"Waa~!"

"Fu~!"

In the suburb of Arcazam City. Two people, one men and one woman are slashing at each other in the field leading to the outer edge.

One is Irisdina Francilt, a girl with long black hair. She dances gracefully like a butterfly flying around the field, slashing with the rapier in her hand and thrusting it into her opponent. Her speed is just like a flash. The girl is slashing at a speed that even ordinary people could not see.

The other is Nozomu Bountis, a boy holding a katana with Seigan-no-Kamae (TL : posture in kendo). He handles the series of flashes of light with his katana that only seen as afterimages. However, the boy gradually backs off, perhaps because it is difficult to handle it completely.

Irisdina's mowing attacks gradually broke Nozomu's defenses, and Nozomu gradually became unable to handle her. Her rapier began to graze his body, even so, Irisdina's attack still can't reach the boy in front of her.

(Kuh! As expected, it's fast! I can't handle it completely !!)

(As I thought, it's amazing! To handle my attacks this far, which is overwhelming with my ability …………)

While retreating, Nozomu transmitted the momentum of his foot and his trunk to both of his arms. He skillfully parrying Irisdina’s slashes, who is superior in physical strength.

With his opponent's physical abilities drastically enhanced by strengthening magic, it is difficult for Nozomu to fight head-on.

Her physical ability is not as good as Mars's, but her ability to master not only swords but also magic is troublesome. And Nozomu doesn't know all about the skills she possesses.

That's why Nozomu was initially trying to get away from her, even just a little.

Because he was fighting in the vast area, Nozomu used that space to handle Irisdina's attacks. If the two were fighting in a small room, Nozomu would not have been able to do that.

(However, the sword is not the only weapon I have! Nozomu!)

At that time, the ground at the feet of the boy suddenly rose. The raised ground has shaken off Nozomu and his foot stops. However, Irisdina, who wields a sword in front of Nozomu, has not chanted or created a formation to activate the magic. Still, the reason why her magic was activated is due to her ability, "Immediate Deployment".

"Ku!"

Nozomu, whose momentum was destroyed, immediately abandoned his previous purpose. As he rolls on the ground, he manages to avoid the approaching Irisdina's sword. If his decision had been delayed for a moment, her sword would have reached Nozomu's body.

(I thought the victory is decided by now. His judgment is extraordinary ...)

(It was ridiculous. There is almost no time lag in magic activation. Her ability to deploy magic immediately is so troublesome ...)

Irisdina pursues further. She shoots the rapier against Nozomu who hasn't got up yet, but Nozomu catches her rapier with his katana while standing on his knees, he takes advantage of the curve of his katana's blade. Then, he parries her rapier upwards. 

(This time it's my turn !!)

"Waa~!"

After parrying Irisdina's slashes, Nozomu stands up and at the same time takes a step toward her and launches his katana. The katana that was launched will naturally be prevented by Irisdina, but Nozomu continues to launch it regardless.

Unlike before, Nozomu uses the rotation of his hips, ankles, and knees to slash at Irisdina while moving his legs. The slashing dance without any stagnation was completely devoted to the basics.

A high-pitched sound echoes and sparks of metal-to-metal collision are scattered. Nozomu's slashing is sharp and accurate, but his opponent is the top-ranked in the third year. By swinging up her rapier, Nozomu's katana is repelled sideways without any difficulty, and she cuts into Nozomu with her returning sword.

"There!"

"Ku~!" 

Irisdina tries to counterattack by slashing diagonally to Nozomu, but Nozomu steps back while trying to parry her. However, the next moment, a black magic bullet approached in front of Nozomu.

Nozomu pulls out his scabbard and defends against the magic activated by the ability of immediate deployment, but he is blown away by the impact and greatly loses his posture.

The magic of Irisdina pursued Nozomu who was out of shape. Several ice arrows about the size of an adult's arm are formed in the air.

The magic activated by Irisdina is *Icicle Dance*

Forming several icicles and launch them. It's a magic that skewers the opponent.

The icicles waiting in the air rushes toward Nozomu with the command of Irisdina.

Nozomu activates the instant move with all his might. When the flying icicles collide with the ground, the impact rolls up the soil and shatters it into pieces.

Of course, since it is a mock battle, the tip of the icicle is rounded by tampering with the technique, even so, if he got hit by it directly, he will be in agony because of the pain.

"Not good enough, Nozomu!"

(It's bad! This distance is an easy target !!)

This time, a magic formation is drawn at Nozomu's feet, and dark chains are entwined around both of his feet. It is the "Binding Chain of Darkness" that restrained Rugato's contract familiar in the previous incident.

"Wha, my legs!" 

Furthermore, Irisdina pursues. A lump of wind is formed in front of Irisdina.

The roaring green vortex that engulfed the surrounding wind eyed a prey called Nozomu in front of it. That specialized skill is like a hungry beast waiting eagerly.

Nozomu's feet are completely trapped by the chains of darkness, and it seems very unlikely that he will be able to evade the magic of Irisdina. The contract familiar that the dark chain previously bound is equivalent to rank A.

In common sense, there is no way for Nozomu, who cannot use magic, to break this bind.

"Here I go!"

The beast of the wind is released with the signal of Irisdina's shout. The released wind spirals cut through the surrounding atmosphere and rush to overrun and eat up the prey called Nozomu.

*Wind Tunnel of Hungry Beast*

The magic of wind spiral runs through while overrunning any existence in the direction of travel, the magic got this name because the compressed and swirling wind makes a roar like a beast.

As long as both of his feet are already restrained, it cannot be avoided, and Nozomu, who cannot use magic, cannot take defensive measures such as putting up a barrier.

(But it doesn't mean I don't have an option!)

In front of the beast of wind rushing towards him, Nozomu puts his sword in his scabbard and slams his scabbard butt against the "Binding Chain of Darkness" that restrains his leg.

Qi technique *Breaking Strike*

Originally, it is an internal destruction technique that directly drives into the opponent's body and shatters the internal organs. He hit this technique into the magic formation at his feet instead.

The magic formation shattered with a high-pitched sound due to the "Breaking Strike", and the dark chains were scattered.

Nozomu activates the instant move at the same time as the shackles disappear. While plunging into the "Wind Tunnel of Hungry Beast", he sent his full power of Qi to the katana that was returned to its scabbard, and at the same time, extremely compressed it.

Nozomu changes "Instant Move" to "Instant Move -Curve Dance-" in front of the "Wind Tunnel of Hungry Beast" in front of him.

Without slowing down, he turned away from the approaching magic, ran through the side of the "Wind Tunnel of Hungry Beast", and Nozomu approached Irisdina as it was.

However, as expected, she is the top-ranked. She was already holding her rapier and ready to confront him. Nozomu pulled out his katana and let go of the extremely compressed blade ......

"~!"

A red dream flashes back in front of him, and he hesitates to pull out his katana. And thus, there is no victory for those who are wavering in the match. By the time Nozomu noticed, the rapier that Irisdina had swung down was already approaching in front of him.

***

The previous mock battle ended with the victory of Irisdina. After the mock battle, the two are sitting on a section of the meadow, including Mars, Tima, and Somia.

Today they are talking about the training they did early in the morning, and they came to this outer edge where there will be no problem even if it was a little noisy.

"It was a good match"

"Is... is that so?"

For Irisdina, it's a pure compliment to Nozomu's tenacity, but Nozomu, who hasn't fully understood his own abilities, just gives a vague answer to her words.

As for Nozomu's feeling, he was pushed all the time and his counterattack was completely prevented, so he didn't think it was a very good match.

"That's right. It would be rather strange for you to hold out when you haven't released your ability suppression."

Mars agrees with Irisdina's words. Mars is now opening a book while sitting on the grass. He is reading a textbook related to magic.

He is willing to open a textbook, which is something he doesn't usually do, but he may have had something to think about after the fight against Rugato.

Tima and Somia were sitting beside Mars. Both of them were watching the mock battle between Nozomu and Irisdina.

The black cat, Kuro, is rounded in Somia's arm, and Tima is stroking Kuro in Somia's arm beside her.

Kuro is dozing in the sunny weather, occasionally yawning with a big yawn.

"Yup. I haven't seen many people who can fight Ai that much...."

"That's right! Ane-sama has a fighting skill that is as good as the regular knight of Forsina, so I think it's good for you to have confidence."

Mars's words followed by Tima and Somia.

The rank of Irisdina is A. This is a rank that a first-class human can have, and if you think of it as a knight, it is equivalent to a royal guard knight. Nozomu himself saw her ability in the fight against Rugato and felt that her skill was no different from that rank.

"Hmm, is that so?"

However, it seems that his self-evaluation that has been ingrained until now cannot be easily overturned.

In fact, Nozomu is not that strong. To be precise, it is correct to say that his ability cannot be easily evaluated because it is too uneven.

Actually, it's strange when he can fight with Mars and Irisdina, who are overwhelmingly superior, while in the presence of ability suppression. At that point, Nozomu's sword skills were far beyond the student's level.

However, there is a limit to how much skill he has when he is under ability suppression. Just as a dragon, who is an overwhelming existence, blows away a first-class swordsman like garbage with just a slight swing of his arm, a pure ability difference appears as an overwhelming difference on the actual battlefield.

Moreover, for Nozomu, not only physical strength is limited by the ability suppression, but also Qi and magical power.

The amount of Qi, the number of times of use, power, range, etc, are greatly reduced. There is almost no magical power, and the means of magic cannot be used from the beginning.

In other words, it's like putting weight on his whole body and running before fighting, and Nozomu constantly fighting in that state one after another. He never felt comfortable. Even if his ability to fight only in such a state was evaluated, Nozomu would only feel a sense of discomfort.

"And in the end, I won, but Nozomu didn't use that technique. I didn't know what would happen if he used that technique in the actual battle."

"Well, that's right."

Mars agrees with Irisdina's words.

That technique she was referring to is Nozomu's "Phantom" technique that she saw in the previous incident.

That technique has incredible speed and cutting power, and once released, it is extremely difficult to defend and avoid. Sure, Irisdina was pushing all the time in the mock combat, but Nozomu had a way to overturn that inferiority and didn't use it. No, to be exact, he couldn't use it. 

" ... All right, let's talk about this, so what is Mars doing? "  

Nozomu diverts the conversation and stares at his friend beside him.

Nozomu has never seen Mars, who is not good at studying, reading a textbook by himself. To be clear, it feels strange, but he is glaring at the textbook as if he were looking at something important.

"Well, I also have something to think about. I don't think it's going to work tho."

"Then, is that about magic?"

"Yea" 

Until now, Mars has only used Qi in his combat training, aside from class. This is partly because his trait is more suited to use Qi technique than magic, but it is correct to say that there was nothing that drives Mars.

Even though Mars's ability is high even in the upper grades, since his class is the lowest which is the 10th class, the opponents he fights against are always lower than himself. So he had never really been cornered to the limit.

However, being cornered by Nozomu at the end of last year and being beaten up by Rugato in the previous incident may have been an opportunity for Mars to reconsider himself.

"Guh, the interrelationship of attributes? The effect of terrain and geological conditions on magic? ………… What kind of code is this?" 

However, as long as Mars is still steaming from his head, it looks like his future still has a long way to go.

Aside from his practical grades, his written and other exam grades are not flattering.

He has a strong desire to become stronger, and he was more suited to wielding a sword than reading a book. He was able to feel that his physical skill acquisition and study became stronger.

However, his writing grades are terrible and is wandering around the bottom of the year. By the way, Nozomu, who used to take additional exams because his practical exam was not good, may be in the upper grades if it's only for the written exam. 

"That's right! Why don't you ask Tima to teach you? Tima has a lot of knowledge about magic, isn't it more efficient than studying alone?"

"Ehhhhhhhhh!"

Irisdina suggests to Mars that he should be taught by Tima. Tima is surprised and shouts with a loud voice, but her face is slightly red, probably because of her feelings.

"What are you saying, please think about Tima's convenience."

With a stunned face, Mars was shocked by Irisdina's suggestion.

"I said it after thinking. And Tima herself doesn't seem to mind ..."

"Well, ermmm ......... uuu" 

When Irisdina tells Tima such a thing, Tima turns her face down, which was about to turn from red into crimson. She's just shy at first glance, but Mars sees her gestures in a completely different way.

"Look, don't overdo it even though you don't like it."

Tima herself wasn't completely satisfied with teaching Mars to study, but he said something completely wrong. Tima hurriedly corrects Mars' words.

"I, I don't really hate it! I just wondered if I could do it ......... Ermm, if Mars-kun is okay with me then, would you like to study with me?"

"Ehh, is that okay?"

"Y, yea. I think I can teach you about magic ... but of course, if Mars-kun is okay with it..."

"I, I have to say, you saved me"

"Yup"

In the end, Tima teaches Mars, who was struggling to understand the textbook. The wall between Mars and Tima when they first met had disappeared after a forced date by Irisdina and Somia. Instead, they have a strangely messy atmosphere now ...

"Ane-sama, isn't it about time?"

"Eh, is that so. Well then, let's go to school now."

Irisdina answers Somia's words. The sun is completely out of the horizon, and its light is beginning to illuminate the earth.

Nozomu and his friends start walking toward the school. And today a new day has begun.