Ariel of Class B in the Swordsmanship Department doesn’t pay much attention to most things around him.
Rumors about him or the female students throwing subtle glances his way…
Unless someone directly expresses their feelings in front of him, he simply doesn’t react. To be precise, he doesn’t notice.
This wasn’t because he was uninterested in the world.
He just didn’t have the time. His daily schedule was something that ordinary people couldn’t even fathom.
Even now, he was unaware of the rumors circulating about him and Iria.
But…
“Hmm…”
Recently, he felt something strange.
It felt like someone was following him, and when he looked back, there she was—the silver-haired girl he had seen before.
What a marvelous coincidence! He thought as he headed to the next lecture, only to find someone following him again.
But when he turned around, the silver hair stood out.
Even someone as oblivious as him could notice such an obvious phenomenon.
He simply had no interest in anything else, but having reached a certain level, he was more attuned to the presence of others.
So one day, while walking down the academy corridor, he suddenly stopped.
He turned around, and there she was again—the silver-haired girl. Ariel scratched his cheek.
“Um… Do you have business with me?”
“No.”
“Doesn’t it feel like we’ve been running into each other a lot lately?”
“It’s a coincidence.”
Ariel thought for a moment.
When they first met, he couldn’t see her properly due to the darkness in the mountains, but now that he was this close, he realized she was a quite beautiful girl.
Her calm, flowing silver hair looked as soft as silk, and her softly glowing red eyes resembled precious gems.
She had a generally cold impression, but that just accentuated her beauty.
Even Ariel, who steers clear of women, could tell she was likely very popular among other students.
She was the kind of girl who would catch everyone’s eye wherever she went.
So, what reason would she have to follow him?
“…”
Thinking about it, he found none.
It was probably just a coincidence, as she said.
From that day on, Ariel began to doubt whether he was being overly self-conscious.
*
The rumors surrounding Iria and Ariel grew larger and larger over time.
What caused this? Well, it all started on the tenth day of Iria following Ariel when Ariel finally reacted.
As usual, Iria was following him, and he suddenly stopped walking.
Then he turned around and began having a conversation about something.
He couldn’t hear the details from a distance, but the fact that they stopped to talk about something was significant.
You could see a hint of him being slightly embarrassed as he scratched his cheek.
There wasn’t much else that stood out, but the fact that Ariel, who had been wood-like, reacted made it noteworthy.
“Hey, doesn’t that look like a blushing face?”
“Iria is definitely pretty.”
“Who wouldn’t fall for her looks? With skills enough to become the top student, that says it all. Who matches Ariel as a girlfriend better than Iria?”
Thus, the current rumors centered around the two becoming a couple.
Now, no one voiced their discontent. After all, anyone could see they looked good together.
They were both among the top in their grade and strikingly attractive.
And more importantly, their color combination was perfect.
Iria had silver hair and red eyes, while Ariel had black hair and blue eyes.
Simply standing next to each other was like a beautiful painting. Both had a similar personality of not really caring about others’ gazes, leading some to even think they had started dating.
But that wasn’t true.
Iria was merely intrigued enough to investigate him, and aside from the one time Ariel spoke to her, he hadn’t really paid her much mind.
It was like a disaster caused by a lack of communication.
“Hey, look at that crazy girl. I just left her alone, and she followed him for ten days! Do something, Sera. You’re good at this kind of thing.”
“Should I?”
Sera stood up with a relaxed smile.
Just that alone made the surrounding mana vibrate. She was a massive entity of mana in her own right.
As a second-year top student, her mana amount was 8300. In total mana, she was on par with a third-year top student.
Though she had been overshadowed by Ariel, she was someone who originally should have been the top student. Comparatively, Iria’s low mana amount was a known fact.
Most of the strength in humans came from mana. While small differences could be overcome with skills, overturning overwhelming mana levels wasn’t easy.
Sera had proven that in rankings. She easily dominated students with much lower mana than hers.
The reason she is known as someone who could’ve been at the top was due to the overwhelming gap in grades between her and the student ranked third.
She won without even using half of her mana. So, there was no way a first-year top student like Iria could be her match.
“Normally, I wouldn’t care about weak people, but if I’m poking around a person I’ve marked, I can’t help but be curious. How strong is he?”
“…Are you angry?”
When asked this, Sera laughed as if it was absurd.
“Why would I be angry? I’m feeling great right now.”
“Hmm.”
But the student next to her couldn’t continue the conversation further.
The small smile on Sera’s face didn’t look quite normal.
“In this world, strength is everything. I only acknowledge those who are stronger than me. If you want something, prove it with strength. If you both want the same thing, the winner gets it.”
“Isn’t this about wanting to duel?”
“That’s right.”
“…Okay.”
This second-year student had a different way of thinking than the average person.
Now that she mentioned it, it had been a while since she last dueled. Her body was itching for it.
At this point, the second-year students at the academy were a generation of talent so remarkable that it was called the golden generation.
Among them, excluding Ariel, who displayed exceptional strength, there was always interest in who would take the spot of the second in command.
The students were crazed over dueling to flip their ranks. It was so intense that even the professors, who had considerable experience, were surprised by how aggressive these students were.
However, that was brief; the hierarchy of the second-year was settled by one individual.
That was Sera, who was completely obsessed with combat and extremely strong.
Especially among the competitive second-year students, she displayed overwhelming strength and secured the second position.
Anyone who saw Sera, even for a moment, knew how obsessed she was with dueling. And how fixated she was on overwhelming power.
Her feelings for Ariel stemmed from this. She had said that he was the first man to defeat her in a duel.
It was more of an infatuation with strength rather than a purely romantic liking.
Sera is a crazy girl. The name “madwoman” suits her all too well. She was infamous among second-year students.
If someone looked strong, she’d conjure all sorts of reasons to challenge them to a duel, and if they didn’t agree, she wouldn’t stop until they did.
There was no malice in her actions; she just wanted to duel, so there was no way to escape her.
It was even joked that as long as you didn’t catch her eye, school life would be smooth sailing.
And Iria caught her eye. Recently, Iria had become excessively famous.
While she was known already, her name had been mentioned several times among the second-years, finally reaching Sera’s ears.
Sera was a natural disaster of sorts. Someone like Iria would have eventually run into Ariel even if she hadn’t followed him.
“Let’s duel.”
“…?”
Iria looked puzzled.
It wasn’t unusual for the top student to receive duel requests, but the ribbon color was different.
Wasn’t the blue ribbon for second-year students?
There seemed to be no particular reason for someone from another grade to challenge her to a duel.
And then…
‘Sera.’
It was a name she felt she had heard somewhere before. It reminded her of the first time she heard Ariel’s name.
A face she’d never seen, yet the name felt familiar.
Is she someone I know? Perhaps someone I knew and forgot?
‘What a troublesome personality.’
You could tell what kind of person someone was with just a glance. If she refused, she’d likely stick around until she got an answer.
Sera was that kind of person—someone who needed at least one fight with someone she had her eye on to feel satisfied.
The one refusing would surely find it exhausting.
It was better to just oblige.
“Sure,”
She knew what would happen if she turned down someone who wanted to duel, recalling her experience with Lucia.
If someone as crazy as her was rejected, who knew what kind of troubles she would create?
In the end, Iria reluctantly agreed to the duel, her expression showing she found it quite bothersome.
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