can beat them, you can surely beat me too, right?”
While saying that, she resumed angrily chewing her straw, a little smirk creeping up her lips, deliberately provoking me.
Oh ho.
“Isn’t the reverse logic applicable here?”
I decided to take her provocation without hesitation.
Of course, I willingly took the bait. There’s no way I could let Rina’s taunts get to me so easily.
“Well, then, why don’t you try to win?”
…Ah, well, that’s how it is.
A spark flew in the midway glance as Rina and I locked eyes for the first time in a long time.
It was the moment our second goal was born.
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