Soren sat back down next to Amelia, his face far more relaxed than earlier.
"Well done," she said, before flinching and shifting away from him.
"Thanks… What's wrong?"
"You smell."
"Oh, right. 「Clean」."
In his relief, he had completely forgotten how much he had sweated during his lesson with Carlen.
Warm light brushed over his clothes and skin, wiping away the worst of the sweat and grime.
"Is that better?"
Amelia inched slightly closer and sniffed his shoulder, causing him to squirm from the ticklish sensation, before nodding.
"Better. Is your eye okay?"
"I think so. I still don't know what happened, though."
The brief ability to see mana, and the excruciating pain that had followed, still confused him.
Even more so because of the pop-up that had appeared immediately beforehand.
There was only one place he could think to look for answers.
"「Status」"
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden
Race: Human (?)
◈ Unique Skills
- Library of Memories
- ?er?
.
"...?"
He stared at the window, stunned.
Not only had the second unique skill changed slightly, but his race now had a question mark next to it.
'I don't feel any different, though?'
He flexed his fingers, shifted his legs, rolled his shoulders.
He checked his body, his breathing, the way mana moved when he nudged it through his circuits.
Nothing felt out of place.
Nothing felt new.
"Did something change?" Amelia asked, watching his expression.
"Apparently, but I can't tell what," Soren muttered.
He dismissed the window with a thought.
'I guess I'll just have to wait and see…'
The uncertainty left a faint, unpleasant weight in his chest.
There was always something he didn't understand, always some part of this world that refused to match his expectations.
But right now, there were more important things to think about.
The key thing being his duel with Alex.
He wasn't as nervous anymore after being taught by Carlen.
The hands-on lesson had calmed him, grounded him.
For a moment, he had even managed to forget the Hero entirely.
But there was no point pretending he could let his guard down.
Alex was strong.
Far stronger than his ranking suggested.
'In the first place, that guy only got 125th because of his theory scores…'
He could still remember the results from the midterms, the way Alex's practical marks had been absurdly high.
The only reason the Hero was ranked so low was because he had completely bombed the written portion.
'Well, there's not much I can do for now.'
He let the thought fade with a quiet sigh and turned to Amelia instead.
"So who are you fighting?"
"...Nobody."
"Why?"
"Nobody challenged me," she replied, expression tightening with irritation.
Her lips tugged downward, a hint of bitterness seeping into her usually even tone.
"I see."
Soren held back the laugh that tried to rise.
It made sense.
If anything, he would have been more surprised if anyone had been reckless enough to challenge her.
After everything she had shown, most of the first-years had finally learned what kind of monster she really was.
"Let's get food together after this."
It was clumsy, but it was the only thing he could think of.
He knew how much Amelia liked fighting.
Sitting out the whole mock-duel day with nobody to face must have felt suffocating.
Still, the effect was immediate.
Her expression smoothed out, golden eyes relaxing as though someone had gently stroked a wolf's fur the right way.
"Okay."
That was enough.
For now, it was enough.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
[Soren Arden and Alex, please come down to the arena.]
-– It's the Hero's turn!
-– I'm so excited!
-– I bet all my money on the Hero, so he'd better win…
The announcement rolled across the arena and, as if someone had pressed a button, the atmosphere shifted.
Excitement surged through the stands.
Students leaned forward in their seats, craning their necks to see.
The scattered conversations about earlier duels faded, replaced by focused whispers about one thing only, Alex.
"Hahh… I guess it's time," Soren muttered as he stood from his seat.
His legs felt heavier than they should, as if someone had tied weights around his ankles when he wasn't looking.
Every cheer from the stands pressed down on his back, a reminder that the person he was about to face belonged on a stage far greater than his own.
"Win," Amelia said calmly.
Her voice held no hesitation, like she was stating a fact rather than giving an instruction.
"I'll… try my best."
He forced a smile, but even to him, the words sounded empty.
Deep down, he already knew.
His best likely wouldn't be enough.
He headed for the weapon rack and picked up a handaxe.
The grip was familiar now, the weight grounded in muscle memory.
He spun it lightly once, running through the motions that had been drilled into him over time: stance, grip, angle, guard.
For a moment, those small, familiar actions gave him a fragile sliver of hope.
'Even if I lose, I can at least… do something.'
Then the thought returned.
'Even with all that training, even with all the progress I've made… I'm still me.'
He swallowed and glanced briefly toward the goddess statue at the far end of the arena before lowering his gaze again.
He cast a minor blessing, whispering the incantation as if it might break if he spoke too firmly.
"I call to you, goddess, hear my name and help thy champion. 「Minor Blessing of Agility」."
.
[Minor Blessing of Agility has been applied!]
.
A faint light wrapped around his legs, sinking into his muscles before fading away.
Unlike Olivia, he couldn't stack blessings, couldn't twist them, couldn't make them burn brighter or last longer.
He couldn't coax anything extraordinary out of them.
It was always the same story, him trailing behind.
Him starting from further back than everyone else, watching the distance grow.
Then Alex spoke.
"Hello there. We haven't really had a conversation yet, have we?"
Soren stopped walking.
Alex stood across from him on the arena floor, golden hair catching the light, expression open and warm even with a sword in hand.
Soren swallowed, looking away.
"I guess not."
Alex's smile softened.
"You know, Liv's always struggled with talking to people. That's why it made me happy when she told me she'd made a friend. So I wanted to thank you for that."
"Sure…"
The words should have meant something.
Someone else might have been moved, might have laughed it off, or felt proud, or at least met Alex's gaze properly.
But all Soren felt was a strange emptiness.
His throat tightened every time he tried to speak to Alex.
The words got stuck halfway, caught between the knowledge of who Alex was supposed to be and the reality standing in front of him.
"Sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?"
Alex scratched his cheek with a faintly embarrassed smile.
"I'm sure you'd rather just fight, right?"
'Of course not…'
He wanted to say it, but the words didn't leave his mouth.
He couldn't admit that he would rather do anything else than fight the protagonist on centre stage.
[Duel between Soren Arden and Alex… Begin!]
The moment the announcement rang out, Alex shot forward, golden hair blazing under the arena lights.
'Fast.'
Even with the blessing, Soren's eyes struggled to track him.
Fortunately, he had been preparing from the moment he stepped into the arena.
His fingers tightened around the handaxe.
He lifted his free hand from his pocket and opened his mouth.
"「Gaia」."
The arena floor in front of him fractured, then collapsed into a thick, clinging swamp.
Stone became mud, and solid ground turned to sucking terrain that tried to swallow anything that moved across it.
Alex's speed died instantly as his footing was stolen from him.
It was a move Soren used in almost every battle now, the fastest way he had to drag fast opponents down to his level.
Leap!
Alex's boots sank for only a moment before he abruptly stopped his forward sprint and pushed off, jumping back out of the newly formed bog.
As he did, his eyes slipped closed, his focus turning inward.
'Tch, is he already preparing a spell?'
Seeing that, Soren didn't hesitate.
He cast [Shockwave] in Alex's direction, aiming to disrupt his concentration, to force him to either dodge or defend before he could complete the spell.
"「Shockwave」."
The air distorted, a violent ripple roaring across the arena toward Alex.
"「Freeze」."
Kwaaajaakkk–
Alex's voice was calm.
Ice surged out from beneath his feet, flowing over the arena floor like a living thing.
It crawled across the swamp and devoured it, freezing the mud solid before it had a chance to drag him down.
In a handful of seconds, the swampy terrain had been rendered almost useless.
Then, just as the shockwave was about to collide with him, Alex's sword began to glow.
「Fialova Swordsmanship - Iron Wall」
Clang!
He drove his sword into the ground and held it with both hands, bracing himself.
The shockwave crashed into him, but the glowing stance held firm, the violent air parting around the sword as though hitting a barrier.
When the spell dispersed, Alex lifted his gaze again, a grin on his face.
"This is fun," he said.
Soren recognised that look immediately.
It was the expression he had seen far too many times, the expression of a battle junkie.
The kind of person who became happier the stronger their opponent was, who felt more alive the closer they got to danger.
Soren's chest tightened.
'For him it is, but for me…'
Alex pulled his sword from the ice and dashed forward again, boots biting into the frozen surface.
The ice made his movement even smoother, letting him glide across the arena with terrifying ease.
His sword began to glow once more.
「Fialova Swordsmanship - Downward Slash」
Slash—
Just as Alex's sword came swinging down at him, Soren did something strange.
He closed his eyes.
He felt the mana rather than watching it.
A magic circle formed, not beneath his hand, but beneath his foot.
Soren shifted his stance, pulling his left leg back.
"「Breeze」"
————「❤︎」————