Chapter 465: Stella's Anger!
"Come to think of it, I didn't expect you to come looking for me."
"I thought you'd be helping Ikki train."
Luke studied Stella's unusual condition as he asked curiously.
"You can see what state I'm in right now. Even if I went, I wouldn't be able to use much of my strength, so I wouldn't be much help to Ikki's training."
"Besides, we're technically rivals. This is his challenge now, so it wouldn't be right for me to interfere. I'm sure Ikki wouldn't want that either."
Sitting beside Luke, Stella suddenly gave him a mischievous smile.
"Besides, I was worried a certain rejected final boss might get lonely, so I came to keep you company."
"I heard what you said earlier, you know. Hurry up and thank me~!"
"Yes, yes. Thank you, Your Highness, for lowering yourself to keep a commoner like me company."
Luke amusedly played along with the smug princess.
"Still, a final boss, huh…"
"Come to think of it, almost everyone went to help Ikki. Maybe my popularity is surprisingly terrible. Even Touka-senpai went over there, right?"
Luke sounded a little dejected.
He did not dwell on it, though.
The stronger Ikki became, the happier Luke would be. If anything, this situation benefited him.
Still, it was a little depressing.
"That can't really be helped."
"No matter how close everyone is to us, the two of us are ultimately still 'outsiders' in this country."
Perhaps because seeing Luke sulk was such a rare sight, Stella looked particularly amused as she explained.
"This is still their country, after all."
"And the Seven Star Sword Art Festival is one of Japan's biggest national events. Of course people instinctively want someone from their own country to win."
"So it's perfectly normal for them to help Ikki. It's not because nobody likes you."
"If this were the Vermillion Kingdom or China, things would be completely different."
"Besides, the closer things get to the end, the easier it is for people to root for the underdog."
"And Ikki isn't just any underdog."
"His F-rank title represents the possibility of an unprecedented upset."
"Well, from a spectator's perspective, Ikki winning would definitely make for the more dramatic story."
"So naturally, people are more willing to help him."
Listening to Stella laugh while supposedly comforting him, Luke rolled his eyes.
"I understand all of that."
"I was only commenting on it."
"The real question is whether a certain princess is trying to comfort me or kick me while I'm down."
"Hahaha! Just treat it as comfort and accept it gratefully."
"Tch. Seriously…"
Luke helplessly shook his head and decided to stop thinking about such depressing things.
"But speaking of 'underdogs'…"
"Even you think of him that way?"
A faint, unreadable light flashed through Luke's eyes.
"No. Of course I don't actually think Ikki is weak."
"If anything, it wasn't until I experienced it personally that I truly understood how strong he is."
Stella stopped laughing and turned serious.
"When exactly did he first come into contact with this realm?"
"Yeah…"
"When was it?"
Luke did not answer immediately.
Instead, he sighed somewhat thoughtfully.
"The first time I became certain that he had seen the gate was when you lost control during your first dragon transformation and he helped me subdue you."
"But I didn't understand much about the realm myself back then, so I didn't pay too much attention to it."
"And Ikki knew even less than I did."
"Even now, he probably still has no idea what any of it actually means."
"But if you're asking when he first touched that realm…"
"Stella, haven't you ever thought that his Noble Art, Ittou Shura, is abnormally powerful?"
"Ittou Shura…?"
"D-Don't tell me?!"
Stella was stunned.
Because if Luke's guess was correct, then Ikki had—
"He probably saw that gate a long time ago."
"Much earlier than any of us."
"I think he had already glimpsed it before the two of us even arrived at Hagun Academy."
"Otherwise, a technique like Ittou Shura simply isn't something a normal human could develop."
"It unquestionably belongs to an inhuman realm."
Luke could not say with certainty that his theory was correct.
But Ikki's Noble Art was simply too abnormal.
Considering the nature of this world, the Desperado realm seemed like an extremely fitting explanation.
Ikki might have once experienced something similar to Luke.
Some chance event could have allowed him to vaguely glimpse the Desperado gate for only an instant.
And from that glimpse, he developed the inhuman ultimate technique known as Ittou Shura.
But because he never truly reached or touched the gate, nothing further happened.
Then, when Stella lost control of her dragon transformation, Ikki found himself in an overwhelmingly dangerous situation.
That crisis may have awakened the gate a second time and caused his strength to surge.
Luke also recalled the final scene of the original story.
Ikki's astonishing Ittou Rasetsu against Touka.
That strike had unquestionably surpassed the mortal realm and entered something inhuman.
In other words, Ikki may already have been standing directly before the Desperado gate at that moment.
In this world, Ikki had not surpassed his limits during the selection match as he had in the original story.
Instead, he had joined Luke in suppressing a rampaging Stella.
If anything, the danger had been even greater than in the original.
Ikki lacked any knowledge of the Desperado realm, so he had no idea what he had actually accomplished.
Only Luke and Stella, who had now stepped partly into that realm herself, could recognize some of the signs.
Thinking back, Kurono and Nene had also acknowledged Ikki, an F-rank Failed Knight, from the very beginning.
Perhaps his potential to reach the Desperado realm had been part of the reason.
At that thought, Luke suddenly remembered something.
Stella seemed to be different from both him and Ikki.
"Come to think of it, Stella, you've never seen the gate, have you?"
"If you mean the gate you summoned during our match, then no."
"I've never seen anything like it."
Numerous emotions flashed through Stella's eyes.
Confusion.
Complexity.
But above all—Dissatisfaction and anger.
Although Stella now had one foot inside the Desperado realm, she knew virtually nothing about it.
She only knew it represented a higher level of power.
She did not even know its name, much less why her experience differed from Luke's.
But that was not what truly angered her.
What infuriated Stella was that the League had concealed information this important from the Vermillion Kingdom—One of its own member nations.
…
…
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