Before using my supernatural powers, I had been losing through a long, drawn-out battle.
After I started using my supernatural powers, I was able to decide the match in a single strike.
Adler seemed unwilling to step down, though.
After that, we had three more practice matches, and I used my supernatural powers to their full extent in all of them.
However, as long as I strengthened my body with my power, my abilities would be overwhelmingly superior to Adler Belkin's. I only broke his training sword once, though.
I was stronger, faster, and more accurate than him, and I was also superior to him in technique due to the aid of my supernatural ability.
My supernatural power, which got increasingly stronger, didn't just strengthen my physical power anymore—it even helped me improve my level of swordsmanship.
Eventually, Orbis Class' A-8 Adler Belkin returned to his seat, a look of defeat etched onto his face.
Class B's Nilssonia lost to Ludwig…
And Class A's Adler Belkin lost to me, the self-proclaimed weakest.
The practice match between the Royal Class and the Orbis Class ended in the devastating defeat of the Orbis Class.
"Are you ready?"
-Tak!
"…Why did you flick me?"
When I went back to my seat, I flicked a finger against Ellen's forehead. She then covered it with her palm and stared at me.
"If I lose, I'll get hit. If I win, you'll get hit, right?"
"…I never agreed to that."
"I never agreed to getting hit either."
"…"
Ellen was speechless as if she couldn't find any words to throw back at me.
She sulked like that sometimes.
It was insanely cute.
It was equal to if not better to Harriet's sulking.
However, unlike Harriet, she was a little trickier to deal with, so that was a problem.
…But why was I even thinking so hard about that?
"Reinhardt, how are you so good? You really improved your skills a lot."
"Is that so?"
Ludwig was muttering beside me, thinking that I was able to overpower that guy with my supernatural ability.
My fight was what it was, but I was wondering just how the hell he became so much stronger. Just what had changed?
Scarlett didn't really talk to me, but her expression was slightly flushed from excitement.
She must have been really impressed.
"By the way, what did you mean with you're the weakest? I'm not sure I could ever beat you, you know?"
Ludwig didn't seem to believe that I was the weakest among the four of us.
"That statement was based on the premise that I didn't use my supernatural ability."
"Ah… But I still think that I'm still far behind you."
'Don't speak fucking bullshit, Mr. Main Character.' I wasn't sure about the outcome if I used my supernatural powers, but if I fought that guy without them, I would, without a doubt, lose. He only had one talent, Stamina, but he was the 'main character', after all.
I bet he had some sort of trait—a setting I had never created.
Just like Ellen had the trait Hero's Blood, there have should be other traits I wasn't aware of.
Ludwig should have a lot of such corrective traits. Why? Because he was the main character.
Maybe he also had Hero's Blood? He would eventually become just as strong as Ellen, after all.
And to begin with, even if I used my supernatural ability, I could never defeat Ellen, even if she didn't use magic body strengthening, and it wouldn't work against Scarlett either. Scarlett's skills were enough to compete with even Cliffman, who had a combat-focused talent.
Still, thanks to my self-suggestion getting stronger from all those experiences, I felt like my physical abilities had explosively improved.
Now, if I could just enhance my magical power, I wouldn't want for anything more.
Improving my physical abilities with magic body strengthening and then buffing them again through my self-suggestion…
I'd be able to beat up anyone coming at me with that double buff cast on me.
But could I even do that?
I thought it really was about time for me to get my third talent. I had been really patient for such a long time, after all.
Anyway, the class commenced without the Orbis Class trying to take unprovoked revenge on the Royal Class.
* * *
After the class ended, I looked up Ludwig's physical data and found out why he ended up becoming so strong.
B-11 Ludwig
[Strength 14.2(B-)]
[Agility 10.4(C)]
[Dexterity 9.7(C-)]
[Magical Power 9.2(C)]
[Stamina 32.2(S)]
Talents
[Stamina]
Ludwig's physical abilities were improving so rapidly that they couldn't even be compared to his stats in the original novel anymore. His stamina had already surpassed human limits and reached the S Rank. Not even Ellen had reached S Rank in any of her stats.
There was only one reason:
Because of my involvement, Ludwig had not gotten involved in any incidents or problems within his class.
He didn't have to pay attention to anything else and had just focused on his own training that—was why his physical ability had risen so much more than in the novel.
As all his burdens had disappeared, the main character was able to become stronger than usual since there was nothing to distract him.
Even if I used my supernatural ability, I might not be able to beat him.
What was with that?
* * *
To summarize, there were no more fights with the Orbis Class, and we just trained as we took the classes together. I felt like the losing side's mood had been put down by a lot, but anyway, the class ended without any incidents. There were no quarrels with them after that either.
However, when I returned to the dormitory, the atmosphere turned a little strange.
-Just tell the teacher.
-No. It's too embarrassing.
The three idiot brothers were sitting in the lobby seriously talking about something amongst themselves. What was the matter? What did they not want to tell the teacher?
It looked like Erich was the main topic of their talk. When I looked closely, I could see that the boy's face was slightly swollen.
"What? How'd you become like that?"
"!"
"R-Reinhardt…"
Cayer, Kono Lint, and Erich were all stunned when I suddenly approached them.
Looking at Erich de Lafaeri's face, it was more than obvious that he had been beaten up. Erich, who seemed to have worked out a little during the vacation, at first had wanted to try me again, but when he found out that I did something very unusual in the Darklands, he gave up all thought of that.
All three of them seemed surprised because they didn't expect me to show any interest in them.
"What? I'm asking you something, you punk."
Why were those bastards so slow to answer my question?
Did they want to get hit more?
* * *
Sitting diagonally across from Erich on the armrest of the chair Kono Lint was sitting on, I listened to what happened to him.
"…Did you get into a fight with the Orbis Class?"
"…Uh."
It seemed like Erich had gotten involved in a similar incident to us that day. That guy took a different swordsmanship class, and it seemed like there was an Orbis Class student among its participants.
So I was pretty sure that I had hit the nail on the head.
"You fucking bastard. Did you or did you not get into a fight with them? Talk already."
"Yes! I-I was about to tell you!"
-Flinch!
Erich's whole body strongly flinched when I raised my hand. 'Do I just have to raise my hand without even hitting them now to make them tremble?'
It sure was interesting how they immediately rebounded after just having lost their fear of me.
"Ya think it's a good thing that you got pissed off after they defeated you during practice and then got beat up by them after class? And you, Cayer…"
"Ah… Huh?"
"What are you so proud of that you wanna go and tell the teachers all about it?"
"B-but he got beaten up and…"
"Huuh?"
Cayer shut his mouth when he saw me frowning.
What happened to him was similar to what went down in my case, but the results were the direct opposite of each other.
While attending the swordsmanship class, Erich had a practice match with the Orbis Class like myself, and after being miserably beaten, it seemed like his pride had gotten severely hurt.
"If you tell people who are very sensitive to the word "talent" that you'll be able to step on them next year because they don't even have a talent, you'd be very lucky if they didn't send you flying. You met someone with one hell of a good personality—he just beat you up a little and then let you go."
After losing to the Orbis Class kid, he had told him, "You don't even have a talent, so I'll be able to step all over you next year, anyway. Enjoy it while it lasts, okay~?"
He looked like a complete piece of shit.
That punk should be glad that he didn't get stabbed. Anyway, it seemed like he struck one of the opponent's nerves, so he had got beaten quite viciously before crawling back. Erich got squashed without even being able to refute.
However, Erich was slightly different from how he was in the original.
He was someone who didn't know how to put effort into anything, although he did end up making an effort later on, it was at a much later time.
However, looking at his physical stats, that guy seemed to have worked out a little during the vacation. Of course, it was just weight training, I believe.
Seeing that he was acting really strangely towards me as soon as school started again, I could guess why he did that.
"I think you did a bit of training during the vacation to stick it to me to begin with, am I right?"
"!!"
"Seems like I am."
I could see Erich's complexion grow pale, perhaps because my guess was correct.
It seemed like that bastard decided to train during the vacation because he felt pressured by me, and it looked like he had planned to deal with me during the new semester.
It was more than clear that the three idiot brothers were looking down on me, and there was also a time in the past where I had beat up Erich like Cayer.
However, it was clear that he gave up on those plans pretty early on. He probably had a strong hunch that he wasn't the only one who had gotten stronger.
Still, he had gained more confidence in himself, so he had to play big before someone, but it seemed that the other party was someone of the Orbis Class. Erich and the other two, whose thoughts had been laid bare, seemed like they were slowly dying in real-time.
"Shameful little bastards. If you can't beat me, don't try to mess with me. Same goes for the guy you got fucked up by today."
He was so overconfident that it hurt. Why was he so rude when he knew he couldn't beat that guy? Erich couldn't even raise his face as I was insulting him.
"Beating up the other kids again… Are you some thug?"
"…?"
I turned around at the sudden voice coming from behind me and saw Harriet looking at me with her arms crossed, sighing.
"…Beat up who?"
"Otherwise, why does his face look like that?"
Looking at Erich's beaten-up face, it was only natural that she thought that it was me who had hit him.
"No, it wasn't me, right? Hey. Did I hit you?"
"Huh? Ah… N-no. He didn't do… it."
When I glared at him with a grim look in my eyes, Erich immediately answered.
What the hell? Now it looked like I was threatening him to pretend like I didn't hit him after I did just that.
No, I really didn't do it!
Harriet was looking at me as if I was crazy.
"…Wow, you look like a real thug… Now you're even threatening him…"
That brat.
She looked like she was actually a bit disappointed in me, didn't she?
No! I really didn't hit him!
I felt like crying.
I felt like the boy who cried wolf.
Harriet let out a sigh, and—looking at Erich, who had crumpled up—shouted at him with a shrill voice.
"You too! Don't you feel ashamed always getting beat up by that guy? If you don't like it, just tell the teacher or something so that he can't do these things anymore."
"H-he really didn't hit…"
"What happened to your face then? If he hit you, you should just say that he hit you!"
"That, that… That… That's…"
'Wow.'
'He might get PTSD from this school year.'
Hearing those things from a third party hurt a lot more than getting hit.
Harriet didn't seem to realize that she was slowly shattering Erich's dignity.
'What is this?'
I was just trying to talk some smack to them because I saw them grumbling behind my back and they had seemed like they wanted to jump me.
Then Harriet had suddenly intervened and went even beyond the level of true education. I didn't want to smack them down that hard, you know?
I didn't actually beat him, either!
"He's actually nothing. He just has a dirty temper, so if you really stick it to him and are bold, he can't do anything against you."
"Ah. That… That's…"
Harriet kept on beating Erich up with her words without a single break. He didn't even know what she was talking about.
"Harriet? What's going on?"
And when Harriet was muttering some words that felt like a good old sermon, she attracted some attention.
That time, Liana de Grantz seemed to have gotten curious and approached us. Harriet sighed as she pointed at me.
"That bastard just can't let go of his habits and is bullying the others again."
No.
'I was just asking him what happened! I didn't actually hit him. I was a bit rough with my words, but I really didn't hit them!'
'And now you're just picking on me!' She didn't even realize that I actually felt like I was being bullied.
Looking at Erich's face…
Because Liana had also come over, he seemed like he wanted to actually die. The other two didn't look much different.
"…It's just been two days of school."
Liana looked at me as if I was a dog who couldn't hold his poop in. She couldn't help but look at me as if I was pathetic. Then she looked down at Erich, smirked, and said:
"Why are you even getting hit?"
After Liana gave him the final blow, she simply slipped away.