[The Sword God laughs at you.]

I smiled.

“Classes are over already?” I said straight off the bat.

“Yeah. Also, you should go to that professor. He has something to discuss with you about.”

“Professor? Which one?”

“The combat magic one.”

I smiled.

“Got it.”

“Here, take the uniform.”

“Thanks, I’ll be going then.”

I smiled.

“Professor, you were asking for me?”

“Oh Daniel! You’re a bit early. Go take a seat. We’ll start when everyone is here.”

I smiled.

A girl approached me with a greeting.

I smiled.

The girl sat next to me

I didn’t like her.

A boy sat away from me.

The boy was watching me.

A boy sat near me.

A girl with a hat stayed standing.

A boy eyed my get-up upon entering.

A girl glared at me.

The professor had come.

He greeted us.

We should get to know each other, he said.

We were a group, he said.

He talked.

Then he brought us to a place.

The training facility.

He said we should train here.

We could use all the equipment.

Swords. Weights. Axes. Hammers.

No gun. No bow.

We were brutes.

He showed us various rooms.

One with a scarecrow.

One with cushioned walls.

One like a shooting range.

One with drinks.

He then left us there with a goodbye.

The air was stuffy.

The boy who watched me left.

The girl I didn’t like stayed with me.

Everyone else went into a room.

The girl I didn’t like went into a room too.

Practice, she said.

I left.

I didn’t want to go back.

I went to the school.

I went to the library.

I found a book. A stool. A table.

I put it down.

I couldn’t read.

But that was okay.

I slept.

Why do I exist.

I woke up.

One time was enough.

***

“Why are you following me.”

“Because you promised,” the boy said.

I didn’t like that I called him a boy as if I were any better than him.

I was much shorter and probably much younger too. A physical inferior.

“Please,” he begged.

I didn’t understand why anyone who was looking for trouble would beg for it. Anyone truly looking for trouble would just do it. That was how troubling people were.

“Even if I win, I won’t take your membership status. Please accept my challenge.”

He bowed this time.

I didn’t understand it. I didn’t even know who he was.

“Please give me a chance…”

“Why,” I said.

His intentions were beyond me.

“Because you’re strong.”

‘But I’m not.’

He was confused.

“No.”

As I turned away, he grasped my leg.

He was kneeling.

It wasn’t a sight I saw every day.

“Please reconsider!”

With his face down, I couldn’t see his eyes. I couldn’t understand the situation I was in.

It was like a dream. Was this all a dream? This world, these thoughts?

“You won’t lose anything if you accept this, so please!” he begged.

I couldn’t hold myself back from responding now.

“I have nothing to gain from accepting your challenge,” I said.

“T-then I’ll give you all my crystals. Please!”

‘Crystals?’

“I don’t need that.”

I didn’t do cocaine.

“Then what do you want? I’ll give you anything if you help me!”

“Help?”

He got me there. Wasn’t he talking about challenging me? Where did “Help” come from? And wasn’t he the same guy who pestered me in the cafeteria?

“Just please give me a chance to fight you, please…”

While I didn’t understand his motivations that well, he wanted to fight me for some reason.

I didn’t like the way he said “Please” so much.

“Why.”

“B-because…” He struggled to make eye contact, fearing I would dismiss him the moment he stopped kneeling.

“Give me an answer and I’ll consider it,” I said. That was a lie. I’d tell a stranger to fuck off any day. He was just a bit… Unsightly.

“B-because… I want to test myself.”

“Is that it.”

If it were to challenge himself, such a goal was quite common. The only difference was that most so-called “enthusiasts” gave up to become couch potatoes.

“...” I was going to say something but decided to shut up.

“I think I can learn something if… If I battle you.”

“You can learn on your own. Get out of my way if that’s all.”

“Please! You said you’d do it before if I asked you now!” he pleaded, finally looking up.

“...”

I looked at him in silence before asking out of curiosity.

“And when did I promise that?”

I genuinely wanted to know.

“Right when class ended, I challenged you again and you said you’d do it later. Don’t you remember?” he asked with not the least bit of shame from kneeling before. He had his head up, at least.

‘Right when class ended, huh?’

It was needless to say who it was to blame. After all, I didn’t go to classes today…

I’ll think about that matter later.

“If you want to learn something, learn shame,” I said; though I wasn’t exactly the right person to be saying that.

I didn’t feel like saying anything else, so I tried to leave.

But this shameless person made me drag him as he grasped onto my leg.

“Let go of me.”

“Not unless you—AHH!!!” He screamed in pain.

I wasn’t going to have any of that, so I stomped down the flag immediately both figuratively and literally. If I didn’t, he’d have said something too over the top even for me to deny.

But the little bitch was unrelenting with both hands gripping tighter.

“I can break your hand, you know.” I hovered my free foot above one of his hands.

He didn’t say anything. But he also didn’t let go.

“AHHH!”

‘What am I doing?’

I wanted to know, but at the same time, my mind told me to go with the flow and accept the situation as it was.

“Your hand will seriously break this time,” I said not too seriously.

That was mostly crap since I couldn’t do much in my current position. I knew my body well enough to know that I couldn’t create enough force to fracture the metacarpal bones with my limited footing. In fact, if he knew what he was doing, he could tip me over as lumberjacks did to trees. I was referring to a single-leg takedown that transitioned into a heel hook.

“I won’t let go!—Urggh…”

I rubbed the heel of my shoe into his hand.

I didn’t try convincing him this time. He knew what he was going to do, and I knew what I was going to do. He was stubborn. But I was more so.

It went on for a while. Luckily, we weren’t in a truly public place. Only a grassy area.

Even when I kicked him in the forehead, he didn’t let go.

When I finally had enough, I stepped down hard on the ligament where the wrist met the ulnar. It had a fancy name which I wasn’t too keen on having memorized, but I remembered enough from general anatomy and physiology textbooks to know how the body worked.

With pressure put on that ligament, he wouldn’t be able to transmit as much force. Speaking of force, he had a ridiculously strong grip.

It took a couple tries to knock his hand off of my rooted leg, but once he gave in, I quickly shuffled out and ran.

Even for me, he was a rather stubborn fellow. His grip strength… It was much stronger than I would expect from such a skinny teenager.

It would take him a while to get up, so I dashed for the dorms.

‘What am I doing with my life?’

When I arrived, I noticed Benni was gone.

He left a note on the table.

It was in legible English this time. Something I could read.

And something I didn’t need to tear up…

I was going to speak with him when I got back, but now I couldn’t.

I wanted to know the real reason he brought me to this world—if there was. I wish there was.

I need to know if I’m living in a dream.

Because my stubbornness plagues me.