Chapter 315: The End of Training Camp and the Return Trip!
The intensive training camp ended very quickly.
Ten days of focused training was not especially long, but it was not short either. At the very least, during that time, every representative had made solid progress.
That was right.
Every representative.
Including Luke, who had also improved.
Although due to some unexpected circumstances, Luke did not receive much effective training during the first few days, and even his usual gravity training had stopped because Nene had left, two things happened afterward that benefited him greatly.
The first was using Edelweiss's Rule of Grace for daily training.
After Luke's continuous attempts, day and night, the final result was quite pleasing.
Training under that extra life-and-death pressure, even if it was only ordinary daily training, produced results far beyond usual.
Based on that, Luke redesigned a training method for himself. It was not that he increased the amount of training; on the contrary, the amount had actually decreased slightly.
In exchange, the intensity had changed dramatically.
It had been a very long time since Luke had needed to take breaks in the middle of training like this.
The other matter was the specially invited coach who had been brought in specifically to "suppress" Luke.
Of course, although he had been invited for Luke's sake, it was not as though he only taught Luke. It was just that he spent comparatively more time guiding him.
The God of War, Nangou Torajirou.
His arrival was within Luke's expectations.
After all, in this country, especially after Luke had displayed enough strength to defeat a large number of professional Mage-Knights, there were very few people left who could truly "guide" him.
With Nene and Kurono unable to spare time, the most likely candidate was naturally the God of War.
Moreover, according to the background identity prepared by the Main God Space, Luke had been personally invited by Nangou to study in Japan.
At the same time, Nangou himself was also very interested in Luke, this little monster.
Strangely enough, however, the two of them never fought.
On the first day the God of War arrived at the training camp and showed interest in Luke, almost everyone thought the two of them would definitely end up fighting.
Stella and Ikki, who already understood Luke's personality quite well, were especially certain of it.
But to everyone's surprise, from beginning to end, the two never exchanged blows even once.
Forget fighting. They did not even clash with their auras.
However, that was only what it looked like on the surface.
Only Luke and Nangou, the two people involved, knew that they had been fighting from the moment they met. It was just that no one else could see through the way they were fighting.
Even if Nene and Kurono had been present, they probably would have only been able to notice a faint clue at most.
Nangou had come to see Luke for no other reason than to witness Luke's Sword Domain.
And the so-called "guidance" had also revolved around that point.
Thanks to this old senior, Luke's Sword Domain, which had only just touched the threshold, gradually stabilized. His control over it also slowly began moving toward a state where he could use it at will.
By the time the training camp ended, Luke was about ninety percent confident in this surprise he had prepared for Edelweiss.
…
Aside from Luke, the one who had improved the most was not Ikki, but Stella.
However, the crimson-haired princess currently looked rather depressed, her whole body slumped in low spirits.
It was evening, and vermilion began to dye the sky.
The Hagun Academy Seven Star Sword Art Festival representative team, led by Luke Ashburn, along with the Student Council members and friends who had joined the training camp, boarded the bus.
After a long trip, they finally returned to the area near Hagun Academy.
At the moment, Stella was sitting inside the bus, sighing repeatedly.
Her gloomy expression, completely out of place in the cheerful and harmonious atmosphere around her, drew the attention of the people close to her.
"You're still hung up on that?"
"Ten days have already passed. I thought you would've more or less gotten used to it by now."
Luke looked at the depressed Stella with amusement while eating snacks.
"How could I possibly get used to something like that?!"
"I still couldn't beat Touka-senpai in the end. How am I supposed to feel satisfied with that?"
Seeing Stella so fixated on victory and defeat, Luke smiled and casually asked,
"So how did the record look on the final day?"
"…Three wins and three losses."
Stella mumbled her answer.
Even on the last day of training camp, even after she had made tremendous progress during this period, Stella had only managed to fight Touka to a draw after giving it everything she had.
For Stella, an A-rank, that result was still somewhat hard to accept.
It was not that Stella believed she was stronger than Touka. Rather, it was the opposite. Stella understood very clearly that Touka was still stronger than her.
That was why she wanted to defeat Touka during this training camp.
For the coming Seven Star Sword Art Festival, she wanted to put herself in a state of soaring confidence.
Unfortunately, in the end, she still failed to get what she wanted.
"You didn't use Dragonification even once until the end?"
"No…"
"You still haven't mastered it?"
"…I-I'm only missing a tiny bit."
Luke silently sighed.
'Looking at it this way, expecting her to completely find the trick on her own at this stage isn't very realistic.'
Thinking that, Luke made up his mind.
After this, he would find a chance to help Stella fully master the power of the "dragon."
The training camp had ended, and the Seven Star Sword Art Festival was about to begin.
Luke did not know when Stella mastered this power in the original story, but judging by her current progress, fully mastering it before the Festival would probably be difficult.
That was not what Luke wanted to see. If there was truly no other choice, he was prepared to intervene.
Stella herself also seemed very dissatisfied with her progress, and her already low mood dropped another level.
The dejected girl could only grab several chocolate sticks from her bag and silently nibble on them, apparently intending to recover her spirit through snacks.
Stella lost the desire to chat, so Luke, who was beside her, also stopped speaking.
And so, the atmosphere returned to silence…
Crunch—!
Crunch, crunch—!
Crunch—!
Crunch, crunch—!
…All right, it was not quiet at all.
The food-devouring duo soon attracted the eyes of everyone on the bus.
The Hagure sisters, who were the least familiar with Luke and Stella, had not only surprise in their eyes, but also a faint trace of fear.
"If I remember right, those two ate at least six bowls of noodles and six bowls of rice bowls at the rest stop during lunch, right?"
"…Y-Yeah, I think so. It should've been three bowls each of ramen, udon, fried rice, and rice bowls."
"No… I think that was what Stella ate. Luke seemed to have eaten even more?"
"…"
"…"
"How can they still have room for snacks???"
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