How can I make Madam Lichtenburg, who has turned to the enemy, submit?
It’s simple.
Just use her beloved daughter, Erica.
But how should I use her?
Many answers sprang to mind regarding this question.
First of all, I’ll make Erica fall for me.
‘······Rejected.’
No matter how I think about it, this won’t work.
Isn’t this a cliché from a common romance fantasy?
Trying to make the opponent fall for you, only to end up falling for them instead.
Moreover, Schlus isn’t that extraordinarily handsome, so I decided to discard this idea.
So, what options are left······
“Big motion!”
“Cough?!”
In the midst of my thoughts, Trie’s sword tip flew like the wind and stabbed my solar plexus.
I dropped my sword and collapsed, wheezing for a while.
Even though it was a dull blade, I nearly choked and died······.
“Oh, getting a bit cocky? Thinking about something else during our duel.”
“Cough, choke······. How did you know I was thinking about something else?”
“Of course, I knew. You clearly weren’t focused. If you keep this up, you’ll end up seriously hurt.”
“Got it. I’ll focus from now on.”
I grabbed my sword and stood up.
My solar plexus still throbbed, but it wasn’t enough to stop me.
“Speaking of which, the midterm exams are in two weeks, right?”
“······That’s right.”
Crazy. Already?
After the midterms end, I need to jump straight into Trie’s magic lessons······.
I haven’t even finished the major textbooks yet.
Just keeping up with classes is hard enough, what am I going to do then?
Worries abound.
“This time, I’ll lift all restrictions.”
“All of them? Really?”
“Uh······. Is there a problem?”
“No, there isn’t.”
Lifting the restrictions.
For Trie, that probably meant she could use the internal circuits.
But seeing a fault in those words, I barely managed to suppress the corners of my mouth from rising.
The basic restrictions on sword dueling mean that the prohibition of magic can also be seen as lifted.
‘Selection and Concentration. Using 1 second on Mana Sensitivity.’
As my Mana Sensitivity stat hit 100, I fully activated my internal circuits.
The Mana Energy created in the process was transformed into mana and accumulated in my body for 1 second.
Now, with this mana, I could freely move for about a minute.
“Then… let’s begin!”
At Trie’s signal, I raised my sword and waited quietly.
Trie also stood still, watching my sword and ready to dart forward.
“Are you just going to watch? Then I’ll go first······”
‘Selection and Concentration. Using 1 second on Mana.’
In an instant, Trie’s stance crumpled, and her expression soured.
It was the effect of Gravity Magic weighing down on her entire body.
With a whopping 100,000 mana cast, Gravity Magic was pressing down on Trie with the force of about 1 ton.
Even after using 100,000 mana, only this much output was possible, because most of my power was poured into hiding the spell.
It was truly a decisive blow.
While Trie was barely holding on, she lifted her head and glared at me.
She seemed a bit annoyed.
“What are you doing?”
“You said you lifted all restrictions.”
“Huh······ so that’s how it is?”
Yeah. It’s unfair and petty, but this is how it has to be.
I get beaten up nearly every day; I deserve to win at least once, right?
“Do you think I can’t use magic?!”
In that moment, unfamiliar spells started to unfold all around.
Mana Emission Magic. The kind that seemed ready to crush me.
Despite being awful at magic, Trie had a lot of mana, so the output was indeed tremendous.
‘But that’s only if she can send it out.’
I immediately intervened in the spell and dismantled the core as quickly as possible.
In no time, over ten spells were completely destroyed.
It all happened in less than 0.5 seconds.
“What?!”
With apparent surprise, Trie’s eyes widened.
She deployed spells several times, but they all simply melted away before execution.
With a computational power stat of around 48, dismantling Trie’s mediocre spells was easy enough.
One drawback to this chaotic process was the awful headache it left behind.
Trie was surely running low on mana by now.
Shall I attack soon?
“Do you think you can win this?”
“Of course.”
Standing there, it seemed like a struggle already. How arrogant.
I dashed straight to Trie’s position and brought my sword down.
With no other choice, Trie had to block with her own sword.
“Ugh!”
“Oh.”
Even with Gravity Magic adding pressure, I was using all my strength, pushing down with my sword, but Trie was trembling, managing to hold on.
What kind of monstrous strength is this······?
I can’t believe I’ve been facing such a beast without magic.
It’s ridiculous at this point.
“Ggggh!”
“Seriously, what the hell is this?”
Trie let out a strange roar and began to push me back with her strength.
As I stepped back only to charge in again, this time Trie attacked first.
Her speed was at least twice as slow as usual, so I ignored it and tried to swing to the side when—
*WHOOSH…!*
“Ugh.”
An unbelievable speed of her sword blade shot for my head.
Using the fact that Gravity Magic acts vertically downward against her, she gained acceleration as she swung her sword.
It was too fast; I didn’t even have time to activate ‘Selection and Concentration.’
Faced with similar attacks from past duels, my arms moved automatically, narrowly dodging Trie’s downward strike.
Not missing that gap, I quickly plunged into her inner space—
“Gotcha.”
“······.”
I pressed the blade of my sword against Trie’s neck.
“Grrrrr.”
With both hands raised, Trie surrendered.
As it was a gesture of acknowledging defeat, I immediately released the spell.
Then it seemed like Trie’s tension also relaxed, and her body slumped weakly.
I was taken by surprise and let go of my sword to support Trie with my arms.
“Are you all out of strength?”
“You idiot.”
“What did you just say—”
“I’m saying I won, you dimwit.”
“Damn it.”
I had let my guard down.
Just then, I was about to push Trie away.
*THWACK!*
“Gah!”
The dull tip of a blade jabbed into my abdomen.
Once again, I had to clutch my belly and curl up for a while.
I realized I hadn’t said the word ‘surrender’······. How petty she is, even more so than me.
I never imagined this would happen.
“Should’ve immobilized you so you couldn’t get up, huh.”
“I thought about it, but… I can’t bring myself to leave a lady injured.”
“Y-you really are an idiot! Where is the lady during a duel! Ugh, for heaven’s sake!”
Trie laughed in disbelief, fanning her face with her hand.
I know I’m being foolish.
I was planning to stab her solar plexus as hard as I could the moment I got close, but······.
The moment I saw her chest, I was hit with a psychological hesitation. What man could stab that?
I guess the desire to smack Trie wasn’t that strong after all.
Maybe if I get hit a few more times, I won’t hold back then.
“I’m done for today!”
“Isn’t it too soon to end?”
“It’s cowardly to use that kind of trick so early when you’re the one who’s still learning! Reflect on your actions today!”
“······.”
Then Trie quickly gathered her training sword and rushed out of the underground training room.
Is she really mad?
“I still couldn’t win even once······.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I lay flat on the ground.
I really couldn’t win.
With such a high wall in front of me, Trie was too much.
*
“Lady Trie.”
“What?”
“Before you go, feel free to use the bathroom.”
“Ah······.”
Trie, caught by Schlus’s attendant, finally realized.
That her whole body was soaked in sweat.
After teaching Schlus swordsmanship till now, this was the first time she had soaked so thoroughly.
“No, I’ll just go.”
“Yes. Please take care.”
She turned her back on the attendant, who bowed respectfully, and left the mansion.
Looking back after leaving, she recognized it wasn’t just an ordinary huge mansion.
It was enormous compared to the one back home in the institution.
It was only comparable to the main mansion in Edenberg.
I heard that it was the chairwoman’s residence, but how did Schlus end up moving to a place like this······?
I had meant to ask that but completely forgot.
Debating whether to turn back and ask again, Trie continued on her way.
After leaving the front gate and checking that no one was around, she clenched her fist, trembling in anger.
Schlus had only been learning swordsmanship for less than a month, so calling him a swordsman was hard.
That’s how Trie ended up losing in close quarters, less than 10 meters against a magician.
Considering that knights have a significant edge over magicians within 50 meters, it was an unimaginable disgrace.
How could she, who had the skill to defeat most upper-class knights, have lost…?
While she hadn’t anticipated the opponent would use magic, that didn’t really matter.
An experienced swordsman should instinctively always charge to cut the opponent’s throat faster than the spell’s deployment.
Originally, Trie should have responded before Schlus’s Gravity Magic was even cast.
But the spell’s camouflage was cunning, and she hadn’t noticed quickly enough.
The basic principle of spell camouflage was to emit a wave phase that was exactly out of phase with the mana wave generated by the spell, canceling it out.
That means one has to do multiple calculations simultaneously.
Because of this, spell camouflage typically requires two or more people: the spell caster and the concealer.
But Schlus was solely operating two calculations on his own.
Although she could argue that not detecting the incoming magic was a fault, it was merely an excuse.
In the end, the fact remained that she had failed to do anything against a magician up close.
“What was that even······?”
What was even more shocking happened afterward.
Although Trie had built a reputation for her swordsmanship, she hadn’t spent a short time honing her magic skills.
No matter how much inadequate talent was assumed, she had to be considered fairly distinguished among nobles to have entered the Imperial University.
But her opponent was a master of magic, Schlus Hainkel.
There was no way she could withstand him using magic.
Despite that, she had no intention of getting greedy.
She had intended to cast the fastest spell, one that shot mana directly, rather than indulging in complex magic.
······Or so she intended.
Trie’s spells were intercepted before even deployment.
Even trying to deploy them from two opposing directions had the same result.
From the spell’s perspective, it meant the computational load would double, but from the dismantler’s perspective, it would multiply exponentially.
The tremendous disparity made Trie utterly bewildered.
‘Never imagined winning with magic from the beginning.’
While feeling a bit of despair against the seemingly insurmountable wall, she still felt okay.
Even if she couldn’t win with magic, she could defeat him with swordsmanship.
Even with the minor penalty of Gravity Magic, she thought she could easily overpower a lower-class knight.
Until she clashed swords directly with Schlus.
There were no longer any unnecessary movements in his performance.
Every single action had its own rationale, executed quickly and decisively.
When the sword pressed against her neck, Trie had to acknowledge it.
Schlus had already reached the level of an upper-class knight······.
Achieving that level in just one month, merely that was astonishing.
In a few years, it wouldn’t be surprising if he surpassed Trie.
“Have I finally lost a match······.”
Trie ruefully smiled, acknowledging it.
She used petty tricks to win in the end, but deep down, she understood that was merely an excuse.
Ultimately, when utilizing all strategies, she confirmed being substantially weaker in terms of sheer power compared to Schlus.
After the midterms are over, will he share tips on this combat magic?
Trie felt her heart race with anticipation.
“By the way, a ‘lady’…”
Recalling Schlus’s words from earlier, Trie suddenly stopped.
No one had ever called her a lady while she held a sword.
Everyone only viewed her as a knight. In that place, there was no lady.
She thought Schlus would feel the same way.
And understandably so; hadn’t he mercilessly beaten her up all this time?
Regardless of being the one learning, she wouldn’t have been without accumulated emotions after constantly taking hits.
That’s why she was prepared to get hit hard once this time, but······.
-I wouldn’t dare leave scars on a lady’s body.
It was an utterly unexpected response.
“Who would even be happy about that? Ugh, really······. It’s ridiculous······.”
Thinking of her opponent as a woman during the duel.
She should have felt disgusted.
No, she should have been annoyed.
Yet strangely, Trie’s face flushed, and the corners of her mouth twitched.
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