Chapter 3: Freshmen Tournament - Vanguard Division
Just like yesterday, the area surrounding the colosseum was overflowing with people.
Led by our instructors, we forced our way through the thick crowd.
It wasn't until we stepped inside the colosseum that I realized something was off.
Unlike yesterday, when the stands had been alive with enthusiastic cheering, today an ominous, hostile air hung over the spectators.
"Doesn't the air feel way heavier than yesterday?" Misha asked.
Even Misha, usually so cheerful, sounded tense.
"Yeah, it really does. What's going on?" I asked.
As I agreed, Lorenz, who was leading our group, pointed toward the front row of the stands.
"Take a look over there," Lorenz said.
Following his gaze, I saw what appeared to be beastkin sitting in the front row, looking as if they owned the place.
"Whenever the Vanguard division matches are held, the beastkin line up outside the colosseum in the middle of the night just to monopolize the front row like this," Lorenz explained. "And it isn't just the front row. They also take up vantage points with a complete view of the arena, exerting a silent pressure on any of us humans who try to cheer."
So they're basically threatening the crowd, then.
"That's not all. Once the matches for Seleance Royal academy begin, they let out deafening roars and direct pure intent to kill right at us," he continued. "It's worst during our matches. Having thousands of beastkin projecting raw bloodlust at students who haven't even reached adulthood is nothing short of terrifying."
"Is there no way to ban them from doing that?" Clarice asked, voicing the question on everyone's mind.
"Naturally, we've tried to take countermeasures, but the beastkin insist they're merely cheering," Lorenz replied. "To make matters worse, they mock our students for not even being able to handle a little cheering, ridiculing Lister National academy as a cesspool of dropouts."
He shook his head as he answered, frustration clearly oozing from his expression.
Although it hadn't even been half a year since I enrolled, I felt no small amount of pride and affection for Lister National academy.
For someone like Lorenz, who had served as an instructor here for so long, it must have been truly unbearable.
As we walked toward the waiting room, observing Lorenz's grim profile, we found Zeke standing alone in front of the door with his head hanging low.
"Father? Is something wrong?" I asked.
Noticing my voice, Zeke immediately raised his head.
"Mars, step over here for a moment," Zeke said. "Clarice, Ellie, you two as well."
The three of us exchanged glances, but we obeyed Zeke's instructions, stepping away from the others to follow him.
He led us to a small, private room.
"There's something I want to ask you three," Zeke began. "I hear you took part in the Dungeon Examination. Could you tell me what happened back then?"
"I don't mind, but since I was at the bottom of E-Class, I was in a different party from Clarice and Ellie," I replied. "If we each explain things from our own perspective, we won't have enough time..."
"In that case, focus on telling me about Karen," Zeke requested.
About Karen? Why is he asking us about her? Clarice and Ellie seemed to be wondering the same thing, as we once again exchanged bewildered glances.
"Understood. This is just from my perspective, though, so please jump in if you have anything to add, Clarice, Ellie."
I explained how we saved Karen during the Dungeon Examination and formed a party with her afterward. He then asked about the Intra-academy Class Match, so I answered those questions as well.
"I see..." Zeke paused. "Just one last thing. Do you three still love each other? Have any of you fallen for someone else since coming to this academy?"
I started to speak, but Ellie cut in before I could answer.
"...Only Mars... don't need... anyone else..."
"I feel the exact same way as Ellie," Clarice added firmly.
Both of them declared their feelings without a single shred of hesitation.
"My feelings haven't changed one bit since back then either," I said.
I figured it would be wrong to claim Clarice was number one here, so I kept my response broad. Besides, Clarice probably wouldn't want me saying something like that in front of Ellie anyway.
"Right. There's no way you kids would ever look at anyone else. Forgive me for asking such a strange question," Zeke said, his tone turning dead serious. "But there's one thing I must tell you. In the finals against Seleance Royal academy, do not hold back. Do not allow yourselves to lose under any circumstances. Mars, you especially tend to be too soft. Even if you have to use full magic, win without fail. Show them the overwhelming gap in our strength. And that doesn't apply only to Mars. In fact, Clarice, Ellie—you two are even more crucial. Whatever you do, do not lose."
Zeke, who had endlessly warned us Holy Magic users never to draw attention to ourselves, is telling us to flaunt our power?
Since Zeke always gave us advice with our best interests at heart, he surely had a good reason for this.
I wanted to ask what he really meant, but the start of the match was drawing near.
"Understood," I said. "Please tell us what's going on once the match is over."
Leaving Zeke behind in the room to his thoughts, we headed back to the competitors' waiting room.
Inside the waiting room, excluding Johann and Josef, all the S-Class members were present alongside Lorenz, Sasha, Ike, the glasses-wearing senior beauty, and even Duchess Regan herself, who had come to show her support.
"I heard Father called you out," Ike said. "What did he want?"
"He just wanted to ask a little about the Dungeon Exam," I replied. "More importantly, did you come to cheer us on, Brother Ike?"
"Something like that," Ike chuckled. "It's your big stage, Mars. There's no way I could miss a match that's bound to become legend."
Does Ike know what Father told me too?
"I just had to come along because I wanted to see what you can really do, Mars," the glasses-wearing senior beauty chimed in playfully. "Ike is always bragging that even if all of Crimson Lotus came at you together, we couldn't possibly win. If what he says turns out to be true, I might just give you a nice reward, so work hard for me, okay?"
Flashing a devilish smile, the glasses-wearing senior beauty leaned close while looking up at me. Yet just like last time, behind that playful gaze, her eyes were keenly trying to appraise my true strength.
"Edine, stop that. Mars is about to fight. Besides, my Charm Eye has no effect on him, so there's no way your Appraisal or Binding Eye will work either."
Duchess Regan put a stop to it after noticing the bespectacled upperclassman trying to use Appraisal on me.
"What!? Duchess Regan's Charm Eye doesn't work on him!? Now I'm even more intrigued by you, Mars."
It seemed Ike hadn't leaked any information about me. I had already told him that Duchess Regan's Charm Eye was ineffective against me.
"Indeed. Not only is he immune to the Charm Eye, but even Appraisal fails to work on him. That is why he was enrolled into E-Class, all thanks to Sasha and Cyrus's clever scheming. But moving past that, I have come here today for a single reason: you must win this year. Seleance Royal academy has declared that if they emerge victorious again, they will no longer participate in the Freshmen Tournament. It would be fine if they simply withdrew, but they claimed that bullying the weak holds no entertainment for the beastkin—or to be precise, that they are tired of crushing ants underfoot."
Lorenz raised his voice at the provocation.
"Comparing our students to ants!? Just because those beastkin scum happen to be physically larger..."
"Silence, Lorenz!"
Duchess Regan cut him off, though I wasn't entirely sure why.
Personally, I appreciated her intervention. After all, Ellie, a beastkin herself, was standing right beside me.
"Ellie, don't pay any mind to his words. Both Mars and I know that there are kind beastkin like you."
As Clarice gently embraced Ellie to comfort her, Lorenz watched them and—
"I-I apologize. I lost my temper..."
He quickly corrected his attitude.
"...It's okay... I understand... both sides... But we... won't lose..."
Ellie offered a faint, dry smile.
There was no way Ellie could feel at ease right now, not when everyone's hostility was directed toward beastkin as a whole.
"In any case, you must not lose the final match against Seleance Royal academy under any circumstances. When facing other academies, do your best to draw out the full potential of your opponents. Keep in mind that as our captain, Mars will be pitted against the opposing academys' aces."
Wait, am I locked into the captain position? Are we not switching line-ups depending on the opponent?
Clarice spoke up, voicing the very question on my mind.
"Are the positions—First, Second, Middle, Vice-Captain, and Captain—completely fixed for every match? For instance, if our First and Second fighters lose, wouldn't Mars step in as Middle? Or conversely, if our First and Second fighters win, couldn't we place Mars in the Middle position to secure an early victory?"
"Yes. While it is not an explicit rule, the original purpose of the Freshmen Tournament was to showcase the new students' capabilities to the nobility. Over time, it became overly focused on winning and losing, but as Lister National academy is the host of this event, we cannot break established tradition ourselves."
So she pretends not to care about winning, when in truth she's more obsessed with victory than anyone.
"Understood. So my spot as captain is set, but what about the rest of the order?"
Ike, who was serving as a temporary instructor, answered my question.
"We're going with a straightforward ranking order: Dominic as First, Baron as Second, Ellie as Middle, Clarice as Vice-Captain, and Mars as Captain. Instructor Lorenz and I discussed swapping Clarice and Ellie, but we decided to stick with this arrangement. We have to consider how it looks to the other academies, after all."
So it really is all about keeping up appearances.
"Well then, it is almost time to begin, so I shall return to the VIP room. Do your best, everyone."
Ten minutes after Duchess Regan left the waiting room, the first match of the Vanguard division began.
The first match was Seleance Royal academy versus Blade Academy.
True to its name, Blade Academy was an institution where every student was a swordsman specializing exclusively in blade combat.
I expected a good match, but what unfolded before our eyes was nothing short of a public execution.
In the opening fight, just as the helpless Blade Academy student tried to shout "I yield," the Seleance Royal academy fighter struck his mouth to silence him.
When the boy dropped his sword to guard his face with both arms, a devastating blow landed squarely in his stomach, spraying the contents of his stomach across the ring instead of words.
By the time the referee rushed in to stop the match, the student was unable to even stand on his own.
The beastkin occupying the front row hurled a torrent of vile insults, until the Blade Academy officials, unable to stomach it any longer, finally lashed out at them.
Chaos erupted in the stands. The Regan Knights moved in swiftly to restore order, but in the end, Blade Academy received a stern warning for striking first, leaving the beastkin to reclaim their front-row seats with triumphant arrogance.
Although Duchess Regan had Holy mages standing by in the infirmary, while physical wounds could be healed, psychological trauma would not fade so easily.
Cruel and stomach-churning matches followed one after another—the Second, Middle, Vice-Captain, and Captain fights—with Blade Academy students being carried off to the infirmary after every single round.
Halfway through the match, the spectators no longer saw it as Seleance Royal academy against Blade Academy, but rather as beastkin against humans.
"Is it... always like this?"
After the match concluded, Clarice asked Lorenz, her hands clenched into tight fists.
"No, I've never seen it this brutal before."
Lorenz answered while watching the workers clean up the blood and vomit from the ring.
"This is way too cruel... Why would they do something like this...?"
Misha's eyes welled with tears.
"Perhaps I ought to have competed in the Vanguard division instead. My Charm Eye would surely work on those beastkin, allowing me to burn them to a crisp while they're immobilized."
Karen casually tossed out a horrifying suggestion.
Yet the atrocity we had just witnessed justified even her grim outburst.
If Cyrus were here, two or three heads of the Seleance Royal academy officials would have undoubtedly rolled by now.
The second match followed. The clash between human competitors was a thrilling back-and-forth contest, ending with both sides commending each other's fighting spirit.
The third match was another well-matched, spirited bout. Then came the fourth match, our turn at last. Our opponents were from Freiman Academy of the Kingdom of Zarcam, a academy that had also participated in the Rearguard division.
When Dominic stepped onto the ring as our First fighter, a stir rippled through both the crowd and the opposing academy.
"Isn't that Dominic the Sword Saint?"
"Dominic is fighting first!? Has Lister National academy completely thrown out strategy?"
It was surprising to see how famous he was, considering he hailed from the Deador Holy Kingdom.
Reveling in the spotlight, Dominic seemed more intent on showing off his own sword skills than drawing out his opponent's potential.
He ended up shutting down his opponent completely, but the enemy fighter looked satisfied nonetheless, approaching Dominic for a handshake as soon as the match ended.
While drawing out an opponent's skill was fine, displaying high-level swordsmanship had its own merits. When it came from a celebrity, facing their sword techniques directly became a badge of honor to boast about.
Dominic stepped off the ring and exchanged a fist bump with Baron, who bounded up onto the arena floor in his place.
The moment Baron appeared, an even larger uproar echoed through the arena.
"Hey! That's the Hero of the North!"
"Baron is fighting Second!? What in the world is going on!?"
Just sending Baron out in the Second spot caused this much of a commotion. It showed just how weighty his reputation was.
Even the beastkin seated in the front row began hurling jeers while exuding murderous intent.
"Are they trying to hide their actual order for the finals?"
"Just the sort of pathetic trick weak humans would dream up."
Yet Baron remained completely unfazed by their malice and taunts.
Showcasing his powerful swordplay while bringing out the best in his opponent, he easily took the Second round.
As the arena buzzed with excitement, Ellie stepped onto the ring next.
Her appearance drew bewildered murmurs from the human spectators.
"H-Hey... this isn't the Miss Lister pageant venue, is it?"
"What is Lister National academy thinking?"
"Even if she's just a sacrificial pawn, sending out such a cute girl...?"
However, the atmosphere shifted instantly when the crowd witnessed the beastkin's reaction.
The moment Ellie entered the ring, the beastkin stood up in unison, dropped to one knee, and pressed their right hands over their hearts, as if offering their very lives to her.
The audience watching the front row had no idea what was happening.
And small wonder—Ellie looked completely human in every way. If anything, I was impressed the beastkin had even recognized her as a Golden Lion.
"What's going on? Why are the beastkin showing her such respect?"
"Could she be Brad's fiancée or something?"
Ignoring the crowd's confusion, the Middle round began.
At first, her opponent hesitated against an unarmed girl. But as Ellie displayed her dazzling speed, the swordsman's strikes grew sharper and more serious.
Yet none of them could touch her. Before long, the opponent was swinging with everything he had, but the only sounds reverberating through the arena were Ellie's light footsteps and the hollow swoosh of a blade cutting empty air.
Seeing that the opponent had exhausted all options, the referee stepped in to stop the match.
After all, if you can't land a single hit, victory is impossible.
Throughout the entire fight, the beastkin remained kneeling without breaking posture once.
Applause erupted from the stands as Ellie concluded her match.
Ignoring the applause, Ellie returned to our group and embraced Clarice, who looked noticeably tense.
"...It's okay... Clarice... won't lose..."
"Mm. Thank you."
With a gentle push on the back from Ellie, Clarice exchanged a brief look with me before stepping onto the ring while the applause still lingered.
The crowd's reaction to Clarice entering the arena was just as expected—or rather, even louder than anticipated.
"Hey, hey, the Vice-Captain is a girl too?"
"Where on earth did they find such a pretty girl?"
"Since when did Lister National academy start accepting students based on looks?"
Unlike with Ellie, even the beastkin cast curious glances toward Clarice.
Being the focal point of so many eyes must have placed an immense pressure on her.
Standing in the center of the ring, Clarice took a deep breath to steady herself. Her eyes met mine and Ellie's for a brief second, offering a small smile of reassurance before she turned back to her opponent, her expression hardening.
When the referee signaled the start of the match, both fighters moved at once.
Her opponent was a solidly built youth standing roughly one hundred seventy centimeters tall. Leveraging his frame, he raised his blade overhead and brought it down with all his body weight.
Rather than dodging, Clarice gripped her sword tightly and met the blow head-on.
The sharp clash of steel rang through the arena, sending sparks flying into the air.
The male fighter pressed into a lock of blades, and Clarice held her ground.
However, after he whispered a few words to her, Clarice's demeanor changed drastically.
I couldn't hear what he said from here, but his words were clearly provocative enough to rattle her composure.
She seemed flushed with embarrassment for a fraction of a second, but then she violently shoved the larger opponent back. A single flash of her blade disarmed him, sending his weapon flying.
His sword glinted in the sunlight as it whirled through the air before clattering onto the arena floor.
"Winner! Lister National academy!"
The referee's resounding announcement echoed across the arena.
Clarice gave a deep bow to the crowd, then marched straight back to me without so much as a glance at her defeated opponent.
"How pathetic! First he asks for my hand in marriage, and then he spews one sexual harassment line after another! He completely ruined all the dignity the previous fighters built up! What does he think this place is!?"
So that's why she got so furious. In that case, the guy got exactly what he deserved.
"We'll file a formal complaint with Duchess Regan later. It's my turn now, so I'm heading out."
As I soothed Clarice and turned toward the ring, she rested her hands on my back and leaned against me.
"Mm. Thank you. Do your best out there."
Carrying the warmth of her touch, I stepped onto the ring and immediately felt the intense gaze of the entire arena—spectators and officials alike—focusing squarely on me.
Just what kind of person is Lister National academy's captain?
I could feel that question hanging in the minds of everyone watching me.
From the beastkin, there was blatant, unbridled malice.
Standing in the center of the ring, the pressure intensified. With tens of thousands of eyes locked onto me, I took a deep breath to steady my mind.
My opponent was a sleek, black-haired swordsman. He stood composed and undaunted.
"I am Dias, captain of Freiman Academy. I intend to take the victory."
"I am Mars, captain of Lister National academy. I won't go down easily."
When we shook hands, Dias's palm felt surprisingly thick and calloused—the hand of someone who swung his sword relentlessly every single day. No wonder he possessed such quiet confidence.
As the referee gave the signal, tension flared throughout the arena. A hush fell over the crowd, followed by a low murmur of anticipation and excitement.
Dias made the first move.
With nimble footwork and sharp, decisive swings, his flawless movement drew gasps of admiration from the stands.
Evidently, hidden talent existed beyond Lister National academy. Dias certainly possessed enough skill to belong in A-Class.
Still, he was only at an A-Class level. His strikes lacked the sharpness of Dominic's and the raw power of Baron's.
Realizing he couldn't break through my guard as I continuously parried his attacks, Dias leaped back and held his left hand forward.
Magic? Viewing him through my Magic Eye, my suspicions were confirmed—mana was gathering rapidly in his left palm.
"《Fire Arrow》!"
The arrow of fire launched from his left hand scorched the surrounding air as it surged straight toward me.
So he can even cast Fire Arrow, I thought in mild admiration. Channeling mana to enchant my blunted practice sword, I delivered a single swift slash. The fire arrow split cleanly in two, lost its momentum, and fizzled out after singeing a tiny patch of the ring.
While shouts of awe and excitement erupted from the audience, the one most astonished was Dias himself, standing right in front of me.
"Y-You've got to be kidding... I never imagined you'd cut it right out of the air..."
Having exhausted all his options, Dias gracefully lowered his sword and surrendered the match.
"Winner! Lister National academy!"
As the referee's call echoed through the arena, an even thunderous roar of applause and cheers swept through the crowd.
Though frustration lingered on his face, Dias approached me with genuine respect shining in his eyes.
"Lister National academy truly is formidable. Please, go on and defeat Seleance Royal academy for us."
"Of course. I'll fight hard for your sake as well, Dias."
After we shook hands once more, Dias bowed to the crowd and departed from the ring.
Watching Dias leave the arena with dignity, I also offered a bow to the cheering audience before stepping off the ring.
"Mars! Wonderful job out there!"
When I returned to the waiting room, Clarice celebrated as though my victory were her own.
"That was a splendid match. Dias was quite a fine magic swordsman himself—I'd almost like to recruit him for our academy."
"It pains me to admit it, but I shall temporarily entrust the title of Sword Saint to Mars."
Baron and Dominic also praised me while exchanging fist bumps.
"Let's win the entire Vanguard division just like this, and then celebrate by drinking all night together!"
Misha's face beamed brightly, already planning out our victory party.
"Yeah. But this was only the first match, and there's still one more fight before the finals. Let's win the next match too without taking any injuries or dropping our guard!"
While cheers from the audience still echoed in the distance, we united our minds and hearts in preparation for the upcoming bout.
Our fierce battle against Seleance Royal academy drew near with every passing moment—
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