Chapter 99
【 Strawberry Festival 】
“Ugh? Th- that, a little gentler…….”
“Oh my, sorry. I must have pressed too hard.”
The nurse replied as if she was used to this and wrapped a bandage around my shoulder.
After finishing my sparring with Sara.
I went straight to the infirmary to receive treatment.
“You got a proper burn. If you want this to heal without leaving a scar, it’s going to take quite some time.”
“I don’t mind if a small scar remains. Just please make sure it doesn’t hurt and heals well.”
“Hey now, that won’t do. I have my pride as the nurse. Besides…….”
The nurse glanced at the girl sitting beside my bed and smiled faintly.
“When someone sitting right next to you is glaring holes into me because she doesn’t want a single scar on your body, how could I let that happen?”
“…Please make sure no scar remains.”
“Heheh, leave it to me.”
After finishing the bandage around my shoulder, the nurse gave me several instructions.
“Change the bandage once every morning and evening, apply the ointment before bed every night, and come back to the infirmary in three days. I need to check how it’s healing.”
“Understood.”
“Good. You can go right now, or rest a bit longer before you leave.”
“I’ll rest a little longer.”
“Alright then, take your time. If anything feels wrong, tell me right away.”
With that, the nurse left the room.
As soon as she was gone, Lisa came closer and sat right beside me.
“…I really worried a lot.”
“I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“You don’t need to apologize. But… hmm……. Can’t you just… not fight from now on?”
Lisa held my hand tightly, speaking almost like she was murmuring to herself.
“Watching you get hurt… it was too hard for me. I can take responsibility for you for the rest of your life, so… can’t you just live safely?”
“Weren’t you the one who wished more than anyone that my convictions wouldn’t break?”
“That’s true but……. when I actually saw you getting hurt… I got scared.”
“There’s no need to worry that much. Still, I’ll try my best not to get injured anymore—for your sake, Lisa.”
When I smiled and said that, Lisa let out a small laugh and lightly rested her head on my uninjured shoulder.
“Good. Don’t ever get hurt. I don’t want any scars on your body. The only scar I’ll ever allow on you is… my bite mark.”
With those words, Lisa leaned her face toward my neck.
“…Later this evening, in the Disciplinary Committee Room…….”
“Can’t we do it now? I’m thirsty.”
“I am a patient right now. Could you please let me rest a little first?”
“…Alright. I’ll hold it until evening. I can’t force a patient.”
Lisa said that and lightly bit my neck.
It was, in a way, our own form of affection.
“Speaking of your convictions, today I felt again how incredible your potential is.”
“Because I defeated Lady Sara?”
Lisa nodded.
“Yeah. Even I can’t beat Sara when she’s fighting seriously. Like I said before, among people our age, there’s no swordsman stronger than her. But you defeated her.”
“It was only thanks to good luck.”
Well, strictly speaking, it wasn’t luck—other factors were more important.
Sara had prepared thoroughly to defeat me.
She had analyzed every sword technique and ability I used—anyone could see that.
But Sara couldn’t respond well when something unexpected happened.
Just seeing how she fell for my sloppy step in midair proved that.
So the biggest reason I was able to win was Sara’s lack of experience.
If she had gained just one more year of experience, she wouldn’t have fallen for my clumsy finishing strike so easily.
“In what way were you lucky?”
“Hmm… when I used Peregrie’s power to create wind…….”
“When you took a step in the air?”
“Yes, that. It was my first time trying something like that, so I didn’t expect it to work. I suppose I was lucky.”
“It really was impressive. I admired it while watching. You copied what Jason did, right?”
“Yes, from what Sir Jason showed in the previous match……”
“Yeah. I could see you trying to mimic my movements as much as possible.”
A familiar voice cut into our conversation.
“There’s a lot to point out, but for a first attempt, you did well. Not that it makes sense you managed to imitate something you saw only once, even if roughly.”
“Sir Jason. And… Instructor.”
“Congratulations on placing first in the midterm exams, Gideon.”
“Oh, I was first?”
“Who else would take first place? You were clearly the one who showed the most growth since the beginning of the term.”
Luke, who entered the infirmary together with Jason, chuckled.
“Your Defensive Swordsmanship got sturdier, you awakened Aura, and in the meantime, you picked up a bunch of sword techniques. Balmuth, Isrinbloom, and today I saw you imitate mine quite a bit too.”
“Your technique seemed suited for breaking Lady Sara’s center.”
“Good analysis. My sword style is actually pretty effective against people from Isrinbloom. In any case, you learned a lot of techniques in a short time.”
“I only imitated them lightly. And no matter how much I imitate, I’ll never reach the level of the original practitioners.”
It wasn’t just something I said.
My clumsy copies would always be weaker than those who dedicated their entire lives to a single technique.
But it didn’t matter—I only needed a reasonable variety of attacking options.
After all, the reason I experimented with many different sword styles was because I had realized that relying solely on Defensive Swordsmanship, outside of a game, clearly had limits.
“Hey, hey, Gideon. That wind you created when you copied my swordsmanship—was that really Peregrie’s power?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wow, then you can use wind like me? Want me to teach you a few ways to use it?”
Jason said excitedly, but I shook my head.
“I think… that will be difficult. The wind I use and the wind given by the Spirit of Wind feel very different in nature.”
“Really? But during the match, you also walked in midair just like me.”
“Oh, that was…….”
After that, the four of us—Jason, Lisa, Luke, and I—chatted for a little while.
And during our conversation, I suddenly remembered someone.
“Now that I think about it, where is Lady Layla?”
The Princess, who usually stayed with Jason or Sara, or sometimes with Lisa.
From what I knew of Layla, she would have come with Jason and joined the conversation—yet she wasn’t here.
“Oh, Lady Layla? She went to see Sara right after everything ended.”
“To see Lady Sara?”
“Yeah. She said Sara looked too depressed, and she was worried.”
“Ah, was it because of me…….”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Jason scratched his head with a small laugh.
“It’s not like you did anything wrong. Just rest properly and enjoy your time with Lisa nuna.”
“…Understood.”
Just as Jason said, it wasn’t something I needed to worry about.
Even in the game, after Sara lost to the player, there were no interactions the player could have with her.
You only later learned, through a sort of side story, that Sara recovered thanks to Jason.
“Jason is right. Gideon, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
Lisa, who had been stuck right beside me, spoke with a warm smile.
“Just focus on recovering for now. And later this evening… you know, right?”
“Heheh, yes. I understand.”
I answered with an awkward laugh.
Before thinking about Sara, I probably needed to satisfy Lisa first.
“Hey, did you hear the news? That Lady Sara lost?”
“Of course I heard. To Gideon… Kyrgram, was it? She lost again, right?”
“And it wasn’t just a normal loss. They say Sir Gideon used all sorts of sword techniques…….”
After his talk with Gideon.
Jason walked out to the school plaza and quietly sat on a bench.
Then, as usual, he gathered information.
Sitting alone in a plaza like this, catching fragments of conversations floating by.
It was one of Jason’s favorite methods of information-gathering.
‘As expected, they’re all talking about Gideon.’
He had predicted this to some extent.
Right now, calling Gideon the most famous student in Lysquare Academy was no exaggeration.
‘A genius swordsman from a family no one has ever heard of. Someone who stood out the moment he enrolled, solved multiple incidents, and even achieved a perfect victory against Sara Isrinbloom…… thinking about it, I guess I’d also talk about nothing else if I were them.’
Jason memorized everything he heard while organizing his thoughts about Gideon.
‘But seriously, there’s way too much about him that bothers me. A genius swordsman from some obscure fallen noble family… fine, that’s possible. Talent can be born anywhere.’
But the things that bothered Jason weren’t only one or two.
‘No matter how fallen the family is, his behavior is completely unlike a noble. He always treats me, Sara, Lisa nuna, and the Princess with impeccable courtesy… and yet something feels strange. A kind of distance, I guess…… He doesn’t seem like someone native to the Empire. And… no matter how much I dig into his past, it’s suspicious how nothing comes up.’
That last point was what Jason—and the Hawkbat Family—kept the closest eye on.
They had gone to considerable effort to look into Gideon Kyrgram’s past.
But to their shock, no information could be found.
It was as if someone had deliberately wiped it all clean.
‘It’s suspicious, but he doesn’t seem to harbor any malice or plot anything. That’s what makes it even stranger.’
A few weeks ago, Jason had received a message from his father instructing him to keep watch on Gideon.
But no matter how much Jason observed him, he found nothing suspicious.
To Jason, Gideon looked like nothing more than a hard-working heir of a fallen noble family.
‘And another thing—Air Walk. How did he even pull that off? Sure, he can use wind, but it took me months to succeed at that. At this point he’s a real genius, isn’t he? Maybe I should contact the Imperial Knight Order and tell them to recruit him already?’
While Jason was deep in thought, someone suddenly entered his field of vision.
No—someone who had to catch the eye of anyone in the plaza appeared.
“Lady Layla.”
“Jason! I knew you’d be here!”
“Were you looking for me?”
“Uh, yeah! I mean, I didn’t need to meet you, but I thought it’d be nice if I did.”
At Layla’s ambiguous words, Jason answered with a smile.
“Ah, I see. Did something happen? Oh, weren’t you going to talk with Sara?”
“Yeah. I was on my way back from talking with her. But… hiiing, Jason. Sara kicked me out of the dormitory.”
“Lady Sara kicked you out?”
Jason tilted his head.
The Sara he knew treated Layla with almost excessive respect.
So hearing that Sara drove Layla out was unexpected.
“She said she wanted to be alone and told me to leave…… She was lying in bed with her blanket pulled over her head… She looked so depressed, I’m really worried.”
“Don’t worry too much. It’s not the first time she’s acted like that.”
“But it really felt different this time. Ugh, should I go back? And I didn’t even get to ask if she wanted to go with me to the Strawberry Festival in Daigon Village next week…….”
After listening to Layla’s story, Jason organized his thoughts and then spoke.
“I’ll go meet Sara myself.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So let’s meet in the cafeteria later at dinner time.”
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!’
Inside the first-year girls’ dormitory.
Sara lay in her bed with her blanket pulled over her head.
‘So humiliating. Everyone keeps talking about how I lost…….’
Sara had been defeated completely by Gideon this time.
She wanted to deny it, but this time she couldn’t.
‘I tarnished the Isrinbloom Family’s reputation, the reputation of the house known as the strongest in duels. I… I…….’
Feeling that she had brought disgrace to her family, Sara felt so ashamed she wanted to run away from everything—or die.
But there was a feeling even stronger than that shame.
‘Will the family punish me? If they do… what kind of punishment? Could it be like when I was younger… that punishment in front of people…….’
Fear.
Sara knew better than anyone how sensitive the Isrinbloom Family was about honor.
So she feared deeply the consequences she would face for tainting that honor.
‘If only I could just… stay here forever…….’
Sara didn’t want to leave the bed more than ever.
She didn’t want to see people.
If she met anyone, they would only talk about her defeat.
They would certainly do so just to humiliate her and shame her further……
Knock—knock—
“Eh?”
Hearing a sound from the firmly shut window, Sara poked her head out from under the blanket.
At first she thought it was a bird tapping with its beak, but when she checked, it wasn’t a bird at all.
“You weren’t asleep? Good. Hey, hurry up and open the window.”
“You… why… how… no…….”
Sara stuttered, unable to grasp the situation.
“This is the seventh floor.”
“And what about it?”
The green-haired boy grinned mischievously.