"Reinhardt? I heard he's a Supernatural?"
"That's cheating!"
"Did you just shout?"
"Ah, no. It's just… I apologize."
Richard Howlman blurted out and then bowed his head.
Richard, who had not won a single set in the top eight, was extremely angry. He had already sensed defeat when his opponent started to use Magic Body Strengthening.
However, the opponent did not use it.
Instead, he was pushed back by some strange force, causing unintentional gaps, which led to his defeat.
Lack of information about the opponent was a mistake.
Upon further investigation, it turned out that Reinhardt was a Supernatural from the beginning.
That was unfair.
Why did Richard, who had trained honestly and hard, have to lose to such an unjust and absurd thing?
Richard Howlman's eyes widened, and he gritted his teeth.
Without Supernatural powers, he could have won. He could have crushed his opponent. But no matter what excuses he made, they were useless.
Richard Howlman was now in the dormitory of the Erazon class, one of the regular classes.
There were classmates and seniors gathered.
Even though it was the temple, it was currently festival time, so various aspects had become more lenient. Therefore, they were gathered in the dormitory, indulging in a drinking game.
Compared to the Royal class, it was somewhat lacking, but it was not too cramped a space as it was ultimately the temple.
The students seemed to be the type who did not earnestly participate in temple life.
A senior who seemed to be the leader of the gathering had poured a full glass of alcohol for Richard Howlman, who had almost become the hero of the day but ended up being the loser because of the variable called Reinhardt.
-Glug, glug, glug
"Anyway, you have to keep your promise, right?"
"Ah, the… the promise?"
"You said if you didn't make it to the semifinals, you would participate in the cross-dressing contest, right?"
The reason the cross-dressing contest always had a strange popularity was because people knew each other and used it as a penalty game. They participated to have a duel-like match among themselves, and to ridicule the losers.
The ones being laughed at, and those who laughed.
That's why the participants of the cross-dressing contest usually ended up joining with such intentions.
Not long ago, Richard Howlman had accepted the bet. He was overflowing with confidence.
Of course, he had not anticipated the situation turning out like this.
Excessive confidence often leads to trouble.
Richard Howlman's face turned pale.
"Ah, no! Why should I do that!"
"I said if you made it to the semifinals, I would participate in the cross-dressing contest, right? You said the opposite, right? Hey, is there anyone here who didn't hear that? Raise your hand if you didn't."
The ultimate test of holding back laughter had begun.
No matter how much of a bully Richard Howlman was, he didn't have the guts to mess with his seniors, but he was enough of a bully to punch anyone who dared to laugh openly here.
"Ah, I'll do whatever you want me to, but please, not that…"
"Join the cross-dressing contest. That's all I ask of you, punk."
The senior student downed his drink in one gulp and exhaled. While Richard was at a loss for what to do, one of the first-year students cautiously mumbled.
"But, hasn't the registration for that already ended?"
"!"
Richard's expression brightened for a moment.
"Do you think I wouldn't know that? Hey, they even accept applications an hour before the contest starts."
As if there was never a way out to begin with, the senior student snickered, and the other seniors all looked amused.
"If you had won, I would've been in big trouble! Did you really think I would've gone through with it? You know?"
From the start.
The seniors had already known that it was impossible for someone from a regular class to advance to the semifinals in a tournament where special classes were bound to participate.
'Reinhardt, you damned swindler!'
Richard Howlman was filled with hatred for Reinhardt, but he had no idea that they would meet again.
——
The day after the festival began.
Tuesday.
The day the inter-grade tournament finals took place, starting with the first-year competition.
There were more spectators today than yesterday, as the main event was today. Consequently, the stands were overflowing.
To avoid being overwhelmed, the other students left me alone today. But they would all be sitting somewhere in the stands. Not only me but also Scarlett and Ludwig had advanced, so all of the first-year Royal Class students should be in the stands like yesterday.
In the end, both the Royal Class and the Orbis Class were products of elitism. The fact that not a single general class student made it to the Champions Tournament meant that elitism was right.
I wasn't quite sure about that.
In the finals, I was likely to face Grayden Amorel. Ludwig seemed to have made some kind of resolution, but determination does not always translate to power, except in special cases like mine.
If I used Magic Body Strengthening against Scarlett, I would have to use it against Grayden Amorel in the finals that followed.
For someone like me, who is vulnerable in consecutive battles, that would be the worst-case scenario. If I were to pass out, I would be disqualified.
But I couldn't afford to overexert myself either. The tournament was ultimately a means to earn achievement points and become stronger.
If I were to suffer irreparable injuries while trying to earn achievement points, that would be a ridiculous outcome.
I was not in a favorable situation. I held a powerful double-edged sword, but if I used it incorrectly, not only would I lose the championship, but I would also be injured.
In this situation, it was time for the first match of the first-year tournament semi-finals.
The semi-final match between first-year Royal Class students Reinhardt and Scarlett is about to begin!
Wowwwww!
With a roar of cheers, I found myself standing opposite a girl with fiery red hair and eyes.
Her weapon was a longsword, similar in style to mine. However, her sword was slightly shorter and lighter than mine. But the reach difference was not very significant.
Although I hadn't practiced with Scarlett very often, we had trained together quite a bit during our shared fencing lessons this semester.
Scarlett was fast and agile, employing a swordsmanship based on excellent reflexes. She avoided power struggles, instead deflecting her opponent's blade with her exceptional skill or changing the course of her sword in an instant through subtle wrist movements to pierce her opponent's weak points.
With a solid foundation, she predicted her opponent's moves and attacked with well-timed counters.
Fundamentals.
That was something I sorely lacked.
My current skill level wasn't bad, as Ellen had taught me the essentials in a concise manner, but I hadn't built my abilities from the ground up, slowly and steadily.
In a way, I was a student who had only learned how to solve problems. I learned the answers rather than the underlying theories.
On the other hand, Scarlett, having perfectly understood the theories, could comprehend all the problems derived from those theories.
The issue stemmed from the difference in the absolute time invested in swordsmanship. Therefore, I shouldn't have been standing in this position.
If it hadn't been for Ellen, my Supernatural abilities, or my Magic Body Strengthening, I wouldn't have been able to be in this place.
But in the end, I was standing here, and I had to face Scarlett, who held an overwhelming advantage over me in terms of actual skills.
Scarlett, one of the main heroines in the original story and a victim of ostracism due to her ominous reputation, had lost much of her earlier lack of confidence.
In the original story, it was Ludwig who guided Scarlett, while in the present, it was Charlotte.
The red-haired girl looked at me.
"Reinhardt."
"…Huh?"
Before launching her attack, Scarlett spoke first.
The audience couldn't hear our conversation.
"You're my idol."
"…What?"
I couldn't help but be surprised by her unexpected words.
But it wasn't incomprehensible.
Both Scarlett and I shared the background of coming from humble beginnings.
"I was afraid of being kicked out of the Temple, but you always seemed so confident, as if that didn't bother you at all."
Scarlett had also been present during my duel with the third-year, Meiatun.
At that time, she and I had no connections or relationship whatsoever.
Moreover, that duel took place in the A-class dormitory. Even when she was still being bullied, Scarlett had watched my duel until the end, despite Erhi's hint.
After that, there were no significant connections between Scarlett and me, but I was aware that she harbored some sort of goodwill towards me.
When I was injured, she would come to visit and briefly chat about various things.
It was a different feeling than her liking me. We would occasionally encounter each other in different places and exchange trivial stories.
I had an intuition that Scarlett placed some sort of meaning on me.
That meaning, it seems, was the title of "idol."
"I watched you," she said. "I am weak, not because my origins are weak, but simply because I am weak."
"It's possible to live that way, to be allowed to live that way, to not be driven away even when living that way, and even being driven away isn't important."
"Not everyone will like you. But not everyone will hate you either."
"If one leads a life of self-confidence, they can gain something, and even if they incur the hatred of many, it's acceptable to live while doing things worth being hated for. After all, not everyone will hate you, and someone will like you."
"Just as it is impossible to make everyone like me, it's also impossible to make everyone hate me. I realized this by looking at you."
"After seeing you, I've tried to change. I can't change completely, but I'm trying to change little by little. Because you can do it, I thought I could too, that I had to."
Scarlett thought it was Charlotte who changed her.
But it wasn't.
Though Scarlett and I had nothing in common, she realized that it was acceptable to live like me.
So, she was in the process of changing. Scarlett, who had once gone to Miss Temple, was now participating in the first-year tournament.
In the end, both were trying to prove themselves in some way.
Scarlett sought to prove something.
"I apologize. This wasn't the place for a conversation. But I really wanted to tell you."
It occurred to me that the reason Scarlett had entered the tournament was to face me in this very arena.
"It's an honor to be your opponent in this place."
Unbeknownst to me, I had become Scarlett's idol.
Scarlett pointed her sword at me.
Her eyes, once gentle, now darkened, and her expression hardened.
"I'll do my best."
As the inaudible prologue dragged on, the murmuring audience fell silent again as Scarlett took a step forward.
Her determination to do her best was different from before. Different from what I had seen during practice matches.
This was the main stadium.
A place where one could attack with the intent to kill their opponent.
Soon, it would be a place where one could unleash everything they had to overpower their opponent.
"That would be a sign of respect towards you."
Scarlett, the crimson girl, charged at me.
As she rushed towards me, I felt her red eyes seemingly carving a trajectory through the air.
-Clang!
"Ugh!"
With an immense pressure on my wrist, I felt an intense sense of dissonance.
My Self-Suggestion wasn't working.
"Your Supernatural abilities are useless against me."
Scarlett was not a Supernatural.
However, it couldn't be said that she wasn't one either.
Her talent was undoubtedly related to Supernatural abilities.
The crimson swordsman, Scarlett.
Her talent was immunity.
In the original work, her title was Spellbreaker.
Magic and Supernatural powers alike were rendered useless against her.
——
Scarlett's nickname as a witch was, from the very beginning, an absurdity.
Scarlett was essentially immune to all kinds of mental and offensive magic, capable of withstanding them with her bare body.
Even Supernatural powers were completely nullified.
Calling Scarlett a witch, with her extreme resistance to magic, was nonsense from the start.
Of course, her body was not completely impervious to magic. If it were, she would be able to neutralize the barrier magic of this stadium. She possessed a controllable magic resistance, which, when pushed to the limit, became immunity.
Magic resistance indeed existed and could be trained.
However, in this world, there were only two people with Supernatural resistance.
One was Ellen Artorius, who possessed Supernatural resistance, and the other was Scarlett, whose resistance was overwhelmingly greater.
Hence, Scarlett's ability did not grow. There was no room for growth in immunity-level magic resistance and Supernatural resistance.
Despite that, she had definitely grown.
I kept a stern expression while maintaining distance from Scarlett.
Self-Suggestion was a power that influenced not others but myself.
The fact that Self-Suggestion, which strengthens me rather than attacking Scarlett, wasn't working meant that Scarlett's Supernatural resistance was affecting the surroundings.
No matter how high the magic resistance, it could only resist magic used on oneself.
A mage could not prevent magic cast on the bare ground.
Scarlett was now able to exert influence on Supernatural powers happening around her. Whether it applied to magic as well was uncertain, but it definitely blocked the activation of my Self-Suggestion.
Scarlett's ability had evolved beyond the original work.
Perhaps the reason was me.
Though I could not determine how I had influenced her, Scarlett had undoubtedly changed.
She was not practicing with me as usual but was trying to beat me using her abilities.
So this was what she meant by giving her best.
Had she refrained from using this power during practice with me out of respect?
-Clang! Clang! Clank!
My Supernatural powers were sealed.
"Without the assistance of Supernatural powers, I can't use my Magic Body Strengthening either."
-Clang!
"Ugh!"
Soon, my Magic Body Strengthening, which could only be used with the support of Self-Suggestion, was also blocked.
It was neither Grayden Amorel nor Ludwig.
Scarlett was my true nemesis.
In this place, Scarlett's ability was useless to anyone else.
Scarlett's ability was only effective against me.
Scarlett might lose to Grayden Amorel, and I might beat Grayden Amorel, but…
Against me, Scarlett held an overwhelming advantage.
-Clang! Clang! Clank!
The only reason I could barely deflect Scarlett's relentless sword attacks as I retreated was because my body remembered the fundamentals I had accumulated thus far, as well as the errors I had made along the way, which could be called an "answer sheet of mistakes."
I must defeat Scarlett with pure skill alone.
But is that even possible?
While the quality of the time we spent honing our skills may differ, Scarlett's experience far surpasses mine quantitatively.
Self-Suggestion had become a part of me without my realizing it. Now that it was gone in this battle situation, I felt as though I had lost an arm and a leg.
I hadn't noticed when it was as natural as my own body, but now that it was blocked, I felt an intense sense of powerlessness and emptiness.
Self-Suggestion accounted for the majority of my strength.
Without Supernatural powers, was I truly this helpless?
-Clang!
Scarlett struck my sword upwards and twisted it, directing the blade towards my neck.
"Ugh!"
-Poof!
Counter-summon.
-Royal-class Scarlett takes the first set!
I had lost the first set.