December Double Drop!
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The day everyone had been waiting for finally arrived—the first day of the "Seven Stars Sword Art Festival Selection Tournament."The venue was a domed stadium, and inside the enclosed space, numerous students and faculty members without scheduled matches had gathered in the stands, eagerly anticipating the tournament.
"And now! The long-awaited competition for the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival representation… is finally underway!"
The announcer's voice rang out, stirring the crowd with excitement.
"Our next competitors are the C-Rank Knight from Year Two, Yamai Ryugatake! And the D-Rank Knight from Year One, Okita Souji!"
As the announcer's enthusiastic introduction finished, a figure clad in heavy armor stepped into the arena.
With his arrival, the stands erupted into a wave of cheers.
"A C-rank knight, Yamai Ryugatake is a strong candidate to represent our school in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival. His imposing armor provides not only an unbeatable defense but also the force to shake the earth itself!"
In his suit of armor, Yamai Ryugatake exhaled a visible breath, the eye slots in his helmet glowing red.
However, as everyone waited, his opponent—Okita Souji—still hadn't appeared from the entrance.
"Hey! Where is she?"
"She's not chickening out, is she?"
"Quit wasting our time already!"
Gradually, murmurs of impatience spread throughout the crowd.
"How dare she keep me waiting! Such nerve!"
In an inconspicuous corner of the stands, two figures sat side by side—one tall, the other petite.
The one who had spoken was the smaller figure, dressed in a loose kimono that seemed constantly on the verge of slipping off her shoulders. A massive red bow adorned her hair, and she held a folding fan to partially obscure her expression of irritation.
"If you're that eager, you could always go and confront her yourself. Teach her a lesson."
"Do you have a death wish for me or something?"
The woman in the kimono gave her companion an indignant glare.
The tall woman beside her was none other than the headmistress of Hagun Academy, Shinguuji Kurono.
And someone who dared speak so casually to the former third-ranked fighter in the world was clearly no ordinary person.
Her name was Saikyo Nene, and she was the current third-ranked Blazer in the world, having taken Shinguuji's place after her retirement. When Shinguuji took on her role as headmistress at Hagun Academy, she invited her close friend Nene to join her as an instructor.
While Nene's abilities made her more than qualified as a teacher, her personality was a constant headache for Shinguuji.
Whenever Nene encountered a handsome male student, she couldn't resist flirting with him, and Shinguuji had lost count of how many complaints she'd received about her friend harassing students.
Nene cast a disdainful glance at Shinguuji.
She knew that ever since a certain "world's strongest swordswoman" had shown up and nearly scared Shinguuji to death, the headmistress had been secretly scheming to make Nene experience something equally humiliating.
There was an old saying that seemed fitting: "I can bear hardships, but I can't stand my friend having it easy."
After all, fair's fair, right?
And Shinguuji Kurono fully subscribed to that philosophy.
No way was she going down alone—if she had to suffer, Nene was going down with her!
Due to Okita Souji's delay, a countdown had started on the large screen above the arena.
If the countdown ended and Souji still hadn't appeared, it would count as forfeiting, awarding the victory to her opponent.
Shinguuji Kurono crossed her arms, watching the screen above.
"She's not actually planning to skip out, is she?"
"Very possible," Nene replied coolly. "As the sister of that person, I still don't understand why she's even participating in this tournament."
Shinguuji pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, expertly lit one, and took a long drag, exhaling a cloud of smoke with a weary sigh.
"When I agreed to take this position, I expected a bit of a mess… but I didn't think it would be this bad."
Nene nodded, apparently agreeing with Shinguuji's sentiment.
"When I first saw her, I knew she wasn't ordinary, but finding out she's the sister of that swordswoman? That's too extraordinary, even for me!"
"Oh, right," Shinguuji recalled. "You mentioned before that you tried tailing a new student, only to lose track of her completely. Later, you even asked me for her file."
Unlike the pure mage Shinguuji, Nene possessed not only overwhelming destructive power but also formidable hand-to-hand combat skills, having trained under the legendary warrior Nango Injiro.
Her specialty was a unique footwork technique called "Chosoku," which allowed her to slip into her opponent's subconscious, making her presence easy to ignore.
The technique worked by blending her presence into the background of her target's awareness, as humans tend to filter out irrelevant information. Just as someone might ignore a small rock on the path, "Chosoku" would cause the opponent to perceive her as similarly insignificant, so even if she stood right in front of them, she would be subconsciously overlooked.
While Nene hadn't yet reached the same level as her master, she had nearly perfected Chosoku. At Hagun, she was virtually undetectable to both students and teachers.
Yet, despite her skill, there had been one person who not only noticed her but managed to lose her in the process. And that person hadn't been a full-fledged Mage Knight but rather a mere freshman. There's little wonder Nene had been so astonished.
Now, knowing that student was the younger sister of the world's strongest swordswoman… well, it wasn't as surprising as she'd initially thought.
"With a sister like that, why would she even come to Hagun Academy?"
Nene lightly waved her fan in front of her face. "Or, to put it another way, what could she possibly hope to learn here?"
"Maybe she's not here to learn anything at all," Shinguuji mused through a haze of smoke. "Maybe she just wanted to experience life as a student? Or maybe… she's looking for an opponent her own age?"
"I doubt it." Nene scoffed. "Even if there's a prodigy among the new students, like the world's most magically gifted Princess Vermillion, she's far too green to match Okita Souji. Using last year's Seven Stars Sword King as a reference, I'd wager there's no one in this tournament who could give her a challenge… maybe she realized that and decided to skip the match."
"No, I'm not talking about any of them."
At that moment, an image of a certain figure flashed through Shinguuji's mind—a seemingly ordinary but unbreakably determined young man.
"Maybe… I finally understand why she came to our academy."
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Posture and water check! Remember this is a fan translation!
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