Chapter 94

RATH 94

TL: Eevee

11. Not a myth, but a legend (7)

#7 Their story: Ria el Nermia’s story.

“Just what on earth do they do over at Yugrasia?”

After we made an alliance with Arucia, we had each sent over a person in order to cooperate more effectively.

Under those circumstances, I had joined up with the vanguard of Arucia, and muttered that as I watched the Yugrasia student council president sweep away the Yugrasia students.

“I know, right…”

And the one of the other Marcis students that had been dispatched to Arucia along with me stared blankly at that scene and nodded.

Thank goodness, for a second there I thought I was too accustomed to living in an evil organization that I couldn’t adjust to normal society.

“Well, I suppose we can take it as a good thing?”

Yugrasia’s student council president was strong.

He had previously summoned a Spirit King to render Arucia’s best students powerless, and even now he was using high and mid-rank elementals to overwhelm the resisting Yugrasia students with brute force.

“Turning one of the enemy’s most powerful forces to our side is supposedly twice as effective…”

But what was this feeling of unease?

“He’s not going to backstab us all of a sudden, right? He’s already betrayed his lover once.”

“Ah, apparently that was a misunderstanding. And supposedly, he’s doing this right now to solve that misunderstanding…”

“Really?”

I blankly stared at him fighting.

Despite being strong, he never once let his guard down.

He freely switched between his elementals in order to have the advantageous matchup against his opponent, and he even finished them off to make sure they were sent back to the healers.

Not becoming complacent no matter how much weaker your enemies were than you is a very difficult thing.

Even in Howling, the instructor had always stressed that onto us time and time again, and yet I’d been taken off-guard and defeated. To me, those kill-confirming executions were clean enough that even I felt like I could learn a thing or two from them.

And especially, the way he brought along a few Arucia students to smack the downed Yugrasia students with their sheathed swords because there were too many of them to deal with himself, made me doubt whether he actually was the Yugrasia student council president in his perfect, textbook example methodology of making sure his opponents weren’t going to come back.

“It’s a bizarre school.”

Even if he was doing this to resolve the misunderstanding with his lover, it wouldn’t have been an easy decision to betray the students that believed in him.

So why it all look so natural?

“Lady Ria, he just outright declared war on Yugrasia.”

“What is he planning? Is it some sort of strategy of our foes to confuse us? There’s no reason he’d do something that insane otherwise?”

Even if I’d experienced things beyond the realm of common sense numerous times, the sight in front of me, was one I simply couldn’t get used to.

“That’s probably not going to happen?”

As No.1000, no, Haeel Reia tilted her head with a look on her face that seemed to know something, I sighed.

“You know, No… I mean, Haeel Reia?”

As No.1000’s face instantly contorted into a scowl, I hurriedly changed the way I addressed her, and only then did her expression turn neutral again.

“It seems that you know something, could you please tell me what it is?”

After we reunited, I grilled her as best as I can to get her confession that she was sent here on the Imperial Princess’s orders, but she didn’t tell me what her mission was.

If she failed to keep the secret then she’d lose three dishes from her menu…

I had no idea just what it was that Her Highness was feeding her, but because of that, No.1000’s mouth had turned into an impenetrable safe, and in the end, I could only give up.

I could only give up… so in that case, could you quit it with that ‘I know everything!’ face?!

You weren’t a kid who made expressions like that, were you? Weren’t you a kid with a blank emotionless face?

Just what was it?

“That’s a secret.”

“Did you just read my mind? Was that it?”

“Don’t be absurd. Lady Nermia, people are beginning to give us odd looks.”

“Ughh.”

When I turned around, the other Marcis students standing around awkwardly, looking at me.

They were whispering that I seemed close with a student I’d met for the first time, I seemed different to how I was normally, but you know, I can hear you.

“Now then, Lady Nermia. It seems that we should begin moving as well.”

Was this the power of the imperial chefs, No.1000 who had previously never taken the initiative was taking charge of her own accord.

How incredible you are, imperial chefs!

“Die, president!”

“Kaagh, Lady Aris?!”

A distance away, a crimson sword aura collided with lightning.

Although it was made quickly just for the imperial festival, an entire section of the stone castle walls disintegrated.

“Do… I have to go?”

As I saw that, my footsteps halted automatically.

A bloody battle that surpassed the level of students began, one that even the students of Arucia could only blink and watch.

Sword auras went flying, a Spirit King was rampaging, this scene was completely the opposite of the imperial festival, which was still a festival!

“You still have to go. Don’t you want to win the imperial festival?”

“I don’t really care anymore…”

Yugrasia this year was a force that anyone would have lost to.

To the point that I was the admirable one to go up against them to claim two victories on my own.

So to be honest, I don’t need things like victory.

Because I don’t wanna get involved with the scene in front of me!

“That’s no good.”

But No.1000 who had already been bought by the imperial palace’s cooking didn’t forgive me.

“Do I have to fight in the middle of all that? Is that Her Highness’s orders?”

“Not really, but someone would look very poorly on Young Lady Nermia showing off her weak side.”

“Her Highness?”

“No, the instructor?”

“Wh, what?!”

I instinctively hunched over looked around us.

I almost could hear the instructor yelling whether we were scared of a few mangy brats like them.

Also included was the whirring noise of something presumed to be a wooden stick of some design slicing through the air, despite being my own auditory hallucination, it was an oddly realistic one.

“Did, did he get caught?”

Last I heard, it was none other than that legendary Imperial Princess herself who was trying to capture the instructor.

If a tenth of those rumours were true, then the instructor would already have long since captured and dragged off to the imperial palace.

And as he looked at my defeatist attitudes from a VIP seat…

‘My teaching was lacking. I shouldn’t have left it to Rein… very well, this is the true strength of the bat!’

…would be what he might say as he dragged me off to the imperial palace to train.

I’m scared. If it was the instructor, he could actually do it as well, and that scared me even more.

“He hasn’t been caught. Yet.”

But thankfully, my imaginations remained imaginary.

To think he was still on the run from Her Highness’s grasp, really, that was our instructor for…

“Wait, yet? That’s implying that he’s likely to get caught very very soon?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“And also, you’re saying that as if he’s watching over me right now?”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Can you say anything else other than yeah, maybe?”

“Yeah, no.”

No.1000 shook her head to my screams as she pointed towards the ground where five lightning bolts had torched the earth.

“Go fight.”

“Damn it…”

Ahh. I don’t wanna fight. But if the instructor was watching me from somewhere, then that was a different story.

“Then first.”

-I don’t think ‘then first’ is right at all? I think owner needs to treat me more kindly?!

I summoned Surtr, who had already realised his fate, far away over onto the other side.

“Kaaaagh!”

“Three seconds…”

As I watched the fire giant get hit by Aris of Yugrasia’s sword aura and disappear in three seconds, I bit down on my lips as I gathered my mana.

“Just in case… I’m just going to pretend to fight.”

My magic began to move in sync with my body.

Tap. Tap.

“Faster, even faster.”

As I made light jumps, I cast a spell on my legs.

What I wanted was a speed faster than the wind.

Against a sword aura that shredded through magic shields like paper, magic protection was unnecessary.

The best way to fight sword auras was to avoid it.

Because the mana expenditure of sword auras were so great, that there was even a saying that the mark of a good swordsmaster was in not having to use your sword aura.

So my choice of evasion, where I would use little of my own magic to completely drain the enemy’s, was anathema to a swordsmaster.

I’d already proven that with two battles, and I could also guarantee that there were few people who could catch up to my speed.

Only the ones who borrowed the strengths of their gods, Loki and Hermes would have speed that surpassed me.

“Faster, even faster.”

I accelerated even more.

In order for a magician to fight against a swordsmaster, you had to rely purely on your speed and reactions.

“Alright, let’s go.”

I drew on as much magic as I could and raised my speed to the maximum I could react to.

Now all I could trust were my skills and No.1000’s.

I could trust her because both of us had trained under the same instructor!

“Mm. Bye bye.”

“Wait, why are you waving your hand and sending me off? Aren’t you coming with me?”

But even skills could only be used if you took action to actually do something!

All No.1000, who had sent me off to a battlefield with nothing to gain, was doing was waving her hand at me from behind my back.

“Haeel Reia is weak.”

“No, you’re not Haeel Reia…”

“Hello? My name is… Haeel Reia?”

“Can you seriously not try to maintain a character that you’re not even sure of yourself? You want me to go and fight in the middle of that all by myself?”

The Yugrasia reinforcements had arrived, and were blasting away any leftover Arucia students.

No matter that the Yugrasia student council president was our ally, he’d already destroyed an entire castle all by himself, so we were at a disadvantage the longer this went on.

The sole and best path to victory was if I held off Aris, and No.1000 beat everyone else, but it seemed like No.1000 didn’t want to abandon her Haeel Reia character.

“Haeel Reia is weak.”

“If that’s how you’re going to come at me… I’m not fighting either?”

“Hmm… then this.”

After thinking for a bit at my words, No.1000 fished out something from my pocket and pushed it into my hands.

“What…”

I scowled down at a small piece of white paper.

My instincts were telling me.

That nothing good would come out of unfolding this piece of paper.

As I looked between the paper that emanated a sinister aura, and No.1000 who stared blankly back at me, I had no choice but to unfold the piece of paper.

[Do whatever she commands. This is an imperial order.

The Imperial Princess]

“I knew I shouldn’t have unfolded thhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”

Instead of the paper I wanted to crumped up, I clutched at my head as I collapsed on the ground.

Damnit, it’s a tiny piece of paper, yet it has an imperial command written in it.

And beside the name of the sender, was the imperial seal.

If I destroyed this, I could get hauled away instantly for lese majeste.

“Why, why is something like this in your pocket?”

“She said to use it when I needed to work? Want one?”

Did No.1000 truly understand the value of this piece of paper.

As I saw a few more copies of the same piece of paper come out from the same pocket, I barely held back a curse as I tried to return the paper.

“Here… take it back…”

“Hm? It’s an imperial order? Are you refusing?”

“What’s with that smug face of yours? Just what the heck happened to you over the last year, for you to change so much?”

The No.1000 I knew wasn’t like this!

The No.1000 I knew was a blank, simple girl who lived to eat!

“Mmm… because… the imperial palace’s meals?”

“Simply amazing, chefs of the imperial palace! You changed a person this drastically!”

I normally didn’t attend them because I couldn’t be bothered to go, but that declaration made me want to go to one of the imperial parties just to eat their cooking.

“So… do your best~♡”

“That’s unnerving as hell so stop talking like that!”

She even sent a heart at the end. The No.1000 that I knew no longer existed.

‘Surely No.1 isn’t like that, too?’

I firmly resolved to kill No.1 if he was also like that, as I ran towards Aris who I had to eliminate as quickly as possible…

“Of course I won’t get there that easily, will I?”

Just as I was about to support the Yugrasia student council president who was fighting against Aris, a small number of students wearing black robes blocked my way…

“Wait a second, who are you? I’m pretty sure it was stated in the rules that all students need to be wearing the uniforms that mark their affiliation?”

“We… are the apostles of justice, who seek to kill the traitor Nerkia purely for the sake of the justice of the world!”

“Mm, I see.”

There were very few people who could catch up to my maximum speed in Yugrasia.

And among them, only one would spout such ridiculous bullshit.

“Vice-president Risen…”

“To be able to identify me, really, as expected of the one who defeated Lady Aris, Marcis’s greatest weapon.”

As I looked at the giant scythe that appeared out of thin air and the other black-robed figures that surrounded me, I could only sigh once again.

“This… is going to be tough.”

Because even if their brain, their student council president was missing… Yugrasia was more than powerful enough.