## Chapter 213 – Confession (3)
The new year dawned, and a new semester began at the Saint Flansina Academy.
As is always the case with new semesters, things that were there before changed, some disappeared, and new things emerged.
The same was true for the Department of Swordsmanship.
“Ugh, the smell of sweat… Training in a place like this?
My nose is going to rot from the start…”
“Doesn’t anyone greet newcomers here?
Has the Academy really gone this far?
With such low standards…”
A group of new students poured into the training grounds, with two girls standing at the very front.
Their attitude was so arrogant and confident that it drew everyone’s attention.
The two girls, one with blue hair and the other with blonde hair, were reminiscent of someone, but their faces were slightly different.
“Are they like Vivian and Ranier?
For a second, I thought they were back?”
The students realized that the girls they were thinking of were not the same people and let out hollow laughs.
“Hahaha!! You too?
Me too!! Hahaha!!”
A tradition that was carried out like a joke in the Department of Swordsmanship, which was like a military in some ways.
Originally, the upperclassmen leading the new students would jokingly tell them to shout those arrogant lines, and then make fun of the lowerclassmen who recited them, but this time, the atmosphere felt different.
Ranier was holding her nose, and Vivian was sighing and looking around, scanning the people around her with eyes that clearly said she was looking for a fight.
With their provocative words, “Receive the new recruits” was beginning in the Academy’s training grounds at the start of the new semester.
“It’s been a while since someone this shocking has come along?
Yeah, you’re right. The Academy is doing so well, isn’t it?”
“Do they still make you do this kind of thing? That’s not it, is it?
Why does this junior have such a bad attitude?”
The aristocratic students of the Academy often wore their family crests on their chests out of pride in their families.
The fact that a new student who was just wearing the uniform without any crests could have such confidence was laughable.
Even though the Academy had a policy of not discriminating between commoners and nobles, the reality was that everyone would return to their original positions after graduation.
“Oh, you’re our seniors?
Then, as a way of saying ‘nice to meet you,’ shall we have a match?”
At Vivian’s provocation, the blue-haired girl at the front, the upperclassmen began to step forward one by one, frowning.
“You’re really going to get hurt if you keep this up?”
“You’d better back down now?”
Basically, the skills of the students in the Department of Swordsmanship were proportional to their grade level.
Unless there were physical or intellectual issues, those who trained more and continued to learn over time were stronger.
Of course, that was just at the student level, and later they would become even stronger through practical experience, completing themselves as swordsmen.
The possibility of a freshman defeating a senior who had been training steadily was, on average, a very low possibility.
Even though the Academy was run by the rules and laws set by adults, it was still a place where students went, and the students were the masters of the Academy.
Depending on how you suppressed your fellow students, the evaluation and treatment of “you” would change among other friends.
The fact that she was trying to pick a fight and engage in a battle of nerves from the first day of school was also intentional.
To reveal her strength and exude her presence.
In some ways, it was a way of thinking that hadn’t changed much from the past, but even if she herself had changed, this was an unavoidable choice.
In order to help Enic, she had returned to the Academy, and she needed to become that much stronger. Even if she hid her strength, the truth that she was strong would inevitably be revealed someday.
‘Right now, I have no choice but to attract the attention of others in some way.’
It was only natural that even a small reputation could make a big difference in school life within the Academy, where various rumors and political maneuvering took place.
Even now, she was a commoner. What if someone dared to be jealous or envious of her?
In the past, she would have protected herself by using her social status as the daughter of the Grenot Marquis, and the element of being a vicious and ruthless thug who harassed others as a weapon.
But now, she no longer had the comfortable social status of a marquis’s daughter.
In the end, Vivian had to appeal to people with her only advantage: her physical abilities.
‘I am this kind of person. If you dare to mess with me, I won’t let you off easy.’
And to increase the number of colleagues who might be interested in approaching her.
“Then why don’t you try attacking me?
Shall we see what you’re made of?”
With a smile on Vivian’s face, a female student stepped forward.
It was Parvati, a female student who had received a fairly high ranking in the friendly match at the last social gathering.
She was only a sophomore, so she still had a long way to go, but she was ranked in the top of her grade.
She was a good enough person to put down the arrogant freshman.
“Huh? A funny little brat?
Then shall we see what you’re made of?”
Parvati threw a wooden sword lying on the floor to Vivian and twirled her own wooden sword around her wrist, gesturing as if to pass the first attack to her.
Although her opponent was arrogant, she needed to maintain her dignity as an aristocrat.
Perhaps it was consideration for the junior who would soon be beaten up by her.
But her choice didn’t seem like a good one at all.
That’s because Vivian, who was smiling brightly, immediately ran up and smashed Parvati’s head while she was showing off.
“Ugh!!”
It happened in an instant.
Let’s say she started with a fatal penalty of losing her mind and looking away.
But the fact that Parvati couldn’t do anything but flinch was shocking not only to her but also to the other students who were watching.
It meant that there was a clear difference in skill between the two.
“This freshman is pretty good?
Then why don’t you try taking my sword?”
“Then I’ll go next!!”
This time, a male sophomore with a large build stepped forward with a wooden sword with an iron core, and Ranier stepped forward.
The two of them were facing each other for a while, but this time, the male student didn’t make the mistake of being careless.
“Try to block it if you can!!”
The male student, who had raised his sword above his head and ran forward, was about to strike Ranier’s head with a wooden sword that boasted considerable weight.
The sword path was quite clean, and even though he was wielding a heavy wooden sword, he showed a smooth movement.
“Haaap!!”
But the power was not smooth at all. Ranier’s sword, which was used to deflect the sword, was momentarily pushed down as if it was being crushed.
A powerful blow that combined the weight of the iron core, the weight of the sword’s user, and his strength.
For an ordinary student, accepting this attack instead of avoiding it would have been a factor directly linked to defeat.
But his opponent was none other than Ranier.
She had a surprised look on her face for a moment as the wooden sword came right in front of her.
But at the very moment she gritted her teeth, something unbelievable was happening to everyone here.
– Crack
“What… what did you say…?”
Ranier, who was also holding a wooden sword with an iron core, clenched the sword’s handle tightly, and the handle of the sword crumbled in reverse, revealing the iron core inside.
Ranier had grabbed the iron core rather than the wooden sword.
She didn’t care about the sawdust flying into the air, and a powerful shout erupted from her mouth as she bent her knees slightly.
“I’m confident in my strength too!!
Euryahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Ranier seemed to completely overwhelm all the impact, pushing away the male student’s heavy sword without any effort as she straightened her knees.
Even at the moment of pushing the sword away, perhaps because of the opposing forces, the two wooden swords shattered at the point where they crossed, and the iron core inside was revealed, with sawdust flying in all directions.
What happened after that was obvious.
“Ugh!! Ouch!! Augh!!
Wait!! Time!!
Augh!! I said time!!”
“Hehe!! Time is for fools!!
Try blocking this too!!
Block? Block? What are you blocking!!”
Ranier’s performance of beating the unbalanced male student like a dog on a hot day with a broken wooden sword began.
The faces of the students watching the shocking performance were filled with astonishment.
“That… that’s not the level of a freshman…!!”
If she was easily beating up a sophomore, they would have to bring at least a junior to match her skills to some extent.
In the end, the eyes of the other students began to turn to the juniors.
But the junior students turned their heads away.
“Ahem… ahem!!”
“What’s the point of being good at that…
You do it a lot…”
After all, they had a lot to lose.
It was a break-even for a junior to beat a freshman.
But if they were to lose to the freshman in front of them, who seemed to have similar skills, their reputation would be greatly tarnished.
In the first place, would they have ever thought that such a monster would appear?
In fact, if they had thought about it a little more carefully, the juniors’ worries were not necessary.
If they had looked closely, they would have been able to notice with their upperclassmen’s discernment that her speed and strength were strong, but her skill proficiency was low.
But the students, who were caught up in the stimulating situation in front of them, seemed to be showing the limitations of a student who still had many shortcomings.
“The welcoming ceremony is weak?
Anyone else want to dance?”
In the end, if this was the case, it would be most ideal for someone from the sophomores to step up and fight.
But no one stepped forward and just watched the situation.
Perhaps they had decided that someone else needed to step up.
“I’m an outsider, but…
I’ll try to learn a thing or two.”
The students around her began to stir as Sistina’s paladin, who had been next to Anne until just now, stepped forward.
“I’m Roxanne Stranova.
I look forward to working with you.”
Most of all, what was unique was the spear in her hand.
Even unlike ordinary spears, it was a long weapon closer to a halberd.
The sharp spearhead at the end of the long pole, as well as the axe that resembled the blade of a guillotine, made it look very threatening.
In the Department of Swordsmanship, they usually learned swordsmanship as befitting the name of the department, but it was not impossible to use other weapons.
Perhaps she had taken out a lethal weapon because there was no practice weapon to respond to, but once Roxanne took out her real weapon, Vivian had no choice but to use her real sword as well.
As Roxanne lowered the spearhead of the halberd, which she was holding like a cane, and adjusted her posture, Vivian narrowed her eyes and answered briefly.
“Going all the way will make the atmosphere rough.
How about stopping before we get hit?”
Vivian herself had never seen this person before.
If there was someone in this Department of Swordsmanship whose information she didn’t know at all, there was only one type of person.
‘Sistina…’
From the various patterns engraved on the armor she was wearing, her appearance already seemed to have a strong religious color.
Frankly speaking, she had a good grasp of the level of the people in the Department of Swordsmanship, so she had little burden in dealing with the students in the Department of Swordsmanship.
But when dealing with someone she didn’t know at all, especially someone who came out with a unique long weapon, she needed to be that much more careful.
“Whatever. Then will you come first?”
Vivian, who was thinking of giving the opponent the first attack and counterattacking, slowly adjusted her posture.
After all, her physical abilities and reflexes, which had increased as she consumed Enic’s mucus and nutrient solution with her mouth and skin, were truly outstanding.
She could feel it roughly while dealing with the sophomores until just now, but she was confident that she would not easily lose even if she faced the former juniors, that is, the current seniors.
The only thing she was wary of at the moment was Lucia, the former top student of the seniors, who was now a teaching assistant and was watching the current situation from afar with orange eyes.
First of all, she was a senior who had experienced the ‘tradition’.
That is, she knew best that there were areas that professors and teaching assistants should not touch with students.
Unless the situation became so serious that it was difficult to handle, Lucia would definitely not step in.
‘But that’s your limit…
I won’t let you have your way…’
Just getting rid of that woman would greatly expand the scope of Enic’s influence in the Academy.
There may be many other talented professors, but above all, the obstacle called Lucia, who was closest to the students, was likely to act as a dangerous variable.
Just as Professor Eloise, who could be seen as the most talented applied mage in the Academy, was neutralized, and Enic’s clutches began to extend to the Magic Society in earnest.
‘If it’s me now… maybe I can at least grab that woman’s ankle…’
For the time being, Vivian put aside her thoughts about Lucia and clenched the sword in her hand tightly as she glared at the opponent in front of her.
