As Yale left the stage, the referee announced the next match.
It was between Aizu and Lor.
Lor had already stepped on the stage, but Yale stopped Aizu from doing the same.
"Give up the battle."
Yale said it with a cold voice, very different from his usual self. Aizu noticed it, but she thought that Yale was underestimating her.
"Why? Do you think I'm worse than her?"
Yale's expression was the same as he replied.
"Indeed, you have no chances to win. Your talent is higher than hers, but Lor's resources and training time surpass yours. Given her personality, you won't end better than Zack if you chose to battle."
Aizu was shocked at Yale's words, although he was strict when training with the sword, he never was that cold speaking to her.
She understood that Yale was talking seriously, but she didn't want to give up without trying to battle first.
Seeing that Aizu didn't enter the stage, Lor lost her patience.
"Are you scared of me? Of course, you are scared. You are only a future toy for Heruk's uncle, how could someone who can't even be considered human dare to fight with me? If you battle with me, I will do a service for you. I will turn you so ugly that the uncle might even get ashamed to have you as a toy."
Lor's taunting was effective, Aizu's anger clouded her mind and was about to jump into the stage.
However, Yale held Aizu by her shoulder, stopping her moves.
"I am not telling you to give up as your friend. I am ordering you to give up as your master in swordsmanship."
Yale's words froze Aizu. He had always avoided being treated as a master since he started teaching Aizu, despite the fact that Aizu acknowledged him as a master. Thus, when he suddenly used that identity, it was enough to make Aizu come back to her senses.
Once Aizu calmed a bit, she understood that Yale had helped her a lot since they met for the first time, if he had reached the point to ordering her using his status as her master, there should be a good reason.
"I give up the match."
Yale nodded as Aizu finally gave up the battle. Ange was still tired after healing Zack. If Aizu was also crippled, Ange wouldn't have enough strength to heal her before someone used natural healing.
"Don't worry. I will deal with her in the next round."
Yale's voice was still cold, but Aizu felt that Yale's cold personality was even more reliable than his usual self.
As Aizu gave up, the referee announced Lor's victory.
However, Lor wasn't happy to win without battling. Although she wasn't as daring as Heruk and didn't want to cripple her, she wanted to humiliate Aizu publicly and ruin her face.
The fact that Aizu had given up the match had ruined all her plans. As Aizu was engaged with the lewd old man, Lor considered her the lowest lifeform in the world, the best type to bully since she couldn't rely on anyone.
Lor didn't know anything about Aizu's life inside the academy nor had intended to investigate it.
"You are a coward! Your only destiny is to become a toy! You can still play the role of a human while you are still here, but once you leave the academy, you have no future! I will ensure to go to see you when Heruk's uncle had broken you! I will laugh at your ugly face forever!"
Aizu was about to get angry again and attack Lor, but after looking at Yale's cold face, she decided to ignore Lor's words.
Lor didn't lie when she said that the lewd old man was Heruk's uncle, being from such a powerful clan was one of the main reasons that man could do such evil things.
As Lor considered herself Heruk's future wife, she would be in a better position than a simple toy like Aizu.
Although she was enraged by being ignored by someone who was less than a slave in her eyes, she couldn't do anything in front of so many people.
However, she was a scheming girl and was already thinking about how to harm her without being discovered.
The next was George's battle. His opponent was the girl who won the previous round using a rod and spells.
Yale didn't say anything to George because his opponent wasn't someone wicked, and he also knew that George wouldn't give up even if he told him to do it.
George's opponent had already seen his battle style in the previous battle and thus relied on quick hits to beat him.
George was unable to even connect one hit. The speed was the biggest fault of his skill. If the opponent didn't know, then it was alright, but if the opponent knew about it, he wouldn't be able to hit her even a single time.
As for using normal swordsmanship instead of his Combined Skill, George discarded that idea at the first moment, he was still far from the expert stage, so without his Combined Skill, he couldn't beat a 3-star mortal.
The sword teacher had told him a bit about the expert stage, the teacher himself only reached it a few days before the start of the tournament and was thanks to having taken George as his disciple.
However, George's vision of the sword was still too limited. There was no way he could enter the expert stage.
He lost the battle and couldn't do anything to his opponent. It was a total defeat.
George was depressed after losing because he wanted to battle with Heruk in the next round. Although George himself wasn't a saint and didn't mind if his opponents got injured or not after fighting with them, he wouldn't attack an already defeated opponent nor torture them. Thus, he despised Heruk's methods.
Yale expected George's lose and thought that losing that battle was also a good thing for him because he wouldn't be able to avoid Heruk if the latter used the same speed as he used when battled with Zack.
What Yale didn't know was that George had never planned to win against Heruk. He knew that he would lose that battle, but as his physical body was better than Zack's, he hoped to tire Heruk a bit before the final to increase Yale's possibilities.
After meeting Yale, George wasn't an arrogant guy, although he showed arrogance on the outside. George knew when he couldn't beat an opponent, and after seeing Heruk's moves, he knew that winning was impossible for him.
However, he had confidence in resisting for a while relying on defense and thus avoid being trashed in a second like Zack.
After George had seen Yale's swordsmanship, he understood that it was very similar to his master's swordsmanship and guessed that Yale had also entered in the expert stage, although he didn't know when he advanced to that stage.
Furthermore, although Yale had spoken to Aizu in a low voice, George was near enough to hear them. He didn't imagine that Yale had already taken a disciple, and although she was weaker than him, George thought that her sword attack in her previous battle wasn't bad.
He had to admit that he wouldn't be able to teach someone that different from himself. He started to understand why his master made an effort into teaching him, although their styles were completely different.
There wasn't a final battle in the round because Heruk's opponent gave up before going to the stage. Heruk's opponent didn't want to end up like Zack.
Thus, the semifinals started.
Yale's opponent was Lor. She was also in Yale's list of persons to beat due to what she said to Aizu before.
"You are the kid who was beside that toy before, right? Forget her. She belongs to someone you will never be able to offend. She is worthy of nothing. What do you think about coming with me to have some fun? I'm better than a toy like her."
As Yale went to the stage, Lor started to seduce him. She thought that seducing Yale would hurt Aizu's pride, and she also felt that she could make a good profit from him as he was someone capable of reaching the semifinals while being only at the 2-star Mortal Rank.
However, she didn't know that Yale didn't have any interest in romantic affairs even in his normal state, needless to say, at that moment.
"Do you also think in the same way as Heruk?"
Despite what he felt, he only answered with a question, without accepting or declining Lor's offer.
"Of course, Heruk is always in the right. Everything he says is correct. Were you also enlightened after hearing him? I only thought about you turning into a normal lover, but if you also think like Heruk, then you can be my second boyfriend after him. What do you think? You can also get benefits from his clan. He treats his lackeys well."
She never thought that someone would speak bad about Heruk in public, so she interpreted Yale's words as if he also thought in the same way as them.
"I see..."
Yale only gave a vague response before the referee spoke.
"The match starts!"
Lor was thinking that Yale was considering her words and smiled smugly.
However, at the next instant, her face changed as a rain of sword attacks hit her.
The attacks were rather weak, giving her only light injuries each time, but in seconds her whole body was full of wounds, even her face was full of cuts.
"Oh right, the sequels should remain to show who is superior. You also think that way, right?"
Then, Yale used his other hand to cast Basic Healing towards Lor, all her wounds were healed instantly, but almost all of them were turned into scars that would remain forever in her body.