Chapter 363: I Refuse!
Luke looked at Sara, who was staring at him with extreme seriousness.
After pausing for several seconds to understand the current situation, he finally spoke.
"I refuse!"
"No! I refuse your refusal!"
"…??"
Looking at Sara somewhat speechlessly, Luke no longer knew what to do.
At this moment, Sara, who had been rejected again and again by Luke, was clearly a little unhappy.
A strong wave of mana began to spread from her body.
Afterward, her Device also manifested in Sara's hand.
It was a palette and a paintbrush.
Combined with the apron hanging over her chest, it naturally gave her the air of a painter.
…Although this painter only wore that single apron on her upper body.
"Since you refuse to take them off no matter what, I can only forcibly remove your clothes."
Sara was serious.
She was willing to risk offending everyone present just to take off Luke's clothes in the banquet hall.
However, that instead made Luke sigh in relief.
If Sara had clung to him without any malice like before, then with Luke feeling too embarrassed to attack, he might really have had no way to deal with her for a while.
But now that she had summoned her Device, things were different.
If it really came to a fight, Luke would have no more reservations.
However, just as he was about to summon Starfall Sword, a familiar chill flashed by.
Along with the flash of sword intent, Sara, who had been about to make her move, suddenly went limp and fell directly into Luke's arms.
Holding the unconscious girl with a blank expression, Luke was a little confused.
This was already the second time.
Naturally, he could not fail to tell whose sword intent that belonged to, but…
Looking at the girl in his arms and feeling that massive softness pressed against him again, Luke's thoughts once more fell into a halt.
However, this state did not last more than a few seconds.
A soft snort sounded beside his ear.
"Hmph!"
Immediately afterward, Luke felt his arms go empty.
The unconscious Sara was lifted up by a woman dressed as a server.
After giving Luke an annoyed glare, Edelweiss turned and left the banquet hall.
All she left him was a back blocked by long white hair, and the traces of Seisenjutsu that others could not see, which were used to blur her identity.
Looking at Edelweiss as she left, Luke shook his head somewhat helplessly.
At this time, Ikki and the others, who had been too shocked to interrupt at all, also walked over.
Feeling the gradually prickling gazes around him, although Ikki knew they were not aimed at him, he still felt a little at a loss.
Beside him, Shizuku could not help commenting.
"Is Rebellion really a criminal organization, and not some bizarre group?"
"That woman is obviously not normal."
Shizuku's comment reminded Touka of something.
After hesitating for a moment, she carefully said,
"N-Now that you mention it, Arisuin-san was once a member of Rebellion too… I actually think he's quite strange as well."
Although everyone had become familiar with Arisuin by now, it had to be said that Arisuin's "uniqueness" might even surpass Sara's.
The two of them, plus Pierrot, and even Ouma included.
The representatives of Akatsuki Academy were far too different from the usual impression people had of members of the underworld.
They were called criminals, but the feeling they gave Luke was actually closer to "people who were too eccentric to blend into ordinary society."
Then, thinking about the world's most evil criminal, who had now become his lover, Luke briefly did not know how he should judge these people.
Moreover, Luke was extremely sensitive to the smell of blood.
Among Akatsuki Academy's six representatives, aside from Pierrot and one other person, the smell of blood the rest emitted was not especially strong.
If one really counted the number of people killed, those four combined probably had not killed as many as Arisuin alone.
"Heh. Don't compare me to that bunch of idiots. Just hearing it ruins my appetite."
Just as Luke was thinking, an angry retort came from the side.
Turning his head, he saw a girl with long black hair looking at Luke and the others with extreme displeasure.
She used a masquerade-like mask to cover the upper half of her face.
"Honestly, what exactly is that woman getting excited about? You're our enemy. None of them have any awareness at all."
Clearly, the girl was not only angered by how they evaluated Rebellion just now, but was also very dissatisfied with Sara's behavior.
However, facing this girl who had suddenly come over to speak, Luke was not as tolerant as before.
Sword energy instantly cut through the ground in front of Tatara Yui like a real blade.
At the same time, he spoke to the girl.
"I suggest you put away the poison in your hand. That thing won't work on me."
"Also, the malice on you is so thick it's practically overflowing. Approaching with that kind of attitude, do you take everyone else for idiots?"
The other person Luke had mentioned earlier, aside from Pierrot, was precisely Tatara Yui.
She was completely different from Akatsuki Academy's other representatives.
The smell of blood spreading from her body was even more than twice as intense as Arisuin's.
More importantly, aside from "malice," Luke could not sense any other emotion from her.
Tatara Yui, who had grown up in a twisted environment since childhood, had now become a collection of distortions herself.
Her attempt had been exposed, but Tatara Yui did not feel ashamed at all.
She merely looked unhappily at Luke, who had spoken, then stopped and put away the poison bottle in her hand.
"As expected of the biggest obstacle to this plan. It really is a little difficult to get rid of you in advance."
"Tch. This is the first time I've encountered such slow and drawn-out work."
Tatara Yui was very dissatisfied with this commission.
In her view, they should either think of every possible way to get rid of Luke, or determine that it was "impossible" and swiftly give up.
A dragging plan like this seemed no different from stupidity to her.
"They told me to attack the school, but I wasn't allowed to injure anyone. After the plan failed, instead of eliminating the obstacle, they didn't even retreat decisively."
"Tch. If Pierrot hadn't been the person in charge of this mission, I'd really want to saw open his head and see what's inside."
"Damn it. My patience is almost at its limit, and now that idiot Sara is even fawning over an enemy."
"…Heh. How about I go on a massacre here and destroy this damn Sword Art Festival?"
"If a few competitors die, this tournament won't be able to continue, right?"
Mana began gathering along with the girl's words.
The chainsaw Device that Ikki and the others had seen once before appeared in her hand.
Tatara Yui's eerie laughter caused the entire banquet hall to stir.
"That woman… is she seriously planning to do it?!"
"Heh. I didn't expect we'd start fighting in a place like this!"
The disturbance gradually began turning into the first signs of chaos.
Among these representative competitors, there was no shortage of battle maniacs.
If a fight truly began, no one knew what it might evolve into.
…
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