Chapter 251: Can't We Participate?
Arisuin listened silently to Luke's explanation.
At this very moment, his mood was actually extremely complex.
Although it had only been a short few days, Luke and the others had incredible influence on him.
Arisuin Nagi, who had no sense of belonging to the Rebellion, vaguely felt 'warmth' once again from the company of Shizuku, Luke, and the others.
He watched as Luke unreservedly explained his abilities to him; Arisuin hadn't felt that kind of feeling of being 'trusted' by someone for who knows how long.
Anyone who helplessly or forcedly resides in the darkness will always yearn for the light deep in their hearts.
Arisuin was no exception.
There was an inexplicable feeling about Luke that made his every word and action seem like the word 'light' itself in Arisuin's eyes.
It wasn't just Arisuin...
During that shopping mall robbery incident back then, Kurono had hesitated when authorizing Luke, but ultimately, she still chose to trust him.
Stella, Ikki, and Shizuku, and even Nene were like this.
It seemed that deep down, everyone's level of trust in Luke was inexplicably a bit higher.
Even Luke himself hadn't realized this point.
The only one who knew the truth was probably a certain Goddess-sama who wasn't in this world.
After Luke and Arisuin drank the last sip of alcohol in their respective glasses, today's small celebration party came to an end.
Just as they had discussed earlier, Arisuin was responsible for taking Shizuku back to the dorms, while Luke was responsible for taking Ikki and Stella back.
...
"Oooooh!"
"One punch! Another single punch to end the game!"
"Contestant Luke has once again ended the match with a single heavy punch!"
"With this, Contestant Luke's record has been updated to nine battles and nine victories, and all nine of these matches were battles ended with a single heavy punch!"
"Terrifying, it's truly too terrifying! To this day, there still hasn't been a single person who could make Contestant Luke draw his sword!"
The announcer, watching Luke's ninth instantly-ended battle from the commentary box, had a voice that was slightly out of tune from excitement.
"This is an A-Rank Knight! This is the highest rank!"
"This year's first-years are simply too formidable!"
Luke, bathed in the cheers of the audience, indifferently left the arena.
It had already been over a month since the representative selection battles began.
After nine matches, it was now basically certain what kind of contestants were worth paying attention to.
Among the contestants who had set a record of nine consecutive victories, the level of attention on five of them could be said to practically crush all other contestants.
'Uncrowned Sword King' Kurogane Ikki
'Crimson Princess' Stella Vermillion
'Deep Sea Witch' Kurogane Shizuku
'Black Rose' Arisuin Nagi
And 'Starfall Sword Emperor' Luke Ashburn
A full five first-year freshmen who had yet to taste defeat; their bravery and skill in battle had spread throughout the entire school.
Over the years, no matter which school it was, it was very rare for a first-year freshman to obtain the representative qualifications to participate in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.
Therefore, when Luke and the others displayed this possibility, it attracted a massive amount of attention.
...
"Hey, look over there quickly."
"It's the 'Crimson Princess' and the 'Starfall Sword Emperor'. Ah! The 'Deep Sea Witch' and the 'Uncrowned Sword King' are here too."
"If these four are together, that means the one next to them is the 'Black Rose', right?"
"These five... their presence is truly extraordinary..."
"Extraordinary presence...? Isn't the 'Failed Knight' just having relatively good luck? He's an F-Rank, you know."
"Why are you still bringing that up?"
"He's called the 'Uncrowned Sword King' now. You should know that Kurogane easily defeated the student council member ranked third in the school today!"
Luke's group had just gathered together at this time, walking from the arena towards a certain small woods within the campus.
Along the way, they could hear various discussions about themselves.
Among them, the discussions about Ikki were the most numerous.
The irresistible momentum of the 'Failed Knight' had brought quite a large shock to the students of Hagun Academy.
The consecutive victories of Luke and Stella were a matter of course, and the consecutive victories of Shizuku or even Arisuin were not that hard to accept in the eyes of others.
However, Ikki, a bona fide F-Rank Knight, had consecutively defeated numerous Knights with outstanding abilities.
This spectacle, to the students, especially the second and third-year seniors, was truly far too beyond common sense.
At first, many people couldn't accept it, but after this kind of scene had happened nine times in a row. No matter how doubtful they were, they had to acknowledge Ikki's strength.
"Hmph, Onii-sama is the most perfect man in this world. Those foolish humans are truly blind to only discover Onii-sama's merits now."
Hearing the discussions around them, Shizuku said with some disdain.
However, from her expression, it could be seen that she was still very happy about others changing their views about Ikki.
"Indeed, the attitudes of others have changed a lot over the past month or so."
"Even our training sessions have a lot more people. I really didn't expect the third-year seniors to come over too."
The training sessions Stella mentioned were actually martial arts classes that the classmates had pushed Ikki into holding.
In this martial arts class, Ikki would teach various martial arts, covering a very wide range. Besides swordsmanship, it also included kodachi techniques, spearmanship, taijutsu, and even archery.
Ikki's insight, which was like a magic mirror, allowed him to additionally dabble in various martial arts in his daily life.
However, he had great self-awareness, stating from the very beginning that his abilities were not yet sufficient to teach others 'techniques'.
Therefore, he would only teach the basics of various martial arts or skills.
"Speaking of which, Luke should actually be much more qualified for the coaching job than me... Why did it have to be me to do it..."
Whenever he thought about this, Ikki couldn't help but want to sigh.
Suddenly transforming from a failed student to an instructor all at once, to be honest, he was very worried that he would fail at teaching.
"Well, it's probably because all of my matches ended in a flash, so others couldn't tell whether I actually know martial arts or not."
Luke looked at Ikki's helpless appearance and said with an amused expression on his face:
"But even if they came to me, I wouldn't have much time."
"I've been training with Nene-sensei lately, so I don't have much free time to guide others."
At first, there were only a few classmates receiving advice, but as Ikki's winning streak in the representative battles continued, more and more students came to receive his guidance.
It had now formed a certain scale.
But, Luke currently had no mind to teach so many people.
"Speaking of which, Luke, you've spent less time sparring with us lately."
Stella looked at the boy somewhat curiously.
"What kind of training are you doing with Nene-sensei? Can't we participate?"
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